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