So sorry that the posts have been less than robust lately, the slow dial up is literally painful and I can only wait to check my email then I just loose it and can't even write a post. The other day even sat in the Econo Lodge parking lot and got high speed in the car...Tasha did the emails and I did nothing, just sat in the front seat looking really conspicuous.
So the drive down to Mass was interesting. It sounded easy...Tasha found a "short cut" that was 75 km shorter than any other route we had found on my mom's GPS. But first the border...we got stopped and pulled over. The guy asked us if we had anything that "would make him mad" Tasha guilty pleaded that she had a grapefruit...she knew it was wrong to bring Citrus into the US...she was going to eat it, but she just wasn't hungry. You should have seen the look in his face...a "grapefruit" he said...it was classic.
So anyway we get going, we see this sign that says "Ferry in 5km"...I asked Tasha about that..hummm "Jane(British GPS voice), didn't tell me about no Frigin Ferry"
We roll down to the Ferry and it's 20$...no way. That's not in our budget. You should know that if you got the letter asking for donations to the duo we stretch our money like it ain't funny. On the car ride here I sewed back together a pair of leg warmers that had about a foot long tear in them, and I had to put new laces in my famous white shoes, that were not so white, but I got out the good old shoes polish and polished em up so they look new. Anyways...where was I ? Oh yah 20 bucks for the Ferry, X nay on that.
So we recalculate the route and find away around the lake. Te nerve of them putting a Lake Between NY and Vermont...who knew. No kidding that way was 75 km shorter the GPS had us on the water. Tasha got mad at the GPS...well, no she got mad at "Jane"..."How could Jane do that to us", she says. I guess we are going to have to have the talk. You know the one. I'll have to break the news to her that "Jane" is not really a person. Oh it will not be a good day. Maybe I better wait till after the weekend.
We had a feast for dinner... 3.50$ subway chicken salad with smuggled contraband brown rice from home. Big Pimpin, we be making Jay-Z Jealous.
So We did a pre ride of the course and it's similar to last years. It should be good. Then I rode the heck out of the trainer in the hotel room. Why? Why would I do this before a race. Well cause I'm m-e-n-t-a-l. That's why. We race. We train. We drive. That's what we do. This journey is all about reaching the top. It's hard, but we love it. We race our brains out, we train our brains out. I hope you enjoy hearing about our love of the sport and the suffering along the way. Our journey is pure. There are no hidden agendas.
If you saw the letter from Peter Metuzels, asking for donations and you decide to help us out, just know that we will put your money to good use. Maybe your name will not be plastered over our Jerseys, but just know that we really appreciate it.
If you didn't get the letter and want to help us out, Tasha set up a pay pal acount, give us a shout and we'll point you in the right direction.
J Heins, we thank you for your help. Thank you for helping us with our dreams.
One last thing, I would like to publically apoligize for stepping on Tasha's toe and crushing it today in my MTB shoes....her poor toe, obviously an accident...but I'm sorry.
Used my man Nurse skills to put a bandaid on it and kissed it better.
Derrick
Friday, October 31, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
US Gran prix #1, Kentucky-Natasha comes 6th!
So Tasha really put on a great ride today! She rode well and just missed the getaway train. So she just missed out 5th as it came to an exciting sprint finish with Laura van Gilder.
I'm really happy about that, cause she had received some flack about under performing at big races. So she really shined today and I think tomorrow will be similar or better.
Shockingly I had a phenomenal start I was in 4th position on and then faded and faded just out of the top ten when I had a cartographic bonk/blow up / I don't know if I should be dieting this time of the year / spontaneous human combustion and I blew sky high and then crashed on the pavement cause I couldn't see. It was not funny at the time and it was not fun. I am all smiles now, but it was not good.
I still ended up 23rd or something but I rode path
etically the last 4 laps and it was embarrassing. Funny enough even though it was "not good" it's actually the best GP placing for me, so I guess that's Seems like my sprint training has worked really well though so that's good and the starts are way better so that's good now I just have to put it all together and not take my self out.Back to Natasha. Maybe we some some hoodoovoodoo curse that we can not both race well on the same day. Well if that's what it takes I'd rather have a few awful days like today and suck but get to see her race well, cause she deserves great success.
Maybe I'm biased cause she is after all my Fiance and all, but seriously I'll take one for the team any day to watch her it like she did today. Tasha has worked her butt off for this. She put this cross calender together in February and sacrificed a lot on the road in order to shine this time of year, she put in all training. She worked on her weaknesses and improved her strengths. While I was off having "fun" doing the Tour de Beauce, Rochester and the road stuff she wa in the basement training herself into oblivion on the computrainer.
Alright nuff said. Oh yah our hosts her in Kentucky, Dwayne and Michelle are great.
They helped us out so much, taking our bikes, pitting for us, introducing us to Qdoba and have been absolutely phenomenal. We are quite lucky to have been hooked with them. Dwayne also gave us some ideas of how the Duo could market themselves better next year so we wouldn't have to stress so much about money next year and not be so broke.
