Cyclo Cross Clinics

So just some quick updates on the clinics Derrick and I will be holding. I know we said we would be doing more blog posts, but our little ranch lost it's Internet and we are waiting for the service providers to set up an account again. A few more days and we should be back in business with more blog posts of silliness that you probably don't even want to read. Back to the clincs, please read below........

CYCLEFIT Cyclo-Cross Beginner and Advanced Clinics

For men, women and kids ages 10+

Cyclo-Cross: 2hr BEGINNERS clinic
Location: Strathcona Parc - Ottawa

Monday Aug. 30Th, 2010
5:30pm-7:30pm

Rate:
FREE for CycleFit CHICK members
$15 of all other participants

See below for Beginner clinic details

Cyclo-Cross: 3hr BEGINNER and ADVANCED clinics

Location: Strathcona Parc, Ottawa

Monday Sept. 6th, 2010
Beginners Cross Clinic - 12pm-3pm
Advanced Cross Clinic - 3:15pm-6:15pm

Rate:

$20
See below for the Beginner and Advanced clinic details

HOW TO REGISTER:

Email CYCLEFIT@ROGERS.COM

Information Needed:

Name
Email
Phone/Cell number
We will phone to confirm and then bill you via PAYPAL

Beginners Clinic: For those getting started in cyclo cross (0-2 years experience). We will be working on bike mounts/dismounts, the basics of clipping in and unclipping, crossing low barriers, carrying/shouldering bike and running with it, as well as cornering on various surfaces (gravel, sand, dirt, grass).

Advanced Clinic: For more experienced cyclo cross racers and have been doing it for a few years but need some tips and methods to practice and develop their skills further. We will be working on barriers with speed and how to keep your momentum, off camber riding, tight cornering on various surfaces (gravel, sand, dirt, grass), as well as steep hills and how to power over them with out getting off your bike.

Both Clinics: Will also discuss equipment, clothing and tire selection advice. Warming up for races, the best way to warm up as well as get a feel for the course, and cooling down. Any questions/discussions from clinic participants.
Also minor help in setting up bikes as it is slightly different to a road set up.

What to Bring:

Helmet
Bike and Equipment/clothing (even a MTB could be used)
Snack food and water bottle

About your instructors- Natasha and Derrick:

Natasha Elliott is a professional cyclo cross racer with Garneau Club Chaussures. In 2008 (her 3rd season of cyclo cross), she started to excel and really find her love for cyclo cross racing. That year she won 7 international UCI races across North America and her highest ranking was 16th in the World, she also placed 13th at a World Cup in France. 2009 brought even more success with bigger wins, including the Grand Prix of Gloucester double wins, considered the New England world's of cyclo-cross, the NACT series overall championship title and was ranked as high as 13th in the world. Back from an illness that kept her out of racing and training from last fall to this summer, she brings to the 2010 season even better form and expects to have even greater success. Through out her campaign she has raced on many different circuits in many different countries around the world. Natasha is very energetic with lots of tricks and tips she has learned through her cyclo cross career that she is willing to share with you. You can follow Natasha and her husband on their blog at

derrickandnatashathedynamicduo.blogspot.com

DERRICK ST.JOHN

Derrick St John is a professional road and cross racer with Garmeau. He finished 2nd at Canadian Cross Nationals in 2009 and stepped on the podium several times in the Verge series and Toronto Intl Cross. This year he also finished 2nd at the mount Megantic stage at the Tour de Beauce. Derrick will share tips to make you strong and has some unique skills that will amp up your cross riding.

NCE

Cross Schedule

So, here it is.......The D and N's cross schedule for 2010-11 season. Still to be TDB is some of the stuff at the end as well as if it will go any later in the year and also into 2011. We are still waiting on the dates of Glen Rendall's Ride with Rendall cross races this year (The Anvil). I have heard that they are going to be pretty exciting races this year and we are definitely going try to make them fit with our Calendar.


