Stuart Wight

NEW WEBSITE

2010-03-30T04:16:00.001-03:00

Hey everyone, as some of you may know I've been working on making a new website for my race reports, with a couple of extra pages and just an overall better look. Well, after a long time in the making, it's finally done! This means this blog will no longer be updated. Fear not, race reports will still be written every (okay, most) Monday morning and posted at www.stuartwight.com, so please head on over and have a look. If there is something you would like to see more or less of, or some sort of request, please let me know and I can see what I can do. Thanks!

So close yet so far

2010-03-29T03:55:00.002-03:00

Yesterday we were in the beautiful area of Pontorson, which is very close to the famous Mt. Saint Michel. It was not a super nice day, raining on and off, but not too cold either, so I couldn't complain. This course was pretty much the essence of euro racing at its finest, tiny roads, amazingly strong crosswinds (somehow the wind was against you the whole lap, figure that one out!), rain, mud, and smelly farmer's fields. Throw almost 150 crazy cyclists on there, including a former world champion, and it makes for some exciting racing. After only a couple of kilometers we got onto this road with a huge crosswind, it was literally throwing me off the ground. At this point it was all out battle to get into the echelon that was soon to break the field to shreds. It wasn't easy to hold position, but with some elbows, headbutts, yelling, wheel touching, and other nonsense, I managed to stay up at the front and make the split that happened just as quickly as everyone expected. Now we were about 40 riders probably, maybe a bit more but not too much, and the race was very controlled for the next little while. With the wind, it was impossible to stay away in a small group, after not much time at all you would look back and find a colorful sea of riders coming up behind. With that in mind, I tried my best to stay hidden from the wind, but also stay away from the crashes that were happening due to the thick mud on the small farming roads. Not a whole lot of action went on, but I was quite content with that, as for some reason my legs were not feeling quite as primed and ready as in the previous races. I felt like I could keep this moderately painful pace for as long as I needed to, but that once all hell started breaking loose, that I was going to struggle. I shoved bars, gels, and water down to try to get some energy, but still didn't quite have that jump that was there the last few weeks.

With about 50km to go things were starting to heat up again, with positioning being very key on the many sections of crosswind. I was riding as far over to the left as I could, with the wind coming from the right, so as far as energy saving was concerned, I was perfect. The only problem was I was riding literally inches from the biggest ditch I have ever seen, and being in the perfect position means you need to defend in with your life. It's more than a little claustrophobic being in these situations, but it's important to just relax and things will turn out fine. Or at least, most of the time. Somewhere towards the middle of the echelon two people touched wheels, neither crashed but they both twitched towards the outside, which sent a nice wave of twitches across the whole group. That's great when you've got 20 feet of pavement to move onto, but when there is a hole that likely leads to China inches from your tires, things aren't so wonderful! As the guy next to me came over into my space I remember thinking, okay, this is it, probably looking at a couple broken bones, front wheel is definitely toast, hopefully won't hit my face too hard, etc. It's funny how time slows to a halt when you are about to go through something catastrophic, but at least it gives you some funny memories of what you were thinking before going headfirst into a ditch. Then, just as my wheel entered the grass, call it an act of God, stroke of luck, good time, superb bike handling skills, whatever, but the ditch filled itself with dirt just for me to pass over. We were passing the entrance of a farmer's field, and this was the "driveway" he must have used for his tractors. Upon realizing I wasn't dead, and in fact still on my bike, I had a new situation: the fence that was playing a cruel game of chicken with me, and didn't seem like it had any intention of moving. With that, I hauled my bike parallel to the road, only on the wrong side of the ditch, and continued along cyclocross style losing time to the group, but at least still on my bike. I remembered watching the famous stage 9 of the 2003 Tour de France where Lance Armstrong took a shortcut across a field to avoid Joseba Beloki's crash in the mountains. With that, I swung a leg over my saddle, unclipped and vaulted over the ditch, not nearly as gracefully as I'm making it sound! I hopped back on the bike and rode back up to the pack. Whew, that was enough excitement for one day!

So, back to the race, again, no breakaways were able to stay away for long, but with about 20km to go, I knew I had to get away to have any hope of winning. I jumped away from the group on the one small climb of the circuit, and got a good gap quickly. It was horrible out there along by I knew it was my only shot, judging by the numbers I have been putting out in sprints lately (not so high!). I took a quick look back and saw the group had shattered, but about 8 riders were coming up to me. I sat up, took a drink, and jumped on with them as they whizzed by. This one looked like it would go the distance, as it was as big as any other group on the road. Looking back it was absolute chaos, with small groups of riders everywhere. We worked together for a little, but everyone was also trying to soft pedal to save themselves. Again, I knew my only chances were to get away, hopefully solo. With 5km to, on top of the same hill I jumped hard, not even looking back to see if anyone came. I just put my head down and hammered. After a bit I took a quick look, and while I was alone for the moment, one rider was coming across the gap quick. I tried to keep him off my wheel, but with about 2km to go he latched on. At this point he wasn't going to take his turn in the wind, and despite my yelling he didn't move. Knowing this guy had a background in track, I was pretty sure he could take me in a sprint, especially with me leading it out, so I jumped again, and again, with less and less power in my screaming legs. Every time he just glued himself to my wheel, and then finally came around me in the sprint. I managed to come back a little in the last 40 meters or so, but he still took the win, by a couple centimeters I think. The guy at the photo finish said it was pretty close.

In any case, he was strong all day and got a well deserved win, I just wish I could put my hands up after a race, this whole second and third place is starting to get to me! I do have to keep the big picture in mind though, and remember it's only March. The big races are still to come. After reviewing the whole race in my head, I am pleased with how it went, I raced smart and made the right moves, just couldn't quite finish it off. I think this will motivate me for the biggest of the races I'll do here in France though, and that's a National level Junior race next weekend. Maybe there I will get to take one step higher on the podium!

Grand Prix d'Yquelon

2010-03-22T03:42:00.002-03:00

Yet another beautiful day for racing here in Normandie yesterday, waking up we were greeted to the sound of birds chirping and a nice blue sky for the first day of spring. Although, naturally, the winds were still high and would likely be a big factor in the Grand Prix d'Yquelon. This race was a 1st category, so basically the highest you can go for amateur racing, and there are some pros thrown into the mix as well. Usually I race 2nd category, but since there were no other races going on in the region, I figured I'd have a go with the big guns and have some fun. Let me just start by saying there is certainly a notable increase in talent in the field, everyone seems to know what they're doing and are capable of making you wish there was a cat 2 race going on!

So by having a quick look at the race bible before the start, it looked like we would be doing a 40km loop, then 16 5km circuits to finish up on. Traditionally, the circuits are always extremely tough in Europe, partly because of the organizer's cruel sense of humor, and partly because there are 120-150 guys who want to kill you. Either way, it makes for lots of suffering, but really good racing when you finally get into the finishing town. With this knowledge, and judging by the really fast pace we set in the first 40km (pretty sure we averaged at least 50km/h), I was pretty convinced the big break that was a little ahead was going to come back on the circuits, so I waited patiently in the shelter of the pack. One thing I noticed right away is how much harder it is to hold a good position in these races, you can't get distracted for a second or 50 guys will go blowing past you and you'll find yourself looking about a kilometer up the road and seeing the front of the pack...not somewhere you want to be!

After what seemed like no time at all we were entering the circuits. This is always a deceptive time of the race, as you think you're almost done. You're getting ready to jettison your still full water bottles to kids in the crowd to lighten up, making sure you've got the jersey zipped up in case of a possible win, and everything else you might do as the race winds down to the end...but then you realize there is still 80km of horrible, painful suffering! Who came up with the idea for this?! Anyway, this circuit was no exception to the general trend of brutally tough laps, with a stiff headwind to start off, then some good road furniture to wreak havoc on the pack, a few chicanes, some good climbing, and then a tight 130 degree turn before a 400m kicker of a climb before the finish. This meant for a lot of accelerations, making it inevitable that the pack was going to split. I got towards the front as quick as possible, because it was clear that people were going to start letting gaps open and there would be groups forming left and right. Thankfully, shortly after I made my way into the first quarter of the pack, there was a big split, and I was on the good end of it. Now we were about 25 guys, and rolling along pretty good, bringing the 30 odd leaders back. When they were at about 30 seconds, with 30-35km to go, things looked really good for it all coming back together. There was a guy who jumped to try to get across the gap on his own, and he was joined by one or two more, but I didn't think it would be smart to waste energy bridging a gap with a small group, since it seemed pretty certain the whole group was going to make it. I sat tight where I was. This proved to be a mistake. Shortly after the trio of riders from our group got out of site, things started to go wrong in our group. It seemed everyone wanted to solo across to the break, instead of just keeping the rhythm we had and everyone making it. This resulted in a bunch of people attacking, then everyone chasing them down and coming to a grinding stop, before another person would jump and we would repeat the process again! Needless to say, this did nothing to bring the gap down to the break. We were so close, but then didn't finish it off.

So, with 15km to go I was contemplating what to do. I toyed with the idea of having one last kick at the can, trying to get up to the break, which was at about a minute. I'm not sure what motivated me to do this, maybe the thought of burning a few extra calories, a good 20 minute power profile, or just to see if I could make up that time over this field, but in the end I decided to stick my nose in the wind and have a go at it. Over the climb that leads to the finish, I attacked into the headwind with 15km to go. I got a good gap and then just set into time trial mode. It was at this point where I was kicking myself for not going across with the group of 3, when the gap was half the size, but it's easy to say that looking back on the situation. In any case, I could see what appeared to be the tail end of the break swooping around a corner not too far up the road, and I thought I could make it in time. The only problem is when I got close enough to see then before disappearing into the corner, what I thought was the tail end was actually the whole group. The break had split into 3, and this was the trailing edge of that original break. So, although I did get across the gap, the race was long gone, so I spun along with these guys for the remaining couple of kilometers and called it a day. I think I finished 34th or something, and being the only Junior in the race was recognized for the "top junior" category that they usually have at these races. So, all in all it was a good day at the office, learned a lot racing with this many talented riders, and had a good time doing it. Next week is back down with in the category I usually race, so we'll see how I do in that after yesterday. Then on April 4th I have a national level junior race which consists of a time trial in the morning and a road race in the afternoon. I can't wait to see how I stack up against some of the guys I'll be seeing later in the spring at the bigger races. Thanks for tuning in!

GP Baranton

2010-03-15T03:45:00.003-03:00

I think spring is finally here in Flers. This morning I woke up to the sound of birds chirping, and yesterday was my first day wearing regular, short finger gloves as apposed to lobster claws! (Okay, I didn't really need lobster claws before). I must say, this change in weather has made me one happy guy though, and the racing this week has been going well too.

As the title suggests, we were at the GP Baranton yesterday, which is a town not far from Flers. The course for this race is somewhat deceptive, it doesn't look that tough, but there is also really nowhere to recover, and it sucks the life out of you. As warned by everyone I talked to, it wears you down and by the end it's only the strong guys who can do anything. With this knowledge, I figured the first half of the race I should try to conserve as much as I could. On top of that, I was going into this one with a tough week of training behind me, so the legs were a little flat. They weren't horrible, but did take a little while to get firing on all cylinders. Basically, the combination of trying to conserve energy early, and not having much energy early, meant I watched a big break roll up the road and didn't join them. I knew I would have suffered a lot the whole day by joining them, and if this meant I missed the winning move, that wasn't that big of a deal. Instead, I hung out in the pack trying, somewhat in vain, to stay sheltered.

After a while, the legs started to come around, but at this point the group was well up the road. It didn't look to good to get across to them, but then another large group got the ball rolling. I bought a ticket and boarded the train, quickly distancing ourselves from the rest of the pack. We were cruising, and I could tell from the excitement of everyone in the crowd that this was a good move. Pretty quickly we saw the original escapees in the distance, and a while later we merged into one huge breakaway. I'm not really sure what you would call it actually, since it was almost as big as the main pack! That didn't last too long though, as with only 40km left to race, nobody wanted to sit tight in a "break" of 40-50 guys! Attacks were coming left and right, groups forming, riders cracking: it was complete carnage! It was a big mess of confusion and almost impossible to keep track of what was going on! When things settled down a little and I was able to figure out what had formed, I found myself in the biggest of 4 groups that formed out of the break. There were 2 small groups of 3 guys each in front, then us, and then some stragglers. Soon enough, the 2 groups in front merged, and it was looking good for them. In fact, with a lap to go, I was certain this group was the good one, and not so certain anyone was going to jump across the gap. I decided I might as well try though, so with a last minute kick I jumped out of my group and started to make up some ground. With about 5km to go, I caught on to the leaders, but at this point one of them had gotten off the front, with two of his teammates sitting on the back, and the other three just looking at each other. I was cooked too, and knew we were racing for 2nd at that point. We all still gave a few punches, trying to jump across to the leader, but I think it was more for pride than anything, nobody had any juice left. In the sprint I managed to get 2nd, so that put me in 3rd overall, and best junior. All in all I was really happy with how it went, and can't wait to race again next week!

Lisieux

2010-03-08T05:53:00.002-04:00

For yesterday's race we were met with much clearer skies, a little less wind, and even a touch warmer weather, but not much! In any case, it was much more appealing to wake up to and made it far easier to get excited for my second race here in France. This time there were not quite as many riders, but still close to a hundred, and the course seemed very tough. It rode through town for a couple kilometers, and then climbed out of the valley that Lisieux finds itself in for the next 2-3km. This isn't a super steep climb, but throw in a strong headwind and it takes it's toll.

As told by coach Luc, I was to sit in the pack for at least the first little while and work on moving back and forth through the crowded city streets, skills that will come in very handy in a field of 200 juniors through the streets of Italy for the world championships! So, although there were moves going left and right, I steadily worked my way around the peleton, and learned a few tricks for getting moving up.

After a lap of doing this though, it was time to start racing, and with a lead group already well established, I had some catch up to do! Going through town I attacked out of the group and got a gap. Unfortunately, nobody came with me to share the time in the wind, but I was confident I could get across the gap solo, and I set out to do so. I did the climb at a pretty good tempo, never going too far into the red zone, and gradually the gap to the leaders came down. After a pretty solid effort, I was in the group of 6, with a gap of a couple minutes on the pack. We worked well together for the first while, but there were a few who disrupted the rhythm due to fatigue, which made it tough to keep our speed up. With about 40km left we were joined by another group of 8 or 9 riders, and this really messed up the rhythm. Since the race was drawing to an end everyone wanted to hide themselves from the strong wind, and people started skipping pulls left and right. We did however still have a good lead on the pack, so things were still looking good for the finish. The other problem with the new, larger group was that it now contained 4 or 5 teammates. It's awesome to be in a group containing 30% teammates, but only if you're wearing the same jersey as them, and since I'm flying solo in France, this was not a good sign for me! About 20km out the attacks started coming from ES Livarot quartet, and this splintered the group. After the KOM one of the stronger looking riders from this team attacked and got a decent lead on his own. There was a very strong headwind though, and with 15km to go it would be tough to go it alone, so I waited patiently. However, when one of his teammates started bridging and looked like he would make it, I knew it was time to go. I jumped hard out of the group and time trialed up to the duo. Upon catching them I rode past, trying to see who was the stronger one. It was clear that the original escapee filled that role, as he was the only one who could come across to me. I tried to get him to pull through, but he wouldn't have it, and his teammate caught back on.

Knowing I was in a horrible situation, I tried what I could do get rid of the weaker of the two, but they would always come back. Then they started taking their shots at me one at a time. This is probably the worst feeling you could ever experience in cycling. You are in the winning move, but you're alone and there are two guys both working to make you as miserable as possible! I was able to bring them back each time, but all the time I spent chasing, the other spent resting in my draft. When the final 500m kick came, the weaker of the two teammates launched the sprint, and left me and the other guy to duke it out. It looked close for a while, but he edged past me to take the win. I was bummed I couldn't get my first win of the season, but I did pick up the king of the mountains competition and was really pleased with how I felt the whole race. Don't quite have the legs to sprint at this time of the year, but I would be worried if I did. It's far too early to be in peak form, so I'm happy to be right where I am! Thanks for reading!

Ma vie en France

2010-03-01T03:59:00.002-04:00

Well it's been almost a week since I got here in France, and race one is already done. It took a little while to settle in to the different culture here, but now that I have things are going great. I'm still feeling the jet lag from spending two nights and two days in airports and planes, but it's starting to wear off and hopefully soon my legs will stop feeling like they have lead weights in them!

There are a few things about the French culture that are going to take some getting used to. For instance, whenever you enter a group setting or see someone you know, you have to shake their hands. Seems logical enough, but when there is a big group it can sometimes take a while! Meals here are also a lot more formal. Lunch and dinner are both 4 course meals, which, although took a bit of getting used to, is kind of nice. Other than that things are just smaller in Europe than at home and far more efficient.

