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

Not now chief...

Shaun, myelf and Hugo

Not sure if you've ever seen the you tube video for "my new haircut"

parental discretion advised...but when the Broski is in the zone he is in the zone.

I started to write a post in the morning, but it sucked. More whining about this and that, frustrated about circumstances, so I just had a glass of Powerthirst and got on with the day.

Listened to some Bob Marley, chilled, then blasted some Deadmau5 to get it going.

The team layed out the tactic for the day, seemed simple enough. Big field of 125 riders, the course had some element of technicality as there were a series of sweeping turns over roads that had abviously blown up with land mines at some point during the war. There was a sweet 600 meter climb that bit into the legs and some winding roads, then another big ring climb to complete the 15km laps through Hudson. The race was a good 145km, a little onger than the norm, but when you've got serious km's in the legs it's good. The course kind of reminded me of Niagra, but on a slighter escarpment(which was funny enough the first race I ever won as a cat 3).

Anyways race starts off full gas, break goes, Spidertech and RWR at the front to bring it back, Aaron Fillion goes across the gap on the hill (shockingly fast) I'm on it like butter on popcorn, cause Aaron is a freind of mine and although some guys don't give him the respect he deserves, I certainly do.

We hammer it out get almost our whole team in the front group, which is nuts. Get the gap to 90 seconds roll for an hour and a bit, then our team goes to the front strings it out, Shaun from My team attacks, two others follow, I hop on, get a free ride, we get to hill, Shaun goes"lets go" he pushes the pace up the hill, we drop the guys it's just the two of us....

Good and bad, good that's it's just the two of us, bad cause therre is 56km's left...I shut my my brain off...don't think abput the the outcome, think of the process. Ride hard up the hills, and harder everywhere else.

Now we are motoring, all of a sudden it just didn't feel that bad, it stopped hurting, I knew we were going fast, cause well my I bike was reading 47km/hr on the flats...hmmm that's pretty fast, I thought we must have a tailwind, but then it was reading above 43km/hr in a different direction and rarely did it drop below 40km/hr, even after the hill we were able to crank it up pretty fast by keeping it in the big ring.

So we hear the bell, one to go, we really crank it..give it everything cause we had no idea of gaps or anything happening behind. We decided thatI would take it since I was able to do a little bit more of the work, I cross the line smile...then hear "one to go" they made a mistake...pause...

you ever get that sinking feeling, like you just ran over your cat or something? I had some negative thoughts...I thought I can't do another lap at that speed, I just emptied the tank...I thought if we get caught I'm going to take my bike and throw it over cliff, I seriously felt aweful...then I rememebred a few things...one winning hurts, if it's too easy it sucks...two I wanted to win for Tasha, since she has had a shit time lately..three stop thinking, suck it up and just fricking ride.

So we rode one more and you know what I probably could have done one more if you told me I had too. It goes to show that you think your legs can or can't but really it's your mind that tells them and not vice versa, first you control your thoughts then your legs. Thinking is good to a certain point, but just be.

You know we put 2minutes into our teamates then 4 minutes into the field...holy shit.

Our team raced the perfect race, good job boys, I obviously owe them huge cause it was definetly something that stands out in terms of perfomances, think about it. We finished 1,2,3,4 and Aaron Fillion rounded out the 5th money spot.

Maybe the week up in Quebec city did me some goo, a little secret training. Also I would like to thank our manager Chritian Leduc, who does not try to control the team, but rather lets us play the cards, but is wise and when he does give imput it goes a long way.

"La pire chose que tu faire au velo, c'est de trop pensee, quand tu commence a te doubtee tu est fini mon homme."

Hats off to Shaun McCarty as well who rode like a champ, and after the luck we've had lately this one goes a long way for me. I'm sure he wanted to win as well, so we'll have to set him up.

DSJ

Struck by a car, podium places, press conferences and commercials

That about sums up the last week of my life. I did tweet a picture of my face after I was struck by a car on the way to a time trail. I never really likes TTing know I know why...Luckily I managaed to minimize the bodiliy damage, coming away with a busted up nose, a swollwn knee and the general feeling of well being hit by car. There has been a little ongoing pain and discomfort but after seeing what happened recently to multiple cyclists throughout Ontario and Quebec I am not going to whinbe too much about it, cause it could have been worse. Luckily my bike took alot of the impact and the side of my shoe, good thing I had my foot up at the top of the pedal stroke. THe driver was charged as she was clearly in the wrong, but she was remoresfull, it`s just one of those things...

