return (I swear)

Sorry for the lack of posts. Not too much worth really writing about. A couple good moments but overall some tired legs. Made a few breaks, no particular results, but overall have to say I'm at least happy with my effort. Took a week's vacation (ok, more like a couple of days between races) to rest up a bit and am now in the closing moments of this years season. Well, road season. Still got a few months of cross to help me unwind a bit. Tour of Quebec beckons, but its now a matter of getting myself prepared. Maybe another tt. Oh and that Provincial tt as we all know how much I enjoy a good 40km tt. The long weekend is nearly upon us as well, which means only one thing.... school. My final year for now so I guess I have to change a few gears to get rolling. Changes are in the work for next season. Plans are being made. If you don't own a cross bike, I suggest getting one. Heck, find an old mountain bike. Just come on out!

Life

Life is good right now. The legs are starting to feel strong again, and I sit here now watching some rain fall (really not that unusual this summer I guess) with a strong mug of joe and the Olympics on in the background. Like I say, life is good. Spent my evening last night doing what I do every Tuesday.... racing Mardi de Lachine. Needless to say, my motivation was not that high for yet another crit. Not to mention the dead feelings in my legs leading into it. Spent the first half of the race playing tail gunner with a group of boys who were also tired from Mtl-Que. Oddly enough I felt stronger and more comfortable as the race continued. What I had hoped, but not truly expected. I guess we were holding a decent pace as riders were popping off all over the place. THe nice thing about the tail gun position is you don't need to brake in the corners like the middle of the pack. Instead of wasting tons of energy sprinting like a madman and fighting for 800th spot in line, you can simply let a gap open a bit just before the corner, carve the corner like you want and then come through and around any new gaps already holding 5-10km/h faster. With 15 to go I was feeling stronger so started to make my move up to the front. Things were a little sketch as usual (I even pulled a bit of a junior move through one corner miss judging how many riders I could move up without being a jack ass). Got to the front, missed the break, then lost my position in the sprint. The day ended up basically being a motor pacing workout. Hopefully it'll help my legs for this weekend's Ste-Marie de Beauce stage race. For this, I am motivated. Crit Friday, morning tt Saturday followed by an uphill mass start tt in the afternoon (ouch), then a nice 140km road race on Sunday. Today should be a nice tt ride to help prepare. Otherwise, not much happening.

A tale of 2 flats

Sunday has come and gone. Shit went down and we came so close to coming out on top. My job was the first half of the race, and I was motivated. Cover anything that moves off the front and try to get in an early move. The first 3.5-4 hours came and went and I worked myself hard. Counldn't quite get a move to stick (pretty good headwind going on) but kept trying none the less to make sure our boys for the day didn't have to stick their noses in the wind. I was pretty damn happy with myself, my form and my work. A little after Trois-Riveres I started to feel my efforts and the big boys started coming to the front to play a bit. I became a little more selective with my efforts and eventually drifted back a bit to recover and eat a bit. The goal was now stay hidden to finish or (if needed) make a few more final efforts to put us in a good position. Luckily Dom and Matt got in a real good move and George got in the chase group so I was able to sit in and focus on finishing. Unfortunately during a rough single file stretch I rode directly into a pot hole the size of Alaska and promptly flatted. I pulled over (starting to lose control at 50km/h) put my hand up and tossed the wheel just as Mavic pulled up. Slid a new rear in jumped before realizing that my front was flat too. *#)*^%#$. Swapped the front, knocked off the chain (a bit of panic now as the caravan had pretty much all passed) before getting a big push. The commissars watched me like a hawk and wouldn't let me get any help so I gritted my teeth a bit and proceeded to burn my final bullets to try and get back. Got so close twice before finally having to give up the ghost. Rode for a while until the broom wagon caught up. Saw a sign telling me I still had wayyy to long to Quebec City so hopped in for a drive. My legs were pretty toast by now and there was not much else to be done. Not happy about that, but happy with my ride in general. The form starting to come again. Now if only I could learn to ride a 4 corner crit....
In the end, the tan got a good addition with all the sun and I learned that for point to point races you should always remember to bring a bag with a change of clothes to the finish. After 6 hours bike shorts the least pleasant thing you can do is sit in a car for another 2 hours back to Montreal. Lesson learned. Today will be a pretty bloody chill day with a brief ride before heading back to la belle provence for my usual Tuesday evening cursing festival, better known as les Mardis de Lachine. Sweet.

