More tanning, more crashing

This weekend I was back in Toronto. It's entirely possible I would have done less driving this season if I lived in Toronto! But there's only so many times I can ride Keele St to Holland Marsh... Stopped a couple of days in Ottawa to catch up with Paul and Bets, and see Nige's team have a great run in the Canadian Ultimate Championships, until their worlds bid came off the rails in the semis. Great showing, boys.

On Sunday, Nick, Matt, Jordan and I converged on Niagara for the Niagara Classic. Probably 300 racers in various categories, and get this: after subtracting the entrance fee, the winner of my Elite 1-2 race got to take home $20. Good thing we don't count on prize winnings to eat (one could also point out that I would still starve if the winner got $1000 for every race I do... ;) ).

Nick got in a two-man break from kilometre 3, and had a tough 120km of suffering out there. He won the KOM competition, by cresting the Effingham hill first, 6 out of the 10 laps, but unfortunately hadn't heard them say before the race they'd cancelled it. Aw.

Jordan got in a 4-man break that caught Nick and co, but they failed to work as a unit and were separated in the last couple of laps, and ended up 4th and 8th. I need to figure out how to choose the right break to go in - I ended up chilling on the front of the peleton for the last 25km, chatting up a storm with my fellow riders and working on my tan-lines.

Afterwards, we figured Nick needed to check out The Falls, being just a hop, skip, and twenty vineyards away.

Fortunately he resisted straddling the barrier, unlike the unlucky girl half an hour later!


I was pretty stoked to get hooked up with a factory tour on Monday with our bike sponsor, Norco, and a 2012 model CRR to ride for the remainder of the season. Following that, we headed over to Joyride 150, an indoor bike park for BMX and MTB, partly sponsored by Norco, and got some more VIP treatment. The facility was super cool, with ladder-bridges, BMX pumptrack, an 800 metre XC trail, and plenty o' jumps...oh, and a foam pit!

Of course my 'push it till it hurts' attitude was once again my undoing, and I got to bond with

an ice pack for a while. While I was sitting/lying around, trying not to pass out or bleed on my t-shirt, a little dude comes over - he can't have been more than 10 - and said "did you do that trying to do a back-flip?". haha Unfortunately honesty got the better of me and I pointed out the jump (smallest in the whole place) that I ate it on.

After a trip to the Markham Stouffville Hospital and another scar to add to the collection, Nick and I mixed it up with the big rigs on their late night run to Montreal.

Catch up on BC Superweek and the aftermath

High time I hammer out a post to get caught up.

BC Superweek went poorly. Abysmal. DNFed every race (other than the 2 minute hill climb! haha), broke my bike and had no spare in the correct size, less than ideal team dynamics. Ugh.

Hurting a lot, but not quite making time cut for final circuits
Photo: Donna Marie

Afterwards I took a week off to hang with my buddy Sean in Van, then went to Calgary for another few days and met up with lots of my awesome peeps. Raced the Gran Fondo in town, with much better results: got a bro in the break, then worked a lead-out so that we ended with 3rd, 6th, 9th and a nice payout.

Back to St Sauveur for the last couple of days of July. Rocked some BMX pump-track with Seb, then back to Toronto to race a little event there. Results weren't ideal, but things were coming back together. More time with Toronto homies, and finally my head is back on straight. Chilling with everyone in Van, Calgary and Toronto all helped, but this last little email I got was the icing on the cake:

"Seriously good to see you - hope you had fun. Now go train & kick some french ass."
Don't know why, but that was what made it all click. I love my friends!

Back in Quebec, it was time for more Lachine crit madness. Nice and warm for the start, but spitting rain. By 10 laps in, we were in a full-on downpour. Riding behind someone (basically essential, because we get up to 50kmh every straight, before slowing for each corner) was like having a firehose blasting dirty water in my face. Actually kinda fun, in a sick and twisted way, since it was still pretty warm. Unfortunately I took a spill and now have road rash on my right knee, hip and forearm that match my Superweek grazes on the left, but this time it was a low speed corner crash, so not too bad. Good thing I bought four feet of Second Skin in Van! hehe

Our team is winding down now - money is done - so just a couple more little races for the end of the season. I'm giving myself August to learn French, and September to find a job.

Crack goes the carbon

Brenco criterium was going well until I did a lay-out for a non-existent frisbee on the back straight. I'll save you pics of gore, but here's one of my poor bike. Still, I won't complain too much because I didn't break any bones, nor was I taken out by an errant French media car and put into a barbed wire fence...

Nationals and beyond

Canada's biggest one-day race of the year, the National Road Cycling Championship, was held this past weekend just outside Toronto. My team placed particular emphasis on it, shipping the whole team from west and east coasts (and Montreal), and setting us up for the week in beautiful Oakville (actually, just north of there, in sketchy Oakville...but beautiful Oakville was but a short ride away).

Winning break, which stayed away for 160km: Rob Britton vs Team Spidertech
Photo: Nigel Wallis

I was brimming with confidence after my surprise 38th-place finish last year, confidence that was only tempered by my role as team water-boy/sacraficial lamb. I knew the course would be selective...a gradual climb, leading to 600 meters of torturous 13% climbing, capped by another 1-2 kilometers of more false-flat climbing, gave the strong men of Spidertech (Canada's only pro team) et al, every tool they needed to separate the wheat (them) from the chaff (me and 170 others like me).

Painface by teammate Aaron, photo by Nigel Wallis

I survived the opening kilometers, and I mean this both figuratively and literally: someone crashed on the 100+km/h descent and was taken away in a ambulance in rough shape. I found myself on the wrong side of a separation after the first time up the hill, and the following 5km of drilling it in a 4 man paceline to catch back on was the first nail in my coffin (my coffin only needs two nails). A couple of laps later, I exploded at the top of the hill like a watermelon having a drug overdose. Nige and Dave showed up (thanks, guys!!) unfortunately just in time to see me quite obviously out of contention and being showered in pity-cheering. Teammate Seb had a great race and finished 7th - way to go, Sebber!

