RECAP!

For those of you who don’t necessarily follow my antics on a regular basis, let me take this opportunity to enlighten you as to what exactly I do here.

I sit currently on an Air Canada something or other plane, contemplating the good and bad things that have happened to me since starting this blog and subsequently, my adventure in becoming a pro cyclist. Let me tell you there has been a lot of each. To be fair and try to keep you reading a bit longer, I’ll start with all the amazing stuff that this trip has given me the opportunity to do.

Ask yourself these questions. What is your passion? If you could do anything in the world utilizing your skills as a human being, what would you do? Sky is the limit here people so don’t hesitate in your answer because of work obligations or money savings or material commitments, I didn’t. For me the answer is simple. Bicycles. I’m kind of nuts for them. The functionality, mechanical efficiency and finesse of riding a bike might as well be the peas to my carrot. Me of course being the carrot.

Sifting through my confusing analogy which I now regret using, what I mean to say is that on any given day, no matter what I’m doing, chances are, Ill be thinking about the next time I get to ride my bike.

Recently, in the past few years I have taken a huge interest in racing my bikes. Who doesn’t like to go fast? This interest, which started honestly with a friend saying “Hey, you should race Patty.” has exploded into well kind of what I do now...which brings me to the reason I’m sitting on this plane. People don’t really get the opportunity to say they ‘went for it’ in their lives. In the later months of last race season and the last year of my undergrad, I decided to do just that. I saved my ass off working 7 days a week, still found time to train a bit and hang out with my awesome, supportive girlfriend who doesn’t get my attention nearly as much as she deserves, and booked it down to Tucson to train for my first season as an elite level bike racer.

The three months are over, I rode (pardon my French) a fucking ton, and I did my first pro race in California just last weekend and still managed to finish with a smile on my face. Aside from needing a few minor tweaks here and there with my fitness, things are looking up towards fulfilling my goal of racing at the World Cup Finals in New York state this year. I had a total blast on top of that too.

There were a few minor hiccoughs along the way however. On January 20th, I crashed on my road bike in Tucson and broke my left clavicle, pretty bad I might add. It broke really close to my shoulder so simple surgery wasn’t an option as the bone on one side of the break wasn’t long enough to get screws drilled into. This resulted in a full week totally off the bike, cursing the beautiful weather and that I was alone for the whole thing. My week of bicycle abstinence was followed by a week on a trainer graciously sent down by the BEST STORE IN THE WORLD, which allowed me to train enough so that I didn’t completely lose the fitness I had gained previously. How many employers do you know would do that for an employee? That’s what I thought. Once I got the OK from my orthopaedic surgeon in the states to ride, It was back to longer rides pretty quick. I had company at this point so I didn’t just spend the whole ride focusing on my shoulder, which was nice. I cant say that this was entirely why my performance was so poor at Fontana but I don’t mind playing the blame game a tiny bit. That was the other thing I was sort of grumpy about. Granted, it was my first pro race and I had no idea what to expect, I really did think i was going to do better than I did. I thought my fitness was good at the very least but I guess I have a lot of work to do when I get home. This however, I am looking forward to...a lot. The race was the punch in the guts I needed to really realize what it takes to go fast. The sheer volume of riding that I did means that my fitness base is great and I felt that throughout the entirety of the race. I wasn’t going very fast, but my body was up for doing about 10 laps. The thing I need to work on is the punch that will get you into a good starting position off the back of a start line and keep you there for the rest of the two hours. This, I am excited to achieve.

To keep this short and sum up exactly what I have been trying to say this whole time, is that this was by far, the BEST experience I have ever had in terms of reaching goals. Despite those few problems, I can’t help but look on the bright side of this. I got to go ride my bikes in the sun for 3 months, I got to ride with and race against the best of the best in all of North America, and I even got the chance to explain to some curious people in waiting rooms why the Canadian health care system is pretty neat. Oh, and my tan totally kicks ass, you can ask Barry about that one.

I will surely keep blogging away with my learnings on and about the bike this summer and hopefully people stay interested in what I have to say. I know all my family only reads this for the recipes.

Stay tuned!

Oops.

That was one hell of an experience. We had done a small grocery shop Thursday and there was a small kitchen in the hotel room so Friday night before the race I treated myself to a tasty microwave sweet potato and a bit of pasta with black beans. Saturday morning, the big day, we all went downstairs to enjoy some coffee, juice and helpings of our tasty continental breakfast before quickly returning to our hotel rooms to prepare bottles and equipment. The women’s race was great to watch as it gave us a bit of an insight into how we were going to have to battle against the wind. Needless to say, it looked debilitating. Here is some insight into what we all raced in. (VIDEO) Congrats to all the women who did a great job yesterday.

