The first of a few '2009 in pictures' posts. This one more than qualifies to illustrate the mountain bike season in Quebec, it was a wet and muddy one. After one lap of the Bromont XC World Cup course last July, my Hollowgram SL quickly went from being one of the lightest to a more standard weight one. The second lap was much worst... I think my Scalpel actually hit the 30lbs mark that day.
I'm not a fan of front shifting. They are much slower than rear shifts, they dont deal well with shifting under power (we all know we shouldn't do it but in races, it happens) and they are more risky to drop chains or suffer chainsucks. Triple cranks are already dead in my book and the idea looks to become more mainstream with SRAM's XX and the availability of a double XTR crankset option next year (of course Cannondale has offered double cranks for many years already).
But can we improve doubles? Last year people looked at Adam Craig's bikes running a single chainring and thought he was weird (which he is but not for that) but the idea has caught on a lot this year and hit the front under the legs of none other than Julien Absalon and Geoff Kabush, the Canadian champ of course winning the Bromont World Cup with a 1x9 setup showcased that the concept isn't a bad idea after all. The possibility to save a bunch of weight by dropping one shifter, one cable and it's housing, the front derailleur and keep only one chainring is appealing but avoiding the front shifting risks and issues (especially in muddy conditions) and the slow shifts is even more interesting to me.
Then I saw a funny press release from e*thirteen a few days ago. They released their XCX chainguide for the growing numbers of XC riders opting for 1x9 or 1x10 gearing setups after apparently 5 years of testing, only to come out with a product almost identical to the year old MRP 1.X guide. Same pricing, about the same weight, both available in black or white as BB mounted guides and they look almost identical. Hummm...
Unfortunatly, both were just available in BB mounted version that are not compatible with the BB30 standard I have on both my Scalpel and my CAAD9 cross bike. I had inquired about a seat tube mounted version from MRP (as e*thirteen didn't have it's model annouced back then) and their product manager told me one was in the works and should be annouced around November.
So today, MRP released three new versions of their 1.X guides, two seat tube mounted, one for mountain bikes, one specifically designed for cyclocross gear sizes and chainline and one for direct mounts like on the new Cannondale Flash... So I think that, once I get a road bike, I will finally be able to dedicate my cross bike to cross and set it with a 1x10 and go 1x10 on my Scalpel with a 11-36 XX cassette, rear derailleur and shifter... On the Scalpel, a 32T ring with the 11-36 cassette would have about the same low end gear as my current 29T small ring with a 11-34 cassette and I would sacrifice the two highest gears of the typical 44x11, gears I used very rarely when mountain biking. Thanks MRP.
It's that time of the year. When a beer or two and chorizo on any given night are welcomed without feeling bad about it, when the Garmin and it's HR strap are accumulating dust in the bike room, when riding is limited to getting from point A to point B and just ride for the fun of it. It's the off season, a time to let go a bit, rest the legs and the mind...
It's also a time to start planning next year. I'm currently drafting my training plan for 2010. Setting objectives and planning races, researching to build a better training plan than the last two years... Last winter, I started base December 1st but my base consisted almost exclusively of long zone 1 and 2 rides, junk miles as they say. I was accumulating lots of trainer time in front of the tv, 3-4 times a week for a few few hours. I was pedaling to and back from work everyday, only pedaling hard a bit when there was a lot of snow. It was a very old school base training and looking back, I'm not convinced I was making an efficient use of the limited training time I have.
This year I will probably start training around the same time but cut some hours of easy boring rides. Instead, I'll add more variety and keep some harder efforts mixed in the form of strength training, tempo rides, sweet spot training, leg speed exercises, fine tuning the pedal stroke and keep only one day for long rides, trying to do them outside even in the harsh Quebec weather or maybe even trading that for xc skiing depending on the conditions.
I'm not an expert in training by any means but I think it will be more fun and I wont lose as much strength and speed as I did last winter. What do you guys think?
Yet another two podium sweeps for the Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com team this weekend in Boulder. Will someone else be able to stop them before the end of the season or will it take a trip to Europe and some Nys, Albert and such to end their streak?
I'm still riding my bikes but with the days getting shorter, it's getting colder and training has stopped for a few weeks now. Today was my first ride (not counting the short commutes) since the Cowansville CX race two weeks ago, it sure felt good! There will be other rides before the year is over but most of it is now behind. Looking back, it's been a great season. First road, marathons and cyclocross races, a cycling trip over the pond, discovery of new trails, new roads and a great trail network project got started.