Teammate Seb and various other superstars in the front chase group, one hill repeat closer to finishing
Photo: Nigel Wallis

Tour de Beauce update #3

Today's stage was in the old/bar/touristy area of Quebec City, 9 laps of a circuit that included maybe 200 meters of 15%, followed by 1km of less-steep climbing. I could feel the big guys turn the screws when we hit this section, and I got popped first lap. Can't give up prematurely though...I did a solo TT for nearly 100km before getting pulled with one lap to go...so close!

Not a super day for the team, I think we lost 4 guys today. Although we didnt have anyone in the winning break, Seb finished strong in the pack, so at least there's that.

Great crowd turn-out, especially on the climb. There can be no dogging it when hundreds of people are watching and cheering! On my third time up, as I was going through leg- and lung-burning hell, I could see in my periphery a guy running beside me dressed in black lingerie...I saw him after the race, and he was also sporting a blow-up doll. haha

So that's the end of my Beauce racing. I'll be cheering for my H&R boys from the sidelines tomorrow, the final day, and still making the most of the *amazing* breakfast and dinner buffets the race provides all the racers :) Pretty sure I'll still be in calorie deficit for the week though!

Huge thanks to all the support from everyone! Great to see Nick and Jocelyn after the race, even in my sorry state.

Of course, there's no rest for the wicked: Nationals in Burlington next weekend! I'll be riding support for our key dudes...pretty sure I can handle bottle duty now ;)

Tour de Beauce update #2

Yesterday was one of the highlights of my cycling "career", fetching bottles and closely a (tiny) gap in the crosswind for my teammate, Sebastian, who finished 3rd on the stage!!

It was another long race, 150+km, capped off by a climb to the observatory at the top of Mont Megantic. Alternatively, I could say it was 480km of racing in three days, finishing with half of Apex, or three of the You Yangs climb, or...Toronto would be....30 times from Queens Way into High Park?? haha Anyway, intimidating.

The day started out calmly enough, a few surges until a break stayed off, and nothing more than hard tempo on hills for the first 50km that I can remember (could be selective memory...). After 50km, we're allowed to go back to the caravan to feed, so it was time for me to get bottles. The rolling terrain meant going back for bottles was challenging. I'd usually get 6 or 7, so a few were stuffed down the front/back of my jersey, and I tried to time it so that I wasn't carrying, handing out, or taking bottles on the uphill, and I wasn't riding beside the team car at too high a speed. Didn't always succeed. :)

There was one particularly memorable feed: I'd just gotten my last bottle - usually the driver gives me a bit of a whip to help me sprint back to the back of the pack, and I had accelerated in front of the car. As I did so, I saw something happening in the pack ahead - I saw everyone was bunny-hopping train-tracks diagonally crossing the road. Crap! I had a bottle in one hand, which I momentarily considered/tried squeezing down the back of my jersey with the other, but I was approaching too fast, around 50 or 60kmh - I opted to turf it. I then rather ungainly jumped the tracks - the bottles weigh almost as much as my bike! Both bottles in my frame bounced out, but I made it through and rejoined the pack. However now I only had four bottles left, and had to go back pretty soon thereafter. haha

The next chunk of the race was pretty straight forward. I got a random half a Pepsi from one of Jamie Sparling's Raleigh team mates, rolled through some hills, and chatted with Jamie a little. Always stoked to race with him, both because he's always genial character and because it often means I'm breaking into a new level of racing...last time was the Invited Men's race at Banff 2009 when I was a lowly cat 3.

Next up was the final KOM. I maxed out quickly and began falling off the back. It was one of those times, when you're sooo close to the pack, but they're slowly slipping away...funnily enough, I ended up rolling with another dude I'd had a bit of an altercation with earlier in the race. :) We lit it up at the top and gunned it for a few km, weaving through caravan cars to catch back. We'd just caught them at the base of a hill, when I realized they were making a hard right turn to go up a hill. I was still in my 50-11 by the time I'd slowed to almost stopped, and now I had to start up a 10%er. Damn.

We ended up forming a gruppetto of about 10 guys, and knocked off the last 20-odd km to the base of the final climb: 5km of 10%. Then it was *suffer time* as our group exploded and we all slogged up to the finish. I heard my name and Sebastian's name announced as I rolled across the line, totally gassed. Team manager Mark was there to give me a push to the car and tell me 'good job' and that Seb came third....woooo!! Great moment.

Today was the TT, a mostly-downhill out, uphill back 20km TT, which I had to finish within 20% of the winner's time to not get time-cut. Given that Svein Tuft, who came 2nd at the TT world championships, was there, I couldn't really "save myself"....managed a 30:07, so I live to fight another day.

Tomorrow we head to Quebec City for a 120km circuit race. Same as Nationals a few years back? Really looking forward to it...beautiful city, and crowds are great for helping me dig deep. Wish me luck!

Tour du beauce update

> Soloed the last 30km of yesterday's Tour de Beauce opening stage for an inconsequential 23rd. Still pretty friggen fun. Of course, they could have pulled me back in a second, but sometimes being a nobody is a good thing! Anyway, found out later it was 'disrespectful to the peleton'...cycling etiquette thing. Check.
>
> Was already regretting that move 30km into today, when I got dropped the first time...was a long, hard hard day in the saddle. I think I ended up getting dropped 4 times total, but also got back to the team car for bottles a few times while we were rolling at 50kmh, because I was on bottle duty again. I told Zack afterwards that he got the award for handing me bottles at the highest speed, 86kmh! haha
>
> After a seriously brutal climb, I saw on my bike computer we still had 5km to the KOM...oh god. It wasn't for a few km later that I realized my bike computer had stopped working, and we only had the last, flat 20km run in to the finish. haha Thank christ. Race ended in a field sprint (and a thank god! from me), so there won't be any gc changes, other than time bonuses.
>
> Tomorrow is the mountain stage, which will shake up the gc. And really, really hurt!
>
> Thanks a ton for the support, guys!! Really. Can't understate how much it helps when I'm bleeding out the eyeballs :)

Tough times

Another lovely sunny rest day in Saint-Sauveur. It would be nice if it were accompanied with the glow of success... These past couple of weekends have been challenging both physically and in the aftermath, mentally.

