Jay Lap Weekend | Summary of Results

Thanks to Joel and David for their post-mortems on the August 22+23 racing extravaganza. I'll add to their accounts with a summary of Team Niklas results.

PROVINCIAL ITT

Cat 5

Ryan Barr: 54:37.40 - 8th place (out of 32)

Ian Dewolfe: 55:09.70 - 10th place

Master B

Stephen Lund: 53:51.70 - 4th place (out of 10)

As he mentioned below, Joel’s plans for a strong finish in the TT got deflated by an untimely flat tire just past the halfway point. Shame, as he'd been on pace for a top-ranking time.

CRITERIUM

Among the field of 30 Cat 5 competitors, Joel claimed an impressive 5th place finish, David was 9th across the line and Ryan finished among the top 50% with a 14th place showing. Unfortunately, Ian crashed on the treacherous west corner of the crit course during his warm-up, and his stiff shoulder and rattled noggin impelled him to withdraw from the race after just a few laps.

In the Cat 4 crit, Stephen should have heeded Ian's warnings about the sketchy west corner. He went down hard on the third lap (right in front of his children and in-laws); and while he managed to dust himself off and get back in the race, a time-keeper miscommunication pulled him back from the pack and he ended up in a long, lonely ride to a 15th place finish. (On the bright side: his kids now think he's an indestructible superhero!)

ROAD RACE

David has provided an excellent overview of the Cat 5 road race in his blog entry below.

For Cat 5 and Cat 4, the story was pretty much the same: thanks to the relatively flat terrain along Stoney Trail, every attempted attack came to an unsuccessful end, and both races concluded with mass sprint finishes. Largely tuckered out from their Herculean efforts in pulling the pack for most of the race, the Cat 5 fellas finished as follows:

Ian DeWolfe: 10th

David Pick: 18th

Darren Nielsen: 20th

Joel Goralski: 23rd

In Cat 4, Stephen Lund emerged from the pandemonium of the final sprint in 9th place.

In addition to some respectable finishes and solid learnings during the Jason LaPierre Memorial Weekend, Team Niklas earned some well-deserved kudos for their hard work and great sportsmanship. Most notably, our Cat 5 road racers (Joel, David, Darren and Ian) got plenty of praise (including recognition on the Speed Theory team blog) for pulling the pack along for most of the race; and in Cat 4, Stephen received enthusiastic post-race words of thanks for offering to share his water with a bicisport rider who lost both his bottles to the bumps beneath Country Hills Boulevard. It's great that along with our skills and our strengths as racers, Team Niklas is developing a reputation as 'good guys' among the cycling community.

Jay Lap Race Report

Thanks Joel for your report. This past weekend was not as successful as previous races, but overall it was fun and challenging (and isn't that why we do it?!). Speed Theory should be commended for a well organized and run event. The turnout was very strong especially in Cat 5. I did not do the TT, owing to the new baby and the fact that I don't have a TT bike (I didn't miss it!).
The crit was disappointing for me in terms of result and the course. I didn't really like the three u-turn course as it was tricky, dangerous (due to the dusty road) and I my legs aren't suited for the constant accelerations. Also, it didn't help that the one hill was into the wind as that certainly prevented the breaks. After about 4-5 laps I found myself in no-man's land. I lost the front group and that wind prevented me from catching back on. After a few laps by myself, I sat up to wait for the group a 5 behind me and we rode the rest of the race together. However, we never got organized and as a result we couldn't catch the lead group. I did manage to win the bunch sprint in my group to finish 9th overall.
The RR was the next day and Cat 5 had 72 kms. Our plan was to stick at or near the front; we even had a "ringer" (Jeff) agreeing to help us out. We thought to make a break for it after the second turnaround. As it turned out, Niklas Group ended up leading the entire race which sucked our energy - no one else came to the front! I would agree with Joel that 80% of the time there were one or two of us right at the front, especially Darren who went off on a flier halfway through the race and rode by himself 50m ahead of the field for a good 4 km (Huh?). Near the end of lap one, Jeff and I tried to make a little break for it, but that didn't work and only sapped my legs. I ended up almost losing the entire bunch after the Metis Trail turnaround. On the second lap, the speed wasn't as fast as our first lap, but everyone was watching each other. We were able to easily chase down the few attempted breaks from Speed Theory but it was obvious that they were saving their legs for the sprint finish (they had 8 guys in Cat 5!). With about 2-3 k to go, I found myself at the front of the pack and no one was willing to share the work. So, obviously, I had nothing for the sprint and came 18th. Kudos to Ian for coming in top 10.
At the end of the race, many riders complimented us for taking charge and doing the lion's share of the work. Small solace, since we got blow away in the results. This course didn't really suit us as we didn't have a pure sprinter to protect as did Speed Theory. We need the grind-it-out hill that was present in the TdB RR. Next time, we'll know better!

