2022 P2A Race Report

The cork is out of the bottle and the season has begun!

It was the warmest, bluest-sky event we can remember. We came, we saw, we had a nice time (mostly). Despite crashes, rashes, sun burns, cracked helmets, flats, double flats, transport craziness, road crossing delays, shortened courses and DNFs, it was a rather pleasant day to be out on a bike.

There were several first-timer GCC members attending Canada’s Spring Classic this year – welcome to the club! It was so great to see everyone.

Alex Lefebvre (a dual club member of GCC & PCC) was our highest finisher and had a stellar result with 14th overall in the historical 70K event averaging 31.1kph! A huge accomplishment for Alex! Well done sir, well done!

A few GCCers also stepped up their games and on to podiums. Sarah Baert won the Women 20-29 (Women’s 4th s overall!) and Maxine Oleka was “on fire” and book-ended that podium on the third step. Deanna Solomon also took third in Women 50-59. Heather Lylyk just missed the podium taking 4th in her category.

Also of note, a covert operation unfolded utilizing a GCC agent of great repute. Drawing no attention, our mystery man slipped into the second wave under an assumed identity. He used his bicycle to stealthily arrive from Guelph avoiding detection, yet adding another 40kms to his mission. The tall Russian covertly ‘attacked’ every wave in his way, taking out the VIPs and many of the elites. Like every good spy story, this one finished in the mid 60s as well. Yeah baby!

To check out how all your favourite GCC riders performed, see below or have a look here. Congrats to all our competitors, you rock… and roll so very well!

There was some hard luck out on the course as well. So we’ll take the season in front of us to pull the gravel out, lick our wounds, raise our spirits, buy some tubeless tires and possibly forget that we ever vowed to never lay money down for this ridiculous race again. On the coming season of club rides, we’ll have a great time, in good company and in familiar surroundings. So much that come Christmas, when those P2A early-bird emails starting rolling in, and we’re already sick of the trainer in the basement, with our April memories suppressed, we might optimistically start considering the unthinkable.

This has been the earliest start to our season since 2019. Keep pedalling, otherwise… you fall over.

Enjoy the ride (metaphor intended).

Rusty