When the wheels come off..

Man it has been abrutal month or so on the bike. Things started to slide at the end of July I figured it would be dip in form followed by a re birth later in the year. Boy was I wrong.

I raced a few crits and was helpful for the team. I was not the force I had been early in the year but thats all good. Then came US Pro Crit and Utah.. Well NO utah. I got a bad bronchitis about 2 days befor US pro Crit ad was out of the race by the 30 km. I did what I could but breathing is essential as I have discovered. It has taken me the better part of august to recover from this. Need less to say I got pulled fromt eh Utah line up.

The one ray of light was track nationals. I did pick up 3 of 4 national titles I raced for but I would say the form was mediocre at best. But during this I got the unfortunate news I would not be racing in Missouri either. So I year were I focused my energy on the road lead to a good spring. A crash in Philly, and a total detonation at the end of the year here. Granted planning a wedding and moving mid season seemed to be what broke the back but man I have never felt so out of control of my form before.

Anyway, after some much needed rest and time to refocus I am out racing the Atlanta 100k and then Univest this weekend. In the 100km it was just Jake Keough and I. No spairs and no neutral support. In this bad news blog I am sure you know where this is going. I FLAT like 15km into the race.

The only car in the race hums and haws about giving me someone else wheels they have (as the probably should have).

Gives it to me and after the negotiation and an LOOOONG wheel change I am back on my bike around 1:30 after the flat. No problem the will pace me back, I mean this is a brutal change. SO they pace me for 500m at like 50km/hr up a hill. ad at the top of the hill a race organizer waves them off and says they can’t do that and they take off. SO I nut it for 20km and get the gap down to maybe 45 sec. But at that point they start chasing a break and I am not getting faster and I get pulled by the same race organizer who basically put the nail in my race earlier. I have NOT successfully passed more than 50km of racing since JULY. When the wheels come off they really come off.

I am still in good spirits as the other parts of my life are quite good at the moment. The wedding is coming and we are settled in to a place we are slowly but surly making our own.

I hope to be able to pull down some good rides at univest but at this point it is kind of a race and see what happens scenario for me. I am looking forward to hitting the rest button hard and planning for a new season.

WOW long time

I was checkin out the old web blog and saw that my last post was july 8th, ouch…major apologies for anyone who might want to know what is going on. The honest truth is more has gone on since I last wrote than has happened since…well since qualificaion for the games. I moved into a new place with my wife to be and we have been painting and hanging and cleaning and cooking and doing all those things involved with a new place. I have also done BC super week, elk grove and the Charlotte criterium. This is a list of the some of the richest racing all year. And for me all the activity has pushed me over a lip and bounced me off of what I hope has been the rock bottom of my season.

The tour de white rock and tour de delta are two events I always enjoy coming back to. For me they sort of mark what started my professional career it was these races where I first raced beat and got hammered by some of Canada’s and North Americas best pros. This year I got a chance to be a work horse for my team mate Ryan who was on fire. It was good to just hit the front and ride hard. The rest of the week held little luck for me. I missed the crowed prime in white rock by .02 of a second and I was caught after being in a solo break for 10 laps with 300 m to go in the race…then in the road race an unfortunate miscomunication lead to the tour de Whiterock race basically being nullified when I was in a chase group on the heels of the eventual winner.

From there things in terms of form have gone down hill. I had a good ride in the prologue of elk grove for 5th but the wheels came off the wagon shortly after and I basically held on for the remainder of the 2 days.

I took an easy week and started the Charlotte crits this weekend. The legs were a little better but still not great. But I was able to contribute somewhat…although I still take responsibility to for the collapse of our lead out in the Hanes park crit (sorry jake) It has been the first time all year I have not been really dangerous when I put the pedel down. But it was to be expected I guess. I have held a pretty good form all year even with crashes and injury. I think I am on an up swing though…lets hope so I only have 5 more days in august I am not racing.

Fitchburg Longsjo Classic

With my recent injury in a crash in philly it meant that I had to leave my team mates to handle the Tour de Beauce with out me. (Not that I was needed. Scott Swiz was still able to win the over all…pretty impressive).

