Weekend at home

So we finally had a nice relaxing week/end a home. Ahhhh.
It worked out kind of well this week. I wanted to go work a couple shifts, but no one needed me this week. So instead of resting and taking it easy, I just set out to do a couple good rides. It worked out perfect since Ken hadn't sent me the training for this cycle yet.

Our training is pretty solid, scientific, regimented and precise. So my break in training was to allow myself to do as km's as I felt like in 5 days. I know, most people would say take some time off the bike at this point. But as we are all different, my body was telling me it just wanted to ride. So that's what I did, took two days off after Superweek and then rode 65 km, then 117km, I was feeling pretty good, so I rode 160 on Friday, followed it up with 135 on Sat and then polished it off with 190 km yesterday. Hahaha. Man that was so fun. The crazy thing is I felt great 5 hours into ride and felt mint at the 6 hour mark. I'm not even really sure I understand why I felt so good. But sometimes I think it's just good to go out and ride. It's not like I'm going to break away from our retentive use of power thresholds, computrainers and wattage "wuss meters", but in my mind an unstructured week of over indulgence was the perfect cure to make the next chunk of racing and training all make sense.

To tell you the truth, I had noticed one problem with my preparation for longer road races, ie anything that was 180 km. I won't go into details as no one really cares, but I think a couple little tweaks here and there will pay dividends in the weeks to follow. After all alot of people think that the season is over...umm it's not even August yet. There are still a couple key races left, and as I said, a few changes here and there and I think I'm going to pull off the ride I've been waiting for.

I've had some good rides this year, but just not a perfect day. There has been bits and pieces, but it just never all happens on the same day. Not that the results page is the be all and end all of it, but it's sure nice to be on the first line.

Someone once told me "if you enjoy the journey and not just the destination, you'll never have spent a moment in vain". I love every aspect of this journey, from the work, the preparation in the Winter to the final bell lap and everything between. But as every journey has has a final destination it's just nice to know that your on the right track.

Oh yah, we also got to hang out with Little Ethan and play some Rock Band last night, Tasha is probably the worst guitar player this side of the Thames, and Ethan was killing it on medium. There's something pretty cool about a five year old rocking out to KISS, Weezer and the Police.
My sister is pregnant and she gave us her Breville Espresso machine cause she obviously can't have any. I've went to the bathroom about 9 times this morning and I'm going to work at noon.
I'm so hyper I'm probably going to annoy the people at Sandy Hill CHC so much that they'll think about how great it was not have me buzzing around the office like a squirrel collecting nuts before the Winter.
Man I love coffee. Especially when it's really strong. It makes me type really fast.
Just for the record Natasha is "organizing" her cross stuff. That's all I'm allowed to say.
DSJ

BC Superweek pics

Flowers for the climb

Recovery ride in Stanley Parc, Vancouver BC.

Relaxing after the Tour de White Rock.

Having Sushi with Chris and Maggie in Vancouver.

White Rock BC

BC Superweek wrap up - NCE

So the week is done and I must admit I was a bit nervous of how my body would respond after having the stomach flu just a week ago and losing almost 5lbs and feeling pretty rotten. I'm not sure how many people would get sick, then take two days, then race 5 days straight! Needless to say at Gastown on Wednesday after not riding my bike since the flu, I felt pretty out of place. I just raced to survive and once I did manage to get to the front of the race, I was pretty turned around and couldn't figure out how to ride the most critical corner of the race (the last one on the cobbles leading to the finish). Therefore the finishing sprint was pretty much a no go for me.

Burnaby got better, it was a wicked fast race, I think we averaged 41km an hour. I got the corners pretty good and I moved through the pack pretty effortless. I got to the front with 1 lap to go, okay maybe too well, I was on the front for the first half of the last lap, got off but then no one would let me in and then had to settle back in at 10th wheel or so, I still managed to sprint through the last corner and hold it all the way to the finish at over 60k/hour for 7th place.

