Photo and Updates

Photo is from Starcrossed compliments of Barry Rempel.

For a mid-week update, Drew put on an underground race last night that was super fun. Some awesome twisty trail sections and some fast grassy corners. My legs felt like they had been run through a cheese grator...so I hung out in the back and enjoyed the terrain. Hopefully today I'll be able to get right back at it!

Starcrossed and Rad Racing

So....let us do some math: fit joele - training + good food in Montreal - a lot of sleep + 1 week of cramming for a race = a highly painful weekend of cyclocross racing.

I could probably stop there. No need to explain further...but that might have disappointed you after waiting for this page to load. So here is the in depth report:

Starcrossed: Wicked race near Seattle that is held every year under the lights. Definitely not a bad way to go. Hundreds of spectators cheering you on, a rowdy beer garden, and some rain mid-race just to keep things interesting.

I got a great warm up in which included a couple laps of the mostly grass, little bit of road, some logs, and some barriers. Off the line I felt strong, but apparently so did all the girls that started in front of me (day of registration means dead last for start-line call up) so I passed the ones I could and settled into a group of about 4 of us. Around a corner and one girl rolled her tubular causing the girl behind her to crash into her....thread the needle and I barely miss getting caught up in their curfuffle. Around the next corner I attack a girl to the left, but just as my bars are passing her bars she decides to break her line and shift left...bars entangle, I pray mine come out on top and suddenly she disappears. Whew, lucky so far.

Fast forward a couple more painful laps (my eyes were cross-eyed and there was a light that constantly kept exploding in my head), a Vanderkitten girl attacks me, I stick onto her wheel until the last half-lap and attack, get in front and hammer as hard as I can to stay in front to finish up in 16th place. It isn't even in sight of the podium, but it is 6 places higher than the Portland USGP's last December, so I'll take it (and use it for motivation for training!).

The rain started pouring just as I headed back to the car, a quick jacket-grab, and then to the start-line to collect all my boys' jackets. I had a great time cheering for Drew, Tyler (who ripped it up to finish in 10th!), Craig, and the Skinner brothers while trying to stay dry. Drew was riding really strong in the top 20 until he tore his rear derailleur hanger completely off the bike--what luck!

After a couple beer with the rest of the crew from Victoria and a quick car pack up, Tyler, Drew and I headed for the hotel. I promptly collapsed in a heap of exhaustion while the guys headed to Denny's for a late night snack. Next morning we got to wake up to a leisurely breakfast and pack-up before heading South to Lakewood's Steilacom Park for the Rad Racing NACT (North American Cyclocross Trophy) Race.

Steilacom Park boasts the longest run-up I've ever seen. The UCI maximum runup length is 80 meters and this guy comes pretty close, not only that, it is steep. The run up is followed by a sketchy fast downhill, a fire road climb (I thought mountain bike season was over!), another sketchy descent, some fun fast corners through some worn paths, and then a hammer session through a windy field before heading back through the start/finish, over some barriers, and back out towards the run-up.

At the start line I felt great, the bees were buzzing, the birds were chirping, my bike looked like a rocket ready to take off, a gun went off....wait...that means go! Apparently when my brain stops thinking about racing my feet shut down too, I missed my pedals and went from my sweet start position of 9th to almost last in the opening straight. Over the barriers I started to catch people, up the run up I passed a handful of girls, and then maintained the rest of the lap until I got to the windy field. Apparently my legs don't like that type of effort so I just watched girls ride away. Sweet. Back around to the run up and I could catch most of them and hold them off, but I did end up losing a couple spots to finish up 15th overall, a better day than the day before, and now I have even more motivation to go back and train....but ugh, that felt awful!

Overall, the weekend actually went fairly well. I am not far off of what I expected based on my recent lack of preparation (otherwise called "resting") and I have some time to regroup and start seriously training in the next couple weeks. Probably the most exciting part of the weekend came AFTER the racing was done--when our car headed back over the border it also marked my acceptance of Canadian Permanent Residency, which is a huge relief (and the product of hours of paperwork!)

Drew and I are now home, and this time long enough to settle in, see some friends, clean the house, and hang out with Eric the cat before our next races in Vancouver the first weekend of October. He just completed building the SpeedVagen that he won at Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds last year...it is beautiful! Photos to come!

Starcrossed after Montreal

I woke up early this morning and there is laundry to be folded, so I figured this would be a perfect time to write up an update on the upcoming weekend and last week's show.

This weekend Drew, Tyler Trace, and I are all heading down to Seattle for a weekend of racing starting with Starcrossed. Starcrossed takes place in the dark (women's race at 7pm, men's race at 8pm). It is the first major North American UCI race of the year and has some fast names. The next day follows with Rad Racing's North American Cyclocross Trophy which historically has had a daunting run-up. We'll see what happens this year!

