by Laura

The Pan American Games are the second largest summer sporting event in the world, next to the Olympic Games. Being only 10 months before the next Summer Olympic Games in London, we thought it would be a wise idea to get some Major Games experience.

Local Ride road racing teammates, Steph Roorda, Jasmin Glaesser, and I headed down to Guadalajara, Mexico for all of our first Major Games representing the Canadian Team. I was selected to compete in the individual time trial, team pursuit, and road race.

The time trial course suited me well with four turnarounds (lots of standing starts!), four times through a cobbled, round-a-bout, and 20km total. It was mostly flat with some long sections of (deceptively hard) false-flat inclines. I was excited to be selected for the time trial as I really love to time trial, yet I have had little international racing opportunities.

Pre-riding the course was near impossible as it was situated in the bustling, heart of downtown Guadalajara (pop. 1.6 million), thereby I made quite a few technical errors on my first lap. But I cleaned up my ride considerably to negative split my second and final lap. The finish line was through The Arcos Vallarta (an iconic roundabout similar to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris) and about 4km from the final turnaround. This is where the Cuban rider that started 1 minute ahead of me was within my reach. It is amazing how much more you can suffer when you have a carrot! I had a lot of people along the course cheering for Canada and that was so very special and motivating. I finished the ride only 20 seconds back from the winner and won a bronze medal. I was ecstatic! Going into the time trial, I did not know if a medal was within my reach as most of the names on the start list were unfamiliar to me. All I could do was ride as hard as possible and see where where I stacked up. It was a great start to the Games.

A couple of days later was the women’s team pursuit. Steph and I have been members of the Canadian National Team since 2009, and were excited to have Jasmin Glaesser join us in wearing the Maple Leaf (for her very first time!). In the qualifying round, we were first up and this was without a doubt, a little nerve racking. We were a medal favorite in this event and we were having to set “the time to beat.” We gave it everything we had and broke the Canadian record with a time of 3:25.093. After sitting through seven more teams set qualifying times, we had made it through onto the Gold medal final against Cuba. Yes, we set a faster time than them, but we knew we could go faster and we had to – Cuba was going to put up a fight in the final. We changed our race plan slightly and with the temperature of the velodrome reaching almost 30 degrees Celsius, accompanied by the adrenaline of making it into the gold medal final at a Games and a packed stadium (including Canadian track legend Curt Harnett), we were able to shave 3.6 seconds off our initial time. We won the Gold Medal and set another Pan American and Canadian record of 3:21.4 (only 1.8 seconds off the World Record).

I personally have raced for Canada ever since a women’s team pursuit has been sent to compete at an international level, and our Gold medal ride was the best one yet for Canada. It was technically near flawless and we went faster than we have ever gone. But this is only the beginning. There are more great things to come and records to be broken in the next 10 months leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games for the Women’s Team Pursuit.

by Jenny

Just after sunrise on Saturday, September 10, 20-30 elite women took to the start of the 120km competitive Giro portion on the RBC Whistler Grand Fondo. This race from Vancouver to Whistler took riders along the beautiful Sea to Sky Highway and treated the 7,000 participants to their very own car-free lane.

Jenny Lehmann won the RBC Whistler Gran Fondo on September 10.

The race was pretty tame throughout the rolling hills leading up to Squamish, as everyone seemed to be conserving their energy for the long stair-step climbs and false flats that lay ahead. Sure enough, the attacks came one after another on the climb leading up to the feed zone, until finally one stuck and an SVC rider was able to establish a 20-second lead. With a lack of commitment from the bigger teams to chase cohesively, we began attacking one another, driving up the pace of the chase group. The gap eventually grew to 40 seconds, but when a few individual riders and I began working together at the front, we brought the escaped rider back.

Once the bunch was together again, we hit a headwind and the pace slowed significantly. At the 30km to go mark, four of us who had worked well together in chasing down the previous break, started taking turns launching attacks with hopes that we could get away. Unfortunately, we unable to gain more than a 10-second gap and the headwind was increasing.

