Nationals RR and extra- pictures!

I will try and tell the story with as few words as possible. Instead I will share pictures from the week (minus TT ones that are in the post below)

When we first arrived at our place in Frampton, Quebec it was raining. The sun came out and gave us a lovely rainbow right in our backyard!

Blackberry's can now take panoramic photos, so here is one of the view from our back porch. 

Snagged this bad boy on my ride to watch the women's road race. The scenery was outstanding. Also after having ridden back at home today, everything now feels flat. These hills were good training!

Before we get into the race pictures, here is one of the climb on the circuit. The women had to tackle this 3 times, where the men (that stayed in the race) had to do it 8 times.

So the road race was insane, and I knew my chances of finishing were pretty low after looking at the results from last year. The race started and Anton on Garneau flatted in the neutral start. The race was stopped until he caught on with a new wheel. Then right off the gun I was in the red. We climbed this 1.7km hill, avg 5%(according to strava), I was giving it everything I had to stay on and heart rate hit 193 (we are only 8km in at this point). We get to the top make a right hand turn and go up hill again. I popped off the back (yes only 10km in) and so did a few others. Most of them just gave up at that point but I tried chasing. After about 10mins chasing (I really need to learn how to better use the caravan, didn't help that the roads weren't the best condition in this spot) I had a massive side cramp and then the peloton sat up at the top of another hill. I was so close to catching on but could barely breath because of the cramp. This cramp was maybe a gift from the cycling gods as then there was the crash that I then missed. I got cut off by the H&R block car trying to get through the crash. Couldn't quite catch the peloton but had them in sight until we hit the circuit. They then put 4mins on me in 15km (I was riding with 2 other riders at this point). I rode another lap and pulled. This was for your enjoyment so I could take pictures!

Break away of 8, incredibly strong group of guys there

Peloton moving through, they let the break get up to around 4 mins at one point.

Ontario warrior and world champ Bruce Bird was always seen climbing the hill at the front of the peloton. He was making it look easy with this smile. 

A few people tried to bridge while on the circuit, but none got across. 

Each lap the peloton got smaller and smaller.

I was following the race on twitter, and it was a nail bitter finish. A group from the peloton bridged across to the break guys. Maybee they had started attacking each other too early. Anyway, higher quality shots and race report can be found HERE and results are HERE

Either way, I have a ton of work to do before I will be able to stay in the mix with these guys.

Nationals TT

First nationals event was the time trial, and my first event in a new team kit (results say otherwise due to some bureaucracy stuff). We prerode the course the day before, and man was it hilly. The wind was a huge issue on the downhill, making the bike hard to handle. Many of the girls (earlier start time) cursed using a 90mm front wheel. Luckily Suzie Brown let me borrow her 40mm front so I was in the clear.

Earlier on while we were getting the girls bikes ready to go, mine was leaned up against a tree and the wind blew it over. I didn't think much of it, and that was bad. About 15mins to start I hopped off the trainer to put on my race wheel and we found out the hanger was bent... Found out by shifting through the gears and the chain hopped the cassette and got jammed between the cassette and wheel. Luckily, pro bike mechanic Chris Komar and his fast hands were able to save the day. Straightened the hanger and got me there. I ended running to the start, quick bike check and was late by 29 seconds. Lesson learned, double check everything on your bike, don't just assume it is fine because it was fine before.

I was off, and I avoided the gears on either end of the cassette to be safe with the hanger. Didn't want to destroy another wheel and hanger like last year at catskills, and when we ran through the gears before start, we weren't sure if the smallest cog was safe to use. It was ok for the uphills, but I ended up doing more coasting than I should have on the downhills and probably lost a bunch of time here (since the whole thing was hills). Anyway, it gave me extra time to recover to pound out the climb.

After the first lap they said I was 12th (I started 17th so I wasn't last! many fast guys would follow). This was great news and I knew I was doing good (for what I expected to do). Second lap was a bit slower (strava says about 30secs over 21km) but gave it a great effort.

Finished 40th out of 50 starters. Might not sound great but I was super happy with it. Looking at everyone ahead of me, most of them have had great race seasons with many race days in their legs. Lots of them also were able to get away for the winter, and for many, biking is a full time thing. So 40th, with times near that off full time cyclists was great. Looks like it is possible to bike and be a full time student (maybe not financially, that is hard).

Road race is tomorrow, weather looks great and it should be crazy hard. It will be a great learning experience.

Pics below are not mine, taken from the canadian cyclist link below. 

Great pics from Canadian Cyclist: http://www.canadiancyclist.com/races15/roadnats/parttwo/index.htm

Results: http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=29731&title=road-nationals-men-itt-results

Garmin data: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/814909718

Tour de Waterloo - still looking for luck

This race was going to be used as a final race prep before nationals. Due to my terrible spring, I never got many race days under me, so this seemed like a good option. The weather turned out to be great, although there was a strong wind, and the course was the same as last year. I had ambitions for this to be my first mass start race that went over well…

I made sure I started in a good spot, and used the neutral start to move up slightly or at least maintain my pack position. The race started and I continued to move up. About 15km into the race I looked down and my garmin was gone. The tabs broke off before and I was using a dogears metal tab attachment, and that seemed to have just let go of the garmin. Ok, but I was still up right and had 120km to go! I moved up to where Ryan Roth was, and noting that they weren’t letting anyone else go (asides from Andrew House and Chris Prendegast) I was happy sitting in knowing of the head/cross wind that was coming.