DSJ
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Lalonde Insurance Brokers helps out the Duo
Well maybe it's not the 10,000$ needed to complete our season, but we did have success in securing a small donation out of Cornwall.
Lalonde Insurance Brokers have graceiously donated some money to help the Dynamic Duo get a little further this Cyclocross season! Lalonde is an Insurance brokerage company selling home/auto/health and all types of insurance policies. They are located at 134 Montreal Road in Cornwall beside the Old Port Theatere. We had a chance to catch up with my aunt Colette who is the co-owner of the company and we pleaded our case with her. She was thrilled to hear about my race with Lance in Vegas and she was actually in vegas when we were racing, but my Mom forgot to tell her.
Anyways, every little bit helps, and this litle bit gets us to Kentukey this weekend as our budget is tighter than my jeans last year in Belgium after eating frites, so
I hope this is a sign that our sponsorship endeavours will yield some success.
We're setting up a pay pal account as we have had this requested from a freind who wants to help us out...so maybe this will help as well.
So if you are ever in Cornwall and you need insurance...dail 1 888 470 6895. Hey you never know when you're going to get the urge to move to Cornwall. I'll give you a few reasons....
Great riding
It takes only 4 minutes to drive from the east end to the west end.
Rush hour? Maybe only in Tim Hortons Parking lots.
You can go do groceries at more than just Loblaws. Also there are no line ups!
You can easily be the Number one UCI ranked rider in your region.
Cheap Rent...especially if you live in your parents basement.
DSJ
Oh yah don't know if you've seen the first UCI rankings? Tasha is ranked 16th in the World and I am ranked 33rd. Not bad.
Lalonde Insurance Brokers have graceiously donated some money to help the Dynamic Duo get a little further this Cyclocross season! Lalonde is an Insurance brokerage company selling home/auto/health and all types of insurance policies. They are located at 134 Montreal Road in Cornwall beside the Old Port Theatere. We had a chance to catch up with my aunt Colette who is the co-owner of the company and we pleaded our case with her. She was thrilled to hear about my race with Lance in Vegas and she was actually in vegas when we were racing, but my Mom forgot to tell her.
Anyways, every little bit helps, and this litle bit gets us to Kentukey this weekend as our budget is tighter than my jeans last year in Belgium after eating frites, so
I hope this is a sign that our sponsorship endeavours will yield some success.
We're setting up a pay pal account as we have had this requested from a freind who wants to help us out...so maybe this will help as well.
So if you are ever in Cornwall and you need insurance...dail 1 888 470 6895. Hey you never know when you're going to get the urge to move to Cornwall. I'll give you a few reasons....
Great riding
It takes only 4 minutes to drive from the east end to the west end.
Rush hour? Maybe only in Tim Hortons Parking lots.
You can go do groceries at more than just Loblaws. Also there are no line ups!
You can easily be the Number one UCI ranked rider in your region.
Cheap Rent...especially if you live in your parents basement.
DSJ
Oh yah don't know if you've seen the first UCI rankings? Tasha is ranked 16th in the World and I am ranked 33rd. Not bad.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The funny thing about smoking crack....
So since Tasha and I have started off on our little adventure a few weeks ago, believe it or not we have not had a whole lot of down time. Funny thing is part of me thought it would be so great to have all this "time" to relax, catchup on things and blah blah blah. Not the case. Granted, we put together our calender and no one makes us do the races. No one forced us to travel to Michigan, WI and Vegas all before Nationals.
This was our choice. I have to say that it worked out well for me, as i have seem to found some form.(Funny how people say they have found form, like it was hiding in the closet like sweater they haven't worn for a while, when really it's not like that, it's just the by product of hard work, proper recovery and focus). But anyways, I wasn't really counting on a second National podium this year. Now that I'll be racing on a full time basis I expect a lot out of myself and the penultimate goal will be to win these events, otherwise I may as well just be happy with third and work 20 hours a week and not be broke and not live out of our parents homes.
The thing is since we've been here, in Cornwall, I've had more "work" doing bike stuff, gluing tires, changing bars, dialing in bikes, building my own new bike etc. My hands look like they 've been through a meat grinder since the tubular glue, solvents and such really do a number on them. i was thinking it's just kind of funny what I've traded in. I traded in a well paying job as a nurse, two actually, in which the work was mostly pretty pleasant, at Sandy Hill anyways and the pay pretty good, the hours pretty flexible for just as many hours of bike maintenance and double in car travel...not to mention the "increase" in training volume.