go time

Montreal-Quebec is nearly here. And I must say I am pumped. There is no more training to be done, just some resting. Going to have to leave it all on the road. Lachine this week is really not even worth talking about for me or the team. We lost Guillaume's yellow jersey and I DNF'd. I felt pretty much awful. I was not comfortable fighting for spots, my back was hurting and eventually kinda blew a bit. A little before half way I was sitting close to the front (but quite unable to make the final moves to be on the front for whatever reason) when my back kind of seized. It was pretty painful so I sat up. I'm not proud, and was very unhappy (I hate DNF's) but my head was no longer in it and I didn't want to risk so much on a Lachine, we still had a large team to help out Guillaume. Either way, that is behind me. The training has been going well, and its time to find out how my body reacts to a 200+km race. Never done a race so long, but am pumped to crush myself. Off to Montreal tomorrow I think as the start is real nice and early on Sunday. Good times.
Side note. I have for some reason had the urge to ride some cross so have nearly finished re-assembling my old war horse for a ride. Odd, considering last season I both built and glued tyres the night before the first race. Aka, my first cross ride.

Long weekends

Although much of my life seems to consist of long weekends, a real long weekend always seems to provide some added fun. Probably because other people also find themselves not having to work on Mondays. Had a good Saturday exploring downtown Montreal with good food, better company and then a good ol' Belgian style race. The course brought falshbacks of a particular Kermis I did last season. Though the roads were a little wider (not too much though) and this day was probably slightly slower. Decided I wanted a good day in my legs and wanted to finish pretty shattered, Montreal-Quebec is next week and I have not done a good road race in some time. Got myself into the front in the rain right from the gun and spent the entire first 2 laps following attacks, rolling in breaks and chasing moves down for the boys. I was very happy with myself and my riding. The middle two laps were not quite as nice, I fell back a little to eat and recover a bit and let someone else take a turn up front and my legs hit a bit of a bad patch. No worries though, I kind of expected that so focused and gritted my teeth a bit. Got back to the front for the last 2 laps and got myself into what proved to be the winning move with JS. After bridging up I got myself to the front of the move to bring back a solo rider up the road and hopefully set JS up for something. JS, as usual did not disappoint attacking at just the right time with 2 to go just as I brought back the dude out front. Now with 3 riders up front it became time for me to simply sit on the remainder of the break (now chase group) and see if we could hold off the pack. I rolled through the front a few times pretty relax as otherwise most of this chase group was intent on sitting on me for some reason and I wanted to stay away from the pack. A second LG rider launched a pretty good move on a little climb which caught me off guard and a little flat legged. We got caught coming through the start/finish by the Volks/Sleeman's train and I swallowed hard and jumped into the top ten as gate keeper to their train. I was feeling pretty toast by this point but their was only 1 lap to go and if JS was caught I needed to be there to go. Unfortunately there was a touch of wheels on the back stretch about 10km from the finish in the leadout train bringing down about 3/4 of the field I hear. I manged to jump/roll over the crash (they were directly in front of me) before ending up in a ditch then corn field and then getting back on the road to chase down the leaders group ahead. After bridging up I blew hard and fell back into the little chase group (aka 3rd group on the road) and just held on rolling through when I could to the finish. Finished 21st in the end with JS taking the win. The legs are coming and I'm now super pumped to race again tonight. Its good to be a cyclist.

tt and news

I'm in Montreal. Nice place. Spent the afternoon exploring a bit and having a bite to eat before tomorrow's race. It is now raining. Of course. That's what it does in summer here in Canada apparently. The polar ice caps are melting and causing a generalized rain storm to follow me around. I'm over it though. The tt went decent, set a new pb at 20:48 with no real aero gear to speak of and I know I could have gone a little harder too. I have also learned that I like riding tts with my SRM. I found in a couple of sections where I am sure I lost time before or let up a bit I was now able to simply look down and tell myself that I could go harder. Going to have to break out the aero gear for one this year to finally accomplish my goal of sub 20:00. Les Cedres tomorrow so I'm pretty pumped to be racing a race which is not
a) in Lachine &
b) not a crit.
Hell, its 140km race on a (probably) windy & open circuit. Belgian styles. But with French people. And no cobbles. Either way. I'm pumped to throw down a bit. I hope it rains.