Quick recover ride on Friday morning and it was off to White Rock, wow this place was awesome! Hill climb went really well on Friday night, I made sure I went hard enough the first effort to get into the final and I was second seed going in. I figured the top girl was going to give it everything and maybe go to hard and I was gapped off the line with the eventual winner sitting on my wheel till the end. I wanted the win but the winner was just a little fresher as her week started with the TDW as she didn't do the two crits the days before.

As far as Saturday at the crit, I kind of took matters into my own hands. See, I wanted to do well in the overall of White Rock. I got in a break in the crit and it came back and then another one stuck. I was really having trouble with figuring out how to get away from a full squad of the Jazz Apple team who came here from New Zealand. So the break looked like it was going to stick to the finish until I said no way, I attacked out of the pack with 1.5 laps to go and road up to the break and then right through it, but once again I was on the front going through the start finish with one lap to go. I did split the field a bit and tried to get off the front but someone attacked right through me in the second last corner and I ended up falling back to 7th.

Sunday's road race was fun and hard, and pretty technical course. We went screaming down a hill at 70km an hour and then had to make a sharp left followed by a sharp right head on to the course where a few times the men were coming through on the opposite side of the road. Yellow line rules where fully in effect through the corners as if someone broke them it couldn't of been a head on collision with the men's and women's fields. As I said I wanted to go for the GC it kind of ruined my road race, as I was a marked rider for the teams. The Jazz apple team sent a rider up the road not in the GC and then the rest of the team manned me and the Cheerwine girl who were tied for sitting in second place in the overall. I tried to get a way many times from the chase group and it never worked, someone would sit on my wheel and not pull through even though there were other teams in the group that could of worked but every time I got it to split it would be the Jazz Apple rider who was leading the GC sitting on my wheel and with her teammate off the front she wasn't interested in working with me. Coming to the finish I thought I was in a good spot, then I got shoved to the side a bit and hit the wind for the last 1km as I couldn't get back into the pack. Needless to say my sprint for second place wasn't up to par and I had no jump coming to the line. Ended up 7th, but managed to get my goal of top 3 in the overall.

Many thanks to Jason and Carrie for the hospitality in White Rock, you guys were an awesome support crew. Also thanks to Maggie and Chris for putting up with us (and letting us bring all are bike stuff in) the rest of the time while we were in BC in their tight spaced apartment in Vancouver. With out you guys our trip would of never been possible. Sorry to say, that we loved it so much, that we are definitely coming back next year again.

One last day in Vancouver, Derrick and I are going to go do some tourist stuff. Next up for me is some downtime and then I get to jump on the cyclocross bike and start the secret training for September. Pretty exciting stuff and with the way the road season ended, I can't be happier.

NCE

Tour de White Rock wrap up

So results:

Tasha

Hill climb, 2nd

Crit, 7th

Road Race, 7th

Overal 3rd

Derrick

Hill Climb,12th

Crit 16th

Road Race 8th

Man, I'm not even sure where to start, what an adventure! We took the bus from Vancouver to White Rock. Yah baby, we put our bikes on the front of the city bus and carried a cooler bag, back pacs and two wheel bags to Beautiful White Rock BC.

JIM Tsilamous from RWR hooked us up with Friends of his, Jason and Carrie Fluckiger of White Rock for host housing. Jason and Carrie and dog Zola proved to be extremely generous in opening their home to us and made our stay one of the most enjoyable experiences of all our travels to date. The house was nestled on the hill climb course and overlooked the Semiahmoo bay and provied a spectacular view of the Bay, beach and mountains in Washington. It's one of the places that makes you say, this is as good as it gets. Not only was the location outstanding, but Carrie and Jason made us feel at home and we got to talk shop about all things from cycling to health care and all things in between.

I'll let Tasha write a little something about the Hill climb and such since she really pulled it together this weekend, considering she did not have any teammates, and came 3rd in the GC, pretty impressive.

The Road race

134 km of up and down in White Rock. The men did an 9 km circuit 11times and then 5 finishing circuits of 3.something km's. I think, I could be wrong but you get the picture. So we still had a pretty big field and if you 've been following, you know Chris Horner was there, Health Net, Jittery Joes,Bissel,BMC and the "S" team of course.