So we raced on the weekend, I was definelty not 100%. But managed to ride ok, our team ended up winning, i squeaked out 3rd on the first day and 2nd overall on the weekend. But it was more out of circumstance than anything else.

Monday morniing we met the press for our team launch and press conference. I managed to give an absolutley horendous interview in french for CBC about car vs bike accidents, I hope no one saw it.

Then we were off to shoot a commercial for LG that will run during the Tour de France. Fortunately or unfortunately you may not see too much of me as the camera guys didn`t want a guy with scabs all over his face in fornt of the lense...who knew. Oh well on to the next chance to be famous.

Originally we were supposed ot be in Quebec till beauce, but circumstances have been complicated and we have to go back to Ontario to fill out insurance forms, get replacement costs of equipment and I need to have a little follow up to make sure I`m pedaling in circles. Shit, I was just having fun being a mini super star in Quebec, on tv, in the paper getting treated like a cchamp at the LG factory. It s a pretty sweet set up, they are even going to do a few custom alterations to our skin suits to make em as fast as possible.

So, on tap this weekend is some racing in MTL and we will head home and I will have to ask our manager if he wants me to do Charlevoix or Killington road race. I won Charlevoix last year, it s an awesome race, but after you win it, it`s like well what else could I do. You have to keep on challenging yourself, you know. If he tells me to do it, I`ll go but it would be fun for a new challenge...so hard to make decisions.

If there is a million spellling mistakes, I appologize this computer has a french windows version and well there you have it.
DSJ

Brossard crit

Well this week was interesting...a little laryngitis on Monday...I 'm still not sure if it was more allergies, but whatever...then a little calf pain Friday, I think my set was just a mm too high, then Saturday I was riding at about 45km hr and was stung by a bee right below the eye. Eesh.

So never a dull moment in C wall.

Round 2 of Quebec Cup racing this weekend for a crit in Brossard. The tactic was simple...attack our brains out and win. Well we didn't want to make the same mistake(s) we made last week and we wanted to get the first win out of the way to make room for more.

We had a new addition to to the team as our Teammates Shaun and James landed from Australia earlier in the week. We let them know that although there was not 10,00$ on the line, the racing level is intense in Quebec that you would swear there was 10,000$ to win the race. Sometimes you can say allot without saying too much.

As we really haven't had that much opportunity to race together, it's a little bit of a learning curve, but JS Perron made sure that we weren't firing all bullets in the first 5minutes.

The pace was high and Garneau Club Chaussures was the main protagonist of the race, initiating , covering and blanketing the race in a sea of white, black and pink.
Our hard work payed off as it cause a split of about 13 guys off the front. We had 3 guys in this move, but so did Speidertech as they had their sprinters contingent there.

We were relentless in our attacks and forced them and the others into chasing and covering.
Hugo , myself and JS were in the red zone countless times. I was able to get off the front and do 6 laps but I could not manage to get more than 7 seconds advantage. I was caught and we kept on reshuffling , attacking and countering until Hugo and Kevin Lacombe slid away.

We were very confident in Hugo and although he would have his work cut out for him, it was a good hand to play. Hugo made us proud and took the sprint.

JS fired a well timed attack a steal the third spot. I covered the last digs as they tried to catch JS and barley missed 4th spot by a few cm's and had to settle for 6th.

When we found out Hugo got it was very satisfying to see the team successfully execute tactics and take two spots on the podium.

As it turns out our Australian teammates took 1st and 2nd in the bunch kick as well, so great day for Garneau Club Chaussures in Brossard. The whole team rode awesome, way to go boys!

As well, Jeff Schiller won the Springbank Road Race in Southern Ontario, good job Jeff and the Ontario Boys.

Blog post

Yah I thought that was an original name. Little race yesterday in St MArtine. Not a bad team effort, we put 3 guys in the break, we should have had it, but it's early, as long as everyone knows that it should have been a no brainer. Such is racing. I was in the chase group, hit it hard with 5km and got that "racing" feeling, ride it like you stole it. Ah yah...Looked at the digits after the matter and "it's good". We've been working on going hard later into training and it's defiantly given me a little more "umph".

