been a while

Well, the offseason (aka cross season) has gone well. Especially considering the amount of riding time I've put in (low numbers). I managed to ride some remaining fitness through September before sometime in October realizing I was no longer fit. So I continued in my 1 ride a week and race Sunday plan until this week. Then Keir came to town and we rode 4 straight days. I think that means I've started training again. We'll see how this holds up. In other news, I run my own business. And then take the money I get and buy tools. If this is real life, I can deal. No news on next years plans yet. I need motivation. Hopefully this will be the re-start of the blog too. Sorry about that. I didn't think anyone wanted to read about what I built or what I drank. If you're interested in that, just play wizard sticks. That sums up my fall.

cyclocross?

Time to de-rust the bike. I really need a new cross bike. I think I can scrape out one more season from ol' silver. I better. Though I will be avoiding Almonte as the bike is guarantied to die there. Otherwise, work. I get up, ride out to Chelsea, work, then ride home. Pretty good. On days like today where I was out a little too late and it looks like rain, I drive. Heading to Hamilton for Valley Park Cross this weekend for a retro road trip with Shawn and Steve. Well, Steve is not actually road tripping with us, but meeting us there. I'm pretty pumped. Racing is going to hurt though. Better get a move on.

busy

Got back. Got sick. Got better. Rested at the cottage. Started working.
Up at Kevin and Sheri's helping them with a few projects and renos, been pretty good. De-rusted the cross bike to prepare myself for the season. Even been riding the bike up to work from time to time. With powercranks, it turns into a hurtful commute. Not much else to report really, gotta make some money, find a team for next year and start everything over again. Cheers.

Home

After a long trip, with several adventure I made it. Unfortunately, my luggage did not. Well, my bike did. You see, we left Nice late. And therefor I started my cyclocross training by running the length of the Frankfurt airport in sub 15 min to catch my flight to Ottawa. It was tight. Of course, the baggage was unable to match my pace, but the oversize baggage must have come off the plane first. Got home, said some hellos, did a little tour. And then got sick. Woke up at 3am this morning, dozed lightly from then on until sun-rise feeling a little off with a headache and stomach. Emptied out the stomach, slept some more and am starting to come around now. Its good to be home, I missed this place. Almost have a cell phone set up, so will start calling people soon.

Finale

Final post from France, for this season. The last 2 days have been hectic, with moments of peace filling the gaps. You realize how comfortable you have become in a place when you truly live there, and then try to pack. Two days of packing, cleaning, goodbyes, and last minute errands. Barely even a chance to ride a bike, but a few goodwill deeds to fill in the gaps. Last night happened to also be teamate Ed's last in France, so we all hit the town (a relative term in small town rural France) for a delicious supper out. Good food, good wine, and good company and a little bit of bubbly at home left us all with a good taste in our mouths and fond memories. Today I spent some time building Yannick (our host and manager) a new bike out of his many as most were lying in disrepair. A gesture well worth the effort. Today we'll head back out for food, as our fridge is empty and our hosts here have a hankering for some Chinese food. All that remains is to pack the last bits into the carry on baggage, and a mildly early trip to the Nice airport. How time has flown. I'd like to thank everyone for following along again, and can't wait to see many of you. But a special thanks to those who have helped to support my season (again): Pete of Stevens, Vince of the Cyclery, my folks, and the multitude of others who have helped make this work. Rest assured, I've learned, I've lived and will be back to fight another day. Ciao.
Sandy

t minus 3

How time flies. As I sit here watching the Veulta, I realize that the summer is indeed ending. I don't have much time left, as I rush to both slow down and enjoy where I am, but as well to take care of all the last minute tasks I have left too long. On the plus side, I am becoming much more rested and am enjoying a week of true French life. We were invited to a party last night, which ran quite long, and where I taught a crowd of French men how to properly Mcguyver a large bbq. "Rule 1: don't question the Canadian. Rule 2: everyone get a beer." Good rules to live by. Otherwise I seem to waste a little extra time every afternoon watching the Vuelta, and watching the stream of good ol' Canadian boys riding the front. Good on them. I better get back to riding lots soon.

oops

I've noticed a few things this week, most notably: when Sandy stops riding for a few days, he gets tired. I was exhausted for a few days. Spent a bit of time up with Chels at a great little medieval town in Italia, then relaxed. I can always tell when I'm in need of rest based on the time my body wakes up. For the last few days, I have been unable to get up before about 9am. This is late. Then we came back and I rode my bike. It felt awful. Unatural even. So I tried again, and it felt much better. A bit of stretching, and here I am. Back waking up naturally around 7am. This is good, as I have just been convinced to race once more. Tomorrow. Apparently it is the hardest FSGT course of the year. And somehow this statement convinced me. I have very little in the way of expectations, but intend to go out and suffer hard. Its my new last race after all, gotta leave on a good note. Working on some projects as well right now to help realize my 2010 season, but I'll pass on news for that as I get it. As for life, it seems to be winding down here. Attended my last Valbonne market yesterday, said some adieus, and am starting to consider how I will manage to fit everything into my suitcases. Only a few days left. Better get back to the beach!
As well, would like to give a "big ups" to the 4 Canuks racing the Vuelta this year, and can say that this will be the first year I will actually make an effort to watch it. No offense to the Vuelta, just normally by this time I'm a little cycled out.

Some Ottawa folk must know, Tuesday September 8th, A crit? Or loop? Cheers.

Team picture. Feeling nostalgic suddenly.

At the cafeteria in the Monaco Oceanographic Museum. Catch of the day.

Chels and I on the beach in Nice.

vacation

Changing things up a bit, to get some final enjoyment out of my trip. Its kind of nice to have no stress of bike racing/training/results and simply appreciate where you are. Slow things down and take a look around. I'm back on the food enjoyment train, picking out fun and fresh bits to try. I've recently rediscovered my old love of artichokes, apparently they are a Mediterranean specialty. This morning we've managed to find a deal at a little place in Dolceaqua, so are boarding a train for an overnight trip into Italia. A little exploring never did anyone any harm. Plus, I need no excuse to sample some more fine Italian coffees. I have recently had this bad feeling that I may freeze upon return to Ottawa. So if my mother is reading this, maybe start digging out the winter gear?

Nearing the end

My last race may have just come and gone. Apparently it was obvious how badly I wanted the win. My focus seems to have been noted by more than one person. I reconed the course several times, and the finale suited me perfectly. Things we not to be. My legs were not the best, but I made no excuses. I think it is simply a mix of fatigue, and the incredible heat we have been having the last while. Either way, for the 15 laps of the race I never once dropped out of the top 15 in the pack, usually being found in the first 5-10. I followed anything dangerous, not wasting energy and marking the 3 riders I knew had the other best chances at the win. With 5 to go the winning move went, and I knew it. Tony attacked, Dave went with and I followed. Dangling about 2m back as they motored to open the gap. We had it. Then my tired started losing air, I checked. No neutral support on the short course. So I had to let go. I made one last big pull for my teamate Flo, whose hometown race it was, to get him into the move, before drifting back on the climb and pulling out with 4 to go. Oddly enough, I wasn't upset. Just at peace. I raced my race, played my cards. Nothing wrong with a race like that. Good ol' Dave took it to the rest of the field, coming in on his own quite a ways ahead at the top of the climb. I may have another race, another chance, this coming weekend. We'll see how the week goes. I am excited to simply rest this week and play tourist a bit. It's been a good ride. At very least I'll give my legs a test in a few weeks at the local stuff in Ottawa. There is something oddly satisfying about riding the race you want, excuting a plan, even if it doesn't pay out in the end. To celebrate the end, us foriegners went out for a few beers last night. Cheers to a good season.

ouch

It has been hot. Like ridiculously hot. Did 4.5 hours in the mountains yesterday on a wicked route, and couldn't even climb out of the heat. The many random cold water fountains in every village are a life saver. We have also adopted a new roomate, Dave Mclean, from Britain who will be hanging out and training for a week. He raced with the team last year, and is a bit of a tank on a bike I hear. And a pretty solid guy. Rode the race course for the weekend today, and am pretty stoked on my chances. With some good legs and smart riding I should be able to do well. The finish is on a wall of a 700m climb so narrow that passing is almost not an option. I like. Taking more time to enjoy myself and de-stress lately. A few extra beers from time to time, a trip into Nice today. Not much time left and I need more mental breaks. I've given up on explaining this, and so am just doing as I see fit at this point. Hopefully back it up with a result this weekend.