Funny thing is I don't think I've been this happy in a long time. Although I feel like this is harder, believe it or not, it just feels right. I know it's harder for Tasha is she is the organizer, she has the stress of making sure everything is "ok" and that we are not going to starve. She is like the glue that keeps us together. If you could see how hard she works at this...it's equally as impressive as her kick ass riding. As the Cross season is only a month old, she managed to win 4 races in the first 10 days and come out
leading the US National point series. I know she put a lot of pressure on herself to do well at Nationals and Vegas as those were important to her, but it just didn't happen. She gave me a chance to pull through.
Natasha and I are team, most teams have 5 people on them and somewhat of a budget. We have 2 people and no budget, all of our expenses have come out of our pocket. To this point over the last 30 days we have racked up the following:
4 US UCI wins
1 Bronze medal at Nationals
1 Bronze medal at Canadian UCI race
5th place in US race beside former World silver medalist
1st in North American UCI points as of 1st points release
1 ass kicking of Lance Armstrong at Cross Vegas
Over 200 UCI points
At least 35 photos on pedal/cycling news/can cyclist/velo mag
Natasha is even on the US GP website, as a favorite to win Kentucky....you can vote for her :
http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/
So to anyone who says that we have not produced any results...I ASK YOU ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK!~
DSJ
This was our choice. I have to say that it worked out well for me, as i have seem to found some form.(Funny how people say they have found form, like it was hiding in the closet like sweater they haven't worn for a while, when really it's not like that, it's just the by product of hard work, proper recovery and focus). But anyways, I wasn't really counting on a second National podium this year. Now that I'll be racing on a full time basis I expect a lot out of myself and the penultimate goal will be to win these events, otherwise I may as well just be happy with third and work 20 hours a week and not be broke and not live out of our parents homes.
The thing is since we've been here, in Cornwall, I've had more "work" doing bike stuff, gluing tires, changing bars, dialing in bikes, building my own new bike etc. My hands look like they 've been through a meat grinder since the tubular glue, solvents and such really do a number on them. i was thinking it's just kind of funny what I've traded in. I traded in a well paying job as a nurse, two actually, in which the work was mostly pretty pleasant, at Sandy Hill anyways and the pay pretty good, the hours pretty flexible for just as many hours of bike maintenance and double in car travel...not to mention the "increase" in training volume.
Funny thing is I don't think I've been this happy in a long time. Although I feel like this is harder, believe it or not, it just feels right. I know it's harder for Tasha is she is the organizer, she has the stress of making sure everything is "ok" and that we are not going to starve. She is like the glue that keeps us together. If you could see how hard she works at this...it's equally as impressive as her kick ass riding. As the Cross season is only a month old, she managed to win 4 races in the first 10 days and come out
leading the US National point series. I know she put a lot of pressure on herself to do well at Nationals and Vegas as those were important to her, but it just didn't happen. She gave me a chance to pull through.
Natasha and I are team, most teams have 5 people on them and somewhat of a budget. We have 2 people and no budget, all of our expenses have come out of our pocket. To this point over the last 30 days we have racked up the following:
4 US UCI wins
1 Bronze medal at Nationals
1 Bronze medal at Canadian UCI race
5th place in US race beside former World silver medalist
1st in North American UCI points as of 1st points release
1 ass kicking of Lance Armstrong at Cross Vegas
Over 200 UCI points
At least 35 photos on pedal/cycling news/can cyclist/velo mag
Natasha is even on the US GP website, as a favorite to win Kentucky....you can vote for her :
http://www.usgpcyclocross.com/
So to anyone who says that we have not produced any results...I ASK YOU ARE YOU SMOKING CRACK!~
DSJ
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Dynamic one does it again
Derrick once again had a great race today. I will start with the positive and then finish off with my race reports. I got to get it out and then move on........
So, Derrick has somehow overcome his bad starting that he had in his first few UCI races this year (maybe handed it off to me) and is rocking it. Today he road with the newly crowned National Champion (Kabush) and Tim Heemskerk (he's from the Netherlands but now lives in Alberta and could not compete yesterday due to his nationality). Today Derrick got with the leaders right off the gun and the trio worked hard to stay ahead and gap the rest of the field, at a few points Derrick was leading the two around. In the end Derrick ended up third again, but its been pretty awesome to see Derrick snap out of the bad luck he had during our first few weeks of the race season. I was a little worried when we went to Michigan and saw he was getting smoked off the gun. I couldn't figure it out and then I just kept questioning him on how he started and now he's got it right. He can power through anything (anyone who has ridden with him knows this), but in cross if your not there off the gun most of the time it is in possible for you to make up ground later in the race. You can't win cross from the back!!!!! So congrats to Derrick, I know how hard he works and how frustration can set in sometimes. Well maybe too well, cause somehow that's how my weekend went.
Ultimately you would try and put in a little minute peak for nationals, but some how I think the plan to race 5 times 2 weeks ago and then travel all over North American, then come home, put in a little mini destruction week that my coach gave me and then hope to recover for Nationals all blew up in my face. I must admit, it was a good lesson, and I realized a lot of things out of this weekend.