So plan for me, myself and I was pretty simple. Frst me had had to cover early moves including anything with Pinner,Shriver, Horner.

Myself had to stay out of the wind, move up on downhills, climb within reason and make sure not to get caught on the back side of any splits or get stuck closing gaps.

I had to dig deep at the crunch time and really go for it when the real racing started.

So I have to say I knew it was coming I saw Horner on the front and I knew,but I was just a bit too far back so didn't make the move. But I managed to stay calm and it sort of came together when Health Net was dring it to get O'Bee across. Anyways I didn't quite make the winning move, so started going in attack mode, Symmetrics countered and then I chased around for the last few finishing laps coming about 5-10 seconds from closing to the chase. I finished 8th after a pretty hard chase but have to say that I was trying to podium, but I would have needed a mate to cover the early stuff and all the guys had a squad except for Horner ,but come on, the guy was 15th last year at the Tour de France, he's just at another level.

So overall, I have to say that the racing here at Superweek is great, don't come though if you don't like crits because you'll be wasting your time. But if you like hard NRC level crits, racing at the level it's great.

DSJ

Tasha 7th at Giro de Burnaby

Tasha on the back of the lead out train.

Well, well well, let me just say my girl put on a fierce sprint last night. I'm not taking credit for gusto, but woow, I was impressed. The Giro the Burnaby is a 1.85 km circuit with two short four corner boxes at each end separated by a long slight uphill, slight downhill long straightway.

This course was blazing fast! I think the women's race avg'd almost 41km an hour. The men's was 47km/hr. I even thought to myself, holly shoot this is by far fastest crit I've ever done, I've never spent that much time in the 53-11.

So I really wanted Tash to go out there and go for it. I was trying to pump her up and I think she almost punched me in the mouth before the race cause my "motivational words" were really getting on her nerves. As only a few days ago she could not even get off the Couch from the Gastro, she wanted me to cut her some slack, but I pressed her told her to race it like a cross race, go from the start get her butt in front and "give them nothing and take from them everything". Well she did a great job and full out sprinted for 7th place in a field sprint at almost 60km/hr. To tell you the truth I'm pretty hard on her as I know how hard she works, trains and how good she really is. My jaw actually dropped yesterday as she really really really impressed me. For one girl with no teammates to mix it it up like that, it was a fantastic ride, result and I think a glimpse of what is to come.

I thought, finally she is riding to her potential.

I was pretty inspired by this and really wanted to have a good ride. I positioned myself on the front row about 20 minutes before the start to not take anything for granted. Andrew (Pinfold) and I were chatting before the race and he told me it was more like a Karmess then a crit, so I made sure to race it like this. I managed to stay safe, got to the front for a while, tried to get in a couple moves. I was working my way up to the front for the sprint and I got squeezed over far left in a corner, before I knew it I was on the wrong side of the cones, and there was a fence coming right at me, I could either jump back and risk taking out half the field in the corner or swerve left onto the opposite side. So as much as I am into risk and reward folded the cards and veered off course as it just did not seem logical to take such a risk. To tell you the truth, the crits are great , but really the focus , as always is on the Road race for me. Plus I think I would have looked like a jerk for taking a risk such as this as it was partially my fault for trying to pass too many guys through the corner. As always though, no regrets as I was going for it and you have to take certain risks to have your position, but you also have to know the limits and responsibility to not ride like a hack.

Anyways I'm so pumped to see Tash coming out of her shell and really mixing it up and being "in the mix".

DSJ

Tour de Gastown

40,000 fans, sure high quality field, 1.2km circuit with a 160 degree turn. Downtown VAncouver, crazy atmosphere, part of the NRC Crit series. I was in the fifth row and rode like mad to hold my spot and move up slowly. It was really fast and furious, I barely ever let up.
I had one moment of glory when I attacked off the front for half a lap and Chris Horner just looked at me thinking who is this guy? Legs felt ok, considering I just got off the plane.
Avoided multiple crashes, but it was actually a pretty safe race, except for the legs of a few barriers that were on curbs and could have caused some major damage to the deep dish.