Killington Stage Race takes place in central Vermont, which at this time of year is lush and humid. All four of us Quebec-based H&R boys were there to contest the race.

Friday was a relatively flat circuit race, each of the 4 laps having a gradual ascent over the first half, and decent to the finish, so we planned to lead out our big boy, Brad, for the fast downhill finish. The technical guide for the race suggested a 55-11 for sprinters!

The race was fast and furious until a break was established, including Nick to represent the black and green. However with a lap to go, it all came together, so we started preparing for the sprint finish. Unfortunately unnamed eager beavers on the team started our leadout way (way way) too early, and we were gassed by 3km to go. The leadout was swarmed and Brad was stuck in the melee. Despite Matt pulling out a surprising 10th and my 14th, the result were worthless for GC (at least 80% of the 115+ riders were still in the peleton, and with a mass finish like that everyone gets the same finish time), stage winnings (money only going 3 deep), and general team happiness at having failed to execute our plan.

The next day's time trial was mostly a false flat, so we were again betting on Brad to crush. That didn't happen, and we didn't really have any other personal victories to rally behind either.

The last day was the road race, featuring two worthy KOMs. We were hopeful that the final huge 4km climb would negate the team tactics of the bigger squads, and with Nick, highest placed in GC, also being a good climber, we wanted to protect him for the finale.

Unfortunately, right after Nick bridged to a break (...er??) I had a blow-out and as I rolled from 50km/h to a stop on $4000 wheels with no air in the back tire, I had a little meltdown.

What can I say? I panicked.

It was very much a Redlands deja vu moment...despite this time being well positioned about 10-15th wheel... Once I stopped swearing, I got off to take my wheel off, realized it was not down the cassette, got back on, started trying to change gears but being SRAM and me freaking out, I changed up instead, as the neutral wheel guy runs up, pulls off the wheel, I finally change down, he throws a wheel on, I hit it, not sure if he will pace me, he pulls his car in front just as we hit a short climb, I kill myself trying to get close to him on the uphill and then get closer on the downhill. He stayed about 3-4 meters away, and we were doing about 45kmh...so eventually he left to catch the peleton.

From there I went as hard as I could and was sooo close to the back of the caravan (i.e. support/officials' cars following the race) just as they hit a decent hill...I was about 100 meters back when the peleton crested, taking the cars with them. Didn't see them again.

I talked to the wheel guy afterwards...they're pro SRAM/Zipp neutral support, so I figured he would be able to tell me what to do. He said that I should be just inches from his back bumper to get a real draft, BUT I had to give him the thumbs down to slow down, because he can't be unexpectedly slowing down in front of riders and freaking them out. Seems reasonable.

Anyway, I TTed for the remaining 2/3 of the race, 65km or so, determined to make time-cut. I experienced absolute hell as I rode through a friggen paradise...old towns, cheering locals, a river running by the road, and hills thick with brilliant green spring foliage, all to make time cut. Ended up passing a few dudes of the final climb, and finished within the timecut, 27 min down...although they don't seem to have cut anyone. I heard Nick fell out of the break, but the break was caught just before the final climb, and he managed to get 8th for the stage.

After a four days to recover, train, taper and generally get my head back in the game, we headed north east to the Charlevoix region of Quebec, know for hills, hills, more hills, and good cheese.


The first race was a 17km TT. I was feeling motivated and quite rested, and dare I say, prepared! Nick helped me tape on a tubular for my rear Zipp 808 the night before, so I was running the triathlete special: 404 front and 808 rear. Light, but deep enough to be wicked-aero. Tuned my gears during a good warmup, and got psyched while avoiding thinking about the brute I would be following down the start ramp (he went on to win the stage).

I headed out at a good clip, conserving a little since it was slightly downhill and a tailwind. Road was a little bumpy, and then crack! Oh god, not the 808... Still seemed to be rolling fine. A short while later, another crack...and I felt my position was now a little off: seat post had slipped down. Crap. I still rode hard, but gradually my seat got to the point where I was riding a clown bike. My quads were on fire, but I hadn't been passed...was I keeping my Garneau 30-second man at bay? No, it turns out my 30-second and minute men hadn't started the race, so I had kept my one-and-a-half (or maybe even 2 minute) man at bay, just, so I ended up 2:20 behind the winner for 41st. Boo.

Back to motel, eat, sleep, eat, warmup for crit, snafu at the lineup so we started at the back. I worked my way up to not-quite-at-the-back for 43rd. Boo x 2.

Last stage on Sunday, 3rd race in 24 hours. Beautiful course, quite a bit of climb up to the two-thirds mark, then ridiculous amounts of climbing. I sucked, finished in the 3rd group for around 40th. Definitely the hardest result to deal with...no excuses for this one... Perhaps it's time to try my hand at golf? haha Nick finished 7th, so he is in great form for Beauce next week.

A little sightseeing and dinner in Quebec City was a nice way to lift the spirits before the long drive home.
Shrine of Sainte Anne de Beaupré

Racing and pacing

Long race to end a long week. It was supposed to be the flat race of the weekend, but the hill was a far more selective than anything else on the prior day's race. I suffered through, but Nick was our man of the day, getting in a key move and finishing in the break, sprinting for 6th.


Ever since we moved to Saint-Sauveur, I think at least one of us has been into our LBS, Espresso Sports. Bunch of solid dudes working there - Seb's a wizard on the drive-train, and today, Ben lent his scooter to us for some motor-pacing. It's great motivation to try to stay on the wheel while hitting it on the highway, but more importantly, there's great training effect from being in a big gear at speed just like in a race.

Go Canucks!

