Today was the last day I would be wearing the EMD Serono/Steven's colours as the team does not exist when I race my next race on Janurary 1st, 2009. I wanted one last chance to shine those colours, but my recovery from my flu bug has left me disappointed and doubting myself to say the least. I know, 6 days after having a bug, you shouldn't be that hard on yourself, but for some reason I am. I tried hard today and nothing seemed to happen for me. Bad start, left me fighting to get up through the largest women's field I have yet to see in a race here in Belgium. I took some risks in the first lap and crashed hard twice because of it. My legs still don't have their usual punch, but I pulled around a group of 12 girls to try and make up time. This wasn't working and I couldn't get away, so I decided to make it into a tactical fight to beat all the girls I was with at 2 laps to go. It was pretty hard fighting with my brain today that far back in the race and then having to lose more time around the corners sitting on 12 girls. I was thinking, "what the hell am I doing back here, I bet none of these girls have won any UCI races this year, let alone 7". At that point, I said to myself I better win this sprint and recovered and dusted them all at the end. So I guess the best thing about today was I succeeded with this at the end and using the last lap to make my way from 12 position in the group to 3rd in the last corner and then jumping by them all at the line.
Derrick's race went better, still having a bit of bad luck with his equipment failing, but I can feel that he is on his way up on the results sheets. He's getting more aggressive, making better choices on his eqiupment (he actually chose to use his aluminum bike over his carbon and aluminum wheels as the course was super frozen with hard ruts). He also ran the Shwable tires which were also a better tire to hook in the frozen sections, not like the grifos I used that slid out a few times.
Other than that not much to say about todays race, not great at the very least for me. The good news is I get to put on a brand new kit that's way closer to home for the next race. I can transform myself into anyone I want to be for the race on Thursday. The colours I will be shining aren't the team that I will ride for the '09 season on the road (Specialized) but our none other The Cyclery kit to keeps things in line until the end of cross season in February. I thinking of transforming into Wonder Women, as when I was 4 or 5 I got a Wonder Women comstume for Christmas and I ran around the house like I was the fastest little girl in the universe. Let's hope The Cyclery kit makes me the fastest cyclo cross racer in the universe!
NCE
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Diegem Super Prestige-Introducing John Derrick
Not sure if you've seen the results for the Diegem Super Prestige, but you'll notice a certain John Derrick from Canada...well that was me. Not only did they get the name wrong but also since John Derrick doesn't exist, he didn't get a call up. So I started from the back row.
So this round of the Super prestige is run at night in a town center and is mostly gravel cinder paths, pavements, back alleys and rock hard frozen rutted ground.
It was prety sweet as it was just Andre Sutton (Andy) and me going to this one as their was no chicks race. The rest of the crew stayed home and watched it on the tele. How cool is that.
Funny enough I actually had a descent start. Until some Italian dude was getting a little frisky and put me into the fence a little. No worries though, I lost a couple of spots, battled back and forth, then noticed Jonathan Page in front of me. I figured if I held on for as long as posible I would have a descent race. Well the "hangin on" got me in a fight with a tree. I showed that tree who was Boss...so then I was a little further back than I wanted, scrapped it out with a couple dudes for 35 th spot. Crazy that one guy put me into the barriers and took all skin off a knuckle. I was pissed so I throttled it a little and he was gone once I got around him.
So, I ended up 35th on the same lap as the winners, I would guess about 55-60 guys started the race, but they don't record the DNF's here. Not really the race of a life time but after 2 less than stellar races I just needed a respectable finish to get my head out of the gutter. Don't know if you've ever been in last place, but it's a little hard to deal with, especially after having a pretty good season in America.
Things may be coming together. Plus, now that I've got a couple fans here in Europe, my post race trainer cool down invovled taking pictures with kids and getting patts on the butt from wise Belgian dudes smoking pipes. Also we had a crew of 5 working for us today...three guys, two girls, super keen to help and it only cost 15 Euros. Don't think that you could find people at home to work for 4 hours for 3 dollars an hour. I would pay them more, but obviusly I'm not yet in the money, so for now they get my whitty jokes and sign language all of which they probably have absolutely no idea of what I'm talking about.
So does start the blitz of racing known as Christmas Cross...hopefully it is a sign that things will get better.
John Derrick
So this round of the Super prestige is run at night in a town center and is mostly gravel cinder paths, pavements, back alleys and rock hard frozen rutted ground.
It was prety sweet as it was just Andre Sutton (Andy) and me going to this one as their was no chicks race. The rest of the crew stayed home and watched it on the tele. How cool is that.
Funny enough I actually had a descent start. Until some Italian dude was getting a little frisky and put me into the fence a little. No worries though, I lost a couple of spots, battled back and forth, then noticed Jonathan Page in front of me. I figured if I held on for as long as posible I would have a descent race. Well the "hangin on" got me in a fight with a tree. I showed that tree who was Boss...so then I was a little further back than I wanted, scrapped it out with a couple dudes for 35 th spot. Crazy that one guy put me into the barriers and took all skin off a knuckle. I was pissed so I throttled it a little and he was gone once I got around him.
So, I ended up 35th on the same lap as the winners, I would guess about 55-60 guys started the race, but they don't record the DNF's here. Not really the race of a life time but after 2 less than stellar races I just needed a respectable finish to get my head out of the gutter. Don't know if you've ever been in last place, but it's a little hard to deal with, especially after having a pretty good season in America.
Things may be coming together. Plus, now that I've got a couple fans here in Europe, my post race trainer cool down invovled taking pictures with kids and getting patts on the butt from wise Belgian dudes smoking pipes. Also we had a crew of 5 working for us today...three guys, two girls, super keen to help and it only cost 15 Euros. Don't think that you could find people at home to work for 4 hours for 3 dollars an hour. I would pay them more, but obviusly I'm not yet in the money, so for now they get my whitty jokes and sign language all of which they probably have absolutely no idea of what I'm talking about.
So does start the blitz of racing known as Christmas Cross...hopefully it is a sign that things will get better.
John Derrick
Friday, December 26, 2008
Zolder-The ghosts of Christmas past
I'd like to start this off giving you some good news to hear on Christmas, but it goes from bad to worse, but here goes.
Tasha wasn't 100% yet, so the plan was to pull the plug if she was off. She was sick in bed all day Wednesday and probably only eating some toast all day really effected her two days later. She started the race and rode a lap and half and just didn't have it, so instead of putting herself into a hole, she pulled out and called it a day. There is still a lot of racing left and sometimes, when you are recovering from illness, it's just better to save your energy, moral and effort for when it could be put to good use. Not only that but there were some pretty tric sections that you could crash severly if you wern't right in the head. The funniest thing she said was something that would of scarred her a year ago, was the only way she could go by people today. On the rutted, sketchy downhills, she just didn't have the push or the power to do any efforts on the flats or uphills. I was so proud to see her come off the course, just said it wasn't going to happen, it was a hard decision.
So the pressure was on me, as when Tasha is not shining I usually come around. Well not today unfortunately. The race started off ok, but then disaster. I ran up a section cause it was bottlenecked and my bike bounced off the frozen ground and my chain fell off. Then I put it back on as I was running...got to the top and it was off again, figured I could just shift the derailer and get it back as I was loosing ground, but it got completely jammed into the BB and a spectator helped me pull it out. Pause for a second, just remember this is the World Cup. So I finally get it back on and I start going ballistic trying to salvage a respectable race, well I mangaged to crash really hard on the downhill and really put the nail in the coffin. So I'm pretty much in last position, cause I pass like 6 guys who realized that the race was pretty much over and they pulled the plug...but I'm kind of stuborn, so just try to keep on pushing.
I'd like to say that I stayed positive, but I didn't. I wanted to throw my bike across the race track and wake up from this bad dream...I pinched my leg...ok I didn't, but the hematoma that had built up on my left hip felt like someone was pinching me. But once again, I just sucked it up. My decision to come here, my pill to swallow. It sucked, I sucked, it was aweful. Last place. All the hard work over the last year and it was as if I had just eat pancakes and Shwarma for a year and nothing was better, it was worse. I just got so mad, I just figured other guys ahead of me would quit, surely they could not take being so far back. I actually started riding respectably, but the damage was done, and there was pretty much no hope.
Then I remembered all the people that came out to support us at our event, all the people that have helped us out this year and if they were watching, I wouldn't want to let them down. It's ez when the going is good, but it was hard, not in the legs, but in the head. I also remember telling the Jet Fuel kids this year "don't ever quit", no matter what just keep on pushing, don't quit. I thought what kind of hypocritical role model would I be. Hey if your sick that's a different story as you can dig yourself a deeper hole, I just had shit go wrong and it's not like I had any other plans for the afternoon, so might as well just keep on riding.
It will go my way, there will be a time and a place, and it will fall into place.
Stick to the plan. This place is like a bread cooker, get it right and it rises, mess it up and its burned crispy, tates aweful and makes you sick. Good news is last time I looked, there was no shortage of flour in Belgium.
Fellow Canuck Wendy Simms, other wise known as DUBS had a good ride squeeking in the top ten and Aaron "School boy too cool for School-er" just made the last lap. It's always nice finishing on the same lap, he was pretty stoked.
Funny story. I did buy some Morgan Blue Bio cleaner that I was supposed to bring back to Robbie O, but I bought a plastic bottle and then had a vision of it exploding in the bike bag, so yesterday I used it to clean our bikes. I accidentally spilled some on my abdomen and it felt a little bizzare. Well later when I took my shorts off, to my suprise I gave myself a 1st degree chemical burn that made my stomach look like I had the plague. SO I rinsed it off, but not an hour later I had a huge bout of Nausea...it was so severe, I ran upstairs, fast, and I came so close to heaving...but I didn't want too, cause then I'd have to eat all those calories again...then it passed, but anyways the moral of the story is BIO cleaner must not mean BIO degradeable, but more like BIO Hazard. Also it is a bright blue color and almost looks radioactive, no kidding it does a good job on the chain.
Ok, I made myself laugh with that story now I feel like an idiot and a fool...but wait...I still beat Lance. Now I'm better. Ahhhh. Also I'm so happy for that my three years of nagging Tasha with "Nursly" advice has finally paid off. Remember Natasha is the child that used to run on the spot in her bed room and wore out the carpet, so for her not to race...believe me, she she has come a long way from the gym rat who used to train 25 hours a week when we met. See, if you nag people enough they will eventually give in, or divorce you...but we are not married yet, so....
DSJ
Tasha wasn't 100% yet, so the plan was to pull the plug if she was off. She was sick in bed all day Wednesday and probably only eating some toast all day really effected her two days later. She started the race and rode a lap and half and just didn't have it, so instead of putting herself into a hole, she pulled out and called it a day. There is still a lot of racing left and sometimes, when you are recovering from illness, it's just better to save your energy, moral and effort for when it could be put to good use. Not only that but there were some pretty tric sections that you could crash severly if you wern't right in the head. The funniest thing she said was something that would of scarred her a year ago, was the only way she could go by people today. On the rutted, sketchy downhills, she just didn't have the push or the power to do any efforts on the flats or uphills. I was so proud to see her come off the course, just said it wasn't going to happen, it was a hard decision.
So the pressure was on me, as when Tasha is not shining I usually come around. Well not today unfortunately. The race started off ok, but then disaster. I ran up a section cause it was bottlenecked and my bike bounced off the frozen ground and my chain fell off. Then I put it back on as I was running...got to the top and it was off again, figured I could just shift the derailer and get it back as I was loosing ground, but it got completely jammed into the BB and a spectator helped me pull it out. Pause for a second, just remember this is the World Cup. So I finally get it back on and I start going ballistic trying to salvage a respectable race, well I mangaged to crash really hard on the downhill and really put the nail in the coffin. So I'm pretty much in last position, cause I pass like 6 guys who realized that the race was pretty much over and they pulled the plug...but I'm kind of stuborn, so just try to keep on pushing.
I'd like to say that I stayed positive, but I didn't. I wanted to throw my bike across the race track and wake up from this bad dream...I pinched my leg...ok I didn't, but the hematoma that had built up on my left hip felt like someone was pinching me. But once again, I just sucked it up. My decision to come here, my pill to swallow. It sucked, I sucked, it was aweful. Last place. All the hard work over the last year and it was as if I had just eat pancakes and Shwarma for a year and nothing was better, it was worse. I just got so mad, I just figured other guys ahead of me would quit, surely they could not take being so far back. I actually started riding respectably, but the damage was done, and there was pretty much no hope.
Then I remembered all the people that came out to support us at our event, all the people that have helped us out this year and if they were watching, I wouldn't want to let them down. It's ez when the going is good, but it was hard, not in the legs, but in the head. I also remember telling the Jet Fuel kids this year "don't ever quit", no matter what just keep on pushing, don't quit. I thought what kind of hypocritical role model would I be. Hey if your sick that's a different story as you can dig yourself a deeper hole, I just had shit go wrong and it's not like I had any other plans for the afternoon, so might as well just keep on riding.
It will go my way, there will be a time and a place, and it will fall into place.
Stick to the plan. This place is like a bread cooker, get it right and it rises, mess it up and its burned crispy, tates aweful and makes you sick. Good news is last time I looked, there was no shortage of flour in Belgium.
Fellow Canuck Wendy Simms, other wise known as DUBS had a good ride squeeking in the top ten and Aaron "School boy too cool for School-er" just made the last lap. It's always nice finishing on the same lap, he was pretty stoked.
Funny story. I did buy some Morgan Blue Bio cleaner that I was supposed to bring back to Robbie O, but I bought a plastic bottle and then had a vision of it exploding in the bike bag, so yesterday I used it to clean our bikes. I accidentally spilled some on my abdomen and it felt a little bizzare. Well later when I took my shorts off, to my suprise I gave myself a 1st degree chemical burn that made my stomach look like I had the plague. SO I rinsed it off, but not an hour later I had a huge bout of Nausea...it was so severe, I ran upstairs, fast, and I came so close to heaving...but I didn't want too, cause then I'd have to eat all those calories again...then it passed, but anyways the moral of the story is BIO cleaner must not mean BIO degradeable, but more like BIO Hazard. Also it is a bright blue color and almost looks radioactive, no kidding it does a good job on the chain.
Ok, I made myself laugh with that story now I feel like an idiot and a fool...but wait...I still beat Lance. Now I'm better. Ahhhh. Also I'm so happy for that my three years of nagging Tasha with "Nursly" advice has finally paid off. Remember Natasha is the child that used to run on the spot in her bed room and wore out the carpet, so for her not to race...believe me, she she has come a long way from the gym rat who used to train 25 hours a week when we met. See, if you nag people enough they will eventually give in, or divorce you...but we are not married yet, so....
DSJ
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas in Zolder
I almost forgot it was Christmas. We do have a christmas tree and all, but just not the same without snow.
So today woke up to a little trainer ride, then out the door to pre ride the World Cup in Zolder. What a polar opposite of the World Cup in Nommay. This course is fast!