As for the past week, Montreal was a ton of fun. The booth looked great with quite a few pro-tour bikes, a Naked bike from Sam Whittingham, Geoff Kabush's bike, and Thomas Vanderham's bike.

Last year's unveiling of Dura Ace 7900 and Di2 (the electronic Dura Ace) would have been tough to beat, so the booth went back to basics. The latest and greatest was the introduction of Ultegra 6700, now with most of the features of Dura ace 7900 but without the pricetag. The group looks clean and feels great (there were a couple bikes set up for test riding). Other notable new items in the Shimano booth included some sweet looking, 1800 gram UST wheels that retail for around $650CAD, several new pairs of shoes, and a new road spd/sport touring pedal called the A600--lighter than XTR this pedal is Ultegra worthy but mountain bike shoe compatible.

I think my procrastinating window is dwindling down....so I'll leave you with one last photo of my pearly whites.

The Romance is Gone....

All summer at the 45minutes of suffering mark in mountain bike races, the ones that have really hurt, a brief flicker has come into my head “if it was cross season I would be done suffering.” Well, cross season is here!

Two weekends ago marked the first BC Cup cross race in Fort Langley (yes, this post is a little late...). This is one of the few race courses I haven’t ridden, so I was a little nervous, but mostly excited to start the season off with a new race course. The course is located amidst farm land and starts on an all-out fire road with a 90 degree turn onto another all out fire road, 90 degree turn, another fire road into a muddy bridge, a rough tire-eating broken cinder block section of fire road, through a set of barriers, some twisty muddy corners, and up a 45 second run-up, through some twisty singletrack, down a loose fire road, into a roller-coaster tree section, up a sharp climb and back through the lap/finish area.

The B men went off in front of us. A minute later with the Masters women lined up in front of us, we started. A quick start, heading over the barriers Alison Sydor was in first, Jean Anne McKirdy second, Sarah Stewart third, Kelly Jones fourth, and myself in fifth. Up the run up I attacked and passed Kelly, tried to pass Sarah, but settled into fourth.

With a crash in front, Sarah, Kelly, and I were separated from Jean Anne and Alison who weren’t seen again. Sarah, Kelly, and I rode together for another lap until up the next run up I tried, unsuccessfully to attack Sarah. In an all out sprint up the run up Sarah and I gapped Kelly and continued on.

I hung on to Sarah for as long as I could, but I didn’t recover quickly enough from the run up and Sarah powered through all the flat sections to gap me. About this time I glanced down at my clock to see that only 15 minutes had gone by—all this suffering and still 30 minutes left? I rode the rest of the race in no-mans-land to maintain my fourth place position finishing the race as wrecked as if I’d raced a cross country race.

Drew finished up in 4th as well after a slow start, a frustrating battle through the masters men field, a bridge up to the lead group that included Tyler Trace, Craig Richey, and Kevin Noiles. Tyler and Craig gapped Kevin and Drew to sprint it out a lap early because of the mistaken commissaires but came around in the final lap in the same order to finish up with Tyler in first, Craig second, Kevin third, and Drew fourth.

Monday morning I headed off to Montreal for the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada’s Trade show--it was a week working with Shimano and checking out the latest and greatest for 2010...but more on that later.

Never a Dull Moment!

I don't sit still for long...probably never have--but this week and weekend are taking the cake! Last weekend we actually got a chance to spend some time at home, a night out with Drew's hockey team on Friday led to a long workday Saturday, a dinner-time picnic at the beach and then a night of relaxing before an awesome cross-ride on Sunday with the Sunday mountain bike crew. After the cross ride I got a couple hours of down-time that included a nap with Eric the cat and then an awesome dinner with Drew's mom at Il Terrazo.

This week at the shop has been busy with everyone hauling out their cross bikes and getting to work setting them up (check out www.straightupcycles.ca for my cross-gear blog!). Requests for skills clinics have been crazy and Drew and I are planning on putting one on from the shop probably on Tuesday the 15th--we'll confirm closer to the date! This week Drew put on a private skills clinic with a few of our close friends so that we wouldn't embarass ourselves at this weekend's BC Cup in Langley, I forgot how hard it is to dismount, run barriers, and then re-mount. Talk about needing to work on my overall athleticism! Can you say bull in a china shop?

Now this weekend...socializing tonight (because we never have enough time for all of our people!) more riding and work tomorrow, a night of packing and race prep, and then off to Fort Langley bright and early for the first BC Cup Cross race of the year on Sunday.

Monday (Labour day!) is looking like it will come fast and be jam packed with the post-race sleepies, hopefully a ride, and then final prep for my 2pm flight to Montreal for 6 days! I'll be working in the Shimano booth for the Canadian Bicycle trade show again this year. Last year it was 4 amazing but exhausting days of set-up, product knowledge training, and then customer product run-throughs. I'm pretty sure I came home with almost no voice.

I'll try to post race results and updates on the week next week...but no promises! For anyone who will be heading to the shop...be nice to Gerry while I am away!