Ride with Jen

Evening Ride

Victory or Death. That was my attitude going in to this event. Not that I would actually risk my life, but I was prepared to exhaust myself and blow up in a spectacular display if I did not go clear of the group or or field in order to win. Going in to this event knowing that I rode the entire course the week before by myself at a time of 3h50m put me in a good position. Because from last year's experience with this event, I knew it would become a race of attrition and I just needed to stay at the front, and wait for people to fail. For the first  critical section, Gorra hill, I just wanted to make sure I didn't get stuck in the back, so I just went to the front and rode hard tempo. This keep me in the top 10 without having to utilize any power spikes. From there, I just waited  for Ivan's Farm lane, then I hit power and held it down through the field path, up the gravel hill after, around  corner, down the gravel road and to the road section. This  caused a 5 man break. While, I didn't want this to happen so early, I figured I'd go with it as I didn't have to go too deep to cause it. When we hit the road there was a sizable gap, so I slowed down in order to get the the others to work. The others in the group did start work and it seemed to be going OK. But the pace was not fast enough and when the course turned back on to itself, the rest of the group was only 100m back. So, I decided to hit the power again and hold the pace until we got to the hillier unmaintained (or unmaintained like section) lucky from there, I think that wasn't too far. Once on hillier sections, the group chasing from behind effort dwindles, and then it just becomes a matter of keeping the pressure on. Unfortunately, keeping the pressure on meant, that 3 people in the 5 person break would stop working, with me and Mark doing all the work. I felt with my current fitness I had the upper hand, so I waited for Ken Dick Rd than has a steep climb, and I would hit it hard and hope that everyone except for Mark was dropped, unfortunately that did not happen, and I dropped everyone, leaving Mark to chase me. He caught me and pulled everyone with  him. We rejoined and Mark and I resumed pulling the group along. When we hit the next road section, Seamus, started providing some help with the pulling. While still on the road section, I attacked on a slight uphill and this dropped one guy, then after one other gravel section and on another road section, I attacked again. Now, leaving only three. At the 87km I had pre-determined that would be a good section to launch a race winning attack from because there was a steep uphill gravel section followed by a long uphill drag. So I hit it hard there, and opened a huge gap and though that be be the end of it, but Mark and Seamus pulled me back shortly after getting on the Rail Trail. Coming off the rail trail, Seamus crashed in the loose thick gravel, which was not much of a surprise because he had narrow road tires on. At this point it was just me and Mark. By this point I was hoping that he was sufficiently worn out, for an attack to stick and I could go clear. Again I just waited for another uphill drag and hit the power hard again and hoped for the best, knowing that I could not do this again. At 104km with 20km, I attacked and held the power down, and took it to line. It was satisfying to win this way, but even more satisfying is that I finished feeling strong.

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Aaron Fillion

Ottawa Valley Gravel Experience - Epic

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Ride with Jen

Ride with Jen

Ride with Jen

Ride with Jen

Evening Ride

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