What is a Snuggie!

So apparently I haven't been home on a weekend to chill out and relax and watch tv and see all the amazing tv commercials of what great things you can buy now a days. Just 5 minutes ago I saw something for a Snuggie. Man these things could probably sell at a cross race :). For those cold races, just wrap yourself up in a snuggie and then your hands are free to still ride your bike. They also would be very convenient at my parents house, as they like to keep the heat really low all winter long.

This week was great. Got to recover from two seriously hard days of racing in Kentucky. If you want to see how hard I went, just go to cyclingdirt.org from the Saturday race and watch at about 40 minutes. See me cross the line and then fall down like a turtle being flipped. What you can't hear on the video is Derrick coming over and telling me to get off the ground. I went so hard I didn't know anything that was going on. Then as I was down on the ground I had like 5 camera's around taking pictures, it was pretty funny. Anyways I have forgotten how hard I went those two days but not by too much as I have put all my efforts into my training this week. It's been going really well and this year I'm trying the complete opposite of what I have done the past 3 seasons for Nationals. Maybe it will work, maybe not, but what ever happens, I just want to been crossing the line saying I couldn't of gone 1 second faster or pushed 1 watt harder.

Kentucky was great prep but my racing was far from perfect. The first day I went ballistic off the start to crash and loose my 5 second lead that I opened up in the first minute of the race. I regained composure, crashed again, but then got a gap on the chase and finished 2nd. 2nd day I doubted myself a little bit and didn't think I could put in a good day again. In the first lap if I had only realized I was riding faster than day 1 maybe things would of went better. The videos don't give me justice cause as I was within 3 seconds of Georgia the announcers thought I was someone else, but no that was me chasing her down. Again some bad luck with not being confident enough on all the work I have put in this year in a short period of time. Even though I was closing on the first place, I became more concerned with what was going on behind, stupid, stupid me. I crashed more times I could count and each time I looked behind more and more until finally a mechanically left me loosing 30 seconds and dropping back to 8th. I picked myself up and ended up almost catching 3rd with 1 lap to go and then bobbled a bit to end up 4th.

How many times I have been mad at myself this week for Sunday's race can be more than one could imagine. Each time my races have been so so this year, I have beat myself up about it. Why am I so hard on myself, considering I was quitting racing in May this year during my illness, I have no idea. In years of past, I don't think I have ever picked apart my races like I do now. Maybe I know that I can do better or I should have more confidence, who knows, maybe I'm just searching for that one perfect race where everything lines up and I am unstoppable!

NCE

Kentucky

Morning,

just getting ready to pull out of Findlay Ohio.

Saturday Tasha was on fire, she claimed her first USGP podium, she got the whole shot, had a 10 second gap , bobbled a bit in the sand, Gould passed her, and she could not match Gould, who would have most likely would have won any race on the planet that day.

I started like...I started like I don't know but it wasn't the best. Anyways, Pit bull to work and plowed through all the way to seventh, fought with Jamey Driscoll of Cannnodale and I hit a post and thought I broke all my ribs, Jones passed me and I finished 9th. I was happy with this this, not hitting the post, but the ride.

Sunday Tasha almost had Georgia, she really went for it, that was the plan, to just give'er. She went so hard she absolutely lost her mind and started riding into stakes, dropping her chain, and just being too frazzled. But hey, she tried her best for three laps to try and catch Georgia, the reports don t give it justice, it was insane to see her so fired up, she just went a little too deep into cave and it cost her a few places.

I had a great start, but just could't relax my upper body as my shoulder was giving me grief and I was grabbing handfulls of brake in the first lap, I was in about 8th, but some sloppy riding and I finished 12th.

The course is awesome, this is the 2013 World's venue, course will be different, but it's gonna be great...Louisville is a great city, wish we could have stayed longer, thanks to our hosts/pit crew/course builders/volunteer/racer Dwayne and his wife Michelle, and former host John R for the additional pit crew, hopefully next time we can bring a mechanic and don t have to leach off you guys.

Ok, Tasha wants to go to Walmart to get a yoga video.

DSJ

2 days in Toronto

So back on this side of the border for some racing in one of our favorite venues in Toronto. We like this race, cause it's kind of home, well closer than most races, this time of year you get some good cross weather, not blistering hot, like 30 degs in Ohio, but not frigidly cold that as soon as your done you have to get out of dodge. It's great to chat with people that we don't get see very often and it's a pretty relaxed setting.

Maybe it was a little too relaxed the first day, as Natasha was a little behind the 8 ball. I'm not going to say that she didn't race well, she raced ok, but it's cross right, you put forth an ok performance you'll get an ok result. She finished 2nd on Saturday. She was forced into racing a different race, racing more defensively, almost scared. Saturday night she looked at me and said, "I'm not racing full out, this is gotta change".

