After a less than stellar year in 2016, I knew I was lucky to be on a team like Ride with Rendall. I could have very well been riding for a local team, doing local races. A huge part of my motivation last year was knowing that I was taking a forward leap, into a whole new world of bike racing. To an outside observer, this might all seem very trivial. A bike race is just a bike race, right? Put simply, no. There are many different levels to bike racing. With Ride with Rendall, I had the opportunity to ride some of the top races in North America. These races belong to a circuit known as the UCI America Tour. It’s a group of UCI races, mostly attended by professional teams, with a few elite amateur teams mixed in. My first crack at one of these races was at the GP Cycliste de Saguenay. It has a reputation for bad weather, tough and punchy courses, and a lot of DNF’s. When the team rolled into Saguenay, I could tell it would be a far cry from the limited race days I had back home. The first day there consisted of a team presentation, where each team lines up for a photo op and the riders are presented. This all felt very foreign to me, and it was intimidating sitting across the room from athletes I had watched on TV for years. I think some small part of me thought that maybe I would do incredible things at a big race and easily secure a pro contract. That feeling was far outweighed by my logical thoughts that told me that I had no chance; I knew that I would be lucky to finish the 4-day stage race. The first stage was on a hilly circuit just outside of Saguenay. It was a single steep pitch every lap followed by a long, false-flat section, and a descent back down into town. We signed on as a team, stood for a picture, and had a team meeting before the stage. I was very glad to be under the direction of Glen Rendall and Jason Cheney, they have infinitely more experience than me. I knew they had no expectations for me, and that was comforting, I could just do my best and that’s all I could hope for. The stage started and within a few laps I was in the gutter, barely hanging on. Each time up the wall nearly had me dropped, and the false-flat section took every ounce of energy I had. The speed was unrelenting, as the break of the day tried to establish. Unbeknownst to me, the breakaway that sticks on the first day of a short stage race like this almost always contains the eventual winner. Naturally, all the teams want to be in this break, so speeds can be through the roof before a select group gets away. What was I doing while this was happening? Hanging on for dear life on the tail end of the group. I finished that day in dead last. My teammates had ridden an awesome race, each finishing with the pack. At first, the results said that I had missed the time cut and I was given a DNF. Eventually the results were revised and I was given the “lanterne rouge” position. I was just happy to live to fight another day. Sign-on before Stage 1. Photo: Tim O'Connor
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Christian GomesI'm a bike racer Archives
February 2018
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