Rundle Mountain Cycling Club coach Kate Curtis is a coach who practices what she preaches.
In her second year with the local Rampage group, she’s taught the young group the ins and outs of road racing and backed up her advice
on Saturday (July 11) with a win in the women’s Cat 3/4/5 crit.
“Coaching the kids got me into racing again. They are good fans and the best supporters out there. I could hear them cheering the entire way,” Curtis said.
Curtis and fellow teammates Rayna Tupper and Anne-Julie Dudemaine cracked the field early, cranking up the speed and wearing down their opponents.
“I tried to go hard and split the group. That worked. Then Rayna and Anne-Julie pushed the pace for the whole race,” Curtis said.
With one lap to go, Curtis pulled off a brilliant move she first patented in 2012. Coming from the second last wheel, she took the corners aggressively and emerged at the front of the pack.
“On the last lap down Seventh Avenue, I was second last wheel coming into the corner. Then I just attacked. The chicane corners, I knew I could pick up a bit of time. Then I held on for dear life at the end,” Curtis said.
Curtis has a great deal of crit racing experience, but this was her first foray into the breakneck race in years. She praised Tupper and Dudemaine, who launched aggressive attacks throughout the race. Nadia Bunko finished second and Tupper was third.
RMCC also had a successful result in the men’s Cat 3 race, where Marc Dupuis grabbed second spot. Teammates James Kendal and Mitch Fennell set up Dupuis for the final sprint, but Dupuis was cut off on the penultimate turn and found himself farther back of the pack than expected. He pressed to the line, but was edged by Mark Macdonald by two-tenths of a second.
Dupuis won the Cat 4 crit last year, and was still satisfied with his near miss in Cat 3.
“I’m pretty happy with it. It would have been nice to get first, but it’s second this year,” Dupuis said. “I got cut off on the second-last turn, but still got around a bunch of people … James was on his game today, and the guys did a good job keeping me out of the wind.”
The 19 year old recently returned from Canadian Road Nationals, where he got a glimpse of where he needs to be to reach the next level.
“I learned a lot. There are some strong guys and I know what I have to work on,” Dupuis said.
He wasn’t as strong as he had hoped in the morning’s hill climb, and came into the crit with something to prove.
“I wanted to redeem myself from this morning. (The crits) are my specialty,” Dupuis said.
Erik Loewen was third in the race.
RMCC’s Eva Poidevin was also on the podium for the home club, finishing second in the U17 women’s crit, in addition to winning a gold medal in the hill climb. After watching her older sister Sara medal at the U23 Canadian Road Nationals two weeks ago, Eva managed to best Sara’s hardware total.
“It’s definitely not something I’m trying to do, I definitely have a lot more to do,” Eva Poidevin said. “I thought maybe I could take it on the crit, but (Samantha Hargreaves) was super strong. This was my third crit, but the first one I felt happy about at the finish.”
Racing with the U17 boys, the pace was high and Poidevin tried to stay on the back as long as possible. Hargreaves was able to edge her at the finish line. Charlize Street was third.
In the U17 men’s group, speed skater turned road racer Connor Howe was the fastest local rider, finishing fourth just ahead of Sean Parker. Ethan Palamarek won gold.
In Cat 1/2, Dougal Owen had an impressive race to win, beating Fraser Mills-Connery and Dan Wood in the final sprint. Colin Croston was the top local rider, finishing fifth. Last year, Croston broke his collarbone on a crash on this very course. For weeks, he debated whether he should even enter the crit, and, once on course, didn’t feel comfortable for a good 20 laps.
Terra Manca was the fastest Women’s Cat 1/2 rider, finishing ahead of Megahn Lemiski.
