There are two races in the Youth Cup Championships, with the champion determined from the results of both races in what is known as the general classification (GC). The first race is a 3.5 km time-trail, a race against the clock and cyclists start one after another, in 30-second intervals. The second race is a road race of varying length depending on age groups, in which riders travel in a ‘peloton’ drafting one another while trying to beat each other. The time-trial is an all-out effort while the road race has more strategy and even some team strategy.
Katrina was of two racers from the Windsor-Essex area. Saeed Mazloum (Kallisto-Forest City Velodrome) was the other racer from the Windsor-Essex area, also posting impressive results in one of the toughest races of the day. Saeed raced very strong, with his group reaching speeds of over 60 kph and with a finish field of approximately 25 youth sprinting in a mass effort. In what can only be described as a nail-biting finish, Saeed managed to move up in the sprint, capturing 11th place in the Cadet Men category.
Katrina had an impressive start to her time trial race, moving out hard from the elevated starting ramp. Starting at the top of a smaller rolling hill, the racers all pushed hard to get up to some very fast speeds early in the race. Katrina worked hard to get up to speed and attacked each of the hills throughout the race. Katrina averaged a speed of 30.6 kph for the 3.5 km but finished in second place by only 4 seconds behind the time-trial winner, Natasha Badertscher (Newmarket Eagles) of Toronto. As a result, the provincial championship title would be determined in the road race component.
All the girls lined up for the road race and the early morning rain had finally let up. It was still cool and cloudy, and the roads were wet from the rains. Katrina had warmed up and moved to start at the scheduled time but there was a 10 minute delay and all the girls just waited for the race start, all cooling down as they waited. The PeeWee girls (u13) race
started 2 minutes after the PeeWee boys.
When the race started, it was clear it was going to be a competitive 12 km race: one girl immediately attacked the field and tried to sprint away from the other girls. Katrina gave chase with the other girls quickly forming up behind Katrina and they quickly caught up with the initial attack.
At the first turn-around, approximately 1/4 into the race, there seemed to be a slow-down in the speed of the racers. Katrina looked behind her and made the decision to attack the field at the bottom of the first hill. Katrina sprinted up the hill and the other girls were not quick enough to react to her attack. Katrina knew that she was taking a big chance by moving away so early in the race and knew that she would have to push herself as hard as possible to stay away from the other racers.
The other girls gave chase but Katrina continued to move away from the peloton. As she reached the finishing area, she had already gained about 10 seconds on the group. The race was on a L-shaped loop and Katrina would have to go to the end to do the second turn-around, the toe of the L. The return is back up one of the steepest hills and this was where her race would be decided--if the peloton could catch Katrina. Katrina sprinted hard up the hill and, by the time she returned to the top of the hill, had now increased her lead to just over 20 seconds. The crowd was cheering hard for Katrina and her coach was yelling out instructions for her to complete the second half of the race just like she had trained.
Katrina continued to move away from the girls’ peloton and opened up the gap considerably by the 3/4 mark of the race. Katrina said she was suffering and it was really hard but she also said she knew that she had to give everything she had if she wanted to win. Katrina cycled superbly and just kept giving all she could. As she came up the second last hill, in view of the large crowd of spectators, she passed the official’s car of the boys’ race! Katrina kept moving fast and the crowd went crazy as she passed the car. Katrina kept passing boys and got into her position for her final sprint. She came up the hill in beautiful form, sprinting hard the whole length giving the crowd a thrill as she passed a couple more boys.
Katrina won the 12 km road race with an average speed of 30.7 kph. Katrina pushed so hard that her lead was over a minute by the end of the race. As a result of her winning the road race and finishing second in the time trial, Katrina won the GC and was crowned the Provincial Champion for 2014. As well, because Katrina was leading and then won the final Ontario Cycling Association youth race in the Ontario Cup series.
Race information at: National Cycling Centre Hamilton
Official results at: Ontario Cycling Association