Home for a rest

Well, not actually rest just yet. First we have that little suffer fest called Nationals to go. Nothing but a little 180km of hills. At least the crits are done. Bit of an odd Lachine last night. I've always heard stories of how tough these things are and how sketch... they are really not that bad (well the frist was pretty bloody fast at the end thank to the S-train). So far I've learned that they are like any other crit, maybe slightly faster at point: the middle of the pack is the worst place to be. So with this theory, I spent the first half of the race riding the front guarding against counter attacks (Guillaume had got himself into the break of the day with Rollin, Parisien and Lacombe) and generally following wheels and attacks. There was a big crash at one point which lead to 80% of the field being held up and rolling in for a free lap, much to the dismay of the commies. So they re-started the race, with a 5 second gap for the break. I sat myself down in the front again with my gears now jumping all over the place. I guess the douche who hit me from behind (no, I didn't go down) also managed to bump my derailleur. I pulled in for a quick Formula 1 wheel change hoping for the best, but just ended up with more of the same. Luckily managed to jump back in the back 3rd wheel anyways. With 10 to go I felt my efforts and drifted back a bit. As soon as you leave the control and speed of the top 20 you are now into the jungle of sketchiness and battle for random top 16 wheels with a million wankers who are wayyyy to into the red. With jumping gears, and a little tired from my efforts I settled into the caboose poistion with a large amount of good riders who had missed the break. The back is nice if you have the power, things are much less sketchy and you can go through the corners much faster by leaving a gap in the corners and then not having to sprint out like a banshee. In the end, a good race. But I am sick of crits. Sipping a coffee back in Ottawa now before my ride. Should be a nice day....

1 to go

Bit of a mixed up day today. Didn't sleep well at all last night, woke up to more rain, and packed our gear for another crit. Pretty cool and tough course, so I was kind of pumped. Got to the race and discovered that I still had no front derailleur. The team didn't have one kicking around, so I scrambled a bit but came up empty. Decided against wasting energy being angry so grabbed a chair and settled myself into a prime spot on the climb to cheer on the boys. A rest day should do me good. Still one more to go after all. Got home, made up some nice curry chicken and am now chilling out a bit. We are looking to maybe pass on the St-Jean Baptiste day festivities with a race tomorrow and most of us a little tired. Consensus seems to be a few beers (I think its law in Quebec that you must at least drink on this day) and play poker. At least the rain has cleared into a nice evening. Life is so exciting. Now a week to train my butt off slash maybe taper a bit then Nationals. Summer is just flying by...

Some times...

Seriously, it really should not be so hard to hold 2 wheels in a straight line. How about not freaking out at the slightest possibility of a touch of bodies? That would be nice, but probably will never happen for many. And most of those riders seemed to be out at today's crit. A short 4 corner course with plenty of holes and bumps, but mostly should have been quite easy. Turn right or go straight. My legs had no jump in them whatso ever. On the plus side my form appears to be good enough to just sit in and roll when I feel like crap. Settled myself in avoiding crashes and trying to move up until I touched elbows with a fellow in corner 1. Litterally the slightest brush, and next thing I knew he was going down and his bike was hitting me. A lot of bad noises behind me so I hopped the curb and a large piece of yellow concrete, cyclo-crossed my way through a front yard and some fans before beginning my chase. After about a minute of adrenaline filled chase, I realized that I was probably due a free lap. Pulled in, got the ok and set myself up to jump back in. I jumped, but my bike did not. The front derailleur gave way into about a billion pieces and the chain imploded as well. Sweet. At least I was still in one piece. Mavic set me up with the Opus spare bike (size S) and I hopped back in. Unfortunately, this also seemed to be the precise moment when Rollin decided to give it a go so I needed up sprinting onto his wheel and into a break. Small bikes are sketchy in corners, but luckily we got caught before I fell down. Rode for a bit but my back was dieing on this midget bike so I pulled the plug. Probably a good thing as the crashes came fast and furious just after that. Tomorrow will be a better day. I can feel it. Now I'm hungry.

