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.