Dogs on a plane

Last time I checked, I didn't really think people could bring their dogs on the plane, but we were stuck beside a sneezing dog owner and a stinky pooch on the way pack from Edmonton.

Road Nationals proved to be an interesting race. The end result was ok, I ended up 12th, 9th in Elite Men. Not really the result I was aiming for, for I'm still happy with the way I rode up until about the 11the lap. I then let my emotions get in the way , wanting to win, getting frustrated, and I stopped applying logic. JS managed to come across to the original break as little groups were always coming up the road to congest the break. He was able to get in a chase group and then my hands were a little tied, I tried to go, but I couldn't bring a group up to his, so there it is. Considering how hard I rode to try and get across I m throughly impressed I could still put an ok sprint in to finish after 180km's.

I guess it just wasn't in the cards. We still had a good time in Edmonton, our hotel was quiet and I was able to rest alot, and it was relaxing after Beauce to just sit around.

After getting home from my ride yesterday Natasha showed me I was on the "long list" for the National Team Pro Tour races in September. I have to say it is a nice feeling. It's not a done deal yet, as it is the long list and does not guarantee that I will do the races, but it's close.

Derrick

Edmonton

Today is Natasha's Birthday, as the years go on, somehow she manages to look the same and even though she hasn't been training she still has really nice legs...wait to go her.

Natasha's sister Katherine and her husband Chris, also have something to celebrate as they have just given birth to their first child, baby boy Milo. Which makes her parents grandparents and give us a new nephew.

Hugo won the U 23 ITT yesterday, so now we have a National Champ on our team, nice job Hugo! I opted not to do the TT as I wanted to go shopping and get some B day gifts for Natasha.
No seriously, I considered the racing we 've done, the trouble of packing and bringing the tt bike and accessories, considered the best case scenario and just thought it was better to skip it.

I celebrated a good Tour de Beauce at Louis' House Sunday after the Tour, he bought me a few huge beers and laid out quite the feast for the team at the club house. I was probably about 5 lbs heavier the next day but it was worth it.

So celebrations all around.

We are in Edmonton, relaxing at Comfort Inn. Hotel is ok, except for the curry smell of the Chinese restaurant downstairs.

Edomonton is pretty nice during the summer, it s a alot different than when we came to -13 in October for Cross Nationals.

SO I'd like to say that tomorrow is the big day, but it just doesn't feel like that. It feels like I had a bit of a holiday this week, sleeping, resting, watching reruns of CSI for hours on end. If anything maybe a little too relaxed.

What I've realized this year is that you can create your own reality, whether it be good or bad, so you just have to believe that everything will come together when the time is right.

Thats it.

DSJ

8 seconds from yellow

To me it's all about perspective. I could look at the week I had at the Tour Beauce and think, man I was so close to achieving greatness, 8 seconds from winning one of the hardest stages in North America, 8 seconds from wearing a yellow jersey at a UCI continental tour.

But that's not totally the way I see it. I look at my performances leading up to the tour, taking everything in stride, not panicking, sticking to the plan, but modifying it here and there when I was really buggered. My coach Glen Rendall kept me on the right track, it's not like he gave me some kind of magic program, just lots of hard work, and when I was on the verge of cracking told me to ride to the coffee shop.

What I am most proud of is the ride I had on Wednesday. I made it happen. I covered attacks but missed the one that stuck. I started to go across to it...but even at 500 watts I couldn't catch them. The moto came by with the sign 1:30 to the pack....the break was almost a minute in front of me...maybe more...i was stuck in the middle. That was the turning point, maybe one of the most important moments of my cycling career. I thought I have 2 clear options...either I go for piss and let the pack catch me and try again on Megantic, or I wait till that massive climb in a few km and just give er'. In my head it was an eternity...seriously my world almost stopped for a second as I heard all the wisdom that has been passed through my ears over the years..."are you a BIKE RIDER OR A BIKE RACER"..."ALWAYS CLOSE THE GAP TO THE BREAK ON HILL"..."AT SOME POINT YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE SHITY LEGS, BUT YOU'VE TRAINED WITH SHITY LEGS"..."MAKE YOUR OWN RACE HAPPEN". So I went for it.

Tried to roll at eh same pace as the break, then on the hill clicked 2 gears harder and stood on pedals and pumped for 6 minutes. I caught the 5 guys at the top of the climb and to say they were shocked was an understatement...something like "how the hell..." in Italian and Ukrainian it was pretty funny. Jeff Louder from BMC asked me how I did it...I said I just rode hard..."that's impressive" he said.