The course starts off on pavement, obviously, takes a couple crit corners on the pavement before throttelling some fast ground/sand. The pavement transitions past the pits for the first time, which is the good side to pit from and doubles back on itself before entering the first set of roller coaster uphill kicker climbs that are very sandy. The climbs are slightly hard to get over and then shoot you down the back side of them violently onto the pavement where you must turn quickly and hit another kicker then face some off camber sand, uphill, more sand, up and down over some roots, up again towards a chapel, steep, fast downhill, chicane turns, blast down a straight away, and over a woop. The course then gets really tricky.
There is a really tricky, sandy muddy uphill left hander, flattens out a bit, with some mud and lots of bumpy ruts and you have to really punch it to get over another hard right onto the top deck. There is a litte respite in a closed pavement section before a brutal loose sand downwill that your momentum carries you to a 3 meter wall that must be about 60 percent gradient that you have to dig your toes into to climb up. Once you get over that you fly down to one more 180 degree downhill right turn onto the sand, then they built a massive metal ramp to throw you onto the start finish which you make one more right hander before the finish. Man, I'm out of breath all ready. So the challenges of this course will be to ride as much as possible full throttle with the hands glued to the top of the bars and just pretend that I don't have brakes, for the most part. I think as long as you commit to the sand, the bike will find its way down and the 30, 000 spectators will probably be motivation enough to ride fast.
This course is a little more like the type of course I am used to, fast, speed, power. The main difference is that you always have to be thinking and completely dialed in and focued. As well courses in the States don't have this many features, they may have one or two or maybe three, but here it's just non stop obstacles and challenges. Like I said the challenge isn't just riding it, it's riding it at full speed. But I definetly think that is is a course on which North Americans will do better at then Nommay. That is if we can stay healthy.
Tasha is recovering from her gastro illness but still not 100%. We'll have to take it one step at a time.
Even though we were too cheap to buy gifts for each other, or anyone, we did get a gift from Wendy Simms. Tupperware. Sweet, now I can bring my oats to the race!
We'll definelty remember Wendy when we go to Brugges, we know her weakness.
Tot ziens.(Good bye)
So today woke up to a little trainer ride, then out the door to pre ride the World Cup in Zolder. What a polar opposite of the World Cup in Nommay. This course is fast!
The course starts off on pavement, obviously, takes a couple crit corners on the pavement before throttelling some fast ground/sand. The pavement transitions past the pits for the first time, which is the good side to pit from and doubles back on itself before entering the first set of roller coaster uphill kicker climbs that are very sandy. The climbs are slightly hard to get over and then shoot you down the back side of them violently onto the pavement where you must turn quickly and hit another kicker then face some off camber sand, uphill, more sand, up and down over some roots, up again towards a chapel, steep, fast downhill, chicane turns, blast down a straight away, and over a woop. The course then gets really tricky.
There is a really tricky, sandy muddy uphill left hander, flattens out a bit, with some mud and lots of bumpy ruts and you have to really punch it to get over another hard right onto the top deck. There is a litte respite in a closed pavement section before a brutal loose sand downwill that your momentum carries you to a 3 meter wall that must be about 60 percent gradient that you have to dig your toes into to climb up. Once you get over that you fly down to one more 180 degree downhill right turn onto the sand, then they built a massive metal ramp to throw you onto the start finish which you make one more right hander before the finish. Man, I'm out of breath all ready. So the challenges of this course will be to ride as much as possible full throttle with the hands glued to the top of the bars and just pretend that I don't have brakes, for the most part. I think as long as you commit to the sand, the bike will find its way down and the 30, 000 spectators will probably be motivation enough to ride fast.
This course is a little more like the type of course I am used to, fast, speed, power. The main difference is that you always have to be thinking and completely dialed in and focued. As well courses in the States don't have this many features, they may have one or two or maybe three, but here it's just non stop obstacles and challenges. Like I said the challenge isn't just riding it, it's riding it at full speed. But I definetly think that is is a course on which North Americans will do better at then Nommay. That is if we can stay healthy.
Tasha is recovering from her gastro illness but still not 100%. We'll have to take it one step at a time.
Even though we were too cheap to buy gifts for each other, or anyone, we did get a gift from Wendy Simms. Tupperware. Sweet, now I can bring my oats to the race!
We'll definelty remember Wendy when we go to Brugges, we know her weakness.
Tot ziens.(Good bye)
Nommay to Christmas
So it's Christmas today, and a Merry Christmas to everyone at home. What's happening here on Christmas day. There are few gift openings going on amongst the others. Unfortunately Derrick and I didn't have any time to get each other even a little gift. We plan on getting something after the World Cup in Zolder tommorrow.
Since Nommay, not much has happened, except I got a stomach flu. Happened on Tuesday afternoon. I did my training for the day and then was freezing cold for the next few hours. I was in the house wearing a few layers as well as my winter jacket. By night time I was sweating up a storm and Derrick (as the nurse he is) refused to let me have any blankets. Once the fever breaks he never lets me keep warm. I spent all Tuesday night tossing and turning thinking I was going to be sick until about 5 am in the morning when I actually was. Christmas eve I spent most of the day in bed. I challenged myself to go to the pharmacy later in the day, but because all I had ate was pineapple juice and a couple slices of bread, it didn't work out that great. I was able to walk the block there, but once in the pharmacy things started spinning and I had to explain to the lady at the counter that I had to sit down before I passed out. I was planning on getting some groceries as well and maybe a little gift for Derrick but I had to sit at the pharmacy until I was ready to use all my energy to walk back home and then tell Derrick I couldn't do it, he would have to go to the grocery store to get the neccessities for the next few days.
We are off the pre-ride the world cup course in Zolder in few hours. Wish me luck that I have all my strength back as I am going to need it. I really don't care what I feel like today, but more that everything is there for the race tommorrow!
Best wishes and Merry Christmas to all our families and friends at home.
NCE
Since Nommay, not much has happened, except I got a stomach flu. Happened on Tuesday afternoon. I did my training for the day and then was freezing cold for the next few hours. I was in the house wearing a few layers as well as my winter jacket. By night time I was sweating up a storm and Derrick (as the nurse he is) refused to let me have any blankets. Once the fever breaks he never lets me keep warm. I spent all Tuesday night tossing and turning thinking I was going to be sick until about 5 am in the morning when I actually was. Christmas eve I spent most of the day in bed. I challenged myself to go to the pharmacy later in the day, but because all I had ate was pineapple juice and a couple slices of bread, it didn't work out that great. I was able to walk the block there, but once in the pharmacy things started spinning and I had to explain to the lady at the counter that I had to sit down before I passed out. I was planning on getting some groceries as well and maybe a little gift for Derrick but I had to sit at the pharmacy until I was ready to use all my energy to walk back home and then tell Derrick I couldn't do it, he would have to go to the grocery store to get the neccessities for the next few days.
We are off the pre-ride the world cup course in Zolder in few hours. Wish me luck that I have all my strength back as I am going to need it. I really don't care what I feel like today, but more that everything is there for the race tommorrow!
Best wishes and Merry Christmas to all our families and friends at home.
NCE
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Update from the 3390
The 3390 is postal code of where we are here in Tielt-Winge. It's kind of like 90210, except cold...and no palm trees...and no Dylan. Also, instead of nice cars everywhere, there are cycling shorts, jerseys, gloves, socks, underwear hung all over the house as there are 9-11 people, one laundry machine, no dryer and lots of mud. Although I am proud to say that we did get some sunshine today...so that was a nice suprise. I went for a nice 4 hour + ride today as when you're racing, you just feel like you don't ride a whole lot. Mainly cause although the races are so intense, I kinda forget about them the next day. It must have something to do with the primal brain not wanting to remember pain or something.
Our accomodations here arn't "luxurious" by any means. I don't know if it just doesn't really phase me cause a) I'm a guy b) this place is comparable to my place in college c) I'm a guy and I don't care that there are 50 pieces of laundry hanging in our bedroom. Seriously, who cares, really. Ok maybe I would like it if there was a little hot water for showers, but for what we are paying to stay here, it's not bad, the people around us are great, it's home for now and it's Belgium, so we didn't expect to have rose petals thrown at our feet.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the riding in Belgium. You ride for ever and you end up 20 minutes from home. No matter what I do, I end up 20 minutes away from home . It's crazy.
There's always something happening, never going in a straight line for more than a few hundred meters. Around here as well there are a few escarpments and it's possible to climb them from 20 different directions, swear to God. The other thing is, tons of people riding...but never fast.
Maybe it's all base for them right now... or they are secret computrainer junkies like us.
I'd say we are getting ready for the World Cup Friday, but that's not really true. We got ready for that months ago if you know what I mean. We will most likely go ride it Christmas day, that will be our excitement.
DSJ
Our accomodations here arn't "luxurious" by any means. I don't know if it just doesn't really phase me cause a) I'm a guy b) this place is comparable to my place in college c) I'm a guy and I don't care that there are 50 pieces of laundry hanging in our bedroom. Seriously, who cares, really. Ok maybe I would like it if there was a little hot water for showers, but for what we are paying to stay here, it's not bad, the people around us are great, it's home for now and it's Belgium, so we didn't expect to have rose petals thrown at our feet.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the riding in Belgium. You ride for ever and you end up 20 minutes from home. No matter what I do, I end up 20 minutes away from home . It's crazy.
There's always something happening, never going in a straight line for more than a few hundred meters. Around here as well there are a few escarpments and it's possible to climb them from 20 different directions, swear to God. The other thing is, tons of people riding...but never fast.
Maybe it's all base for them right now... or they are secret computrainer junkies like us.
I'd say we are getting ready for the World Cup Friday, but that's not really true. We got ready for that months ago if you know what I mean. We will most likely go ride it Christmas day, that will be our excitement.
DSJ
Monday, December 22, 2008
World cup 6 Nommay France
We woke up yesterday to the phone in the hotel ringing. Was it a wake up call, no way. It was Stef , in the Lobby telling us we needed to come down for anti-doping blood test. I guess that's what happens when you stay in the same hotel as the Belgians. So, other than that it was buisness as usuall. We get to the course and it we knew it was going to be a shit show of mud. So no worries up to here.
Start of the womens race, I'm super chilled, relaxed trying to take some pics. I see Helen and she's in third...I wait a few seconds later I see Natasha in 9th...holy moly! I run over to the other side of the course, I see Natasha run through the pit and grab her bike off the side of the fence. We forgot to tell Stef that Tasha's kit was white and green, she has been wearing Cyclery blue and red kit all week for training as she only has thermal stuff in that kit. As it was just Stef and Jurgen in the pit for Wendy, Tasha, Helen and Gabby, I just thought it was too much for them and I thought that most likely I would not be in the top ten on this day , so I ran to the pit and assumed full control of Natasha's bikes. I knew if she saw me she would have full confidence that EVERYTHING WOULD BE OK. I'm sure it would have been ok, cause those guys are great, but I had to make a decision quick. So, Tash rode really well and we got the job done. She got caught by a group of 6 and battled back and forth, but slapped herself in the face on the last lap and squeeked out a 13th spot, which was really good in the 1st World Cup in these conditions, all things considered.
Maybe that wasn't the greatest warm up for my race. But I was semi-realistic about my chances on this course, I thought I could have a go, since there were alot of power sections and being a small guy some of the course suited me. But truthfully if you've ever seen me ride you'd notice that I stand up a lot and sprint out of corners, well there wasn't a whole lot of that yesterday. I probably sprinted in the wrong places, it's kind of like trying how to ride a bike again. It sounds easy, but all the places you choose to use your energy on a sloppy course really add up.
So I started off pretty good considering a 6th row start. I was right behind Trebon on the 1st lap, I thought I was ok until #36 dude plows his pedal into my front wheel and scrubs all my speed and breaks three spokes. I keep on going but the rim is rubbing and it's not great. I loose about 20 spots cause of this and next lap get the second bike. I was riding ok, when I get up to sprint out on the gravel and my derailer hanger rips in half and the derailer goes flying into the back wheel and brings me to a complete stop. I pick up the bike, run, assess the damage quickly, put the bike down for a second to try and roll it but the back wheel was jammed. Urggg. Leg shering run on a gravel path, which felt so long. Get the other bike inthe pit, with no front brake and a warped wheel and slug on for the next 20 minutes.
Part of me almost said...you know what this is not the day for me. But I'm pretty stuborn so I just whiped the spit off my face and pushed the pedals for as long as I could as hard as I could until I got lapped just before the leaders were on their last lap, another minute and I would have made it -1 lap. Not really the result I was looking for. But ironically enough I fought like a dog to come 50th and pass 2 guys in last little bit...which gives me a whopping 1 World Cup point, as the points go to 50. Unknown to us, start money this year is paid out in accordance with World Cup points and not UCI points, so yesterday we didn't get anything to start or for travel. But With my "one point" I'm on the list now and depending on who shows there is still a chance.
Moral of the story...fight. Even though it seems like you are loosing the battle, fight because you may not feel it at the time, but when you look at your muddy face in the mirror, you can say you did what you could and walk away with no regrets. If I would have eased up on the last lap I would have been so mad at myself for not pushing through when everything was against me.
It was a hard one for sure. But I just felt like a rabid squirrel looking to get his last nuts before the winter storm.
So we are content with Tasha's 1st WC this year. It's good, but we need better than good.
For me, well I'm happy I still know who I am. A scrappy little squirel from Cornwall, bud.
Ok, time to assess the damage to the bikes. Word.
DSJ
Start of the womens race, I'm super chilled, relaxed trying to take some pics. I see Helen and she's in third...I wait a few seconds later I see Natasha in 9th...holy moly! I run over to the other side of the course, I see Natasha run through the pit and grab her bike off the side of the fence. We forgot to tell Stef that Tasha's kit was white and green, she has been wearing Cyclery blue and red kit all week for training as she only has thermal stuff in that kit. As it was just Stef and Jurgen in the pit for Wendy, Tasha, Helen and Gabby, I just thought it was too much for them and I thought that most likely I would not be in the top ten on this day , so I ran to the pit and assumed full control of Natasha's bikes. I knew if she saw me she would have full confidence that EVERYTHING WOULD BE OK. I'm sure it would have been ok, cause those guys are great, but I had to make a decision quick. So, Tash rode really well and we got the job done. She got caught by a group of 6 and battled back and forth, but slapped herself in the face on the last lap and squeeked out a 13th spot, which was really good in the 1st World Cup in these conditions, all things considered.
Maybe that wasn't the greatest warm up for my race. But I was semi-realistic about my chances on this course, I thought I could have a go, since there were alot of power sections and being a small guy some of the course suited me. But truthfully if you've ever seen me ride you'd notice that I stand up a lot and sprint out of corners, well there wasn't a whole lot of that yesterday. I probably sprinted in the wrong places, it's kind of like trying how to ride a bike again. It sounds easy, but all the places you choose to use your energy on a sloppy course really add up.
