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.