Cali World Cuped

Every year I have spent time in Vancouver in the winter wondering if it is really worth it to go down south for the winter as so many riders do to find that form. I have always thought “i can tough it out here in the rain. I can get the work done and probably be better for it.” Well This year I actually made the move down south. I have been living in Temecula California. Relocated my wife and Dog to do it and after this first race of the world Cup season I understand why.

Granted there are always a variety of reasons why you break through barriers in your form. I have been fighting with all the events in the omnium since its introduction. And I expect to be at odds with them right though the Olympics. It is just the nature of the discipline. So much racing and so little time. But the real measuring stick for me of “how strong am I” has always been my pursuit. It seems like the only quantifiable endurance event. It is the only one you can look at and say “I did that time because…”

I set the Canadian Record in the event back in the “youth” of my cycling career. I broke a record held by Brian Walton that had stood for something like 15 years. I did it while training almost exclusively for the pursuit. But despite all those factors I never understood why I had never been able to better my own time. Throughout my career I would like to think I had gotten stronger. I performed better each year in races on both the road and track. My accent has not been fast or surprising but it has been in the right direction. Winning pro stages, getting world cup medals, World Championship medals. Yet in all that time I had never seen an improvement in the 4km time. Last year at the world cup in Melbourne (the same venue where I set the record originally) I was able to dip under it by something like half a second, and over the years I was constantly riding in the 4:30’s more and more. But I could never understand why I could not break the barrier.

Riding a 4:27 in Columbia finally, in my mind, was a time that made sense to me in this event. And it made me realize what is so attractive about “the trip south” I don’t think it is the weather (cause I have done loads of road riding in the rain). It is not the training partners (I have been doing most of my riding solo). I think “the trip south” is a change int your attitude. It is something that causes a rider to focus all the energy on training. You go for a reason and so you almost automatically become more disciplined. You have made this investment and so you want to get the most out of it. That is the attraction, at least for me. It is a more “professional” way of conducting business, and in this case the business is bike riding. And I don’t think you need to go south to get this effect. You just need to GO. Just go some place where your lifestyle gets reduced to those vital things that are most important to you. In my case it is my family and my riding. Right now those are the things that take up my time. I think going south has meant there is less time spent on frivolity and more time spent on just those most basic activities of living. I don’t think this is a sustainable way of life permanently. But just because it is not continuous does not mean it is not a great way to live. I miss my friends and the wonderful distractions of North Vancouver. And the complexity of what sounds like a reduced simple athletic monasticism has been mind boggling. But in the end I think it is why I was able to pass the 4:30 mark in Columbia. It also confirms to me yet again that I am in good hands. With the support staff, my coach, my family it is all adding up to going faster. This is an exciting feeling to have at this stage of the game.

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