So I started off pretty good considering a 6th row start. I was right behind Trebon on the 1st lap, I thought I was ok until #36 dude plows his pedal into my front wheel and scrubs all my speed and breaks three spokes. I keep on going but the rim is rubbing and it's not great. I loose about 20 spots cause of this and next lap get the second bike. I was riding ok, when I get up to sprint out on the gravel and my derailer hanger rips in half and the derailer goes flying into the back wheel and brings me to a complete stop. I pick up the bike, run, assess the damage quickly, put the bike down for a second to try and roll it but the back wheel was jammed. Urggg. Leg shering run on a gravel path, which felt so long. Get the other bike inthe pit, with no front brake and a warped wheel and slug on for the next 20 minutes.
Part of me almost said...you know what this is not the day for me. But I'm pretty stuborn so I just whiped the spit off my face and pushed the pedals for as long as I could as hard as I could until I got lapped just before the leaders were on their last lap, another minute and I would have made it -1 lap. Not really the result I was looking for. But ironically enough I fought like a dog to come 50th and pass 2 guys in last little bit...which gives me a whopping 1 World Cup point, as the points go to 50. Unknown to us, start money this year is paid out in accordance with World Cup points and not UCI points, so yesterday we didn't get anything to start or for travel. But With my "one point" I'm on the list now and depending on who shows there is still a chance.
Moral of the story...fight. Even though it seems like you are loosing the battle, fight because you may not feel it at the time, but when you look at your muddy face in the mirror, you can say you did what you could and walk away with no regrets. If I would have eased up on the last lap I would have been so mad at myself for not pushing through when everything was against me.
It was a hard one for sure. But I just felt like a rabid squirrel looking to get his last nuts before the winter storm.
So we are content with Tasha's 1st WC this year. It's good, but we need better than good.
For me, well I'm happy I still know who I am. A scrappy little squirel from Cornwall, bud.
Ok, time to assess the damage to the bikes. Word.
DSJ
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Averbode
Well it wsn't a race, but it was some sweet training. Gary brought us down to Averbode for a Cross training session. The boys at home would love this! It's basically a parc with a chapel on top of a big hill and cross trails all around on every side. Across the street is a sand field. UP hill and downhill off camber, ruts, lines, whatever. I think my heart rate went to danger danger level trying to plow through. Word is lots of guys use this this as their technique/skills area. They just had a race there a few weeks ago so the lines are all still there. IT's wicked. Plus it's a good 40 minutes there, so get lost a few times, hit it, ride back, four hours later it's supper time. But that wasn't the most painful part of the day. They had Jurgen come to do some massages. 6 Euros for 30 minutes, can't beat that! If you think racing is Europe is hard you should try getting a leg rub, ouch, I almost told him to take it ez, but I just bit my tongue...now I may have to go see an Oral facialmaxial surgeon to fix the hole I made in my tongue, but legs will be good in a few days. I bet tommorow's ride will suck!
DSJ
DSJ
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
In Tielt-Winge
Long story, I'll make it short.
Flew Sunday night, read half a book De Niro's game, watched Batman, fell asleep, got to London, read some more, flew to Brussels. Marc Boudreau and Ed picked us up, we agreed to bring an extra bike since Ed got hit by a car the other day. They were nice enough to give us a ride to Tielt-Winge...which is not to be confused with Tielt...in the other end of the country, which I would have took the train to if we not had a ride which would of been a huge disaster. So feeew.
To our suprise, Betty and Garry a very cool couple of California who are friends of Barb's are here, they graciously cooked us a great dinner with Andre. Met the Wyman's and crew, Stef,Helen, Gaby. Talked shop with Aaron Schooler, hit the sack. Today coffee, lots of it, bikes are almost done, Tash did the groceries, more coffee, some sprint training.
We got some great contracts for our starts here in Belgium and Luxembourg and that's about it for the last 18 hours.
DSJ
Flew Sunday night, read half a book De Niro's game, watched Batman, fell asleep, got to London, read some more, flew to Brussels. Marc Boudreau and Ed picked us up, we agreed to bring an extra bike since Ed got hit by a car the other day. They were nice enough to give us a ride to Tielt-Winge...which is not to be confused with Tielt...in the other end of the country, which I would have took the train to if we not had a ride which would of been a huge disaster. So feeew.
To our suprise, Betty and Garry a very cool couple of California who are friends of Barb's are here, they graciously cooked us a great dinner with Andre. Met the Wyman's and crew, Stef,Helen, Gaby. Talked shop with Aaron Schooler, hit the sack. Today coffee, lots of it, bikes are almost done, Tash did the groceries, more coffee, some sprint training.
We got some great contracts for our starts here in Belgium and Luxembourg and that's about it for the last 18 hours.
DSJ
Saturday, December 13, 2008
DSJ and Tasha selected for Worlds
Hey, so we got the official email, saying we both made the Worlds team. Cost of the project is going to be 1300$ per person without skinsuit. Wow. What ever happened to the best things in life are free. They have obviously never raced Cross.
We thought about maybe just buying one skinsuit and I can just let Tasha wear it and then I can wear it the next day. Ummm, ok maybe we'll splurge and just get one each. I've been know to be able to fit in skinsuits of all sizes, anywhere from medium to x-small, but it's a little bit of a stretch.
So today is training, packing, Christmas with in the In laws, common laws, and outlaw out of control God son who is playing hockey behind me right now and taking slap shots with what looks like a cat toy. We have to miss the Cyclery party as this was the only way to see our families until February. And although having a couple beers does sound enjoyable, it's business as usual and the holiday cheer will have to wait until after Feb 1st. My secret mission is to get Natasha to dance after Worlds. She hates it. I've actually only heard her sing once and I tried to show her how to dance once but it was short lived. You may not know this but I love my techno. Especially the Belgian DJ Tiesto. But hold up, I've been listening to Tiesto longer than I have been doing Cross, I didn't even know he was Belgian, until I got his DVD live in the Gelderdome.
Since it's Christmas and all I'll give some secret training tips away.
If you ever need to do a three minute efforts, just download He's a Pirate by Tiesto. If that doesn't get you pumped, you need to take the day off. Maybe a week. But you'll feel like you want to go to the Club after. I think that's my problem right now, I maxed out on Tiesto this morning.
But this song can only be used for 2 minute to 3minute intervals as it may cause you to go way too ballistic. If you don't do intervals, just listen to this song and this is how I feel the lap in a cross race. I'll warn you, you may never be the same after listening to this track, it's that good.
Ok so fingers crossed we leave tomorrow. Lord give me patience in packing the bikes.
Serenity now.
DSJ
We thought about maybe just buying one skinsuit and I can just let Tasha wear it and then I can wear it the next day. Ummm, ok maybe we'll splurge and just get one each. I've been know to be able to fit in skinsuits of all sizes, anywhere from medium to x-small, but it's a little bit of a stretch.
So today is training, packing, Christmas with in the In laws, common laws, and outlaw out of control God son who is playing hockey behind me right now and taking slap shots with what looks like a cat toy. We have to miss the Cyclery party as this was the only way to see our families until February. And although having a couple beers does sound enjoyable, it's business as usual and the holiday cheer will have to wait until after Feb 1st. My secret mission is to get Natasha to dance after Worlds. She hates it. I've actually only heard her sing once and I tried to show her how to dance once but it was short lived. You may not know this but I love my techno. Especially the Belgian DJ Tiesto. But hold up, I've been listening to Tiesto longer than I have been doing Cross, I didn't even know he was Belgian, until I got his DVD live in the Gelderdome.
Since it's Christmas and all I'll give some secret training tips away.
If you ever need to do a three minute efforts, just download He's a Pirate by Tiesto. If that doesn't get you pumped, you need to take the day off. Maybe a week. But you'll feel like you want to go to the Club after. I think that's my problem right now, I maxed out on Tiesto this morning.
But this song can only be used for 2 minute to 3minute intervals as it may cause you to go way too ballistic. If you don't do intervals, just listen to this song and this is how I feel the lap in a cross race. I'll warn you, you may never be the same after listening to this track, it's that good.
Ok so fingers crossed we leave tomorrow. Lord give me patience in packing the bikes.
Serenity now.
DSJ
Monday, December 8, 2008
RI day 2 DSJ 3rd, Elliott 2nd
Where to begin? We awoke to a few cm of snow and some brisk weather. You'd think that the course would have been sloppy. But somehow it wasn't. We had Natasha roll the first warm up lap on her 34 Grifo's. They felt awful to her so she did a lap on the Shwables, the muds felt better, so we had her roll on the Dugast Rhynos. You'de think seeing the snow, what looked like really muddy conditions, slick course this would have been the tyre of choice. But it was as if the course was changing every 15 minutes. Tasha just couldn't get the tyres/pressure right. She did a bike change at a perhaps inopportune time and the pit was really slow entrance and exit due to the fact that it was off camber. Laura VG capitalized on this and Tasha rode consistent and clean to come 2nd once again. We talked about how this is what "experienced" really means. Sometimes you make poor equipment choices and you don't feel good on the bikes, it feels all wrong. The positive aspect is that a year ago we could have put mountain BIKE TYRES ON HER BIKE AND SHE PROBABLY COULDN'T HAVE NOTICED THE DIFFERENCE. So Tasha is becoming quite savvy at knowing what equipment is working and what isn't. It probably didn't help that we had to do some last minute adjustment to her bike in the hotel room and in the parking lot as well. This was a course where if you didn't have full 100% confidence in your gear you were screwed. Perhaps I should have insisted a little more that I thought she should run higher pressure yesterday. I was actually going to play a trick on her on put a little more air when she wasn't looking, but then had this vision of her biting it over the frozen roots and I thought naaah, maybe I'll just let her do her thing. She usually gets it right. I figure we best brush up on our excuses before heading to Europe, cause there it is very chic to blame "a big week of training" or "poor tyre choice" as the reason you did not win. Also when it is too hot or too cold, that is always accepted. The best one I have heard lately is "it was so cold, my eyes were frozen, I could not focus and I could not see therefore I had to abandon".
My race. Well I'm not sure if you read the race report on Cycling news.com but trust me it was a lot more exciting than they would have you believe. If I would have written it, it would have said things like "DSJ laid some massive attacks down, most notably a full throttle sprint from the pavement onto the uphill barriers where he flew over the barriers as if lifted by Santa's Reindeer bound to deliver the gifts of smack down to all the Cross fans for Christmas". Yah for sure something like that. So anyways it was great to be racing like that. We had a group of about 8 guys or so racing around for the lead. Guys took turns throwing their attacks in, taking the lead. I decided to run just under 30 PSI in Gomm Italia "magnums" (I like that name, magnum sounds serious). Maybe it was a tad bit much in the front, cause once it started snowing I thought I was screwed, but the course really reminded me of a Belgium course and it was just sandy, not muddy at all. Anyways I took full advantage of some of the road sections throttling it down as hard as I could, for as long as I could. This worked well to shred guys off the back, caus e it was a little twistier than the previous day. There were a few times I had a gap on the chase group and actually started believing that I could really win it. I felt like the New Englanders were teaming up on me a bit, cause as soon as I let off the throttle Driscoll punched it and they let him have his gap. It was as if they were programmed to let this guy have his gap. As soon as I could I attacked and got a gap, I made a bobble and two guys came around me. I was sure as heck not going to finish forth again. We hit the beach and I was in 4th. But I just ran as hard as I could to get around Myerson. I actually ran so hard I felt my face being pulled to the back of my head. This was an interesting sensation. I thought Spinelli was going to bobble and I was waiting for him to make a mistake in the last half lap but he rode really well and clean and I just scrubbed the last corner a little too much to have any chance of coming around him in the sprint. So I ended up 3rd. Maybe I played it a little too safe by not trying to over both guys at once, it may have cost me second place, but I really really didn't want to finish 4th again. I've been trying to get back on the podium since Alberta.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=/photos/2008/dec08/nbxgp2_08/nbxgp2_082/amen125
Overall I was really pleased my racing. More so than day 1. I felt like I rode my brains out on day 1, rode harder but with my brains in on day 2. If you know what I mean.
Thanks to Alex Sanna for pitting for us. It was a huge help. Even though I didn't need a bike it's nice to know that the support is there. Alex just launched his business and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his services. He was kind enough to donate his services to us this weekend as his contribution to our campaign in Europe.
Also I love hearing people telling me that I'm "putting the hurt on". Rick Meloft managed to scream my name in between sips of beer. Again, it's just one of those things, when you have the support and you feel like people believe in you, you just believe in yourself that little bit more, you dig a little deeper, you squeeze every last possible amount of power into those pedals.
I just pushed so hard I was trying to rip the cranks off the bike and snap the chain.
I know I've said this before, but the support we have recently had from all the community in Ottawa and Ontario has really inspired me. I feel like there is fire in my riding now. When I'm hitting the the intervals in the basement during the week I imagine that all those people who showed to Mooney's to help us out are helping me squeeze out that extra little bit that are making the ordinary into extra-ordinary. So next time we race, it will be in France at the World Cup in Nommay.
Ready ,set, go, here we come.
DSJ
My race. Well I'm not sure if you read the race report on Cycling news.com but trust me it was a lot more exciting than they would have you believe. If I would have written it, it would have said things like "DSJ laid some massive attacks down, most notably a full throttle sprint from the pavement onto the uphill barriers where he flew over the barriers as if lifted by Santa's Reindeer bound to deliver the gifts of smack down to all the Cross fans for Christmas". Yah for sure something like that. So anyways it was great to be racing like that. We had a group of about 8 guys or so racing around for the lead. Guys took turns throwing their attacks in, taking the lead. I decided to run just under 30 PSI in Gomm Italia "magnums" (I like that name, magnum sounds serious). Maybe it was a tad bit much in the front, cause once it started snowing I thought I was screwed, but the course really reminded me of a Belgium course and it was just sandy, not muddy at all. Anyways I took full advantage of some of the road sections throttling it down as hard as I could, for as long as I could. This worked well to shred guys off the back, caus e it was a little twistier than the previous day. There were a few times I had a gap on the chase group and actually started believing that I could really win it. I felt like the New Englanders were teaming up on me a bit, cause as soon as I let off the throttle Driscoll punched it and they let him have his gap. It was as if they were programmed to let this guy have his gap. As soon as I could I attacked and got a gap, I made a bobble and two guys came around me. I was sure as heck not going to finish forth again. We hit the beach and I was in 4th. But I just ran as hard as I could to get around Myerson. I actually ran so hard I felt my face being pulled to the back of my head. This was an interesting sensation. I thought Spinelli was going to bobble and I was waiting for him to make a mistake in the last half lap but he rode really well and clean and I just scrubbed the last corner a little too much to have any chance of coming around him in the sprint. So I ended up 3rd. Maybe I played it a little too safe by not trying to over both guys at once, it may have cost me second place, but I really really didn't want to finish 4th again. I've been trying to get back on the podium since Alberta.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=/photos/2008/dec08/nbxgp2_08/nbxgp2_082/amen125
Overall I was really pleased my racing. More so than day 1. I felt like I rode my brains out on day 1, rode harder but with my brains in on day 2. If you know what I mean.
