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Newsletter June 2009

Friday June 05, 2009  

The racing's getting tougher and the wins and podiums just keep stacking up for Team Ultralink.  As both the Pro Women and Masters Men prepare for their major goals of the season, both teams have continued their success throughout Ontario, Quebec, New York, and Europe, in a shared venture with the Canadian National Team. 

New York New York

 

The Bristol Mountain - Bear Mountain weekend in early May seems to launch teams into the heart of their seasons.  For Team Ultralink's women, we wanted not only to come away from both races with solid results, but to put some hard back to back racing days in the legs to prepare for some of the stage race objectives ahead.  Mission accomplished on both fronts.

At Bristol, Krystal Jeffs went on a long solo move to get things started and take the early pressure off her teammates.  Halfway thru the race, a chase group eventually brought her back, and working tactics to perfection, the team countered with both Emma Petersen and Allison Lampi, in a small move of 5.  That was brought back but with 15km to go, a move of 3 went with Allison in tow, while Emma patrolled the chase.  Once Allison and the other racer dropped the third rider, one major climb remained before the finish.  Although gapped by 10 seconds over the top of the climb, Allison chased hard in the last km and came within inches of pulling off the win, settling for a hard earned 2nd place.  Back in the chase, Emma dusted off the rest of the chasers to take 3rd, stacking the podium for Team Ultralink.

The following day, over 50 women lined up for one of New York's biggest one-day races. Held in beautiful Harriman State Park 90 minutes out of New York City, Team Ultralink lined up against the best racers in the Eastern US and made their presence felt.  Because of the difficulty of the climbing, this race is one of attrition. The winner is generally the one who can last over the incessant hills for 4 laps and still have enough to kick away from the rest at the end.

Showing great determination, Emma suffered to stay with the climbing specialists lap after lap, at one point, getting dropped from the group but pulling herself back just in time for the sprint finish at the end. While two climbers had gotten away from the lead group in that time, Emma made it back to the lead chase group, and in true sprinter style, still had enough to wind up the legs to take the bunch sprint for an incredible 3rd place on this very tough course.

 

Carrie's European Breakaway

 

In our last newsletter, we previewed Carrie Cartmill's ride with the Canadian National Team on a series of race projects in Europe.  Carrie's recently returned, having not only ridden some of the fastest, hardest races in all of women's professional cycling, but also raced along the learning curve of what it takes to be a pro a the highest level.

By Carrie: After several early season races with my Ultralink teammates I headed off to spend the month of May racing on European soil.  Our race schedule included the Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs (Luxembourg), the Tour de Berne World Cup (Switzerland) and the Tour de L'Aude (10 day stage race in southern France).  Since this was my first trip to Europe there were many things to learn... like there are no speed limits on the highway but very few accidents; the toilet and the sink are in different rooms; every meal takes 2 hours; many roads are the width of our bike lanes....  Oh yes, and many on-the-bike lessons too:

Race Lesson 1:    Every race is fast right from the start line.  You know those images you see in the Tour de France of a big peloton of guys cruising along, chatting, sharing a marmalade sandwich?  Well that wasn't how these races started...  and the only time the pace eased up was well after the time of being dropped (yes, that did happen).

Race Lesson 2:  What goes up must come down.  I expected the hard part of the racing to be the 14km climbs up the Pyrenees Mountains.  It hadn't occurred to me that after each grueling climb I would have to come down the other side, and that this would be hard.  I realized that I am a better climber than I am a descender after a close call with the edge of a cliff... something that definitely requires some practice. 

Race Lesson 3: Racing for ten days in a row is more of a mental battle than a physical one.  In fact I think my legs began to feel a little better after day 5 or 6... about the time that my cognitive functioning started to quickly plummet.  It takes extreme focus, concentration and motivation to really stay involved in the race action.

After returning home I was so tired that I thought I might never want to race again... however, 10 days later I am STILL recovering but some of that love for the sport is returning... just in time to head to PEI with Team Ultralink!

Carrie's results included:

Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs - 24th

Tour de Berne World Cup- 39th

Tour de L'Aude - 66th overall

 

The Masters Get in on the Winning

 

David Gazsi had a great month of May in leading the Men's Masters Team to several wins over the course of the month.  David kicked off the month by winning the Granby GP timetrial over local strongman Ron Amos (RWR).  While continuing to build form, David took a stage 2 victory and a second overall at the Tour de Syracuse. These results boded well for one of David's major annual objectives, the GP de Charlevoix, a torturous stage race in the rugged terrain east of Quebec City in Baie-St-Paul, Quebec.