Transition

I realize I have partially stolen this title from Micheal Barry's new entry on Velonews, but the entry has given me motivation, and inspiration. Go read it, it just changed my morning. Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Good in one aspect, but bad in others. I should probably pre-face this post by mentioning our DS has been losing his marbles; and it has been causing large amounts of stress to us (especially "us" the foreigners). The races started well with a 40km-ish flat run in, and then the 16km Colmiane. A tough climb we were told, but my motivation was there after 2 mental rest days. I entered the climb in the first 15 (plus a break ahead, but ot by much) and quickly moved through riders cracking on the first slopes. As we raced through the break, Dubois (the annorexic super climber of the Cote d'Azure) and my teamate Fabio attacked and immediately rode the rest of us off their wheels. As the lead group broke up, I found myself sliding back under the tempo. As I was close to my limits, I held my pace. 16km is a long way to climb, and it gets steeper towards the top. As I continued my pace, I began to reel in more and more riders, gaining confidence as I began to re-open the gap on the second group on the road. As I came into the final kms, I was at my limit. But still closing ground, and with a shout of "vas-y Sandy! t'est dans les 1 premiers" echoed in my ears, I dug in. The elusive top 10 was mine. I was wasted at the top, but content. Second finished from the team, a top 10. Good day. All was good. Then the results came up. In usual FSGT fashion, they were screwed. Many of the guys I had passed on the climb were ahead of me. I was 20th. And upset. No one to complain to, and no way to change them I was told. What was the point? I finally found out manager, who was very happy with my race, and told him. FSGT he said, equally mad. Let's go. Screw the tt. So we packed. He lost his head and started yelling at us about this at that, not winning. A total change. No idea why or what. A long ride home, to say the least. The others are looking at getting out, the stress isn't worth it. Change tickets. But enough on that, decisions are to be made, conversations will be had, and today will be spent on the beach. Its a hard life sometimes, which is not alwasy understood by all. I have a few weeks left, and intend to enjoy them. Not much racing left, so I will be picking and choosing my races and generally taking life at a more relaxed pace. On the plus side, the melon man at the market had a deal of buy 3, get 1 free. And I did. And they are delicious.

heat

Feel the heat. It was 35 by 10am this morning. Ouch. Life has been good since the poor showing this weekend however. I took Monday and Tuesday completely away from the bike to simply reset the head and be in the game for Saturday. Still a few races left here, so want to be in and fighting. Monday was the usual beach day with plenty of relaxing, though with a lunch with Chels at our favourite restaurant in Cannes. Which also happens to be deliciously inexpensive. Tuesday lead to another train ride, but this time into Monaco for a tour of the Oceanographic museum (aka aquarium). Good times. Yesterday was a long hot day in the mountains with a couple of older guys. A couple of digs in the mountains lead to 4:30 with about 3-3:30 of that climbing. Don't ask me how. Today was a pretty easy spin with a bunch of general household errands to run and preparations for this weekend to undertake. Either way, I'm coming around to the idea of racing again.

frusteration

Not a great weekend of racing as hoped. After suffering through some serious Saturday traffic we arrived at our evening 60km race. Wait, whats that Mr. organizer, its 105km... 40 something degrees? oh, sounds good. Thank goodness I only brought one gel. Lets just say the heat got to me. The break went super early with 2 of our guys in it, I spent the next while frustrating myself trying to bridge with French dudes who "couldn't work". Finally after 40km of this, my teammates started dropping out so I asked Jannes to do one big effort with me to try and bridge. We got the gap to within 40 seconds (down from 2+ min) in our chase group before he pulled the plug and I was left working alone. Heat set in and I found myself puking. Great. At this point I skipped a few turns in the chase (not that we were really motoring anymore) and blocked out all thoughts except finishing. This group after all would guarrenty me a top 20 FFC result. So I suffered until I heard that noise we all dread with less than 15km to go. Flat. No neutral support. So I walked back to the car. Needless to say, not in a good mood. Got home through more traffic about 11. Woke up at 6 for the next race. A 90-100km Cat 1 race with a 500m climb in the course. Hard. Wait, make that 140km with 18 times up a nearly 2km climb. Oh, much better. Could we through in some leftover dehydration and a terrible mental day (after all this). Great. My legs had nothing, my head was not there and I DNF'd. It was a course for me, and a weekend I should have had the legs. Such is life, and I need a break. 2 days of nothing bike related. I need that will to win for this weekend. First, to the bakery for a croisant and some coffee!

90% mental

Cycling is often considered to be simply a sport of the strongest legs wins, and it is often overlooked what has to be done before you have the chance to use those legs by putting yourself in the spot where you can race for the win. Yesterday was a day that brought that to light for me. Not my best on a bike, but I set myself a goal and never gave in. Super windy and tight course (bloody brilliant fun course actually) with a pretty solid Cat 1 field. Apparently last year only about 20 even finished, so I decided I wanted a top 20 today. From the gun I had some stomach issues, so took my time working up while everyone attacked. Generally in most of these races it is super fast from the gun as people are constantly on the attack, but legs are too fresh for the break to go directly. I knew on this tight course the group would not be shattered soquickly and moved up slowly until my legs came around just in time. The break is ALWAYS formed by small groups attacking that eventually stay away, the hard part is picking the right one. Especially when all the big teams have 9 riders each. I have slowly learned to not kill myself to get across the gaps and have taken to the french style of attacking the guy who tows you across (not actually, but I sit further back and follow this leap frog game from the shelter) and sometimes you make it, sometimes everyone sits up. It can be a cruel and frustrating game. In the end, I didn't make it into that lead group and was pretty upset by it, once its gone, its generally gone. And then I hit a bad patch. I suffered to my limits for 5 laps, each time wanting nothing more than to pull the plug, but unable to follow through. Until finally, although my legs seemed to have nothing, they also felt nothing. The last 5 laps were a blur. With 2 to go I attacked with 2 Aix en Provence, a VC la Pomme, and one other and we quickly built a lead on the peleton and starting pulling back stragglers from the lead group which had shattered in the wind. As we came to the final climb I placed myself well and managed to sprint for 2nd in our group and 27th overall. Not quite what I had hopped, but none the less, a day full of learning. There are still more races left, and hopefully days like this will pay off later down the line.

mid weekend update

Time. So here it is, pulled in the final local lap on Saturday and finish (I'm told) around 20th on Sunday. Here are the story's before today's crusher.
Saturday was a weird FFC race with a lot of good boys in attendance. I wasn't sure how my legs would go and told to try and conserve energy on the course for the final and for the next 2 days. A 7km course with this weird finishing circuit thing after. The course itself was sweet, narrow windy farm roads with a decently steep 1km GPM climb every lap. Attacks went fast and furious and I tried to stay in good groups and move up. It was traditional French in the sense that everyone wanted to attack, but no one would work after that which creates a mess on the road and some stress. That to add to the fact that I seemed unable to get into the correct moves all day, and spent too much energy crossing gaps on my own. Coming into the final lap (before the finishing laps) I made a big effort to move up to the second group on the road as we headed up a different climb through town for a finishing circuit. The climb proved longer than thought. 2km to the GPM, then a further 2km + to the top. Blew a lot of people including my group. Did the climb, a little loop, then descended the exact same climb. Hence the pulling of non lead groups apparently. Pretty upset at the time to not finish the thing, but worked hard. Just need to find the right moves.
Hilly race yesterday, so say the least. 4 laps of the course with a 7km climb to the finish and a random 2km kicker in the middle. Of course, as per French tradition they started us on the descent portion of the course with a glorious "neutral descent". This is French for, we take your life in our hands. Through experience, I have learned to be either directly on the front or on the back for these. So I went to the front. And nearly died with the oncoming traffic, before being swamped by 100 guys trying to take risks to be at the front for the climb. Descent ends (me on the back, furious) and climb starts. I flew up the first few kms int he big ring to pass all the allready popped riders and get up into the main group. Only to discover that there was a lead group allready ahead. So I went. Made it to within 10m of the group but could not close the final gap over the steep bits. Got caught by a bunch of guys who felt better attacking me than working together and came over the top in a small chase group. By this point I was really mad so dropped everyone on the descent and caught the main chase group on the little climb. Held tough and made it to the next descent with them. Rode my own pace up the big climb when the group split under constant attacking and again chased back on the descent. Had to give up on the lead chasers the next lap, and rode my own pace the next 2 times up the climb to minimize loses and finish. No results posted yet, but I hear I'm around 20th with less than 40 finishers.
Luckily that brings us to today. Hardest race I hear, so I gotta bring the a game. That means crepe time.

What?