Crit update

The rain will not stop. Even when it is sunny in the morning, the rain seems to roll in just in time for the race. No matter, life continues. Three down, 3 to go. Finished the first Coupe de la Paix just off the back. Rode a descent race following a few attacks and getting some work in before I had some body issues (should have eaten something perhaps) with about 7 or 8 to go. I started getting kind of dizzy and twitchy and lacked any real power. Not sure quite why I kept going but slowly drifted back to tail-gunner position and stayed there (closing any gaps as needed) until I heard the bell announcing last lap and then sat up. Not a huge pack left but I was in no position to sprint mentally or physically at this point. Stronger than the day before at least. Spent the night at Guillaume's house before heading out nice and early this morning to the 2nd stage at 10:30am. Rain fell in buckets as we arrived and did not let up until a decent way into the race. Needless to say there were a number of crashes. I pretty much spent the first 5-6 laps chasing due to my "awesome" call up to the back row. No matter, I had again a little more in the legs. As soon as it let up a bit I got to the front to do my job to help out Guillaume and Perras. Got in a few breaks (nothing which really stuck for long) and then made a big effort to bring back a 15 or 20 second gap to a very dangerous break we had missed. Effort definitely cost me but helped launch Perras into the winning break. Plus it was good for the head to look back and see the pack strung out single file behind me. Decided to try my hand a bit in the sprint and work on my nerves in a sketchy pack sprint. Fought hard only to finally get elbowed out a bit into the curb in the last corner. Touched the brakes a tad to avoid said curb and that was it. I rolled in with the pack. Still, a good race anyways and my legs are coming along. Not to mention I'm feeling better at the speed and pretty much just riding crits. Tomorrow is most likely a long easy day, then rest Saturday and race again Sun-Tues. Very nice.

Quick

No more internet at the house. We must get more interesting in our attempts to be not totally uninvolved with society. First Lachine is in the books. A good hard ride, think my legs are starting to come around. We averaged 49.8km for the 50km race. Not too shabby for sure. Not nearly as sketchy as I had been warned, even in my poor position of near tail gunner. I put no presssure on myself just wanting to ride safe, survive and get a bit of speed in my legs to be good to go for the Coupe de la Paix starting today. Symmetrics did a wicked leadout for their made Zach Bell starting with about 10 to go and needless to say blew the race apart. In the end about 15 guys seemed to be in the final group sprinting. Our man Guillaume came 4th. I pulled the plug with about 4-5 laps to go after gaps began to open to quickly for me to close them. Never really dug super deep but I am now ready and confident for today. It's time to burn some matches. Went out for a quick spin this morning as the race today is not until 7pm again. Tomorrow's is at 10am however so I'll be staying with Guillaume at his place in Montreal. Let's hope the sun I see now will hold out through the evening.

Crits

That will be my business for the next week or so. Hopefully pull a few good races out. On the other hand, I'm pretty rested right now. I think a couple days off the bike were just what I needed. Couple days hanging out in and around cottages with some good friends have left me much more refreshed and helped out in the motivation. Managed to sneak out to the Preston St. Italian Festival crit on Sunday. Didn't go quite as well as hoped with torrential rain and some seriosuly slippery and slidy surfaces. After a few delays we got underway, I missed my pedal on the line and quickly fell back in the pack with a fast start. Lost my nerve in the corners on the first 2 corners after sliding through and then spent the rest of the day riding hard through the straight aways and then riding like a corner phobic school child through the bends. Oh well, good to get a little intensity in before this week. Time to hop back in the car for the week to see the boys and hopefully win some cash. Probably some more regular blog posting again.

Sabbatical

Home. Not quite yet, but tomorrow. I'll be taking a few personal days away from the bike (and most likely the blog) to recharge and generally do non bike related activities. Still got a while to go in the season and more races to go. On the plus side, we have Euro 2008 here at the hotel, so I've been catching a few matches. Even headed out last night for a few beers with many of the other "hors delai" riders, mechanos, and even a former Giro d'Italia rider. Needless to say I slept in this morning before wandering around the town a bit.