This also meant that I had to modify the schedule a bit and head out to the Longsjo Classic in Fitchburg (near Boston).
This is one of, if not the oldest stage race on the NRC I think. This year it was a tough set of stages but no epic climbs so good for the harder sprinters who can suffer up the poppers and rolling hills around the area. After the first stage time trial the team had 3 in the top 4. Unfortunately the one spot we didn’t have was # 1. That belonged to Tom Zirbel from Bissell.

The second stage was struck by a a storm of rain and we went on the attack. I got into the move after a hard attack near the mid way point. I worked hard to keep the move away as I was only down on Tom by 34 sec. We only managed to keep 10 of the seconds our breakaway had earned…still it put me closer. and moved me into 2nd overall.

The third stage was a longer race with 10 1.5 km climbs. A tough day that saw a break go and get brought back and then lots of attacking in the closing laps. The finish was up the hill and I hit the gas at the base…I got a gap and came in the top 5. The gap gave me another 17 or so seconds back on Tom. This meant going into the last crit.

The team let a the break put pressure on the Bissell train. We helped a bit towards the end of to bring the break back to within 20 sec. Then we started to attack. With Scott within 11 sec and me at 6 we had some tools David V launched Scott (after working a lot) and they got a gap and forced Bissell to chase them hard. Then when they where caught I countered and left the field and bridged what was left of the small gap. Once I reached the break there was only 5 laps to go and with a team mate (who was already in the break, Reid Mumford) we drag raced it to the finish and put enough time on the field for me to take the overall. It was exciting to take the lead on the final move. What a good team win…everyone produced and the result was the leaders jersey on the last day.

Double T

We had the nationals Time Trial yesterday. Last year in Beauce. Same course again. I have been 3rd the last 2 years here. in 2007 I was behind Ryder and Svein. In 2008 it was svein and Roth. This year was the first year I came in with a good chunk of road under my belt this year. But also it is also the first year I have had to deal with a significant injury coming into it. At the Philadelphia classic I crashed after blowing my front tire and separated my AC (collar bone).

After the start I felt like I would have to be pretty disciplined about not going to hard to early. The nature of the course out here means you have to pick your battles…push really hard in certain places and almost rest in others.

I think I was able to use my constancy and volume to make the best of it. I went a good 30 sec or more faster than last year. Christian got the better of my by about 30 secs still…little guy has been riding tempo for team mates all year in the big pro tour so I was not surprised to seem him ride well but I was a little surprised to see him go so well. It is good to see the euro program is turning him into the rider we all knew he could be while on Symmetrics.

Svein also smashed it again and took the jersey he much deserves. So I was again the bronze medalist. but I keep inching closer to the top on time. Hopefully next year I will have a little better prep again and can pull something bigger out.

Road race is tomorrow.

More focus on Food

With the first hot days in the lower mainland this year I am doing some more bbq tests before I head away for the Summer of racing. Last night I cooked up and modified that burger recipe I put up last year. This one is new and tasty.

I am calling it a Hawaiian Taco Burger. It will make sense after you make it.

make up the burgers as before
1lb Ground Beef lean
Green onions
Chopped dried cranberries
One egg
3 Garlic Cloves
Roquefort Blue brie Cheese
1 tsp corn starch

now add 2 tbs of teriyaki sauce to the meat as well

this time make the burgers up in a long patty about twice as long as wide.
Cook on medium heat for 12 - 15min
Also once you have flipped the burgers put some fresh sliced pineapple on the grill as well.
Top the burgers with a tsp of cream cheese in the last 2 or 3 minutes of cooking.
Put a basil leaf and a half of a grilled pineapple slice on each patty and serve in a folded over NANN bread (like a taco, this is why the patties are longer instead of round) with what ever other burger condiments you like.

I think you will like.

Willmington and ACT NOW

Well I have been away from the old blog for a while…things are really busy with wedding planning, bike racing, and new global changing sponsors.