3 races this weekend Yannick, for sure. I love back to back to back racing. What, 3 of the hardest races I will do here? Great, can it be super hot too?
Sorry to mention the heat and sun, I hear it has been rainy back home. I have just had explained to me that is going to be a hella hard weekend. In fact, I'm heading out in a few minutes to attempt to find one of the courses. Sunday's course to be exact. It's organized by the team, which makes it important for anyone looking to not be "left out of races" to be there and make an effort, but as well each lap consists of a 7km climb, which is to be repeated 4-6 times. Depending on who you ask. After this col, you descend, and then do it again. And then, the 3rd race on Monday will be the nail in the coffin. Supposing we have survived the previous 2, this is to be the hardest. Incredible heat, open windy roads and a super tough rolling course. And plenty of Cat 1s as apparently the winner of the race is generally always signed to a contract for the following season. Break out the game face.
As a side note, anyone know of any teams looking for an extra rider for the Univest GP this year? I'd love to find a way to do this race.

Bloody internet

Internet has been screwy lately, and this is the first time it has decided to allow me the honour of accessing my blog. Racing went decently this weekend. I was a little worried, after the spanking we took last weekend in that 1-2-3 FFC race, but ready and motivated. In the end, I was super pumped... and hot. 37 degrees out in the shade when we toed the line at 2pm, for a Belgian Kermesse style race in the south of France. Wicked fun. 108km of windy, narrow farm roads with a corner intensive (and rough) finishing section in town. I put myself in a few early moves to try the legs and stay ahead of the selections. Which paid off as only about 30 or so finished. Good, hard fast racing. Hot though, which took a toll - in the form of 8ish bottles. A lot of feeds to wet the cotton mouth. The break seperated up the road with 2 of our guys and I tried to get accross as much as possible but we just ended up dropping more riders as I tried to follow desperate moves accross the gap. Made my final move in the last 2km through the technical bit through town only to nearly hit a semi truck which had decided to park in the middle of our corner. By the time I got my speed back up, 2 guys made it around me in the sprint and I finished 16th. Of course, the prize list went 15 deep. But I'm used to that. Resting up for the week here, as next week will provide with 3 staright days of hard FFC racing plus a local crit, making for 4 days of racing in 5 days. Hard courses.

Its not all business

After 4 days of racing, ones body needs a break. In my case, my body was in full race mode and my legs felt like gold. So I rode as easily as possible for an hour, then introduced them to the beach. And a fine dinner. I'm easy like that. Today was a little 2 hour spin up into the mountains with some efforts thrown in based on the fact that there are 3 of us, and we are all innately competitive. Rides like that are fun to mix it up from any form of truly organized training. I then made more coffee, overhauled my bike (it was in DIRE need of new cables, chain, tape, etc...), watched the Tour, chefed up some wicked curry and settled in for a flick. My legs are good, the current racing schedule doesn't seem to take advantage of that so I'm searching for my own stuff. Yannick is open for suggestion. As a side note, in 5 days, I had three flats. So I multi-tasked by gluing a new tub this evening. wtf?

4 in 4

4 tough days in the books. Thursday meant the usual La Bocca crit, with the goal of getting some speed in the legs as I had not raced in some time. It turned into a tougher day when I got a little carried away after taking points in the first sprint. Tried my luck getting away with 2 to go, but no luck that time. Home, bed, then up again at 6am to drive up to Gap in the Alps. Afternoon race (stage 1) was 90km. Some serious firepower with VC la Pomme, Roanne 45, Aix-en-Provence, and the AGR2 feeder team in full attendance. No joke, we held 50+ the entire first hour to the first climb. With rediculous wind. I felt good and positioned myself well, barely clinging on over the climb before being popped for good on the rollers after. Brutally hard, and was pretty happy considering my lack of racing in the past few weeks. Its one thing to ride poorly and not get a result (see the next day) but its another to be simply too far into the red after doing things right. The race finished in the wind and rain (a first for me in France haha) atop a 11km alpine climb. Pretty cool experience. I felt good again the next day for a much tougher 120km race through more rollers with one solid 5-6km climb towards the end of each lap (5 laps). Again the race went from the gun with us singled out at 75+ on the switch back descent. I lost places (and therefor my excellent starting position) on the descent as VC la Pomme lined out 9 guys and drove it after the 90 degreee turn at the bottom into the ridiculous cross wind section. Needless to say, 10 minutes into the race and things shattered. I was not ready. Echelons appeared all over the road and guys peeled off left and right. I floored myself with everything driving through holes moving up knowing that if I didn't get up to a decent group by the climb it was lights out. A couple of guys rotated with me and we got within about 50m of the "group" when we changed into the headwind before we blew. We came over the climb bleeding time and everyone sat up. Lights out. I was mad and unable to chase on my own, and decided to save my frusteration at my mistake for the day tomorrow. A long drive home was quickly followed by another early morning for an 8am start. An odd race this one, being a 4 hour relay race. Basically a 4 hour crit with 3 man teams. You would ride yourself into the ground, then swap out for your teamate. The course was to my liking though with an uphill finish, tight downhill, flat stretch for 1.6km. We had a good chance at the win, so even with tired legs motivation was high. Though we quickly learned it was near impossible to attack much as guys would chase until they tired themsleves then swap out for a fresh legged teamate. Merde. Didn't stop us from trying at least. In the end it came down to me being voted in for the uphill sprint and I was confident. I followed a few attacks in the lap couple laps of dangerous guys but got caught out with a counter attack with 2 to go. Me and one other worked to bring it back, but I still was banking on my sprint and no one was willing to put their nose in the wind. In the end I launched my sprint on the climb putting about 5+ bike lengths into the pack and coming up a few seconds short of the break for 3rd. Annoying as we should have been able to win, but nice to know that I could formulate a plan and confidently carry it out. At least its a first podium in France. Plus Yannick celebrated with beers all around, good times.

Update

Not much happening, I sat on a train for a while coming home. After climbing some of the more famous peaks in the Pyrenees: Ventoux, Plateau de Beille, Col de Pailleres... and am now back home. My races last weekend were canceled, which was unfortunate, but gave me a better chance to rest up and prepare for this weekend. 4-5 days of straight racing. Crit Thursday to find some racing legs, Tour des Alps Friday and Saturday, and some 4 hour relay race Sunday. Monday is potentially another road race. Should be good. Tour des Alps is even a Cat 1-2 FFC race, which means double the hurt, and then add in some Alps and we can quadruple the hurt. For now, I have some laundry to do, a bike to clean, and some groceries to aquire. And maybe a little spin. I won;t rub in any further how good the weather is, but... I'll be happy to be up in the mountains and not sweating like a rappist here on the coast soon. Cheers

Change

Busy few days. After a train strike derailed my travel plans, I finally made it to Limoux. 6 hours of trains. Staying here at a decent house with ol' Vince, Paul Smeulders of ErgVideo, and a couple of Brits. Good times. We ride, Paul films (with Van-cam and helmet cams) and generally enjoy ourselves. An awesome way to see some new roads, and get some quality training in. Today was a solid "rolling" 4 hours with a quick stop for another view of the Tour before a stop at the Medival city of Carcasonne for dinner and a pint. Or "half liter" as the Brits called it. Softies. Tomorrow a few ascencions of the infamous Ventoux. 2 sides is the plan. Friday is up in the air as I'm waiting on racing news for the weekend. C'est la vie. Good times however.

The ride to end all

5 hours, just under 140km of hot hot heat, and some pretty awe inspiring riding. First off, I should mention this ride was both for training purposes AND bike nerd purposes. Basically, I rode to Monaco, and then rode the tt course a few times. With some of the biggest names in cycling. After a 2 hour or so ride to arrive (with some well encouraged drafting of a Tour commissar car), I arrived and set out to see if I could get on the course. Many of the sketchier frenchmen were being kicked off by Gendarmes after all, but I seemed to get on no problems. After riding a bit, I was passed by Lance and Levi. I even got this kinda stare down look from Lance for some reason, maybe my orange EVA kit stood out as "not a tour team". Either way, I sped up a bit and rode along with a quick hello. After a round about, where I was left behind after having to stop to avoid a car, I rode merrily along content with not being the Lance stalker in the news tonight. I was feeling pretty cool as photographers were taking my picture and tourists were talking. As I came back through the finish line, people began running over and pushing to get my picture. Cooler than I thought, until suddenly Alberto Contador and Andreas Kloden (along with the rest of the Astana team) pulled out from behind laughing as they passed. Damn. So I followed along. At the next round about a flying Denis Mechov joined the group chatting away as we rolled along the tough course. We were then joined by a few Silence Lotto boys and caught up to the Quick Step boys with Styjn Devolder looking resplendant in his National Champ kit. After a lap with these guys I figured I would pull into a cafe by the finish and watch the sites with a fine cafe. Good call, as no sooner had I pulled over to scout a cafe, I looked up to see Eddy Merckx yelling at Lance. No time to waste, a handshake and a hello and suddenly I was posing for a quick photo. You can't waste a chance like that to meet the Cannibal. The rest of the ride went by, sharing the miles with a Belgian dude who is living in Monaco (racing for the Belgian National Devo team) to Nice and then rolling the rest of the way back in solitude. Good times. I'll leave with some pictures, vive la France!