2010-11 Cyclocross Race Calendar


DATE: RACE: PLACE:

Sept. 18/19 StarCrossed/Rad Racing, Redmond/Issaquah, Washington
NACT SERIES

Sept. 22 CrossVegas Las Vegas, Nevada

Sept. 26 Rohrbach's Ellison Rochester, New York
Park Cyclocross

Oct. 2/3 Gran Prix of Gloucester,Gloucester, MA
NACT SERIES

Oct. 10 OFF or OBC race Ottawa, Ontario

Oct. 16/17 Toronto International Toronto, Ontario
Cyclo-Cross

Oct. 23/24 Derby City Cup, USGP Louisville, KY

Oct. 31 OFF or OBC race Ottawa, Ontario

Nov. 6/7 Canadian National Toronto, Ontario
Championships

Nov. 13/14 OFF or OBC race Ottawa, Ontario

Nov. 20/21 Super Cross Cup, Southhampton, NY
NACT SERIES

Nov. 26/27/28 Bay State Cyclocross or Sterling, MA
Jingle Cross Rock (3 days) Iowa City, Iowa
or World Cup Koksijde, Belgium
TBD

Dec. 4/5 NBX Grand Prix or Warwick, RI
USGP Stanley Portland Cup Portland, OR
TBD

After December 6th TBD

There you have it, there's were the reigning 2009 North American Trophy Series Champion is going to be all cross season. Most notably what I like you to notice is that the OBC or off weekends. I will try and be out for one OBC race hopefully, but one of the these weekends is definitely going to be off and no race of any kind at all. It doesn't mean I can't come out to the OBC race and show my local support and cheer people on. All I'm saying is that a true champion learns from mistakes and this 1 or 2 weekends off this year will probably be the most important weekends of the year.

I'll let Derrick see it and then post in on the side bar, so you can follow us every weekend and check for results and updates.

NCE

MTL Que

Ok, so I'm a little late on this one, but by blogging this now, it gives me a little time to prepare myself for today's workout...which looks like its going to hurt more than that race.

So, we had 9 guys on the start, full squad. The plan was simple, guarantee the Victory. That means, even if you are in a break you don't fully commit until you are 110% sure that you win.We had 5 guys in the race capable of winning, so race it accordingly and it will workout.

We let a small break go, then some others followed it, with one of our guys in the mix, Joel.

The gap got up to 4minutes plus, but no one really got too worried as the wind was such that we were rolling at almost 40 km/hr with hardly any pressure on the pedals.

As the race is PRETTY LONG 250KM'S, THE "REAL" racing usually happens after about 200 km and lots of guys fall apart much before that. But as most races in Ont are Que are <150km,so>

The boys got together once at the front early on to put everyone in the gutter...maybe about 80km into the race, so if you were on the wrong side of the split before the 50 meters of gravel, it was because we had the gas open on the front...funny enough here is that exact moment...

Look at the faces...pain man, pain.

Photo courtesy of Antoine Becotte

The race wasn't nearly as hard as usual and was slow at times. I think everyone knew that we were the team to watch, so we did have to race a bit negative here and there. I'm not a big fan of this and there are times where I have to really police myself as I'm use to attacking alot and just rolling as hard as I can.

after about 150 km or so we did manage to put 3 of us into the break of 13 or so, it rolled fairly well, until about 50km to go and a young guy from ORA by IF attacked, JS covered it, with a Josh Dillon(Bike Reg) and for some reason, the others guys in the break didn't chase it. I didn't really want to tell people how they should racce, but basically with 2 of my guys in the move, Aurelien in the pack, JS up the road, they had to understand that we had no interest in chasing, but the race is long and guys were getting tiered and I think the last thing those guys wanted to do was give me a free ride to 20 km from the line. Which would have been perfect for me as I knew the last 20 km so well and had every intention on crushing them had they given me an armchair ride.

But that didn't happen, the guys sat up, we got caught, and then I had to go to work as Aurelien was back in the mix and I knew without a doubt that if we brought the pack 5km to the line we would win for sure.