Thanks to Alex Sanna for pitting for us. It was a huge help. Even though I didn't need a bike it's nice to know that the support is there. Alex just launched his business and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his services. He was kind enough to donate his services to us this weekend as his contribution to our campaign in Europe.
Also I love hearing people telling me that I'm "putting the hurt on". Rick Meloft managed to scream my name in between sips of beer. Again, it's just one of those things, when you have the support and you feel like people believe in you, you just believe in yourself that little bit more, you dig a little deeper, you squeeze every last possible amount of power into those pedals.
I just pushed so hard I was trying to rip the cranks off the bike and snap the chain.
I know I've said this before, but the support we have recently had from all the community in Ottawa and Ontario has really inspired me. I feel like there is fire in my riding now. When I'm hitting the the intervals in the basement during the week I imagine that all those people who showed to Mooney's to help us out are helping me squeeze out that extra little bit that are making the ordinary into extra-ordinary. So next time we race, it will be in France at the World Cup in Nommay.
Ready ,set, go, here we come.
DSJ
Saturday, December 6, 2008
RI day 1, Elliott 2nd, DSJ 4th
Another one in the record books.
Day 1's course was fast, fast, fast. Tasha jumped out to a good lead and Laura Van Gilder crawled her way back up to her and they played a follow the leader game, Tash let off the gas with two to go, but just couldn't find anywhere to put down the power or prove her technical prowess. She thought she could cut the last corner and jump around her for the sprint and almost got her. Good news Tash sprinted stride for stride with the champion sprinter, but could just not pull around her to seal the deal.
Going into today, knowing that the course was going to suit me I was pretty confident I could lay some smack down. So I fired on all cylinders from the get go and got the hole shot, took the sand first held my gap until the pavement and perhaps, no make that definitely took the wrong time to ease up on pedals, race winner Driscoll got around and about 6 other guys, someone bit it in front of me and Driscoll was off. I managed to pull my way back to second and tried everything in my power to close it to the leader but we just couldn't get the gap under 12 seconds. I did alot of work, too much. I was trying to race for the win. But the other guys were pretty happy to sit on and play it smart. I attacked about an Octtotrillion times but couldn't do anything but shred guys off the back. It was good to actually be in the race today. I'm sure if I would have waited a little, instead of just trying to crush it, I would have got my podium. We ended up in a 4 up sprint and I just couldn't close out of the last corner.
So I was about 1 second out of second, but ended up 4th. The good news is that these points put me over the 125 needed to officially qualify for Worlds. There was a time I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to go. I didn't just want to go cause no else was going. But now I 've met a few criteria for going and feel pretty confident that I can represent our Nation in a positive manner. I wanted to make sure I was going to be 100% committed to racing to my full potential in February. I feel like my form and technique are still improving, the results are getting better and now I want it.
Also recent events have transpired that will allow both Natasha and I to give a 100% focused effort in February knowing that we will take the rest of the month off and start back into training into March. I've been taking some flack for this recently as there were a lot people saying that I should just go to Worlds. But it is just something that I don't just want to do. Don't get me wrong I'm not making it the be all end all of racing, cause I can just imagine that it will be B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Most likely I will not win. I'm sure it's different for everyone, that's ok. We're all in it for different things. The level of support both Natasha and I have had from the cycling community, sponsors, generous individuals (Sugar Daddy JH, DT and BG) I just didn't want to abuse the resources that were given to us.
Well that's about it. Oh yah, I got some new AXE pomade today. I think that my start was due to the fact that I had really really cool hair under my helmet, like Zoolander meets Tigi Bed Head. Although I had my podium hair done prematurely. Perhaps tomorrow I will just pack the pomade and apply it after racing for pictures. We'll see, it did feel pretty great to get the hole shot today and it was clearly related to this new styling pomade so maybe I will just apply a light amount and be prepared to finish the styling procedure after.
DSJ
Day 1's course was fast, fast, fast. Tasha jumped out to a good lead and Laura Van Gilder crawled her way back up to her and they played a follow the leader game, Tash let off the gas with two to go, but just couldn't find anywhere to put down the power or prove her technical prowess. She thought she could cut the last corner and jump around her for the sprint and almost got her. Good news Tash sprinted stride for stride with the champion sprinter, but could just not pull around her to seal the deal.
Going into today, knowing that the course was going to suit me I was pretty confident I could lay some smack down. So I fired on all cylinders from the get go and got the hole shot, took the sand first held my gap until the pavement and perhaps, no make that definitely took the wrong time to ease up on pedals, race winner Driscoll got around and about 6 other guys, someone bit it in front of me and Driscoll was off. I managed to pull my way back to second and tried everything in my power to close it to the leader but we just couldn't get the gap under 12 seconds. I did alot of work, too much. I was trying to race for the win. But the other guys were pretty happy to sit on and play it smart. I attacked about an Octtotrillion times but couldn't do anything but shred guys off the back. It was good to actually be in the race today. I'm sure if I would have waited a little, instead of just trying to crush it, I would have got my podium. We ended up in a 4 up sprint and I just couldn't close out of the last corner.
So I was about 1 second out of second, but ended up 4th. The good news is that these points put me over the 125 needed to officially qualify for Worlds. There was a time I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to go. I didn't just want to go cause no else was going. But now I 've met a few criteria for going and feel pretty confident that I can represent our Nation in a positive manner. I wanted to make sure I was going to be 100% committed to racing to my full potential in February. I feel like my form and technique are still improving, the results are getting better and now I want it.
Also recent events have transpired that will allow both Natasha and I to give a 100% focused effort in February knowing that we will take the rest of the month off and start back into training into March. I've been taking some flack for this recently as there were a lot people saying that I should just go to Worlds. But it is just something that I don't just want to do. Don't get me wrong I'm not making it the be all end all of racing, cause I can just imagine that it will be B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Most likely I will not win. I'm sure it's different for everyone, that's ok. We're all in it for different things. The level of support both Natasha and I have had from the cycling community, sponsors, generous individuals (Sugar Daddy JH, DT and BG) I just didn't want to abuse the resources that were given to us.
Well that's about it. Oh yah, I got some new AXE pomade today. I think that my start was due to the fact that I had really really cool hair under my helmet, like Zoolander meets Tigi Bed Head. Although I had my podium hair done prematurely. Perhaps tomorrow I will just pack the pomade and apply it after racing for pictures. We'll see, it did feel pretty great to get the hole shot today and it was clearly related to this new styling pomade so maybe I will just apply a light amount and be prepared to finish the styling procedure after.
DSJ
Friday, December 5, 2008
Skids
I guess you can think whatever you want about that title. Maybe you think of skids of wood or palats. Maybe you think of the band Skid Row. Or maybe you just think of skid marks (not in your shorts) but the kind of skids you can make with your back tire. I'll get back to that.
Maybe I spend too much time in my car thinking. Today was no different. We're chugging down the Interstate to Rhode Island, Tasha's asleep and I'm listening to some old, old old, Bob Marley. It was disk 1 of the four disk set Songs of Freedom, which I bought about 10 years ago, and honestly it's the best 60 bucks you'll ever spend. Disk 1 is Bob before he had dreads young. It's some pretty funky stuff. But for whatever reason it just hit me. I know why I ride. It's about Freedom. Ok, I know Bob's chants are way deep talkin' bout Revolution, war, equality and such, but when I hear Bob, it just reminds me of a time when I was a lot more carefree, it reminds me when I first fell in love with the bike. Makin skid marks when I was 7 years old!
My friend Scott Gordon and I would make a line in our babysitters driveway and we would race to the line and throttle our BMX bikes pedals backwards and try to carry as much momentum as possible in our "Skid Mark Competition". He clearly had an advantage, cause not only was he much taller , but a year older. I remember the trick was to skid as far as you could with all the momentum you had then keep on shifting the rear end in a tail whip kind of motion to generate some more momentum to get the longest skid. You could always tell where you lost momentum though, cause the skid mark would deviate towards the side and look all snaky. Some times we'd get a little carried way and rip a skid on my Babysitters neighbour's lawn. He'd get pissed off and chase us around. So I guess this is when it all started. I may say I've only been racing for a few years, but this thing started a long time ago.
I think the funniest time was after I had just got my first BMX, a Tonka. My dad put it together after my parents bought it for me at Christmas. So I'm maybe like 6 years old or so, I'm not sure, but anyways I'm so proud of this cause the bike I had the year before had training wheels, so I'm ready to rip some skids once the snow was melting. Well we go out to the driveway, I go to pull the mother of all skids and the frigin handle bars come flying off the bike I get airborn and smash my face on the gravel driveway and worst of all my rubber boots go flying, maybe just one of them. I think Scott laughed so hard he pissed his pants. So you got Scotty full of pee, me crying my butt off full of blood and face full of stones and the neighbors wondering what the heck is happening....
Shoot that was funny. That's why I love riding my BIKE. BLOOD,SWEAT, TEARS and URINATION, EVRYTHING YOU NEED FOR A GOOD TIME!
So yah that was our trip down to RI, I'm sure Tasha was dreaming about...well I'm not sure what she dreams about, probably riding the computrainer or her SRM or something.
We pre rode the course, then went to Subway for a salads and had the guy warm up our our rice. We got a few looks as we were still in our kits and tasha had brown tall leather boots over her blue Cyclery thermal kit. THe guy at the Stop and Shop actually asked us if we were bicyclists or joggers. I said I was a balerina.
DSJ
Maybe I spend too much time in my car thinking. Today was no different. We're chugging down the Interstate to Rhode Island, Tasha's asleep and I'm listening to some old, old old, Bob Marley. It was disk 1 of the four disk set Songs of Freedom, which I bought about 10 years ago, and honestly it's the best 60 bucks you'll ever spend. Disk 1 is Bob before he had dreads young. It's some pretty funky stuff. But for whatever reason it just hit me. I know why I ride. It's about Freedom. Ok, I know Bob's chants are way deep talkin' bout Revolution, war, equality and such, but when I hear Bob, it just reminds me of a time when I was a lot more carefree, it reminds me when I first fell in love with the bike. Makin skid marks when I was 7 years old!
My friend Scott Gordon and I would make a line in our babysitters driveway and we would race to the line and throttle our BMX bikes pedals backwards and try to carry as much momentum as possible in our "Skid Mark Competition". He clearly had an advantage, cause not only was he much taller , but a year older. I remember the trick was to skid as far as you could with all the momentum you had then keep on shifting the rear end in a tail whip kind of motion to generate some more momentum to get the longest skid. You could always tell where you lost momentum though, cause the skid mark would deviate towards the side and look all snaky. Some times we'd get a little carried way and rip a skid on my Babysitters neighbour's lawn. He'd get pissed off and chase us around. So I guess this is when it all started. I may say I've only been racing for a few years, but this thing started a long time ago.
I think the funniest time was after I had just got my first BMX, a Tonka. My dad put it together after my parents bought it for me at Christmas. So I'm maybe like 6 years old or so, I'm not sure, but anyways I'm so proud of this cause the bike I had the year before had training wheels, so I'm ready to rip some skids once the snow was melting. Well we go out to the driveway, I go to pull the mother of all skids and the frigin handle bars come flying off the bike I get airborn and smash my face on the gravel driveway and worst of all my rubber boots go flying, maybe just one of them. I think Scott laughed so hard he pissed his pants. So you got Scotty full of pee, me crying my butt off full of blood and face full of stones and the neighbors wondering what the heck is happening....
Shoot that was funny. That's why I love riding my BIKE. BLOOD,SWEAT, TEARS and URINATION, EVRYTHING YOU NEED FOR A GOOD TIME!
So yah that was our trip down to RI, I'm sure Tasha was dreaming about...well I'm not sure what she dreams about, probably riding the computrainer or her SRM or something.
We pre rode the course, then went to Subway for a salads and had the guy warm up our our rice. We got a few looks as we were still in our kits and tasha had brown tall leather boots over her blue Cyclery thermal kit. THe guy at the Stop and Shop actually asked us if we were bicyclists or joggers. I said I was a balerina.
DSJ
Monday, December 1, 2008
Eastern Ontario Finale!
Well...I don't know what to say. THANK YOU. Thank you to everyone who showed up to race, donate and even just watch.
Bob and Ian, we are ever gracious of these two fine men who agreed to name the last race an event to help us. The course was great once it got petered down a bit, lots of 180's really technical.
I was so happy to see that the Sun sent Andrew to take some photos and put a little story in the OTTAWA SUN
http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/12/01/7586916-sun.html
Ok, so maybe it's not the New York times or Velo News, but it's pretty cool (notice the editor?).
So racing in the snow was interesting. I was a little humbled that I fell so far back after taking myself out on an icy turn and having my chain do a very peculiar thing. It took me 2 laps to figure out how to ride the snow. Don't think I'm getting all soft, but seriously, a race like that really brings a smile on your face, it's just fun. Most of the time the racing is just way too hard to have fun, but yesterday was fun. I wish I could have gone all out yesterday, but I really just wanted to mess around. Knowing that was one of the last chances I had as from here on out it's all business.
Strangely enough yesterday gave me some perspective on some things. It has really taken me a long time to not always feel like I have to prove myself when I'm at home. I mean it's always full gas when we are on the road, so when we are home we are most likely training a little harder, and I just never really seem to go 100%. But it's taken a long time to realize that I am not my performance and that it does not define me if I don't win. I would like to win, don't get me wrong it's just not a win at all costs attitude. I don't sacrifice my performances to come for one that does not define me. Sounds heavy, but it's like that.
DSJ
Bob and Ian, we are ever gracious of these two fine men who agreed to name the last race an event to help us. The course was great once it got petered down a bit, lots of 180's really technical.
I was so happy to see that the Sun sent Andrew to take some photos and put a little story in the OTTAWA SUN
http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2008/12/01/7586916-sun.html
Ok, so maybe it's not the New York times or Velo News, but it's pretty cool (notice the editor?).
So racing in the snow was interesting. I was a little humbled that I fell so far back after taking myself out on an icy turn and having my chain do a very peculiar thing. It took me 2 laps to figure out how to ride the snow. Don't think I'm getting all soft, but seriously, a race like that really brings a smile on your face, it's just fun. Most of the time the racing is just way too hard to have fun, but yesterday was fun. I wish I could have gone all out yesterday, but I really just wanted to mess around. Knowing that was one of the last chances I had as from here on out it's all business.
Strangely enough yesterday gave me some perspective on some things. It has really taken me a long time to not always feel like I have to prove myself when I'm at home. I mean it's always full gas when we are on the road, so when we are home we are most likely training a little harder, and I just never really seem to go 100%. But it's taken a long time to realize that I am not my performance and that it does not define me if I don't win. I would like to win, don't get me wrong it's just not a win at all costs attitude. I don't sacrifice my performances to come for one that does not define me. Sounds heavy, but it's like that.