The team presentations at the Moncao harbour. Say hello to Columbia HTC.

Yours truley and a pre-occupied Eddy Merkcx. Fair enough.

Didi and I are both quite pumped on bike racing. He seems to enjoy Monaco.

Le Tour

Not much going on in France right now, minus some Grand Tour coming through town. I had a pretty awful day which is now put behind me on Sunday. Super hot, super fast. Not happy, but have put it behind by ending my recovery week with some long hard days in the mountains. Two days of about 4 hours with a few thousand meters of climbing. Today will be more hills as I have a bit of a respite from racing. Thursday will be spent in Monaco for the team presentations (not mine, but for that Tour de France thing), Friday ride and relax, Saturday Stage one tt in Monaco, and Sunday will be spent on a mountain watching the first road stage. Nice for the motivation. If you haven't yet, get in on the Tour Pool. Good fun. Well, its hot which means its time to get out and rolling.

test

Rest week is done, and I now have 2 "decent" rides under my belt. I was hoping to push myself a bit at the track on Thursday with the local "crit", but apparently that got canceled. So I had a few solo efforts on a local climb to remind my legs of some pain. Not as good, but hopefully helps for this weekend. It'll be by far the longest race I've done here at 163.5km so I am looking forward to it in that sense, but have no idea how my legs will react. Should be a hilly, but not mountainous course I'm told but otherwise all I know is that we do 3x 50something km laps. You do the math. Easy spin today and some rest, as tomorrow is work.

Rest

Not sure whats happening with my body right now, but I think its been a little run down after a hectic few weeks of visitors. The course on the weekend should have had me in the running, but instead found me having to dig deep to simply finish. The intense heat and humidity probably didn't help me much, but that's simply an excuse. To say the course was selective was an understatement. We started off with a 15km neutral start/parade out of Monaco which was pretty awesome. I stuck myself directly in the front again so was able to enjoy riding through the downtown and along the coast to the official start. Nothing like having Ferraris and other swanky cars pull out of your way in Monaco. We then stopped for final instructions and immediatly hit the first climb. On the Col de Castillon I stayed at the front and made the selection. Within 5 minutes the group had gone from 50+ to 10 or less. The heat was incredible and I cracked towards the top after about 30 minutes of climbing. From there on things got worse. The climbs never stopped, we had only 2 descents of 5 min. the entire race. I had no idea you could link so many cols with so little of anything else. Just as you would reach the summit sign for one, you would take another turn (quick descent if you were lucky) and then start climbing again. As confusion descended, you saw more signs explaining how many more kms (generally enough to make you curse) until the next summit. I completly exploded out of the chase group (4 of us) on Col de Brous I think and struggled hard home. The last 45-50 minutes of the race were spent at a pathetic pace up the Col de Turini. 17km of death. In the end, 62km of cols took 2:45ish to complete. From sea level to 1607m, 24km/h average speed. Needless to say, I have been taking a little rest period after to try and recover my form from the earlier races, my legs need that old freshness again. I have just learned today's crit in Aix-en-Provence has been cancelled so will be spending today again relaxing with a little spin. Training will start again Thursday with the La Bocca crit and then Drauginan road race on Sunday.
A quick shout out to DSJ for taking home the San P. at Preston on the weekend. I'm sure you've wanted that one for a while.

Monaco-Turini aka "Trophee Jean-Luc Schopf"

Monaco, Col de Castillon(707m), Col Saint Jean (1333m), Col de Braus (1002m), Col de l'Able, Col de l'Orme (1005m), Peira-Cava, Col de Turini (1607m, 20km at 8%). Finishing at 1607m on the summit of Col de Turini.

Ouch.

hello legs

My legs are coming along. Did the good old 3.5 hour coastal ride yesterday morning with Ed out towards St. Raphael and back before relaxing the afternoon heat and then riding down to the race. And my legs feel good. Ed told his new theory on being "on form" while riding as well. The more veins start to pop out of your legs, the more on form you are becoming. If so, this bodes well for me. I have finally decided that this race is near impossible to develop a break away in, so am having more fun with it now trying to do so anyways. I tried every possible method of getting points without doing a field sprint. The field was big tonight as well which kept the speed high and the sprints sketchy. I broke away first on the first lap with 2 others, dropped 1 after a lap and the other couldn't pull much but we motored until the first sprint (5 laps) and got caught up 200m from the line. I tried bridging to small breaks with 1 or 2 laps to go, I tried solo. On the plus side, I got a damn good workout in and had fun. Then just tried to control the front for the last few laps to set up Fabio in the final sprint. And made one last bid for glory. Today is rest as the race Saturday becomes more and more epic. 4 cols to cross for a total of 50km of straight climbing. I am super stoked for this. Then Monday we should be heading to Aix-en-Provence for a crit with some decent $$ prizes. Which is also exciting as French races rarely seem to pay out. And due to some massive team infighting among the bosses, the team is currently not paying our registration fees. I assume they have gone on strike, in true French fashion. At least registration fees are not at Ontario levels here, or Quebec even. I told the guys once what I paid in Ontario for a race and was treated to a whole new level of French swearing and generalized disbelief. The same reaction when I told someone that in Canada people work past 8pm - which seems to be a human rights violation here. Merde!

Long time, no post

Sorry for the delay. Its been an odd and not stellar couple of days. Started off well enough with a trip down to Vintimiglia in Italia on Friday to hang around the giant market there (like 4km of cheep clothes, shoes, and everything else). Things went well until we tried to go home. Our train was only going as far as Cannes, where we would switch to get home, but apparently either the trains suddenly went on strike or something bad happened as all trains our direction stopped. No warning. We managed (by taking 2 trains) to get to Cannes, where several un helpful French train workers told us different stories and then to go find a bus. Oh, and I got a form to send in with my "comments" to try for a ticket refund. We managed to find a bus station and learn that apparently the next bus for Grasse would come in about 2 hours. We did manage to catch it, about 10:30 and eventually get home, about 11:30. Not ideal. The next day I woke up with the stomach flu. I mixed my day between throwing up and sleeping. Had a little rice for dinner, but that was all I managed to keep down. So the next day I did as any other idiot would do, and woke up at 4am to drive to a double race day. Really nice race, on a mountainnous parcours that should have suited me. Unfortunately, between the not eating, still puking, and 36 degree temperatures I was unable to do much. I suffered along occaisionally puking up chunks of what I tried to eat for about 100km mountainous kms to finish up in a chase group about 40th place. Ate a little rice, then prepared for the 5km tt. I figure I rode respectibly in that, but no where near my max on a normal day to again finish mid pack. At least I still beat most of the Libyian National team. And got a standing ovation during awards. These folks were super pumped to have a sick Canadian racing with them. I had a lot of hands to shake. Pretty cool race anyways. Roads the whole way the width of bike paths, and with a rough consistency that would make the region of Beauce green with envy. There were pot holes on the tt course sketchy descent that I think swallowed some fallow cars. I went home, had some "digestive tea" from Yannick and went to bed. Today, needless to say I am doing nothing. I feel better, but still exhausted. So an easy spin is in order, some sleeping, and maybe more relaxing. I am also super excited to be able to possibly eat something other than rice. On a positive note, I think I am now a few kilos lighter for the multiple cols I hear we'll be crossing on Saturday in Monaco-Turini. Bo-ya.

Rain and relaxation

Yesterday became a pretty sweet beach day/recovery day. Sat on the beach, slowly diminishing those pesky upper body tan lines and enjoying ourselves. Today is back to business however, as soon as this rain stops. Pretty odd that rain will last the whole day here, so I have elected to sit here doing my lazy cyclist thing until that time comes. Some hard climbing efforts are much better done in the sun. The racing schedule is pretty light at present as 1 of this weekend's races appears to have been canceled. This means I am free for some hard training to prepare for the Tour de Cote d'Azure (4 days) next weekend. A big good luck goes out to all the boys starting Tour de Beauce today, kinda missing that as there is nothing I would like more than revenge for my Tour last season. I'll have to pull out another good race here, and maybe improve the results list again.