So we held the gap at 3minutes and any time someone tried to go two hard or fast they would get sworn at in all kind of languages and Kobzarenko threw a water bottle at at Bjorn Papstein(2007 German mountain bike National Champ). I kind of got sucked into working in the break as it was in my interest to keep it a way. But I did manage to exaggerate my fatigue a little HERE AND THERE so I could miss a pull every now and then. As we approached Meganic, I didn't really have to exagerate it any more cause I was cracking a little. SO I eat everything I had left in my pockets, 3 gels, mushy wrappers, I may have even sucked on a gel wrapper that had 3ml of GU left in it.

I broke the race apart in my head, one race to Megantic, one race up Megantic...over and over in my mind. I knew last year it was just under 20 minutes to go up the beast. But this year

i just imagined it was a long driveway, it's just like going up a long driveway, that's all.

So we hit the bottom, the pace slowed, I knew the pack would be blistering at mach 4 behind, so I waited for the pitch and hit it. I held 10-15 seconds all the way up until about 150 metres, a United Health rider passed me and held my tail between my legs for second. Almost pulled the hugest result.

But I am happy with the ride I put. I made my destiny, I rode to my abilities using my head and my legs and by believing in myself. Yah the win would have been great, but I am 100% satisfied with my performance on this day, I could not have asked for more out of my organism on this day. That's not to say I won't strive for more, it just shows me that there is always room for improvement and little tweaks can be made to deliver phenomenal NATURAL performances.

The rest of the Tour was good, maybe not so great in the TT, but after Megantic, hey whatever.

So check mark beside Tour de Beauce. We leave tomorrow for Nationals, having a good Beauce takes the monkey off my back, so looking forward to what seams like a very interesting circuit.

Thanks to everyone on the LG team, Ch Leduc, France, Marc(mechanic), Emily (Masseus)at Beauce, my teammates, My Boss Louis, My coach Glen, my beautiful Finace Natasha, my parents, her parents, all whom believe in my crazy dreams and are a huge part in supporting me to make them a reality.

Breaking news - DSJ 2nd at TDB stage 3

So I just have some amazing news. Funny, I haven't wrote on the blog for almost 7 months or so now. But I have something very exciting to say.

Derrick was 2nd at Tour de Beauce, stage 3 today. He went for it. I followed all day and knew the whole time something very special was going to happen for him. If he didn't win, I knew it would be close and he would almost die trying.

I had a blog post ready last night to put up about what has been going on with me and also how proud I am of Derrick and knew that the something was going to happen today. Obviously, I didn't want to jinx him and couldn't put it up.

It's been rough for me since last October, and somehow I magically started to get better just a week before the TDB started. I knew it was a sign from above. It was a hard time for both of us and Derrick deserves every bit of his success. He also gave me the inspiration today while I read about his time in the break to give my comeback a shot. Well let me rephrase that, I knew I was going to try to comeback all along, he just made me believe in myself today to think anything was possible and even though I haven't been riding for months now as I was really ill, today confirmed that I can do it and be even better than before. We'll call it the parasite effect.

So I'll spare you the details of what happened to me. I wanted to write on the blog about it a while back, but I wasn't getting better and I just didn't want to speak about it. I had no energy and my thoughts were just all over the place. I was kind of embarrassed about what was happening and almost had a numb feeling to everything around me. Nobody had any answers until 3 weeks ago, and then boom, bang, just like that my body has started to turnaround. I remember at the beginning I just thought I was burnt out, but no training didn't help. Now that I think back, I was stupid to think I was ever burnt out, I should of known something was wrong. I think to myself now, "do you have any idea of what you've done and accomplished in your life". I don't burnout, my nickname use to be the energizer bunny when I was in high school. Man I was dumb to believe in what some of the doctors I saw said. But I guess I never truly believed as I kept on searching for a diagnosis and finally got one. Somehow my same attitude towards racing never gave up, even though I thought I had given in, that internal strength was always there fighting for me.

Anyways, I think I can say it is over and I just want to keep the positivity flowing. I know it is not going to be easy and my body is not fully recovered yet, but that's going to be the fun part about getting going again. It's a whole new adventure for me in life. And now the dynamic duo can be the dynamic duo again and not the dynamic uno.

Oh yeah, did you know that party and parasites really sound alike. Maybe because when you have parasites inside of you, they are having millions of party's all around you as they take over parts of your body. Sucking the party life out of you!