Any special mentions? Well yes, some moments stick out. One of the greatest ride of the year was climbing the Col du Tourmalet. Not only is the climb nice but hard, it had spectacular views and you could almost smell the history. But the whole trip to France was one of the highlights of the season... and of my cycling life. Great roads, a great test for the legs, beautiful, I want to go back!
After trying a few racing disciplines, I have to say, cyclocross is the coolest type of racing. Very hard, a good balance of power, brute force, will, cardio, handling and technique. I still have a lot to learn but it may become the discipline I'll try to focus on, building my season toward being fast for fall and using mountain bike races as training for it.
A particular moment during a race that sticks to my mind and makes me smile is during the Sherboucle. Sure I missed the front group at the start and the wind meant we would never see it again as a whole but the first road event I did was special, riding at high speeds in a group, chasing, pulling. It was surprisingly fun. But even more precisely, with around 15km to go. when, following a sharp corner, I found myself alone in front of the group I had been with all day and saw that it took a while for them to come back, my decision to get on the gas and leave them behind proved to be the right thing to do at the right time. I bridge to a guy, asked him if he wanted to work to get away, and away we went, picking and droppin remnants of the front group. Sure we finished far from the winners but still, it was a thrilling, fast and fun 15km.
Road riding had not been my idea of fun before this year, the trip to the Pyrénées and the two road events I did changed my view on it. No longer is it just a part of training, I actually enjoy road riding now (as long as it's not in the city where roads are crappy, full of stop signs and red lights, crazy car drivers and dangerously behaving cyclists). It's very different, covering lots of milage without even putting a foot on the ground, going fast, it puts you in a very trance like mood.
All in all, I love cycling. The machine and the sport. Riding with friends, alone, with groups, racing, training, fun rides with no other goals than have fun on whatever surface... It clears the head, it tunes the body, it truly is a beautiful sport. I can't wait to live the highlights of the next seasons!
Time to layout the plan for 2010. What kind of races I want to do, when to (try to) peak, try to prepare a better base training plan than last winter and of course, pick next year's road weapon.
Picture from pdxcross.com
Racing is over for me for this year. Sadly, the season didn't end as I would have liked. I had today's Quebec CX Champs race planned with high hopes but wednesday afternoon, my body decided the season had been long enough. Thursday, I was sick as a horse, aches everywhere, headaches, less energy than a 106 years old lady, dizzy as soon as I stood up, a flu badder than if it would have been played by Samuel L Jackson... H1N1 anyone?
I slept all day thursday, again on friday, started to slowly feel better saturday but still spent most of it not moving too much and got better today but, the damage was done: I was weak and stuck in Montreal. So it turns out I DNS the races I wanted to do the most this year, the races I was building up for: the Mont Sainte-Anne XC (I liked the course and I had succesfully built up to be in the best shape I have been all year, missed the race for professional and technical reasons) and today's Quebec CX Champs (definitly not at my best with a bad leg but I was enthusiastic and just wanted to throw everything at it, with more experience and better training, I could be a good crosseur, I could be better at cx than xc I think... but then, the flu from hell). I didn't podium once this year to beat my best from last year (a 3rd place) and the whole season couldn't have came out further from what I had planned. I say this as both a bad thing and a good one.
I missed some goals, missed some races but it seems like what defines my 2009 season is that the whole season was spent adapting, adjusting to the constant changes of plans. That's an okay thing in my book and it lead to the positives. In switching focus, often at the last minute, I pretty much shot myself in the foot for high placings by racing when I was far from my peaks and doing events I never even trained for or even intended to try this year. This all lead me to learn new things, exprience different sides of racing bikes, meet different people and discover some skills, strengths and enjoyable things I didn't expect.
My racing season was like life. You try to plan things, fix goals, try to do your best while enjoying it all but you can't control everything, you get sick, you get new challenges, things can go bad but they can also turn out good, you just adapt, deal with it and in most cases, you end up going further in the long run with more knowledge, more skills, more stories to tell. So looking back at 2009, I'd still rate the year as a success.
Stay tuned for my season highlights and 2010 plans, if anything, this year just left me hungry for more.
Sorry about the machine-gun postings but, I had to show this cool picture from the 62 miles long Iron Cross race, based on the famous Three Peaks endurance cyclocross race. Click it to make it big.
Even though I have one race left this season, I'm already thinking about 2010. I was planning to mostly do xc races this year again but then add cyclocross in the fall but thanks to Nic, I also tried road and endurance mountain bike events. Thanks Nic.