First off, Nationals race........I went into this race with the worse attitude ever, I thought it was good motivation but it wasn't. See, I wanted to prove a lot this weekend to other people, because I thought I might get a little more respect and also things might be a little easier for me as far as financially. So far Derrick and I haven't been able to find any sponsors to help us out financially. We have a lot of support through product but basically no money to get anywhere. Also to prove my first 4 UCI wins two weeks ago weren't flukes or cause there wasn't any competition. There actually was good competition, I was just on some stellar form, had some courses that were technically what I was good at and ended up running away with some bigger margin victories. The number one thing I learnt out of this is you can't do things for others. If you want to win a race, you always got to do it for yourself. It doesn't work any other way.
Anyways, incredibly nervous on the start line yesterday, I bobbled a bit and missed my pedal, started way back behind some girls and started taking risks everywhere in the first 2 minutes of the race. By accident I went around the second corner and right through the pit lane. My mistake for trying to pass 3 girls through the corner and no where to go but into the pit or into a stake. For that right there I was DQ'd for not jumping off my bike in the pit and using the lane as an advantage to pass people. I didn't know it at the time and not a minute later I cooked it hard in an uphill off camber turn and rolled my front tire out of the rim. Dead last again, like last year at Nationals, but this year I crashed myself out. I just call this some kind of National curse I have. I started running in panic mode and realized I had about 1 km to go to the pits and I was going to have to run all over the course. I rolled off the course and got some one to put my tire back on realized that now my day was done for sure.
At first I didn't know what to think. I had put everything into my training this year for cross. I thought I could be and wanted so bad to have the national champs jersey on me for the year. I was shocked that my race was only 2 minutes. I rolled around the backside of the course trying to bite the tears down. When I finally saw Derrick, I just said "I don't know". I didn't want to get upset in front of him and ruin his race, so I just held it in. Then I had to go on a mission to find the right person to tell them that I left the race. Finally I found them and the next minute I know the announcer shoves the microphone in my face "So, Natasha what happened out there today"? I did my best to explain my awful start and then just cooking it hard to pass people leading to my crash as I rolled my tire. After that little mini interview I rolled around the park and let a few tears roll down my face.
The national title wasn't meant to be this year. It would be a lot of pressure to carry it around and I thought I was ready but I guess not. Not if I wasn't lining up to win for myself. If I want it, it has to be for me and not to prove to others that I can have. Me and only me.
Last night was a pretty horrible sleep, the same sleep I had after the World cup in Montreal on the road this year, when I crashed only a few laps into the race and slid down the mountain. I kept thinking all last night, it was all a dream, I get to race for the National title today, its okay. I've had a lot of awful luck in high level races this year and I'm not sure why. I haven't been choking, most of the time I haven't had enough time in the race to choke. But somehow the luck has never been great. But that's bike racing. It's kind of 50/50. There is a lot of variables and sometimes they are not favourable. In bike racing, you are going to lose way more races than you can ever win. The one thing is there is always a new race around the corner.
Today at the Jim Horner UCI race I was hoping for a lot better. It was a bit better, but not myself. There was no push in my legs, no snap, no jump and oh yeah no front row start position. Totally weird, they called us up early today and some of us were still going through bike check, and if we weren't there they just gave our front row position away. Kabush got a fine as a result of this and then just charging to the line anyways. Never had any race officials do this before, it was out of character. So once again, horrible start as usually I would be front row and wouldn't have a problem. I tried to get up there and took some risks and got into third about half way through the first lap and then I had another mechanical. My chain dropped and I spent half a minute trying to get it back on. From then on I was 4th in the race, had a couple other spills and never really got in any kind of rhythm on the course.
Nothing was there for me this weekend and I'm glad Derrick picked up the slack like in Vegas. When I race well, he races horribly and when he races well, I race horribly. We have yet to find the dynamicity that we have had on some days (yeah that is a word and if you don't think so, read on; Dynamicity means creating systems which are able to cope with change and intrusions from outside it). I'm hoping some how it will come, as long as we do it for each other and ourselves.
At least I got to see my brother in law and sister this weekend. They came out from Calgary to give Derrick and I some support and a cheering section. Thanks Chris and Katherine, I'm sorry my performance wasn't there but it was nice to see you both after over a year. Also thanks for Robby O. for his work in the pits for Derrick and I. We really appreciated your help!
NCE
So, Derrick has somehow overcome his bad starting that he had in his first few UCI races this year (maybe handed it off to me) and is rocking it. Today he road with the newly crowned National Champion (Kabush) and Tim Heemskerk (he's from the Netherlands but now lives in Alberta and could not compete yesterday due to his nationality). Today Derrick got with the leaders right off the gun and the trio worked hard to stay ahead and gap the rest of the field, at a few points Derrick was leading the two around. In the end Derrick ended up third again, but its been pretty awesome to see Derrick snap out of the bad luck he had during our first few weeks of the race season. I was a little worried when we went to Michigan and saw he was getting smoked off the gun. I couldn't figure it out and then I just kept questioning him on how he started and now he's got it right. He can power through anything (anyone who has ridden with him knows this), but in cross if your not there off the gun most of the time it is in possible for you to make up ground later in the race. You can't win cross from the back!!!!! So congrats to Derrick, I know how hard he works and how frustration can set in sometimes. Well maybe too well, cause somehow that's how my weekend went.