We turned into it at about 40km in, and about 2km into it I started to feel my gears skipping. I tried to correct it with my barrel adjuster and then got out of the saddle to climb and almost went over the bars when the gears skipped again. I pulled over to see what was wrong and picked up my bike and the back wheel dropped out… The quick release had opened up from a combination of me not putting it on tight enough and some bumps on the road (I am assuming). This would be the end for me. The pack was still 70 strong and I couldn’t bridge the gap with the terrible wind (doesn’t help that bridging isn’t a strength of mine). I ended up catching a group of 3, and then we worked together for about 40km and then one guy dropped. I finished the race working with the Lapdogs guy that was left.

Overall it turned out to be an expensive race with a missing garmin 800 (if you found it, and want to return it, it would be greatly appreciated!) and no results yet again. These mass starts are my Achilles heel. Positive note is that I still managed to get a good workout in (much better than if I rode solo at home), and ended up clocking in around 160km with warm up and garmin searching post race (I know it doesn’t count because it isn’t on strava…)

I am writing this after 9 hours of driving up to nationals. So come back in a few days to see how things are panning out in Quebec!

I am back! KW Classic Sufferfest

So Sunday was the mark of 6weeks post crash, and the minimal time doctors wanted me to stay away from accidents to let the facial bones heal. Turns out that KW Classic was scheduled this exact day, how perfect! The course was the same as last year, rolling hills with one longer gradual hill with a nice steep down section that saw me hit over 70km/h at some point in the race. The weather was nice and warm, but super windy. Seemed like every road had a head or crosswind. Having not been on the racing scene for a while I wasn’t sure how this was going to go...

Recovery post race

Elite 4 sprint finish, Midweek wins!

Before the start of the junior/E3 race

And we are off!

Right at the beginning of the race, a strong break of around 8 riders got away including many of the favourites: Bruce Bird, Brandon Etzl, Jack Burke,Yuri Hrycaj… I definitely didn’t have the legs to bridge up to them, so I tried to stay hidden from the wind in the peloton. The gap grew quickly over the following laps, and before I knew it the gap was over 3mins! At one point I went to pick up the pace on the hill but no one came with me except one DEC express rider who was covering my “move”. I knew I couldn’t catch that group, too much fire power, so I took it easy and let the group reel me in over half a lap. I knew that would be easier for me than having to put up with some surges in the group.

Things are just getting started, first corner onto the course. 

After about 7-8 laps I was really starting to feel it (80-90km in). My legs were toast and every surge felt like I was about to pop off the back. Could have been a training issue, or possibly nutrition. I think the crash had helped boost my pain threshold as I kept finding a way to dig deep and catch back on. With 2 laps to go, a small group of riders broke off the front, and I knew I should have chased on to them, but I had to give it everything I had to just stay on the pack, let alone surge up and bridge a gap.

The breakaway finish, Etzl making it look easy. 

They cut our race a lap short from the tech guide, which I was more than happy with. I was suffering so bad I started hoping of ways that we could end earlier like lightening, or getting lapped by the break. This early end was a gift from the cycling gods. Coming into the last lap, some people were popping off on the climb (at least I wasn’t the only one that felt terrible!), but I managed to keep on. A big surge on the backstretch saw 2 more riders come loose and I bridged past them onto the back of the peloton. Just before the last left onto the closed road, 2km from the finish, there was a slight hill. The group slowed slightly and I put in a little effort to move from the back to right near the front. I stayed on Andrew House’s wheel (who had shown great form today!) and he definitely didn’t want to be at the front. There was an abundance of DEC express guys in the pack still, which made things hard. One attacked while another one used it to get a good position for the sprint. I scrambled to stay with House, as my legs felt like they were about to explode. I started my sprint a little early and ended up dying at the top of the finish hill. I tried to hang on to it as it flattened out but two riders were able to get by me. I finished off 13^th, finally earning my first upgrade points in the Elite ½ field, and feeling demolished.

Cresting the hill into the finish.

Sprint for the line! Trying to not lose too much ground. 

I am happy with the result after racing against guys who have been able to get into racing condition, while I was left to training on my own or in a small group. A few tips from some local guys helped me prepare for this, and without that, it would have been a much different go. My coach Jeff Kehler also helped getting my training right to recover from the concussion. The great news is that no crash related health issues came up, bad news is that I am not very photogenic with a few teeth gone, and one discoloured.

Not sure what is next for me. Toying with the idea of nationals, and before that maybe Kitchener twilight crit, and Tour de Waterloo.

Results: here

Garmin data (sorry no power and forgot heart rate monitor at home): here