I never was a big road rider, mostly seeing it as a way to train and get in shape when I couldn't make it to trails but this is probably due to living in the dead center of a big city, where roads are in bad shape, traffic is dense and you can't pedal three strokes without having a red light or a stop sign. Spending a week on Basque and Pyrénéan roads in the spring changed my mind about road riding. Trying road races, cyclosportives was also a lot of fun and I think I want to do more of that next season. More races but also go back to Europe once again, maybe trying to time the trip with an event there. When I saw Masini's post about L'Étape du Tour, it got me thinking...
So I'm still just juggling at this point but I think I'll do a few XC races (just the fun ones), maybe some endurance mountain bike races again (but not the Raid Vélo Mag that's for sure), more road events here and one in Europe and again, end the season with cyclocross. Some dates are already marked but I'll sit down and plan more specifically after next sunday's last race and some weeks of just riding as it comes, just for fun when and where I feel like it.
Sir Tim Johnson fooling around on a bike most of us can only drool about, the Cannondale Flash Ultimate.
Already, only one race left this year. Yesterday's race went okay considering the annoying pain I had behind the knee, it wasn't so bad at first but got worst as the race progressed. The pain appeared sometimes around 2 weeks ago, it gradually got better from resting it, massaging it, doing very short trainings but the race brought it back to it's peak.
The course was very nice, a bit damp, many short steep climbs, plenty of off-cambers, sharp turns. It started on a gravel running oval track, we did a full start lap then turned left on a grass small off-camber climb, then left into the sand pits... Initially there was a barrier in the middle, in practice I was riding the first half, going over the barrier and then running the last part but it was gone by the time we raced after a rider-barrier collision during the previous race I think.
After the sand, we did a 180 onto pavement, then on grassy/rooty/dirt section that started with an uphill barrier. Here again, it was supposed to be a double set but we were instructed not to step on the barrier, I'm guessing the other broke that way... Then a left 180, then a tricky off camber sharp turn with roots, then a bumpy straight, a steep gravel descent with a sharp left at the bottom, then cornering over a grass bump and up a steep mud uphill that provided a surprising amount of grip so no running required. Then a steady pavement climb that lead to running up this stairset.
A few corners, grass with some off-camber muddy left, up on a pavement strip, over a 1' high wooden stage where some dismounted and others rode, I chose to ride it, it was quicker when you are not the fastest runner/remounter. Then zig-zaging between rooty trees, a fast straight grass descent ending with a sharp and muddy right turn, then a little cornering ditch thing, left into a rooty/bumpy descent, sharp 180 left, grass uphill that brought us on the fastest part of the course, a bumpy descending trail then onto a paved path ending with a sharp right, left across grass and back on the running track for half a turn.
Not doing full laps on that, we did a left 180 and went along the track but on it's grass off-camber side, then down right, a long grass straight, a right, a short uphill then around a baseball terrain, eventually a right hairpin then the trickiest feature, another off-camber climb followed by a straight down and a 180 at the bottom to climb the grass again, this uphill was a run-up for everyone except the few on mountain bikes but they were not really going faster on their bikes, and then down again and back to the start line... Whew! Like I said, it was nice, but it was much harder than the Magog course. More climbs, slower grass, some mud, it was much more physical.
I had my typical not so good start (it was a cold morning, I brought my trainer to warm up but it stayed in the car, next week I think I'll try that), I gradually got faster, more comfortable then I was going nicely after the first 30 minutes but the pain was there , the harder I pedaled, the more painful it was. I still managed to find a rhythm and pass some guys in the second half. I finished a distant 47th out of 60 starters in the 60 minute race, one lap down, again among the Elites, U23, Masters 30-39 and Masters 40-49 (Elites and U23 were actually starting 15 seconds before us, that's not fair!).
The picture above is yet another from the Magog race, this time from Marie-Florence Gagnon. Yesterday was much colder so it was legs and arms well covered for almost everyone and the straight sand section didn't require running for most (altough in the Magog picture, traffic forced me to)... Photos should eventually show up, there was a few photographers with the race organization (who did a very nice job by the way).
Now I hope I can rest and recover that damn leg in time for the last race of the year next sunday. If it gets okay and if I could warm up well and have a better start, I think I could do much better.
