Jason Lapierre Memorial

20km Time Trial

Decent warmup, tapered all week, and despite fighting a cold since TdB Road Race, I was jacked to race on the Orbea. Last time I got to ride it was Banff, when I DNS'd due to my 10 min time penalty.

I went out pretty hard, trying to keep my watts at FTP. Started fading in kilometers 5-10. Going into the turnaround, my front tire exploded, and I went over my bike.
Race over.

Downtown Criterium

Though nursing a sore wrist and scraped knee from the ITT, I was feeling less sicky than yesterday and ready to go back to the course I won last year!

The return of Isaac meant I had a teammate! First time since Devon that I've had someone else in STC colors to race with!
The pace was pretty quick, and folks tried attacking, but nothing was going to stick. It never does.
The course it too straight, too non-technical.
At point around lap 10, I saw Isaac at the very front, so I decided to launch an attack; have him block a little, or at least have someone else pull in front.
I got a small gap but looked behind and saw only Masa. Half a lap later he wasn't coming around and the pack had pretty much retrieved us so I backed off.
That was exciting. Sat in the back for the remainder of the race.
Only one prime, and I found myself bored for much of the race.
Isaac wanted to go on an attack with about 15 laps to go. It finally happened with around 9 laps left. He was caught about 2 laps later.
In fact the final 15 laps were attack-filled. Final 3 were no exception.
It would make my last year's strategy very difficult. Got a bit separated from Isaac, and there was some sketchy cornering so I didn't/couldn't move up to where I wanted to.
Ended in a bunch sprint for about 50m.
I didn't like how close the finish line was to the final corner this year; it served to neutralize the thing I liked about that race before, the 3 wide open city lanes to sprint on.
Finished disappointingly somewhere around 10th or 11th...
First time in 4 years that I attained not a single upgrade point at this event!