Sunday, she put on her game face and she did her race, man, what a 360. To go from the nail, to the hammer in 24 hrs. I was fired up. I saw her ride in warm up and I knew that the fire was burning, she threw a match on it and I tried to poured the kerosene.

Jon Safka, cycling news photo

She rode awesome. I saw the lines, through the corners, on the off cambers, big steps through the sand, fluidity over the barrier and lots of pain in the pace...perfect.

For myself, Saturday ended up being a little bit of a cluster, crashing all over the place, having barrier tape fly across the course into my gears, almost taking out Alex in the first bike exchange, pushing so hard up the hill that I unclipped a pedal on a 20% gradient...but I struggled, fought back, found composure and put in a solid day.

Sunday was much better, it was a race. I lead most of the race and dictated the pace, put the attacks in and was relentless, I hammered over the hill through the drop off and bobbled, causing Davide to attack and could not match his acceleration after this. But I know it was a race, yah I went so hard that I forced my error, but eventually it would have been him who would have dabbed and I would have done a similar thing...

But it was 56 minutes of pain...today I know I raced when I woke up. Sometimes after a so so race on Sunday, I think I can't wait to better the performance next Saturday, today I thought, holly shit, it's gonna take me at least 48 hours to physically recover from this effort and probably 5 days to recover from the effort mentally, good news is that should work out just fine. This is what I wanted, this is what I got, there is no doubt in my body and mind that once I recover I am better and stronger than before.
Jon Safka, cycling news photo


So funny that on paper, 2nd place both days looks the same, but it's like the difference between Ultegra and Dura Ace, they look the same, but clearly not the same.

Strong Belgian Ale Beer Label

So here it is, the beer label. It's probably the coolest thing I've ever had the opportunity to be involved with as far as bike racing goes.

A friend of the photographer (Chip) facebooked me Friday evening and I was able to meet both Chip and Rob on Saturday before my race in Gloucester. All the credit for the photo goes to Rob Bauer. Check out all his photo's at http://doublehop.blogspot.com, he takes some pretty awesome shots.

The beer is a limited edition brewed by John Harvard's Brew House (http://www.johnharvards.com/index.shtml). It's a small chain restaurant with locations in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. There will only be 10 bottles or so of it made, mainly for the upcoming race tomorrow night in Shrewsbury, Ma. It's called The Night Weasels Cometh. If your interested in the race you can go to check it out. I think online registration is over, but they do take day of registration. http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11740

I am fortunate enough to get one of the beers and it will be saved for my Dad and brother in law. I might hold a bidding war between them to see if they can pay for my trip to Europe this winter!

Thanks to everyone involved to make this happen as well as special thanks to Steen Sawyer, the General Manager at John Harvard's Brew House. I'm truly honored that you chose me to be a part of this.

NCE

Gloucester Day 1 and 2

So, we are back home again. Got in late (1:30 am), but not feeling that rough today. Mandatory day off should be good to get things organized in the house again, lots of bike cleaning for Derrick and house cleaning and groceries for me.

Thought I write a little race report on day 1 and 2 of Gloucester of how things were shaping up. It was absolutely awesome. Day 1, like Derrick said shifting problems off the start, a little bit of no race sharpness left me digging deep in the first lap or 2. But I made it to the front group only to be dumb enough to stay on the back of it and keep getting popped off and then crash and pop off again. I saw myself trying to pass in the wrong sections and just getting boxed out and losing all momentum. My race sharpness was awful. Then I rolled a tubular but fortunately right before the pits and ran in grabbed my bike from Alex Sanna (are awesome pit supporter for the weekend) and came out probably in 20th as it was 2 laps into the race and still all together. Then it happened. I just got all this fire, and moved through the field. The months of suffering and being sick and thinking I couldn't ever be where I was before all became a distant memory. Sure enough I never made it to the front 2 but I got with 4 seconds on 1 to go. It was so close and the crowd was going crazy for me. In my mind it was like I was winning the race.

I ended up 3rd and the congrats I got after the race from the announcers and people I knew and people I didn't was amazing. If they only knew what kind of things happened to me in the last year and that in May I said I would never race my bike again.

The race was also a valuable lesson of how you can be going terrible in race for the first few laps and have everything go wrong and still come back from it. When I was in 2oth or so, I didn't think for a second it was over, I just put my head down and tried to do the best I could do from then on out, hammered the off camber straight aways, jumped out of the corners, came in with speed and exited with speed, I rode every section the way I wanted to. Here's me in the hunt for the 2 leaders:

These are the kinds of lessons that pay off huge when you race on an even bigger scale in Europe and at the World Cups.