Coming around

So all in all, a very poorly organized ttt yesterday. But it was kind of expected. My partner for the event (Jannes) snapped his fork in half the day before so I was unsure of who I would ride with. 14.5km of uphill meant the possibility of a extremely painful ride or a annoyingly slow one with the wrong partner. In the end, I went solo. Which was nice. Took a wrong turn down the hill once before a car up the road yelled at me and I turned around loosing about a minute (where the s*&# where the marshals??) before getting back into my rythym catching my 2 minute team and finishing up in 20th. Not terrible out of about 40+ teams. But a little bit of a bumer knowing I could have been higher without the add-on to the course. My teamate Fabio also went solo (dude is a tank) and came second, 9 seconds down. His partner ditched him on the line saying he no longer felt like racing, I was already out on the course. Made the decision to improve the training factor by riding the 2 hours home after. Super nice day out after all. My legs are starting to come around after the past weekend's efforts and are feeling ready for another hard period to get ready for the coming stage racing. That and operation upper body tan line erradication is underway.

Round crits make me angry

Round and round, 900m for 50 laps. 50 guys, all wanting to win, none wanting to work for that win. This is how Tony (a tank from Cavigal I try to break away with a lot) describes the race to me. As long as you don't get worked up about it and just consider it training... Everytime I attack, it usually was some randoms I have never met from my own team that chased me back. That's what worked me up. That and the little midget Robbie McCewan wannabe. Dude was twitching all over the road. Completely unaware that anyone else was near him, and always insisted on starting his "sprint" from 30 guys back. I went looking for him after the race to break his nose (for the second fist fight of the race) after the race but he had smartly fled the scene. On the plus side Roman (and his brother Brice) Feillu showed up to dance. Cool to ride with 2 Agritubel pros. They mostly had fun and toyed with folks. It made the race faster (safer) but also made every Frenchman fight like crazed men for their wheels (less safe). At least I have once again raced with a Tour de France rider, he finished top 10 on a few stages last year I am told.

Weekend suffering photos

Beach day yesterday with a market stop to fuel up. Incredible dinner out compliments of Chelsea's parents. Hugely appreciated. Shrimp, gambas, escargots, wine... Full French, and escargots in butter/garlic sauce are amazing. True story. Quick spin this morning, and racing again on the track tomorrow evening. I hear maybe some racing on Sunday again, but there is not much for us foreigners as it is some kind of regional championships. My legs feel better than expected and were fully ready for another race yesterday. Good sign.

Finishing up the final stage solo, pretty shattered.

Grabbing on to the tail of the leaders after being caught with >500m to go on the col. Ouch.

On the front line ready to break from the gun.

Pre-race team meeting. Plan: win.

My support crew. Oh, and Yannick.

Tour des Vallee

I am knackered. Beyond spent. Race courses were generally not as hard as expected, but the field was decent. No one well above others. Teams came from Italy, Germany, France... and we were there to win. On the windy first stage we were told a break would go deciding the race, starting in little groups and eventually pulling away. Apparently it was just too windy. I rode aggressively with this in mind staying top 20 and rolling with almost any move off the front. Stay in the wheels and pull if a gap opened. Over the top of the climb, I was well placed on the descent until I got my wheel clipped by some German (a common theme on the weekend as apparently Germans are unable to hold straight lines) and nearly lost it into the ditch. Got going again chasing only to be way too far back on the finishing climb so rode myself cross eyed into the chase group. Went to the front with 3 others and rolled hard and generally swore and yelled at the idiots who refused to pull, but were fine with attacking us. Finished a little ways down but thanks to a commissar error, I was put in the front group time wise. No reason to bring that up. A meal then off to bed in the "hotel" aka hostel type place. Not that bad really. Unless you were my roommate Ed and were 6'6" tall.
Stage 2: 9am tt. 9.5km uphill (one descent). I had a follow car and pushed it. Didn't have much left at the end and finished around 20th, putting me top 30 on GC. We now had the top 3 on GC in the team and 3 jerseys to protect. Lunch. Nap.
Stage 3: Road race. Long climb at about 11-13km twice. Needless to say I wanted revenge for my poor stage one, so broke away at km 1. Group of 7 and one teamate. Took some Green jersey points and road my brains out. We got caught right at the top of the climb, which also happened to be just before the 4km finishing climb. Ouch. Attacks went flying from the dwindling peloton for GPM points and I found myself suffering to stay in contact. Chased back to 20m on the descent before wipping out hard in a switchback. Got up, checked everything out and got going. Painfully slow with a tender hip and arm. Rode in solo to the finish picking off riders on the final climbs. By the way, it was freezing. Oh, and apparently it was my own team who chased my break. They didn't know why. )@*$#$#*! Oh, and then my "chaser" lost the yellow jersey to the Germans after missing the split.
Stage 4: final road stage, with twice over Col de Bleine and one finishing climb. I did as any over tired, banged up bike racer would do. Jumped in the break at km 1 again. Stupid German had to attack. Crosseyed all the way to the Col de Bleine rolling hard with a 2 min and change gap. Attacks. Now the break has split and I'm caught in no mans land suffering like a dog. Less than 500m from the top (7km climb) I get caught by the lead group and turn myslef inside out (I have pictures to come showing me suffering like I have never seen) to get on. Nothing in the tank so I eat and then do as any good teamate 13 minutes down on GC would do - ride the front like a man possesed. I have never died so many deaths. Ever time I would crack and pull off, I would gather myself together enough to get back in line and then get back on the front. I continued this unti the base of the col de Bleine one final time launching my teamates to a well deserved 1 - 2 finish and a well deserved re-capture of the yellow jersey. Not to mention a painfully slow ride to the finish for me. Around top 30 or 40 still apparently. I was out of it and have never had to shake so many hands in my life. Apparently earning respect is hard. Got a ride home with Chels and her parents and treated to a amazing lunch and a cold beer to make it all worthwhile. Tomorrow = no bike.
In the end, I showed myself that injuries and lack of good legs doesn't have to slow you down. Good old fashioned suffering can overcome a lot. Try it sometime, you may second guess your decision for a while, but it pays off. That is one seriosuly long blog post. I'm getting some wine for that. And salt.

Last thoughts

I'm packed and waiting, and nothing seems worth looking at on the net. Micheal Barry gave me a little last motivation. The wind is nuts out there. Belgian styles. Bring on the suffer.
Side note: Bunny rabbits are delicious. Sorry Bugs.

Weird.

So the race last night was super fun, and pretty much a 1 hour moto pacing session minus the motor bike. It is literally run on a 900m outdoor velodrome. Banked corners and all. Needless to say, it is some fast and fun racing. It was a small pack and a hot evening, about 40 riders showed up to start with a few strong boys. We raced well and I attempted to stick myself into as many moves as possible and be off the front as much as I could. See, the thing is... the race is run as a points race. Basically just like track riding, but with gears. But you only really use your 53x11-13. Got in a few moves to claim some sprint points, botches my finishing sprint (hard to figure out how the pack moves) but had a good time. Was solo for a while before being worked over by a 3 time Irish National champ (Junior & Espoir). No one told me at the time, but he flies when he wants to. Rolled with him in what I was sure was the winning move when we left with 12 to go only to be caught with 5 to go. It is hard to stay away on a track that fast. Next up was the arrival of Chelsea's parents for a visit (the first of many visits for a busy month) and a wicked stop by the local market for some fresh goodies.
Today marks the start of Tour des Vallees, what is a pretty important race for the team and I'm pretty excited to mix it up in search of some results. We kick things off with a mountain road race today, tt tomorrow morning, another mountain road race in the afternoon, followed by one more hard day in the mountains Monday morning. 3 days, 4 stages. No crit! I won't have a computer with me for the race, so you'll have to wait for a full report come Monday or so. Enjoy your weekends as well, if I remember correctly its Charlevoix weekend. Ouch.

A crit in France?

