This was our third year in a row returning to the Frozen Four. It felt great to be back and we had an absolutely awesome time. Coach David came too, as well as our Star Track teammates Desmond, Ian, Jayden, Logan, Lily, and Viv. Amongst us two, Ari raced first the Cat 4/5 with 13 laps. Then it was Max’s junior race where he fought really hard for eight laps. Lastly, Ari did his second race of the day, a 17-lap Cat 3/4.
Ari’s Cat 4/5 Race
Logan and Ian raced with me and the race started off hard. The field was mostly together but a number of riders tried to get a breakaway and a group of five finally succeeded on the third lap. At that time I was roughly 10th wheel and decided not to chase as I figured it would cost me too much energy. For the remainder of the race, I stayed within five wheels from the front of the pack and was really happy about that. Two other riders and I frequently tried bridging to the breakaway but couldn’t make it happen. I came into the final sprint in seventh position and managed to move two spots up to finish 5th in the field sprint – 10th/37 overall according to the race results. The race was fairly hard with an average speed of 40.9 km/h over 23 kilometers according to my Strava. My GoPro race footage is on our YouTube Channel..
Max’s Junior Race
Fifteen rides started the race with me and I lined up all the way towards the front to get a good start. On the first corner of the race there was a crash. The rider in front of me hit the curb and fell and I went into his back wheel. After asking whether he was okay, I got straight back on the bike but it cost me a lot of energy to catch up to the pack. When I caught up, I was super tired and had no energy to launch attacks and therefore focused on getting a good draft. While the race sped up a few times, it was mostly chill for the first five laps. With three laps to go, however, Devin from Verge made an attack. Daniel and Julian from Dave Jordan Juniors followed and I tried to catch up too but I did not have enough energy and I stayed with a group of four other riders – Chase and Jack from CBRC, my teammate Viv, and one other kid. We were working hard to chase the three-rider breakaway but never saw them again until after the race. Amongst us five chasing, there were a few attacks but none of them did much. Right before the last corner, I had a good position and started my sprint toward the finish. I gave my all and came in fourth in the pack and seventh overall (one kid didn’t finish). You can find the GoPro recording of my race here.
Ari’s Cat 3/4 Race
This was the first time I lined-up with my teammate Jayden in a race which was super cool – Jayden is super strong rider and this was his warm-up race and he competed in the Cat 1/2/3 which took place right after this Cat 3/4. For this race, I wasn’t in it to win as it was my second one for the day. I did this race mostly to build fitness and get some more race experience. For most of the time I stayed towards the back. The speed of the race averaged 41.4 km/h over 17 laps for a total of 30 km per my Strava which was pretty slow for how big and strong the field was. However, from the back of the pack the race was very spiky – every lap on the start/finish and back straight I would hit +500 watts. Doing this repeatedly wore me out for the finish. I should have stayed closer to the front so the effort throughout the race would have been much smoother. On the last lap I found a good line that brought me mid-pack. I sprinted as hard as I could for 30th/49 per my race results. I was happy with that result considering it was my second race of the day. The GoPro footage I recorded during the race is on our YouTube channel.