Ottawa and Gatineau

Ottawa turned on the charm for our trip this weekend - flowers blooming, trees emerald green, and the Ottawa River full of cool rapids. Paul and Betsy were amazing hosts, even putting is up at Paul's brother's for our unexpected extended stay. Thanks Andrew!

A little over 2 hours to drive out on Thursday night, and we arrived for the TT with about, oh, 30 seconds to spare...I call that excellent time management! The course is amazing, flat, and FAST! It may be just a midweek race, but the locals lay down killer times (the winner nearly averaged 50kmh!), and didn't even leave room for me on the podium.

Today was the GP Outaouais road race in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa. Crazy hot and humid, so I was even more salt-encrusted than usual! No major hills to make a selection. The team missed the early break, and since we were only three-strong today we decided getting on the front to reel them in wasn't in our best interest, so we kept attacking to try to bridge, but the peleton would always chase us down. Eventually the break was brought back, although another got away with a couple of laps to go. In the field sprint our leadout broke down in the mayhem - Nick used his pack ninja skills to stay well positioned and get 10th overall, I came 18th and Matt 35th.

The fun continues tomorrow with GP Hudson.

Bikes! and Saint Raymond race report

Our bikes arrived! Put them together and went for a sweet ride on my sweet new ride. This is Lac-Des-Seize-Iles, one of maybe six lakes we passed on quiet rolling road.

The next day the team rolled out for our first Quebec race together. Two road races in St Raymond, up toward Quebec City (Jessica and Simon, very close to Pont Rouge! Did a light ride there on Friday).

First race was relatively short, several laps around a lake, with little rollers and a couple of punchy climbs. While the centre line was in effect, the race was rolling like there wasn't one. Made it quite easy to move in the peleton and not be boxed in when covering attacks. I was a bit concerned someone was going to get smoked by an oncoming car, but it wasn't much more dangerous than the cars parked on the right. Anyway, a break was a short way up the road, about half way through the race, when suddenly the race was brought to a halt. They wanted to tell us that we had to observe the yellow line! They stopped the break, and the peleton when they got there, and we stayed for 10-15 minutes so every last straggler caught back on. With 30km to go! It was pretty weird.

So of course when we started again, it was full gas to the end. We hadn't scoped out the finish, which was a little ways off the lake circuit, so when we made the turn off the circuit, I hoped it was close. Unfortunately, not close enough, and I exploded like a stick of dynamite in a beaver dam. 3 of us in the top 30, out of 84...not real threats, but hopefully if we can dial in the team leadout, we can get someone into the top 5 in similar circumstances in the future.

Brad and Nick powering up a hill
Photo courtesy Antoine Bécotte

Day two was a longer race, 130km. This was raced more like the road racing I'm used to: a little slower, with hard attacks. Only, the attacking was relentless. Garneau had 14! guys in the race, and mostly used their strength for evil, getting on the wheel of every single attack. Eventually Team H&R BLOCK started running out of bullets and missing more attacks. By half-way through the race, a break of 6 or 8 was off the front. Teammate Brad got on the front, and once the other three of us joined him, we set a solid pace, with the help of Rocky Mountain, started reeling them in.

Eventually we got pretty gassed and pulled off for a bit - in hindsight, this was our downfall...we had the gap down to 20 seconds, but by the time we got back to the front, the gap had blown out to nearly two minutes. I bridged up to a chase group just up the road, and rolled with them for a while, but was on the rivet most of the time and was popped on a hill when we were joined by fresh legs. Lesson for the future: don't be so close to my limit in a paceline...sit out a rotation and weather the verbal storm from my break-away-mates.

Once I was caught, Nick was able to get in a break that stuck, coming in in the third group. What was left of the peleton, with the rest of H&R, rolled in without any energy to contest the field sprint, but still top 30. Really good to have this valuable experience as a team - I'm sure it will be utilized very soon!

Did a little photo-snapping on the drive home, in this here hotbed of Catholocism.

Redlands race report

Redlands Classic, big time US pro cycling race, handed me my arse and sent me packing.

And now for the unabridged version of events... Racing kicked off on Thursday with a 5km prologue. With a kicker in the middle, and a brutal climb for the last kilometre, the field was pretty evenly split between road and time-trial bikes. Given that my beater road bike is a tank, my TT bike is both more aerodynamic AND lighter, so it was an easy choice.

I was first up from our team, near the start of the field. I arrived a couple of hours early, so after some sitting around in the team tent, and oggling the women's teams and massive team buses, I knocked off a warmup and then headed to the start ramp. The commentator who was announcing each starter, "Joe Smith, national TT champion", or "John Citizen, stage winner at the Tour of the Gila", didn't have much to work with for me; I think he went with "Lachlan Holmes is up next, he's had a number of top 10 finishes...". ha Then I was off, suffered through 11 minutes on the course, and then possibly the even more torturous wait for results. I ended up 113th out of 205 or so, not bad. Our team hill-climber extraordinaire, Sebastian, placed an impressive 30th, making him our top GC man for the weekend.

Get yer suffer on!
(Photo: Claremont Cyclist)

Day 2 was the first mass-start race, a 200km road race. It was another "welcome to the next level" deal for me, with all 28 teams having cars in the caravan following the race, a three-lane highway closed to traffic, oh, and the first 10km of the race being done at 55kmh (we averaged 45kmh for the first lap, which included a KOM climb)! Attacks were actually going off the front - I latched onto one guy's wheel as he launched, and we were doing at least 60...I thought 'I'm in trouble if he wants me to take a pull!' but we were caught when we hit a hill, and I spent the next 20km trying to recover.

