July 6, 2006 - A Win for the Bucker

Buck Miller writes in with reports from Canadian nationals and a criterium near his home, and he is excited to have an opportunity to travel to China with the Canadian national team to race the UCI HC category Tour of Qinghai Lake.

Miller Wins Buffalo Cobblestone Criterium, July 4th

A 3 man break went up the road on the 2nd lap, one Symmetrics and Ryan Roth, of team R.A.C.E. I knew there were a few good primes up for grabs, like a carbon crank from Bontrager, and lots of Rudy Project stuff. I did one lap in the pack, and through the start finish I attacked and closed the 25 second gap in half a lap. 3 were now 4.

We worked well together, and the first set of cobbles were horribly rough, with a crosswind. There was no place to hide. I was pretty shatterd from my Nationals weekend and driving home from Quebec on Monday, so I sat on over the cobbles and took my pulls elsewhere. The bell started ringing, and first up was some Rudy Glasses, that I snagged, then there was a Rudy bag, but I gave that to another rider in the break so he wouldn’t stop working the lap before we sprinted.

Then came the carbon cranks with 2 laps to go. Ryan Roth flatted, and the Symmetrics rider jumped me early. The 3rd rider n the break was sitting on me, not willing to pull, so I just killed it and caught the rider only 200m from the finish, after the 1st set of cobbles and before the 2nd.

The 3 of us started the cat and mouse game, but we had a minute or so. The sprint started, and I got it. It was a fun day, but very very hard. My legs were killing me all day, but I managed to pull it together o.k.

Next up for me is Tour of Qinghai Lake in China with the Canadaian National team. A 9 day 2.HC race at an average altitude of 3000m <--- yes, that's meters!

Buck Miller Races Canadian National Road Race Championships, July 1

Dear friends and sponsors - Sorry to disappoint at the Nationals. To make a long story short, I made the winning break, by bridging with Perras and Pariesen, we got on in 6k. Then I took a flyer attacking the break on the descent, because I knew it was going to re shuffle and I didn't want to be left behind with attacks. I was joined by Wholberg, the last guy I wanted to see coming up behind me from the break. He and I worked together for about half a lap, then the break caught us again, and sure enough, there were 5 riders that didn't make the cut.

Anyway, we were rolling through fine, nice and smooth, and with 3 laps to go, the gap was coming down to 30 seconds and going back up to 1 minute, on and off as Ryder Hesdjal would pull the pack. Perras wasn't digging it and he attacked on the climb which left myself, Rollin and Cam Evans behind. We were bridging slowly, and through the uphill feed zone I was looking around for my feeder, and let a small gap open, got my feed, and by the time I was ready to get back on, Rollin drilled it over the top of the short hill and I was cracked.

I went back to the pack, through the pack, and just rolled it in to the finish in the 40's.

Buck Miller Races Canadian National Criterium Championships, July 2

The crit was ok. Off the line I was in a break with 3 guys, 2 being Symmetrics, but they didn't like that combination, and left us out there for almost 25 laps. They brought us back ,and sent Tuft and Evans up the road to lap the field together, and that was it. I missed a small chase group for 3rd. I ended up winning the field sprint, until we got to the finish, and they messed up the lap counters and sent us through for one more lap. Oh well.

I rode hard all weekend, and made the National team because of it. I'm getting pretty fit, so China should still be crazy hard, but a little more fun.

Bucker