UCI World Amateur Road Race Championship Qualifier 2019

The Blue Mountains, Ontario, Canada

Once Again into the Arena

June 15, 2019

Racing Age 70

UCI World Amateur Road Race Championship Qualifier 2019

I’m wet. I’m cold. I’m tired. From somewhere behind me I hear my friend Beth, an ex-pro road racer from Michigan call out, “Hey Garth, you qualify?” Nope. Not this time I’m afraid. There’s no denying it. I am not in a good mood.

Who the hell were those guys?!! Crazy fast! Crazy strong! Terrifyingly relentless!

Edgy, the air was thick with it. The Race Director’s hype just makes things worse telling us just how many ex-pros, including a former Canadian Olympian are in our 112km/71mi race wave of 80, 50+ to 65+ age-group cyclists. This is clearly not an event for cycling fun seekers. This is straight up about business. And on this windy, rain chilled day, the business at hand is qualifying for the 2019 World Amateur Road Race Championships in Poznan, Poland later this year.

So it was no surprise that the race heated up during the 2-mile “neutral” start, with riders aggressively jockeying for and protecting their positions. Everyone’s twitchy and wants to be up-front, and with rain soaked brakes it makes for several near crashes. Then about 10km out some 50+er goes off the front on a solo breakaway. That "someone" must have been a serious threat because out of nowhere a swarm of red numbered bibs, my age-group number bib color, starts to chase… hard. I surmise it must be one of the ex-pros making the break but what the hell are the 65+ers doing trying to chase this guy down. Something was seriously wrong with this scenario. I was completely bumfuzzled.

Good racers will make you do things you don’t want to do. They’ll force you into situations you don’t want to be in. And I certainly did not want to be doing this, riding threshold not completely warmed-up just 6 miles into a 71 mile road race. Nevertheless, my hand was forced, as I could not let my age-group competition and the race just go up the road. So with front-sighted focus I quickly work the problem and fashion a plan. Expend a bit of energy moving up, tuck in about one-third from the beginning of the paceline thereby sitting deep in the draft, then just do a 15-sec “touch” of a pull, rotate out and let the wind do her work on these knuckleheads. Rinse and repeat for the duration of this insanity.

Time passes, miles go by, and we are still hammering. I look down at my Garmin, my eyes straining to see through the raindrops on my glasses. And what I see is not good. I’m hovering right around threshold, 267 watts, 263 watts, 271 watts with heart rates at 175-180 bpm. A wholly unsustainable situation. Finally, they break off the chase but we’re still clipping along at a pace that makes complete recovery impossible for me and I’m starting to get a really bad feeling about how things are evolving.

Some things happen slowly, and then all of a sudden. And those bouts of “suddenness” ended in three crashes this day. And after each one you just knew someone was not going to be getting up. High stakes road racing in the rain and wind, with everyone taking risks.

At 25 miles out we're on the move and approaching our first climb. Epping Hill is a run-of-the-mill 2.5 mile 4-6% grade climb. In highly competitive road races they'll often be a hard surge some 300-600 meters before the base of the climb, as the power riders aim to put some sting in the legs of the weight-weenie pure climbers and as they jockey for position on the climb. This race did not disappoint. Still trying to maintain contact with my red bibed age-group I’m pushing into the 305 watt range before we get to the climb. Jesus!

Then we hit the climb and although I’m climbing well my competitors seem to just effortlessly float away up the hill. I thought I had survived, but clearly I had not. Heartbroken, I am forced to let go of the rope and watch helplessly as my race goes up the road amid eight or so red bibs and along with them my hopes of qualifying.

Mike Tyson, had it right. “Everyone’s got a plan…. until they get hit!”  I got hit…. HARD and there was no plan B. I did my best. I prepared well, I raced smart and rode with heart, determination and courage. It’s why I race. It’s why I compete. I wasn’t happy but I was good with it, and knew in short order I’d be at peace with it. I took a moment to give silent homage; a hat tip and a respectful nod to my awesome competitors!

After the climb I could see the race had strung itself out with several small pockets of riders. I "sat up", seeing no need to go hard for the next 40 odd miles. My race was over. So I hopped on slower pacelines, then eventually bridging up to the next paceline. The last 20-miles the rain and wind picked up even more and I just wanted it to be over so I rode a bit harder with some other guys from the shorter race that were on the course.

I’m wet. I’m cold. I’m tired,... but I’m done! I quickly change out of my rain soaked kit, get into some warm clothes and hustle over to the awards ceremony. I want to cheer all the folks with the courage to step into the Arena and I’m excited to meet and congratulate the awesome competitors in my age-group.

I get there just in time as the Race Director starts the awards ceremony. “We’re going to start with the C112km 50+ Road Race starting with the 65+ age-group”, he says. The following 3, 65+ riders have earned their ticket to the World Championships in Poznan Poland, in September.  In third place, Garth McKay from Eugene, Oregon.

Wait, what?!?!

My brain instantly lurches into a total, massive, synaptic electrical storm, leaving me completely incapable of remembering my name but Garth does sound vaguely familiar so my legs reflexively move me forward. Beth tells me later, it was hilarious, that my face looked like a massive Botox treatment gone badly awry.

As my close friends know, I strongly believe that things happen for a reason…. and that reason is usually physics. In this case, optical physics. You see the 50+ers had light red numbered bibs but my tinted prescription cycling glasses red shifted them to look indistinguishable from my age-group red number bibs. So I was waging an unintentional, ill advised quixotic battle with the 50+ heavy hitters. It’s a miracle I didn’t totally implode. I can only chalk up the situation to the humor of the racing gods.

The Man in the Arena

“It is not the critic who counts;

not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,

or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”

~ Theodore Roosevelt

There are 23 UCI Sanctioned Qualifier Road Races throughout the World for the right to compete in the 2019 World Amateur Road Race Championships in Poznan Poland this September. This was a North American Qualifier.

Want to see more photos from the race:

Jeremy Allen's: Excellent Race Photos of the Event

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Note:  This year they changed the name of the race from the UCI World Amateur Road Race Championship to the UCI Gran Fondo World Series.  Apparently having both Pro and Amateur World Championships was too confusing and the sponsors were disgruntled. But for us racers, it will always be known simply as, World’s.

Well folks, that's it for now.  Thanks for coming along on my adventure!

Special thanks to all the guy's and guyette's from Hutch's Bike Shop and the

Eugene Velo group for their support and encouragement! 

Till next time,...

May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor!