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.