Inevitably, there were crashes. A very good reason to fight to stay near the front of the peleton. You're inviting trouble when you sit mid-pack or further back, but it's hard to tell yourself to go FASTER when you're thinking about the hundreds of kilometres left in the race. Sure enough, I was sitting mid-pack as we passed through the start/finish line to begin our second lap, and a crash occurred right in front of me. I jumped on the brakes to avoiding plowing into them, but in doing so, locked up my back wheel and BAM, it blew. Trying to remain calm, I jumped off my bike and started taking out the wheel, and a minute later my team car arrived and Jeff, who was wrenching for the weekend's races, ran up with a spare. He changed it, gave me a push, got back to the car, and they got in front of me to pace me up. I was going full-gas - in the draft, so it was pretty fast, about 60-65km/h? Unfortunately, having no experience with any of this, I wasn't exactly sure how it all worked, and in hindsight, I should have been a lot closer to the team car. After a couple of minutes, the team manager, who was driving, yelled out that we weren't making ground fast enough, and he had to leave.

From there, I was left to TT by myself. I could see the caravan half a kilometre away, but barring a miracle, wasn't going to catch them. The rules for most big races are that if you finish more than 10% after the winner, you are given a time but can not continue racing the following day, akin to a DNF. Pretty soon I was doing the math in my head: approximately 4.5 hour race would mean a half hour time-cut. That gave me 4 hours to solo the remaining 150km. However, there was also the possibility that if I went hard enough, I might catch a groupetto (a bunch of dropped riders), and between us we could make the time-cut. Eventually I saw a rider in the distance...it was a teammate - bummer! We worked together a short while, but I knew we weren't going faster enough and left him behind. Same with another guy: "They don't have hills like this back in Tennessee!" haha The announcer had me at 17 minutes down after 3 laps, but by that time I was in a world of hurt, cramping and running out of steam, and after a 90km solo effort, I packed it in.

So that was the race done for me. The DNF meant I couldn't race in the next two races, which was really tough to acknowledge. The next day was my birthday...not so happy birthday! ha

We had a couple of DNFs each day/stage, and by the last day H&R was down to 2 riders. Seb was racing really well, and in his element - a hilly road race. After being in the lead pack for almost the entire race, he had a flat, and with the support vehicle being behind a chase group a few minutes back, it basically put him out of contention.

Overall, though, it was an amazing experience. I was happy to have learnt a ton about racing at the pro level, wasn't beating myself up (too much) since there was quite a bit of bad luck involved in my DNF, and had a great time bonding with fellow Block bros.

To end on a lighter note...I was flying back to Calgary on Monday, and I had arrived at the airport early. Security wanted to confiscate my peanut butter from my carry-on. I couldn't talk my way into taking it through, but a guy like me is on a pretty tight budget, and can't being throwing things away needlessly. So I ended up asking to go back through security, where I ate the last half a jar. Straight, with a fork. I figured it was roughly 3 billion calories, mostly fat...and this was on top of the can of sardines I had just before going through security in the first place...yum! Living the dream! :)

Block Bros on our way up Big Bear

Training races

I always have a hard time really believing that a race is actually purely a training race. But this year, with some REALLY big races on the calendar, the little local races really can't at all detract from training for the focus events. Last weekend's TBC was supposed to be a tune-up for Redlands (next weekend!! Woop!!), but was big enough to have results listed on Canadian Cyclist & Pedal (can I please put after my race result "was just treating this as a training race"? ;) ). Of course, I say that, but really, how much difference would a full taper and no taper make, you know?

Road-trippin', Lockie-style: beans and canned fish

So this past weekend, I drove up to Phoenix for a pair of crits. Real "local race" situations, where they were impressed I drove *all the way* from Tucson (under 2 hours). Even still, 25 or so guys lined up for the San Tan Pro/1/2 race. I was flying solo this weekend, so I had my hands full covering attacks. There were 3 or 4 teams there with a number of guys on them, and they certainly worked like teams - it was non-stop attacking. This was my first crit experience in the US...not including the Race Day DVD I've watched a bunch of times. :) I thought to myself, I can't keep this up...maybe I should just try to go with every second attack.

Of course, the very next attack stuck. Crap! I could tell almost straight away the peleton was going to let it go...we weren't hitting it to chase them down, and the break had the right mix of big teams represented. Another racer attacked to bridge, and I knew that was a big chance to catch the break. But by the time I maneuvered out of the pack to give chase, he was too far away. I gave it everything, solo in no-man's-land for 2 or 3 laps, before I started losing ground to the break, before sitting up to wait for the peleton.

The rest of the race was pretty frustrating. I could tell I was seriously out-gunned for a sprint finish by all the big butts on the guys I was following in the peleton, and the only bigger team not represented in the break didn't appear very motivated to pull them back. I attacked a few times, but was always pulled back. Finally with 3 laps to go, I got away with 3 other guys. One of the guys got dropped, leaving two guys to crush me like a bug in the final 200m and out of the cash.

LESSON 1 of the weekend: You SHOULD cover every break. Suck it up, princess. If you're hurting, other people probably are, too.

That night I stayed in a one-and-a-half star hotel - not a terrible thing by itself, except that there was a problem with the online booking, and the last room they had was a smoking room. Mmmm...stale ash smell. To top it off, I forgot to clean out my car before bed, and was welcomed to a sardine-and-banana-smelling car in the morning!

For, Sunday's Honeywell Hungry Dog crit, I was determined to not let a single break go without H&R BLOCK representation (that'd be me). Unfortunately the wide streets and open corners made it effectively a donut-shaped course, so very high speed and hard for breaks to succeed. It was good experience for positioning, but tactics-wise, not so exciting. I was second wheel when the '5 laps to go' announcement was made, and the guy in front of me attacked. Being another solo rider, I figured a) 'hey, why not support the underdog and let him roll away' and b) that the big teams would roll him up anyway. 4 laps later, he was still off and clearly going to take the win! I launched with everyone before the last corner, but couldn't match the guns of, oh, about 20 guys.

LESSON 2 of the weekend: if you're not a sprinter, don't wait for the last 200m. Attack! If you blow up or get caught, at least you gave yourself a chance.

Threw down another sardine-and-banana post-race recovery snack, did a cool down spin, then drove back to Tucson.

