Great Fall Group ride

This past Sunday 21 keen Toronto area cyclists got together for a ride through rural Ontario on what turned out to be one of the best days of the year for a bike ride.

The group was made up of the team members of NACSWORLD. COM Master 1 team and clients and friends of iCoachCycling. Starting from the one of our favourite caffeinated beverage establishments on Elgin Mills road near Leslie street we set off North on Leslie, passing Van Dorf side road and brushing by the town of Aurora before making it to St Johns side road where we headed East. This part of the Province is particularly beautiful at this time of the year and especially so in the early part of the morning as rode along tree lined roads with the early morning sun casting long shadows across the road. We continued to Warden avenue where we turned North and headed up and turned North East cutting across almost to the village of Baldwin, at which point we headed South to join up with Queensville side road then East again before heading south near to Zephyr. Then we enjoyed some spirited riding on the short but steep rolling climbs all the way to one of our favourite regular watering holes at Goodwood. From there it was the shortest route back to our starting point passing through the town of Stoufville and along 19^th avenue.

Kevin Davis

CENTURION Collingwood Gran Fondo

A large group from the team rode the second annual event that started from the base of Blue Mountain. It  wound through beautiful countryside in one big circular lap taking in local towns such as Creemore and Ravenna.
The event was approximately 172 km and had around a thousand participants. Total number of cyclists taking part was 3400 as there were two other shorter courses as an option. The event also had around 600 volunteers making sure that everyone had a safe and enjoyable ride.
Chip timing and posted results would always ensure that this 'Tour' would always be treat the same as if it were a regular race by the regulars of the Ontario road racing scene.
After a cold early morning 'neutralized' start, the field split apart on the first long hill on Grey road 19 with what would be the eventual small breakaway group containing eventual 'winner' Bruce Bird going clear. All of our team members stayed in the main group near the head of the field setting the pace, making sure to not miss any groups leaving and bridging up to the small leading group. At about 4 km before the finish line at Blue Mountain the very fast  descent on Scenic Caves road had to be negotiated, and this is where Steve McKee demonstrated his formidable descending skills. Steve managed to fly down the hill and 'jump' away after the tricky roundabout turn at the bottom of the hill, gaining a good gap which he maintained all the way to the finish line. Steve finished in 3rd placing out of all participants, with Ilija 7th and Kevin 10th. Guest NACSWORLD.COM riders Lawrence Akot and Chris Kirk ensured that we achieved our ideal goal and  claimed the prize for top overall team on the day.

Steve with First place Bruce Bird and second place David Baker.

Ontario Time Trial Championships

The Clarence/Rockland area near Ottawa hosted this years championships. The event yielded another Silver championship medal for the NACSWORLD.COM team, with Derek De Gannes this time doing the honours. Derek was competing in the UCI Master C category and turned in a blistering time of 57 minutes and 5 seconds for the 40 kilometres. In first place was Rob Droughan with a time of  55:58.

Ontario Road Race championships

Ontario Championships were held July 24th in Heidelberg.
Ilija had a great day finishing with the Silver medal having being narrowly beaten in the mass field final sprint for the line by David Fry of 'Shut up Legs' cycling team. Ilija was competing in the UCI category 40 to 50 years old, which was the category on the day that had by far the most participants with approx 90 taking part.
This was something of a first for Ilija, to finish with such a high placing in a big field sprint, as he's known  better as a time trial specialist. Behind him were noted fast finishers such as Ian Scott (Bronze medal) and Radek Lukasik, both of Wheels of Bloor. Just goes to show that it's never to late to evolve and to learn new tricks.

National Criterium Championships

July 1st saw members of the team compete in the 2011 Masters criterium championships. First up were Jay and Pav competing in the 'youngest' category race of Master 'A' 30 to 40 years old. They distinguished themselves well, being in the front of the action and finally finishing amongst the leading group.

Pav and Jay before the race

Jay in the fight

Next up were the slightly older guys Steve and Kevin. During a fast and furious race Steve spent a lot of time in main 'breakaway' of the day while Kevin covered the moves from behind in the peloton. Surprisingly the break was caught with one and a half laps of one kilometre laps remaining, which meant that it all came down to a mass sprint for the line. Rob D'Amico from Team Z led out the sprint and took the advantageous inner path on the left turning run in to the finish and got to the line first, ahead of Kevin.

Steve in action in the Breakaway

A close finish

NACSWORLD group photo at North America Construction

Back row left to right: Brian Kelly, Eddie Reinish, Derek De Gannes, Steve McKee, Ilija Petrovski, Steve Colomby, 

Front row left to right: Jay May, Andrew McPhail, Alex Getler, Kevin Davis (absent: Pavle Stanojevic and Chad Leudtke)

KW Classic Road Race

The annual race on the Hidden Valley course in Kitchener was held this past Sunday on thankfully dry roads in cool and cloudy conditions. 80 Master level 1 racers took part in the approximately 100KM race including all of our team, around the five kilometre circuit. The early action saw NACSWORLD.COM racers in the early moves, but there were no groups of riders ahead of the 'peloton' when three quarters of the race had been completed. At that time the decisive move of the race took place during a tough crosswind section when Bruce Bird of Wheels of Bloor pulled clear along with Ed Makarchuk of 'Sound Solutions' and Ilija Petrovski of NACSWORLD, shortly afterwards they were joined by Chris Firek of 'Gears Racing'. These 4 pulled away from the main group which was being controlled by Wheels of Bloor and NACSWORLD in defence of their rider who were ahead. The breakaway group continued to pull clear while the peloton were being reprimanded by the race commisaires for crossing over the yellow line in the crosswind section. Shortly afterwards Ed was dropped by the group followed by Ilija. That left two ahead of the peloton by a minute and a half up until the end of the race. Bruce then dropped Chris to win the race alone a half a minute ahead of Chris. In the race for the remaining podium spot Kevin of NACSWORLD managed to get clear of the peloton on the short climb with two kilometres remaining, taking two Wheels of Bloor riders along for the ride. He managed to get to the line ahead of the others to take the final podium spot.

Bruce Bird wins with Chris Firek second and Kevin Davis third.