Done

One of the perhaps worst days on a bike ever is now done, and so is my Tour. That is the short of it. Started off all right (yet very hot) sitting at the front as the pack slowly meandered along. The first GPM came and then the pack went. I knew better than to try and climb with the little Mexicans around me at the front so rode my own pace up the climb slowly losing ground. Apparently a lot of people lost a lot of ground. Things went a little worse as after the GPM sprint as the climbing kept going in the gutter on this wicked false false riser. Now of the back, took a deep breathe and got myself behind a car in the caravan. Of course things slowed up a bit and I worked my way back through a couple of cars with some hand slings back into the pack, where I promptly threw up. Not that the effort to get back was that much, but the heat was crushing me. Tried to drink and eat (which also caused me to throw up) and tried to get closer to the front to make it easier on myself, the second GPM promised to be much harder and longer. Made a quick trip back to the car to get some more water, and got back just in time for another gutter climb. Too much. Settled into my own pace again, into the caravan, but it wasn't too be. Tried another bar, threw up again. Settled into a rythym with a "special needs" gruppetto. By special needs I mean I pulled with one other rider until one of the other 3 riders behind us felt the need to accelerate ahead on a climb. I don't think he spoke english, french or dutch but I'm also pretty sure I got my point across a few times. Another member of team special needs then decided after picking up a musette full of bottles from his soigneur, that he needed one more to give him a round 4 bidons. So he swooped in front of me and grabbed mine. He didn't keep that one long. I opened up a gap on them on the next GPM and basically rode home solo. No food, 38 degrees and 165km. Though the broom wagon did finally catch me with a few kms to go and informed me that the race was over and I was to be hors delai. Thats the long. Motivation is low right now, and I think I need a brief respite. We'll see now what to do in terms of hanging around doing nothing, or making it home.

Beauce

We're here. Waiting for the buffet to fight, and I'm ready to fire off some bullets. Hell hath no fury like a hungry skinny kid. And yes I realize there are excessive amounts of these folks around, but I'm a confident individual. Excitement is in the air here at the Georgetown, quite nice and posh for a bunch of dirty bicycle racers. I've been saying my hellos and shaking some hands, but am sitting down now. I'll be spending plenty of energy later - gotta conserve for now. Wicked.

Time

Been working on getting back in the early morning grove this week, as many of our stages seem to start at 9:30. On the plus side, this is also the most quiet time in the house (aka no one else is awake) and it is also much cooler (aka less oppressively humid). The morning will be spent organizing my crap, then packing it (I obviously have not started this, and still need to do laundry) and then burning some cds of cruising tunes for the drive. Perhaps a quick ride to open the legs before the drive, but I have other slightly more pressing things to do first. I'm definitely pretty excited to start racing. Apparently (according to 2 eye witness accounts) I was so excited last night while sleeping that I spent a good portion of the night either talking to myself (mostly incomprehensible gibberish) or falling out of bed and then flailing around. I have no recollection of the events in question, but can say that I indeed did wake up still in my bed and very rested. Oh, and I couldn't find any bruising. Don't judge.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2008/jun08/beauce08/

I know I complain a little...

My morning. Cappuccino, water, tools & shade.

Especially about the weather, but damn. One day its 10 degrees and pissing rain, suddenly now apparently the sun just burned a hole in the atmosphere directly above Canada. It was therefor 39 degrees for my ride today. On the plus side, my tan has come back quickly. Though even though I drank 5 bidons in 3.5 hours I am pretty sure I lost several pounds of water weight. On the other hand, the cold beer after was possibly the best beer I have ever had. But, I was also pretty sure that the shower I had after was the greatest experience of my life. So my judgment may have been slightly hazed by the heat.
The house is currently full of excitement after dinner with the discovery of some kind of gigantic mutant wasp. JS currently has it trapped in a bowl and there is quite a ruckus going on as to finding a sufficient piece of paper/cardboard to slide under the bowl. The current thought is that the bugger will kill us all, especially JS who is allergic. I, for one, am confident that as a quick runner and individual the furthest from the king kong wasp, that I will not be stung.
In other news, I have overhauled my bike. There were some dirty noises coming from the bb area and I was in need of a new chain and cables after the last round of wet and wild training/racing. Plus I figure pre-Beauce is a good time to make things work top notch. Tomorrow will be a super relaxing out, maxing out kinda day. Quick spin on the tt bike in the morning pre-death heat, perhaps with a stop at Momo for some race sandals. You cyclists know what I'm talking about. then Some tubular gluing and general not moving of the legs.

General ramblings of a cyclist

Breakfast of champions right here.

