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.