This is the part that is hard for me to do a little. As I cover all the moves and where as beofre I take my chances and roll away with let's say 3 guys and take my odds, I play team ate and set it up so he can guarantee the win. Good in lots of ways as it assure the team a win, which is important.

I know the importance in what I did, as I had control over the race and dictated the outcome.

WE raced really well coming into the finale km's, we had guys go solo, then we sent Miguel and James up the road, but the hill was a little too much for them.

I did get a chance to attack formyself at the top of hill with about 6km to go...with funny enough is right around this photo...

Photo courtesy Antoine Becotte.

Even funnier, well sort of is the fact that I had done the last I don't know how many km's with a front flat, as when I attacked, I felt the front tubular come right off the rim and the rim smash the pavement...it felt like I broke the wheel..I thought the tire was going to come right off.

If you look at the photo you can see the front wheel is flat, in Comparison to Aurelien's wheel, a few guys back.

So I gave(Aurelien) him the opportunity to get to 3km without having to do too much, Will attacks, he follows, I make sure no one else goes, and voila that's how its done.

Maybe you won't read about that anywhere, cause there wasn't any real good coverage of the race, but that's how it was done.

We should have tried to put another guy in the top 5 and one in the top ten to make some more money...but we would have look like jackasses if we didn't win. But we actually had to annihilate the whole team for Aurelien to win like that, so good job boys! He wasn't the only one that deserved the win, although his was the only pic in the paper, the whole team rode great to secure this one for Louis.

We did bugger up one satiation as a lack of communication, but the outcome was great, so maybe it worked out for the better.

Other race notes...I heard that Glen Rendall, my coach was in the break along with Mike Nash, I thought that was awesome...

Justin "Fester" Hall our rookie...was scared stiff at the start and finished ok, even took a few pulls. Matteo Dal Cin did a nice move at the end to attack and had I not jumped on his wheel may have had the winning attack..sorry buddy...you are too dangerous to let go.

The Jet Fuel boys rode awesome, Kevin Hazzard finish 9th which I would say is a great result...nice job.

Will Goodfellow was rewarded as that guy has a really nice aggressive attacking style, somewhat like mine, good to see that he got himself a podium.

And most impressive I would like to give myself a huge shoutout for not messing with my speed sensor as 1km in the race, my wheel magnet was not picking up and although I was tempted to move the sensor with my finger...it brought back the time I did that I ended up in the hospital in Trois Rivires...see that's why experience pays off...

DSJ

Fire

I didn't change the layout of the blog. That was Derrick's idea. Now every time I look at it I have that techno song in my head "I got that fire, fire, fire.......on the dance floor." We'll change the words a bit and say I got that fire on the cross course.

It's very ironic that he put the flames up there as back in my CCU running days our coach use to talk some BS about the burning flame and the fire. I can't remember the whole thing that well cause a lot of things our coach use to say to us didn't make any sense at all. Sometimes I use to think he would tell us such nonsense just to get us fired up before the race and mad at him.

The other day one of my teammates from CCU found some pics from the old days and was able to scan them and put them on facebook. I leave you with some silliness of the week, check out these uniforms from like 1960. Now you probably don't think it's that bad racing a bike in a skin suit, do ya?

I'm in the pic hiding, I think in embarrassment. Also holding our sweats is US Olympic hammer thrower Amber Campbell. The second pic, I'm not in but I wanted to show a picture of our coach. That's him, Coach Connie, at the far left.

A fresh new start

So I thought I'd get back into the swing of things and start blogging again, even though I never use to do it that much in the first place. No time like the present to start. Things have been going well in the new home at STAW, let me rephrase that, better than ever after a long winter and spring of illness. I never wouldn't of expected what has been happening lately, quite frankly if you asked me in May what I was going to been doing later this year, I might of told you that I would probably never race my bike again. Funny how things can turn around for the better.