Where to begin. It has been a couple of days. On Tuesday, Ed swung by for a long ride in the mountains. With Tour des Vallees this weekend, we were looking for a long ride in the mountains to prepare and do a little reconing. Ed had a route worked out and the map, so all that was left for me was to ride. Not the most beautiful of days, in fact one of the only overcast days I have experienced in the last month here, but that made for better riding in fact as it kept the heat in check. Over the next 5 hours we climbed many thounsands of feet up into the mist and clouds with 2 sustained cols of 1 hour + each. Up first to Caussols, down to St. Cezaire, straight up to Mons, rolling to Andon, and then back along a nice rolling descent home. Of course with a nice final little 5-6km kicker at the end. The "little kicker" also became a good ol' fashioned half wheeling contest to see who could crack the other after 4+ hours in the saddle. No real winner/loser on the climb though I did manage to put him in a spot of bother in the last km. A little rain blew through during my afternoon nap (or so I'm told) before the sun re-appeared in time for dinner on the patio. Yesterday was an easy 2 hours to prepare and recover for today's race. The afternoon was spent in the sun doing chores as laundry needed to be done, bikes to be cleaned and cheese to be eaten.
Preparations are ongoing here as there is another Canadian arriving today (Jannes from Sask.) as well as Matt's parents. Needless to say, it is going to be busy. Did I mention we are all racing a major stage race starting Saturday? Oh, and Chelsea's parents arrive bright and early tomorrow. Speaking of which, I have cleaning to do. A qucik spin first though to prepare the legs, as the crit is an evening affair with an 8pm start time. And as we ARE in France, I have no doubt 8pm has an asterix next to it and we'll be up and running closer to 9pm. Better bring some clear lenses for my glasses!

GPM on the road up to Mons.

French style parking spot ont he Mons climb. Road is max the width of a standard City of Ottawa bike path.

Gourdon. Along the climb up to Cassols.

Nearly French

Nothing like a race to improve a day! I am understanding, and appreciating, the early mornings here for racing. At first, coming from a land where Senior's race early afternoon, I was unimpressed with the 8-9am start times. Now, I am realizing that racing at 1pm here in the mountains would probably kill you. By 8:30 am yesterday, I was quite warm on the start line in simply shorts and and jersey. By the time I was home, I tried to pick up a white plate from our table outside and nearly burned my hand. It had been in the sun for about 10 minutes apparently. Who needs an oven? But back to the race. A rolling race I was told, about 100km (no one ever knows an exact distance). A race of tactics. Either way I felt good. The one climb was about 1.5km to 500m, again depending on who you asked. Side note, the climb was about 3km and we did it 3 times. Plus the "other" climb in the random extra loop. More on that soon. Rode aggressively and was very happy. Bridged up to a small break on the first lap up the climb with my team mate Ed. Misjudged to the length of the climb (damn wrong info) and nearly blew myself, but suffered on. By the descent our group had grown to about 20+ with little groups scampering across. Too many to work. Stayed at the front and set tempo the next time up the climb cresting 2nd to launch Ed in a solo bid for freedom. Not my ideal move, but he wanted a dig. Stayed at the front again and Ed was still on his own out front the last time over the climb. Saw 8km to go. Sprint time. Side note, that was supposed to show 25km to go. 8km was for after the next random new loop. I really wanted to sprint and was felling strong and motivated. Suddenly a sharp right hander and then a wall. Attacks and a lead group forms. Shit, big ring up the wall and up to the leaders. The wall keeps going. And going. Little ring, boom. Where did this climb come from I wonder, drifting backwards. Into a small chase group now, recovering a bit before setting back to the chase. I got over simply based on the fact that I was certain (for about 5-6km of climbing) that the climb was ending just around the next bend. On the descent into town, a few more got onto our group and we all pedaled through holding the pace high in the chase. Coming into 2km to go, I positioned myself well. Suddenly traffic. Downhill run-in to the finish, with on-coming traffic (move up to 4th wheel), into a 180 degree turn around a turning circle (which I power slid through as the volunteer "forgot" to tell us to keep turning), into an uphill 300m sprint for the line. I got 2nd in the sprint. About 15th overall. Oh, Ed got caught on the final climb then dropped his chain. Poor guy. I had some stomach cramps that nearly crippled me on the way home and then spent the afternoon realzing in the usual manner. Race a cool downtown crit Thursday, then off to Tour des Vallees Saturday-Monday. Boooya.

How big a deal am I?

I go places. Like last night, we went to Cannes (Chels, Ed, & I) to check out a free concert on the beach put on by the film festival. We decided to eat some pizza for dinner, and as we were checking out a menu a lady asked us an odd question, "Are you english?". Canadian, I replied. "Great, what are your plans tonight? As I am here for the Festival and really want to head home tonight but have these 4 tickets for the big party on the beach tonight if you are interested? I have been waiting here to here someone talk english to give them too." Needless to say, we declined and went home. Wait, no. We took them with many thanks (she really wanted to get home quick as she wouldn't even sit for a drink with us) and ate some pizza. After some exploring of fancy areas, we found the Hotel Magestic directly next to the red carpet and Palais du Festival. Not in tuxes and dresses as most, we walked up, handed our tickets to security and were waved through with a "bonne soire monsieur et madame". The beach party was rocking! Probably half a dozen open bars were we took advantage of free Champagne, wines, liquors and beer on the beach, on the dock... Amazing. Plus the free munchies! I didn't really spot many famous people, but I also wasn't really looking too hard. As the party wound down (pretty late) we figured we may be out of luck for getting home, so we headed back to sleep of the festivities on the beach. My neck hurts, but I'm still pretty happy. Watched the sun rise over the Med this morning from the beach before hopping back in the car and heading for home. Ed took photos, so I'll try to get some if they turn out. Now I need to spin the legs and nap a bit to help prepare for the race tomorrow.

Resting up

Today I awoke more tired than yesterday. It was also the day for the local market, so that provided some excellent non cycling morning activities. By lunch, I was still tired and a little lethargic so decided to have a nap before a very simple bakery ride and then the Giro. I race again Sunday, so it seems more important to stay healthy and fresh leading into this and then the next few weekends of big stage races and plenty of climbing. Looking like a quick trip in to Cannes for some closing festival events may be in order tonight.

Results

Quality time and suffering is paying off. In a hard race over 3 cols (Col de Nice, Col de Brosse, & Col de Brisse) I managed to pull off a 11th place finish out sprinting my chase group companions. The race shattered as usual with some incredible tempo and accelerations on the first col, I had placed myself well and fought hard at the base of the climb which helped a lot. About halfway up (it was about 10-12km) I succumed out of the lead group of 15 under some heavy accelerations and found myself in a small (3 man chase group). The last 5km of the climb set pace and suffered more than I can remember doing for a long time. 3km of switchbacks followed by 2km of pretty steep finished off the climb. Over the top we were a group of 4 chasing through the descent and through the valley. By the final climb my legs were starting to roll better and better after a lot of pace work through the valley below and the other climb. We caught a couple more guys along the first pitches before I realized that our group was back down to 4 of us with the leaders about 1 min up the road. Over the top things got a little hairy as 2 of the Frenchmen decided to take some risks on the descent and one of course promptly bit it in the first corner. He got back up and continued with us. I left a small gap and followed along. With 10-12km to the finish after we hauled through into Italy looking for the signs to anounce the end (there was spray paint saying 600) or the leading group. Never caught them but I took the sprint over the little 1km finishing flase flat. Oddly, I wished it were longer. Yannick was so happy after he hugged me. Fair enough. Ate a little, changed up and then hopped into the pool at home. All in all, a good day on the bike. Hopefully followed by a good dinner. Chels bought some bunny to eat this week, but more on that later.

hot hot heat

Its been pretty hot here. Sun, blue skies, nothing much to complain about. Sometimes while dripping on the way up some cols, I may wish for a tad less sun or heat, but overall I am adapting and my tan shows it. Did one of my favourite types of rides here yesterday after the solid beach rest day (which also involved my first venture into the aquatic oasis known as the Mediterranean), the hard mountain ride. This type of ride involves writing down names of towns/villages off my map in the order I wish to ride through, generally trying to link climbs together, stuffing some food and clothes in my pockets and heading out with a vague timeline. This leads to lesson 1:

-When riding in the mountains, always bring extra clothes. Don't worry about the weight, and you may curse them while really sweating up a col. But its often more than worth it.

Yesterdays main feature col was the col de Vence, and maybe col de Bleine - if I could find it and time allowed. After rolling over col de Vence I continue along the ridge through beautiful scenery until while wondering which direction to turn at a fork, some serious weather blew in. Not a big deal, I was on schedule, but was not willing to test my exploration skills in the mountains with lack of vision beyond 50 ft. and some pretty chilly temperatures suddenly. Lckily, I had followed rule #1 for mountain riding and therefor vested and arm warmered up. Made my way back down Vence and then found a new climbing heavy route home. 4 hours of tempo climbing leaves that nice ache in the legs, and a solid feeling of accomplishment in the head. Today will be an easy 1-2 hours to prepare for tomorrow's hard day in the mountains, which I am most deffinately looking forward to with great anticipation.
"La velo, c'est une sport de suffrance."