Well apparently I DNF'd. Although this is not the case. Once again I was omitted from the results. I imagine i was 18-20h or so, judging by the people I went by at the end. When they called out the results for top 20, I just figured that I was 21st or something....oh well, I know I raced well. I guess this just gives me reason to race better and come top 10 tonight.

Tasha raced well. She had trouble moving up at the start and I think this cost her. She started to mix it up for a while, riding at the front, but she had trouble with one of the corners on cobbles. Before the race we were supposed to do a lap together when they announced first call to the line, when we finished she was in the last row. You live you learn. Gotta treat it like a cross race, get your spot and give it full gas from the start. She attacked with 4 laps to go and got caught so she finished about 22nd in the end from burning matches all night. She's still not 100% after getting hit with the Gastro Saturday and our travel here Tuesday. I think she'll get better as the week goes on.

DSJ

Duo in BC

Hey all,
just a little update from Vancouver.

Made it to the airport on time, Danno gave us a ride in the Hummer, 5 hour flight, direct , jumped in a cab and arrived at Chris and Maggies place downtown Vancouver.

Not 20 minutes later we were on sitting overlooking the English Bay eating some wicked Thai Food. Felt pretty good until we had a little ice cream treat and hit the wall at about 7pm...but managed to stay up till 1030.

Went for a little Spin in Stanley Parc this morning, getting ready for Gastown Crit tonight.
DSJ

Silver at Ont Crit Champs-DSJ

Well I knew it was gong to be hard to top last years weekend. The GP was good for Tash and Sue, they played it pretty good and came 4th and 1st respectively.

Unfortunately Tash got the stomach flu last night and and she spent the night with one foot in the bathroom. So she could barely walk this morning and had a day on the couch. Her parents came over and her mom helped nurse her while I was out racing. I'm stuffing Popsicle's down her throat and feeding her ice cubes to sequel the nausea and Orangina to replenish calories and fluid. I guess there are some advantages to living with a man nurse.

For some reason I sometimes suck myself into racing how can I say "un-intelligently" or "not brilliant" or maybe even "stupid" when the race is within a bike ride of my house. I just had a conversation with someone and I said that it's stupid to be racing and trying just to beat the local guys. But I somehow sucked myself into a really poor style of racing that I can say I'm really not proud of. I think both days I managed to do similar things that lead to me missing opportunities that I knew would arise in the race. I had a feeling that both days would play out a certain way , but for some reason my pride got the best of me and forced me almost into a negative style of racing in which I was not necessarily concerned about wining, but just not loosing if that makes any sense.

I really don't know why this happened, maybe it's a combo of racing travelling and working this week to be able to go to BC. What Tasha and I are trying to do is race as professionals. This means making a living by racing but it also means acting in a way that is professional on and off the bike and I point the finger at myself and accuse myself of behaving like a chump this weekend. Maybe I started in the GP when a guy bumped into me and almost took me out, I usually let it slide or just say "ezeeeee!" but I flipped out, grabbed his jersey and told him that if he did that again I'de put him in the ditch. Man this is very uncharacteristic of me. I've never done anything like this before. OK maybe the guy was at fault, but I really didn't need to be like that.

Than today in the Crit, I just started worrying about getting the Ontario Title again, I lost focus of just wining the race. I mean ok it wasn't easy today, but it's not as if it was the ride to end all rides, I was buggered, but just cause I was rolling hard. I was a little out of place not having Natasha on the side lines, but for some reason I put pressure on myself to win the stupid title. I almost wish someone could have grabbed my jersey today and told me to smarten up. The weired thing is by not going for the win and just trying to get the title, it makes me feel like a cheat. I have to say that I let myself down today and with he kind of attitude that I had this weekend I'm glad I wasn't the Champion, cause I certainly didn't act like any kind of Champion.