It seemed very long from October to July for me, but some how I got threw it. While other people were getting ready for their cycling tours/races this past spring, I was doing the tour of the ER's in eastern Ontario. It's now all in a distant memory, thanks to my support crew of family and one of the best doctors I've ever seen. If anyone has any GI problems, let me know, as I know just the guy to see. I remember I had this analogy that I wanted to explain to my doctor about what not cycling meant to me to get him to really care about treating me. Funny enough this doc came to me saying it this, he took the words right out of my mouth. He said "imagine one day I had to stop practicing medicine and how that would effect me, it was what defined me and how would I go on in life."

This was all referring to how I was feeling when ill and I couldn't ride my bike. He also wasn't scared to tell me I wasn't sick anymore in July and things were going to be okay. I still had some issues (post infectious IBS) and it would take time/months to clear up but I was going to be okay. Another great point he made was that doctors are so scarred when they have had a patient sick for months to tell that they are better and the patient has a hard time adapting to life when they are well again as they don't remember what it means to be well. Ever since my last appointment in July and hearing all the things he had to say and letting one last cry out.......everything has been better than okay again.

I was not the only one in the Ottawa cycling community to be struck by bad luck this past year. My heart goes out to Jen and Allison. I think about them all the time in training and hope that they are just as successful as I am in getting better. They also motivate me to give it everything I have in my racing this fall, because at some points in your life you might be with out it. I don't take any training day for granted and know that it is a blessing to be able to do this sport again, but at the same time realize that it is not everything and other things are needed in life to balance it out.

Training is great, I've been able to think clearly again and when I'm out there training I have a ton of ideas of blog posts, etc. It's like old times again and my mind isn't filled with the thoughts of what is wrong, why am I sick and how can I get better the fastest. Now its all about how can I get faster on my bike, stronger, and take the lines better on my own personal cyclo cross course to be even faster. I'm being my own coach for now, mainly because I didn't want anyone else to train me until I was absolutely positive I could follow the program. I think things have been working out fine, I starting riding July 1st, got an OCA licence the week of the catsills race and then almost won the QOM jersey while at it, just one point off.

The race was fun and I couldn't wipe the smiles off of my face while suffering. My tactics were complete opposite both road stages. The first day I left everything too late when going for QOM points and never really sprinted as my timing was way too late. Second day I was way too early for all my attacks, if had tried the in between I think the end result would of been different. But it truly didn't matter as I really was just so ecstatic to be able to race my bike again.

I feel like a kid again, just starting into sports, the sky is the limit. Each day I feel stronger and somehow I get a little faster. While I wasn't riding for a few months, I started a little bit of jogging, but not too much to make me feel sicker. When I was feeling better but didn't want to commit to bike racing yet in June I started running, got up to 60-70 km a week. As I integrated the riding into my training in July I have kept a lot of running there. In the past, I would have never ran this much for cross, but it is keeping the training interesting and fun. Some of my workouts might seem a little insane to most, but from a former distance runner who went to University on scholarship for it, I don't think its that bad. And we might see a whole lot more running and dismounts on the cross courses this year with the new rules. I do remember someone last year (I think her name was Lynne Bessette or something) doing very well on a course that was very muddy and had lots of running. I think she was training a half marathon around this same time and not really riding her bike that much at all.

Stayed tuned for some more posts later this week of my to run or not to run and some of my insane workouts. Also I'll have some details on clinic that I'm going to doing before the cross racing begins. I'll post a race schedule shortly as well, pretty cool stuff on that front as I am being offering start money to race some races in North America. It's not a whole lot of money or anything, but it is pretty cool to have organizers emailing you begging you to come do their race.

I'm trying to get our blog viewer ship back up, so spread the word and give me any ideas of anything you want to hear Derrick or I rant or discuss about.

For now I must go train. Wait a sec, let me rephrase that, I'm going to go train not because I must, but because I would love to.

NCE

WSA

So I know lately our blog has been kind of lame. I haven't really done much with it over the spring as when Natasha was sick, it was really hard to pretend everything was ok. I couldn't really write all these posts saying how everything was good, on the other hand I didn't want to be all doom and gloom.





So the plan is to get things going again as she kicking it up and getting ready to thrash it.


So there should be a lot more updates, anecdotal stories, and twitter updates.





