my life on two wheels
The Nationals campaign was not entirely successful for me or for Ontario in general. We were racing in the U23 category so it wasn’t like we had to compete against Svein Tuft. Even so the best finish we had amongst our age group was a 6th place in the road race from Ryan Aitcheson. Aside from that there is not a whole lot to say about nationals.
Teo.
Today was the 38th annual running of the Preston St. Criterium, one of the most prestigious and well paying races in Ontario or Quebec. The Senior field of 70 or so riders took the start around 4:00 in the afternoon after some rain early in the afternoon and crashes in the women’s race delayed the start.
The race started out aggressively with La Bicicletta, Garneau, and Ride with Rendall attacking multiple times trying not to miss out on the early move which would leave them with the job of pulling the pack back up to the break. Between the incentive of the $1000 for the win and intermediate sprints along the way no one really got a gap worth mentioning.
At around the half way point there was a sprint and I went for it with the intent to continue my attack and get away from the field. A group of 3 of us got a gap but we weren’t working well together so we were re-absorbed into the pack. Shortly after that there was a big crash with about 20 riders going down and when they got back in from their free lap the foundations of the winning break were laid with Shaun Adamson (Scott Racing), Matt Deluco (Euro-sports.ca), Neil Schiemann (Tall Trees), and Kevin Black (Independent) getting away. They quickly opened their advantage to 15 seconds in the space of only 2 laps and then Maxime Vives (Powerwatts) bridged up making a group of 5 up the road. The break rode well together and maintained their lead until the end where the sprint was started going into corner 4 by Matt Deluco. Talking to Matt after the race he said he felt he went too early because in the final straight Maxime, Shaun, and Kevin got past him to take the podium spots.
Meanwhile back in the main pack there was attacks, crashes, more close calls than I care to think about, and even a bit of fist fighting going on. On the last lap I went for it into corner 3 and got passed by 4 guys in the finishing straight but still managed to come out with 10th place and 100 bucks so it was not all bad news for me.
Teo.
Scott Racing and La Bicicletta on the attack early in the race.
Andre Lattimore and I on the attack with 30mins to go.
Maxime Vives taking the win over Shaun Adamson, Kevin Black, and Matt Deluco.
Senior 1 Men Podium. (L-R) Shaun Adamson, Maxime Vives, Kevin Black.
Maxime on the Scale getting his weight in San Pellegrino. (He's not too heavy so he got to take his bike with him)
A little disapointed with 10th I was looking for the win. Oh well onto Nationals.
The Tuesday night World Championships had some extra clout this week being the annual Bill Patterson memorial crit, and the crowd out to ride was huge with at least 100 riders taking the start.
No one was letting any breaks go tonight so with 5 laps to go, no break, and free entry for Preston up for grabs I decided I would try and go for the sprint which I usually avoid doing. I quickly remembered why. In those last few laps I had so many close calls I started to wonder what I was doing. In the final lap I moved up to the top 5 on Arron’s wheel and going into corners 3 and 4 I was 5th wheel. The sprint started from second wheel with Eric Lyman taking off and getting a small gap on the rest of us, I waited to see if someone else would try and close it up but no one went so I started my sprint and ended up getting second (Woot, free entry).
Looking forward to Preston this weekend!!
Teo.
Podium from the Crit. (L-R) Matteo Dal-Cin 2nd, Eric Lyman 1st, Hans Loeffelholz 3rd
This past weekend was a big one for racing here in Ottawa with a UCI TT on the Saturday for both the Men and Women and a UCI Road Race for the Women on Sunday.
The TT was 35km and even though all TTs are hard the longer they are just prolongs the suffering. It was a cool opportunity for me because we got to race with some Pro riders that normally we don’t get to race against.
I found the TT to be difficult to pace myself even though it was flat partially because there was a strong tail wind on the way out and head wind home and also because I was excited to race and ended up starting too hard. I managed to finish 15th overall and was the 4th U23 rider 20 seconds off Hugo Houle who was the fastest U23. I was happy with this result even though I was nowhere near the podium because it truly was a completely different caliber of competition.
Things are looking good in the next few weeks with Preston St and Nationals coming up, it should be fun.
Teo.
Benjamin Day on his way to victory by over a minute.
Ryan Roth starting his TT, finished Second behind Ben Day.
Arron Fillion of Ride with Rendall rode his way into third place.
On my first lap going through the traffic circles.
Starting out on my second lap.
What was now two weekends ago I had the privilege of competing for Canada in the only Nations Cup help outside of Europe.
The race started with a relatively flat stage which I was thankful for because I was not yet sure as to how I would stack up in a rack of this caliber. I managed to finish in the main group and even cover a few breaks, although covering a break was as difficult for me as the finish of most races I have done in the past, it finished with a bunch sprint where Canadian Hugo Houle took third.
The second stage was the one that made the difference on the GC at least in terms of big time gaps being opened up. People didn’t let moves get away and then reel them back near the end but rather kept on attacking until the entire race was blown to pieces over a span of more than 15 minutes on the road. This solidified Arnaud Papillon as our GC rider who the whole team would now help defend.
As we drove to the start of stage three I checked the weather and the forecast was not favourable for bike racing. It was around 5 degrees and raining, within one lap I couldn’t feel my hands anymore. We started the stage and it was fairly tame as far as this race was concerned with only two riders going on the attack one being fellow Canadian David Boily who was joined by one of the Kazakhstan riders. The two went on to ride the majority of the stage off the front with a time gap that reached over 3 minutes at times. Although their effort was not rewarded with a stage win they did manage to accumulate enough KOM points to move into first and second respectively. In the pack the 1km climb that we did every 14km loop was taking it’s tole on me and many others in the pack with riders being dropped each lap and having to chase back on before we hit the hill again. In the end it was French rider Johan Lebon who hit the base of the hill with 20 seconds advantage over the main pack which was for the most part all together. As we climbed the hill it shattered and riders came across the line in smaller groups but without the large time gaps of the day before.