Ultimately you would try and put in a little minute peak for nationals, but some how I think the plan to race 5 times 2 weeks ago and then travel all over North American, then come home, put in a little mini destruction week that my coach gave me and then hope to recover for Nationals all blew up in my face. I must admit, it was a good lesson, and I realized a lot of things out of this weekend.
First off, Nationals race........I went into this race with the worse attitude ever, I thought it was good motivation but it wasn't. See, I wanted to prove a lot this weekend to other people, because I thought I might get a little more respect and also things might be a little easier for me as far as financially. So far Derrick and I haven't been able to find any sponsors to help us out financially. We have a lot of support through product but basically no money to get anywhere. Also to prove my first 4 UCI wins two weeks ago weren't flukes or cause there wasn't any competition. There actually was good competition, I was just on some stellar form, had some courses that were technically what I was good at and ended up running away with some bigger margin victories. The number one thing I learnt out of this is you can't do things for others. If you want to win a race, you always got to do it for yourself. It doesn't work any other way.
Anyways, incredibly nervous on the start line yesterday, I bobbled a bit and missed my pedal, started way back behind some girls and started taking risks everywhere in the first 2 minutes of the race. By accident I went around the second corner and right through the pit lane. My mistake for trying to pass 3 girls through the corner and no where to go but into the pit or into a stake. For that right there I was DQ'd for not jumping off my bike in the pit and using the lane as an advantage to pass people. I didn't know it at the time and not a minute later I cooked it hard in an uphill off camber turn and rolled my front tire out of the rim. Dead last again, like last year at Nationals, but this year I crashed myself out. I just call this some kind of National curse I have. I started running in panic mode and realized I had about 1 km to go to the pits and I was going to have to run all over the course. I rolled off the course and got some one to put my tire back on realized that now my day was done for sure.
At first I didn't know what to think. I had put everything into my training this year for cross. I thought I could be and wanted so bad to have the national champs jersey on me for the year. I was shocked that my race was only 2 minutes. I rolled around the backside of the course trying to bite the tears down. When I finally saw Derrick, I just said "I don't know". I didn't want to get upset in front of him and ruin his race, so I just held it in. Then I had to go on a mission to find the right person to tell them that I left the race. Finally I found them and the next minute I know the announcer shoves the microphone in my face "So, Natasha what happened out there today"? I did my best to explain my awful start and then just cooking it hard to pass people leading to my crash as I rolled my tire. After that little mini interview I rolled around the park and let a few tears roll down my face.
The national title wasn't meant to be this year. It would be a lot of pressure to carry it around and I thought I was ready but I guess not. Not if I wasn't lining up to win for myself. If I want it, it has to be for me and not to prove to others that I can have. Me and only me.
Last night was a pretty horrible sleep, the same sleep I had after the World cup in Montreal on the road this year, when I crashed only a few laps into the race and slid down the mountain. I kept thinking all last night, it was all a dream, I get to race for the National title today, its okay. I've had a lot of awful luck in high level races this year and I'm not sure why. I haven't been choking, most of the time I haven't had enough time in the race to choke. But somehow the luck has never been great. But that's bike racing. It's kind of 50/50. There is a lot of variables and sometimes they are not favourable. In bike racing, you are going to lose way more races than you can ever win. The one thing is there is always a new race around the corner.
Today at the Jim Horner UCI race I was hoping for a lot better. It was a bit better, but not myself. There was no push in my legs, no snap, no jump and oh yeah no front row start position. Totally weird, they called us up early today and some of us were still going through bike check, and if we weren't there they just gave our front row position away. Kabush got a fine as a result of this and then just charging to the line anyways. Never had any race officials do this before, it was out of character. So once again, horrible start as usually I would be front row and wouldn't have a problem. I tried to get up there and took some risks and got into third about half way through the first lap and then I had another mechanical. My chain dropped and I spent half a minute trying to get it back on. From then on I was 4th in the race, had a couple other spills and never really got in any kind of rhythm on the course.
Nothing was there for me this weekend and I'm glad Derrick picked up the slack like in Vegas. When I race well, he races horribly and when he races well, I race horribly. We have yet to find the dynamicity that we have had on some days (yeah that is a word and if you don't think so, read on; Dynamicity means creating systems which are able to cope with change and intrusions from outside it). I'm hoping some how it will come, as long as we do it for each other and ourselves.