Finally, as we entered 10km to go, I attacked hard and looked back to see that no one had followed. I was reluctant to throw down a 100% effort right away, as I tend to be stronger in a sprint finish than a solo time trial. I looked back and saw that the pack was chasing, but I punched it hard up the climbs and rode tempo on the flats until my 20-second gap grew to 36 seconds and I gained some confidence in my move.

Women’s Giro Gran Fondo podium (l-r): Leah Guloien (Specialized), Jenny Lehman (Local Ride/Dr. Vie Superfoods+), Claire Cameron (Mighty Riders).

With only 6km to go, I knew I had to commit, so I drove the pace as hard as I possibly could all the way to the line taking a well-earned win for the Local Ride/Dr. Vie Superfoods+ Team. The crowd was amazing throughout the entire race, but especially during that final stretch from Creekside to Whistler, which definitely gave me that extra gear to push beyond my limits. I’m extremely happy to finish off a great season with a win! Thanks to everyone that has supported us throughout our first season as a team!

By Jasmin

Local Ride/ Dr Vie Superfoods started a new chapter in what has been a successful inaugural season for the team by tackling the opening race of BC Superweek at the lower mainland’s Tour de Delta this weekend. Despite being short one teammate and having another just overcoming illness, we were not to be fazed and were determined to start matters on a good note at Friday’s MK Delta Criterium. A tough course made for a hard night’s racing and despite valiant efforts on everyone’s part, we were edged out at the line in
the bunch sprint to have to content ourselves with a third place finish.

The next evening at Ladner’s Brenco Criterium, we stepped up our game and were able to launch two riders up the road as part of a four women break early on. While these ladies were keeping busy, eventually lapping the field, the main pack did not let up as Local Ride put on a dominating performance to win more than half the field primes, and there were many, before winning the bunch sprint for fifth. This left the four escapees to contest the last three laps by themselves, with the overall winner narrowly taking another win, and us raking up second and fourth.

Sunday morning was do or die at the White Spot Road Race as we were determined to finally claim that elusive overall win. We worked well as a team, getting one rider in an early break that would set the tone for what was to be a tactically demanding race. It was frustrating to be a marked team and have all attacks immediately flagged down and brought back, but that’s part of the game and with two laps to go we decided that it was time to pull out the big guns and make a final play to upset the standings. Through a tremendous team effort we launched one final attack up the course’s only climb, and with no one able to match this initial acceleration, it allowed one of us to ride off and stay away to take the stage win. In the end, with the overall being decided with an omnium format, it wasn’t enough to overtake the leader, but in light of the herculean effort that every one us put forth, there was nevertheless a positive spirit to finish off the racing. With Superweek recommencing on Tuesday, we get a short break to unwind and rest up before continuing on what is sure to be an epic week of riding ahead! Thank you to all the team’s sponsors and to the excellent support staff who helped us all stay on track this weekend!

By Jenny

The Giro di Burnaby, Superweek BC’s third event, was a 1.85km course with 8 corners corners, however, no major obstacles besides the wind. The raceheated up during the second and third lap with Laura, Jess and Steph attacking one after the other. During the fourth lap, just as Steph was brought back to the group I counter attacked down the straight away and managed to get a gap, with Trek’s Julia Garnet on my wheel. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it would stick, however, we worked hard as a unit until we eventually had a significant gap of about 40 seconds on the peleton. By now we realized that both of our teams were supporting the break and evidently none of the other teams were willing to chase either, letting the gap grow to a minute and 40 seconds. It was reassuring to know that my teammates had faith in me to win the race, so now all I had to do was figure out how.

I knew that if it came down to a sprint, the odds were in my favor, though it was more likely to come down to a game of cat and mouse, first. Knowing that Julia is a strong time trialist I knew she would want to attack me early and try to get away, as did she with 4 laps remaining. Unfortunately I wasn’t as sharp as I should have been as she caught me off guard and launched a strong attack, which I wasn’t able to follow. I dug deep and tried to bridge up to her, but unfortunately I had nothing left in the tank, and finished second.

Though it wasn’t the finish we hoped for, we are riding as a strong cohesive unit and confident in our ability to ride strong on the hills at White Rock this weekend.