Remedial Racing 101: It Ain’t Over till it’s Over

It’s a cliché but in bike racing it’s also an absolute truism – no race’s outcome, no matter how promising, is guaranteed until you’ve crossed the finished line.  Well that’s not entirely true; many miserable races end up involving guarantees that you won’t cross the finish line – but that’s another issue.

The last few weekend’s of racing in Ottawa have demonstrated this concept rather nicely.  Two weeks ago at the Clarence-Rockland Race, masters rider John Gee seemed almost assured of the win until he flatted- and was overtaken by a rider that had crashed in the first five minutes of the race.  Bad luck can hit at anytime. 

This weekend’s Calabogie Classic exemplified the concept again- though in a decidedly different fashion.  With a breakaway with over a minute lead, and a chase group hot on their heels, the whole front half of the race essentially welded back together in the last 500m.  If you look at the finishing picture you can see the second group making contact as they hit the home stretch.  Don’t ever assume the outcome is written in stone, just stay on the gas.

There is a common belief that:

Blogging is inherently the incoherent ramblings of some self angrandizing jackass who thinks access to a QWERTY keyboard and the ability to pound out a run on sentence makes them some kind of gonzo-jounalist to whatever marginal fringe activity they happen to be obsessed with.

In this case that belief is entirely correct.

Welcome to my blog.