Du progresssion

That's what its all about, learning, adapting and improving. My legs seem to get better every day, which was a good thing today. Big field started on a rolling course with some good wind and one long-ish climb. We went from the gun single file all the way to the climb and then field shattered a bit on the climb. I was riding well, but positioned too far back at the start of the climb so had to put my head down and bleed out the eyes for most of it. Ended up just off the back of the lead over the top and after a tough chase got into a chase group and made it back to the pack just in time for the base of the climb again. Lost track of how many times we went over the damn thing... By the end our group was down to about 50 guys with a small group of 4-5 away as we motored the last 10km back into town for the sprint. Only 3 of us from the team were left in the front group so we were pretty unorganized and I did my own thing. Complicated thing this French sprinting it turns out. Basically everyone in the pack swarms towards the front, driving the pace up at least, gets swapped and then swarms back up again. A bit of a rythym, and I tried my best to stay top 20 watching for signs of how much more was left. I was sure were getting close (saw town signs) and then suddlenly 200m to go sign. Merde alors! Sprinted with the pack, but no way to move up much. Finished just behind the break in about the top 20 of the sprint. Not too bad I guess, though a couple of signs denoting KMs to go would have been nice for us foreigners. Had to dig deep a couple of times today but the legs are feeling better and better under effort. Got a col filled race coming up on Thurday in Nice, then Tour de la Faylede this weekend. 31km ttt the first day and then 138km road race the next with 4 GPM points. Time to turn up the suffer. Needless to say, tomorrow will be an easy day. Maybe a bit of beach relaxation?

Rain in provence?

Yesterday marked the first time I've seen rain, and apparently I should not get used to it. It usually only rains for the festival in Cannes a bit and then pretty much not again until later in the fall. Either way, it was pretty insignificant rain during the day by Canadian standards to I soldiered on. Local market in the morning for some fresh produce for the week and a few treats: goat's cheese, smoked deer (or "bambi" as explained the vendor) and wild boar sausage. Both are quite delicious. Then a long lunch and off for some solo explorations of the mountains. I was told of a long climbing route so gave it a go, up into Gourdon and then continue up to Cassols. Through the clouds, with wild views down and out to the Med all the way up. Eventually Gourdon appeared, perched on a cliff as any good old medival town should be. Good luck to any invaders, and I wipped my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. A tour of older folks arrived at the same time at then also did a double take at the weirdo riding up the mountain. I continued on to the top of the col (1120m) and then continue on through the rocky landscape up higher (not many trees here, and only stunted pine trees at that) to the observatory on top of the mountain. 25km, 1:15 of straight climbing. One of the most breath-taking rides of my life certainly. Threw on the cape and descended back through the twisty mountain roads. Note, when climbing alpine roads, always bring extra clothes for the way down - I could see my breath at the top. Wish I had a camera. Today the sun and heat is back, and I'm ready for the race tomorrow. Early though. Gotta ride to Cannes at 5:30 tomrrow morning for our ride to the race as the race is an early one. Finish my coffee with the Giro and we'll be ready to put the hammer down tomorrow. Cheers

Quality

Rest day: complete. A bit of walking, a bit of shopping, plenty of food. Grabbed the train from Mouins-Sartoux to Cannes (10-15 minutes) before a spot of exploration. Made our way to the morning market where I held back a bit (I only had a small sack) buying some fresh avocodo and wicked looking purple artichokes! Proceded along to the promenade to witness the chaos known as the Cannes film festival. Not terribly exciting in my books, though some pretty snazzy cars and suits, but well enjoyed by my female companion. We even bought some art from a crazy Italian painter on the beach who "liked our energy". A sales pitch I'm sure, but a pretty smoking deal on 2 cool paintings. Plus the entertainment value. A long french lunch was certainly the deal of the day at a small patio cafe in view Cannes. 12 Euro each got a starter (salads or tapas type plate), rack of lamb with small salad and patates Dauphinois, wine, and of course a dessert. I was stuffed. So ordered a cafe to relax a bit. A little more wandering and a few small purchases (I got some Aioli to try) and we were back ont the train. 2.60 Euro each way is pretty cheap. Such was the day, tomorrow back to work on the bike with a quick run into the local market in Valbonne to stock up on fresh produce.
Also, worth checking out is Micheal Barry's new diary on Velonews.com. The man is my hero. Any time you trun on Giro converage, there he is on the front. And everytime I point him out again to Yannick who is very impressed with the top proffesionalism of the Canadian. Hats off to him.
"During the first two stages I spent an accumulated 300 kilometers on the front with two teammates." MB

tourist

Today is a rest day, and a tourist day. You see a lot of cool things riding a bike around, but sometimes its nice to slow down and look closely. That and if you have a significant other who does not race bikes, it can be appreciated to be doing non-cycling activities. So Cannes it is!
Yesterday did not go quite as planned, but turned into a good training day anyways. We were supposed to be reconing a course with several cols out by Nice, but ended up losing our guide on the first col. Long story short, he decided stopping for foreigners at forks in the road was over rated, and we were under strict low intensity orders on the cols. Rode around for a bit looking for him (apparently he never even looked around for us) before deciding against getting really lost in the mountains and riding back into Nice. Rode back along the Promenade des Anglais (which was pretty wicked) and then back up the hills home to Plascassier. Did some good efforts on the way home uphill to test my legs after 4 hours in the legs to end with alomost 5 hours in the saddle. Just a little short on the real climbing side of things. Col de Nice was pretty wicked though with tons of switchbacks and brilliant views. Had a bit of a special dinner planned so wipped up a French dinner of Canard with Patates Dauphinois and Pate au Sauge. Oh lala as they say here. My legs felt pretty awful yesterday with the exception of the col and the efforts home, so I am taking it is a sign of leftover fatigue from travel and the weekend's racing. Sounds like a double race day on Sunday in Brignoles with a morning tt and afternoon road race, so gotta rest up to improve from last weekend.

Promenade des Anglais. Nice, France.

Switchbacks of Col de Nice. 8-9km col. Ed shown in Pic.

Tourist photo/ Stevens advert.

How to recover

As I am in recovery mode, this will be a picture book type update. As a side note, today involved some solid climbing, and sun. But sun and heat is the norm, so that is not really worth rubbing in much anymore.

The beach by Cannes. This is recovery. And yes, the sun was out for a bit.

I make friends quickly and easily here. She's a blast.

Standard cycling recovery. Standard Sandy confusion.

Also, we have olive trees here. Awesome.

Race #1 & 2

My kits are coming (apparently). These are old and size L.

Two down, with the second most certainly better than the first. #1 found ourselves at the base of Mont Ventoux, for a surprisingly less than hilly parcours. Two climbs of about 1.5-2 km each and other wise rolling terrain, narrow farm roads (Belgie type) and plenty of wind. First of all, the French are awful starters apparently. I assumed late, but no one lined up close to the line. I got there early to be close to the front for the start, and eneded up about 100 people from the front. Merde! Even after pushing through for a bit. I had been told by some teamtes of the narrow roads, a bridge wide enough to pass only single file, and about the 150 man peloton. Got a good start and moved up quickly on the right side out of the wind as the pace wound up. 1:34 in, chute. Big crash clogging the whole road. I tried to thread the needle through 2 riders but my bars caught and I went down. Hard to brake at 50-50km/h. My foot got caught in a wheel, someone else landed on me.... Took a while to get my foot free, (the owner of the wheel was later taken away by ambulance so was of no help) straighten out the bike, and then begin the solo chase. Got soooo close to the pack after 1.5 laps of chasing (11km laps) before blowing sky high on the final climb. After that I rode for a bit before catching a few more dropped riders and then rolling in a little gruppetto to the finish. Like I say, hard day chasing. Stopped en route home for a nice big meal at the DS's aunt's house and got home around 12. Ouch.

#2. 8:30am race. Luckily, the race was running late as so were we. 2 cols, I was told. Ouch. My first forray into the mountans. A beautiful start through a windy valley with rock cliffs so tall they blocked the sun, and rock tunnels to ride through meant one thing... time to go up. I was a little to far back in retrospect for a man with iron legs but rode well. I did all I could to make the lead group riding past many riders only to fall just short over the top. A few more caught, and passed me on the descent. Apparently, I am rusty at switch back descents on tiny mountain roads. I did find my groove again on the later descents. The lead group apparently blew again into 2 groups so I eneded my day in group 3, somewhere around top 20-30. Not bad. But I had to suffer hard a few times to hold on. 3 cols later (liars), and a finishing climb (a little longer than Fortune) and I was done. Also, quite the incredible course to race on for my first alpine race. Happy with my ride all considered and ready to improve further next weekend. One race Sunday, then 2 weekends of stage racing. Including one with 3 mountain stages. Basically, this week I train in the mountains.