At least I got to see my brother in law and sister this weekend. They came out from Calgary to give Derrick and I some support and a cheering section. Thanks Chris and Katherine, I'm sorry my performance wasn't there but it was nice to see you both after over a year. Also thanks for Robby O. for his work in the pits for Derrick and I. We really appreciated your help!
NCE
Cross Nationals-DSJ 3rd
I was trying to think of something ultra clever to call this post, but unfortunately I know I put in a good effort yesterday, cause I just said the hell with it.
So here in Edmonton. It's been frigin cold the last couple days. Really cold, like -4 in the am, then it warms up nice, but burrr. Fixing bikes in the garage is a major challenge. We are staying with a guy named John. He's an interesting fella. I thought at first that he was of Asian descent as you would think he appears to be Asian and his last name is Chang, which sounds Asian. Also there is Some Asian art in his house, so ipso facto....but...no. After talking with him for a while I noticed a certain"ting" to his voice.
So I finally hit it and said:
"Are you from the West indies" man was he suprised,
"guess", said John
"Trinidad" I said.
"No shit" he said and man he could not believe that I picked that up. Just another example of how doing the Tour de Tobbago with Glen a few years ago really paid off.
So he's a great host, been so helpful, even let us have some Roti...mmm can't wait for my next piece.
Ok, so Nationals. Well Tasha had some shit luck. For more than one reason. She missed her pedal had a disastrous start, then startED running it hot , and she actually rode through the pit on the first lap, which would have been an automatic DQ. Then she rolled her front tubular on an off-camber section. I didn't see her come through the first lap so I ran parts of the course panicked, looking for her. Man was I scared. So she had to pull off the course and and she couldn't get the tire back on the rim, so she was forced to abandon.
She is ok. I'm really impressed with way she handled herself, she didn't blame me for being a hack mechanic and not gluing the tire on right, she didn't blame anyone. She just accepted it, realized that she just wanted the title so bad and took a risk after having a bad start. Hey in this sport your going to loose a lot more than you win, so you do your thing and get over it. Learn your lesson and get ready for today.
She inspired me to race well. She told me to do it for her, so I did. Lately she has been doing way more than her share for the duo, her
4 wins in the US made sure that we wouldn't starve this month. So I was prepared to suffer. My start was ok, but I got behind one train too many before a corner and took a massive branch to the face, whats with that. I was way too far back on the first lap so I just grabbed the Octto bars and pulled on the drops so hard I thought I was going to rip the bar tape off. I fought to catch Kabush and Garrigan who got away. They had 35 seconds on me and I pulled it back to 14 maybe even 10 seconds, then I bobbled the climb and stalled out at the top and it grew to 30, I then cut into it again, and had Garrigan within 6 seconds...but the race was a little short (56 min) and had to settle for 3rd. I say settle, but I'm happy about it. Last year I was 11th, so 3rd this year, not to mention second Nationals podium...not bad.
Anyone who has put on an elite men's jersey on the road or cross has deserved it and worked their ass off to get it. You know it will be nice when I get mine, but it takes time. When I looked at the jersey yesterday, I thought one day, I will have that jersey and it will be sweet and I will have earned it through hard honest work and I will wear it to the airport, at home and to the Cornwall Square and I won't give a damn what anyone thinks, even if it smells like armpits.
DSJ
So here in Edmonton. It's been frigin cold the last couple days. Really cold, like -4 in the am, then it warms up nice, but burrr. Fixing bikes in the garage is a major challenge. We are staying with a guy named John. He's an interesting fella. I thought at first that he was of Asian descent as you would think he appears to be Asian and his last name is Chang, which sounds Asian. Also there is Some Asian art in his house, so ipso facto....but...no. After talking with him for a while I noticed a certain"ting" to his voice.
So I finally hit it and said:
"Are you from the West indies" man was he suprised,
"guess", said John
"Trinidad" I said.
"No shit" he said and man he could not believe that I picked that up. Just another example of how doing the Tour de Tobbago with Glen a few years ago really paid off.
So he's a great host, been so helpful, even let us have some Roti...mmm can't wait for my next piece.
Ok, so Nationals. Well Tasha had some shit luck. For more than one reason. She missed her pedal had a disastrous start, then startED running it hot , and she actually rode through the pit on the first lap, which would have been an automatic DQ. Then she rolled her front tubular on an off-camber section. I didn't see her come through the first lap so I ran parts of the course panicked, looking for her. Man was I scared. So she had to pull off the course and and she couldn't get the tire back on the rim, so she was forced to abandon.
She is ok. I'm really impressed with way she handled herself, she didn't blame me for being a hack mechanic and not gluing the tire on right, she didn't blame anyone. She just accepted it, realized that she just wanted the title so bad and took a risk after having a bad start. Hey in this sport your going to loose a lot more than you win, so you do your thing and get over it. Learn your lesson and get ready for today.
