Wow – what a blast I had yesterday at the Ottawa Bicycle Club madison race. It had been two years since I’d raced the madison. So much fun. Lots of people – 76 teams! Lots of people out cheering us on. Solid course. Amazing volunteers – thanks Bob, Cheryl, Ian, Bryan, Connie, and all the other people I don’t know. Your hard work on Sunday morning was much appreciated.

The day started off a bit brisk but it quickly warmed up and racer were peeling off layers. Some even agreeing to remove the second neck tube!!!

The madison is always a bit of a question mark – will there be some “stacked” teams?, who is partnering with who?, etc? Initially Marc and I wanted to partner together but we kind of knew this wouldn’t be permitted. So when Natasha suggested she and I ride together – this worked out really well. Though there was some grumbling that we were a stacked team as well. Ah well, can’t keep everyone happy.

Honestly, I had no idea who was winning or losing. There were so many people racing, so much cheering and a lot of smiles that I really didn’t care about the score sheet. Since this was my last race before ‘cross nationals, my goal was to get in some very hard and intense laps. This I accomplished. I focused on riding hard to get that “leg ache” and to always work on getting back up to speed as quickly as possible after an obstacle or corner. Worked. I was pretty tired after each lap. Got four laps in.

The most fun was chilling out/recovering on the “off” lap. People were cheering, chatting, and re-hashing their previous lap. Good times.

At the end of the race, Bob and I awarded two Ottawa Cross jerseys to a spunky and determined team of two little girls riding their mountain bikes. So awesome to see them out there racing their hearts out and really giving it their best shot. That’s the future of bike racing – all these little kids out there just riding around having fun. Great racing girls – definitely an inspiration to me.

The results from the race are posted. Click on 2008 results and download the PDF.

Congrats to everyone who came out to enjoy a beautiful fall day and to get some racing and cheering in. Thanks again to the organizers – the Ottawa Bicycle Club series is all volunteer run – so remember to say thank-you.

Have a good one. I’ll post a link to the photos on the Photos page as soon as they are up. If you have a race report or some photos from the racing action – send them to me and I’ll get them up on the site.

Big shout out of congrats to the Ottawa crew who raced in Quebec yesterday. Robbie O – 2nd, Keirnan O – 2nd, Thomas – 3rd, Aarron – 4th, and Glen – 5th. Nice riding guys!