It has to be said that I have a pretty heavy conscious and if this is the way I feel after loosing focus of why I race, I can't imagine how winning by cheating must feel. I mean really if you look at it the big picture, it's not that bad. Racing is about tactics and sometimes you gotta beat the guys you like, it's just the way it goes, sometimes you gotta be a bugger to get it done. But when you cheat yourself it's the worst feeling you can ever have. In this I just mean that by not going for the win, that just trying to win a title, I cheated myself in a race that I could have won. I lost by not not trying to loose, instead of trying to win. I mean who knows I did try pretty hard in the sprint but it was just the way I went about it that I'm displeased with.

Realistically no one cares that I didn't win, that I came second. I remember how great of a day it was last year and it's not because I won, but it was because Tasha and I both won and we shared a great day. I got this confused with what I thought what it was to win, I got lost in my thoughts and I had my head up my ass.

Ok, enough of that, repenting, maybe sit in the corner for an hour and start from scratch. I almost feel like I need to jump on a plane and go to some far away place and race my brains out in a race that is so hard that these thoughts are eliminated from my mind and all that is happening is the jump out the corner, the sprint for primes and full out, full gas racing.
Wait a minute that just may happen...Tuesay for that matter.

DSJ
oh please oh please god of good racing and everythingness please help Tasha feel good and help her get back to good I think she can only drink so much Orangina.

Nationals Road Race

Well I went to road Nationals with high hopes and I have to say that I am content with my performance. The thing about Nationals, is there are no excuses, it's not like you hear people saying "well I did 30 hours of training this week, in preparation for a bigger race, blah, blah, blah". This is the one week that no one should have excuses, most people mark Nationals off on their Calender the day it is announced the previous year and set up their entire year to go well there. So what you have to realize is that this is the best at their best and their is an Elite National Title on the line which winning is almost enough to call an entire career in cycling a success. So think about it...you got to know that if you're gunning for this, it's gonna hurt.

So obviously the crit was a mini success on the week of Nationals preparation. The only negative thing I can really say is that I was out riding two days before and my derail er cable snapped and I had to ride home 20 km's home in one gear and maybe that is not the best thing for the legs. The flip side is that could have happened during the RR and that would have been a bummer.

So...Road Race. In a nut shell, 9.6km loop through residential St Georges de Beauce, with a steep 1.2 km climb which took about 3 and half minutes and lots of ups and downs and twists and turns, repeat 18 times and cross the line first and call yourself National Champion for a year.

So the goal was to podium. Go all in, play my cards give it a 100% and risk losing in order to win. I have to say that I stuck to my plan. Circuit racing can be pretty tricky for a variety of reasons, which I will keep to my self,but lets just say the guy that wins usually deserves it. So I almost eat pavement on the first lap since there was 150 guys jamming the front, jockeying for position up the climb. I actually fell back a little too far back the second time up and had to light a match or two to get properly positioned for the third lap. There were early attacks, but nothing that seemed impervious to getting brought back. Anyways there ended up being a break and a chase, maybe 15 guys in total. So this is when it started to be critical to get up to it. I jumper on the an move and sat on it till we crossed the gap, as soon as the groups joined I knew there would be action , I positionned my self, leap frogging from attack to attack, never really emptying the tank. I actually missed the final four guys, but I saw 2 symmetric,one RACE and two Volkswagon. Time to go, I bridged across and that was that. It sounds pretty simple, I know that is was actually a lot trickier than that and alot harder otherwise the move would not have only had 5 guys out of 150. So it was Lachance, Langlois,Walters,Mier and Erker and myself.

Lachance was involved in a lot of moves earlier and he was dropped the first time up the climb. We rode around for about 80 km's or so together. I did my share of work, but I don't really think I over did it. I tried to sit on for while, but they would have no part of that,so I eventually got dropped with 5 to go, but somehow manged to chase for a few very painful km's and catch back on. The next time up the climb I was popped like a bottle of champagne at New Years and it was pretty much lights out. I tried to catch back as /I was doing so I noticed that Walters had gotten popped as well. I tired to catch him but things were getting bad to worse. I had blown up pretty god and not only could not catch him, but Roth and Wholberg came by and and I couldn't even get on their wheel. That's crazy. Then a group of 8 came by containing Veilleux and Lacomb and I rode with them for a half a lap and miscalculated a corner and rode through the corner and on to someone's lawn through a driveway and out on a side street. It was kind of scary to be that blown that I was having trouble navigating a corner at 65km's an hour . I'll have to say to I was pretty close to pulling the plug, but I finished 14th and was really glad that it was over.