DSJ
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Zaterdag
Zaterdag...otherwise known as Saturday...a time to relax...a time to talk to friends...a time for just plain old enjoying life. Sike.
Today and yesterday sucked. Since our butts were supposed to be at the World Cup we had to create some mad destruction to the legs. The being said, I may end up finishing last at the inaugural "Help Derrick and Natasha Event". The help needed may be to wake me up early in the morning.
Yesterday got some blood on the bars at PEAK for a zone test. Oh how I love a zone test. Nothing like going to failure and beyond. I closed my eyes for one second and everything was purple. Lately it's all purple, not black, not blue, just purple. Afterwards, I was joking with Casey(Ken's young protege) "Ken says a zone test isn't that hard, it's only really hard for a few minutes...there's no reason you can't still do your intervals after". Kevin (Ken's evil counterpart) was standing there and he said "suck it up St John". Nothing like a bunch of frigin masochistic trainers. Not that hard? Ok. More purple. So that's my story, three hours later workout complete.
Not exciting as doing the World Cup, but hey what do you want for free. Speaking of free...the race tomorrow isn't free...but you are welcome to come give donations. Natasha's parents will be there with a sign and a box and maybe a hat. Look for them, they are British. Her mom looks like her and her dad kind of looks like Sir Anthony Hopkins, except more fit looking and younger...maybe a little like Hannibal Lecter...without the mask of course...but he's a lot nicer and he most likely does not practice cannibalism...well at least I don't think so, but I'm not officially in the family yet so I can't be a 100% about that. Also he just got a new job at Lowe's in Belleville as the Head Cashier, he said Natasha and I ate so much of their food when we go over that he had to go out of retirement and get a job.
Before I forget. We had a riveting evening last night, we decided to take full advantage of the fact that the parents were gone AND MADE POPCORN! How exciting. Well I'm not sure if you've ever made popcorn the old fashion way, on the stove, in a pot with a little oil and some kernels. Well lets just say it's not as easy as it looks. I burned the pot, the corn and the house smells like smoke and the popcorn tasted like paper towels. Don't ask me how I know that. So then Natasha has the most brilliant idea of putting it in the micro wave in a square container with a round lid. Right. Well lets just say we'll be finding kernels for about the next 20 years. Anyways it actually tasted good, but it was way too much work.
Perhaps tonight we just go back to eating our plain old oats.
DSJ
Today and yesterday sucked. Since our butts were supposed to be at the World Cup we had to create some mad destruction to the legs. The being said, I may end up finishing last at the inaugural "Help Derrick and Natasha Event". The help needed may be to wake me up early in the morning.
Yesterday got some blood on the bars at PEAK for a zone test. Oh how I love a zone test. Nothing like going to failure and beyond. I closed my eyes for one second and everything was purple. Lately it's all purple, not black, not blue, just purple. Afterwards, I was joking with Casey(Ken's young protege) "Ken says a zone test isn't that hard, it's only really hard for a few minutes...there's no reason you can't still do your intervals after". Kevin (Ken's evil counterpart) was standing there and he said "suck it up St John". Nothing like a bunch of frigin masochistic trainers. Not that hard? Ok. More purple. So that's my story, three hours later workout complete.
Not exciting as doing the World Cup, but hey what do you want for free. Speaking of free...the race tomorrow isn't free...but you are welcome to come give donations. Natasha's parents will be there with a sign and a box and maybe a hat. Look for them, they are British. Her mom looks like her and her dad kind of looks like Sir Anthony Hopkins, except more fit looking and younger...maybe a little like Hannibal Lecter...without the mask of course...but he's a lot nicer and he most likely does not practice cannibalism...well at least I don't think so, but I'm not officially in the family yet so I can't be a 100% about that. Also he just got a new job at Lowe's in Belleville as the Head Cashier, he said Natasha and I ate so much of their food when we go over that he had to go out of retirement and get a job.
Before I forget. We had a riveting evening last night, we decided to take full advantage of the fact that the parents were gone AND MADE POPCORN! How exciting. Well I'm not sure if you've ever made popcorn the old fashion way, on the stove, in a pot with a little oil and some kernels. Well lets just say it's not as easy as it looks. I burned the pot, the corn and the house smells like smoke and the popcorn tasted like paper towels. Don't ask me how I know that. So then Natasha has the most brilliant idea of putting it in the micro wave in a square container with a round lid. Right. Well lets just say we'll be finding kernels for about the next 20 years. Anyways it actually tasted good, but it was way too much work.
Perhaps tonight we just go back to eating our plain old oats.
DSJ
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sweet podium pic
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Here is a nice pic Natasha's dad found from the podium day 1 at Whitmore's in Southampton NY.They say a picture says a thousand words. So I will let the picture do the talking...
From left to right: Lynn, Georgia, Natasha
DSJ
(Photo from Micheal Franken, http://www.cxmagazine.com/)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
OBC launches the "Help Support Derrick and Natasha Event"
In keeping with the name of our blog, we now have an equally challenging title of a Cross race named to help support our endeavours to Europe! Bob and Ian , the organizers of the local series, are letting us make some small tweaking to the final OBC course and allowing us to put up a box for donations from local racers for our campaign to Europe.
If you want to read about it follow the links below. Click our names.
http://cyclocross.org/
Just a little bit about day 2 in the Hamptons. Tasha didn't race well. I know that's not very nice to say, bu after seeing what she did on day 1, we were both a little disappointed about her ride. I made the mistake of telling her directly after her race, but it didn't matter, she knew what mistakes she made. Realistically if you race every frigin weekend, you're not always going to be 100%. You get tiered, you make bad decisions. She did a lot of work to catch the leaders in the race on day 2, and tactically made some errors. This blog and our lives aren't all rose petals, incense and vanilla scented candles, sometimes we stink. Don't get all crazy and say we should be good to each other, cause we are. But sometimes we need to tell each other the truth, cause the honesty is the hard the part sometimes.
Honestly Saturday's race, I don't know how the hell Ryan Trebon was 4 minutes ahead, I mean I have no excuses, I had a great start, I went hard, I rode technically better than ever, I was into it, I had great legs...I just don't think I could go very much faster. That's the scary part. When I think how the hell am I going to get 4 minutes faster on this course? But that honesty keeps you grounded in your training and maybe next year I'm 2 minutes faster, which gets me right at the bottom of the podium. You know what I mean, chip away.
So back to Sunday Tasha ended up 7th and I was 12th. I didn't have the same start as the day before and if it wasn't for RT getting a flat on the first lap I would have been a little further back. So when I saw him coming behind me i just thought as soon as he passes me just hang on for dear life. So I managed to hang on for just about a lap...well sort of. But surely enough that ride on the express train helped me close the gap to 3 other riders and I was back in it for a top 10 kind of ride. The funny thing was he railed this one corner so frigging fast I had to break a little, cause I just didn't think you could turn that fast. But it was amazing to feel how fast you actually can go, cause he was going way faster than anyone on the course , moving from 20th position to 3rd. Anyways I was with Troy Wells and David Frattini, Troy crashed and I fell directly on top of him. But it was just kind of funny. Troy dropped back and I thought I had Frattini, cause I was gapping him in the technical sections. He came back onto me on the long pavement drag, I didn't have enough of a gap and I basically gave him a great lead out. I was pretty mad at myself for being the victim of my own stupidity in this scenario. Should have known that this guy packed a fiery sprint.
Anyways, although day 2 was not quite as good as day 1, still a good weekend for us. Tasha said
"I would give up a bad day the second day any time to have the experience of leading the first day for a few laps and really getting to race my race".
So hopefully we will see you guys November 30th at Mooney's Bay for our Cross race in the snow.
DSJ
If you want to read about it follow the links below. Click our names.
http://cyclocross.org/
Just a little bit about day 2 in the Hamptons. Tasha didn't race well. I know that's not very nice to say, bu after seeing what she did on day 1, we were both a little disappointed about her ride. I made the mistake of telling her directly after her race, but it didn't matter, she knew what mistakes she made. Realistically if you race every frigin weekend, you're not always going to be 100%. You get tiered, you make bad decisions. She did a lot of work to catch the leaders in the race on day 2, and tactically made some errors. This blog and our lives aren't all rose petals, incense and vanilla scented candles, sometimes we stink. Don't get all crazy and say we should be good to each other, cause we are. But sometimes we need to tell each other the truth, cause the honesty is the hard the part sometimes.
Honestly Saturday's race, I don't know how the hell Ryan Trebon was 4 minutes ahead, I mean I have no excuses, I had a great start, I went hard, I rode technically better than ever, I was into it, I had great legs...I just don't think I could go very much faster. That's the scary part. When I think how the hell am I going to get 4 minutes faster on this course? But that honesty keeps you grounded in your training and maybe next year I'm 2 minutes faster, which gets me right at the bottom of the podium. You know what I mean, chip away.
So back to Sunday Tasha ended up 7th and I was 12th. I didn't have the same start as the day before and if it wasn't for RT getting a flat on the first lap I would have been a little further back. So when I saw him coming behind me i just thought as soon as he passes me just hang on for dear life. So I managed to hang on for just about a lap...well sort of. But surely enough that ride on the express train helped me close the gap to 3 other riders and I was back in it for a top 10 kind of ride. The funny thing was he railed this one corner so frigging fast I had to break a little, cause I just didn't think you could turn that fast. But it was amazing to feel how fast you actually can go, cause he was going way faster than anyone on the course , moving from 20th position to 3rd. Anyways I was with Troy Wells and David Frattini, Troy crashed and I fell directly on top of him. But it was just kind of funny. Troy dropped back and I thought I had Frattini, cause I was gapping him in the technical sections. He came back onto me on the long pavement drag, I didn't have enough of a gap and I basically gave him a great lead out. I was pretty mad at myself for being the victim of my own stupidity in this scenario. Should have known that this guy packed a fiery sprint.
Anyways, although day 2 was not quite as good as day 1, still a good weekend for us. Tasha said
"I would give up a bad day the second day any time to have the experience of leading the first day for a few laps and really getting to race my race".
So hopefully we will see you guys November 30th at Mooney's Bay for our Cross race in the snow.
DSJ
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Southampton Day 1
So.....race #1 in the Hamptons is under our belts. And both Derrick and I got our sweet revenge from last year. For me I actually got the hole shot. As a roadie I should be getting the pavement on everyone and today it clicked for me. I didn't get the initial jump but it was a long paved section to the first corner and I got on the front right before the corner and got a 5 metre gap on the field. Little did I know where I was going though. Felt like an OBC course as the first section of the course was changed a little bit from the regular course loop. We came into a climb and I jammed on my front derailer to shift to the little ring. Ahh....it's stuck and I hold up pretty much the whole field with my elbows out only one rider getting through and getting a gap on us. Through the next 1km I get on to the front group and attack it. I lead the race for about 2 laps and was like "where is everyone". Next thing I know Georgia rolls through and I hear that Lynne Bessette is closing on me (she came out of retirement today and rocked the course). Again like last week I was a little star struck and had to hit my head a few times. Did I mention it was about -10 degrees Celsius here with the wind gusts at 35 km/hour. I had put on a toque for the race and my helmet didn't really like it. The first wind section of the course I was battling with my helmet trying to keep it on. It was pretty embarrassing but I dealt with it.
Amazingly enough I battled for second with Lynne over the rest of race. The amazing part was I was riding technically better than her and catching her on a tricky rutted out downhill section. With one lap to go I tried hard to get by and then she put an attack on me before the single track knowing she needed to be in front. Then I was pretty taxed and started messing up some lines, so I shook myself a bit to focus on riding smooth. Ended up a few seconds back at the finish in third. Overall, probably one of my best days on the bike ever. Oh and many, many, thanks to Steve Proulx for checking my tubulars this week. You saved my life, cause if we (oops, I mean Derrick) didn't re-glue my rear tire I'm for sure I would of rolled it. Thanks Steve......and kick some ass tomorrow, I have good vibes for you.
Derrick says....(ok actually, I will just let him write this after he finishes the dinner I cooked him after he road the compu-trainer for his warm down for about 40 minutes. Want to guess what it is, of course brown rice, chicken and salad. It's my dinner of champions to be. It never changes, it's what I eat every night of the week.)
Ok, so Tasha's race...AMAZING! When I saw her in the lead...I thought holy moly. It was awesome...So the plan was for moi, to not get too excited and actually focus on my preparation as I just get a little too hyped for her. I prepared for this race by giving myself a nice treat, a brand new goatee! And that's what made me race well. Am I superstitious, no...maybe just a little stitious, but not super. Strangely I was the only one in bare legs, which also brought good luck. The third trifecta for the good luck was my also brand spankin new Rudy Project photo chromatic Impact lenses, thanks Bob Kirkup! These lenses are actually magical as they change color from clear to almost opaque for extreme conditions. I think they are going to have an episode on Discovery Channel's "How it's made"...ok that's not true but they should cause the science behind that mess is just way beyond me.
Uhmm...so my race..hard, lots of spit on my face, luckily it was my own. I had a phenomenal start and was in front of some big guns, I eased off the throttle a bit cause I started seeing purple...that's usually a sign to back off just a tad...so I made the ass end of the get away train in about 11th spot, passed one dude, battled with Matt White a bit and was right behind a Kona dude. Have to say that I'm pretty happy with 10th in this C1 race. I feel like the combination of the goatee, bare legs and new glasses worked out well. The fact that we have been dragging our carcasses to sufferests all over North America and training like MGR's (Mental Gorilla Robots ) probably has nothing to do with our success, it is clearly related to getting new Rudy Project glasses, yah Tasha was sporting her Zero Deg lenses in her Rudy glasses and it obviously paid off. It can't just be a coincidence. Moral of the story...get stuff it will make you fast. Also I really put the Octto wheels through the ringer today and once again thanks Steve "best damn M1 racer in Canada and 3rd in the USGP" Proulx for taking a look at the equipment this week and making sure everything was copacetic. Sorry that my posts are a tad tangential in nature...my lungs may never be the same, I feel like I smoked a carton of Marlborough Lites.
Amazingly enough I battled for second with Lynne over the rest of race. The amazing part was I was riding technically better than her and catching her on a tricky rutted out downhill section. With one lap to go I tried hard to get by and then she put an attack on me before the single track knowing she needed to be in front. Then I was pretty taxed and started messing up some lines, so I shook myself a bit to focus on riding smooth. Ended up a few seconds back at the finish in third. Overall, probably one of my best days on the bike ever. Oh and many, many, thanks to Steve Proulx for checking my tubulars this week. You saved my life, cause if we (oops, I mean Derrick) didn't re-glue my rear tire I'm for sure I would of rolled it. Thanks Steve......and kick some ass tomorrow, I have good vibes for you.
Derrick says....(ok actually, I will just let him write this after he finishes the dinner I cooked him after he road the compu-trainer for his warm down for about 40 minutes. Want to guess what it is, of course brown rice, chicken and salad. It's my dinner of champions to be. It never changes, it's what I eat every night of the week.)