So, on to the racing. Yesterday was the first race of the season here in Normandie in a place called St. Hillaire. The cut off for registration was 180 riders...for a regional race! On top of that, it filled up over a week before race day! The night before as I was getting all my clothes packed I heard on the radio that there would be a rediculous amount of rain, 120km/h winds and possibly hail. Oh boy, I thought, quickly putting the winter riding jacket I brought into my bag! Waking up yesterday morning to the sound of wind and rain confirmed the weather report, it was going to be a day for the hard men! Nonetheless, we packed the car up, put every stitch of clothing on and headed off to the race.

On the short drive there we saw numerous fallen trees and puddles the size of lakes! But still, upon arrival at the race there were riders getting their numbers pinned and legs oiled up with hot balm, the race was going to happen. I too got chamoised up and ready to roll, but it seemed I had far more clothes on than anyone else. These euro guys are tough, that's for sure! I stood on the start line shivering none stop with thermal jerseys, knee warmers, and a toque on, while others around me had nothing but shorts and jersey, with the odd pair of arm warmers and they seemed fine.

Anyway, the race started and there were a few groups go up the road early on. I got in one of them but nothing seemed to be sticking. Then finally one did seem like it would stick, but I missed it. Darn! Oh well, pretty soon thereafter me and another guy in a purple kit started a bridge attempt. We made up a lot of ground which was impressive in all the wind, but when we were about 150 meters back, he sat up. I couldn't believe it! When it was just me battling a head wind upwards of 100km/h, things didn't go so well! The group pulled away and left me to sit up and wait for the pack. No big deal though, still lots of racing left. After trying to recover a bit, which was tough on the hilly/windy course, I made my way back to the front for bridge attempt number two. I attacked on a steep climb and took a few riders with me, then two more small groups joined us and we got the train rolling. I think we were about 12-15 riders strong, and at the start it was going really good. We made up a fair amount of time on the 15 or so leaders in the first 10 or 20km of our attempt. This race was very short though, only 60 odd kms, and time was running out. With about 10km to go the group was fallin apart and it was clear that people were getting tired. Just then, someone attacked and shattered everything. I went with him, as did two others. We hammered, and I mean hammered to the finish and sprinted it out for about 16th spot. I had no legs for the sprint, and only managed to get the better of one guy, taking 3rd. I think that would put me in about 18th spot, but I'm not 100% certain.

After the race my body was so cold I didn't even know what to think. I started laughing at how misserable that race had just been. I had eaten about a pound of road dirt, my face and body were covered in all kinds of various junk, and I couldn't feel my hands or feet. But, as they say here in France, c'est la vie! I got changed and made my way to the cafe to warm up a bit, relatively pleased with my race and looking forward to the next week's edition.

Tucson - finishing up

2010-02-20T19:57:00.002-04:00

Well, that went by pretty quick! Our time here at the National Team camp in Tucson has come to an end, but what a finish it had! Since my last post I have ridden up Mt. Lemmon, a 45km climb, two days in a row, and participated in a world famous group ride called the shootout.

The Mt. Lemmon rides were pretty sweet, the first day Dave Boily and I went off and did it on our own while the others hit the coffee shop up for some recovery spinning. We made it about 35km up, but the 3 feet of snow was making us cold and we decided to go back down. The next day we had a follow car with the whole group though, so we could put some more clothes on as we climbed higher. For this climb everyone seemed to want to work a little harder than the past days, so it was certainly a good workout! We started riding at a good tempo,and sped up as the minutes ticked by. After about 25km it was apparanty time to make some selections, and the pulls on the front seemed to get harder and harder. After 30 km the group broke apart into single riders and groups of 2-3. A group of 3 went off the front and got about a couple hundred meters on the rest of the group. After watching them dangle for a while Spence, Antoine and I started a bridge attempt. Quickly our group broke apart and I tried going it solo. I clawed back a lot of ground on the three leaders, but then it stared descending before kicking up to the summit, and then they all just pulled away with me spinning a junior gear. Either way, it was a great workout and I was really happy about where my fitness was.

So today was the really epic day. Some of us decided to hit up the local "shootout" ride. This is a ride that starts with 150 people and rolls through town. Once out of town, it turns into the world championships! This is a crazy ride, with echelons going across both lanes, on open roads! There are mountain bikes, tt bikes, and plenty of super chopping for position. Throw in a rediculous amount of wind today, and an appearance from the legendary Gray Wolf. For those of you who might be skepticle about the legend known as the Gray Wolf, please follow this link for a good laugh! So after he ducked out, the racing started and it was hammer down until the end. Like I said, there was a lot of wind which made for echelons...echelons that took up both lanes of traffic on open roads! After hammering away for about an hour and a half we climbed over a hill that is apparantly the finish, and then it went back to being pretty chill for a bit. Then, racing started again going over Maduro Pass, which is a long false flat section with a steep kicker at the end. So, all in all this is just a big group ride where everyone attacks the hell out of each other and would kill you to take the win, but I think it's something every rider should do before they die, at least once! Thrown a rediculous blinding rain storm into the mix on the ride home and it made for a very epic day on the bike.

After such a great time it is going to be tough to leave, but I'm also looking forward to racing in France. So the next two days are going to be horrible, staying at airports and sleeping on planes, but on Tuesday I'll be in France. Thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted on the racing in euroland!

More from Tucson

2010-02-17T09:57:00.003-04:00

So we're about halfway through the National Team training camp here in Tucson and everything is going great. The first couple rides were just nice and easy, long miles to make sure everyone got their legs back without causing any injuries. It's tough to go easy when you've been trapped riding in a basement all winter and finally get out to the nice open roads, but the smart thing to do is take it easy and build up as the camp goes on, so that's about where we're at now. Rides are starting to get a bit more intense, still not hard by any means, but I think they will gradually become more and more so. We've been putting in long hours on the bike though, so after each day everyone is pretty tired. It's amazing how hot it is here too, which makes it tough to stay hydrated, but it's certainly good for the morale to be riding in shorts and jersey!

Other than riding we've also been really busy with team meetings, recovery sessions, ice baths, and watching Canada kick but in the Olympics! Yesterday we had a surprise visit from the United States Anti-Doping Association for a wonderful 6am random test. After all the sippy cups of pee going around that room, my point of view has really changed about the cleanliness of hotel rooms!

So that's really all the excitement going on. Today I have another 3-4 hour ride in the plans, but I think a lot of the guys are doing recovery rides today, so I may be flying solo for today, we'll see. Thanks for reading!

Tucson - Day 1

2010-02-14T10:19:00.002-04:00

Well, all the frustrations of getting here seem to be worth it, riding is absolutely awesome! Yesterday was my first ride and it is unbelievable here. We did a bit of an out and back loop that took us over Gates Pass twice, which is a fairly short, gradual climb, but could certainly be a lot harder than we rode it at. It was cool enough to start the ride in legs warmers and a long sleeve jersey, but after an hour or so most people were down to shorts and jersey. The views are also really quite awesome, riding right beside cactuses on the side of the road, and these huge, moon-like mountains in the background. I'll try to remember my camera on today's ride and get some shots of it all.

For my first day after all the travelling I felt pretty good, and this morning I'm feeling great after an ice bath by the pool, and some good stretching last night. Today is discipline specific training, so the mountain bike guys are hitting the trail while us roadies go out for about 3 hours on the road. Should be a good time!

Tucson - Finally Here!

2010-02-13T09:36:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of days trying to get here to Tucson, but I think everything is sorted out now. So, all the fun got going on Tuesday afternoon, when I get this call from American Airlines saying that one of my flights is cancelled to due weather, and to call them to redirect it. Okay, no problem, so I give them a call. 3 hours later I have made no progress and now the lady is asking if it would be okay if they just call me withing 24 hours to see what they have worked out. Since I needed to leave in about 16 hours, that was not going to work, so I gave up with them and called US Airways, which is who I was starting my trip with, finishing with AA. After about 20 minutes on the phone with them, they had me on an American Airlines flight that would get me to Tucson Thursday evening. Still not sure why AA couldn't figure that one out, but those frustrations are long forgoten now.

Okay, so things are great, Wednesday morning dad and I drive to Bangor, and my flight is scheduled to leave at 6:00 the next morning. We do some shopping, get to sleep early, and head to the airport. Everything is cancelled. Everything. I guess the whole eastern seaboard is just shut down due to a huge snow storm, so even if I got out of Bangor, I would be stuck in New York right now living like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Anyway, the guy at the US Air desk was really good, and after a lot of trying he got me a flight from Moncton the next day. So, we drive back to Moncton, with nothing to show but a new camera that I now had to pay duty on. Oh well, at this point I just wanted to get to Tucson!

So, yesterday was my flight and everything was going smoothly. I had a couple of tight connections, but made it everywhere I needed to be. The plane touches down in Tucson and I think to myself that I just can't wait to get on the bike. I get to the baggage claim and wait. Slowly people start to leave with all their stuff, and still nothing for me. I wait, and wait, and wait, until finally everyone is gone, and the conveyor belt stops moving. I realize my bags are not coming. So, I go ask the lady at US Airways customer service and she assures me they will be at the hotel within a couple hours. Great, maybe I will get a ride in today, I think. So at the hotel I meet up with everyone else and we have our first few meetings. It seems like a really awesome group of people and I'm sure we're going to have a great time this week. The hotel is great and the weather is sweet too! So, that's the promising part and I think it's going to be a great time, but now back to the saga of the lost bags. So I wait until after we eat dinner and then start to wonder about my bags. I try calling US Airways but they say the number has been disconnected, and there is nothing on their website that can help me. Basically, there was nothing I could do, so I went to bed wondering if I would ever get a ride in this trip.

Finally, things started to look up this morning though. I woke up early to see about finding a way to contact US Air, but when I checked the front desk they were there. The lady said they arrived at 2:00am. Anyway, I was pumped that they were finally here and that I will finally be able to ride today. So, that's about all the news at the moment, now it's time to build a bike! Stay tuned for more on the days to come.

2010 is just around the corner!

2010-01-11T18:47:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post, but in that time there has been a lot of exciting things going on, so I think it's time to write a post and get you all up to date!

It seems like just the other day I had my last race in Halifax, NS, which was the Atlantic Cross championships. I ended up in 3rd in that one, which was fine, that was really just a fun way to end the season for me.

Since then I have spent far too many hours sitting on my rollers in the basement, staring at a wall and dreaming of the days of warm weather, hard racing, and new cultures, but it's going by quickly and soon those times will be upon me. On the training front, I feel like things are progressing very well. I have all kinds of motivation almost every ride, which is impressive comsidering the monotony of riding in what I have called the "basement of pain". Soon I will be having another power test, and that's when we'll really see where I'm at.

Other exciting news for me is the Pedal Magazine Canadian Cyclist of the Year awards, where I was voted, by you and other readers across the country, the Junior Male of the Year award! That is quite an honor considering the depth of the Juniors in Canada at the moment, and will be a big motivator to work even harder this winter. Thanks to anyone who voted, it means a lot to me!

That's about all the excitement for the last month, but what's really got me giddy at the moment is what's in store for the next many months! It was confirmed that I don't have to attend high school classes after this semester, which ends in 2 weeks, as I will have the enough credits for me to graduate by then. This is really great because it frees me up to travel as much as I need, without worrying about school. I'm certainly taking advantage of this too, as I will be leaving soon after my final exams, and won't be home for over 5 months! Here's a run down of where I'll be and for what races:

February 11-21: Tucson, Arizona - National Team Training Camp
February 23 - April 6: Flers, France - Racing there on my own to get in more euro racing
April 6 - late April/Early May - Training Camp in Georgia and some races in New England
May and June - Belgium/France with Hot Tubes, then Switzerland/Germany with the National Team for Pays de Vaud and the Tropheo Karlsberg, two Nations Cup races

So that's really my spring in a nutshell, after that I will be flying home, as if I were to stay much longer I would lose my New Brunswick citizenship as well as my medicare! By then it will be time to be home for a bit of a break before Nationals though, so it works out perfectly. Then it will be off to Edmonton for Nats, then Kentucky, Abitibi, and then back to Europe for a race in Belgium, before going to Italy for the World Championships.

Wow, even just writting this makes me excited! I can't wait to get going and racing again, to be having a great time with great teammates, and to see lot's of new places! The only thing I'm not so pumped about is all the flying (getting to France from Tucson involves 2 back to back over night flights, with 2 full days at various airports!!), but I think it will be worth it! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned in the fairly near future for updates from Tucson!

Sterling

2009-11-30T08:36:00.003-04:00

It seems like I just got to the States to do some cross racing, but in fact my time here has come to an end. I finished up with a weekend of racing in Sterling, part of the Verge Cyclocross Series. As usual there were races on Saturday and Sunday, and for the first of the two we were greeted with warm weather, but also about 70km/h winds! At first I thought this would play out to my advantage, being a road guy, but then I remembered how much these guys train for cross, and also recalled the last interval I have done, a very long time ago! Hmm, maybe this will be a tough day after all I thought! Anyway, all I could do was get a good start and then suffer as much as I could possibly stand, and before I would know it, the race would be over, right? Well, the plan was playing out fairly well from the start. I was in the last row starting, but had a really good run-up on the first lap and moved up from about 12th to 3rd position, with 2nd just in front and 1st pretty much gone. I knew I could close the gap to 2nd and gave it everything I had to do so. Pretty quickly I reeled him in, but then realized I had also towed a group of about 6 riders up to him in all the wind. That wasn't so smart, but I also thought if I kept the pace high I could crack the rest of the group. I accelerated hard out of the next corner and got a little gap. I thought for sure this would be the end of them, but after a while of us all hammering away, they worked together to reel me back in. Instantly came the counter attack, and at that point I had no response. Basically the wheels fell off my truck and I just started going backwards quick! I guess with such little intensity in training you can't expect to be able to have an answer to so many attacks, but that's life, you can't be super fit 12 months of the year! At this point I knew I was in trouble and focused on just recovering and then setting into a pace that might catch up to some of the riders. After a while that did happen, and I was bringing some of them back into catchable range. After a very hard effort I did finally catch two other guys, but one of them stuck with me and got a small gap on me with about 500 meters to go. I was catching him once I got onto the finishing stretch of pavement, but with only 200m and a strong tailwind I couldn't quite come around him. So that put me in 7th place, probably just inside the upper half of the field. I was fairly pleased with how the day went, if nothing else for the great workout I got.

The next day was nice again, and this time not such high winds, a welcome change for me! Again, from the start there was one rider away, and then a large group of 7 or 8 chasing. I was feeling good in this group for a few laps, and although I was hurting I just tried to convince myself that everyone else was too. About half way through the race is when the attacks started though. I had answers to the early accelerations, but eventually the effort from this made me tired enough to make mistakes on the technical sections, which caused gaps to form, and the guys not making mistakes just rode away. The sight of someone getting away from you is a very bitter thing to swallow, it kills you to know that he's getting away and there's nothing you can do about it, but it's a sight that everyone sees and gladly one that I get the chance to give out at other times in the season, so that makes it a bit easier. Anyway, after the gaps were formed I was able to stay right where I was compared to the others, I just don't have the ability to go that little bit deeper when it's crunch time at this point in the season. The good news about that is that the training I've been doing is paying off. Putting in long hours on the bike isn't so great for hammering away at 430 watts for 5 minutes, but it is good for being able to hold a somewhat easier pace for a longer time, which is clearly what's happening to me in these races, and also in recent power tests that I've done. The result for Sunday was the exact same as the day before, 7th, but this time I was a fair bit closer to the bulk of the riders due to the fact that I never really blew up quite as hard, I just didn't have the acceleration to stick with the others. So, again, happy with the day, I had a good time and got in a great workout, and really, that was the whole reason for me coming to the US for cross in the first place. So now I'm on my way home to finish up the season with the Halifax cross race next weekend. Last year this was a very epic race, so hopefully it won't disappoint this year, I'm sure it will be a good time!

More tire Trouble

2009-11-22T19:37:00.002-04:00

So today I was racing the pro race in Easthampton. The course was a bit weird, there were a lot of road sections but at the same time it was pretty technical. I had a really bad start today, I pulled out of my pedal right off the gun, so I had some work to do. I think I was sitting about 15th after the first half lap. This is a really frustrating position to be in, because it isn't that hard physically, I know I'm capable of being with the guys in the lead, but it's so hard to get through everyone to get up there! Then, naturally the gaps start to open up and soon you find yourself with a whole bunch of catching up to do. Anyway, there's my rant, but either way that was where I was and it was time to go! I was hammering away, trying to make up the time. I think slowly I was clawing the gap down and feeling pretty good about how I was riding. I was taking a few risks though and that cost me pretty big in the end. I was going through a paved corner and my front tire (running clinchers today) folded under itself and the wheel washed out. I went down, and the tire went flat, so that meant a bit more running for me. After getting that changed the leaders were not loooong gone, but I still thought I needed to work hard to catch whoever I could and if nothing else, for the workout. I put my head down and suffered for the rest of the race, catching 5 guys or so, but still rolling in way back. A bit of a bummer for this weekend, but the positive is that I'm feeling strong. I know I really need to work on finding my pedals for the start and getting in them right, so that's the plan for this week. Hopefully next week will go better and I can finish this trip up on a positive note!