The final stage was difficult for a few reasons. One there was 2km of climbing every 10km lap which made for a painful 128km. Secondly we still had Arnaud Papillion sitting well in the GC and today was the last chance to try and help him move up in the GC and maybe even get a podium spot. Every lap it became harder and harder to stay with the pack up the hill and eventually I wasn’t able to keep pace on the climb so it became a question of if I could catch back onto the pack before the next time we hit the hill. I managed to make it back to the peloton every lap but the last one so I was happy with that performance in itself. Arnaud managed to grab some intermediate time bonuses and moved into 4th on the GC which I felt was a great performance by him and the team.
Teo.
Hugo Houle on the Podium after stage 1
The Descent into the Finish of Stage 2
David Boily in the Break on Stage 3
The beginning part and steepest part of the climb on Stage 4
Me in the pack on Stage 2
So I havent written a blog entry in while so I’ll sum up the beginning of the season (or at least the good bits) in pictures that way it’ll save me a few thousand words.
Teo.
Taking the sprint for 3rd at Calabogie
TT at Granby. 9th
GP Ste Raymond. Stage 1: 2nd/ GC: 4th
Crit at Charlevoix
Finish of the Charlevoix Road Race 13th place. 5th in the Time Trial. 9th Overall.
We have been riding quite a bit in the past few days and as a result I now have a really sore knee and have taken the day off in attempt to recover. Colin and I did some tt work 3 days ago and the day after we rode to Caesars head and as we were riding up to the beginning of the climb I say a rider in the stars and stripes and figured it may be George Hincapie.
We got to take some pictures with him and then everyone tried to keep up with him on the climb and all failed to do so but thats not a big surprise.
Yesterday was a trip to the Hincapie sports store in nearby Greenville and we also watched a movie on him so it would appear that meeting him has sparked a new interest in him and gained George a bunch of new fans.
Today I had to take the day off because my knee is really starting to bother me and I want to make the most out of the next few weeks so hopefully there will be some more cool stories to share.
For now Ill leave you with some pictures of the past few days.
Teo.
Clemson Tigers Stadium
Clemson Score Board
George Hincapie on the lead up to the Climb
Our group photo with Hincapie
After meeting Hincapie we took an interest and visited his shop in Greenville.
Today I actually finished the ride that we were intending to do the first day up to Whitewater falls and the climb was surprisingly hard. I wore a heart rate monitor for the first time in a long time and trying to stay under 80% is alot harder than I thought.
The ride ended up being around 90km which is pretty good since I think I’m averaging around 3hrs a day up to this point.
The day was pretty uneventful other than that, some more people showed up to the house today and there were some more cycling stories swapped but other than the a quiet day.
Teo.
Colin riding up the days climb.
Daniele and John still all smiles half way up the climb. (sorry for the blurry photo)
Me at the lookout at the top of the climb. We were pretty sure we could see three states from here.
John fueling up at the top of the climb.
This morning as I looked out the window there was still a few inches of snow on the ground and with the temperatures not yet above zero it wasn’t looking like it would melt in time for our ride.
We hit the road at 11:00 and today with the better weather and more warm clothing it was actually quite nice out. Once we made it to the main road though we found the roads to be really slippery where the trees were covering the road with shade. There was a few close calls with people wobbling around until we were descending a hill and Katie hit the deck, everyone behind hit the brakes so we wouldn’t run her over and in the process locked up the rear wheel and followed suit in falling.
In total there were about 6 of us who fell and because of the icy roads not one really got any bad road rash just a couple of bumps and bruises.
The ride ended up being 85km for the majority of us with a group of 4 doing 125km.
Teo.
Some of the guys just before we headed out.
The road condition that we had to deal with. At times it was snow and ice covered all across the road.
Even some vehicles were having trouble with the road conditions as we came across a few cars in the ditch during the ride.
We woke up late today after our late arrival and had to make a trip to the grocery store before we could get anything to eat so our breakfast was around noon which was a little hard to stomach and then having to ride right after made it all that much better.
The ride planned for the day was a 3hr ride which would take us up to Whitewater falls. I put on all of my clothes that I could as it was only 2 degrees out when we left and the ride was going smoothly until we got to the base of the hill and it started to snow. We climbed for about a half hour and by then it was looking like we were back in Canada. A few of us decided to turn back early because we figured it would only get worse.
As we descended we started to freeze and by the time we reached the bottom we were frozen solid. We ventured on to the closest gas station where we took shelter and waited for the braver riders who made it all the way to the top.
John, David, Patrick and Stefan were not tough enough to brave the ride home and waited at the gas station to get picked up. The rest of us hammered all the way home in an effort to stay warm and also to get out of this wretched weather. We made it home and cranked up the fire place and the furnace and all sat around waiting to thaw out.
Ryan and I cooked dinner which was a disaster as usual but ended up tasting ok so all was good 
Teo.
Some pictures from around the house.
The snow starting to fall at the base of the climb.
Colin half way up the hill with the snow now beginning to be quite unpleasant.
Me descending the hill back into town.
The aftermath of our ride was probably the most snow covered my bike has ever been.
