How to ride a tt. by Sandy

I don't know. The end.
I will attempt an in depth research project tonight in which I ride a 15km tt (with my SRM) to attempt to figure it out. I expect some serious pain, but such is the game with science. Now if only summer would start and the rain end.
In other news, there are way too many sketch bags at Lachine on Tuesday nights. Someone needs to do something about that.

Late breaking news story!

In recent news, Sandy has been seen riding a bicycle with a large smile on his face. A witness was quoted as saying, "I didn't get it. This dork rode by in the pouring rain with a goofy smile on his face. It was &$*+ing wet out". When asked for a comment the accused simply replied, " Rain? Thats some catty wompus shit". When asked for the definition of "catty wompus" we received a laugh and were told to check with Wenzel.
In other news, I am going camping. Enjoy your weekend, I know I'll enjoy mine.

sharing

I felt as though I needed to share this. I nearly peed myself with giddy giggling.
Retarded Wheelset Hall of Fame

random ramblings

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Life has continued, in its general way. My mid season break is at a close as the return to full on training and racing is starting. Minus my little camping trip this weekend. I'm pretty pumped on that. First off, my list of the day... things that are impressing me in the Tour (Alpe d'Huez is on right now):
-CSC & Gerolstiner. I have never seen the boys in blue riding this aggressively or this close to the front in a grand tour. Schummacher is again in the break today. These boys are off their rockers crazy. CSC is taking all the pressure they had as the strongest team in the race and proving that they are stronger than anyone thought. With the doped up climbers out, the Schleck's and Sastre and taking turns inflicting massive damage. Not to mention the rest of the boys who are riding out of their skin every day. And it is paying with the brothers from Luxemberg holding onto to each a white or yellow jersey. Hats off.
-The Tour in general. Its been a while since I have been so interested in the race. Everyday is exciting. No more "how much will Lance win by?" and now just gasps as some crazy fool attacks like a monkey in search of glory. The race is more reminiscent of Giro's of recent years with plenty of changes in GC, attacks everywhere and general excitement. Bien fait les boys.
On to my other life, aka the one that doesn't involve soiling myself watching the race. Got back slowly into riding last week with mostly some nice easy spins and an interval session or 2 to reawaken the suffering within. Off to Lachine last night for my usual Tuesday evening in Montreal. It turned out to be a little different, other than the rain threats. I did a bunch of work and decided I needed to turn over a more aggressive new racing leaf in this second half of the season. No regrets, take some chances. I felt pretty crappy from the start so took my time a bit moving up to the front. That was to be expected after riding so little in the last week though so didn't think much and just focused on finding my legs. Got up where I wanted to be at about the halfway point and then stayed up there to try and help out our yellow jersey a bit. Generally working on pushing my comfort zone and fight hard for wheels. JS got away after a bit and ended up staying away in a group of 4, even taking the win in the end with a Cancellera eske attack in te closing kms. Big ups. With 5 to go it was time for the real fighting to go on. Luckily I had some confidence now and so pushed my comfort levels hard a few times to maintain my position. Finally with our final lead out train going for Gui, I got boxed in and missed out on position for the final lead out/sprint. Not happy about that, but I am happy with how I managed my race. A couple of training days now and a camping trip before the next Lachine then the racing gets back underway. Wicked.

&#^%$ dopers

I think when I stop riding I will apply for a new job title with the UCI. I'm not yet sure of the title I will put on my business cards, but the general idea is that I will wonder around with a baseball bat or other such weapon (maybe I'll change weapons daily kinda like Rock Racing and their kits) and smoke any dopers in the baby maker as soon as they cross the finish line. Picture it, Ricco crosses the line, arms in the arm, little tear rolling down his cobra face.... then wham. He is on the ground, clutching his nether regions as his bike ghost rides along. I would then continue along my way signing autographs and posing for pictures with all the pretty girls as journalists come up with clever titles to send to cycling news.
At very least, its time for me to start riding again. I have some anger to ride off. Plus I need to get fast. Today should hold a nice hard day on the bike, complete with some Doper's Suck socks to show my displeasure. Perhaps an afternoon nap before heading back into Telus to voice some more displeasure.

The story

Sorry for the lack of posting for the last bit. Been taking some rest time before cranking the season back up to come in strong for the remainder again. Its time to get rolling aggressive and improve on the early part's mistakes. As for the OBC GP, I'm not going to say much but basically I missed my start. First time ever I've done that. I think I was just not fully paying attention probably as it was a local race I thought I knew and was overly comfortable with. I got myself over with plenty of time to the "start/finish" banner and rolled around in little circles around there chatting with other riders and generally getting my mental prep on. After a bit, I started to wonder why the race wasn't starting. Finally someone yelled at me that the race was starting... about a 1km up the road. I sprinted up through groups only to find that my group was long gone and the Juniors were about to start. I got into gear and took off up the road. Chased and chased eventually bringing the gap from about 5 minutes down to 2 minutes before coming back towards Fortune again and being caught by the Junior pack just before. Mentally toast and not super happy to be rolling in this pack I pulled the plug a little later. Nothing else to be done, I took the rest of the weekend as planned as some recovery time away from the bike. That part was pretty good. Nothing like some mid season down time to recharge. Today will be back on the bike as I head back to Montreal for a good old Lachine. Not ideal rest time, but I am a little pumped to race and to make some legs hurt again.