Ok, so Tasha's race...AMAZING! When I saw her in the lead...I thought holy moly. It was awesome...So the plan was for moi, to not get too excited and actually focus on my preparation as I just get a little too hyped for her. I prepared for this race by giving myself a nice treat, a brand new goatee! And that's what made me race well. Am I superstitious, no...maybe just a little stitious, but not super. Strangely I was the only one in bare legs, which also brought good luck. The third trifecta for the good luck was my also brand spankin new Rudy Project photo chromatic Impact lenses, thanks Bob Kirkup! These lenses are actually magical as they change color from clear to almost opaque for extreme conditions. I think they are going to have an episode on Discovery Channel's "How it's made"...ok that's not true but they should cause the science behind that mess is just way beyond me.
Uhmm...so my race..hard, lots of spit on my face, luckily it was my own. I had a phenomenal start and was in front of some big guns, I eased off the throttle a bit cause I started seeing purple...that's usually a sign to back off just a tad...so I made the ass end of the get away train in about 11th spot, passed one dude, battled with Matt White a bit and was right behind a Kona dude. Have to say that I'm pretty happy with 10th in this C1 race. I feel like the combination of the goatee, bare legs and new glasses worked out well. The fact that we have been dragging our carcasses to sufferests all over North America and training like MGR's (Mental Gorilla Robots ) probably has nothing to do with our success, it is clearly related to getting new Rudy Project glasses, yah Tasha was sporting her Zero Deg lenses in her Rudy glasses and it obviously paid off. It can't just be a coincidence. Moral of the story...get stuff it will make you fast. Also I really put the Octto wheels through the ringer today and once again thanks Steve "best damn M1 racer in Canada and 3rd in the USGP" Proulx for taking a look at the equipment this week and making sure everything was copacetic. Sorry that my posts are a tad tangential in nature...my lungs may never be the same, I feel like I smoked a carton of Marlborough Lites.
Chillin' in the Hamptons
When I say chillin, you think all maxin and relaxin'...but i'm just talkin about the degs. Burrr.
Before I start my blab. Thank you so much to all those who contributed to the Euro Cycling fund and gave their precious dollars to get us over to Europe. We just picked up the sum from Vince and we have been talking to some of them in the last few weeks with no idea they had donated to us. So I'm feeling like a jack ass, I was wondering why people were smiling at me so much, I just thought they noticed that I have been flossing more and using whitening toothpaste, I thought it was my smile....guess not, but seriously thank you so much. Tasha also keeps saying ahh, we saw him last week, now I feel like a big idiot as we didn't know. Not only was that funny, but this same person wrote on his cheque in the memo "xxx services". I didn't know cyclo cross was some times referred to as triple x.
So this weekend we are actually staying in a small place called Sag Harbor NY (long island), about 15 km away from the race venue. When race promoter Myles Romanow said the host housing was "a little off the beaten path" he wasn't kidding. Think you can find anything with the GPS? Wrong.
Shari and Mary, our hosts, live in a very spacious log cabin(well it's way too big to call a cabin) just off the "beaten path". We had to put the tires to the test and crawl our way up the off camber pebbled sand driveway that had me wishing we had an SUV. But it looks a lot worse than it is and as long as you drive really slow you're okay. Their quaint house is nestled in the woods along with 5 cats, 3 dogs and some Guinea Hens. Shari and Mary are adventure racers and there is even a 30 foot climbing rope in their living room, it's pretty cool. Although I'm sure these days my upper body strength or lack there of would leave even the cats laughing at me.
We made it through NYC without too much hassle and surprisingly and more importantly....Tasha and I are still engaged. Once again thank the lord for the Tom Tom.
Last year we drove down with Greg Reain and we decided to take the ferry in CT...I'll blame that on GR, cause the trip took 13 hours last year. This year we split it up in two drives, we stayed in Bethlem NY Thursday night and hit the final leg yesterday.
So the course is short, fast hard, bumpy. Basically it's gonna really hurt today. Hopefully we bring em some Revenge on Whitmores...cause last year we sucked, while Tasha not so much, she rode to the best of the capacity at that time, but me, I sucked. I sucked big time.
Just for the record if you hear that I've been listening to "Womanizer" by Brittany Spears...I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. Tasha makes me watch Gossip Girl on Mondays and it played in the show and she must have secretly played it on repeat while I was sleeping, cause it just keeps on beating in my head. I've tried to drown it out with Kanye West's new track Love Lockdown...which is pretty cool, but I just don't know what to say about about the Brittany thing. "Womanizer , Womanizer you're a womanizer"...haha now I've cast it upon you.
DSJ
Before I start my blab. Thank you so much to all those who contributed to the Euro Cycling fund and gave their precious dollars to get us over to Europe. We just picked up the sum from Vince and we have been talking to some of them in the last few weeks with no idea they had donated to us. So I'm feeling like a jack ass, I was wondering why people were smiling at me so much, I just thought they noticed that I have been flossing more and using whitening toothpaste, I thought it was my smile....guess not, but seriously thank you so much. Tasha also keeps saying ahh, we saw him last week, now I feel like a big idiot as we didn't know. Not only was that funny, but this same person wrote on his cheque in the memo "xxx services". I didn't know cyclo cross was some times referred to as triple x.
So this weekend we are actually staying in a small place called Sag Harbor NY (long island), about 15 km away from the race venue. When race promoter Myles Romanow said the host housing was "a little off the beaten path" he wasn't kidding. Think you can find anything with the GPS? Wrong.
Shari and Mary, our hosts, live in a very spacious log cabin(well it's way too big to call a cabin) just off the "beaten path". We had to put the tires to the test and crawl our way up the off camber pebbled sand driveway that had me wishing we had an SUV. But it looks a lot worse than it is and as long as you drive really slow you're okay. Their quaint house is nestled in the woods along with 5 cats, 3 dogs and some Guinea Hens. Shari and Mary are adventure racers and there is even a 30 foot climbing rope in their living room, it's pretty cool. Although I'm sure these days my upper body strength or lack there of would leave even the cats laughing at me.
We made it through NYC without too much hassle and surprisingly and more importantly....Tasha and I are still engaged. Once again thank the lord for the Tom Tom.
Last year we drove down with Greg Reain and we decided to take the ferry in CT...I'll blame that on GR, cause the trip took 13 hours last year. This year we split it up in two drives, we stayed in Bethlem NY Thursday night and hit the final leg yesterday.
So the course is short, fast hard, bumpy. Basically it's gonna really hurt today. Hopefully we bring em some Revenge on Whitmores...cause last year we sucked, while Tasha not so much, she rode to the best of the capacity at that time, but me, I sucked. I sucked big time.
Just for the record if you hear that I've been listening to "Womanizer" by Brittany Spears...I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. Tasha makes me watch Gossip Girl on Mondays and it played in the show and she must have secretly played it on repeat while I was sleeping, cause it just keeps on beating in my head. I've tried to drown it out with Kanye West's new track Love Lockdown...which is pretty cool, but I just don't know what to say about about the Brittany thing. "Womanizer , Womanizer you're a womanizer"...haha now I've cast it upon you.
DSJ
Monday, November 17, 2008
USGP #5 and #6 - New Jersey
So long time no post for me, I leave this to Derrick most times. Mainly because I get really annoyed with dial up and I have a really short attention span, so short that I forget what I'm writing about when the Internet is so slow out here in Cornwall.
This weekend, pretty good. Derrick had amazing races and has finally cracked two top 20 results at the Grand Prix with all the players in North America there. He really excelled well in the mud and taught me what to do the second day of racing.
Obviously I was looking for a top 5 result this weekend maybe even a podium but I had some bad luck and I'm okay with that. I tried hard and dug really deep but let me tell you, once you made a few mistakes on the course, you were never coming back. The course was so draining and impossible to make time up on, the mud was so deep and thick, nothing like I have ever seen. First day I had a not bad start but was still in about 6th around the first corner, than I ran like I had never ran before and got in to 3rd. Then I was in a little group but I tried to play off the experience riders and doubted that I could ride sections and ran way too much. I had a couple little bobbles and crashes and fell a bit off the group and ended up 7th.
Day 2 was not a great start but I knew what I had to do from yesterday, to get up to the group, just attack the mud and ride as much as I could. First day I pitted (switched bikes) at every pit equalling twice a lap. Day 2 I was a bit behind so I rode by the first pit and was able to ride a pretty tough mud section. This got me by a few girls and on the tail end of the lead group of 5. I went into a little off camber corner and my breaks were completely locked up. Crashed into the tape and lost the group. Still out on my own I tried to get back on and went through the pit and got my spare bike. Next thing I know I am going over the fly over and I hit the bottom and my handle bars completely flip down (I broke my wrist last winter on a fly over into mud so I don't really likes these things to begin with). Somehow the bars became loose from Saturday to Sunday even though I pre-rode the bike before the race. I spent the next 7 minutes crashing into everything that required turns and torque onto the bars. The mud sections were easy, cornering wasn't. I went straight into stakes and was constantly trying to wind my bars back up. Lost mega time and then I switched back onto my good bike but was fighting with a seized rear break. Granted the course didn't need a whole lot of breaking but every spot it did, I over cooked it and went into the tape. I fought hard and ended up 9th, not bad for having two mechanically gone wrong bikes, the main thing was that I was happy with myself for still giving everything even though things were going wrong. I actually enjoyed trying to fight back if that makes any sense at all. I guess now I know when it is really muddy out, things really need to be looked at before the next day. It was kind of the problem of having a really muddy course, which meant pre-riding wasn't really a great option on the course. Warm-ups were done on the road where I didn't really torque my bars or test out my breaks enough. I just assumed they were fine as they were fine on Saturday, but after about 20 power washes between bike changes I'm sure some things needed to be looked at again.
I do want to thank all the people that did help the dynamic duo out this weekend. From Robbie O and K-bomb for lending us your wheels and Rick for giving us a second set. With out those dugast tires we would of been screwed. You guys save our races for sure. Also thanks to Rick, Josee and Alex all helping us out in the pit. Derrick and I were a little stressed (woo let me rephrase that.....really WORRIED) about the rain and what we would do if we came upon a really muddy course and needed to pit every lap or twice a lap. Rick did an awesome job for me on Saturday as well as Josee on Sunday, I had no problem finding them each lap and somehow they had magically cleaned my bike in a short amount of time. Derrick had Alex help him out on Saturday and then Rick on Sunday. It was pretty awesome to have some local support out there for us, we really appreciate it.
Other news and stuff from the weekend. We had a wonderful time with our host family in New Jersey. There two sons were adorable and they made us feel very much at home. Our drive home was pretty late last night as we went back to there house to have a warm shower before heading out. We got home about 4 am and almost ran out of gas. Yep, it was my fault and caused me to do a U turn on the 401. We drove through about 4 different sections in New York where is was a white out. Oh yeah, and I drank this Starbucks drink on the way home from a gas station. Derrick couldn't stop laughing at me as I had never drank a red bull before and this drink was like two red bulls and two coffees combined in one. Needless to say I did most of the driving on this trip home and then had trouble falling asleep.
Most notable news of the weekend was Steve Proulx's results. I didn't get to see it as I was out warming up for my race on the road. But Steve was 3rd in the Masters race. Quite amazing result at a Grand Prix. Derrick made up for me not being there to cheer him on. He saw his podium and made sure he screamed EXTREMELY loud for Steve. I thought for sure if Josee pitted for me as she pitted for Steve that I would get my podium result. All well.........many more races to come in the year and of course more podiums and more wins.
NCE
This weekend, pretty good. Derrick had amazing races and has finally cracked two top 20 results at the Grand Prix with all the players in North America there. He really excelled well in the mud and taught me what to do the second day of racing.
Obviously I was looking for a top 5 result this weekend maybe even a podium but I had some bad luck and I'm okay with that. I tried hard and dug really deep but let me tell you, once you made a few mistakes on the course, you were never coming back. The course was so draining and impossible to make time up on, the mud was so deep and thick, nothing like I have ever seen. First day I had a not bad start but was still in about 6th around the first corner, than I ran like I had never ran before and got in to 3rd. Then I was in a little group but I tried to play off the experience riders and doubted that I could ride sections and ran way too much. I had a couple little bobbles and crashes and fell a bit off the group and ended up 7th.
Day 2 was not a great start but I knew what I had to do from yesterday, to get up to the group, just attack the mud and ride as much as I could. First day I pitted (switched bikes) at every pit equalling twice a lap. Day 2 I was a bit behind so I rode by the first pit and was able to ride a pretty tough mud section. This got me by a few girls and on the tail end of the lead group of 5. I went into a little off camber corner and my breaks were completely locked up. Crashed into the tape and lost the group. Still out on my own I tried to get back on and went through the pit and got my spare bike. Next thing I know I am going over the fly over and I hit the bottom and my handle bars completely flip down (I broke my wrist last winter on a fly over into mud so I don't really likes these things to begin with). Somehow the bars became loose from Saturday to Sunday even though I pre-rode the bike before the race. I spent the next 7 minutes crashing into everything that required turns and torque onto the bars. The mud sections were easy, cornering wasn't. I went straight into stakes and was constantly trying to wind my bars back up. Lost mega time and then I switched back onto my good bike but was fighting with a seized rear break. Granted the course didn't need a whole lot of breaking but every spot it did, I over cooked it and went into the tape. I fought hard and ended up 9th, not bad for having two mechanically gone wrong bikes, the main thing was that I was happy with myself for still giving everything even though things were going wrong. I actually enjoyed trying to fight back if that makes any sense at all. I guess now I know when it is really muddy out, things really need to be looked at before the next day. It was kind of the problem of having a really muddy course, which meant pre-riding wasn't really a great option on the course. Warm-ups were done on the road where I didn't really torque my bars or test out my breaks enough. I just assumed they were fine as they were fine on Saturday, but after about 20 power washes between bike changes I'm sure some things needed to be looked at again.
I do want to thank all the people that did help the dynamic duo out this weekend. From Robbie O and K-bomb for lending us your wheels and Rick for giving us a second set. With out those dugast tires we would of been screwed. You guys save our races for sure. Also thanks to Rick, Josee and Alex all helping us out in the pit. Derrick and I were a little stressed (woo let me rephrase that.....really WORRIED) about the rain and what we would do if we came upon a really muddy course and needed to pit every lap or twice a lap. Rick did an awesome job for me on Saturday as well as Josee on Sunday, I had no problem finding them each lap and somehow they had magically cleaned my bike in a short amount of time. Derrick had Alex help him out on Saturday and then Rick on Sunday. It was pretty awesome to have some local support out there for us, we really appreciate it.
Other news and stuff from the weekend. We had a wonderful time with our host family in New Jersey. There two sons were adorable and they made us feel very much at home. Our drive home was pretty late last night as we went back to there house to have a warm shower before heading out. We got home about 4 am and almost ran out of gas. Yep, it was my fault and caused me to do a U turn on the 401. We drove through about 4 different sections in New York where is was a white out. Oh yeah, and I drank this Starbucks drink on the way home from a gas station. Derrick couldn't stop laughing at me as I had never drank a red bull before and this drink was like two red bulls and two coffees combined in one. Needless to say I did most of the driving on this trip home and then had trouble falling asleep.