Day 2, I wanted it and I tried, but again, not a great start and I was fighting to be on the tail end of the lead group again. I thought I was having trouble with the run up, but then after watching a video learnt it was the line I was taking, the long road which was also looser dirt and harder to get traction. I never got to lead the one section I wanted to, from the run up to the barriers and fast down towards the pits. So, then I tried attacking early, a little too early, another tactical error. I got a gap twice only to get reeled in as I never got out of sight enough. Then of course the 3rd attack done by Meridith was the one that went. There were certain sections that I was not riding well hanging in a group as I would come in with lots of momentum in the corners only to fly up into the wheel of the rider in front of me and scrub all my speed for exiting the corner. I needed to lead it but just didn't pick the right times or spots to go. I was in a fight for 2nd but couldn't get to the front of the group of 3 and was closing gaps for the last lap or 2. Ended up 4th, which I seem to racking a lot of these places up this year. I'm sure Saturday's efforts paid there toll on me a bit, but I still gave it a go on Sunday and fought hard and tried to get away.

Derrick came in 11th day 2 and although he raced much better, he still ended up having a better placing in the first day. It's crazy how that happens, but he was happy with his efforts for the day. Both in the men's and women's fields it is so close at the top, that a couple people have a bad first day and then come on strong the second and vice versa. The results can change day to day and it's all about having a day when you feel good as well as a little luck and riding the right lines. It's also becoming a lot more tactical on dry fast courses. The women's racing is progressing and for us to race in more of a pack than the men's race is awesome to see. That doesn't happen too often in women's racing, but let me tell you it makes it way harder to ride your lines and you have to fight for it every step of the way to not let someone pass you. I think we spend more time in the lead group taking each other out than anything.

So I'll take the 3rd and 4th from this weekend and remember the long term goals and go from there. I'm coaching myself right now and I know the work I've done and what is planned over the next few months. It's kind of a cool feeling to really understand what the real point is of your training and where it is going. I also have been trying different days off during the week (there is always one day off every week) and just seeing how my body reacts to them. I'm experimenting this year, sure I'd love to have a coach, but for right now I didn't want to commit myself to a strict plan until I knew how my body would recover and react after almost a year of being ill.

So to some it up, great weekend. Gloucester always feels like home and I always get treated well there by the organizers. We had awesome host housing offered to us last minute as a few changes were made and everything worked out great. The races this weekend brought out some great competition with some of the best roadies and mountain bikers from North America. I knew tactically the races were going to be super hard with a former US national road champion and Laura VG with more career wins than probably the field added up together.

You can check out the videos from this weekend on cyclingdirt.org. Colt does an awesome job with everything. I think he keeps on interviewing Derrick and I to keep the Canadian viewership high. Let me know what you think to them. It's fun to do them and I guess you hope people like them and see your personality but don't judge you too much. I'm sure people are going to get sick of watching me or hearing me say after every race it was a "great race". I guess that's what you say though if you are just so happy to be out on your bike again. I can't seem to wipe the smile off of my face. I just need to grit the teeth a little more on the starts and not let people in!

Thanks for all the people cheering for us this weekend, and all the post race congrats, it was awesome and truly meant a lot to me! Also to all our sponsors and supporters (everyone at the Garneau factory), Alex Sanna (http://www.soigneurraceservices.com/index.php), and friends and family.

Got to go, Derrick just mooned me from the window outside as he is cleaning bikes. Ha, ha, we may be tired but it's nice to see him having fun cleaning the bikes, until later tonight when he is on the couch at 8pm sleeping with slobber coming out of his mouth.

NCE

Gloucester day 1

Hey

Quick little update. Traveled to Gloucester yesterday, arrived in a timely way..then started to ride the trainer...Tash said "let's go to the course"..so we rode to the course...she flatted, I rode the flat 20km in the pouring rain and it was completely dark. Oh well, it's all about perspective...

Tasha had crazy amounts of bad luck today, a shifter problem on the start line, then a a bad start, then rolled a tire, then ran to the pit, then managed to get up to third. She put in a great ride! got way too excited and half assed my warm up, so I was a little off the pace at the start.

I had a small little crash that cost me a bit and shook me up a bit as I went over my bars, but it's ok. It wasn't the best ride, in the top ten, but I kind of shut it down and I plan on going well tomorrow...picked up 40 $ in cash through the barriers, 20$ on the ground and 20$ out of a lady's mouth...gotta make a living eh?

So other than that...Tasha is gonna have her picture on a brand of beer, limited edition for Cross season...wicked, free beer, wooohooo!

Other than that, great weather today, I love it here, it's so nice, the Ocean, the atmosphere, the race, love it. Nice sun shine.

Oh yah check out www.cyclingdirt.org we are going to have a funny post race interview.

Ok...relax time.

DSJ