Nationals report

The good and the bad. The bad, I did not accomplish my goal of finishing. I pretty much rode like an idiot technical wise with my usual culprit being to blame: placement in the pack. The good, I rode hard, never gave up and had good legs. I should have finished with the legs I had, no problems on the climb but there are only so many gaps one can close up to the leaders in a day. I went in with the goal of finishing and not giving up. Every time you feel like quiting, drop it down a gear and dig deeper. Proud to say I did just that. After fighting hard on the first lap for some position coming into the climb, I dropped my chain on the final corner starting the climb but was luckily able to get the chain back one with minimal trouble. Unfortunately I was now back at the back with gaps opening. Followed a bit of wise advice rode conservatively on the early pitch pulling myself back up through the pack and then continuing to move up as the folks who went too hard exploded out the back. Not bad. The second time up the climb went much harder making it harder to keep moving up. More gaps and another big effort over the top of the climb to get back into the game. Much of the rest of the race continued like this. Sometimes spending a lap off the back chasing in special needs gruppettos. Apparently no one is able to ride a caravan anymore. Finally the last straw snapped after I spent 2 laps several hundred meters behind the pack, but unable to close the final gap. Finished off a lap on my own at pretty much a snails pace. End total: 12 laps, 11 bidons, 1 turkey sandwich (apparently I can't eat Cliff bars without throwing up), 2 gels, and 12 lbs of salt lost. Hard day. Next up: OBC GP. Time to ride a better race, hopefully with the same legs. Time to rest up.

A photo update

Overall a pretty good day for a pre-race day. Got up and headed where you always go at a bike race if you want to find someone.... the closest coffee shop. In this case, the Van Houte downstairs. Convenient. Had a little breakfast and some coffee with a few of the good old boys before heading back up to the room for the final 45km of the first stage in le Tour. A quick grocery store run and some lunch and then out for a nice spin. Did a spin of the course (more to follow on that monkey of a course) before heading up to check out the woman's race and then back down for another lap of our course. A little less than 2 hours pretty easy in the end, though I did try to put a little gas down on the climb to get a better feel for it the second time. Little bit of an issue when I got home looking for a shower and a nap as apparently we had been changed rooms and no one had bothered to tell me. Spend a while getting pissed off trying to find my crap and where I am now to live before finally finding it. Such is life. Now back to the course. 10km with a 1.5km finishing climb leading into a few kms of windy rollers at the top before dropping back down through some curves into a bumpy (and certainly sketch) run in to the climb again.

Near the bottom of the climb... The pain is already underway by here after the certainly volatile fight for positions leading up to this.

Looking down the climb. The truck parked there is the start finish. Nice little false flat over the top behind me before swinging right onto some rollers.

The start of the descent back into the downtown means one thing... speed and the climb. Again.

Results

Elite:
Tuft
Roth
Bell

u23:
Veilleux
Bowers
McLeod

Big ups. Tough course. First 20km was headwind, and mostly up. I held back a lot (probably not the best idea) being worried about cracking myself before the turn-around. I came in anonymously in about 1:01:something so basically about 10 minutes down on Tuft. He's going to the Olympics, so I'll let it go. I had a decent amount left in the tank, but was happy anyways. I need to learn to pace myself and how to simply ride a tt to be in the game. The effort should be good to help prepare me for the road race on Sunday. Some problems in the bike measuring department pre-race, caused me some stress and had my saddle moved back almost 2cm. The crazy commissars still think my bike is illegal even though its on the limit. I used my polite French to allow myself to start anyways. Now just waiting in line for the shower. Oh and my cleat has come loose and is stripped in the shoe. Fun times.

Welcome to Beauce

The rain has stopped, which seems odd considering the last month or so of weather. That is not to say it let up without a fight as it rained quite hard starting this morning until we arrived here mid afternoon. At least it let up for our ride. Settled into the hotel and then saddled up for a spin out on the tt course. Gonna be a tough one fo sho. Not that tt's are ever easy.... pretty much up and down, with potentially some very open and windy sections. Either way, I'm pumped and have no particular pressure on me. I'm hungry to push myself, but other than a few good tt's, I'm no against the clock pro. Le Gouverneur seems to a pretty prime place, a coffee shop downstairs, centrally located in "downtown" Ste-Georges, and of course being next door to Mondo bar doesn't hurt. For now, I'm tired. So bed. But we have internet so I'll be updating you directly on race results. Maybe try to beat that Scott Kelly character in his canadiancyclist.com and pedalmag.com updates. Maybe he should track me down so we can grab a beverage. Or I can point him towards Vipond and the bar.

Woops

So its been a little while since my last rambling. To be fair, not much has been going on. Some decent training, some decent relaxation and of course some good times. Skipped the race in Magog on the weekend for some rainy training and to generally avoid racing yet another crit. Mixed emotions for the weekend, part excited, part nervous and part just wanting to do my thing. Not really sure what to expect, but I have my goals. Its time. Hitting the road soon to get my butt to Bromont and rejoin the boys before heading down to Beauce tomorrow. Time trial Friday, road race Sunday. I'll try for some updates from Beauce. Gotta get back in the blogging grove. Hope you all enjoyed Canada Day.