Most notable news of the weekend was Steve Proulx's results. I didn't get to see it as I was out warming up for my race on the road. But Steve was 3rd in the Masters race. Quite amazing result at a Grand Prix. Derrick made up for me not being there to cheer him on. He saw his podium and made sure he screamed EXTREMELY loud for Steve. I thought for sure if Josee pitted for me as she pitted for Steve that I would get my podium result. All well.........many more races to come in the year and of course more podiums and more wins.
NCE
Saturday, November 15, 2008
NJ GP...briefly
So we drive down to Nj for the GP. We are staying with the Stoeckels family...Sharon, Neal, Benjamin and Jack. Jack is 3 going on four and his favorite sprinter is Cavendish...he loves racing. Neal and Jack got to come to the race and Jack got in trouble for playing in the mud.
Speaking of mud...if you thought that last weekend was muddy...hahah...well 20 degs Celsius and massive downpour this am made for 15 minute laps.
Tasha had a phenomenal start and right behind Katerina and Georgia, it was pretty sweet. She decided to run a few parts I think she could have rode through , but she still put in a solid ride coming 7th, behind Wendy in 5th and Deidre in 6th. So it was a pretty good day on the saddle' or should I say on the spikes? Tasha took a bike at every opportunity so 2 bike changes per lap. We couldn't make it to our number presentation last night as we thought it wise to just relax and pound out a workout on the trainer in Neal and Sharon's garage so we had to find the rego and it was a pain in the ....cause they didn't have my number 10 bib so the guy had to go get a set from his car and I waited and waited and then waited to clean my bike and then waited to cross the course as the fields were so stretched out. Rick "the mike" Meloff took care of Tasha in the pit and also lent her a pair of Dugast mudders to go along with the other pair of mudders we most graciously borrowed from Robbie "oh my god it's blue steel" O and K bomb. Thanks guys...you have no idea how much you saved our butts. Swear to god.
I think Ottawa M1 Steve Proulx was really killing it today today as Tash told me he was 7th. I'm pretty sure that's his best at a GP. I like watching Steve ride, he looks oh so Euro, smooth, lanky...but he's a pretty pale looking fella when he races...which I guess is his tell tale Canuk trade mark.
I also saw Marky Mark "and the funky bunch" Boudreau off like a rocket but heard that some dude plowed into him, so not sure what happened.
Mens race. I'm not sure if guys are getting tired, but there were some cranky guys on the line today. As well as a whole lot of body contact in the first couple laps, man I was not ready for that. The guys were just killing it, going out so hard. I knew if I just rode clean I would get a good result. Let me just say I know why people pay the $$ for the Dugast...in the mud the Rhino's are absolutely phenomenal. Funny I knew guys were going to blow sky high today. On this course it was so taxing, I just knew a poor start could actually translate into a descent result. I just ride as much as I good, mostly in the tape, and throttled the mud as best as I could. Tasha got Alex Sanna to pit for me so I took as many clean bikes as I could. Finished 14th, which is actually a good result as this is a C1, so a few more UCI points and a couple dollars.
I'm pretty happy with that as I was 24th? and 37th last year...so I just keep on chipping away.
Cause really I sucked in the mud last week and I think I was actually smooth today...which is surprising and I only bobbled twice.
Ok time to watch Hulk and have some cereal, ciao.
DSJ
Speaking of mud...if you thought that last weekend was muddy...hahah...well 20 degs Celsius and massive downpour this am made for 15 minute laps.
Tasha had a phenomenal start and right behind Katerina and Georgia, it was pretty sweet. She decided to run a few parts I think she could have rode through , but she still put in a solid ride coming 7th, behind Wendy in 5th and Deidre in 6th. So it was a pretty good day on the saddle' or should I say on the spikes? Tasha took a bike at every opportunity so 2 bike changes per lap. We couldn't make it to our number presentation last night as we thought it wise to just relax and pound out a workout on the trainer in Neal and Sharon's garage so we had to find the rego and it was a pain in the ....cause they didn't have my number 10 bib so the guy had to go get a set from his car and I waited and waited and then waited to clean my bike and then waited to cross the course as the fields were so stretched out. Rick "the mike" Meloff took care of Tasha in the pit and also lent her a pair of Dugast mudders to go along with the other pair of mudders we most graciously borrowed from Robbie "oh my god it's blue steel" O and K bomb. Thanks guys...you have no idea how much you saved our butts. Swear to god.
I think Ottawa M1 Steve Proulx was really killing it today today as Tash told me he was 7th. I'm pretty sure that's his best at a GP. I like watching Steve ride, he looks oh so Euro, smooth, lanky...but he's a pretty pale looking fella when he races...which I guess is his tell tale Canuk trade mark.
I also saw Marky Mark "and the funky bunch" Boudreau off like a rocket but heard that some dude plowed into him, so not sure what happened.
Mens race. I'm not sure if guys are getting tired, but there were some cranky guys on the line today. As well as a whole lot of body contact in the first couple laps, man I was not ready for that. The guys were just killing it, going out so hard. I knew if I just rode clean I would get a good result. Let me just say I know why people pay the $$ for the Dugast...in the mud the Rhino's are absolutely phenomenal. Funny I knew guys were going to blow sky high today. On this course it was so taxing, I just knew a poor start could actually translate into a descent result. I just ride as much as I good, mostly in the tape, and throttled the mud as best as I could. Tasha got Alex Sanna to pit for me so I took as many clean bikes as I could. Finished 14th, which is actually a good result as this is a C1, so a few more UCI points and a couple dollars.
I'm pretty happy with that as I was 24th? and 37th last year...so I just keep on chipping away.
Cause really I sucked in the mud last week and I think I was actually smooth today...which is surprising and I only bobbled twice.
Ok time to watch Hulk and have some cereal, ciao.
DSJ
Monday, November 10, 2008
Toronto International Cyclo-cross weekend
(Photos taken from www.ontariocycling.org)
So Toronto Cross Weekend. Lets just say it was nice to drive to B'ville the night before then have only an hour and a bit for Friday. Driving 8-15 hours can draw on you. Shocking.
So we had the pleasure of staying at Rick Meloft's house in Scarborough. Apparently he had never had any Shawarma...what is up with people in TO? No Shawarma...so we brought him to a make do place just South of Centennial Park, it was ok, but I told him Ottawa is king of Shawarma. Nor had he ever watched Little Britain...so we got him hooked on Daffid, Anday and Lou and of course Lady Emily.
Tasha rode an outstanding race Saturday...she was on strict directions from moi, (racer,bike mechanic,publicist, man nurse) to not “get her frigin bike dirty” if possible. So she was jumping over the huge puddle of mud and kept it clean in warm up. Doesn't she get the whole shot, claim the the barrier prime...get a gap and then slam herself into a stake after hitting her head on a tree in a corner, before the challenging mud bath. It was so funny to see her get caught in the tape (which by the way I told her if ever happened to just keep riding and eventually it will break) she just gingery gets off her bike, takes the tape off and jumps back on like she was on a pre-ride or something. So she was looking pretty darn smooth. She rode every stich of mud grass and hill on the course. I'd say that I taught her that but that's not true. I've been called a lot of things...and “smooth” is not one of them. So she just rode as hard as she needed to with NJ GP next week and shut it down with half a lap to go.
Men's race. Shit storm of rain...well not even, but just the kind of rain that makes it slippy slidy. So I actually stated off well into someone crashed in front of me and did some sort of break dance move on the ground and I lost all momentum. Then I started riding like someone sprayed my tires with wax. So that's all have to say about that. If we were playing hockey I would have got a 10 minute for unsportsman like cause I was not a happy camper after my race, and although I was trying to stay positive it just wasn't happening and I pouted a little then blamed it on my tire choice, pressure choice and I was over it.
That being said,the course was insane. Man if you love cross this course, these conditions...it was epic. Strange enough everyone who rode well had a certain mud tire-shocking as well.
I actually crashed so hard that I sprained my thumb, which I am just realizing right now as it is purple and broke my bars, a shifter and my arm looks like Freddy Krugger did a number on it. But I crashed so many times, I couldn't tell you when it happened. That's the funny part.
The course was designed by Scott Doel, man what a job he did. It was an off camber mud shit sling nightmare that he must have dreamed about after drinking a case of Stella and eating Frites and puking up pesto mayonnnaise. Even Tim Johnson said he crashed 12 times. It just makes you realize the simplicity and the complexity of the sport all at the same time. I mean I sucked, but it was good. It's kind of like if you ever been punched really hard in the face, had your bell rung, and just thought yah I knew that was coming and I deserved it. On second thought...like being punched repeatedly in the face and kneed in the kidneys and then being kicked in the face with a workboot so hard that your forehead reads "Kodiak" backwards. Seriously, it's good to have bad days like that. You get your choices of equipment wrong, you bobble, you fall, you suck...but funny enough not once did I think of quiting. I just kept on trying harder, I didn't give up to last the corner when I was running beside my bike and Tim H was starting his sprint...cause then it was actually over. On this course, on this day you could have given me a 10 minute lead and I still would have lost. I think you can get lulled into a sense of comfort racing bone dry cross, cause its just like a really technical crit, sort of. So this one of my favorite course designs ever. Obviously not cause I did well, but because I didn't.
Sunday...guess who rode like a champ....ok one hint...she...urggg, I guess I just gave that one away. Once again Tasha just kept her head on her shoulders and rode hard in a couple key sections (basically any time the gravity meter read 8%) to hold a steady gap to the finish. I got a Birdseye of this one, I stood in the pit...as I figured it really wouldn't affect today's race, I just wouldn't do that Saturday. So she rode clean, ever strong up the climbs and cautious on the descents. She pushed some serious power on the head wind section and she made it look easy. She did the patented one hand semi-pump on the finish line as 1) last time she did a double hands in Ontario she almost got fined 2) she has trouble riding no hands after 40 minute cross race.
Men's race. Better. My warm up was very serious, did a few bunny hops in the beer tent, it's actually amazing how high that aluminum bike can get, with the tires too, its so smooth. Then someone dared me to jump onto the picnic table...I didn't really want to with the carbon wheels and all...but as I can never turn down a chance to dance, I jumped onto the bench part with one wheel balanced a bit and took one hand off the bars...the crowd went wild...I looked at the hill a lot and watched people ride it over and over and just got tired watching them so that was enough for me. Oh yah and I did lots of stretches while I was in the pit for Tashas race. Ask Marc Boudreau, he saw me stretching up a storm, I felt like Richard Simmons.
Good initial jump, great reaction but had a little anerobic fog hesitation that cost me a few spots and had a little trouble with descents as although my pressure was Derricously low they just wouldn't bite in...yah so we will bevaddressing that this week...Anyways I had some fire today, if the down was good as the up I would have been 100% happy. But as I am never really fully satisfied until I kill it, it was about 80% good today...which is a lot better since there have been a lot of hit and miss. Finished up 10th today and 10th overall, so made a few dollars and as per the Dynamic Duo Foundation I get to keep a whopping 95$(As most of the money has to be put back in to pay expenses for the cross budget) So she hands me the cash tonight and this is the first time I have held money since September as I give her all the money...so she hands it to me...T says this is yours....then she changes her mind and rips the bling out of my hand and says...no you don't need this right now and that was that. Apparently I will get the money next time we go to the bank....right. I've played that game before. Funny thing, it felt like so much money...I thought I was rich for a second. Ez come ez go. I could have probably made more doing tricks in the beer tent and
I could have stuffed it in my shorts and never even told Tasha!
It was nice to see all the Ottawa crew, especially John Fee get the hole shot in the M1 race, seems like having kids makes him ride faster... I was impressed. All the RWR's Robbie O, K bomb, Nick V..all but the R himself...we'll make sure to hassle Glen a lil before we leave for the Netherlands...Also, Connor, Karl, and Mike all out there racing hard.
So we had the pleasure of staying at Rick Meloft's house in Scarborough. Apparently he had never had any Shawarma...what is up with people in TO? No Shawarma...so we brought him to a make do place just South of Centennial Park, it was ok, but I told him Ottawa is king of Shawarma. Nor had he ever watched Little Britain...so we got him hooked on Daffid, Anday and Lou and of course Lady Emily.
Tasha rode an outstanding race Saturday...she was on strict directions from moi, (racer,bike mechanic,publicist, man nurse) to not “get her frigin bike dirty” if possible. So she was jumping over the huge puddle of mud and kept it clean in warm up. Doesn't she get the whole shot, claim the the barrier prime...get a gap and then slam herself into a stake after hitting her head on a tree in a corner, before the challenging mud bath. It was so funny to see her get caught in the tape (which by the way I told her if ever happened to just keep riding and eventually it will break) she just gingery gets off her bike, takes the tape off and jumps back on like she was on a pre-ride or something. So she was looking pretty darn smooth. She rode every stich of mud grass and hill on the course. I'd say that I taught her that but that's not true. I've been called a lot of things...and “smooth” is not one of them. So she just rode as hard as she needed to with NJ GP next week and shut it down with half a lap to go.
Men's race. Shit storm of rain...well not even, but just the kind of rain that makes it slippy slidy. So I actually stated off well into someone crashed in front of me and did some sort of break dance move on the ground and I lost all momentum. Then I started riding like someone sprayed my tires with wax. So that's all have to say about that. If we were playing hockey I would have got a 10 minute for unsportsman like cause I was not a happy camper after my race, and although I was trying to stay positive it just wasn't happening and I pouted a little then blamed it on my tire choice, pressure choice and I was over it.
That being said,the course was insane. Man if you love cross this course, these conditions...it was epic. Strange enough everyone who rode well had a certain mud tire-shocking as well.
I actually crashed so hard that I sprained my thumb, which I am just realizing right now as it is purple and broke my bars, a shifter and my arm looks like Freddy Krugger did a number on it. But I crashed so many times, I couldn't tell you when it happened. That's the funny part.
The course was designed by Scott Doel, man what a job he did. It was an off camber mud shit sling nightmare that he must have dreamed about after drinking a case of Stella and eating Frites and puking up pesto mayonnnaise. Even Tim Johnson said he crashed 12 times. It just makes you realize the simplicity and the complexity of the sport all at the same time. I mean I sucked, but it was good. It's kind of like if you ever been punched really hard in the face, had your bell rung, and just thought yah I knew that was coming and I deserved it. On second thought...like being punched repeatedly in the face and kneed in the kidneys and then being kicked in the face with a workboot so hard that your forehead reads "Kodiak" backwards. Seriously, it's good to have bad days like that. You get your choices of equipment wrong, you bobble, you fall, you suck...but funny enough not once did I think of quiting. I just kept on trying harder, I didn't give up to last the corner when I was running beside my bike and Tim H was starting his sprint...cause then it was actually over. On this course, on this day you could have given me a 10 minute lead and I still would have lost. I think you can get lulled into a sense of comfort racing bone dry cross, cause its just like a really technical crit, sort of. So this one of my favorite course designs ever. Obviously not cause I did well, but because I didn't.