On the other hand, its raining again. We had one day of cloud and no rain to mock me, now its back. Not to mention that apparently its gonna be ridiculously humid and ridiculous to go with it. On the plus side, the long term weather apparently looks decent for Beauce (knock on wood)... Wednesday turned out to be a good training day, I got wet and muddy by really don't care anymore. Did a nice ride to Sutton with some tempo climbing in the middle up and down Sutton through some thick fog and muddy construction. Yesterday was a chilled out tt ride on the bike paths out to Granby. Had to stop by the bike shop anyways for some chamois cream in advance of next week. Feeling pretty ridiculously good on my tt bike at the moment. Given, didn't really push all that hard.. but damn that bike feels good. Today will provide me with one more day of intensity before resting up completely for Beauce. I'm getting excited to get going already. In the mean time, plenty of time spent with the legs in the air either watching movies or playing x-box. More time with movies for this author as my video game skills are slightly lacking. Plus team sickness plays a lot of xbox. Soon to come, haircut pictures (Charly bought some clippers), and photos of the new kits..... ooooooohhhhhh

Here at EVA, we piss excellence.

The weather gods hate me

Seriously, it has been raining everywhere I go for the last 3 weeks. Nay, pouring. And on the 2 days it didn't rain we had bloody hurricane winds. My tan is disappearing faster than a cold beer at a AA meeting. We waited all day yesterday to ride (one of the benefits of being a full time cyclist and only having a recovery spin on the ride sched) with promises from that coked up moron at the weather network of a clear afternoon. If I ever meet a real weather forecaster, it will be hard to not simply clock him. I know he just reads the tele-prompter, but still. In the end the rain managed to lightly subside (never quite fully) for approximately 1.5 hours. We rode for about 2. Spun down the paths to Granby to check out the woman's Tour de Grand Montreal. Cool beans. Opted out of the evening race as I was really not feeling all that much bounce in my step nor excitement at a "open" crit in the rain. On the plus side, with all this sit around waiting rain to stop time on my hands, I have become very adept at the espresso machine, cranking out cappuccinos and machiattos by the dozen. Today will be a slightly longer ride with some hills, and I have simply given up on staying dry. The hard rain seems to have subsided so it is probably a good time. I figure a back road spin down towards Sutton is in order, then some climb exploration. The time to be careful is here too, sickness is in the air. Everyone is fit, and the weather is bad. We have 2 house members currently wandering around with sore throats and 1 week until Beauce. I think I'm gonna go buy several tons of ginger and garlic.

A picture is worth a thousand words

By this logic, this post should have taken me several hours to compose. Luckily, I'm better than that.

Service course EVA-Devinci. / Pimp notre char. Please note the chromed rims.

That is one hot bike. / That is a dirty Sandy. White shorts get ruined quick.

Today is back into the grove of things. Yesterday was pretty much a write off in terms of anything productive. Unless you count groceries (spent way too much) and xbox. Oh, and naps. The internet was down as well for our recovery day, which was fun, but we're back online here now. Today will involve getting back on the bike. There is a race tonight, but I'm not sure sure yet whether I'll make my way to it. We'll see whats up with the threats of more rain. And whether I get my bike cleaned from the weekend's wet and wild escapades. First, a second coffee is in order.

Up and down

Wicked tt and crit, not quite so great road race. On the plus side, I blew up trying. 20:49 for the tt, and finished up in the lead group in the crit - a rainy, dark, sketchy affair. Not bad for a Saturday at the office. Got up Sunday and readied myself for a foggy, rainy, 5 degree day in the saddle. I honestly cannot say that I am adverse to these conditions. Made the lead selection on the first climb, climbing my own pace and settled into the group, rolling away with a few breaks. By the top of the climb I had even moved from 6th to 4th on GC after Oz's flat and Lachance's crash. I even had 2 teammates ahead in the GC. On the climb out of the valley, I blew. Third steep pitch (after the long false flat) I found myself 50m back of the lead group with some stragglers. It was not to last. I played in the caravan for about 15-20 mintes but never closed that final gap. Couldn't recover from the effort. That was the end of my race. I finished the day in a little chase group some 20 minutes down in the end. No one particular was willing to work with me. Ups and downs. I was pissed, but such is racing. Now, I prepare. For the Tour de Beauce. Time to dig deep and pull hard. More to come, now that I again have internet.