Stage 1's timetrial set the tone, as David won the event by a slim 3 second margin. In the second stage criterium, David finished a strong top 10, but lost the overall lead, and went in to the final epic road race stage 11 seconds down. Epic is exactly the word for this road race, probably one of the hardest courses in eastern North America.  The 117km route included incredibly steep climbs touching 25% grades, descents pushing riders into the mid-90s kph, and combined with crazy winds and a douse of hail, well, it was a race tailor made for David.  After incessant attacks from the RWR squad were chased down repeatedly thru the first 60km, David lead a decisive break of 4 on the day's steepest climb thru St-Irenée's famous ascent.  With David and one other rider pushing the pace while 2 others strategically sat on, the gaps opened quickly. By the time the 4 ascended the 5km climb averaging 15% at about the 90 km mark, it was clear the group would stay away.  With David the virtual leader, the work in the group was primarily left to him, while the others bided their time, plotting on winning the stage.  As the finale approached, Jon Gee (RWR) jumped early and held off the group for the stage win, while David won the Overall GP de Charlevoix for the second year in a row.

 

In Their Own Words - Allison Lampi's Montreal World Cup Report

 

 May 30, 2009
Well, I have to say that this is a race that is in my mind all year, but not really because I'm looking forward to it but more because it is looming. Let me explain...

The Montreal World Cup is a 110km road race in the heart of Montreal that features a 3 km uphill in a 10 km loop and we race it 11 times. Just riding the whole distance of the course is a feat. The best female cyclists in the world generally show up to contest this event so you can see that this race presents quite a challenge, somewhat intimidating really.

Last year, I was sick, it was pouring rain, and I was dropped the very first time up the climb. I think I finished 4 laps, thinking it would be better to save whatever I had for the stage race that was to start in two days. However, I have trained well this year and my fitness is getting better with every year so I had a small amount of optimism for this year.

Jennifer Stephenson (our team captain from last year who is less than a week from motherhood) sent me an encouraging email on Friday that really helped to set the tone for me.

My goal was to make it up the hill with the group as many times as I could (or at least once!) and then try to finish the race.

When we arrived, it was raining, but towards the start time, the sky cleared and the sun came out. On the first time up the big climb (about 200 m from the start!) my legs felt like lead and I milked (started near the front and went back through the group) the first half of the climb, hung in for the second half and then just gave'r to be in a group that got back on on the downhill part. whew! On the second time up, same thing... hammered over the top and got in a group that got back on. On the third time up- I was not so good, and got dropped. I was in a group with members of the Canadian National team and Australian national team but we were "in the cars" for the whole lap and up the climb and we just didn't make it back.

Plan B- Finish the race. After the 4th lap, I soloed for another 4 laps with a group of 3 riders chasing me about 30 seconds back. I was ok with that as there was a high road, a Selle Italia and Mexico national team member in it..!

The spectators were out because it was sunny and there was cheering and clapping around the whole course. Some highlights: My friends Craig and Helena appeared (I didn't know they were going!) and cheered through the race. At one point, they got the Columbian team's support staff to join them in chanting "All-ee-son, All-ee-son" in the feed zone! That was hilarious and it supported my already good mood. Another time up, a kid ran down to me and ran back up beside me to encourage me for a while. I laughed.

But then we were all caught by Emma Pooley (Cervelo test team rider who attacked on the first lap and never looked back) and the chase group so I decided to finish that lap and stop there.

My team mate Krystal held on for one more lap than me with the group and Emma one more than that. I guess around lap 6, the Columbia High Road put the hammer down and strung it out, which formed all kinds of little groups. Emma finished the race, but the organization didn't give her a time. too bad. That's an accomplishment in itself as over half of the 150 or so starters did not finish the race.

All in all, I have to say that the world cup was a much better experience than last year! and.... I can't believe it but I'm actually looking forward to trying it again next year.

Thanks as always to my helper: Michael, for his day spent the day in the feed zone, and to Paul for being our DS, and OF COURSE, a big thanks to all of our sponsors.

Next Up...

 

The team's primary focus for the month of June is the Tour de PEI a 5 stage UCI event that takes over the beautiful island from June 7-11.  The team will be lead by local Ottawa legend Ross Knight as Directeur Sportif, and will be pursuing both stage victories and the top Canadian jersey as its objectives.  You can follow the team's results at www.tourdepei.com .  In addition, the team will be seen through the rest of the month at the following venues:

June 6 Wilmington-Whiteface Road Race

June 6-7 Milford Stage Race Ontario Cup

June 13-14 KW-Classic Ontario Cup

June 20 Grand-Prix Pont-Rouge

June 21 Preston Street Italian Festival Grand Prix

June 26-28 Elite National Championships

June 26-28 North American Masters Championships

July 2-4 Masters National Championships

July 2-5 Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic

 

The team's full results are available on the team's website at http://www.teamultralink.com/

 

To date, the team has accumulated 78 race starts,16 podiums and 9 victories.