Sunday...guess who rode like a champ....ok one hint...she...urggg, I guess I just gave that one away. Once again Tasha just kept her head on her shoulders and rode hard in a couple key sections (basically any time the gravity meter read 8%) to hold a steady gap to the finish. I got a Birdseye of this one, I stood in the pit...as I figured it really wouldn't affect today's race, I just wouldn't do that Saturday. So she rode clean, ever strong up the climbs and cautious on the descents. She pushed some serious power on the head wind section and she made it look easy. She did the patented one hand semi-pump on the finish line as 1) last time she did a double hands in Ontario she almost got fined 2) she has trouble riding no hands after 40 minute cross race.
Men's race. Better. My warm up was very serious, did a few bunny hops in the beer tent, it's actually amazing how high that aluminum bike can get, with the tires too, its so smooth. Then someone dared me to jump onto the picnic table...I didn't really want to with the carbon wheels and all...but as I can never turn down a chance to dance, I jumped onto the bench part with one wheel balanced a bit and took one hand off the bars...the crowd went wild...I looked at the hill a lot and watched people ride it over and over and just got tired watching them so that was enough for me. Oh yah and I did lots of stretches while I was in the pit for Tashas race. Ask Marc Boudreau, he saw me stretching up a storm, I felt like Richard Simmons.
Good initial jump, great reaction but had a little anerobic fog hesitation that cost me a few spots and had a little trouble with descents as although my pressure was Derricously low they just wouldn't bite in...yah so we will bevaddressing that this week...Anyways I had some fire today, if the down was good as the up I would have been 100% happy. But as I am never really fully satisfied until I kill it, it was about 80% good today...which is a lot better since there have been a lot of hit and miss. Finished up 10th today and 10th overall, so made a few dollars and as per the Dynamic Duo Foundation I get to keep a whopping 95$(As most of the money has to be put back in to pay expenses for the cross budget) So she hands me the cash tonight and this is the first time I have held money since September as I give her all the money...so she hands it to me...T says this is yours....then she changes her mind and rips the bling out of my hand and says...no you don't need this right now and that was that. Apparently I will get the money next time we go to the bank....right. I've played that game before. Funny thing, it felt like so much money...I thought I was rich for a second. Ez come ez go. I could have probably made more doing tricks in the beer tent and
I could have stuffed it in my shorts and never even told Tasha!
It was nice to see all the Ottawa crew, especially John Fee get the hole shot in the M1 race, seems like having kids makes him ride faster... I was impressed. All the RWR's Robbie O, K bomb, Nick V..all but the R himself...we'll make sure to hassle Glen a lil before we leave for the Netherlands...Also, Connor, Karl, and Mike all out there racing hard.
RANT
UCI commissaries managed to get in a few bike checks on Saturday...and the pit..the whole green bracelet thing? I mean the rules say you have to have a mechanics accreditation, not just a UCI licence, so not even letting guys put their spare bikes in there...come on. Really bizarre. I mean if you are going to enforce the rules, enforce the right ones. The American riders thought it was funny. They asked if it was always like this.
The girl who came 2nd on Saturday didn't show up for "protocol", which everyone else except a certain commissaire calls podium, anyways she gets fined 200 Swiss Franks and no prize money money. Yah it was cold and all, but Tasha had to stand around...and freeze, so it's just kind of rude not show up at all. I guess we knew all this cause we actually went to the riders meeting and they said Protocol was 10 minutes after the race. I feel for her, cause they never really do that kind of stuff, but I also feel for Tasha who had to stand around and wait for ever cause the girls wern't there and also panic cause she didn't put my bike in the pit yet for my race starting in just 10 minutes.
Word to the wise, if you don't do a lot of high level races, you may want to go to the meetings if it's not too much of a hassle.
Cause they did say for the riders not to spray their bikes off with pit water and the Elite men ran out of water during our race cause no one knew and they all sprayed their bikes off there. If they were going to enforce one rule or thing it should have been that...cause I could have used a clean bike in my race. But the only people at the meeting were Elite men and Tasha. Cause I don't really think you can expect M1's and such to show up for the meeting, cause they work, have commitments ect, that kind of thing has to be hi-lighted in the tech guide, and you just outline the importance in saying blah blah blah do this get a fine, do that get a fine and people will know not to do it.
UCI commissaries managed to get in a few bike checks on Saturday...and the pit..the whole green bracelet thing? I mean the rules say you have to have a mechanics accreditation, not just a UCI licence, so not even letting guys put their spare bikes in there...come on. Really bizarre. I mean if you are going to enforce the rules, enforce the right ones. The American riders thought it was funny. They asked if it was always like this.
The girl who came 2nd on Saturday didn't show up for "protocol", which everyone else except a certain commissaire calls podium, anyways she gets fined 200 Swiss Franks and no prize money money. Yah it was cold and all, but Tasha had to stand around...and freeze, so it's just kind of rude not show up at all. I guess we knew all this cause we actually went to the riders meeting and they said Protocol was 10 minutes after the race. I feel for her, cause they never really do that kind of stuff, but I also feel for Tasha who had to stand around and wait for ever cause the girls wern't there and also panic cause she didn't put my bike in the pit yet for my race starting in just 10 minutes.
Word to the wise, if you don't do a lot of high level races, you may want to go to the meetings if it's not too much of a hassle.
Cause they did say for the riders not to spray their bikes off with pit water and the Elite men ran out of water during our race cause no one knew and they all sprayed their bikes off there. If they were going to enforce one rule or thing it should have been that...cause I could have used a clean bike in my race. But the only people at the meeting were Elite men and Tasha. Cause I don't really think you can expect M1's and such to show up for the meeting, cause they work, have commitments ect, that kind of thing has to be hi-lighted in the tech guide, and you just outline the importance in saying blah blah blah do this get a fine, do that get a fine and people will know not to do it.
I'm sure the M1 guys didn't know this...cause really there were only 12 people at the riders meeting. To tell you the truth this is the 1st time I've been to one, and it's just because Rick told us to go. So at any other race, I would have been the one not showing up, spraying my bike and complaining about stupid bracelets.
Good on them for trying to make things all official and I guess its good that random people can't walk into the pit and just take your machine. But it's not like we are all rolling around with our own mechanics and such.
It still didn't really take away from the weekend as Craig, Scott, Rick and the crew put on a amazing race, we were really impressed. The prize money that they were able to give out was awesome, and it helps us out tremendously to put back into our funds to go to Belgium.
D S J
Thursday, November 6, 2008
New Stevens Rider
Here's a pic of an up and coming rider from Wisconsin, Greta Pingle....she may be small but she packs a punch.
We recruited her when we were in WI. We keep in contact with her via her blackberry and we are able to monitor her powerfiles. We also make sure she doesn't eat too many milk and cookies.
Ok, now back to buisness...
So, we are off to TO this weekend. We have 6 races left in North America before we hit the sand in Koksijde. We will be staying in Haaren,Netherlands for the first little bit...then somewhere in Belgium...then in the Netherlands before Worlds. Here is our calender for the "real" part of the season...as if it was not hard enough, this is gonna be BANNANAS!
November 8-9th UCI Races Toronto, Ontario
November 15-16th US Grand Prix Cyclocross West Windsor, New Jersey
(Mercer Cup)
November 22-23rd Southhampton FSA series Southhampton, New York
November 29th Cyclocross World Cup 4 Koksijde, Belgium
December 2008
December 12th UCI Race Frankfurt, Germany
December 19th UCI Race Antwerp, Belgium
December 21st Cyclocross World Cup Nommany, France
or
December 22nd UCI Race Zeddam, Netherlands
December 26th Cyclocross World Cup Hofstade, Belgium
December 30th Azencross Loenhout, Belgium
January 2009
January 1st LUX UCI Race Petange, Luxembourg
January 4th UCI Race Tervuren, Belgium
January 18th Cyclocross World Cup Roubaix, France
January 25th UCI Race Lanarvily, France
January 31st-Feb 1st World Championships Hoogerheide, Netherlands
Then...maybe I can have a few beers and R-E-L-A-X.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Tasha wins Cycle Smart GP-DSJ 5th!
Well, if you read the last post, you'll know about "one hundred things must fall into place". Well I don't know how many fell into place today, but Tasha did it today. She had the ride I was waiting to see. If I could only explain that I've been waiting to see this for a long time. Never in my life have I seen her ride like she did today. Sure she took those 4 wins early in the season, but she just rode away, used her power. This was different in so many ways. She didn't have the greatest start not clipping in for a quite a few pedal rotations, but stayed calm closed the gaps and got to the front an killed it!
Richard Fries, the Verge announcer told her "I've been waiting to see you ride like this"
I knew exactly what he meant.
Tasha joined a group of 4 girls in the first lap of the race, Mo Bruno Roy slipped up in some turns and Tasha was able to catch her and the rest of the group that included Laura Van Gilder and Deidre Winfield. She drove the pace and used her skill to ride the technical portions of the course and used her strength to punch it out of the corners. It was truly an awesome race to watch.
Her group shattered and it was just Deidre and Tasha, but Laura fought her way back. This caused a little concern as Laura is without a doubt the best female sprinter in America. I kept yelling at Tasha "you know what to do"..."100%". And when I say yelling I mean yelling.
I obviously don't want to yell out to her what to do, cause that kind of the ruins the surprise element, last thing you want is the opponents to know what to wait for, so we had discussed tactics pre-race and she carried them out to a tee (by the way that`s a load of crap, as she had her own tactics in her head and knows what to do). So Tasha goes MENTAL on the last ride up that some girls had to run up, she takes it wide to get around Laura Van Gilder, almost hits a stake and attacks the shit out of it, punches it hard over the top, full throttle, couple turns hard and fast up and over the barriers. She got just enough day light between her two adversaries in the last couple turns that she jumped hard onto the last pavement section and she had it! Everyone was screaming "WOOOOO...go Tasha!" (ok well I was , but it was really loud so it was wicked) Richard Fries and Allen are such great announcers and this course lends it self to truly exciting racing. So Tasha throws the hands up in the air and claims her biggest, best victory to date. YES yes yes.
That's what I'm talking about. OK...I have to settle down. So my race...not bad. I guess I was a little too excited cuz I didn't hear em say 1 minute to go and i started fixing my zipper...so that was really interesting. Well practiced my coming from the back like a freight train skillz and somehow crept up to 5th spot. So I would have to say that it is actually my best US result as of...well...ever. Last year I was 23rd in that race so 5th is better, for sure. But not good enough.
Big thanks to Karl Hoppner for pitting for both of us, Tasha had to get drug tested so she didn't see him after to thank him. Also thanks to Jostève (pronounced joz-stev ...the name that we have randomly given to the cute couple of Steve Proulx and Josée Lamirande..kind of like Brangelina) for bringing the stems and yelling their brains out for both of us.
DSJ
Richard Fries, the Verge announcer told her "I've been waiting to see you ride like this"
I knew exactly what he meant.
Tasha joined a group of 4 girls in the first lap of the race, Mo Bruno Roy slipped up in some turns and Tasha was able to catch her and the rest of the group that included Laura Van Gilder and Deidre Winfield. She drove the pace and used her skill to ride the technical portions of the course and used her strength to punch it out of the corners. It was truly an awesome race to watch.
Her group shattered and it was just Deidre and Tasha, but Laura fought her way back. This caused a little concern as Laura is without a doubt the best female sprinter in America. I kept yelling at Tasha "you know what to do"..."100%". And when I say yelling I mean yelling.
I obviously don't want to yell out to her what to do, cause that kind of the ruins the surprise element, last thing you want is the opponents to know what to wait for, so we had discussed tactics pre-race and she carried them out to a tee (by the way that`s a load of crap, as she had her own tactics in her head and knows what to do). So Tasha goes MENTAL on the last ride up that some girls had to run up, she takes it wide to get around Laura Van Gilder, almost hits a stake and attacks the shit out of it, punches it hard over the top, full throttle, couple turns hard and fast up and over the barriers. She got just enough day light between her two adversaries in the last couple turns that she jumped hard onto the last pavement section and she had it! Everyone was screaming "WOOOOO...go Tasha!" (ok well I was , but it was really loud so it was wicked) Richard Fries and Allen are such great announcers and this course lends it self to truly exciting racing. So Tasha throws the hands up in the air and claims her biggest, best victory to date. YES yes yes.
That's what I'm talking about. OK...I have to settle down. So my race...not bad. I guess I was a little too excited cuz I didn't hear em say 1 minute to go and i started fixing my zipper...so that was really interesting. Well practiced my coming from the back like a freight train skillz and somehow crept up to 5th spot. So I would have to say that it is actually my best US result as of...well...ever. Last year I was 23rd in that race so 5th is better, for sure. But not good enough.
Big thanks to Karl Hoppner for pitting for both of us, Tasha had to get drug tested so she didn't see him after to thank him. Also thanks to Jostève (pronounced joz-stev ...the name that we have randomly given to the cute couple of Steve Proulx and Josée Lamirande..kind of like Brangelina) for bringing the stems and yelling their brains out for both of us.
DSJ
Octto...a hundred things have to fall in place
Since we have the "net" I'm going to publish some posts that have been lingering...
Fist off we never really thanked Octto Dave for all his help this year.
I'm just going to copy paste an e-mail Dave sent me after he had Krys hand deliver the new wheels to me at Pearson International.
"... if we want to get Canadians on top of podiums in international competition, we need to stop thinking like we don't deserve to be there. There has to be a belief-system in place. And hand-delivering the wheels is just part of that system. A hundred things have to fall into place for a championship to happen
, equipment is just one small part of that equation. The more parts of that equation that can be fulfilled, then the balance of the equation shifts towards a favorable result. Sometimes the fittest rider is undermined by equipment-failure and sometimes the best equipped-rider is simply outperformed by a competitor. But the key is to keep as many of those hundred plates spinning as possible. And belief is one of those plates.
So, at OCTTO, if we sponsor a rider, then we believe they are a champion. It's that simple. "
, equipment is just one small part of that equation. The more parts of that equation that can be fulfilled, then the balance of the equation shifts towards a favorable result. Sometimes the fittest rider is undermined by equipment-failure and sometimes the best equipped-rider is simply outperformed by a competitor. But the key is to keep as many of those hundred plates spinning as possible. And belief is one of those plates.So, at OCTTO, if we sponsor a rider, then we believe they are a champion. It's that simple. "
So when you need stems, bars, seat posts, cool stories http://www.octto.com/news.html check it out. There are some cool stories, did you know that as of the 1st UCI rankings Tasha and Wendy had Canada ranked 3rd in Nations and the Canuck boys had Canada ranked 6th?
So you may think that you're just buying bar tape, but your not, your putting your money into a Canadian company, helping Canadian athletes be the best in the World.
DSJ
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