Lowell cyclocross race

2009-11-21T19:05:00.002-04:00

So today was a local cross race in a place called Lowell. It was a super nice day and thankfully dry, so I was pretty happy going into it! This wasn't all that big of a race, I think there were maybe a little over 10 juniors on the line, but the course was fun, and it was a great day, so I was still excited! I got a decent start, not great, but okay, and after about a half lap there was a lead group of 3, me with two other guys who I didn't know. It seemed as though these guys were working harder than me, so I was pretty content, I thought it would be good to be a bit patient and let them burn their matches for a little bit, but unfortunately I had some mechanical issues. The first thing that went wrong was my freehub body seemed to be a bit stiff because every time I would coast the rear derailleur would pull up and my chain would fall off. Anyway, that wasn't all that big of a deal, but it certainly wasn't great. Then, just after going through the pit there was a fast hairpin turn that we were flying through. This time I guess I took it a bit fast though, as my rear tubular went flying off. Hmm, this is a bit of a bigger problem! So, I put it back on and continued to ride, but it came off a couple more times before I got back to the pit to change a wheel. This lost me a lot of time, and a few places too. At this point I was sitting in 5th, and had quite a gap to make up. I just tried to get angry and put that into the pedals, which I think I did quite effectively. I was flying around the course now, and taking some serious time out of the two sitting in 3rd and 4th, but unfortunately I fell a bit short. I think with another lap I might have gotten them, but it's hard to say. Anyway, despite the mechanical issues, I was feeling good and still got a great workout it, so it was pretty successful. Tomorrow there's another race where I think I'm racing the Pro 1/2 race, hopefully all goes well! Stay tuned for a report on that!

Mercer's Cup Cross

2009-11-16T09:23:00.003-04:00

So last night we got back from New Jersey which played host to the 2009 USGP/UCI Mercer's Cup. This race was a double header with races on both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, on Friday NJ got about 5" of rain, causing the course to be more like a massive mud bog than any field it may have once been. Either way, we got up really early on Saturday and set off on the 4 hour drive to make my start at 11:30. The atmosphere at these races is pretty cool. There are thousands of cross racers and fans, with huge teams' trailers set ups and some very cool bikes too. The announcers are super enthusiastic and it is just basically everything fun about cyclocross.

Now to the races... I'm not going to lie, Saturday's race was basically the slowest I've ever gone on a bike. Things started going wrong right from the first meter of the race. As soon as the whistle blew I was simply not moving fast enough. The leaders instantly opened up a gap, and I was getting passed by pretty much everyone. In fact, I think I was sitting dead last after the first 500m. I guess I just wasn't really ready for the start that I have been informed is completely standard for cross. I'm not quite sure why, I mean I know from watching the races in europe that it's crazy fast right from the start, but it's different when you're actually doing it. We're talking an absolutely all out sprint from the gun! So, I kept trying to move my way up through the field, but every time I would get some rhythm going I would slide in the mud, or just have my wheels spin without me going anywhere. I simply couldn't make my bike move in the thick bog. As the race went on my bike got heavier and heavier with all the mud building up, and unfortunately I didn't have a pit bike to swap out every half lap. By the end of the race I pretty much couldn't even lift the thing over the barriers. At this point I was felt like I was pushing 400 watts to go about 5km/h. I was pretty miserable and just wanted to be finished. Finally the checkered flag went down and I could go find a hole to crawl into. I ended up finishing 15th, a pretty horrible result considering there was only about 20 people in the race, if that. Obviously I was not happy, and really quite embarrased about the whole thing. So, eventually the day was over and we got back to the hotel, me with a lot on my mind. I was trying to convince myself that the next day would be better, but I wasn't optimistic at all.

On to day two. I don't know what happened over night, but I woke up with a completely new frame of mind. Today I was just going to take the things I learned yesterday and make sure I do at least a little better than my debut. That was the goal, to simply improve. Again though, things didn't start so well. We didn't get to the race until about 20 minutes before the start, and number pick up ended about an hour before. Since I was so late my name was last on the list for call up, putting me in the very last row. The good news for this race was that I had a bike in the pit this time, so thanks very much to Nate Morse for lending me his bike! Despite the setback with callup, I still had my mind set on a much better race, so when the whistle went this time I was off like a bat out of hell! By the end of the 500m road section I was already sitting in 5th. This time I was much more aggressive in the corners and took a lot of chances. After about a lap I was sitting in 3rd, with 4th place just a little bit back, and 2nd just a little bit in front. 1st place was absolutely gone though! So at this point everything in my body was just begging for me to ease up, and part of me wishes I was sitting in dead last again, but I was so happy to be in the race. After about a lap Eckman, who was in 4th had caught up with me and we were riding together trying to catch up to 2nd place, but also thinking about 5th place who was coming up hard. We rode well together, which is good because we are going to be teammates next year, but this year is a different story. We attacked each other many times and basically just tried to put each other through as much hell as we could. On the last lap I opted not to change bikes going through the pit, while he went for the new bike. I attacked hard through that section and opened a small gap. The cards were out now and there was no option for anything else, it was time to hammer! I poured everything I had into the pedals and managed to hold him off for 3rd place, coming close to 2nd, but not at the same time I wasn't a whole lot of a threat to him. Crossing the line was a beautiful feeling, knowing it was finally over, and I was really happy with the ride I had! So, somehow on back to back days I had two completely different results, but I guess it goes to show how if you can figure out how to get your head straight after a setback, then things can completely turn themselves around. I think this gave me a bit of confidence and hopefully now I can step my game up even more for the next weekend's race. Stay tuned for a report on that!

Cyclocross 2009

2009-11-12T09:14:00.003-04:00

Wow, it's been forever since I have written anything in my blog, but I guess in a way that's good because it means I have been busy riding my bike and working on school! Right now I'm sitting in an old, rickety bus going from Bangor to Boston, and I'm using this as a fine excuse to start procrastinating with homework! So, since mid October there have been cyclocross races going on everyweekend in New Brunswick, as many of you know. I've been using them as a way to get some great intensity into my training and working on my technical skills, and thankfully results have been following suit. Most races have been highly competitive, with strong fields and high numbers for an NB race, which is really great to see! I've been feeling strong and every week my fitness seems to be improving.

Aside from cross I've been getting some long, epic rides in on Saturdays and trying to squeeze in as much time after school as I can. One particularly epic ride was two Saturdays ago. Planning to do a 4 hour ride I set out towards turtle creek, over Caledonia Mountain, into Riverside Albert, into Hillsborough and then take back roads to Riverview, which I figured would give me about 120-130km. It was a pretty nice day when I started, fairly warm with a bit of rain. As I continued on, the rain picked up, but it was staying pretty warm. However, going over Caledonia Mt. was a different story all together! First of all I was noticing snow on the ground at the base of the mountain, and after only a few minutes of climbing the temperature had plummeted, the rain now turning to snow. By the time I got to the top I was into a full on blizzard! It felt like the middle of February, but I just tried to convince myself I was doing some epic stage of the Giro, and that this would toughen me up. I froze pretty much solid going down the other side, then had to hammer my way through a wicked headwind to get home, finally able to collapse in a wet heap of exhaustion as I got in the door. It's rides like these that you promise yourself you will never do again as long as you live, but of course the next opportunity you get your back in the saddle, suffering just as much.

So, like I said, right now I'm on a bus heading back to Toby's place for three weekends of cross racing, before getting home for the Nova Scotia cross provincials which will mark the end of the season. My first race here is a US Grand Prix/UCI race which is a double header on Saturday/Sunday. Not really sure what to expect, but hopefully all will go well and I'll survive to post a blog entry! Stay tuned for a race report from the weekend and thanks for reading!

2010 has officially started

2009-10-07T19:58:00.003-03:00

3... 2... 1... Happy New Year!! Okay, not quite yet (not that you could tell from the weather!), but for me, 2010 officially started on Monday. After Bermuda I took two weeks off the bike completely to give my body a good chance to get fully recovered and prepared for the next season. This is also a great time to catch up on some regular teenaged activities and catch up with some friends, so it was certainly nice to live somewhat normally for a little while! After the first week though, I always start to miss riding and wish I was back at it. So, while the first week was great and I didn't even think about biking, last week was long and all I wanted to do was be back in the saddle! To pass the time I made sure all my bikes were in perfect working condition, and started to get my cross bike together.

Finally, last week came to an end and I was cleared by coach Luc to get back on the bike! This was a very exciting day for me, so yesterday I rushed home and hoped on my road bike. This is probably one of the greatest rides every year, riding through the really nice New Brunswick fall colors and crisp air. It was pretty sweet to feel my legs burn again too! Today wasn't such a nice ride, with the 8 degrees and rain, but it's still sweet to be riding! First cross race is coming up on Tuesday, and then there will be a race pretty much every Tuesday night and weekend until late November, so stay tuned for some reports on those!

Bermuda Grand Prix

2009-09-22T09:01:00.002-03:00

Well, the 2009 road season has officially come to an end. I'm not entirely sure if I should be happy or sad, but given the state of my body right now, it's a good feeling! We finished up with the Bermuda Grand Prix which took place this weekend. For our team we brought me, Ian, Gavin, Downtown, and Lawson. We got to Bermuda on Thursday afternoon, and the race didn't start until Saturday. Naturally we took full advantage of these days to try to rid our bodies of what cyclists refer to as the white skinsuit (obscene tanlines you often see on riders). Well, most of us managed to at least replace it for a bright red one! We had a great time at the beach though, so it was completely worth not being able to put your bib shorts on!

After having a fun two days of relaxation we started racing on Saturday. This was going to be an interesting day, as most of us had only been on our bikes a few times in the last week or so, but at least we were moderately fresh. This course felt like we were in the amazon or something. It was at this old abandoned part of a military base I think, with lot's of over-grown bush and horrible pavement. It was raining for the start, but still very warm. We arrived at the race, did a lap of the 2km course easy, and then went to the start line. This would soon prove to be not such a good idea, because we really didn't observe the course that well, nor did we do it with any speed, so of course we didn't note anything that might be important. So, after a lap of tooting around, I decided to get the fun started and attacked on one of the little rises. Two guys came with me and we got a bit of a gap. Over the little hill and into the descent I drove the pace to keep the gap, but naturally forgot about the tight left hander and the bottom. I came into waaay too hot, seeing this wall of trees in front of me. I tried the brakes, but they were too wet and had no power. So, I debated going straight into the woods, or try to get a foot out and slide around the corner. Somewhat indecisive, I ended up unclipping, and sliding out into the dirt on the side of the road before flipping over the handlebars. Landing on my face I got a wonderful mouthful of dirt and tree bark, then got run over by my escapee partners. This was likely one of the funniest crashes to observe, but for me it just gave me a very sore nose and mouth. After getting cleaned up I got back on, and went to the pit for my free lap. During this lap there was a split in the group, which the commisaire wouldn't let me get into, so I ended up in the second group, but luckily all the other guys were in there. After a few bridge attempts with some very unhelpful other riders, nothing seemed to work, so I just took it easy with that group and ended up winning the sprint for 8th or 9th I think.

The next morning was the TT, which again was rainy, but this time cold. It was a really technical course with many round abouts and wet corners. We were all on straight up road bikes without any aero equipment, with most of the others, to our amazement, having full TT set ups. Anyway, we just road as hard as we could and all ended up decently placed. I felt pretty good about the effort, but it's definately too late in the season for efforts like that! I was certainly glad for that to be the last one of those for a while!

Going into the last crit we had Gavin our only real GC contender, then me and Ian a little ways back, with some English pro in the lead with a very strong teammate working for him. All we could do is attack like crazy to try to isolate the brit, because he has a very, very fast sprint and it was a downhill finish, always an advantage for someone on a 53-11 against a junior! We attacked from all directions, trying to beat his teammate down, but he was very smart and just let us attack the hill, then fly through the fast downhill on his big gears and catch us. This was taking a toll however, and it was all we could do. We continued to try to crack him, but in the end he was able to bring everything back until the last lap, when the leader just took over. He shut down our last attack himself and then proceeded to win the sprint. Coming across the line was a bit of a relief, know it was all over. After everything was added up Gavin was in 3rd, me 6th, Ian 7th, Lawson 8th and Nate 20th or something like that. Not too shabby considering our fitness levels at this point in the year.

So, it seems like only yesterday I was leaving home to start the season, and now it's all done. I had a great year and have nothing to complain about. Now it's time for a few weeks off and then some cyclocross racing! Can't wait!

Green Mountain Stage Race

2009-09-08T11:56:00.003-03:00

Last night we got back from the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont. I was travelling with my mom, Ryan MacDonald, and Jean-Richard Cormier from here, but when we got there, those two stayed with their Garneau teammates, and I was with Lawson, Nate, and Gavin at the Hot Tubes house. This race is 4 stages long, with a TT, circuit race, road race, and crit. It's always a fun way to end the season, but every year you are reminded of how hard the racing can be!

The first stage was on Friday and was an individual time trial. We got up early as the Juniors were first to start, and with about 1000 racers total, that means we start really early!! After warming up a very small amount (none of the racers really have any motivation to warm up this late in the season!!), I was on the road, straight into the first 3km climb. This is not a very good feeling going from spinning at 100 watts around the parking lot to climbing at 400 for 6 or 7 minutes, but it certainly gets you going right from the start! After this climb it is gradually downhill for 6km, before this huge kicker of a climb into the finish. I knew I was on a decent time on the road and was able to dig pretty deep the whole way, then suffered like crazy over the last climb to come in with a time of 15:03 which was good enough for 6th place. Gavin ended up winning, with Lawson in 4th and nate in 7th. So we had all 4 riders in the top 7 after the first day. Since it was still only about 10:00am, we went back to the house, jumped in the mad river, which by the way is very, very cold, and had apple fights for the rest of the day.

Day 2 was a very short circuit race of 54km with one good climb and a few more rolling hills. There was a little confusion after a few kilometers when a Gavin was involved in a crash. Instantly a few riders went to the front and started attacking, not a very cool move when the yellow jersey is down! After much yelling from me the attacks stopped and the pack remained neutral for a while, but there was no sign of Gavin for the longest time, and the other riders started attacking again. After holding them off as long as we could, we thought Gavin might be too hurt to get back on, so we switched strategies and tried a few times to get breaks to stick, and it seemed like nothing would until Nate finally got a good gap solo. He was out there for about 7 or 8km before we could all see he was dying. At this point Lawson launched an attack on the KOM climb and bridged to him and the two never looked back. They drove it to the finish and won on their own, with a few more riders coming in a while after that, and then I got 2nd in the field sprint for 7th or 8th. Gavin did come in with a bloody knee a little while after, but was feeling very sore. So, Gavin did lose the jersey, but it was Lawson who took it up, and Nate had the sprinters and KOM jerseys too.

Day 3 is always the epic day at GMSR. It is a 125km race with 4 big climbs, and finishes after 12km of brutal climbing. Early on Gavin and I tried to slip into a group that would be out there the whole day, but anything we went into was always so marked, and with the first 40km pretty much downhill, it isn't hard enough to get away on pure power. So, when we saw third place riders Matteo Dal Cin attack with nobody going with him, instead of covering him only to go back to the pack and have someone else try an attack, we let him go. Off he went into the distance, with no one to help him in an effort to stay away for the 120km that remained. Our strategy was to dangle the hope of winning solo in front of him, only to make him waste all his energy, and then catch and drop him on the last climb. At the feed zone we heard that he almost had a 6 minute gap over us, which seems like a hell of a lot of time, but that was just the perfect time to start chasing him down. Right after the feed zone is Brandon Gap, so Gavin and I started setting a tempo faster than what he would be doing to slowly bring the gap down. This let Lawson and Nate rest their legs in the pack for the final climb. With only the two of us we were in the wind a lot, but we both knew this was our job for the day, so we just got on with it. We continued rotating through over Brandon Gap along a rolling head wind section for the next 60km before hitting the last 3 climbs towards the end. We worked really hard together and were thoroughly exhausted going into the last 20km. There was only 8k left to the base of the finishing climb, so we did as much as we could there to bring the gap down even more. I think we timed it perfectly because just as we hit the base of the climb at 12km to go we saw the lone rider who was out in front of us. We hit the slope of the climb and instantly formed the groupetto of me, Gavin and Matteo, leaving Nate and Lawson to work their magic over the rest of the field. Unfortunatly, neither of them had very good legs that day, and we actually ended up catching Lawson, with Nate a little ways up the road. Luckily Nate still held on to the jersey, but not by much. We were very lucky not to lose it, and I think had we not suckered Matteo the outcome might have been different, so at least our efforts weren't for nothing!