Speed Theory Race

Thanks to the Speed Theory folks for putting on such a great event. I know that Trev put his heart into that race and while there were challenges, I think it was an awesome venue. The first day was going as planned until the flat at 23.3 Km into the TT. I looked back at my data on the Garmin and was at 28:13 at 20K and picking up steam when the back tire went limp. It kind of sucked as I hobbled back to the start leaning on the front handlebars just trying to not ruin my back rim. The CRIT was great and I was more than happy to place 5th. I have to admit that i was nervous on almost every corner and could not come into them with the speed required... hence being 5th. But nonetheless what a rush. As for the RR, that was great. The plan did not come together, but it was fun chasing the attacks and the vibe was out there. Thanks to the Speed Theory guys for thanking Team Niklas for doing 80+ percent of the pulling out there. Next race maybe not so much! :))

Ride The Road Tour 2009

Well it is not all about hammerheads and racing until you are ready to cough up a lung. Some of the family members of Team Niklas recently took part in an event in Calgary where thousands of Calgarian's took part in a ride around Calgary. With part of Memorial closed and other sections of the city manned by our city's finest, it was a great event. Niklas Jack Goralski commented that this was one of the best rides ever and he can hardly wait to do Kids of Steel next year! That is awesome... see www.MorePeopleCycling.ca

Xterra, Canmore, Aug 23

Hey Guys,Had a fun filled day in the mountains at Xterra - an off road tri.
Almost forgot how much fun Mountain Bike is.
I finished 4th (again) ... just missing the podium ... again.
4th really sucks ... don't you agree? (4th in my age group - 40-49).
I'd much prefer top 3 ... or 14th!

However, for me ... it's the difference between training to win ... and training to maintain a 'level' of fitness.
I've been maintaining fitness.
Look forward to racing with you guys on Sunday. (I'll need some guidance ... as my cycle racing is very limited. Hopefully I'll be

able to pull for awhile ... before blowing up.)

Bryon

Team Niklas Dominates Provincials CAT 4 & 5

Well we only had two riders able to race this past weekend in the Provincial Road Championships. Brian Green, newly minted CAT 4 held his own and came in first in a strong field of contenders. We hear that Mark Franklin (Dead Goat) flatted but managed to change his wheel and self sprint himself back into the chase and still placed 7th overall. I am sure that if the flat did not happen it would have been a head to head sprint to the finish between Mark and Brian.

Stephen Lund dominated in the CAT5 race where he broke away near the end of the race and won by a wide margin. So Stephen should be moving up to CAT4 with Brian shortly.

It is pretty impressive to see such a strong showing when neither racer had a team member to help. Good work guys! (Joel G)

Iron Man 70.3 Pics of Byron Howard

Action Sports International

Shared via AddThis

Iron Man Calgary 70.3

Congratulations to Bryon Howard for his 70.3 Results

Bryon finished 4th in his age group ... 54th overall with a great time of 4:47

6th place - swim
3rd - bike
10th - run

RESULTS http://www.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=44581

ALL BRYON'S RESULTS http://www.sportstats.ca/find-an-athlete-find-a-race-search.php?lang=eng&first=Bryon&last=HOWARD

Tour de Bowness

(JOEL) Well for a debut of a newly formed team, I have to say that Niklas Group held its own for the whole event. Congratulations to Brian Green for taking First overall. When Brian punctured in the CRIT and then took a 45 psi tire of Charlotte's cruiser and then still finish 2nd, that was impressive. Brian really ripped it up in the RR and was a well deserved win!

David Pick placing 5th in his first CRIT, 4th in the RR after being edged out by Rick Courtney (a very strong rider for ST). David finished 4th overall which was an awesome contribution.

Ryan Barr had a great Hill Climb placing 5th. During the latter part of the RR Ryan got caught back with me (Joel) from the Speed Theory attack. Since we had two of our Riders (Darren and David) get away before we could react, we let them go and did our job not to get the pack back to the our guys who broke away with ST. So Ryan had to settle for 10th and me being inched out to take 12th . Not catching that attack and being there to help David and Darren was a little disheartening but nonetheless, we were ecstatic for the team and the end result. It would have been nice to have caught that break as Ryan had a good sprint up that last hill and would have surely done some damage.

Darren did a great job working with David and placed 7th in the RR. So all in all 4 Niklas Group riders in the Top 10 with one winning the race was a completed success.

A big thanks to Cam who did a great job attacking. There was one point where I was fading a bit and he let me catch up on his wheel where I could recover and get back into the game. Also that final attack on the last lap allowed Ryan and me to get away from the pack and have a strong finish.

Ian has got to get the award for tenacity and doing all three races after spending almost a month in Europe eating pizza, pasta and drinking fine wine. For a guy who just got back in the saddle a short time ago, he did great. The Speed Theory Race you will probably see some fireworks from Ian...

Sky Mitchell was also no slouch. Sky, since she was our solo female, had no Team on the road to support her and yet did an amazing job by placing 5th in the hill climb, 2nd in the CRIT, 5th in the RR and 4th overall.

I was totally impressed on how we all came together for this race and everyone contributed to the end result. I am really looking forward to the next race being put on by Speed Theory. It should be a great event.

Thanks for all of you making it out to my house for the post race barbeque as well. It was nice to have that make a part of the day and I certainly enjoyed those few beers! I believe Brian is doing the next post race barbeque so stay tuned!

Here is a link to some great photos... http://www.flickr.com/photos/camkeith/3786692796/

Also an excerpt from an email sent by Ryan Barr which I think sums things up....

"Again, I'm very impressed with how everyone rode throughout the tour. Brian of course was amazing, but everyone else worked very hard and as a team I think we did an excellent job of controlling the rr and the crit. I've already had a couple people asking about Team Niklas and as Joel said, I don't think anyone will be dismissing us like they did at the first of the year. Oh, and how many of you are looking out the window and thinking 'thank god it's raining, I don't have to train today!'. Great Job everyone! " RYAN BARR

Brian Green of Team Niklas is in the Break!

Tour De Bowness '09 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!