O-Cup #1

There's a lot I could say about the race but I'll try to condense the best I can. I started the day of with 2 hard boiled eggs and some steel cut oats with banana dates and honey. Good energy food. Got the car all paced and headed out. Arrived at Mansfield at around 10:30 and chilled out for a while. Went around and talked to some people and checked out some of the early races. The course was still bone dry and dusty. I guess that rain didn't show up. 11:00 got dressed and started lightly spinning around. My legs were feeling pretty fresh despite the 3hr ride on Saturday. I was a bit worried about that but I've learned to trust Peter's training methods. 12:30 I got on the trainer and did a good warm up. Skipping ahead to the start line. Got a pretty bad spot but didn't let it bother me because I knew there would be time to make up some ground. But I also knew that I had no chance of riding with the lead group because of my start position. But with the Trek squad and Raph there I'm not sure i would have been in that group anyway.

Of the the start line and I was feeling good. But I wasn't able to move up at all on the first climb because the trail was just packed. Maybe I need to be more aggressive? Once we got to the top it opened up and I was able to move up a bit but I was still way back. Rode in a long line of guys through the single track. Long story short my first lap was spent passing guys in the double track and following in the single track. By the end of lap 1 I could see some familiar kits up ahead. Norco, Jet power and EMD. Got by Zack and he picked it up and got on my wheel to pass Mike G and Ryan Atkins. We got a gap on them and I was still feeling good. About half way into the lap a stick came up and knocked my front derailleur into my chain rings. A little frustrated but keeping calm I got off and pulled the out multi tool. Not a super fast fix but I got it working. Got back into chase mode. I had to chase down Mike, Ryan and Zack again. They were out of sight but I was able to get time gaps from different people around the course.

Lap 3 I started getting glimpses of Mike and that helped to get me going a bit. Caught him and could see the other 2 up ahead. Got up to Zack half way through the lap and Ryan next. I rode with Ryan for the next few laps and had a good battle with him and me trading the lead through different sections. We did that until the last lap were I made had a stupid crash and he got away again. It was getting close to the finish so I knew it would be hard to close the gap again. Especially after burning all those matches earlier. I ended up 7th 4 seconds behind Ryan.

All things considered I'm happy with my race. I have a few things I need to work on but I think it was a solid way to open the season. There's 2 weeks till the next race so I think I can improve on what I've learned by then. And hopefully it will be enough to get me on the Canada Cup project.

That's all for now. I'll keep updating on training and all that leading up to Albion.

Hidden gem

So P2A went well for me. Bridged some good gaps a couple times and was wondering if I was going to pay for the burnt matches later in the race. But I surprised myself. After getting popped of the back when someone (I think it was Mike) punched it on one of the rail trails I went into TT mode and road by myself for about an hour. I kept thinking to myself your going to pop but I was feeling really good. I caught Chown and decided to keep going because I don't think he had any plans to pull me. Came to the mud slides and dropped him on the first one. Came to the second one and got onto Box's wheel. But just as we hit the pavement again I noticed my front wheel getting softer. Ok quick decision. Do I stop and fix the flat or just give er for the last 2km? Give er! Needless to day I lost Eric but I still had a gap on Nathan so I just tried to ride it in as fast as I could. Which wasn't that fast. Especially on the last hill. But somehow I held Nathan off and came in 5th. I'm quite happy with how it went. I feel confident in my fitness for sustained effort and now I can build on top end speed.

Moving on to the past few days I been doing some interval work on my MTB. I'm making an effort to not touch the cross bike for while. It's time to give it a rest and focus on MTB. So I've been riding trails more this week and today I found some new (well for me) trails that are better than anything else in my area. There's a ton of awesome downhills and some good single track to sharpen the skills. I won't say where I went though because it may or may not have been off limits to bikes.

Looking forward to this weekend. O-cup #1! Looks like some more fast guys will be there due to the volcano. It will be good to see how fast the elite guys are and see where I stack up in the Under 23 division. I'll be going up there on Saturday to pre-ride with Peter who is offering to go over the course with people who are interested. I would encourage anyone to take advantage of this as it can really help come race day. For more info you can check out Peter's blog that I have a link to in the side bar.

See you at Mansfield!

I like what I see

Has anyone else noticed how many more cyclists there seem to be this year than before? I'm thinking that the bad economy is having a positive effect in some ways because I have been seeing a lot more commuters and parents riding with there kids. I think this is great. I think that we could be seeing a lot of new faces taking part in some races this year.

Anyway, the last few days of riding have been great. Weather has be awesome and the trails a prime! Tuesday I went and did some off road TT's. So hard! I think it's good to get those in before the racing starts though. Just so your not surprised at how much your hurting at the first race. Have I mentioned how fast the new bike feels? The bike climbs like nothing I've ridden before and is surprisingly smooth on the downhills. What more could you ask for in a bike!

Yesterday Me and my dad went to a meet and greet for a new family doctor. Sounds boring right? Well I surprised to find out that he is one of the very few non-bike racers that actually knows what cyclo-cross is (I don't even remember how we got on that topic). I think I like this doctor.

Well, I have officially retired my Sidi mtb shoes after 5 seasons. I have to say I'm a believer in the durability of these shoes seeing as I have been doing MTB and cross on them every season. There are being replaced by the new super hot Bontragers. Got out for a good ride on them yesterday and noticed an increase in power transfer right away. Comfy too.

ps. I'm thinking I need to rename the blog... and change the pic. Kinda out of date.

1 Week Baby!

Not to worry every one I am still alive. Ive been pretty busy the past while and honestly not very motivated to write a post. But with one week till the season opener I figured it was time to get back at it.

So hear we are at the end of the off season. Now is the time that you've done all your training and you hope that it worked because what's done is done and it's time to see what you've got. And judging by some of the weekends results from various races I would say that the off season training went quite well for some. I was happy to see that Mr. Watson had a great race at the Pan Ams beating a lot of top guys! But then I thought oh crap I have to race him this year! Well done Andrew. Other note worthy performances were Tyson Waglers 3rd place at the tour of Brounte again beating some fast guys. Also Eric Box took the victory at the Hell of the North. Way to go guys. See you at the P2A.

I'm just about ready to get out for my ride today so I'll leave it there for now. More post to come soon.