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
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sweet podium pic
.jpg)
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)