Spent the past weekend at the Wilmington GP and Kelly Cup. Both races are sponsored by our tittle Sponsor Kelly Benefits. After winning the Wilmington Race (see photos in my flikr). The team had a benefit dinner put together by John Kelly for our cause, World Bicycle Relief where we raised a lot of money for projects that provide high quality, durable bikes to facilitate transportation for people in 3rd world Africa (more on this in the future the team is just getting started.

Then this week I was home for one day then flew over to Victoria for my training as an athlete ambassador for ACT NOW BC. With this group I will be working at all kinds of schools and events across BC over the next two years promoting Social, Environmental, and Healthy living ideas and lifestyles to people of all ages. I am really excited to be involved with them and hope I can see lots of people getting involved in their great programs. There is something for everyone so check out the site.

I will update more on all this but right now it is heading towards 20 C and sunny in VAN so I wanna get on my BIKE…

Planet Organic YUMM YUMM

So we were down at the planet organic store in Port Coquitlum and picking up some great organic eats and I thought I would mix this with some of the food I tried in Thailand. It turned out so well I thought I would share it with you.

It is call Chicken Soup with Coconut milk. It is a spicy one.

2 cups chicken broth
on can of cocnut milk
3 sticks lemon grass
1 small bulb of Ginger
oyster mushrooms (1 - 2 cups)
chili peppers 3 - 6 depending on taste
2 thin sliced chickn breasts

Boil chicken broth
put in chicken, ginger, lemon grass mushrooms and coconut milk
boil for 5 mins
add peppers to taste and boil 5 more mins

Serve with steamed rice.
Enjoy

Thai

I am finishing off a one month road trip with a little flare. I started, as many of you know with a trip to LA to prep for track worlds. This was only a weeklong prep that was intended just to give me the feel for the track again. From there I went to Poland for the world championships where I got a mixed bag of results from fantastic to not so great…but none were disappointing which is better than worlds has gone for me in the past.

Then it was on to the tour of Thailand. Now there is always a little unknown when heading to a race like this. International racing can always go either way especially at the UCI 2.2 level.

Thailand did not disappoint. The FOOD has been amazing, Thai curries and soups and noodles and spice and nice…MMMM.

The race was well organized, well run, professional and efficient. Epic courses that were well marshaled and safe. And race hotels that were more than adequate.

Now the race is over, we won the prize and we have 3 days to kill before we fly out. What to do? We had to wait for flights because it was almost 4000 bucks cheaper to fly the team later. We are a pro team but that is a whole other stage race. So we wait, Bangkok is in the lock of protests. Jonas suggest we pay a couple hundred and fly to the tropical Thai island of Samui. OK

So we have had 48 hours of beach paradise in the gulf of Thailand. Tomorrow we will fly back to Bangkok and spend a night at an airport hotel before we fly out to our homes. The trip sure has been long. But chilling in a bungalow and contemplating things on the beach toady sure helped soften the stress of a long road trip at the end.

But I am still ready to trade tropical beaches and curry for rain in Vancouver and the breath of my fiancé….

Worlds Medal

I made the podium at worlds this weekend in Poland finally after 4 years of trying. It has been a good year moving forward and I am really starting to race with these guys. Worlds over all went well for me for the first time. Every other year I have crashed or made terrible tactical mistakes that put me out of races before they even began. So to have three races to do and to really get it more or less right on the last one was great. Unfortunately my race bag with my medal and all my cycling stuff, cameras was misplaced or more likely stolen during the massive international pack up and Exodus from the track. So I had my medal for about 10 min before it was gone. What the hell man. I am not sure why I have so much trouble with these UCI medals. The are going to be pissed if they keep having to mail me new ones. (Cali scratch gold came in the mail about a week before I left).

Here is an artical in the Globe on the race
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090329.wsptcdn29/GSStory/GlobeSportsOther/home/

Good News

I know it is mushy and it is not cycling related…but it is big news anyway for any friends I have who have not found out.

I don’t think I need to write anything else…