Ok that's my joke, first one in 8 months, might be a little lame, but hey that's normal me coming back. And if you ever tick me off in a race, I know exactly what word I will use to describe you in my cycling dirt video after the race. It's the worst word you could call anyone, trust me I know.

Anyways, for Derrick, I am really proud of what you have done over the last little bit. You deserve every minute of it and thank you for being there for me. I love you more than ever and see you tomorrow.

NCE

Grande Visite de Gatineau

Race Report. Started fast, tried to go faster, then tried to go fastest. Good enough for 7th on the day. Not bad. Would have been nice to squeak in to top 5 but the legs had a 7th in them so there it is. Great course, super fast, well organized. Perfect to have it in Gatineau.

Next up is Tour de Beauce. I'm in Quebec right now, we head down to St Georges tomorrow.

I'd love to blog it up, but it's time to rest a little, focus and save my energy.

DSJ

What it takes

Just stumbled across this...
http://ibikeblog.com/?p=148It's
The guys at I bike wanted the power file from our win at GP Hudson, if you click on my ride file you can get all my "secret" training info and numbers...maybe not so secret anymore...haha.
Anyways, all the work I do goes into producing efforts like that, look it over if you're interested and next time you see me go off the front you'll know that I'm traying to stick it.

DSJ
Oh the pic they have is a cross photo, but I did indeed ride a rode bike that day...I'm not that strong. I'm just full of jokes today. Last thing, don't ever do the Tour of Connetecuit, there was an unmarked metal bridge in the third stage that took 30 guys down, sent 5 to hospital, forced the race to be sort of neutralized, but not really then the pack got lost an did 180 km km, instead of 145 and there were no podiums, and they send the prize money via pay pall...hate to say this but this race should never happen again and the organizer cut way too many corners to make it happen, as a professional it makes me sick to think of the danger we were exposed to.

Charevoix

Where to begin...well we added a new member to our team. Aurelie Passeron. H rode with Saunier Duval and in 2008 he did the Tour de France. He crashed out in stage 8 in a sprint. Now he rides with us...man o man. He came to Canada with a vision of forming a very special kind of of team. An organic, real, sustainable team that leads by example. A team that performs by eating well, living well, being well, where obviously it is important to win, but not at any cost. After all there are limits. This is what I have learned. He brings with him a whole bag of knowledge and know how been there done that, this is the way it really goes down. I'm sure Tasha is probably already annoyed as she thinks we have a bromance going cause I've been telling her all about his vision of cycling and his ideas. But hey, just when you think you know things, you end up learning so much more. There are things that make cycling here in Canada very beautiful. Especially around Quebec city, cycling is very pure. Maybe it's the fact that Louis is out there and he has a large influence on the culture of the sport, of healthy lifestyle. LG's employees are paid for an hour of work if they bike to work and I think Louis pays their breakfast at the caf. That's not bad eh?

Anyways, lets just say sometimes you need to remember why you do something. Inspiration comes in many different places and formes. As I nurse I support my friends view of cycling, I like the idea that people are doing the sport to be healthy, add years to their lives not take them away, look like they have a motor in their bikes, but not actually have one.

SO we had a good showing in Chrlevoix, I was able to get comfy on my TT bike and rode to a solid 4th place, which in previous years, my time would of been enough to win.

We messed up the crit a little and ended up with not a whole lot to show for it. But we played the cards right during the road race, we had so many cards to play, we executed an intellingent race plan to perfection and came away with the stage win and 1,2 in the GC. The way it shook out I ended up with a bit of a support role in the pack, which ended up being ok. We isolated the major threats on the GC and our team ended up on top. I know some people still really don't get it, but it is after all a team sport, not everyone is on the same page, but maybe one day they will understand.

So, Aurelien and myself, rode back from the race almost all the way to Quebec city...210km total, in the big ring...not to be too dramatic, but you can learn alot about yourself in that time.
Also you get to really wear in your chamois...gross! He tells me this is what it takes to do Paris-Nice...how the hell would he know...oh wait a minute he was 9th. After the ride he said "la ont a fait une bonne journee, la ont est costaux" Basically, that was a good ride now we can call ourselves studs.

Crazy French guy only eat one bannana! Then he got home and ate salad! I just about pissed my pants. Louis had us over for supper and ordered some Sushi...thank the lord...trying to be French is hard work!

Le D