Disclaimer: I built the Race Day link using Amazon Affiliates. I figure if everyone who reads this blog buys 7 copies of the DVD, I'll make what I used to get paid for an hour's work! ;)

Tucson Bicycle Classic

Just finished a weekend of intense racing at the 2011 edition of the Tucson Bicycle Classic.

Things got rolling Friday with the prologue, a 3.2 mile (5km) TT, on a neat little narrow, winding road called McCain Loop. It's a really challenging course to pace, starting out with gentle downhill for the first half, then rolling up over two hills, and finally a short down and up. I found out in training that working hard for the first half was wasted effort, as precious watts were burned pushing wind at high speed, but how easy is too easy/easy enough when it's the first 2km of racing for the year?? I also wanted to small-ring the hills, but changing into the big ring mid-race on the TT bike is a gamble, so I planned to use the small ring just for the second, big hill and leave it there for the finish.

When it came to the race, I blew through the first hill so easily, I couldn't believe I was hoping to small ring it, and left it in the big ring for the second hill too. Unfortunately, I didn't have that searing lungs, heart and legs, visions-of-god level of suffering, so I could tell I didn't have as good a time as I was capable. Would that place me last? Mid-pack was as much as I could hope for.

Online, results were "expected by 7". At 7:30, that changed to "expected by 7ish" haha. Finally, the waiting was over...I placed 43rd out of 55. Not awful, but close...

On Saturday morning came the road race. 80 miles/130km. Felt super-jittery as I went shoulder-to-shoulder with pro's and cat 1's, the 60 of us squeezed along the narrow road. Moving through the pack was really hard - everyone had the same plan of moving into good position in the pack (10th is safe, top 4 was best to be really serious about going with attacks). Nick, coming off two years in racing in Europe, did a great job of being up near the front, so I felt the pressure to get up there to cover my half of the attacks. The Mexican team, Specialized, had a good-sized squad, and seemed to sent a guy hammering off the front every five minutes, but current GC leader, Phil Zajicek (Fly V Australia) and a number of other guys did a good job of chasing them down to keep the peleton together. Stephen was invaluable as our team feeder...this dry desert air had me polish off my first bottle in 30km, and another shortly thereafter. Lots of suring in the final kilometres. I had a bit of gas left with 200m to go, but was poorly positioned behind way too many dudes and followed them across the line for 21st.

Nick and I on the front, coz that's how we roll

The peleton was down to 30 or so riders by the end of that race, but lots of guys who'd beaten me the day before had fallen off the back, so I moved up to 29th overall, affirming my suspicions I should have done better the day before, but I was pretty stoked to be finishing in the right half of the field.

To round out the weekend was Sunday's circuit race, held on a 10km loop in town. "Only" 90km and all the bickies on the line (an Australianism?) meant an insanely fast race - a crit, really. By half way through the race, guys were going crazy hitting it in the last couple of hundred metres of the lap's climbing - trying to hold onto a strung out line of riders, then match the downhill speed, had me wishing for an 11 at the back, and perhaps an extra set of legs. Still, I was maintaining better position, and Nick and I were working together well, and coming into the last corner Nick was on my wheel, as was the plan. Unfortunately I was squeezed to the side at the final corner, and Nick moved past me as I lost position in the pack. The final km was non-stopping crazy attacking, but I was going backwards by the final 200m, finishing 24th. Nick cracked the top 10, congrats dude! And thanks to Bill, our impromptu feeder!

In GC, Zajicek narrowly kept his lead over the sprinters, who'd picked up time bonuses for podium finishes. Pedal Magazine had been highlighting Nick and I as the Canadians in the results (1, 2), but I guess seeing Nick and I side-by-side in 20th and 21st respectively made them realize by the last day I was actually an Aussie! haha

Gran Fondo Whistler

Gran Fondo Whistler is a 120km ride/race from Vancouver to Whistler, with a total of 2400m of ascent - yeeha!


I left after work on Thursday with team mate Charles, and we gunned it all the way to Kamloops, where we stopped in a random, dodgy, highway-side hotel. Next morning, we had the beats cranked as we made our way through at least 19 bouts of rain and fog...no wonder it's so green!..and got to Van by noon.

Once in town, we hit up a great bakery, Uprising Breads, and we met up with buddy Sean, who is now well and truly the high-rolling lawyer type, complete with massive, 300 sq ft, downtown Van condo. Did a short ride out to Kits' Beach and the UBC campus. That evening we walked to registration, and saw the beginnings of usual Friday night mayhem on Robson & Granville streets.

Ok, it's Saturday morning we're up insanely early, and riding the city streets, silently joined by other cyclists, converging on the start. Wild atmosphere...as the sun came up, 4000+ people have ammassed for an early rendition of the national anthem. A blast of the air-horn and the 150 Giro riders (the Gran Fondo's race group) clip in and accelerate toward Stanley Park and the Lion's Gate Bridge. It's pretty sketchy riding...the course is set up for a fun ride, so typical race course logic, like avoiding the use of pylons, was out the window. There is a strong cat 1/2/3 field in the hunt for a share of the $12,000 prize money, so pack-ninja skills are paramount. Right after the bridge, all 150 of us fill the sweeping exit ramp and try to maintain a good line to avoid crashes, all at around 50km/h - everyone's trying to look a few riders ahead to be aware, when suddenly there's a police motorcycle parked on the side! The pack is gutter to gutter, so no chance of swerving - luckily I was in the middle of the pack, and sailed past it unharmed, but I heard tyres lock up, followed by a thuds and crunches of bodies and bikes hitting a large stationary object. Ouch. Charles said he was one of them, but after sliding in sideways and a quick hip-check to the motorbike, he bounced back to straight and kept going!! Others were not so fortunate.

