Woeful worlds and the return to road

April first always seems to mark a shift in my universe. A winter of track has come to and end and a long road always sits before me.

As a whole, the track campaign went quite well this year. Podium finishes at each of the world cups and a 6th place at worlds along with winning the OVERALL in the world cup series has put me in a great position for the Olympics next year. There are still many places to improve. The Worlds 6th was about as bad as I thought I could do going in. The plus side to this is it is the first time I have been disappointed with such a result at worlds, but it was very possible to do more. The World cup was never on the radar though so it kind of makes up for it. I will however have to figure out how to get the results on the day I want them….the Olympics is not a series.

After the racing in Apeldorn I made my way to the Spidertech team house in the south of France. I have had some beautiful rides here and been keeping some pressure on the pedals. I start racing with a UCI 1.1 race on April 3 in Bretagne. It will be harsh awakening I am sure and I have spent the better part of the week trying to mentally prepare. Here is hoping I will be able to find some road legs in time to make some real contributions in these early days.

This is not an Automatic Post

My life has been pretty crazy this year. I just got back from a training camp in Santa Barbra where I rode in an inch of snow on a crazy decent. I was at a great Spidertech Team launch a few weeks ago, a team I am very excited to be a part of, and I have been run off my feet by a new puppy that is trying to eat all the paper in my house. Not good for a guy who makes his living through contracts. Now in the midst of it all I have WON the WORLD CUP OVERALL.

This is something I knew I could do eventually. But I thought it would be something that I would have to sit down and say “ok lets win this thing this year.” I thought I would have to chase points and sacrifice other events etc. But as it turns out I just had a steady year while trying to qualify for the Olympics in London. My team mate Tara has also managed the same accomplishment in the same year. Feels like something special is happening in Canadian Track cycling…I am excited.

I would write a longer post but I have to go to PUPPY Class…

World Cups on the way

Spending some time down in LA training and living with the other Canadian imports here. I am honestly surprised how much drive I have for training given the short break. It is early in the season yet and I am trying to really pace myself but it seems to be keeping me fresh so far.

I leave for Australia at the end of the week. Track racing will officially start at the Perth Grand Prix, then on to the first world cup. As a plus I will have my number 1 fan with me on my trips with me. being a cycling widow my wife has always put on a brave face when I leave. At least the build up in air miles has given paid off for her.

bye bye from LA

Delhi, The Belly, and Seasons over but JUST begining

It is about 12 hours until I leave for my plane back to Canada from the commonwealth games. This has been a trip…everything was not as expected here. The venues where better the village was different. The racing was hard and the atmosphere was tense and celebratory all at the same time.

On the performance side I was able to pick up my first international games medal. And was part of what was probably one of the most successful games for cycling in recent memory.

I went to a temple that ended up being more like Disneyland and less like ancient traditions than on might expect. But it was also strangely impressive in its own way. I am not sure I will understand what this trip to india will mean for me for a while. I think it will take some time to process this experience and really understand where it fits in my sporting life and my real life. I have a feel that the significance of it may not be what I am immediately feeling about the place. Still wonderful to have another games experience anyway you slice it.

BOO urns to bike theifs

As an owner rider and avid cyclist it is bound to happen…but it does not make it less of a pain in the A**. It is like cycling bandits are just following you around waiting to pounce when ever possible.

Here is how they got me…It is hot and my doc is out of town and I needed to go to a doctors appointment across town with a different doctor. It was a rest day on the training so I figured I could spin down there (about an hour ride each way). So I put mu lock on my bike and my flip flops in my pocket and rolled down there. I found a bike rack in the middle of day light in front of a busy coffee shop on a busy corner among many other bikes at the university. I came back 45 min later from my appointment and the bike was gone. I get it…a nice bike can be dollar bills sitting on the street. But here is the thing…it was 2:30 in the afternoon, it was a busy street and it was locked up…who ever stole it had to be roaming around ready to steal a bike…and then had to be bold enough to steal it in front of everyone on the street in the middle of the day. Do people just not do anything? And if there is a person roaming around doing this in the middle of the day, traveling with a bike theft kit how is it that other people have not seen this person in action…

so I am down a bike…which is probably a little less of a problem for a guy like me than it would be for the average rider…still hard to stomach….and lame.

Tour of California

So I just got back from this, both the race and an actual literal tour of California. Due to unfortunate time cuts (9% on a mountain stage, if you can find another race with a cut like that I would be curious to see it) I was not able to start the last two stages…which is to bad because I felt like I was coming into something special in terms of form, if not special at least not as bad as things had been going. But that is life I suppose. The race as a whole was pretty good…challenging courses with a good amount a variety for a race in North America. And other than a crazy time cut on a 6 - 7 hour day it was pretty well done. I was disappointed to come into it using it as a form builder rather than ready to swing for the fences. It is tough getting the road tapper right. Some times I come into great legs for no reason at all. This year it seems to be taking a lot of work. Almost as if the bigger your base the more bricks you need on the next level. This makes the whole process more time consuming. Could this mean I have the potential to build a bigger tower this year. Here is hoping so.

So with the ejection from the race at the hands of the BIG Bear I took the opportunity to spend some time with my wife, another dejected team mate, and his girlfriend checking out southern California’s sights.

