Lone Flyer Gives It A Go At Milford

This weekend's Milford 200 (for the 200th anniversary of the founding of Milford in Prince Edward County) was amazing, with 2 events over 2 days.

Day 1
The first event was a time trial on the rural roads of Prince Edward County. The race was running about 45 minutes behind, making a well-timed warmup quite difficult. Of course, every rider needed to have their bike cheacked for UCI compliance (more on that in another Hello Velo Fit article). Honorary Flyer Jordan Kremblewski was first up with a 10km sprint, coming in 10th in his category. I followed an hour later, set up for the 21 km edition. I watched the person in front of me drop her chain in the starting tent and eat of 10 seconds off her run while she put it back on. No forgiveness in this event. I was up, the count down and I was off! Just about into the tent pole beside me, but I was off.

The roads in the country are rough and the winds were slightly in favour on the way out for the first 3 kilometers. After that the roads got choppier and at 5km, we turn directly into the wind. The minute man behind me passed me shortly after the turn. Push, push, push into the wind and about 2 kilometers later the person who started 2 minutes behind me passed. Strong riders, but I was not dismayed, I have to ride my own race.

At the turn around another rider crashed in front of me, I rounded the pylon and took advantage of the tail wind. This was the only tail wind that I would get, and 5 km of hammering later I was at the turn and back on to some of the roughest road I had ever seen. Think chip seal that was no longer sealed.

With teeth clenched I charged towards the finish line, topping out a 53 km/hr and came in at 34:55 (36.1 kmh average). 4th place (out of 5)

Day 2
The road race started at 8:30 AM the next day and I was grouped together with the Senior 4 and Master 3. The course was a quick 3 laps of 15.8 km, with a few short hills, one big downhill and a gentle uphill at the finish. My goal was to stay at the front, but not off the front and to give the final sprint a go.

First lap was clean and I came across the line in 3rd. Midway through the second lap one of the other leaders rode on to the soft shoulder and wiped out. A few challengers jumped off the front shortly thereafter, but were brought back. The next minute I found myself off the front of the peleton and I thought, "What the heck am I doing?". I decided to coast and allowed the pack to swallow me up and I caught a draft.

Coming into the third and final lap I was in the top five and I decided that I would hang on and give it a go over the final 1.5 km (a quick downhill, a jaunt through downtown Milford and then a right turn towards the final 100 meters and the uphill finish). Having seen the group peform I felt like I could leave them behind if I was well positioned at the end.

At the 3 km point a group of 5 riders sat at the front of the peleton, clogging the course and preventing any rider from getting by unless they crossed the yellow line, a sure fire DQ. With my planned sprint for the finish folied I edged my way through the pack as it split up on the final downhill, pushed through town and sprinted past 4 other riders to take 5th spot in the S4 category at 1h 18' 27. Jordan followed shortly thereafter to capture 3rd in his race. (Final times yet to be published).

p.