It was a day that I'll remember for a long time. A kind of so close but so so far. It's the kind of day where you say that you hate cycling, that it isn't even fun, that you're not cut out for this sh#t, you'll never ride your bike again, ever. You would throw your bike in to the St Georges river...if only you could pick it up. So I'm not riding...today. Tomorrow I will forget about the pain, I actually already have. I remember it was hard, but my brain lets me forget how much it hurt. I guess that's a good thing, cause if ti was fresh it would make it a lot hard to pin on the numbers.

Christian Mier won the National title with Bruno hanging on for second. Jake Erker from Symmetrics got his first Nationals podium, and lord knows if anyone desrves a podium it's this guy, one of the nicest guys I've ever chatted with and ridden against. It goes to show that hard work does pay off.

I walk away from this week knowing where I am, knowing what I have to do to get where I want. It's these kind of experiences that make it all worth while. I really learned alot about my desire yesterday, I lived it, I felt it and I did everything in power with the power that I had and the ability I had to suffer, 100%, no regrets. There is something very satisfying about that. There are very few times I have rode outside of myself like that. So I know what the limits were. Although they took all the fight out of me yesterday, everytime I have have the fight taken out of me, it's come back bigger and badder than ever.

A big thanks goes out to Tasha for making darn sure I dragged my carcass across the line and Caroline Morse and the entire Bowers family for their help and support and making sure we got back home. Also big congrats to my friend and teammate Bryson for getting 2nd in the Espoir
TT.

DSJ

Road Nationals-Criterium-Bronzing in Beauce

So we're relaxing after a good day at the office.

Preparation for the Crit. Morning clean Tasha's bike, it was filthy...shocker. Bring Tasha to Crit, sit in sun, yell on radio, get sun burn. She ended up coming 5th in a pretty conservative race.

It was really nice to see Tasha racing this way. Sometimes you have to take one step backwards before taking two steps forward. Patience is a virtue. I'm guessing the lessons learned in the last few weeks will pay off huge dividends in the next 3 weeks.

Wait a few hours drink a red bull and then totally don't follow the script in my crit. As I told Tasha to be conservative, I did the polar opposite and attacked with 22 laps to go. I rode off the front for what seemed like a long time, holding about 10-12 seconds from the lead group. They started really throwing it down and had brought it back to 6 seconds. People we're yelling splits all over the place, the announcers were saying that it looked like they were going to pull me in...then it happened...Glen Rendall's advice from a few years resounded in my mind. Somehow there was energy to push through and in two laps the gap went up to 20 seconds. I was eventaully joined by Kevin Lacombe and then after Bruo Langlois. I was pretty cooked and lacked a little jump in the final sprint. So ended up third.

Pretty happy that I took initiative, made them race my race and was in a position to win a National Title. So bronze medal for me. Worked hard to get it and I'm glad it ended up being the way it was. At least the guys who stood on the podium, worked their butts off to get there.

We are blessed to stay with RWR Crew on Lac Simon. We are right on the lake, huge house with a deck, tons of windows, great lake, it's like being on vacation. Those RWR guys really know to get things done. Also having Glen here to help with mental aspects, tactics, pre race kind of stuff is probably the best part of it all. Glen's experience and insight into all aspects of racing is incredible. So many people will just never truly understand what this man puts into his program and how his purpose is to enable others to experience racing and help them ac hive their potential. Not to mention he has some awesome Trini stories after a good Belgian beer.

So no TT for the Duo as we have many things to do this week at the Lake which include...well come to think of it nothing!

So let me just say again that I'm pretty stoked about stepping on the podium yesterday, I didn't win but it's better than a slap in the face. Also now I have money to buy groceries this week.

DSJ