The highlight for me, dare I say it, was Disney Land. Coming from a design back ground (and my design friends who read this, if they do, will likely cringe at me saying so) I found Disney an amazing exercise in well executed theatrical kitch. Is it cheesy and unrealistic, sure, but it is cheesy fiction done right. Every square inch of the place is a carefully tailored experience. I for one was not expecting that. I was brought up in a world of national parks and wilderness views. Disney was what was wrong with the world. Maybe it still is. But from an artist point of view, I think that the Disney experience is just what it should be. It is a form of theater. It does not try to pretend to be something its not. Instead it embraces what a “theme park” experience can be and runs with it. It takes the artificiality of these places, takes the best parts and shows them off in a carefully played out way. Given a mountain top and the Materhorn bobsled I still take the mountain. But I have a whole new appreciation for and the carefully engineered experience. Maybe I was just releived to be outside of the chaos of bike racing for a while. Maybe it was because we hit it on a Tuesday before schools let out for the summer. Or maybe it was because I saw my wife get just as excited as she did the first time she went as a kid. Whatever it was the Disney Land park overcame my huge preconception and negative foundations and actually produced a worth while and memorable experience in an unlikely place for me.

Now I am back in BC trying to add some more bricks to my form before Philly next Sunday. This is a good job. Hope we can come back to make a bigger mark on this bike race.

France and Back

So it has been a week of rest at home preparing for the Tour of California. The racing in France was pretty unbelievable. Starting in little towns racing through little towns finishing in little towns. It was great to see fans and in each town that loved the sport. It was the most fun I have had in the gutter I think…The last day was one of the best days of racing I have had. Not that the race went well for me, but it was a real bike race as it was meant to be.

The finishing circuit in particular was something to behold. The loop took us through a french town with all kinds of character. It rolled through these little winding roads and under a bridge that looked like an aqueduct from the roman empire. Then up this climb that turned into cobbled classic style finish…people pressed up against shop windows and cheering.

Now back in vancouver the weather is getting into the upper teens and the rides are starting to go a little longer than planned rather than shorter. It is a good time of year to be a bike rider…Well it is always a good time to be a bike rider…I just think this is one of the best.

Langk owwi!!!

Langkawi is one of those races that you don’t know about until you start getting into cycling in a big way. It does not have the glamor of the tour or giro or any of the spring classics. It may not even be as well known as some of the staples of the north American race diet like Philly or the TOC. But anyone in the racing scene knows that Langkawi is a jewel of the early season. It is one of the rare high level stage races out there with a long history that is still a strong point to start a truly competitive career. One of the good sort of “testing grounds” for the early season.

I came here hoping for some good results and good legs. Kelly Benefit Strategies has just finished day 5 and we have been competitive against the teams that are here finishing their season with race fitness and some good depth. We have pulled down 3 top 10s in 5 stages which is not fantastic considering the speed we have here but respectable for starting of the year at a 2.HC.

But for me this race as been about pain and suffering. Not because I am not ready…or not fit. Infact, I have felt very comfortable in the group, following moves and racing in general. My problem is I seem to have returned to place I have not seen since my first multi day stage race. I have crashed 3 times in 5 days. 2 have been hard. The frustrating thing is they have all been at the hands of avoidable situations. Today I hit something like 20 unmarked, unmarshaled, fixed traffic cones that where virtually in the middle of the course. No one pointed them out, it is like the front of group just decided “we are just going to ride right into these and see what happens”. And it is not like the race has been irresponsible. I would say the marshaling has been excellent and the organization stellar. Not 1 hour later a serious of cones in a similar position were clearly pointed out by guys waving flags and blowing whistles.

Just my luck. The good thing is I seem to no worse for it going into the last couple days and more importantly heading into worlds.
I thought my days of wrecking multiple times where well behind me. This race has just reinforced my belief that sometimes in this sport luck can just leave you for no reason for a while. You can position yourself right, racing in a race that has great organization, history and marshals, and still go down 3 times, in the middle of long straight flat wide roads. If you are going to race bikes you are going to fall down…and no matter what it is never going to be when you want to.

Double down

Well I got the goods finally..and twice in a row no doubt. It was great to win…let me tell ya. It was particularly important for me because I have never heard the anthem as a result of my own performance before. I have won before, in CALI, last year…but in that case there was a protest, and the award ceremony happened the next day and I had already left to come home. So to hear OH Canada in the laoshan Velodrome twice in 2 days was very satisfying. I also got a huge inflow of support from everyone…it was so good to know the people who have helped me along the way were watching when I was able to pull it off for the first time. I know I don’t update this enough…so I will try get better at this…hopefully I will generate more exciting news like this as the year goes on.

I have not blogged since Sept 8th

Man my bad…I am a totally new person literally well almost literally. I have had all kinds of changes which might explain why I have not bloged.

so here is the list…
I have gotten married
been to hawaii
painted my house
been to LA like 3 times
negotiated a new contract
public speaking for act now BC
build a copper pot rack.
etc.

Now I am in a hotel on Columbia getting ready to compete as a member of the biggest national team contingent I have ever traveled with. It is really something to see all the new faces and people on the cusp of taking the next step in Canada. It is fantastic to be a part of what is turning into a legitimate program. Canadian track cycling is being born again in my opinion. That is not to say we are going to be a dominant team on the world scene right away…but this is the first program worth backing…and the first one I have seen from a national level that has the potential to produce real results. I know Canadians have gotten results before but I think they have done it in large part on their own. I think if any of these young guys medal at major events in the future it will be in large part due to the health of the program. So long as we can continue to grow I think there are a lot of good things in the future of many of these riders here.