St Raymond

Who knew that St Raymond was close to Quebec city? Not me. Natasha had planned on doing this race with her team and I just went last minute as I didn't have a car to get to Ottawa for the RWR TTT. We got in a little late on Friday night and I had a sinus infection/chest infection so I had smeared vicks vapo rub all over my chest and neck to help me sleep, but I ended up getting some it in my eye as well, not fun, eyes burning, can't sleep, can't breath, next time I'll have to remember to wash my hands after smearing the Vicks.

Anyways, Saturday's course was 103 km circuit race around a lake, undulating with some steep pitches. I did the square route of nothing for the first half of the race as the plan was to play my cards right as I was solo. I stuck to plan for the most part but then I started to get into the mix and I covered some moves and I Joel Dion P attacked and I launched an effort to join him. We were rolling strong and we had a good gap and we committed to it. It's wasn't really what I wanted to do, be off the front for 30km in the first stage, but all the Quebec teams were present and there was a possibility that they would not chase as hard or underestimate us. Not sure if they did or not, but we got caught a couple km's out and tried to mix it up for the finale, but obviously off the front for that time, my chances were limited, so I just rollled in.

Saturday night's TT was a 10 km out and back rain drenched, pot hole infested, windy stretch.
I went pretty well though, considering the mornings effort and placed 6th or 7th. Not bad considering I was frozen, soaked and the tri spoke was rubbing on the brake pad slightly after the turnaround, I tried to fix it twice, but obviously doing that at 50 km an hour in the rain could be pretty catastrophic.

SO the stage was set for Sunday 130 km stage and it started on a hill and when I say started, it was full gas up the hill and the break was gone. Shit. I knew there was possibility of an early break during a multi stage leg cracker, it works to hit them before the porridge is in the gut, but the GC leader Charles Dion was still in the group so I didn't totally panic. I thought we were rolling moderately fast and then heard that the break had 1 minute, then 2, then almost four. Well then I thought it was almost over, JS had to have a nature break and he picked a bad place to come off his bike, but I figured since the day was a write off I'd go too and then we'd be two to chase back. Taking a year off our lives, we chased back with 0.0% help of the three cars and moto following the race, they actually went out of their way to not help us get back, strange, but I guess that's how they run their show.

I notice that the "fake tempo" of the group is not also fake as we avg'd almost 40 km/hr for the first two hours...hummmm...the break had a a few minutes on us, the circuit is crazy windy...shit...I better start eating and drinking this is gonna get hard. Not one minute later does Planet Energy echelon into a wind section and splits the field in tow, leaving me in the latter half too far back to join, I try crossing solo, but realize that the pack would chase me down, so I let myself get sucked back by the second half and then rested and as soon as the two groups made contact went directly to the front and guys were blowing like land mines and not before too long we went really hard up a steep climb and the break was made. We rolled through hard. Way too hard considering I only had two bottles all day and we ran out of gels so I tried to eat fruit bars.
I was figuring out how I was going to beat the guys in the break as all the guys had a more than descent kick. Not sure if I just kind of gave up a little before the end but I figured I'd wait it out and cover if someone took a flyer and then went off that, well it didn't pan out and the pace was about 20 km/hr before the sprint and I had nothing in the legs. I mean nothing.

So not the way I wanted to end the day, but I think I would have been 5th on the stage.

I ended up 4th in the GC and made a couple hundred bucks for my efforts. I was actually shocked as there is never any money at the QC races, but this one paid really well, so I didn't leave empty handed.

I wanted to hit my head on the steering wheel as it is the second time this year I was in the break and don't finish it off right. Especially since I always nag Natasha to finish it off strong. I should have stuck to plan for the weekend and I would have came out further ahead. On the bright side I was one guy with no support(bottles, feeds) and I beat alot of guys who had 5 teammates, so not too bad, just not perfect.

But I do love racing in Quebec as the racing is hard, the courses a little treacherous, but all in good fun and I always walk away saying it was a good race. Usually the guy who wins deserves it and it's fair.

I'll let Tash tell her version as she rode strong as well...

DSJ

I'm really looking forward to racing with the whole team at Charlevoix and hopefully the guys can help me stick that one.