Then finally we came to the crit. This is a fun 6 cornered crit in downtown Burlington with horrible pave, a brick road section, and a tough uphill grind to the finish. Our goals were to conserve the 15 second lead over 2nd place and to keep the sprint jersey, and with a solid team effort we accomlished both, along with a stage win for Lawson. We couldn't stay long as we had to get back for school, so we hit the road right after getting changed and got home very early this morning. I'm really pleased with how the race went and now only have one more road race for the season, the Bermuda Grand Prix coming up in two weeks. Unfortunatly school starts tomorrow, but soon enough I'll be back racing with the guys. Thanks for reading!

Canada Games Crit

2009-08-24T19:11:00.003-03:00

Okay, rainy ride over for the day, bike washed, now I can finish this whole blog thing! The last event at Games was the criterium and this one was a little different than most. Of course, the Canada Games could not give out money as primes for this crit, and what would a crit be without primes, right? So, this crit was basically a points race, just like on the track. Every 5 laps there was a sprint, 1st got 5 points, 2nd 3, 3rd 2 and 4th got a lonely point. With double points halfway through the race and at the finish, the winner would be the guy with the most points, not necessarily the rider who finishes in the least amount of time.

Starting off it was super fast as everyone wanted to make it hard on the sketchy riders, of which there were many! I knew the pace would be really tough until the first sprint, then maybe ease off just a tad. So, my plan was to attach just as soon as everyone thought they might get a second of recovery. This plan worked to perfection, as the guys who went for sprint points on this first one were still gasping for air when I went. I spent a lap solo before looking back and seeing a large group bridging the gap. As soon as we got rolling we quickly opened up a big gap for a crit, I think it was up to a minute at one point, which is pretty good for a lap that might take 1:45 to complete. I ended up getting a few sprint points, but being in a group that consisted of only U23 riders, with me being the only Junior, it was tough to beat them in the run to the line. We continued going strong and it looked like we might lap the field, but then Quebec sat up and stopped driving the pace, and some in-fighting started way too early. With about 8 laps to go we were swallowed up by the sea of riders and left to fight off 50 guys for the sprints instead of 10. I knew with a few points I would be guaranteed a top 10 finish, and although I tried to squeeze a bit more speed out of my legs in the final sprint, I wasn't able to get a top 4 so I received no more points. In the end I was 9th, with 3 Quebec riders sweeping the podium. It's funny, I have gotten a bit used to being on the team that sweeps the podium with regularity and it is a bit different trying to ride against a powerhouse like this other team in blue jerseys, but soon enough I'll be back with the guys racing Green Mountain.

To cap off the excitement of the crit there was an all out braul between the Quebec and BC teams right after the finish. I guess there were some antics in the final laps as well as just crossing the line, so punches were thrown, names were called, and then all the skinny dudes in lycra went their own ways. It made for an interesting night trying to piece together what happened, that's for sure! Like I said, Green Mountain is next and then there is rumour about the Bermuda Grand Prix in mid September, could be a nice warm way to extend the road season a little longer!

Canada Games RR

2009-08-24T07:57:00.002-03:00

After discovering how many people actually read this blog last week at the Canada Games, I figured I should get around to finally writing about the crit and road race at the 2009 Canada Summer Games. After the TT we had a day of rest in between, then a 120km road race in downtown Summerside. The road race course was not very selective at all, and in my opinion not the best choice of courses, but that's life and it was the same for everybody. It was a very flat 10km loop and even the winds decided to make for an easy circuit, for the first time since we got there the wind was practically gone.

My strategy for the race was to watch Quebec, BC and Ontario as they are the power houses of Canadian Cycling. There were a few attempts to get away early but it was clear that Quebec was chasing everything down with their six man train. It became very apparent that they wanted either a sprint and a solo effort close to the line. When a small group containing mostly Atlantic riders went away, they were happy to give them some breathing room and stay away for a while. There were 2 Nova Scotia riders, JR and Justin from NB, a PEI guy and an Ontarian. It was good that we had two riders in the break because that took the pressure off of me to chase and I was able to just sit in the pack and conserve energy for the sprint. Eventually the Quebec train got rolling and quickly brought the gap down to a managable minute. I was really hoping a group would bridge the gap and I could get a free ride, but none went. The pace eased off again so we wouldn't catch the break too early, but with 6 or 7km to go they were back with us once again. I knew I had to be on high alert for a counter attack at this point, so I sat in 3rd wheel up front, but unfortunatly both the guys in front of me decided to pull off. This put me right into the wind just as a Quebec rider, Ontarian, and a guy from BC attacked. I tried to go with them but couldn't accelerate fast enough to get in their draft. Now the worst thing I could do here is to just continue to hammer, even though I have no gap on the peleton, as that would just be a waste of energy and somebody else would take advantage of my stupidity. So, I waited to see if someone else would go first and I could just hop on with them. I waited, and waited, but nobody went. I looked back and saw guys from Quebec, Ontario, and BC, so clearly nobody would pull through. Well, that was the race, I knew the winner would come from that group so I tried again to get a gap and bridge, but the Quebec rider shut me down. One of the three riders ended up staying away for the win, Eric Boily of Quebec. For 2nd it came down to a sprint. I was in great position with about 300 meters to go, but I was superchopped by some guy who was boxed in and got a bit too nervous. I had to unclip, get my handlebars untangled from an Alberta guy who went down, and then get going again, but luckily I didn't crash and finished somewhere mid pack. Very frustrating for me because I know I would have placed well, but that's life when you put all your eggs in the sprint basket, sometimes shit happens. I'll write a report on the crit later on, but right now I'm off for a ride. Thanks for reading!

Canada Games - TT

2009-08-20T09:59:00.001-03:00

So it’s taken me a long time to write a blog for the TT at Canada Games, but things have been pretty busy here at the athlete’s village. I thought I should write one at least before the road race though, so here it is. We got to Canada Games sometime a few days ago, to be honest I have no idea what day it was, and I’m not even certain of the month anymore. Ever since the start of July I have been racing so much that I only know if it’s race day or rest day now, but I guess that’s all I really need to know. Anyway, when we got here we had some days to train on the course, and I actually had an extra day because I didn’t compete in the mountain bike event which was first on the list. I spent some time getting to know the village and trying to experience my first multi sport games to the fullest. What I learned is that I’m a horrible pin trader! Nonetheless, it’s still pretty cool being here with so many other athletes. Favourite quote of the week has to be from Justin saying, “Is that fat guy really an athlete?” I guess in comparison to cyclists most athletes could be considered fat, but it is neat seeing the different trends and life styles of different groups of competitors.
On to the races. My first race was the time trial, a 22.6km test with lots of wind, a few gradual climbs, and a gold medal on the line. As I may have mentioned earlier, my time trialing has not been where I feel it should be this year, so for this race my goal was really to be able to honestly say I gave it my all. No matter where that put me on the results, I could be proud of that. So, going out I got into a great tempo and actually caught 2 guys before the turnaround. I knew I was going good and that was reinforced when I saw the eventual bronze medalist at the turnaround and he had only put about 10 seconds into my time. That was great motivation and made me push really hard on the way back. From about 10km out I stopped using my power meter for pacing and just drove the pedals without any thought of what if I blow up. I ended up catching another 3 guys before the line, making a total of 5, which I was pretty pleased with. In the last 2 km I think I suffered more than any 17 year old should. This seemed to take forever on the long, gradual rise into what seemed like an eternal head wind that hurts riders right to the finish. Finally I hit the finish line absolutely spent. I had finally been able to completely empty the tank over the course of a TT and I was really happy with that. I rolled over to our warm up spot, gave my bike to Jane and collapsed in a heap of exhaustion and wished I could just die for about 20 minutes. Eventually I got up and made my way to the starting line to see where I was standing. For a while I was in 2nd, then 3rd, 4th, and I stayed in 4th for a good bit of time. Unfortunately, that time was bested by 3 other riders by only about a second or two, so I got bumped back to 7th, only 2 seconds out of 4th place. I was still very pleased with my ride and considering I only lost seconds to some very big names in Canadian U23 cycling, I think it is a good result.
Since then I have been doing many interviews because apparently I have the best result for a New Brunswick athlete so far. I was also asked to do a speech on all the support we receive as athletes, so that took place last night. Today is the road race and will take place later on this afternoon. Don’t really know what to expect as it’s a flat course and today is the first day with little wind, so hopefully I can get in an early break that sticks and get a good result. I’ll keep you posted.

Team NB Night speech

2009-08-20T09:56:00.003-03:00

Well, due to popular demand I decided to post the speech I gave last night about the support athletes receive from friends, family, coaches, teammates, etc. So, here it is.

When I was asked to talk today about the support I have received in pursuing my dreams I thought this would be a great opportunity to thank the all people who have done so much for me. I’m sure I speak on behalf of not only every single athlete at these Games, but also hundreds of thousands of other athletes across the world who receive unbelievable amounts of support from countless individuals. I have been fortunate enough to be supported by hundreds of friends, family members, teammates, coaches and even other competitors, but the person I need to thank the most is my mom Sheila. I have to say she has to be the world’s best mom. From driving me to games or events, to waiting in the feed zone in freezing cold rain at a race, to helping me work on my bike, to washing clothes and preparing everything we need for road trips...the list goes on and on. She really can do anything and I’m sure many of the athletes here today have somebody just like this who they’re thinking of right now.
I have played many sports so far in my life, hockey, soccer, basketball, baseball, triathlon, speed skating and most recently cycling. Many of these sports have taken place at the same time, which as I’m sure you all know can be amazingly time consuming. Throughout this though, I never had to miss a practise, game, race, or even a team get together, and I don’t even think I ever had to be late for one due to other commitments. Somehow my family found a way to get me wherever I needed to be.
For me, it goes far beyond the support I’ve received from my family as well. The first group of people that comes to mind at the moment would be the staff here with us at Canada Games, working hard to get everything ready for us to race, as well as all of the volunteers here who make this possible for all of the athletes. I know for the cycling team Jeff, our mechanic, is up late every night fixing this and that on the bikes, and Brian, Jane, and Chris are also busy getting everything organized and prepared. Then there are friends who have helped me with things like lending me equipment to use, or who have tips and advice or even something as simple as wishing me luck for my next competition. Another group of people who deserve a huge amount of recognition are coaches. They are always the ones you can call at 6 o’clock in the morning when something goes wrong trying to get to a competition, or who can help with training, nutrition, and guide you through the ups and downs of your season.
I could go on and on for days about things that all these people have done for me, but I know I have to compete tomorrow and I’m sure many others here have to as well, so I will leave it at that, but I hope that my family, friends, teammates, coaches and any others here today understand how much it means to us athletes to have you behind us all the way. Thank you.

I really hope I didn't leave anybody out and hope that sums it up pretty well, I could have gone on for a lot longer but they only gave me a minute!

Russia - Road Race and last couple days

2009-08-13T16:33:00.000-03:00

So yesterday was the Road Race at the World Championships in Moscow, Russia. The course is the same as the 1980 Olympics and was actually built just for bike racing. It’s this road that twists and turns, climbs quite a lot and basically is just brutal the whole time. There is absolutely no chance of recovering anywhere on this course. From the gun the race was the sketchiest thing I’ve ever done. It was actually ridiculous just how nervous everyone was. The pace was ridiculously high too, so basically it was just misery right from the start! I got caught behind a few crashes early, but luckily didn’t go down in them, but about half way through there was another one on this beast of a climb right before the feed zone. Again, didn’t go down, but by the time I got started again and got my big ring turning on a 20% grade the pack was a bit up the road. There was a group of us who were caught behind the crash who chased, but with no caravan we knew it was impossible to catch the group. It was basically as hard as you could go just to stay in the bunch, so going faster with a smaller group was not going to happen! So, unfortunately for me I spent the rest of the race in the groupetto before the commissaire pulled us with 25km to go out of 135. I was really very bummed about the whole thing, but such is life. I was having a horrible day anyway, so it’s not like I was going to be able to do much in the race, but it still sucks being pulled. On the bright side I’m still a first year and that was a huge eye opener for me as to how hard Worlds is. I think it’s going to be a good kick in the ass for me next year to come back with way more fitness.So, being fairly disappointed about the race I thought it would be good to get my mind off racing for a bit. Me, Vince, and Chad (coach and mechanic) decided to get the metro down to Red Square to see the buildings. We got there without getting lost, so it seemed like there would be no unexpected surprises, but as we were walking around these two police officers came up to us asking for our passports. Okay, we all had them on us so we just handed them over, they looked at Vince’s, it was good, then Chad’s, no problems, then mine, not such good news. I didn’t have a little piece of paper in mine from the hotel saying that we were staying there. I had taken it out because Vince needed our passports to sign us in to the road race, so I took that piece of paper out, but then forgot to put it back in. Okay, so I figured this wouldn’t be a problem, he would just tell me to carry it next time, I mean it was clear that I was with them and they had theirs, but this guy didn’t seem to share the same opinion. He kept repeating, “you’re friends, little piece of paper, no problem,” and continued in his thick Russian accent, “you, no paper, little problem, understand?” Okay, yes, I understand, now can I go, I would think, but then he would just repeat that exact same thing. He must have said that at least 20 times. Then his partner, who at first seemed to just want to let me go, said, “Okay, we go to car, come with me.” I was going to a Russian prison!!!!!!! All I could think of was this shady place that they would throw me for the night, probably get beaten by the other inmates, with Vince not being able to find it for sure, and our bus left for the airport in about 5 hours!! I thought I would never get to see beautiful North America again! Then, as the police officer walks in front of us Chad had the presence of mind to slip me his race accreditation which might help, so I showed it to him and explained we were here for the race. He looked at it, talked with his partner some more, and then told me to leave. Wow, that was the most horrible moment of my life I think! These people are just on this huge power trip trying to make things difficult for us, it was completely ridiculous. I had a passport, visa, and two friends with their “little paper”, but no, he still had to make me think I was going to prison! Anyway, we finished walking around and then avoided any other police officers who looked like they might give us trouble, then found our way home, slept for about 2 hours, and then went to the airport. It was a very interesting night, but we all agreed with 100% certainty that none of us would ever return to Russia! So, now I’m sitting on a plane back to Canada, can’t wait to be home for a few days before Canada Games

World Time Trial Championships

2009-08-08T08:21:00.000-03:00

So this afternoon was the time trial at the World Championships here in Moscow, Russia. This was the first event of the Championships and for Canada the riders were me and Antoine. I was up first at 1:10 so I made sure to get there nice and early so I wouldn’t have any stress getting everything done. I got a good warm up done and then went to the line to get my bike checked. It’s funny, I’ve had my time trial bike checked by the UCI many times this year, and every time they tell me something else is wrong. This time I went 45 minutes before the start just to make sure everything would be okay, and they said my bars were too long, but I passed because of the exemption. Okay, so I went back to finish my warm up, then 10 minutes before my start I went for the official check. This time they said my bars were fine without needing the exemption, but my saddle was too far forward. In the end I was able to get an exemption for that too, but you can never win with these people! Other excitement at the bike check came from one country who had both their riders on 53-12 for gears and couldn’t figure out why the commissaire wouldn’t let them start, and a Dutch guy who rushed up to jump the line because he was only a minute before his start, but the official made him wait and he started late.
This course starts out with a gradual downhill section for about a kilometre or so, then a turnaround, back up the hill, past the start finish, down a similar hill, turnaround, back up the hill, right hander, up a slight hill, turnaround, back down, right hander, up, turnaround, down, right, right, and then back through the finish, but we did two laps so we had to do that all over again. I tried not to start too hard until coming back up the first hill, and everything was going smoothly. I think I paced fairly well the whole time, so that’s a good thing. It’s funny, this year I don’t seem to be able to dig as deep as I have been able to in the past when I’m time trialling, I just can’t seem to convince my body to suffer that extra little bit, but hopefully I’ll get that back soon! That’s not to say I didn’t go hard today, it hurt a lot, but I wasn’t able to push myself so hard that I passed out at the end, and I think that’s something I need to get back. Anyway, at the end of the two laps I finished with a time of 34:30 and was sitting in the second best time for a while. As the faster riders came in though I was bumped back further and further until the last guy came across and I finally stopped sliding back! In the end I was 28th, 1:37 back of the winner. I’m relatively happy with my ride, but like I said, wish I could push myself harder in these races against the clock.
Some other awesome news is that my Hot Tubes teammate Lawson Craddock got 2nd place, only 2 seconds back of the winner, and he’s a first year junior!! Congrats Lawson, we’re all super proud of you! So tomorrow is a rest day and then Sunday is the beastly 135km road race. Stay tuned for results.