This week was pretty hard for me, came off the Catskills race, then road Lachine, managed to do 5 plus hours in Sterling Thursday, hard computrainer ride Friday, 100 km Saturday, then race yesterday.





I wasn't tops yesterday for sure. Goes back to the 2% rule, you fatigue yourself just a little extra here and there, even just 2%, 3 or 4 times and all of a sudden your down 6%.





It's easy to know, cause yesterday as the race went on I started to come around...unitl the last corner when the only thing that didn't want to come around were the Vittoria's. Great tires, but they are a little temperamental, if they are a little over inflated in the rain, well, it's basically like skating...I should have checked the forecast.





We put Jamie Riggs in the break, and he ended up 4th...just off the podium. I think it's a good step for him, maybe one of the better results in a Quebec race for him? I let him role in the break as he did a great job last weekend rolling tempo, so he got his chance yesterday.





I've been in the break so much over the last few months, I actually forgot how easy it was to sit in the bunch, but the racing was on cusp of negative and I'd rather spend my day in front of the race most of the time.





Near the end though I was able to give some good gas and split off the front with a group , as the race was purely training, we were really hammering coming into the end. It was good to see the character of some of the guys and although we were only going for minor placings, the guys were racing really hard, which in my mind is one of the best ways to learn how to win races, get stronger and try to tear everyones legs off.





So I now this last little bit of a push I'm doing is going to have me going well in September and early in the Cross season. Then I'll be watching the wick on the candle burn til Novemeber.





Here's a shot of Natasha's sisters baby Milo...so cute. We tried to resist holding him, I told Tasha that she could catch Babyitis..but then her sister told her some pretty graphic stories of pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding so I should be good for a couple years. Anyways being an uncle is a pretty sweet gig, and it's more of a part time thing...

DSJ in West St Andrews

back to civilization

Well its been a while, no internet , no cable living in the country can do that to a racer.
I got kid of sick after nationals..ok well not kinda, full on bronchitis. So had to skip Fitchburg. But I was due for some rest so we just tweaked it a little to use it as a mid season break...ah so nice.

We also moved to St Andrews West, which is north of Cornwall, so now we are really Country.
But its great, we love our new home. I don't really know who won the Tour as we were totally disconnected for a while.

I ve bee putting in good training, and I've landed on the podium at OBC, Tour of Quebec, Catskills and finished 4th last night at Lachine all well doing high load quality training. Aurelien (that French Guy) is going pretty well, so its been my job to cover late attacks and bring him to the line. No glory for me coming 4th, but the guy knows how to win races so I figure its good as I ve been able to race so incredibly hard as he has been cracking the whip on me that my form is better than it has ever been this time of year and i'm on track to be even better than I was at Beauce, and that was pretty good. Sometimes you almost have a take half a step backwards to get two steps forward.

I m really impressed by the entire team effort at Catskills...guys great job. Aurelien had the jersey and we rode to a tee. Very pro, on the front tempo all day, I cover dangerous moves and the last 15% of everything and drop him off at the line...it was a beautiful site to see the team riding in unity and just shutting down anything and everything. i have to say that the Devils Kitchen climb was tough, I think a race with circuits doing that climb 2 or 3 times would be the coolest though...either that or you may never want to ride again, ahah.
I did come 3rd in the TT, 4th on stage 1, then 4th in GC, lost 3rd by 1 second. I wasn't really that heart broken as I was riding for Aurelien and we won all the stages, the kom and the race, if I would have been selfish I would have jeopardized that. Just like last nite, I had the legs to win, but that wasn't the plan so...

I really enjoyed Lachine last nite, in the rain, it was fun. Really get to test the skills...

Oh yah...Natasha is back racing and somehow was 3rd on Devil kitchen climb...after only riding her bike for three weeks! She really is something, and I think we will all see her reach her true potential this year in Cross...three weeks of training and she finishes 5th overall in this hard ass race...yah that's all I am gonna say. Glad to once again be part of the Dynamic Duo.

D