Next is a right turn onto Taylor Way and a hammer up the hill. Another crash, but this time low speed. Then we are on the highway. I understand the view is quite nice, but to maintain position in the pack, avoid unaligned pylons, and wheels of riders doing the same, and keep up the pace, I honestly could be riding in a tunnel. The pace is good through the rolling terrain, until we hit Furry Creek: go time! The pro boys are leading the charge up the hill, others that were at the front are going backwards; it's the general panic of selection #1. I can't quite hang with the leaders, but cresting the hill, I'm quickly joined by a dozen or so motivated dudes, and we quickly start a rolling paceline. A few kilometres of hard work and we catch the leaders as we come into Squamish, the half-way point, and we're joined by another large chase group soon after. Not long to recover: another major hill and hammer time!

Time to hurt...this time I feel better, but I can't sit on a wheel...gaps are opening ahead. I work my way forward, but I can see a major gap ahead. The yellow jersey of Gord Jewett pulls past me and he bridges. C'mon, I tell myself! Embrace the pain! I'm behind just one wheel, but I see a gap open ahead, and can't summon the energy for the sprint to make the gap. As we came up on the plateau, the 15 leaders are already ramping their speed and losing us. A group of about 10 assembles with me...paceline time! No, the group is spent. The leaders are still just a up the road. Ian Auld of Top Gear launches an attack to bridge. I also hit it, catch up, and we do some motivation-assisting two-man pacing up the hill, hurting like hell. But we aren't making ground on the leaders, and the group behind us eventually starts gaining, so we shut 'er down and assimilate back into the chase group.

There are motorbikes coming by, giving us the splits for the leaders and chase groups - cool! But we're down by 4 mintues now. I try a couple of times to get a good paceline going, but any time I raise the tempo, I'm off the front, and the four or so Trek Red Truck riders are pulling, content to let me dangle but not put time into them, so I eventually settle in with the group.

Where's Lockie? (I'm #51)
Photo: tesseract33

10km to go: a young lad from Picci attacks, joined by a Trek Red Truck rider. They get about 100 metres out, and another TRT rider attacks, joined by a 4th. I'm boxed in on the gutter. From then on, we know that this is the race. 5km to go...attacks are going, but no one can bridge to the breakaway. It is keeping our pace very high though, and we catch the break.

1km to go: The Welcome to Whistler sign suddenly appears. Nearly done! With so many TRT riders, one of them must be saving themselves. Plus there's probably fresh legs amongst the slackers in the group. There's a right and left turn just before the finish, so I attack. I hit the corner at speed and get a small break...but I'm hurting and there's a short downhill right after, so the group gets in my draft. We're strung out. There are hundreds of spectators, and I'm shocked at how loud the cheering crowd is. I lead around the last corner. But the finish is still quite a ways...I'm blowing up as the group swarms with 100 to go...I roll through in 24th.

How to do a lead out for the competition, by Lachlan. Starting 40seconds in.


What a fun race! Chatting with riders later, I hear Tyler Trace of TRT took our field sprint for 15th, and Andrew Pinfold of US pro team United Healthcare took the overall.

Sean came up that arvo and we stayed to party in Whistler Sat night, then knocked off the drive back to Calgary in one shot on Sunday.

Tour de Bowness

Tour de Bowness has been one of my favourite races since I started racing: well-supported, local stage race, no pesky time trial, and the provincial criterium championship. Last year it was my first cat 1/2 race ever, and I ended up coming 4th last in the hill climb, and I DNF-ed (Did Not Finish, meaning I was lapped) the crit and DNF-ed the road race. Ouch! I was planning to do a lot bette this time around.

We started on Saturday with the road race. I nearly missed it, with my cat having a little fit and showing signs of UTI - I had a little panic, deciding whether I was totally neglectful to leave him for a couple of couple (couple? I'm so unrealistic!) Thankfully my neighbour is a cat-lover and gave me kitty drugs and some advice, and I left Sherman.

Since the RR was only 80km, it's generally a hammer-fest from the get-go - this year the attacks started before the first corner 500m into the race. Godfrey was again my super-star feeder with the rock-solid delivery - eternal gratitude, bro! The top of the one decent hill in the circuit was usually time for someone to attack, but it generally came back together in the following flats through the start-finish. By mid-race, a break of around 8 got away. In subsequent laps, a couple of guys got away to try to bridge. The chase group didn't work too badly together though, and we kept them within sight...with 3 laps to go, we had them just 20 seconds away. No need to bridge, right? Well, that was as close as we came...they hit it around then, and we basically never saw them again. Too bad, I felt pretty good at the end and took the field sprint for 11th.

That night I was at the vet until midnight, to find out my cat was just having a little attention-deficit. Great! But time for bed. The next morning I was up at three, to follow triathlon natural Trev as he did his swim leg of the half-ironman, in a kayak, videoing with a hero-cam (video looks great!). Back to bed for a nap, then time for the COP (Canada Olympic Park) hill climb. Pretty straight foward...hammer for a couple of minutes on the road, while the downhill kids were hooting and hollering on their way down through the trees. This hill climb is a three-up, so we started in groups of three. I had some great companions in Gideon, TT specialist of H&R, and Manuel the hill-climbing pocket rocket. They pulled away by the end, but I got an amazing PB for the hill, 3:38, 20 seconds faster than last year, when we had a hurricane tail-wind. Suhweet. Good enough to 16th.

Monday was the big one - the provincial criterium championship. Thankfully they did away with the ridiculous "neutral lap" of last year, which is often done at 50km/h..neutral? Pfff! It would be 45 laps of pure pain and tight-pack, nutso- cornering and awesome-sprinting craziness. I got in a break after a few laps in, and the next 20 laps were super intense. We managed to drop most of the pack, but a couple of guys bridged up, so there were about 10-12 of us in the group. Semi-pro teams Trek Red Truck and H&R had a few guys in the break, but Bailey, Jesse and I took our fair share of pulls. On one, I pulled around to take my pull, meaning the usual ramp up to max heart rate for a lap...and going through the start-finish, I hear Dallas (who, with Godfrey, were way up in the pimp Oakley commentators booth...think a tent on top of a Greyhound bus!) say "...and Lockie is going on a flyer!..." I look back and the group is 50 metres back. Oops, that wasn't the plan! haha I slowed up - no chance of holding them off solo for 15 laps!

