going local

After a ridiculously relax Monday, I rode about 2 hours with Charles and G-E on some bike paths and back roads, today was back to some more serious work. Oh, we also did some house shopping at WalMart (my least favourite place in the world) for a new toaster and a basic coffee grinder. We may have also taken advantage of some cheap cereal and other foodstuffs. A beer at night to welcome Guillaume to the house finished off our day. A nice spin in the morning sun got us off to a good start on Tuesday, which also seems to be know as the international day of evening world championships. Things are no different around here with us making the quick drive down to Sherbroke for their version. 10$ got you an entry, into what was a smaller and less quite field than I'm used to, but we set about making the race hard for all. We made a plan of being on the attack constantly, and that we did. From the gun. Georges was the first to manage to escape the grasps of the peleton, even managing to stay away with one other rider for the duration and take the 2 up sprint. In the end a good day, though I was somewhat upset to have my final break caught just before the sprint. No worries, a good day training. And the nachos after were quite wonderous. Meeting a group of boys today for a nice hilly ride down into the US I think. From what I hear, it should be quite the group of boys. Tt bikes should be arriving tomorrow, along with my boy JS. The weekend is on its way.....

Bromont

A Bromont update here, Bromont rocks. Great training, good people and of course some good times. Found myself a sweet 5 hour route yesterday down through Knowlton (no sign of Lynn Bessette), through Sutton (some pretty wicked climbing), along the Vermont border, and then back up through some sweet gravel road climbing. Tons of friendly folk out on their bikes (pedal and motor powered) and some ridiculously good scenery. Every little town seemed to cry out at me with bakeries, and coffee shops. Got home, with a steep final climb up "Iron Hill" to the house (about 5-10 minutes of steep pitches). A good salmon dinner, seafood is cheap, set me up for a good evening of relaxing. Georges is at the house today, and we all seem to have a nice chill coffee ride on the schedule for the day.

negative racing, defined

Ontario, I'm pretty sure that is the definition. Everyone is happy to chase, then sit up. No one wants to commit to a good effort. Well, to be fair, its not everyone; its just a majority. My only teammate (le toujours sympatique Charles Thibault) managed to attack solo on the start of the second lap as a form of anger versus the 12km/h pace we seemed content to hold. A few riders scurried across at various points with various success levels with me scrambling around to try and cover everything. Needless to say, a few got away including a very nice little move by fellow blogger (though his blogging seems a rare occurrence) James Riggs and the man himself, Evan Mundy. Eventually the move settled with 5 boys up the road, soon enough a chase group formed, and though it lasted for some time, a few of us managed to whip the pack into chase shape and pull it back with about 3-4 laps remaining. After that, everyone pretty much sat up and returned to stop and go racing. Also known as, everyone sit and wait for Oz to attack and then chase. At least this managed to shed a few more riders And allowed me to simply sit near the front on some particularly 'draft worthy' dudes and eat some food. With 2 to go, things started getting a little impatient and it became apparent that the escape would not be coming back. Just after the feed zone I got fed up with rolling at 12km/h and then chasing so put in a move of my own and had a nice little solo/Jens move. I rocked and rolled my bike all the way into the finish just holding off the field sprint after a particularly brutal head win finish straight. Good enough for 6th place, with Charles taking 2nd. Not bad for a team of 2. Hoped ourselves back into the car and then booted it down the 401 to my home for the week in beautiful Bromont, QC. I'd post some pictures of our pad, but apparently I did not bring my camera. So those will have to wait. For now, its time to hit the local pub for a celebratory brew...
I should also mention that the dude who won was approx. 112 years old from Arkansas. When I saw him go I had some type of war flashback to being on Belgian roads and getting worked of by similar old men with down tube shifters, 1 bottle and flasks of espresso/scotch. Needless to say, apparently the the flashbacks proved correct. Charles has just informed me that google tells us he is a multiple time US National Masters champ. I think there is a moral to this story....

how to laze

Begin by pouring yourself a generous cup of your favourite brew, in my case a wonderfully smooth and robust bialletti cup this morning. Grab your computer, your remote, or a good book and proceed to put you legs up and let your cares float away. I have even gotten to the point that with the return of Mr. sunshine, my shy friend of years, that I will soon put down the computer head downstairs to the sunny deck to sit with my new cook book and a second cup of joe. Such is my morning. I do have a few things to do on my platter today, but before those of you more gainfully employed loose a gasket reading this from your cubicles, I would like to share the current downsides to my life. For examples, while going out to redevelop a social life last night, I was the most sober person within a 10 mile radius of the market. Not terrible per say, but most certainly not old Sandy either. The biggest minus to my current lifestyle would have to be the bank account balance. I know, cry me a river. But, I guess it is time to fill the page of this blog with something more meaningful, I just seem to be in a pretty bloody relaxed mood today. Due to the getting caught in the rain bit the other day, I need to give my bike a good cleaning. Can't show up to a race with a grimy bike, that is just not kosher. I also need to pack for the week to live in Bromont. You know, usual cyclist life things: Nutella, books, movies galore and some chain lube. Nothing big. I also intend to head off in a few minutes to the ol' Canada Tire to build myself a quick pit kit for my bike washing. I have a bunch of stuff, but feel the need for some more. Perhaps I'll check my basement stashes first... Got myself a solid interval session in yesterday's wind. Even managed to work it out so that all my intervals were into the head wind, and I could cruise a beautiful tail wind home with the sunset. Enjoy your weekend, and hope to see some of y'all at Brockville. The weather looks bike-race-'tastic.