I thought I had some allergies or something, but today I think I have a touch of Laryngitis.Ouch! Can't talk, well I can but it's pretty hoarse sounding. It's probably a nice break for everyone around here. SO I been burning the keys on my blackberry and emailing everyone.

Lately I 've been hitting the Elctro beats on the I pod...in Particular Brad Miller's Podcast Push th eNight episode 26, the best track is Lusine, a track called Two Dots, there's also a really good track by Massive Attack. Check it out. If you need something harder check out anything by Gareth Emery or Matt Darey -Nocturnal Sunshine 234/236 Paul Van Dykes VONYC sessions Episode 5 is also great, ok maybe the last one is more techy house, but it's good. That's the one side effect of lots of riding, lots of good tune music. Keep the music fresh keeps the rides fresh. Plus they are all free on itunes, so can't go wrong with that



Ok last thing check this out
http://www.highroadsports.com/images/uploads/media_articles/attachments/151.pdf
I don't usually read a lot of cycling stuff, but I had a lot of down time for once today.

DSJ

Tour of the Batenkill

Alright, now I'm almost in the mood to write a race report. Almost.
Not sure if you know much about this race, but I'll give you the skinny, 200km, UCI 1.2, single day classic, 2 laps of 100 km each through paved roads and gravel/dirt road sections in hills of the Batnkill NY region.

The previous years that I have done this race it has been dry as a bone, a rather hot day for April and loose gravel. The dynamic of this race was a complete paradox to years past, 5 degrees cold, wet windy and the dirt sections were sandy and almost muddy.

My prediction on the day was that the 2nd break of the day would stick and sure as shit it was.
I definitely felt a little rust on the wheels as with the exception of last weeks race, I have just been training really hard and although everything physically seemed good, you just don't really know until you mix it up. I was maybe a little too confident at the start and got behind a split and had to pedal like stink to get back onto the bunch early in the race. After all the goal was a top 5 result. I knew it was going to take a somewhat conservative approach to not burn too many bullets early on for this, but you gotta have a plan and stick with it, otherwise your just riding around with your head cut off.

One of the hardest things was to figure out exactly what to wear, I hate wearing legs to race and a thermal jersey can be downright awful, but so can hypothermia as evidence by Tash's and I hypothermic escapade in Maine during Cross season. So I did undershirt, thick jersey, thin jersey, vest, wool socks, cap, long finger gloves, and about 6 pounds of XXX sauce on my legs for that feeling like you are standing too close to the camp fire.

So about 100 km into the race I got cold, right after they ring the bell, one lap remaining, you mean we have to do the whole thing over...man. Slightly demoralizing. MY teammate JS said at about 101 km in..."you ok", "yah", "I'm cold"...just as he said that my elbows started to lock up and my fingers went numb, the old pins and needles in the arms. The worse part is a break went up the road with 12 guys and I was just a little too far back to get across to it, and it gained 1 minute...so there's a little feeling in the back of my throat thinking...shoot, I missed the break now I gotta roll around in this misery for another 3 hours for 14th place and the race is up the road, great...this is awesome. Good thing I actually remembered that this is actually the moment when a lot of people fade back, cause they think it's over, but you actually have to use this to eat drink and stay at the front cause 30% of the time, the break that "should" work, doesn't.
Funny as the day went on I felt better and better, guess the endurance training is paying off.
I mean I still didn't have a perfect race, my positioning was not the greatest here and there and I payed for it, I saw the winning move of 5guys go up the road and I was too far back and not only that there was a reason it was only 5 guys...
So coming into the last 10 km, we absorbed one guy who fell off, so the group had been whittled down from 170 to about 40 guys, with 5km to go I felt awful so I followed an attack and we almost slipped away, it left me a little gassed for the sprint, but I actually had a good position until the last corner and had to check my speed into the corner as I got chopped and lost some ground, rolled in for 23rd place. Funny how a good time to attck is when you are not well...

Doesn't sound like a stellar result but races like this are a bit of man makers, you gotta have your head screwed on right cause loose focus for more than 1 minute and it over.