With 6 laps to go, H&R Dustin attacked off the front, and every lap, put a couple of seconds on us. With 2 laps to go, Jesse and I got on the front and drilled it (read, I took a pull for 10 seconds, before Jesse the steam-train took over) and in that lap, we were back together. Out of province pro Jamie Sparling attacked with a lap to go, but he's a marked man...he wasn't able to get away. It was coming down to a sprint. An RMCC guy, who I had no idea was with us, I guess he was lurking at the back that whole time, came around me. After rounding the last corner, it was a drag race. RMCC guy blew everyone away, and I held off a couple of dudes to get 7th. Awesome, I'm stoked with that!

Canadian Road National Championships

Oh my god, I just had the ride of my life! As I said on the Speed Theory blog, I was pumped just to be lining up with full-on pro's. Then I managed to get in, and do a couple of laps with, the winning break of the day. And not only did I manage to finish, but in a totally awesome, way better than expected, 38th out of 154 guys!

I'm stoked.

Banff Bike Fest

So this is what it's like to ride with the big dogs. So far this year I've had a roller coaster of decent finishes and DNFs (and, as someone suggested, a DNR - Did Not Register). Banff was unfortunately a bit of a low, performance-wise, with some mediocre results, including an ITT 46 seconds slower than last year. All that training....

BUT we had some killer weather, including just *perfect* Sunday RR conditions, on the sensational Banff Ave - Tunnel Mountain loop - I really felt like I was riding a stage of the Tour at some points -, and Trev put together some amazing performances to finish 12th in a super-strong field of 85 cat 1/2 and trade team cyclists, I got to live the pro life for 4 days and enjoyed great company with my awesome Speed Theory team mates.


A couple of pics from the cat 2/3 race: Charles, Ryan and Clarke leading the chase group...

...and Keith mixing it up with the leaders.

Race Report Season

I should really be preparing for my presentation on Wednesday, but I'm getting behind on my race reports.

Last weekend was the Speed Theory-hosted Incredibilus Velocitus 40km ITT (held in Acme, Alberta, hence the cool road-runner-esque name). The weather was...challenging. However after a bike-fitting "party" (a cyclist's party involves two, or maybe if things get really crazy, three, beers) I was pretty pumped to try my new lower aero-bar setup. And my sunnies deflected most of the hail. I managed a respectable 4th, getting beat by ERTC boys Blaine and Geoff, and throughly schooled by Gideon. I should mention that I edged Trev out by 1.8 seconds (I suspect he's getting laid too often these days), but we both managed to squeak under the 1 hour mark.

Today's race was the presitigious Pigeon Lake RR. 300+ racers, and about 45 in cat 1/2. Absolutely stunning weather for riding. The flat-to-rolly circuit, no wind, and long distance (160km) resulted in a fairly moderate pace...I don't think anyone was dropped! After much surging in the first lap, a break of three was allowed to go, but didn't stay away long. Trev attacked on lap two, I attacked as soon as he was brought back, then he attacked when I got brought back. The two other guys in his break represented ERTC and Top Gear, teams who's riders made up maybe half of the peleton? They didn't waste the opportunity, and in a short while were out of sight. However after 80km the other teams in the peleton organized a solid pace line and pulled them back.

The finish straight is a deceptively long uphill climb for about 1.5km. Every year, in almost category, there are poor fools who try their luck as soon as the pack turns the corner. This year in my cat, I was that fool. I got a decent gap, and it might have even stuck, had Dallas not been leading a Top Gear leadout freight train and I was reeled in with 500m to go...I recovered enough by 200m to pass some guys and salvage 10th spot.

Lack of Velocity in Edmonton

Been getting a couple of questions about last weekend's big event, being the first ABA race of the year, the Velocity stage race.

I spent the weekend prior putting the (painful) finishing touches on my winter of training, then participated in a mental-beatdown of a course in Edmonton, which ran from 8:20am to 9pm or later, every day, returning to my room to do my taxes and get in short spins. Avoided checking email and answering calls all week.

You can probably see where this is going...I got to Friday, shelved the programming mind-benders, and switched to thinking about racing. Only, the registration was only open Monday to Thurday. Saturday morning, the ABA officials were relatively unsympathetic, and I wasn't in the mental mindset to argue it.

I actually enjoyed having the opportunity to help my team mates over the course of the weekend. God knows many of them, or others, have helped me in moments of last-minute pre-race panic. I lent my rental wheels to team mates, fetched water, stood in the feed zone...all good things for giving back.

Was I mad about missing the race? Hell yes: this was one of 4 big races for me this year. Mad at the officials? Yes and no...this wasn't the first time I've been disorganized (although it may be the best excuse I've had). Also, it's hard work organizing a race, and some people were sincerely sorry to shut me down - others were complete jerks, but whatever...what goes around, comes around.

On to the next one...

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A quick recap of the action: H&R Block rider Chris McNiel tore up the time trial in cat 1/2, a shade off a 50km/h average for the 10km. For Speed Theory, Thomas made the podium in cat 3, while up-and-coming cat 5 racer Mark J and women's powerhouse Marilyn both got 4th.

In the crit Mark MacDonald edged out Dan Wood in a awesome sprint finish, but Trev had a stand-out performance, trading pulls at the front all race and finishing with the pack. In the women, two Bici riders asserted their dominance, but there was a great showing by the big Speed Theory contingent, with those doing their first ever crit having solid races, and Tanya clinching the field sprint.

The road race didn't have too much out of the ordinary happen. Welchie crashed again. Big breakaways in many fields. The only things that got me pumped were strong showings by all the Speed Theory women, Harley's solid sprint finish, and Trev's 1.5 lap pull to catch the pack followed by an attack and bridge to the breakaway...awesome! He subsequently dropped out of the race and turned down a beer, but I think that was just to make us think he's also mortal. Unlikely.