World Championships - First few days

2009-08-05T11:33:00.000-03:00

As many of you know I am in Moscow, Russia for the World Junior Cycling Championships and I thought I would post an update on how things are going so far. We flew out of Montreal on Sunday morning, got to Washington, and then from there went to Moscow over night. The plane ride was very long and miserable, but getting here on Monday morning I actually didn’t feel too bad. When we arrived we were greeted with a not so pleasant surprise that some of our bikes were lost, including both of mine. It was quite entertaining trying to figure out how to get them with the flight agents who spoke very little English, but eventually we rolled out of there with the promise that our bikes would show up the next day. We got on the shuttle to the hotel and made our way through the city. I think it was only about a 30km drive but took over an hour due to the heavy traffic that seems to be very constant here. When we got to the hotel they took our passports, who knows what they did with them, but surprisingly we did get them back. Then we went upstairs to the buffet lunch. Since we’ve been here we have eaten two breakfasts, three lunches and two dinners. Every single meal has been the exact same each day, and to make things even worse I’m pretty sure they don’t put the food away and bring out a fresh batch of the same thing, I think they just leave it out overnight until it is gone because it seems to get worse and worse every day!! I wish I could say this was an exaggeration, but sadly it’s true. Our new team saying is that if you put enough honey on dirt it will eventually be eatable!
Other than the food the hotel is relatively nice, although the location is really no good for riding, but that would be the same anywhere in Moscow. So far I have just been riding the trainer with a security guard smoking beside me, not exactly the greatest training! So, with all these problems there is really nothing you can do but laugh, everybody is in the same boat so it’s not like it makes anything unfair. I am looking forward to racing on Friday and Sunday, apparently the road course is very hard. We’re going to see it today. So, I’ll keep you posted on how the races go.

Tour de l'Abitibi - Stages 5-7

2009-07-30T10:51:00.002-03:00

Well, it took me a while to get around to writing this, but between sleeping, eating, and a very slight amount of riding since finishing the tour, I have been very busy just trying to recover! So after loosing the brown jersey in the TT, all team Canada was thinking about was getting the ugly thing back. Throughout stages 5-7 we attacked the US National team more times than I can count, but to their credit they had an answer to everything and completely shut down our attempts. When they weren't there, it was another team chasing us back too, which although was frusterating, is racing. So without gaining much time back at all going into the last road stage, we knew it was all or nothing, this was it. There was no tomorrow this time. This course was half getting to the finishing circuits, and half doing laps of them. Our plan was to let the US guys chase everything getting to the circuits, and then to attack like crazy. All was going well until the first lap of the circuits. It started to rain and going into the last 180 degree corner before the finish, the guy in front of me hit a manhole cover. He went down and slid towards the hay bails, and that force me to try to go around to the outside. With the wet road I wasn't able to control the bike with as much agility, so I ended up hitting the hay bails too and went down, only to have half the peleton come crashing down on top of me. After getting back up, dusting myself off, and getting back on the bike, the pack was a fair bit up the road and the caravan was making it tough to get through with all the corners. Eventually I made it back and tried a few times at attacking the US's Andrew Barker. This was all to no avail though, he or his teammates were able to cover all our moves. Then, another crash got the better of me, flipping over someone who had gone down in the same place as me. This one was with only 5km to go, so I really had to dig deep just to catch the pack before the finish, and this time I couldn't even get to my hardest gears, so I was spinning like an egg beater! I finally caught the pack on the last corner, avoided yet another big pileup, and finished without gaining time, but also without losing any. So in the end I was 6th overall, 2nd in the young rider, best in the team classification, and voted nicest rider. So, it was a fairly successful week, and I'm really pleased to finally have a big road win for the year. Right now I'm in Montreal getting things tuned up for the World Championships where I was informed I will be doing both the TT and road race. The TT is 26km with a total of 8 complete turnarounds, and the road race is a beastly 135km with lot's of rolling hills. This sounds very painful, but I can't wait to get there and race my first World Championships! Cheers!

Tour de l'Abitibi - Stages 1-4

2009-07-24T11:58:00.003-03:00

It’s pouring rain outside, I’m in Val d’Or, and the stage today doesn’t start until later tonight, so I guess this is a good opportunity to keep you all posted on how things are going here at the Tour de ‘Abitbi – Coupe des Nations. So far we have completed the first 4 stages of this 7 stage race, and everything has been going well to date.
Day one was fairly uneventful and there were surprisingly few crashes given how nervous everyone seemed. My goal for the day was to stay away from any crashes, and to help lead Pierrick out for the sprint bonuses as well as the finish. As everyone expected it came down to a sprint finish after riding from some town that I forget the name of to Val d’Or, then completing 3 laps of the finishing circuit. then Antoine bringing us to about 600m to go, and then I had the last spot to take him to the 200m to go mark. For the first time we had raced together, this was a pretty good train, still needs a bit of work, but it did get Pierrick in 2nd, so it was pretty successful. Other than that there was nothing major on the stage.
Day two was a longer stage of 116 km. Again, this race followed the usual format of riding from some town to Val d’Or, and then 3 laps of a 3.3km finishing circuit. There was a big group going up the road after a 1km dirt road section that was about 15km into the race. Basically, a group of 5 attacked, and Ryan covered it, then another one went and I hoped on for the free ride across. When we got there another few came over with Antoine in it. So this was very good for us, we had 3 riders in a group of about 12-15. The gap stayed at only about 10 seconds for a very long time, but then we started to open it up. Eventually we built a lead of almost 4 minutes, and despite the efforts of the Austrian team who only had one rider in it, it stayed around that for a long time. Before getting into Val d’Or I went back to consult with Vince on what to do and to get some water for me and the guys. As I assumed he would say, Vince wanted us to attack in the circuits because we had the most riders. I went back to the group and looked around. What I saw were faces of misery and suffering. Riders who wished they had not spent the last 100km in the wind. Then I tried to evaluate how I felt, and it was good. I mean I wasn’t super fresh, but I knew I had something left in the tank. As soon as we entered town there was a sprint for $500 dollars, then the three laps. I decided not to contest the sprint, but to attack over the climb that followed the sprint. After everyone thought they could recover from their sprint is when I went. At first I thought this was just to make the others chase, then Antoine or Ryan could counter to hopefully take time. I soon realized that I was opening a big gap though, and I started to think about getting time and a win myself. After the commissaire realized I was not a lapped rider, which they thought for a good lap and a half, they sent a motorcycle up to give me a gap. It was at 18 seconds with about 4.5 km to go. I told myself it was all or nothing at the time, I had to go for it and if they caught me I would surely be dropped, but that was okay. I sucked every ounce of suffering out in that last lap and in the last km I knew I had won. It would be close, but I could already taste it. Going across the line I threw my hands in the air, my first big win of the season and I couldn’t be happier. I only held off Antoine and Charlie Avis by 4 seconds, and the rest of the group by 13, but that was enough. It was the happiest moment of my season so far! Immediately I found a nice comfy spot of asphalt to collapse on and poured water over my head. To make things better this win gave me the brown leader’s jersey, and also the blue young rider’s jersey going into the next day’s time trial.
Yesterday was a double day with a time trial in the morning, then a 52km out and back road race at night. Going into the time trial I knew I would need to have the ride of my life to keep the brown jersey, and with my Hot Tubes team mate Anders Newbury close behind me for the blue jersey, I would also need a great ride to defend that. This time trial is a bit special too, as it actually starts underground in a mine. They take one rider from every team down in waves, give you 5 minutes to warm up on a stationary bike from the year 1863, then have you climb for about 500 meters at a 17% grade in the freezing cold, dark, and damp conditions. It was certainly an experience, but I’m not sure I would voluntarily do this again! Mines are not the happiest places to be! So, after getting out of the mine into the sun light your legs are basically screwed for the rest of the time from the climb. You get out and think, shoot, I still have 14km of suffering left! But, I tried to refocus and get the cranks turning, and I think for me I did a fairly good time trial. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to keep the brown jersey, and Anders even took the blue from me too. Andrew Barker from the USA National Team took the win along with the jersey, and like I said Anders has blue for the moment. There is certainly still a lot of racing to go though! The road stage in the evening was cold, rainy, and windy, generally not so much fun in a group of 130 juniors trying to kill each other! Nothing much happened, it ended in a bunch sprint where I got boxed in, but I had no crashes or flats so for this short stage that was really the main goal. With three road stages left there is still a lot of time to take back the brown jersey and I know the team will do everything we can to get one of us in it! Thanks for reading!

Tour of the Red River Gorge

2009-07-20T10:52:00.001-03:00

So right now I’m sitting on a plane to Montreal after just finishing up with the UCI 2.1 Tour of the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. This is an elite junior invitational race that features the best riders from all over the United States. We were sending all 6 of our juniors and we were there to win. This was a qualifier event for the US World Championship team, and having already qualified for the Canadian team I knew going in that I would be taking on a domestique role for this one, which was totally cool with me. I wanted as many Hot Tubers going to Moscow with me as possible.
The first stage was a 1.6km prologue time trial that went down a little hill and then back up to the finish with a very tight turn around. I was the first guy on our team to start, which when riding for Hot Tubes means you don’t get any warm up. I think doing that prologue after simply pinning my numbers and riding to the start probably took a good 3 years off my life. Needless to say it was very painful, but I put in an okay ride to take 16th. I was fairly pleased considering I’m not exactly the fastest over such a short distance. Nate finished the day in 2nd or 3rd, and Gavin and Lawson were up there too, with Lawson taking the white jersey for the best young rider.
Later on that day we had a 100km road race over a very rolling course that took its toll as time went on. Starting the stage I looked at my iBike to see that it was 40 degrees Celsius, so that was probably that hardest thing for me. We started out really aggressive with many attacks early on. Eventually the competition gave up following us around and let a break form with Ian and Anders in it. Then later on Nate put in a monster attack and bridged up to the group, giving us three guys in the break. That left me, Lawson and Gavin to wreak havoc on any attempts to bridge across, which we were perfectly successful doing. Up with the break, Nate and Anders got away on their own over the last KOM to take 1st and 2nd with a decent time gap and Ian won the sprint to take 3rd. Over the same KOM I was unfortunately not as lucky. Something broke on my front derailleur and made it so it wouldn’t shift into the big ring, so I was spinning like an eggbeater trying to stay with the pack on the decent into the finish. Fortunately I was able to hang on, but was a non-factor in helping Gavin win the field sprint. I was still very pleased with the race and as a team we were absolutely dominating the field.
The next day featured a very challenging 23km time trial which had many rolling hills and a few solid climbs. I had a really bad time trial this day. I was not there mentally after the first 5 minutes and couldn’t convince my body to squeeze out those last little bits of suffering that is necessary to do well in time trials. So personally this was a bit of a disappointment, but I was cheered up as I saw my teammates coming in smashing everyone’s times. Lawson dominated this race winning over Nate by 35 seconds. They are both clearly showing that they have the form to take on the world’s best in Moscow in a few weeks.
After the time trial we had the rest of the day and night to recover for the Queen stage the next day, a 115 km road race that climbed 3000 meters. In true Hot Tubes fashion, while everyone else had their feet in the air with compression tights on, we got out the wiffle ball and played a couple of games. This was certainly a fun way to spend the afternoon and take our minds off the race for a little while, and I think if the road race was any indication, it may have helped our recovery too! This race was not as hot, but way more humid, making it just as difficult. From the start the teams from Specialized and Garmin went to the front and started hammering. I think their strategy was to make us suffer, but I guess they didn’t realize that we were perfectly comfortable sitting in the middle of the pack while they burned their matches. Going over the first KOM we took control of the race, but coming down the other side everything seemed to fall apart. First Nate, who was in the yellow jersey had bike troubles, so Gavin went back to pace him back up, then Lawson flatted, followed closely by a flat from Gavin. With Lawson in the white jersey I gave him my wheel because the car was very far back since the climb strung the pack out. He took off back to the pack and I waited on the side of the road for the car. After getting a wheel I joined a small chase group who didn’t really want to chase. Me and one other guy did the lion’s share of the work, and it took a while but we eventually caught back on. Gavin did too, but then proceeded to crash immediately thereafter. With his bad luck he found himself in the groupetto, somewhat stupefied by his misfortune. I went back to the car to load up on bottles for the guys after catching back on, but this was a very poor spot to do so. The next KOM was coming and this one was a monster. With all the bottles in my jersey I was unable to make the split and found myself in the second group. It chased somewhat hard at points but never really got organized. We did swallow up many of the early escapees who were being popped by the pace set by Nate, Lawson, Anders and Ian up front though. So in the end it came down to a bunch sprint for 12th which I narrowly won over one of the Garmin riders, and the other guys finished 2nd,3rd,4th and 6th or something like that, with Gavin coming bloody and frustrated. By this point we were in the yellow jersey, white jersey, and the points jersey, and also sitting second in the KOM classification, and first in team GC.
Last night was the final stage, a twilight criterium in downtown Lexington. This was a really good course with 6 or 7 corners, lots of fans, a small climb and a very fast, wide road. It was fast right from the start and never let up, which was good for us because that kept everything safe. A few breaks would get up the road but for the most part we were in them and nobody would work with us, so they came back after not too long. Gavin and Anders did manage to get in a move that held onto about a 10 second advantage to the end, with Gavin taking yet another crit win this year, the man is a machine! With a lap and a half to go Lawson and I got on the front and got the lead out train going for Nate, who was defending not only the yellow jersey, but also the points competition with Jacob Rathe hot on his heels. This sprint was very important as there were 30 points up for grabs, which could bump Nate out of the red jersey should things go wrong. So, Lawson and I got to the front and drilled it, keeping the pace upwards of 50km/h so that nobody even though about trying to come around us. With a good 500 meters to the line Nate launched one of his ridiculously strong attacks, gained about a 10 meter gap and held it to the line, with none of the pure sprinters able to come around him. It was certainly something to see! So yet again we were number one on team GC, taking every stage for that competition and winning by over 15 minutes over second place. We all had such a great time together at this race and it was truly amazing to be part of such a trouncing. The thing about this team is nobody cares who gets the glory and we’re all willing to burry ourselves for whoever has the best shot. This clearly showed at this race compared to the other teams where the riders clearly had their own personal goals. I’m really proud to be a part of Hot Tubes 2009!
Next up is the famous Tour de l’Abitibi where I will be racing with the Canadian National team, and then I’m going overseas to Moscow for the World Championships. Lot’s more racing for this month! Thanks for reading!

Hot Tubes dominates pro 1/2 crit

2009-07-12T23:07:00.000-03:00

So yesterday was the first time this year that all 7 Hot Tubes riders were racing together. We were doing a pro 1/2 crit in Attleboro, MA and we were all super excited to be lining up with 7 guys. None of us were too concerned about this race as the next day, as I’m writing this in fact, we had a long drive to Kentucky for a big UCI 2.1 race which has great importance for some of the guy’s selection to World’s. So, needless to say, we weren’t tapering for this crit, but we still wanted to put on a show. Right off the bat Nate put out a blistering attack that nobody followed, and after a lap of him soloing I went to bridge up to give him a hand, but someone jumped on my wheel for the free ride. I wasn’t about to take anyone else up to my teammate, so I sat up, but instantly Lawson came by. This time the guy was unable to follow and Lawson made it up to Nate. After a few laps of that it came back together and Gavin attacked. He was on his own until Boswell flew across the gap to join him. So with another 2 guys off the front Lawson and I went to the front few riders to rip the life out of anything that that tried to make it across. We were sitting 2nd and 3rd wheel when I looked back to see that pack was nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t believe it because we were hardly even going hard, but right away I told Lawson to go to the front and drill it. He did and got a gap right away. So we had 2 in the lead, one more behind, and I was on my way too. I attacked in the climb and made the junction after about a lap. So now there were 4 Hot Tubers TTTing off the front with 3 more of us in the pack. We were rolling through fairly well, riding pretty fast but nothing more than a solid tempo. With 55km left in the race we had no idea how long we would be out there before either lapping the field, getting caught, or finishing up at the end, so we never put anybody into the red zone. After about 25 or 30km of the break we were seeing the pack, and within a lap or two after that we had lapped them. Nate came to the back to pace us up through the field so we had all 7 of us riding in the top 10 spots. We simply controlled the race from then on. Covering anything that looked dangerous and hauling anything that did get away back, after letting them sit out there and suffer without gaining any time at all of course. As the lap counter approached the bell lap we all made our way to the front and got the blue train going for one of the three guys who were not guaranteed a top 4. It looked pretty impressive watching so many of us working so well together when we watched the video of the race that night, and Nate ended up winning the field sprint to take 5th. Anders and Ben rolled in with the field in 14th and 23rd after selflessly doing the team job for the day. So, we had all 5 of the top 5 spots on the day and got many compliments about how well we worked together. We were all super pleased and it gives us great confidence going into this very important stage race in Kentucky.
Another thing I would like to mention about this race is how great the organization was. For a race that was almost cancelled due to lack of help, they were the nicest I have experienced at the registration office while I’ve been in the US. At the end of the race they had a bunch of food left that the volunteers hadn’t eaten, so they sent our team home with 3 pizzas, about 100 bagels, a big case of bottled water, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I doubt if anyone from the race will see this but if they do, thanks very much, I’m enjoying one of the bagels right now!
So next up is Kentucky, then flying to Abitibi, then World’s has been confirmed for me, and then back for Canada Games in the Atlantic. As of a few days from now things are going to get pretty crazy and I’m really excited to do so many races! I won’t have to do a training ride in about a month! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the report on Kentucky!