She inspired me to race well. She told me to do it for her, so I did. Lately she has been doing way more than her share for the duo, her
4 wins in the US made sure that we wouldn't starve this month. So I was prepared to suffer. My start was ok, but I got behind one train too many before a corner and took a massive branch to the face, whats with that. I was way too far back on the first lap so I just grabbed the Octto bars and pulled on the drops so hard I thought I was going to rip the bar tape off. I fought to catch Kabush and Garrigan who got away. They had 35 seconds on me and I pulled it back to 14 maybe even 10 seconds, then I bobbled the climb and stalled out at the top and it grew to 30, I then cut into it again, and had Garrigan within 6 seconds...but the race was a little short (56 min) and had to settle for 3rd. I say settle, but I'm happy about it. Last year I was 11th, so 3rd this year, not to mention second Nationals podium...not bad.Anyone who has put on an elite men's jersey on the road or cross has deserved it and worked their ass off to get it. You know it will be nice when I get mine, but it takes time. When I looked at the jersey yesterday, I thought one day, I will have that jersey and it will be sweet and I will have earned it through hard honest work and I will wear it to the airport, at home and to the Cornwall Square and I won't give a damn what anyone thinks, even if it smells like armpits.
DSJ
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Kerfuffle
I wasn't sure if this post should be called "Living in Stone Age-Cornwall style" or "Kerfuffle".
My parents use dial up Internet and don't have a long distance package so communication with the outside world has been challenging to say the least. It really makes you aware of how much we rely on technology, especially when you are severed so abruptly. I now know what my sisters new baby Boy Tray felt like when those Doc's cut his umbilical cord.
So no blogging, no surfing, no talking. Maybe it was a good thing cause I had so much work to do. Obviously when we got back from Wisconsin we wanted to go pick up our new bikes. But that turned into a few trips to Ottawa, and Steve was super busy so I had to build my new Carbon Team Stevens (Which is so so so sweet). But as my formal education is more anatomy and physiology than bike put together ology...it took me about 6 hours to put the new ride together. Ok, maybe more than 6, then I had to dial it in. But I put it together from scratch, cut the fork, pressed the head set race in, ect. So just when I thought I was pretty impressed with myself for doing a nice job, paying as much detail as possible, I picked up Natasha's , which was done by Steve P and I realized that although it was good...he can not be outdone. I thought for sure he would need my advice on installing the Octto tape, and trick bar plugs...for sure he would need my advice...no chance Lance Romance.
So as any bike racer would do, rode the bike for about 45 minutes and measured everything an Octtotrillion times and did the Madison on Sunday. I was paired up with Guy Lacroix and we were set for a show down! I had a horrible first lap as...well Euro excuse #1-"I had a massive week of training, but I expect to come to form soon" or excuse #2 I"I quickly realized that the bike was not exactly the same...also that the brakes..were tad loose...or non existent, which made for some precarious cornering". So we battled for top spot against Ryan Atkins and Greg "Zoolander" Zulliani. I just made that Zoolander part up, and Greg has been to my house and met our cat Armstrong so it's all good. Anyways I really started hitting it on the Second lap and so on.
Anyways it was a lot more fun than I expected since Ryan had a good 15-25 seconds on me at the start of the lap I would real him in through the lap and it really made me dig deep. Greg and Ryan held us off and I was unable to pull the time back in the last lap as there was so much traffic on the course and I almost took a few people out (sorry Josee) and decided that being the Madison champion was just not worth dying for or worse hurting another.
Tasha was paired up with Vicki T and Tasha felt the need to run 18 PSI the first lap and quickly found that it was insufficient. She felt awful as Ken had progressively increased her training overload to DangerDanger level and then I made sure to really finish the week off.
SO...we then rode we Casey Roth in the Parc and he just nudged me out in the final sign sprint...I'll blame that on the 46 and the cross bike...I told him he could never live it down if he let me pull for two hours and couldn't come around me while I was on my Cross bike.
Ok, enough about that. We are in Belleville getting ready to fly out later tonight to Nationals.
Have to make 3 stops in TO before we leave....what's the Kerfuffle about???
Well we were short two bike bags, so we had to go to Ottawa to get them off Glen Rendall..thanks buddy.
We had to fit 5 bikes and 4 bags, 2 people and one cat in our Mazda 3. Well 5+4-3-2+1=3 so I figured we could make it fit...haha. So I completely removed the back seats...and everything in the car that I could except for the spare. Then packed the bikes, bags, cats, people, gear in the car. Drove to Ottawa and got the bag from Glen's mom. But that was not before I forgot the address and the phone number on the desk at home...that went over really well with Tasha, who wasn't already stressed cause it took me 4 hours to pack the bikes. We get to Glens house and we get the bags, unpack the car, all over his front lawn. His mom was laughing and saying that the neighbors have seen Glen do this many times, so they would not be shocked. It was probably a blessing his mom was there, it prohibited me from displaing my multi-lingual venacular of adult oriented prophanities to Glen's Neighbors. THey would have for sure thought I was the brain behind Eddy Murphy, Chris Rock, "Greg and Gentillion" and Borat.
