BSC racers Brian Hendry and Fabian Merino recently traveled down to Enumclaw, Washington with Victoria Wheelers’s Andrew Russell for the the Mutual of Enumclaw stage race. Held over two days, MOE is comprised of a time trial Saturday morning followed that afternoon by a crit, and concludes with a road race on Sunday.
Race Report: 2015 Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race
After taking a brief hiatus from road racing in 2014 following a disappointing season in 2013, the desire to comeback to racing more determined and more fit developed throughout this past school year. I pegged Enumclaw as my first stage race because a post-secondary exam schedule running into April ruled out contesting Wild West’s Tour de Bloom in Wenatchee Washington. Fellow Broad Street Cycles racer Fabian Merino decided to join in on the fun in Enumclaw and kicked some serious ass in his first and I am sure it won’t be his last appearance in off-island racing.
Tinkering of bikes started on the Thursday prior to race weekend with BSC’s head mechanic Andy making sure our bikes were in fine racing order for the weekend. Fabian and I were pleasantly surprised to find the historic celeste green colour wrapped around the handlebars of each of our bikes. In case you didn’t know, BSC is the only shop on the island carrying Bianchi bikes, so we will be flying the colours indefinitely. If you didn’t know of that already, have you been living under a rock? It’s the talk of the town!
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After packing up the car and leaving the shop we took the afternoon Coho over to Port Angeles to start the short trek over to Enumclaw. We got into the small welcoming town just after 8 and had to settle in shortly thereafter due to the early morning time trial. My departure time Saturday morning was 7:40 am and the first departure for the cat 4/5 field. After traveling for most of a day you can never be too certain of how your legs will feel the following day. Now I am, in a weird twisted way, a fan of time trials; however, a 10 km TT does not give you the opportunity to settle in to the pain zone. I was pleasantly surprised at how my legs felt hitting my target power over the fast and rolling TT course. After hearing the center rule was strongly enforced I took zero chances in the corners. This placed me in a comfortable 10th place out of 65.
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Nearly two hours later Fabian was in the TT starting gate. While exiting the TT gate he unclipped from his pedal while putting down power but quickly recovered and settled comfortably into his time trial finishing 16th out of 52 in the cat 3 field.
Following Fabian’s TT I still had a few more hours to kill prior to the afternoon criterium. We learned quickly that wifi was a short lived commodity at our motel. My goals for the crit were to finish in the lead group as well as to try to make some digs at the main group. After staging myself at the back of the group I knew it was going to take some time to get myself to the head of the pack. Four laps after the start of the 8 cornered crit course I found myself at the front of the pack. After going off the front three times it became apparent that the pack didn’t want anyone off the front nor did anyone want to join in on the fun. I finished safely 12th in the pack with the same time as the leader.
The cat 3 crit was the final criterium of the day and there was a lot of activity going on. Special mention to Andrew Russell of the Victoria Wheelers who kept the race very entertaining going off the front several times and really making the group work hard to catch him. Fabian played the crit well, remaining calm and collected entering the bell lap in the top ten of the pack. Coming across the finish line and participating in the sprint he finished in fourth place with a strong kick out of the final corner.
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The weather in Enumclaw is always unpredictable. It always seems that a rain cloud is lurking within sight of the town. So when I awoke to fairly clear skies on the morning of the road race I was pleasantly surprised. Each lap of the road race circuit involves a 3 km climb with a similar profile to the observatory climb which proved to be the deciding factor in breaking apart the peloton. The race began neutralized, leaving the same start/finish line as the criterium from the day before and traveled backwards along the TT course before entering the climb. On lap one I found myself on the front of the group halfway up the climb stringing the group out for the remainder of the climb as well as the following plateau; which was a needed confidence booster entering the second lap. The second time up the climb three riders went off the front and I decided to commit to the small break and bridged up to drive the pace away from the peloton. We had five riders working well across the plateau and down the hill and to my surprise pulled away from the peloton on the descent.
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We worked well together and were out of sight from the peloton upon starting the third and final time up the climb. We rode consistently up the climb and ended up losing one rider on the climb. To my surprise, the rider made it to the finish ahead of the peloton. Continuing on I kept the pace high in the group to ensure a high GC placing. I wasn’t entirely sure whether or not one of my fellow breakaway compatriots had a better TT time than myself but I couldn’t become too concerned about his placing. Coming off of the circuit and entering the final leg of the race the group stopped working together and started thinking of their own placings. Some cat and mouse tactics occurred but no one got away. Entering the final chicane I was on the front and knew that this position was the least desirable coming into the sprint and ended up finishing fourth out of the four of us. Although the finish sprint was disappointing, when I learned that we put three minutes on the peloton and I finished second on GC it made it all worth it. Smiles for days.
Rather than participate in the podium ceremonies, myself and Victoria cycling legend/good friend Henri De Boever made our way up to the feed zone where the men and women’s cat 1/2, 3’s, and masters men were on course. Each time the cat 3s came through the feed zone Fabian looked quite comfortable and after each appearance he was getting closer to the front positioning himself well for the final lap. After the final lap of feeding Henri and I booked it down to the finish to watch the respective fields come through. Fabian came across the line in fourth place after a well contested sprint. I was convinced that he came 3rd from my vantage point of the finish line and am still convinced of it.
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We quickly packed up the car with Henri and left the small town of Enumclaw hoping that we would make the last sailing to Victoria. Unfortunately, due to the border taking longer than expected, we ended up missing the last sailing to Victoria and instead hopped on the last sailing to Nanaimo. It was a late night.
TL;DR: Went bike racing in the states, had fun, ate a lot of cheddar cheese bagels, missed ketchup chips, couldn’t place better than 4th between the two of us, and BC ferries needs to charge less.
Thanks to our friends down at Broad Street Cycles for helping us out, and our next off-island race will be provincials weekend (may 30-31).
Bri
- Ig: @brihendry