2009-07-05T10:01:00.003-03:00

Yesterday was the road race at the 2009 National Championships here in St. Georges de Beauce. We woke up to a chilly, rainy morning, but that seems to be a trend here in Beauce! Again, the race wasn't until the afternoon, so we had all morning to get ready. When the race finally came around the rain was really coming down and it had gotten even cooler, but for me I would rather that than super hot. Everyone basically just hid in their cars until the announcer called everyone to the line, then pretty soon after that things were under way. It started fairly quietly, with some of the favorites trying to get away early and avoid the dangers of a big pack in the rain. I tried a few times early on too, but none of the riders who had a good TT were able to get anywhere. This kind of course it seems the pack has to be willing to let you go to get into the break, it's not hard enough to take the choice away from everyone else. There were a few small breaks, but like I said, it was just people who would roll of the front and nobody would bother reacting. After a few more attempts to shake everyone else I realized nobody's legs were hurting enough for them to choose not to follow me, so I could see it was going to come down to a sprint. Not the greatest finish for me, but I figured I could be competitive with it. It was looking like that until about 8km to go another small group just spun off the front, no reaction came from anyone as it seemed they would be back within a few minutes. Then, as soon as they got about 30 seconds I was looking around hoping Quebec or BC would come to the front and bring it back since they had no riders in it, but for whatever reason they never did. That group ended up taking all the podium spots, with the pack coming in sprinting for 4th. I was boxed in with about 600 meters to go and starting to get jumpy. I saw a hole and jumped for it, knowing it would be closed soon. Once I got through there were still 350 meters to go, but it was too late to think twice about giving it everything. I punched hard and got a bit of a lead, but a few guys were able to come around me. I ended up finishing 4th in the sprint, making me 7th in the race. So, it was a bit of a disapointing race for me but I think everyone who was hoping for a Worlds spot was in the same boat. We all just marked each other and let the race get away. Crit today, supposed to be raining again so that will make it interesting! And on another note, Hot Tubes is absolutely dominating the Fitchburg stage race back in the US, winning every stage so far and in all kinds of jerseys. Way to go boys! Thanks for reading!

Nationals TT

2009-07-03T09:15:00.004-03:00

So yesterday was the time trial at the National Championships here in beautiful downtown St. Georges de Beauce. The TT wasn't until late in the day, so all morning all we could do was wait. I would much rather just get the riding over with in the morning so there is not so much time to think about it, but it was the same for everyone. I was one of the first riders to leave, since I registered earlier than most, but that was a good thing because they were calling for the rain to pick up later on.

Getting there we did the bike check to make sure everything was okay, it was very thorough, but I got through and everything was legal. Time to jump on the trainer and get the legs going. My warmup was perfect, and everything was feeling good. I was motivated for a good ride and wasn't thinking about anything but gold. In the start house I wasn't nearly as nervous as I normally am before time trials. The beeps started for 10 seconds to go and everything seemed to dissapear except me and my bike. After 6 more high pitched beeps of the clock I was rolling down the start ramp, ready for the next half hour of complete suffering. This course is a brutal one because it starts climbing so early. After taking riders through some very tight corners through the town there is a left hand turn and then there is a crucial 2kms of climbing, followed by another 3kms of false flats with a head wind. That was certainly where the race was won and lost. Going up the climb I was suffering, but it seemed to go by quickly. Once I thought the worst was over and I was done the actual climbing is when I was hit by a big gust of head wind rounding the corner to the false flats. I was pretty cooked from hammering up the climb, and I really suffered in this section. I was going way slower than I needed to be going, and struggled to get my rhythm back. After the head wind section I started to feel slightly better, but never really found a great rhythm. I tried just pushing through it but felt I was always fighting my bike. I shifted to an easier gear and got my cadence back up after the turn and tried to convince myself to just suffer for the next 12 minutes of downhill. Pushing as hard as I could I quickly got off the hill, into a very tight right hand turn and back to town. One last kicker of a climb would take me up to the finishing stretch, and then there would be one of the longest kilometers I've ever done. Through the corner taking me to this last hill I touched a pylon, but luckily didn't hit it any harder. Going over the last hill I was cooked, but tried to get on top of my gear and just hammer to the finish. Unable to stand any more I just sat and powered through. I think I almost hit the barriers going into the last 100 meters of the course, but I was so out of it by that point that I don't even know. I crossed the line and rolled until I could see straight again. Best time so far, but still all of the big names to come. After cooling down I went back to the tent to find that my time had been bested by Ontario's Matteo Dal Cin. He beat me by 10 seconds. That was certainly a big blow to hear, but I went as hard as I could have and left nothing on the course. That's all I can ask of myself, so I was pleased with the ride. With still many strong riders to come, I was still nervous about holding my place. As riders came through it held strong, and then the announcer came on the microphone saying Antoine Duchesne, the best returning rider from last year had got his minute man, another race favorite Ryan Aitchinson. That was incredible to hear and at that point I knew I would be at least bumped down to third, maybe even off the podium all together. As Antoine came across the line he had beaten me by a minute, but that meant that I was faster than Aitchinson by 2 seconds to hold third. It wasn't exactly what I came here to do, but it is certainly a good finish and I am proud of my ride. I know there was no amount of pushing that would have had me go a minute faster, so it's nice not to be thinking about places where I lost time. Everyone around the race seemed really impressed and although at first I was disapointed, I am starting to see that it is a good result. Next up is the road race tomorrow and then the crit on Sunday. Stay tuned for those reports!

Moncton Stage Race

2009-06-16T09:10:00.002-03:00

So this last weekend was the Mike's Bike Shop Cycling Club's stage race in Pres D'en Haut. It was on Sunday and in the morning we had a time trial with a circuit race in the afternoon. The TT was a 9km loop that was basically the same as the road course, only it excluded the steepest pitch that brings the road race to the finish. So, lately I have not been my best in time trials, and that isn't exactly a good thing this time of year, but it occured to me that it was likely due to the fact that I haven't really warmed up for TTs this year like I have in the past. While in Europe we didn't have trainers or anything, and over there you have to be at the start 15 minutes before your start time, so there isn't much point in getting a super good warmup in. Anyway, Sunday I brought my trainer out and did a proper warmup, which certainly seemed to help. I felt way better during the TT and was way more focused, so lesson learned! I ended up winning the time trial by a mere 4 seconds over 2nd place.

The road race started out under a nice sunny sky without too much wind. Early on a group of two, Jeff and Cara got away from the "A" group. They got a pretty good lead, but it didn't seem like anything too dangerous on this type of course. Then another 2, bridged up, which certainly made it more dangerous. Especially considering one of them was only 5 seconds behind me on GC. When that moved went I hadn't reacted especially quick, so instead of jumping to close the gap myself, I waited, fairly certain someone else would jump across and I could react to get the free ride, but nobody went. Once they got a bit of a lead the skies opened up to a torenchial downpour of hail, rain, and wind. It was epic to say the least! Despite chasing hard along side Hub Cycle's Kris Barr, without the help of most of the others we were unable to bring the gap back. We did catch all but one from the lead group, but he stayed out there until the end, and with one lap to go still had 1:30 on the pack. Having beaten him in the TT by 39 second, I knew that gap needed to come down quickly, so I chased like never before in an effort to bring it down to less than 39s. Coming over the last climb it was only Lorenzo and I left from the shattered field, and giving it everything I had I crossed the line in exhaustion. After wheezing and catching my breath on the side of the road, we speculated on what the time might have been, everyone knew it was very close. After asking, I found out that I was 1 second slow, finishing 40 seconds behind. I was dissapointed to say the least, but it was a very exciting race and I still raced well, so that's all I really care about at these races leading up to Nationals. So my agenda for this next few weeks is a little unclear, I may be going to Quebec for Pont Rouge this weekend, if not it will be Riverport in NS. After this weekend, I may either stay in Quebec until Nationals, or come home for a few days and then go back, but either way it seems that my time home is just about over for the summer. It certainly went quick but I am itching to get back on the road and racing with the team again. After Nationals is a big UCI race in Kentucky, then Abitibi, then hopefully Worlds before coming back for Canada Games. So, stay tuned, things are about to get pretty crazy on the stage race front! Thanks for reading!

Canada Games Test Race - PEI

2009-06-07T19:22:00.004-03:00

So this weekend I was on Prince Edward Island for a race where the Canada Games organization was testing out all their goodies for the Games starting August 15. They had some pretty cool goodies too, namely the biggest time trial start ramp I have ever seen and a nice new photo finish. Saturday morning mom and I packed the car to the brim with bikes, wheels, food, and lot's of lycra, and set on our way. First up was the time trial, which was somewhat frightening at the start. After the ever so cool start ramp was about 400m of horrible pavement, gravel in the corners, and families walking across the road. It was a school parking lot which really should have been left out, but thankfully there were no mishaps. After that, the TT was a brutally rolling course which had riders going 65km/h for a while, then grinding up a climb at 30km/h. It was tough for me because of my Junior gear and spinning like mad down the hills, but that's life as a 17 year old racing Elite. After all was said and done, I ended up in 3rd behind Justin Theriault and Ryan Taylor, but only a few seconds back, so it was not bad positioning.

That afternoon we had a 100km road race over another hilly course (and yes there are hills in PEI trust me) and in fairly hot and windy weather. Starting out everyone was taking it really relaxed, with all the GC contenders marking each other and letting the others have their glory going off the front. A few breaks got up the road a little bit, but they always came back after a while. Things started to heat up with about 50km to go, with some of the higher placed riders having a go at taking valuable time out of their competitors. At about that time, Ryan Taylor launched an attack on one of the climbs, and I was in my little ring at the time. Before accelerating I thought it would be a good idea to get into the big ring first, so I shifted up only to hear a nice snapping sound and no change of gearing. My front derailleur cable snapped right at the head, so that left me with only my little chainring and a Junior cassette to finish up on. I had half a lap to go before the feed zone, and I was sure I would be dropped on the downhills, but luckily I made time up on the climbs and was able to stick in with some very fast spinning and disgusting metal on metal noises from the chain rubbing the derailleur. That whole half-lap I was thinking how I could finish on a working bike. At first I thought about my time trial bike, but that would be really unsafe and would mean I couldn't contest the win, then it occured to me that mom had a phillips screwdriver in her pocket. At the feed zone I pulled off and locked the derailleur in the big ring position and got back on course. I tried not to panic and just took my time getting back to the field, and was pleased to find that there was only one rider ahead of the field and that nobody from the top 4 were away. By this point there was only about 20km left to race, and things were really starting to heat up. We chased down Kris Barr, the rider who had built up a lead of about 1:15, and instantly his teammate, Lorenzo Caterini attacked hard into one of the climbs. That basically decimated the field, as only Taylor, Theriault, and myself were able to follow. So, the top 4 from the TT were now fighting it out in the last bit of the road race, with only about 25 seconds separating all of us. Lorenzo accelerated into the next climb as well, and then I countered with a strong attack, which cracked Ryan and Justin. This left only the two of us hammering away, but after about 5 minutes of 2 riders versus 2 riders, they reeled us back. Soon after the exact same thing repeated itself, leaving only Lorenzo and me again. Since we were 4th and 3rd on GC we tried to work together to gain the time we needed, but again the other two came back to us. At that point there was only about 4km left to race, with the finish coming after a solid kicker of a hill. We knew it would finish with all of us because everyone was running on empty by this point. We played cat and mouse for a while trying to have the others take the lead and face the wind, but on the final climb it was Lorenzo again who went first. I hopped on his wheel instantly, but the others had no jump left to accelerate. With about 200m to go I sprinted past and took the lead. Trying to accelerate again my legs cramped, but I was able to sit and just power through to the finish, winning with a time gap of 1 second over Justin and Lorenzo, and 11 seconds over Ryan. This moved me into 2nd place overall, but didn't bring me all that much closer to winning. I was really pleased with the road race though, and feeling ready for the next day's criterium.

Today we had a criterium race around a 1.5km loop in downtown Summerside. It had a fierce headwind along the finishing stretch, and a nice 150 degree turn 250 meters before the line. It started out with a few riders going up the road, but that came back after a while. As soon as it got really hard with attacks coming from the GC contenders, I put the hammer down and opened a decent gap. I drove it as hard as I could, and was soon joined by Derek Hughes. We stayed out together until there were only about 5 minutes left in the race, then he had had enough. As he dropped back to the chasing pack, Lorenzo bridged up to me, but by the time he had gotten there the peloton was too close. We were reeled in with no hope of gaining any significant time for the rest of the race. After that there were a few riders who tried a last minute move, and Cory Jay was able to hold off the sprinting field to take the win. I won the field sprint for second, but without any time bonuses didn't make up any time on 1st place. So the final GC was Theriault 1st, me 2nd, and Taylor 3rd. I know I had a great weekend and was really pleased with where my form is at with only 4 weeks to go before Nationals. Now time for a few hard weeks of training and then up to Beauce at the end of the month. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next weekend's report from the Moncton Stage Race.

Hartford crit/Tour of Somerville

2009-05-26T09:18:00.003-03:00

So this weekend we were doing a bunch of crits. First off was the Hartford Downtown Criterium Pro1/2 race. The field was pretty solid, with a full squad of Kelly Benefit riders, some Colavita, a Jelly Belly guy or two, and all kinds of other super strong dudes. We were going in with me, Nate, and Gavin. The course was a pretty fast one with a slight rise on each lap. The laps were just over a km long, which doesn't take long in a field like this. We started out fast, and I tried to be aggresive. I got into a couple moves, but nothing was sticking. I thought for sure that one of them would though, there were 4 Kelly Benefit riders, one guy from Colavita, a Jelly Belly rider, me, and maybe 2 more. That didn't leave all that many teams unaccounted for, so who would be chasing us? Well, apparantly Kelly Benefit wasn't happy with half the guys from the break being on their team, because the 2 who didn't make the split hauled us back, and the 4 who did wouldn't drive it! I don't know what they wanted, all 6 of them team time trialling off the front? Anyway, thats life. We tried a few more times, but time was running out and it was apparant that our sprinter extraordinaire, Gavin Mannion was going to have to take over. With one lap to go I was sitting 3rd wheel, looking back I couldn't see any blue jerseys. Okay, I thought, this could be a problem, especially since there was a crash with 2 to go. I thought that Nate and Gavin might be caught up with that. In reality, Nate was bringing Gavin up through the field and put him right on my wheel. Not knowing he was even there, I thought I had to do something since there was no way I was winning the sprint. So, with 600m to go I attacked as hard as I could. I opened a small gap, but one of the Kelly riders closed it. I knew I was cooked there. Luckily, that basically just started a really good leadout for Gavin. He was sitting 3rd wheel and jumped out of the last corner. He took everyone by surprise winning the field sprint in junior gears! It was a great result and we were all super happy!

Next up was the Tour of Somerville on Memorial Day Monday. This was a really big crit with a bit of a strange course. It had two stretches of road that were about 800m and two that were about 100m. It also wasn't very windy, and dead flat, making it really tough to get away. In the Junior race we were again very aggresive. We knew we had the dominant team, and we intended to show it. Right from the start we were making moves, but since the course was not really hard enough to make the others really suffer, nothing was sticking. We did manage to deaden everyone else's legs so that we could take all the primes though! This was good. Again, this one was going to come down to a field sprint after the very fast 11 laps. The plan was the same, for Nate to bring Gavin up to my wheel and I would launch him. This was going great, and Gavin jumped from my wheel to go flying up the road. Just as he passed me though, two riders in the middle were pushing each other to fight for position. I don't understand why, they were boxed in by everyone else and Gavin was long gone, but they still were. Unable to control their bikes, one of them ended up unclipping from his pedal at about 60-65km/h, causing them both to crash and take out about 10 riders. I was probably the 4th to go down in the domino effect of the crash. I slid for what seemed like forever, before finally stopping and thinking, "meh, not so bad." Just then I feel 4 wheels go piling over my back as the crash claimed two more victims. That's when it started to hurt! So, I picked myself up, gathered my bottles, sunglasses, Ibike, and anything else that had fallen off and headed back to the bus to get cleaned up. In the sprint, Gavin took the win, so that was another excellent result. At the bus I realized my road rash had a lot more dirt in it than I thought, so I went to the first aid crew for some ever so pleasant hydrogen peroxide. They cleaned it out nicely, then wrapped me up. They were going to make me go to the hospital because I didn't have a parent with me, but I eventually convinced them to let Toby sign for me. After all that mess, there was one lap left in the race before the Cat 2 race that we had planned on doing. I ran back to the bus, changed my wheel as I had a flat tire, and hopped on heading for registration. They were lined up and ready to go as I got there, and just as I was about to get my numbers the whistle blew for them to start. I asked if I could have my free lap to get my numbers on, but no such luck! My day was done. So, it was still a really fun race and I am happy with where my form is at. I guess Junior crits are bound to have massive pileups, so no sense getting mad about it. Hopefully I will be feeling better in time for the Halifax crit next weekend! I will be home now for all of June racing and finishing up school. I am a little sad to be leaving the New England race scene, but it will be nice to be home for a while too. Thanks for reading!