Ding Dong

1:34. Thats what my computer read. And yes, that is in minutes, the time until I hit the ground. Or more precisely a pile of twitchy Frenchmen. I am pretty much ok, a little bruised (we we're cruising off the start at 50+ after all) and somewhat tired as I chased solo the rest of the way to finish, but overall fine. I'll post a full report later, this is mostly for mom, as it is now midnight and I have learned this evening that I race again tomorrow. Up at 7 again for a morning race, but this time in Nice. More to come on also why I am up.

Early

It's almost 7am, and I'm off. We have a bit of a drive to Mont Ventoux this morning I hear for my first race of the year. A tough Cat 2. Luckily for me, I also get to race tomorrow. Time to find how my legs are. Ciao.

A few pictures

Today marks an interesting day, not only my third day here living 'la belle vie', but also my first pre-race day. Tomorrow, barring any issues acquiring my new license, I will be lining up for a Cat.2 race in Antrechaux. And if I feel well, Sunday will mark race #2 in Nice.

As a side note, I forgot a little story. Mildly embarrassing at the time really. On my first ride here, Ed (from the UK) and Matt took me out for a little spin. 1.5 hours real easy we said. Coming down the hill into Grasse after about an 1:15, I applied the brakes in advance of a turn. Suddenly I was skidding out of control. I knocked into Ed (very gingerly) and toppled over at .5km/h. "*#^%!" saide I. A little red in the face towards my new teamates, I attempted to explain, but there was no explanation. So I tried to ride away. Nothing. It would appear the lovely folks at Air Canada had smoked my rear wheel at some point and it basically gave out under me. Spoke tension was all over and the wheel was jambed into my frame. I tried an old mountain biking trick of wacking it on the curb, but only managed to get confused looks from some locals. So Matt had to ride the 15 min home to get the team car to pick me up. Even more fun is getting the turn around from the local Air Canada office who are generally either on brake or giving me new phone numbers to call. Either way, Yannick has lent me a new rear wheel and I'm rolling again.

Yesterday was an awesome day, as Ed drove us down to the coast to meet up with a couple of ladies from Moose Jaw, friend's of Matts. Matt and Ed dropped Chels and I off in Antibes to explore while they went to Nice to find the ladies. Chels and I spent a while driking coffee, and exploring the old town and port before heading on a little hike with the rest of the group out the Cape d'Antibes with our new friends. We then headed down the coast to Juan-Les-Pins and finally spent the afternoon lounging on the beach in Cannes with some cheese to work on our cycling tans. A great way to take in the sights and recover at the same time!



Me & big Ed working our tans by the Med. Chels on our little walk out the Cape d'Antibes.


The fresh market in Antibes, great stuff! Chez nous en France. Actually, just behind this.

Bienvenue!

Life is good. Cheese is cheep (3 Euro for a round of Brie) and wine is cheeper (2 Euro). Many things are expensive here, but not those. I told Yannick that a round of brie would cost me $12 at home. He was outraged. In fact, I think he still thinks I was pulling his chain. The place is great, our own little apartment by the house, a pool, a view of les bas-alpes, and plenty of narrow road riding. In fact, just got back from a little recovery spin before heading out for the afternoon wandering around Antibes & Cannes on the Med. Yesterday was my first long-ish ride with close to 4 hours and some pretty decent climbing. Myself, Matt (from Sask), and Ed from England headed out with Erik (an older guy from the club) for a nice tour. Erik knows these roads far too well so we had an excellent route with a couple of good climbs. Or flat, as Erik explained for here. Was unaware that 10-12km climbs were flat. Such is life. Got a pretty packed race schedule as well, with several Elite stage races coming up. First race should still be this Saturday, and then maybe Sunday as well. Just sorting out my new French liscence. I have a few pictures so far, but not many. So will try to post a few up tonight after our exploration.

hopping the atlantic

Packed. Ready. Its been quite the intense week of finishing stuff off, getting ready. But here I am. Airport, packed with a beer. Nothing like a cold beer to calm down after a long morning of running around. Tommorrow morning (1oam France time) I will be pulling into Nice and getting ready for my first ride. Exciting. Thanks to everyone out there for your support and encouragement, I'll be sure to update on a more regular basis with some ideally more exciting stories and whatnots. Cheers.

Looper

First looper of the season has come and gone. A chilly evening, but quite nice as the sun came out along with a great group. Things got hard pretty quick so I managed to get myself a good workout. The pack seemed to have pretty much shattered pretty early. A group got away on the doldrums (the same group that had been trying all ride) and they stayed away. 6 of them and by the top of Fortune we were down to 4 of us chasing. Hence the good workout. Little peeved I didn't go with the first group, just hesitated for some reason. Today will be another similar day filled with my woodworking, trip details, dentist and a ride. Better get to it. I seem to not have enough time lately to get my stuff done!

Last Canuck race

Didn't go exactly as hoped, but wasn't worst case either. Raced aggressively and paid the price. Nervous pack, gave me a little extra motivation to try and work on my pack positioning and followed a bunch of moves in the wind. Big crash 3.4km into the race nearly took me out but I managed to part the sea of fallen riders by just holding my line right down the middle of the road. Phew. Planet Energy (poor buggers) had to put on one hell of a chase after Gilbert flatted from the break, keeping the pack 'au bordure' for the entire last half of the race. Which also happened to be starting right after I got caught. Held on for a bit longer but was not in good position, so just suffered for a few more laps. Keir gave me some company for the drive which was excellent, and we chatted cycling and pumped some tunes. In fact, it is so nice out today that I will be heading out for a few hours with the boy again soon. I've got a week to get into some kind of fighting shape, so I better take advantage of this no school thing. Cheers,

Race update... slightly late.

Sorry, internet issues coupled with exams. Race went well, great weather and a decent field. Rode much better than the previous weekend, positioned well, followed a bunch of moves, rode some breaks andset pace. Ended up missing the final move, but happy anyways. Blocked in when the move went and not enouh exra horse power to chase it back. I worked my ass off for 2 laps to bring the gap down and try to bridge but no one was working. Finished up in the pack sprint by working on my position and then being let down by some god ol' fashioned leg cramps. Had a decent week of riding so far, though the weather has not been awesome. The weekend forecast makes up for that. Plus being done my college career as of tomorrow should make for a good time. Race this weekend, either Almonte-Roubaix or Ste-Martine, then 1 week left. How time flies. So much to do, and still 2 bikes to sell. Shiet. Anyone need a road bike? Contact me. Seriously.

First race in the books.

Well, didn't go as well as hoped. Followed some moves early expecting a field like that to want to cause a split early on but it never really came. At least I didn't end up in the break 'cause my legs were not wanting to turn over. Maybe something to do with standing and working outside all the day the day before to raise a barn for school. Either way, excuses suck. I was too far back when the going got tough and didn't have the legs to close the gaps that I needed too. Not happy with it, but its the first race of the season. Calabogie this weekend, not Battenkill as I'm unsure of my legs and don't want to drive all that way slash spend the $$$ for another day like that. Bogie is close and should let me work hard to make up for it. Spent the rest of the weekend up at Tremblant eating, riding and skiing. Found a wicked 10km climb in my 3.5 hours Saturday up, up into the snow and then tele skied Sunday morning and did some good efforts in the wind on Sunday. Today promises to be a wicked riding day again so I'll be out there. Last week of class. Booya.

Snow

Its back. But not for long I hope. And by not for long, I am referring to gone by Friday (at the latest). Friday mostly as I will be racing and do not wish for a repeat of the snow squall cold fest in Hamilton a few years back. Common sun and warm! Until then, rides continue (outdoors based on weather) and life goes on. Life just seems to involve a large amount of final term papers. At least school is done soon.

Shannigans

What I have been up to:
Froze myself silly riding Sunday in that ridonculous rain and cold. Had to be helped into the house, fell over in the shower. Couldn't even fully undress myself. But I lived.
Riding was better the rest of the week.
Can't wait to stop having to go to school, and just ride. Not that I actually dislike my school or program, but spring has that itch.
Driving to and from Perth every day is pretty boring and wasteful. At least its almost done.
Seenite crits are back up and running soon. Don't be seen urinating on the side of the course.
I may be having some adverse gluten reactions. Scientific study to come and reports as they develop. Not good, as I love bread. Especially on my rides. At least this is a "scientific" excuse to do some baking.
To come:
I need to sell my Devinci, in custom team white/orange. Contact me for details/$$.
As well, 55cm Javelin Torgiano. Must go.
Gonna race soon. Looks like Good Friday may be the day to shake out the cobwebs.