Quick

Crit went well last night. Things got a little on the sketch side when coming towards the final sprint when a few riders who apparently really should not have been near a sprint, let alone a fast moving pack of cyclists, deciding to use the last of their "strength" to make their way to the front. Luckily their inability to hold a straight line, and an apparent need to dive bomb (poorly) corners moved them out of the way. That and a powerful pull/surge from a particular rider to pop the pace to about 51 on the back straight, allowed for a decent sprint. And by decent I mean I was the first to cross the line. Other than the dudes in the break. But JS won the real race, so it works out for us in the white and orange. Things are coming along nicely and I'm feeling better and better on the bike. Its time for a good race this weekend I feel. Solid ride today, though I may have pushed it a little long as I got caught in the rain for the last 45 minutes to an hour. No biggie. Nice day to cruise. About 6 hours in the end of solid zone .5. This equates to roughly "slow as ass" in metric. Not that I'm bragging or anything. I just happen to be really good at Zone .5, its kinda my thing. Keep the easy easy, and the hard hard. And keep your stick on the ice.

reportage

Some good days of racing under the belt. Legs were less than ideal I'd say, but I'd also say that I saw those 'base endurance miles' paying off. First off, with the legs I had, I would say that last year I would very likely not have finished either race. At very least, not with the pack. But that was then, this is now. Hit the road Friday with good ol' JS, direction Montreal to meet up with the boys. Made good time, so met up with an early Charles and settled ourselves in for a cafe and some shop talk before the arrival of the others. With Perras suffering from some gastro issues, we were now down to 5. No worries, Boivin promised some good form on his return from the hard man's land of Belgium so we continued along to MA. After having JS explain to the nice border man that we were driving to Bangkok (Thailand???) I took over the explanations and question answering duties (we were actually heading to Hancock, MA) for the slightly bewildered border guard. Back on the road, we stopped for a buter filled meal at some random US restaurant chain of whom name escapes me. Pulled in and checked in to our home for the night, meeting up with our 5th rider, Georges-Edouard, who had just finished a training camp in Virginia. Sleep, the a hostile takeover of the hotel's continental breakfast waffle machine. Sorry to any other patrons who waited for waffles before giving us a dirty look and leaving with a muffin. A 10:30 race start wasn't too bad, but the fresh temperatures (7 degrees), rain and wind left us deciding that an in-car warm up was in order. Rolling down the start, I discovered a slow leak in my rear tyre so made my way over to the lovely SRAM neutral boys in red to grab myself a Zipp. Sweet. The race started off alright, a real nice rolling course with a long headwind false flat, turn into a nice 2km finishing climb to put some weaker riders into difficulty. With the break beginning to establish itself after the first lap (~30km in), I found myself struggling a bit with some "lead legs" so played it safe staying near the front and out of the wind. Boivin got himself into the break while JS and Georges-Edouard did a good job covering any other early attacks or attempts to bridge. My legs began to come around slowly through the race, and I was climbing pretty well, so got myself in the front and started working on covering attacks as well, and generally following wheels in a defensive pattern. It became somewhat important to stay near the front on the climb as there was always a split. The long descent allowed for some re-grouping, but not without some effort on your part. On the last lap, I made a move with 1km to go on the final ascent to bridge to a solo rider (who was unfortunately cracked) and ended up leading out the sprint and getting caught with 250m to go. Still held on for about a top 10 in the field sprint on the climb. Should be about 25th overall I think. Not bad for the first 150km race day of the year. I should have put a bit more gas into my effort I think at the end as I got kind of caught up in 'saving' something in case I got caught. These efforts must be all or nothing, I had the legs for that.
Drove back to our new home after the race in Bromont, were we had an excellent night's sleep and a cold beer to celebrate a good day in the saddle. With the Brossard crit not going off until 4:30, we allowed ourselves a nice long sleep before heading out to buy some lunch supplies. Another coffee after some naps left us energized and ready for the day's efforts. With 9 of us at the race, we had a simple plan: make the day hard, and always be in every break. I got myself right to the front on the start (a little Belgian slip got myself backed into the front line) and then got into the first attack of the day. From there I got myself slowly back comfortably into the front and ended up getting into the break of the day with no effort, about 12-15 of us just kinda rolled away. This ended up being perfect for us as we had 4 riders in the break, all committed and working hard to attack, chase and counter. In the end, I did a large pull to bring back a small group setting up JS for the winning attack. He went with one other VW rider with 5 to go and was never seen again. Boivin took the sprint for 3rd, and Cossette was 5th. 1-3-5. Pay day again. I was pretty toast the last 5 laps but just tried to follow some wheels and make sure no one caught JS. A good day for the team, and a good day for me. I had very little jump, and as JS put it, I rode more like a diesel all day. Well, thats the long report. Luckily I had a big cup of coffee.

Travel day

Nice mid length endurance ride yesterday, then an afternoon of working at the shop. Picked myself up some much needed new tyres as I have already worn out the cheapo Kendas that came with my bike and the team has not received our sweet new Maxxis rubber. A few more things to take care of this morning race and packing wise before the arrival of JS and our departure for grand ol' Montreal. Busy times. Finally get to check out our team house in Bromont too. Enough dilly dallying, time to get to business. Enjoy your weekend.