Lake Sunapee Road Race

2009-05-17T09:34:00.003-03:00

So now that we are back in the US, it is just Gavin and me here in the Boston area to take on the New England circuit, as the other guys are either racing with the US National Team, or gone home for a while before their Worlds qualifyers. So, yesterday we set out to the Lake Sunapee pro 1/2 road race, which had a field of only 45, but one or two domestic pros on the start list. The course was about 110km with a decent amount of climbing, but nothing long enough to really make people suffer. From the gun the pace was very relaxed, which was a nice change from the 60km/h neutral starts in Belgium! Once we hit the hilly section is where we started to ramp it up. I got in a few moves over the climbs, but I quickly realized that my legs had no jump what so ever. I tried to recover a little, but still wasn't feeling great. I guess I am probably still feeling the effects of Europe, but that's life I guess. The move that finally stuck got away on the fast downhill section with guys just rolling away in their 53/11, so Gavin and I just looked at each other with our Junior gears and shrugged. All we could hope for was that it would be brought back. After a while it wasn't looking good for that, they were pretty much gone. We tried like crazy on the hilly section to get a small group to bridge across, but it seems as though we were the marked guys of the bunch. Nobody would let a blue jersey get up the road, and we got hauled back every time. A group did get away, but again, it was on the downhill part, so we missed it again! This was obviously very frustrating for the two of us, but thats the way it goes. We rolled in with what was left of the pack, and I led Gavin out for the sprint. He took it, and I got 3rd. I think we probably finished 11th and 13th or something like that, but I really don't know. So, despite feeling less than par, it was an okay race, and at least I got in a good training ride! So, next weekend we will have some race on Sunday, and then Monday is the Somerville crit, then I will be back home for a while to finish up on school and do some races around the maritimes, looking forward to it! Thanks for reading!

Trophee Centre Morbihan

2009-05-11T17:49:00.001-03:00

Last weekend I was in Locmine, France with the rest of the guys on the Hot Tubes spring trip. After a very interesting drive from Belgium, where the bus broke down and we had to figure out a way to get there in French, we arrived at the hotel on Thursday afternoon. We rode around the town for the next two days, getting used to the finishing circuits for the last day and the time trial course. They both seemed extremely tough, which proved to be correct on Sunday while racing on them!

So the race started on Saturday afternoon with a 109km road race with the last 45km over 6 laps of a very tough finishing circuit through town. A break went up the road a little under halfway through the race, with Lawson in it, so the rest of us were in good position for a while. Once we got close to the circuits, the race really started to take shape. Everyone wanted to be at the front for when the moves would really start, and fortunately I was up there when they did come. As we were coming into town, I saw Lawson coming back through the pack without any of the other guys from the break. Unfortunately he had flatted and couldn’t get back into the break. After that the attacks were coming left and right. We were trying to cover anything that went if it had one of the big teams in it, and we were doing well with that. Nate and I found ourselves in a group of about 15 trying to get up to the 4 guys who were still about 45 seconds up. With Nate being the defending champ though, this was easier said than done. Nobody was willing to work with us, so we had to try on our own. Nate would attack, and everyone would chase him like crazy, then I would go, and they would chase me, but not quite as quickly, I guess I wasn’t quite as marked as him! Anyway, after trying way too many times to count, we got hauled back every time and finished 36 seconds down, but about a minute up on the rest of the field. This put us in good position going into the TT.

Sunday morning we had a 7.5km TT over a course that was up and down, finishing on a kicker of a hill into Naizin. I was sitting in 5th place in the young rider classification with no time gap between any of us. Warming up I was feeling pretty good, a little stiff from the day before, but very motivated. I started out fast, feeling strong up the hills and trying to recover a bit on the downhill sections. With about 2km to go I was pretty much tapped out, but just had to suffer up two more climbs. I thought I was going to die going up to the finish, but came across the line with a decent time of 10:05. The winner was the same guy who won on Saturday, with a ridiculous time of 9:15! Nate had some bike troubles which lost him about a minute, so he wasn’t able to make that back up in such a short distance. After this stage, I was sitting 16th on GC, and 4th in the young rider, 8 seconds back with only one stage to go.

Sunday afternoon was the last stage, it was 98km with about 45km on another tough finishing circuit through Locmine. It was all or nothing for Nate and me to go for the win on GC, and the others were covering everything perfectly since they were too far back in time. Although there were a few breaks early, they all got hauled back before the circuits. I was trying to be as patient as possible, as I knew all hell would break loose in the last 50km. Coming into town there was a group up the road, Nate tried his luck attacking the yellow jersey a few times, but they would always chase him down. Even when the yellow jersey’s team wouldn’t, DCM or Avia would, even though they were not really racing for anything, which was very frustrating. With about 2 laps to go, I was in a break of about 6 riders with a 15 second gap on the field. The blue jersey for the best young rider was in it, but I could see he was suffering, and I knew that if I wanted any hope of yellow I had to go now to make up the 1:26 gap. I attacked hard out of a corner on one climb, and saw the blue jersey cracking. At that point I just put my head down and gave it everything I could. After a little while out there, DCM brought me back, and unfortunately the blue jersey had enough left to stay in the pack. By this point there was less than a lap left, and Nate and I had done everything we could to get rid of the GC contenders. Gavin thought he could win the sprint, so then we focused what very little energy we had left to getting him to the front. I was bringing him up the field in the last km, but got swamped in one corner and lost him. He still managed to pull off a 12th on the stage though, even without a lead out like the other sprinters had! So, in the end I moved up one spot in the young rider to put me in 3rd, and finished 14th on GC. Not exactly the results we were hoping for as a team, but being the one team that was marked by everyone, it was tough to win! I learned a lot at this race and I’m really pleased with how it went, and hopefully next year will be even better! Thanks for reading!

Hot Tubes Domination in Belgium

2009-05-03T14:17:00.003-03:00

So since we couldn't get into the interclub race today, we decided to hit up the local kermis that was about 30km away. We got there to see a field of about 90 riders, us with 5. This race was 13 laps of about a 7km loop which was dead flat with big cross winds. It started out and right away Lawson went off the front. Then Nate bridged up to him to leave Gavin, Anders and I with the peloton. We were focused on ripping the life out of any group that wanted to get across, so we just took turns marking breaks. Gavin got into a large group that managed to get up to Lawson and Nate, so that gave us 3 guys in the break and Anders and me covering the attacks. Then Anders got into another group that went over, leaving me with the crazy Belgians who were getting madder and madder at me for not chasing my teammates. I got yelled at in many different languages today, that's for sure! So by this point the pack had been whittled down to only about 30 riders. 2 of them seemed very intent on dropping me, but they wouldn't work together, so it made my job very easy. Up the road Anders, Nate, and Lawson got away from their breakaway group with just the three of them riding a team time trial, with Gavin keeping an eye on anyone else who tried to bridge up to them.

Back with my group, there were 3 riders who attacked hard and opened a gap, so I jumped up to them to see if I could have their help to get me close to Gavin's group, and then try to solo the rest. We were going really well and making up some time, but then one of them decided to stop pulling through, and that made the whole effort useless, since everyone else got lazy at that point too. So, back to the ever diminishing peloton with us. After that I tried a few more times to get over the gap with various riders, but none of them were successful.

So, here's the part that confused me. After about 8 laps, as we came through the finish, I guess the announcer said that this was our last lap, but of course it was in Flemish, so I didn't get any of it! I guess they have some rule that once you get 4 or 5 minutes behind the leaders, they will pull you, even if it is the peleton! So the next lap, everyone started sprinting, which confused me very much. I thought they were just starting to ramp the pace up, so after going through the finish I kept riding through until one of the marshalls told me to stop. That was when I realized that everyone else had stopped. Anyway, I think it's a stupid rule, but that's life I guess. Only 9 riders ended up finishing the race!

While I was sitting on the side of the road wondering what just happened (as I still hadn't heard about the pulling rule), I see Nate, Anders, and Lawson come flying through looking super fast. Then Gavin came by a little later in complete control of his group. In the end, the trio stayed away and took 1,2,3 and Gavin got 3rd in the sprint to take 6th in the race. We got every prime except the one really wanted, the esspresso machine, but that's okay. Everyone was super pleased with the race, not exactly the way I wanted to finish, but I went for a good training ride after at least! So next it's off to France for the UCI 2.1 Trophee Centre Morhiban, stay tuned for a report on that!

Hoboken Kermis Race - Belgium

2009-05-01T13:39:00.003-03:00

So, at the moment I'm in Belgium with 3 of my Hot Tubes teammates, Nate, Gavin, and Anders, with Lawson coming tomorrow. We got here on Wednesday and after a few rides here, we had our first race today in Hoboken. This was an interclub Junior race with about 200 starters. The atmosphere as we got there was just insane, there were team buses everywhere, riders with funny haircuts everywhere, and old men smoking who actually know their cycling.

So, after some confusion with the sign in sheet (we signed our numbers, but apparantly two teams had the same numbers!), we got lined up and set off for 120km of racing with about 100 corners. For this race we did two loops of 50km, then 2 finishing circuits of 10km each.

The first 50km was the craziest of my life, riders going all over the road, a ridiculous amount of traffic furniture, cobbles, and 200 Junior Belgians trying to kill each other. I came within about an inch of running into a post sticking out of the road at 65km/h, and then the same with a car parked on the side of the road later on, but I managed to stay on my bike and away from the 3 or 4 massive pileups for the whole time. Always a plus in my books!

The other new thing for me was racing on cobbles, there was a section on each lap of the 50km, as well as one in the last km of the finishing circuits. The last one had a 180 degree turn over train tracks too, which made it super slippery.

So, after settling down and calming the nerves a bit, Nate and I gave a try at bridging up to the big breakaway that was about a minute up the road with Gavin in it. We got into a group of about 15 and started hammering. I was suffering terribly, but we were making up time. Then all of a sudden our group stopped working together and although we were really close to the break, nobody could close the gap on their own, and we got caught by the pack again. So, we tried to recover as much as possible since there was only about 25km left to go. When we entered the finishing circuit it was certainly tougher to be at the front. Everyone was fighting for position. By this point I was really suffering, but the laps went by really quick. I have no idea what was going on, but I think a group of about 25 got away, but never caught the original break, which also split up. All I really know is that there were riders everywhere, and that I came in towards the front of my group. I am not sure, but I think I was 54th or something like that.

So, after 3 hours of suffering it was finally finished. I am really happy with how I raced and what I learned. I was hoping for a better result, but thats life, I got what was important out of the race and I think I will be much better prepared for the next one now that I know what to expect. Anyway, thats all for now, sorry for such a vague report, I really have no idea what happened in the race, it was just basically go hard as long as you can! Thanks for reading!

Hot Tubes Training Camp - Georgia

2009-04-24T21:50:00.002-03:00

I am sitting here at the house we are staying at in Georgia for our Hot Tubes training camp and I must say, I am quite nackered after 5 days of long rides, bowling, poker, white water rafting, and other team building activities. We arrived on Sunday afternoon after driving from Battenkill and were all very tired from the drive. That night, we put our bikes together and got any team equipment that we didn't already have. I'm not sure if my room is big enough to fit all my new cycling kits!

On Monday we went out for a long ride where we climbed Hogpen Gap, a 15km climb that is very challenging. We rode hard all the way, with many of us going through multiple stages of suffering. In the end, Anders emerged victorious over Nate, and I rolled in a little while after that. Gavin came in a bit later, and waited on top for the rest. After a long while waiting, we saw the van drive up with the rest of the guys on board, so we hopped in too and drove back to the house. It was truly an epic ride and I was really pleased with where my form was.

Tuesday was another good long ride. This day we did Brasstown Bald, the most famous climb from the Tour of Georgia. This one is much shorter, only about 5km, but it is horribly painful for the first 3, then the last 2 are slightly easier. The max grade that I saw on my Ibike was 23% and it stayed there for a good 700m! I'm not going to lie, I was swerving in the road! We rode at a solid tempo for the first 2km, then I surged a little and opened a gap. Then I just hammered to stay away from everyone who was chasing hard and was the first to the top. After that we did the other side of Hogpen, which was way harder than the first, but we weren’t going so hard up this one. After Hogpen we just rode back for a good ways before hopping in the van for the drive back home.

Wednesday was the “flat” ride of the week. For this one we just basically rode a solid tempo the whole way and worked on chasing down breaks. Towards the end we were all getting bored, so we split into two teams and had a 16km race. I missed the split, but after Lawson and I chased as hard as we could, Toby came back in the van and motorpaced me at 85km/h back up to the leaders, and I flew by in the draft to get a solid gap that I held off until the finish. I think the real winner of the day was Anders though, since he was the first to cross the line without motorpacing.

Thursday we were going to do Hogpen and Wolfpen Gaps, but we couldn’t find Wolfpen, so we only ended up doing Hogpen for the last time. Again, we were taking this one fairly steady, so it wasn’t too bad. After the ride we had the annual bowling world championships. Although my team, led by Captain Downtown, gave it a great effort, we were unable to come up with the goods to beat our arch rivals, Gavin’s team. Good work anyway guys, we gave it a good shot!

Finally, this brings us to today. We got up early to ride to the white water rafting place. After the 30km ride to get there, we hiked the boats into the river, and went out for a day of rafting in some awesome rapids. This was really great fun and we actually didn’t tip the boat! Definitely a wicked time was had by all! So, this was a really great week and it was nice to meet all the guys who I hadn’t before. We are driving back to Boston tomorrow, and then flying to Europe on Tuesday of next week. Our first race there is on Friday, so I will try to get a report up for that one. Thanks for reading!

Battenkill-Roubaix

2009-04-20T09:18:00.002-03:00

Well, I am presently in the Hot Tubes van on our way to training camp in Georgia, just finished the Battenkill Roubaix race, the queen of American classics. Anders, Gavin and I were doing this one together, so it was good to have a couple teammates for the Cat 2 race. There were 100 riders to start this one and when we got going it was warm and fairly sunny, which was nice, but in reality we were all hoping for rain!
Starting out was fairly chill until the first dirt section, then all hell broke loose. Everyone fighting to be in the front, but luckily all 3 of us were on the front driving it on the first dirt road climb. This was steep and the gravel was loose, making it tough to ride, but like I said, being on the front made it do-able. I think some of the guys at the back were forced to run, but I’m not entirely sure. So after that there were lots more dirt road sections, some good climbs, and the rain even showed up about halfway through, wahoo! The dirt descents were certainly sketchy, my back wheel was going all over the place on most of them, but luckily no crashes! Although I had good luck keeping the rubber side down, I didn’t have such great luck keeping air in my tires. On one of the dirt sections I flatted in the rear, darn! So, up goes the hand, but the wheel van was really far back, and then he couldn’t find a wheel with a junior gear. So, by the time I got that changed, and got back on, the pack was a ways up the road, and only about 20km to go. That wasn’t the end of my troubles either, since I had to change my wheel on the dirt road, I got a bunch of gravel in my cleats, so for the next 4km of climbing I couldn’t clip into my pedals. Once I got to the top, some dude pushed me while I cleaned them out, so thanks buddy!
So, despite a really hard chase, I couldn’t catch back on to the group, the guys said that right after I flatted is where the selections were made, so that sucks for me, but Gavin ended up getting second in a sprint of 4 riders away, and Anders came in with the first chase group to get 7th. So a really good team effort, Toby got a whole bunch of compliments on how dominant we rode throughout, so that’s great! I was super pleased with where my form was for this time of the season too. Well, that’s all the news for today, time for me to sit in the van for the next 15 hours before camp! Thanks for reading!

Pavement 1, Stuart 0

2009-04-11T20:43:00.003-03:00

Well, today was the Ninigrit crit where Gavin and I went out to race the Pro 1/2 race. It was pouring rain and cold (It actually snowed as we were coming home!), so that was good for someone from up north! The race started really well, Gavin was jumping on everything that moved, and I was racing well and shutting down any attempt of a chase group. I felt really strong and had great legs, but about half way through someone came off his line and took my front wheel right out from under me. Apparantly someone was trying to take off a jacket and that caused it, but I have no idea. I went down and slid along the chipseal road quite a ways, but thats racing for you. My thigh and hip is a bit torn up, but nothing too bad. When I got up to get back on, my bars were bent right around and shifters all crooked, and I couldn't get them straight, so that was that and my day was done. I got changed and watched Gavin shred up the rest of the race, making his breakaway companions suffer the whole way. So, not the greatest race for me, but what can you do? I'm looking forward to Battenkill-Roubaix next week, hopefully that goes much better. I think I am getting my new power meter this week too, a Quarq Cinqo with an Ibike Iaero, so I'm super excited about that. I'll let you know how that works out. Thanks for reading!