Lets just say I am not proud that we drove with a car that packed, as it was not the safest thing...but it's done.
Now all I have to do is go for a ride, pack them, change some tires , rebuild our bikes to ride, and be in Toronto by 5 pm...right.
Nationals...oh yah I almost forgot they are Saturday. I'll be...let me re phrase that Tasha will be updating the blog this week, we have a top 20 list that we wrote on the way back from WI on our 15 hour car ride, and I have a feature about the new bike so once we get a chance there will be loads of new stuff.
DSJ
My parents use dial up Internet and don't have a long distance package so communication with the outside world has been challenging to say the least. It really makes you aware of how much we rely on technology, especially when you are severed so abruptly. I now know what my sisters new baby Boy Tray felt like when those Doc's cut his umbilical cord.
So no blogging, no surfing, no talking. Maybe it was a good thing cause I had so much work to do. Obviously when we got back from Wisconsin we wanted to go pick up our new bikes. But that turned into a few trips to Ottawa, and Steve was super busy so I had to build my new Carbon Team Stevens (Which is so so so sweet). But as my formal education is more anatomy and physiology than bike put together ology...it took me about 6 hours to put the new ride together. Ok, maybe more than 6, then I had to dial it in. But I put it together from scratch, cut the fork, pressed the head set race in, ect. So just when I thought I was pretty impressed with myself for doing a nice job, paying as much detail as possible, I picked up Natasha's , which was done by Steve P and I realized that although it was good...he can not be outdone. I thought for sure he would need my advice on installing the Octto tape, and trick bar plugs...for sure he would need my advice...no chance Lance Romance.
So as any bike racer would do, rode the bike for about 45 minutes and measured everything an Octtotrillion times and did the Madison on Sunday. I was paired up with Guy Lacroix and we were set for a show down! I had a horrible first lap as...well Euro excuse #1-"I had a massive week of training, but I expect to come to form soon" or excuse #2 I"I quickly realized that the bike was not exactly the same...also that the brakes..were tad loose...or non existent, which made for some precarious cornering". So we battled for top spot against Ryan Atkins and Greg "Zoolander" Zulliani. I just made that Zoolander part up, and Greg has been to my house and met our cat Armstrong so it's all good. Anyways I really started hitting it on the Second lap and so on.
Anyways it was a lot more fun than I expected since Ryan had a good 15-25 seconds on me at the start of the lap I would real him in through the lap and it really made me dig deep. Greg and Ryan held us off and I was unable to pull the time back in the last lap as there was so much traffic on the course and I almost took a few people out (sorry Josee) and decided that being the Madison champion was just not worth dying for or worse hurting another.
Tasha was paired up with Vicki T and Tasha felt the need to run 18 PSI the first lap and quickly found that it was insufficient. She felt awful as Ken had progressively increased her training overload to DangerDanger level and then I made sure to really finish the week off.
SO...we then rode we Casey Roth in the Parc and he just nudged me out in the final sign sprint...I'll blame that on the 46 and the cross bike...I told him he could never live it down if he let me pull for two hours and couldn't come around me while I was on my Cross bike.
Ok, enough about that. We are in Belleville getting ready to fly out later tonight to Nationals.
Have to make 3 stops in TO before we leave....what's the Kerfuffle about???
Well we were short two bike bags, so we had to go to Ottawa to get them off Glen Rendall..thanks buddy.
We had to fit 5 bikes and 4 bags, 2 people and one cat in our Mazda 3. Well 5+4-3-2+1=3 so I figured we could make it fit...haha. So I completely removed the back seats...and everything in the car that I could except for the spare. Then packed the bikes, bags, cats, people, gear in the car. Drove to Ottawa and got the bag from Glen's mom. But that was not before I forgot the address and the phone number on the desk at home...that went over really well with Tasha, who wasn't already stressed cause it took me 4 hours to pack the bikes. We get to Glens house and we get the bags, unpack the car, all over his front lawn. His mom was laughing and saying that the neighbors have seen Glen do this many times, so they would not be shocked. It was probably a blessing his mom was there, it prohibited me from displaing my multi-lingual venacular of adult oriented prophanities to Glen's Neighbors. THey would have for sure thought I was the brain behind Eddy Murphy, Chris Rock, "Greg and Gentillion" and Borat.
Lets just say I am not proud that we drove with a car that packed, as it was not the safest thing...but it's done.
Now all I have to do is go for a ride, pack them, change some tires , rebuild our bikes to ride, and be in Toronto by 5 pm...right.
Nationals...oh yah I almost forgot they are Saturday. I'll be...let me re phrase that Tasha will be updating the blog this week, we have a top 20 list that we wrote on the way back from WI on our 15 hour car ride, and I have a feature about the new bike so once we get a chance there will be loads of new stuff.
DSJ
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