I'm happy that I went for it with a few km to go, it's a good move that sometimes work if your fighting for table scraps, as they let you float away. We had a Czech guy Pavel riding with us, when I got caught with 1.5 km to go, I told him to go, but I think he thought I was insane, he rolled in for 15th place I think. This kid is tough though, that's for sure.

It's hard to compare it to last years result which on paper looks similar, but it was completely different, the conditions themselves for enough to make you want to throw your bike in the ditch.
There was definitely a little self talk here and there...good news is the voices are saying push harder...don't stop...it's not really that painful...things like that. That's why training is easy.

Funniest thing..I'm not gonna name names, but there was this guy in the race, he won this race called the Tour de France, lets call him "Loyd".... at about 165 km into race it warm up a little, well relatively, it's still pretty cold. He sits up, takes his vest off, throws it in the ditch, takes his gloves off and throws them in the ditch, as if to say "it's time to start racing"...seriously it wasn't that warm but whatever. I started laughing...man I thought that was funny then I look over at Aaron and I say this is kind of like a really hard group ride...he was covered in mud and had this look on his face as if to say he wasn't really having fun eating mud for 200km's in the rain.
As long as you only remeber the funny parts it doesn't really feel like you suffered that much, it felt really hard yeasterday but as the day goes on, it starts to feel easier and you hope that next time it will hurt even more.

Ahhhh...got love it. So I gotta foot long sub and 3 cookies and called it day.

Time to go ride.
DSJ

Clearance Rockland CLASSIC

Gotta love spring races, cool weather bad roads, lots of gravel. Glen put on a great race today, just South of Ottawa, the conditions were tough, the race was only 90 km, but it's not an easy 90km, let me tell you.

I probably made my day a little tougher than it had to be by performing a new sport I invented...it's called gravel bike skating. I invented this today...what you do is during a race, go hard, get your heart rate high...not max, but about 80%, then go through a gravel corner, take a bad line, change lines through the corner to avoid a pot hole...now here is the tricky part....as you are doing this unclip one foot from the pedal...the right, as you unclip it, skate it along the gravel a good rate of speed, then do a sort of cyclocross dismount while trying to keep the bike up right, smash one knee on the gravel, do not let go of the bike, hit the deck briefly, then do not loose any momentum and run and remount on to you r bike...ok maybe not such a good idea, but it will give you a little bit of a sore knee, some gravel in your butt and sheer the plastic off your cleats.

So that being said, things were gong pretty good, it was a hard race, the local guys include Two thirds of the Nationals podium from last year so...we try to rip each others legs off, pretty much.

We had a nice little break going and Aaron attack with about 20 km to go...we were a little slow to respond, I saw the gap growing to about 20 seconds and I was pretty concerned, as on gravel roads the draft isn't all it's cracked up to be, I told the guys if we had any hope to catch him we had to do it now, just as we went over the next hill, I flatted, so that was my race, I got a wheel a few minutes later, but it was over, I rode to the finish and called it a day.

Funny enough my knee didn't really hurt during the race, but it was pretty stiff after and after I looked at what I did to my cleat, pedal and shorts it all made sense.

I'm not really sure if we would have caught Aaron as he ended up putting 2.5 minutes in the next guys, but I was most surprised to see Casey Roth up in the front group with us. This guy has come a long way in a year, strong as an ox. He ended up finishing fourth on the day, just missing out on the podium, barely. So good on him.

It's a little ironic that I often have a little misfortune in early season Ottawa races, but that's racing. Training gets you prepared physically, but mentally it's just not the same thing.
The thing is the more stock you put into a race, the more disappointed you can become if you don't win. I forgot about that part...I mean have a bad day training, well it's not that bad, no one really knows or sees it, you get over it about 20 minutes after the workout.

Good thing about a blog is you get to jot it down, get it out and then it's over. That's why for every trophy on the shelf there are 6 bibs with would have should have could have's all over them. It's a 6:1 thing.

So my real excuse for not winning today.... I was hurried this morning and I had Tasha pin my numbers to a jersey I left in the car. This was bad as I always put pins in the same direction and put a certain number of pins according to size of the numbers...lesson learned.
DSJ