I actually somehow ended up getting a pretty sweet call up, about 4th or 5th row. I have no idea how that happened because I currently have no UCI points and did not compete here last year and haven’t raced at all this year. Ill take it though. The start loop was interesting to say the least, the ground was loose, it was twisty, tight and fast so 100 pros going through there at almost top speed meant a lot of people washing out/un-clipping and fighting for position. It was a pretty big shock to the system and my good call up got thrown out the window. Up the insanely steep climb I was probably in something like 60th position and at this point it was too tight for out section of the group to all be riding so off our bikes we got and up the hill we went. I had started to settle into a bit of a groove on the second lap but due to my own silliness, when I was coming through to get my feed on to start my third lap, I was looking down, frustrated with myself for being in the position I was in, subconsciously shook my head while I dropped my bottle, which signalled that I did not need a new one. Oops. Huge thanks to Cindy Batty though for feeding me, she is a feed zone guru and it was 100% my fault for shaking my head. Oh well! No bottle it is and I'm off on my third lap. To make up for the missing bottle in my bottle cage I had a gel, which was tasty for about 10 seconds until I had no water to wash it down and then became stale in my mouth and just tasted gross. It was much better than nothing though. I kept going and finished out my race in 73rd, out of about 90 something starters, losing a few positions on that lap.


I had no idea what to expect coming into this race but I’m not going to lie, I really did think I was going to do better than I did. I have a lot to do and even though this was a poor performance from me, I realize now what needs to be done for me to fulfill my goals for the season, which remain unchanged. I know my performance will improve now that I know the intensity that I have to train with. Overall however, It was a great experience on one of the toughest courses in the North American circuit and in some of the craziest weather. Im just satisfied I didn’t DNF like many other people.

Next on the chopping block is to get packed up and head home to Toronto. I am really looking forward to getting into my own bed and back to my old training grounds so I can improve for my next race which will probably be Le Bicicletta’s Hell of the North and then Paris-Ancaster for some more intensity before the Ontario and Canada Cups start. Mansfield is about a month away and Im still hoping for top 10 in that race.

See you in Canada!

WInd, 2:30 start times, race days.

Its 9 am here in Fontana, made the beautiful drive here just fine on Thursday so we could ride the course a few times before the big day (today). Just had my tasty continental breakfast and am drinking a hotel room coffee, looking outside at the gale force winds that are literally bordering on uprooting some trees. Its pretty wild stuff. Luckily for us, we start our race at 2:30 and hopefully it will have died down by then.

The course is nuts, its the first bit of real mountain biking I've done in a while which is really nice. Tucson has some great trails but they are either straight up, straight down or totally flat and boring. Not going to lie, the nerves are starting to get to me, so I'm just ready to get this done with. Our 5th lap is going to suck big time.

On a lighter note, Barry, the owner of the Trek Store is in Fontana and might actually be racing right now. He brought me a brand spanking new kit to race in and like I've said before, if you look great you'll do well haha. Anyways, gonna go stretch some more before we head down to watch the pro women's race so wish me luck everyone and I will have a full race report ready tonight or tomorrow for everyone to read.

See ya!

*thank you Emily for taking the pictures.



Great training up Lemmon today with some Ontario folk. Made some sweet videos. Here is shoddy self video of my daring attack of the easy paced group ride.




Two first names for a last name explaining the benefits of elliptical chain rings.

oh dear, this is really happening.

Up early, having a cup of coffee and making some black beans for breakfast. I have had a good last few weeks as far as training goes. When my mom was here I found a great new road that took me out for over 5 hours in the brilliant sunshine.
I have been loving the weather we have been having as of late but nicer weather also means that other things, aside from summertime are approaching. The first races of the season are right around the corner and I can't tell you how excited/supremely nervous I am to get out there and mix it up.

It all really started to soak in last weekend when the first US Triple Crown race went off. Aside from the brilliant performance of the other Trek Toronto infused athletes Adam Morka and Peter Glassford, I was finally coming to terms with the fact that I was going to lining up at Fontana with not only these guys, but Kabush, JHK, Plaxton, Taberlay and the list goes on. Luckily, due to my zero priority starting position that I will have, I'm pretty confident that I won't have to deal with following any one's wheel haha.

What are my expectations for this race? Do I have any? No, not really but let's be honest, considering the field, I would be happy with not coming dead last in my first pro race. I watched the footage of last years race on Cycling Dirt last night and made a few goals for myself that I think are going to be realistic for me.

I would absolutely love to be able to finish top 40. In a field of 120 men like last year, I would also be totally happy with my ride to finish in the top half. For the most part, I just don't want to make a fool of myself and see those horrible three letters next to my name at the end of the race. Unless there is some sort of catastrophic mechanical though, I can't see this happening. My full proof plan is to go out to the start line, rip it and see if I can't push my way overly aggressive tires I brought down with me up and down that hill as fast as the next guy.

I am really excited to race my new bike, with friends in a crazy huge race and just be toasted when I cross the line. I will have a brand spanking newly designed kit for the race too so I mean that's gotta move me up 5 or 6 places at least too. Looking good is half the battle.

Hey, it's something.

Not much of an update but here is me cruising through a street that takes me to my favourite place to do intervals. I promise my camera work will improve one day.

Bug Spring trail MTB ride

Fun stuff today on the MTB. Apologies for the ridiculous sudden tone drop in my voice. I also have no idea how to turn off my camera apparently.