Well's Ave training crit

2009-04-06T15:05:00.002-03:00

After my training camp in North Carolina, I am now in Bolton, MA staying with Hot Tubes director Toby Stanton. On Sunday I had my first race as a Hot Tubes rider at the Well's Ave training crit. This was a 40 lap race around basically an oval, with a strong head wind in the finishing stretch. My teammate Gavin Manion was also there, so it was good to race with him.
From the start there were a few attacks, and since I had no idea who the strong riders were, I went with anything that moved. My legs were certainly feeling the 15 hours of driving and 2 hours of sleep the day before, but all things considered, I felt strong. After the first prime there was a rider away, so I bridged up to him. Then after another lap, 2 other riders bridged to us, including Gavin. With the 4 of us working fairly well, we were able to open a large gap and stay out there for a good 10 laps before another 3 or 4 made their way up to the leaders. So about halfway through the race we had established a solid group with Gavin, me, two others who seemed like they could contest the win, and a few others who were basically just hanging on for dear life. My legs started to really come around at this point too, so that was great. The group stayed together and preserved the lead for the next 10 or 12 laps before anyone started attacking. After that Gavin and I, being the only team with two riders in the break, decided to attack. I went first, got caught, then he went, same thing, and so on. This whittled the break down to only him and me as well as one more guy. With 2 laps to go, he attacked just as I was reeled back by the other rider, and it seemed like the other rider was going to let him go. He looked back at me trying to get me to chase, but that was certainly not happening! So, he did bring Gavin back, and with 1 to go I went. Buddy got right on my wheel, but then countered and I was able to jump into his draft. Rounding the last corner I was still in his wheel, with Gavin about a hundred meters back. I jumped with 200 meters to go and opened enough of a gap to take the win, and Gavin sprinted by the other guy to take 2nd. We raced perfectly together and it worked out nicely. I was pleased to get my first win of the season and really love being able to work together with teammates. So, that’s about all the news, thanks for reading!

Asheville - Day 3-6

2009-04-02T21:20:00.002-03:00

After driving to Asheville early Monday morning since it was raining in Boone, we went for a nice 4 and a half hour ride under the beautiful sun. It was soooo nice riding in knee warmers instead of 4 pairs of tights! I even got a sock tanline! So, on this ride we did a few mountain passes, got chased by a bunch of dogs, and stopped at a nice coffee shop. So, all was well, even though we didn't get to do Beach Mountain, I would rather ride in the sun than rain!

The next day I just decided to go for a recovery ride. I didn't really think 5 hour rides every day would be a great thing to do, so a recovery ride was the perfect solution. I just spun around asheville with a few of the others who didn't want to go on the regular death ride!

Yesterday I decided to go into the red zone a little bit. On one long 20km ride, I decided to do MAP intervals - 2 minutes at 400 watts is really brutal after long rides for most of the week! I was really pleased with what I got done though, and again the weather was really nice.

Today was the ride that can only be called "The Epic". 130km with 8 mountain passes. What a sweet day. It had everything, wind, rain, steep climbs, fast descents, and even a dirt road. It would make the perfect classics race course, thats for sure! Climbing felt really awesome today, I couldn't believe how stong the legs felt, and descending was soooo much fun! So, after today, I ate a rediculous amount of food, and now I am going to pack up. Next stop, Bolton, MA for two weeks, and then Georgia for the Hot Tubes training camp. There will be a few races over the next two weeks, I know I am doing Battenkill Roubaix on the 18th, and possibly some others, not sure yet. I will try to keep you posted on how those go. Thanks for reading!

Boone, NC - days 1 and 2

2009-03-29T19:00:00.002-03:00

Well, as some of you know I am in North Carolina for the next week on a training camp with a bunch from Fredericton and a few from Moncton. We drove down on Friday afternoon, overnight Friday, and then arrived here in Boone on Saturday morning. With everyone really excited, we ate a quick breakfast before hopping on the bikes for a ride. It was pooring rain here, but at least it was nice and warm.

On the agenda for the day was a 110km ride with 3 really big gaps and a few others worthy of mentioning. Riding here is so amazingly fun, especially after the long Canadian winter everyone has been through for the last few months. We were all super excited to be riding and it showed in the pace we were riding. I felt awesome on all the climbs, despite finishing a 22 hour drive only about an hour before hopping on the bike! It's a huge confidence booster to be able to test the fitness on long, steep climbs after spending so much time riding indoors, trying to simulate climbs. So, the three major climbs were Snake mountain, Clark's Creek, and some other that I forget the name of. I would have to give the toughest climb award to Clark's Creek, but Snake was certainly the steepest. Clark's Creek just kept going on and on, and every corner you went around it would kick up even steeper. So, after all the climbing we hammered home on a beautiful winding road with rolling hills and awesome pavement. With a nice paceline going we were able to fly along and get home to a nice warm shower.

Today was a cool day, but no rain. It was super windy though, but still much nicer than March in New Brunswick! The climbs today were not quite as steep, but there were some fun ones. The descents today were really great too, you could just let your bike fly through the corners worry free on the super clean pave. I did misjudge one switchback, almost flying over the edge, but I grabbed a handful of brakes and was able to scrub enough speed to coast into the shoulder and then get back up to speed. I can't get over how amazing it feels to fly down a mountain on a bike. At home, we have straight, boring hills that you just tuck and go super fast down, but here they are so winding and technical. Completely different feeling, I don't think I will want to leave! So, after a shorter ride for me I got back to the hotel and stretch and recover. Tomorrow should be a sweet day, supposed to be super warm and less wind. We are climbing Beach Mountain tomorrow, the climb Lance Armstrong used to train for one of his Tour de France wins, so that one should be good fun! Check back in the next few days for an update on how that goes!

Winter Cross Classic and Canada Games Camp

2009-02-09T17:36:00.004-04:00

Well, after a long while with nothing really going on aside from a lot of training, this weekend provided a much needed organized event. On Saturday we had the fourth annual Winter Cross Classic in Dieppe. This is always the highlight of my winter season, and I spent the whole week leading up to the race thinking about nothing but it. I was very excited to get on my bike and just go like crazy, even if the race isn't overly competitive!

So, on Saturday morning you can imagine how excited I was about the race. Needless to say, it has been a long two months since the last race. I jumped on my bike to ride out to the course way sooner than I needed to, but I got in a solid training ride before the race started, so that was good. When the race started I took off and got the holeshot, my favorite part about cross racing, and from there I never looked back. Jeff Currie, the winner for the last three years came close to catching me on the second lap, but the way this race worked, riders would often gain lots of time on the laps they didn't find themselves in a snow bank, but lose lots of time on the laps they did crash. So, I put in a really smart couple laps after that, taking good lines and avoiding and mishaps to regain my gap. From there I just tried to focus on riding as much as possible in the sections where most were running, but it was tough with all the deep footsteps in the snow. Also, as the race went on, there were more and more holes dug from riders' front wheels digging in, making it very easy to flip over the handlebars. Even with this, though, the course was super fun - technical enough to make it challenging but everything was rideable with a good line. In the end, I kept a good gap over the rest of the field and finished strong for the win.

Here's some pictures taken by Melanie Bordage at the finish on the left and one showing a tricky section of the course on the right.

So, I think everyone had a really great time playing in the snow, and I know for me it was a great way to get away from riding the rollers and really motivating to start racing again! Thanks to everyone who helped out, it was super fun and hopefully we can make the 5th edition even better!

The second half of the weekend was also geared around cycling. Team New Brunswick had a camp for the upcoming Canada Summer Games. The camp was in Fredericton, NB. We had a fun day doing some yoga, talking about nutrition, bike fit, and training time, as well as a nice 2 hour trainer ride. Since I was racing in Quebec during the first camp, this was my first opportunity to meet some of the riders, and it was good to get to know everyone else a little better. I don't know if my racing schedule will allow me to race at the games on PEI in August, but if I am able to I think it will be a fun week with this group of riders. So, that capped off the weekend and now its back to training in the basement! Now that the days are getting longer I may get my cross bike out more after school though, that would certainly be a lot more fun! Thanks for reading!

DIY Free Motion Rollers

2008-12-26T11:30:00.005-04:00

Well, a while ago I started a project to build a set of free motion rollers, similar to the ones from Inside Ride, only a lot cheaper! Well, I've had them done for some time, but I have been tweeking them and can now say I am quite happy with them. There are still some adjustments to be made, but I think they do the trick quite nicely for now.

So, I decided to share my creation with my wonderful fans, so that you too can make a set if you like! Below are some instructions, as well as a video that my brother Andy made. Let me know if you have any questions. Also, below my instructions for the ones I actually built, I have included what I might have done differently a second time.

Materials:
3 pieces of 2x4 that are 8’ long each

6 (only need 4 if your rollers are non folding) roller blade wheels

2 medium size bungee cords

2 hooks that screw into wood

2 sheets of plywood (4 feet by 2 feet each)

A bunch of 2” screws

A drill with 1/4” and 3/16” bits (if you can find bits that are made to drill metal, it’ll go a lot quicker)

Rollers

2 thin tracks of aluminium with a slight lip (hard to explain, but you should be able to find them in your local hardware store. These are to help the wheels slide on the somewhat soft plywood and the lip on the edge keeps the wheels from moving side to side so they don’t rub against the 2x4.)

Glue

Procedure:
Drill 3/16” holes in each of the legs on your rollers, and then widen those holes out to 1/4"

Attach a roller blade wheel to each leg using the bolts that came with the roller blades, they should be long enough
Lay your plywood out so it forms a 2’x8’ sheet.

Lay your rollers on top and place the tracks of metal under the wheels so that the wheel cannot move from side to side.

Glue the tracks down with good carpenters glue.

Place two of the 2x4s running along the sides of the rollers, they should be close to touching the wheels, but not rubbing

Measure 1’ on either side of the ends of the rollers, and then cut it to size. If you have a resistance unit like the one pictured, then cut the board on the side of the unit so that it is 1’ away from the unit. This way the unit can slide forward as far as it needs to. For the rest of this side, use a strip of leftover plywood to make a slight edge so the wheels don’t get out of place
Now cut the end pieces of 2x4 however wide you need them. Again, leave room for the resistance unit on the back and just use another strip of plywood to keep the wheels from rolling back

Screw all the 2x4s into the plywood

Screw in the hooks in the center of each end board

Attach the bungee cords to the hooks and the rollers through some hole near the ends of the frame; you may need to drill some more

That’s it, time to ride!

After doing this, I realised it could have been done a lot easier. If I were to make another set, I would just put the wheels on, lay out two 2x4 or 2x3 boards with the wide side down for tracks, then add end boards to screw the hooks into. Add in some sort of smaller board or piece of metal to act as a lip on the inside of the tracks to keep the wheels from moving side to side, and be done. However, I have no idea if this will work. I think it would, but the wheels might dig slightly into the track, that is what happened to me with the sheet of plywood, and thats why I needed the aluminum track. So, if anyone tries this, let me know if it works!

So, like I said, if you have any questions, post them in the comments section or email me. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do (as much as indoor riding can be called "enjoyed" anyway!)

Nova Scotia 'cross provincials

2008-12-07T19:36:00.004-04:00

Well, who would have thought that on December 7th, we could still have bike races in the maritimes, but despite a forcasted snow storm, we set out to Halifax for Nova Scotia's provincial championships. There was a lot of hype going on about this race, and a fair bit of trash talk in the weeks leading up to the event, so everyone was really enthusiastic. When we showed up it was raining and quite chilly, but at least not snowing!

On the line there were a number of big names for the Open field, with a bunch of past National Cyclocross medalists. We set off into a strange start, which was singletrack after only about a hundred meters, so it bottlenecked quite a bit as everyone was fighting for position. I was sitting in fourth wheel for the first half lap, then I had a great run-up on the slippery off camber section and gained about a 5 second gap. When I looked back to see that I had the gap, I think I got a bit excited and turned on the jets into the downhill corner. Big mistake, I hit the deck and slid about 20 feet in the mud. I got up to find my bike another 10 feet away, so I ran to get it, but by that time the three I was with were a pretty good ways up on me. I tried to bridge up, but then they started throwing attacks and I couldn't do it. Although I was dissapointed by that, I don't think I would have stayed with them for the whole race anyway, but I would have liked a little longer! After that I was sitting in 4th when the guy behind me caught up. We rode together for half a lap, but then I crashed again in more mud. It was a super slick course! So, I got back on to find my shifter bent, but luckily the pit wasn't far and I got a bike change. After a few laps I caught back onto the new 4th place rider, and then got a boost of energy and put the hammer down. I was more careful on the corners for the last half of the race, and gained some time on the rest of the field, so I was really pleased with that. I finished a respectable 4th place, and had a lot of muddy clothes to show for it.

Great job on the race to the Cyclesmith crowd, and thanks to Terry for being MC-extrodinaire! Also a huge thanks to Luc for being in the pit. That would not be a job that I would want, and I think he ended the day muddier than the racers! Everyone had a blast, and I am just glad my toes have finally thawed out! So, now that the 2008 season is officially done, I have a couple monthes of training before I get back at it. They will hopefully fly by and I'm sure that before I know it I will be racing again! Thanks for reading!

Pie Cross (Fredericton)

2008-11-18T19:39:00.002-04:00

The last race of the NB Cup cyclocross series was held on Sunday in Island View (close to Fredericton). It had been pooring rain and quite windy there for a few days before the race, so of course it was super muddy, just the way 'cross is meant to be! Despite the rain, it was really warm on race day, which was nicer than 2 degrees and freezing rain! The race got going and soon everyone was completely covered in mud, as you can see from the picture up top which was taken by Heidi King. All the mud made for slow going, but the course was so much fun that you didn't even really notice. I think it was marked better than Nationals too, pretty good for a Provincial race! So, after eating a pile of mud, I finished second again, but I won the series because I had gone to all the races. Thanks a bunch to Andrew Arsenault, the organizer for such a great race. He put a lot of work into the race and it really shows, so thanks again!

Now racing in New Brunswick is over for the year, and there is one more 'cross race in Nova Scotia. I can't believe the season has gone by so quickly, it seems like only a few weeks ago I was just getting started. I can't wait to get going again and racing on the road with Hot Tubes this spring!

Dieppe 'cross

2008-11-10T09:23:00.002-04:00

The 2nd last NB Cup 'cross race was held yesterday in Dieppe's Rotary Park. After a lot of rain late in the week, the course was extremely muddy with puddles the size of lakes on some of the road sections. By the time everyone had their warmup done on the course, there were already big rutted sections and tricky lines, but that only made it more fun. With a shorter course than usual it was easy to see where everyone was at all times. This made it good for controlling gaps, because as soon as I gained a gap of about 50 seconds over the chase group containing riders 3rd and 4th position (Ryan was long gone up the road yet again), my only goal was to keep it there and not take unnessesary risks with so much slippery mud. By the end, I had gained a small amount of time on them, rolling in in second place with a very muddy grin on my face. This is what 'cross racing should be like every weekend, although I did use a whole bottle of spray nine getting my skinsuit clean! The picture at the top was taken by Craig Harper. Thanks for reading!

Fredericton 'cross

2008-11-07T20:47:00.002-04:00

Well, it took me a while to get around to this one, but training has kept me busy this week. Last weekend was the Fredericton 'cross race. It was a freezing cold day, but at least it was sunny. I had a great start, opening up a really good gap on the first lap, but just like last week, Ryan caught and dropped me shortly thereafter. I chased hard, but couldn't ever catch him. I finished 2nd again, which I was pleased with. Thanks to Eric Hadley and all the volunteers who made the race possible, it was a great time!

As far as training, this was my first week of structured training for next year. It feels awesome to get back on the bike! You never know how much fun your having with something until you stop for a while, and with a few weeks of resting from the end of my competitive race season, I really missed riding and am super happy to be back! I absolutely can't wait to start racing on the road again, but for now I am having fun racing 'cross too!

Welcome and the Sussex 'cross race report

2008-10-26T20:38:00.001-03:00

Hey everyone, welcome to my blog. Although the season is winding down, we still have a bunch of cyclocross races going on, and today we were in Sussex for a race. It was super warm (a bit too warm for 'cross) and the course was really fun, so everyone had a great time. I had a good start and was in the lead with a decent gap right off the bat. Normally what happens is my friend Ryan Belliveau and I ride together in the lead, but today was a bit different. He had some trouble getting into his pedal at the start, so when I looked back after the first corner, he was nowhere to be seen. Oh well, I just put my head down and hammered to shake everyone else off my wheel. Then I see him making his way up to me. So, everything was like it normally is until the technical section where he opens up a bit of a gap. Okay, no panic, or at least until the road section right after, when he puts on the afterburners and takes off. He was flying today, so Ryan, congrats on a really great ride! Anyway, I suffered my way in to finish in 2nd after all was said and done. For whatever reason I didn't feel so great today, but I guess doing nothing but riding as hard as you can for 45 minutes twice a week isn't exactly what makes people feel good while on their bikes! The last two weeks I have taken off the bike to rest from the season. They were really nice, but the last couple of days I have started to really miss training and riding. Oh well, I will take this week off too, except the races, and then next week get back at it for next year! Can't wait! Stay tuned for a report on Fredericton 'cross and Canada Games camp next weekend!

Race Results

2008-02-07T19:22:00.000-04:00

Coming Soon