After the first day of the Toronto International Cyclocross, the Cannondale/cyclocrossworld.com team picked up where they left off last weekend, Tim Johnson taking the win in front of Jamey Driscoll. Today should see the leading north american cyclocross team battle for the podium again, maybe even a 1-2-3... In the Czech Republic, round 2 of the World Cup will see the battle of the world's best.
Back in Canada, I'll be racing too in Cowansville for the Cyclocross Québec Cup final. I'm seeing it as a final test and learning occasion before next week's Québec Cyclocross Championships in Sherbrooke... No pressure, just have fun and try a new warm-up routine (I typically start to feel good and pick some speed after 20-30 minutes of racing, I need to improve my warm-ups) and hope my right knee doesn't bother me too much.
A couple of areas in Quebec had their first snowflakes last weekend... It's getting colder and we never know, maybe we'll get similar conditions at the Quebec CX Championships in Sherbrooke as they had in Edmonton for the Canadian CX Championships and the Jim Horner Gran Prix, so nicely captured by Normon Thibault in the above picture of Geoff Kabush.... I'll try to be warmer for my next post, at least I'm not talking about snowboard.
Sven Nys bumping World Champion Niels Albert out of his way to get back where he belongs: on the top step of the podium. With the two on top of their game, it should make for some interesting racing to come.
The talented but troubled Frank Vandenbrouke passed away today, just when it appeared like he was finally getting his shit together. We'll never know just how good a cyclist he could have been...
Looking back at the various races this weekend, something seemed to be recurrent. It seemed that riding a Cannondale was the best way to get a win.
Cannondale athletes dominated the weekend, starting by mountain bike Marathon World Champion Roel Paulissen, winning the 83km Roc d'azur and then winning again in the 53km Roc d'azur race. On this side of the globe, Jeremy Powers bunny hopped his way to win all three races of the UCI3 Cyclocross Festival in Ohio. His two fellow Cannondale-cyclocrossworld.com teamates were racing in Rhode Island and they were in a class of their own, Tim Johnson taking the win saturday and sunday and Jamey Driscoll finishing second both days too. Further west, Chrissie Wellington won the Kona Ironman in an impressive record breaking time, she was followed by Mirinda Carfrae.
Now that makes me feel like I may have missed an opportunity by skipping the Quebec City Quebec Cup cyclocross races...
In other racing news, the world is back to normal with Sven Nys winning today's Superprestige and ending Niels Albert streak of wins, he had won every races he entered this season before today.
It was also the Canadian Cyclocross Championships yesterday and the Rocky Mountain team Cannondaled the races, winning solo in all three categories: Evan Guthrie in the U23, Canada's most succesful cyclist in history Alison Sydor taking the women's title and Geoff Kabush not surprisingly repeating. Looking at the results, I noticed that Derrick St-John finished a few seconds behind in 2nd. Derrick won the Magog Quebec Cup I raced in a few weeks ago, makes me feel not so bad to have been lapped after all, he's among the fastest in the country. Like the Cannondale boys, both Kabush and Sydor went on to win today too in Edmonton...
Sunday's nice mellow ride with a few friends after some cyclocross exploration. It's always nice to ride with the colorful trees.
Nice pictures by Pierre Reid from the season opening Magog cyclocross race. You can see the whole set here. I missed this last weekend races in Joliette and Trois-Rivières, can't wait for the next race...
Me and a mini-Dan fooling around in Mansonville's skatepark during saturday's 'Take a Kid Mountain Bike Day' organized by the VVM Cycling Club. The day's report will be up shortly on VVM's website.
After that morning, I went exploring unknown forests along with some singlspeeding mountain bike activists and sunday was spent riding the cross bike, scouting some future cross race venue and riding nice dirt roads with a few friends and fellow racers. A nice weekend.
Amazing maze, I love riding through twisty trails, courses or roads... But now that mountain bike racing is done for the year, road racing too, it's full time cross! I wont be racing this weekend unfortunatly, saturday is 'Take a kid mountain bike day' and along with the VVM, I'll be sharing the passion for the sport with the next generation, hoping that it also becomes their's. Sunday me and a few friends will hone our cross skills and legs and, nothing concrete yet but, design and test a CX race course for an eventual new race...
Today was my second and last road race of the year... well, not really a true race but a cyclosportive that took place in the beautiful La Mauricie National Park. I think the only flat section of roads were on a bridge or two. The field was huge with 1069 people lining up for the 105km one way and back course, 911 being in the mens category. We were freezing in the morning but once the race started, we weren't so cold and the sun came out to play not long after so it was a beautiful day.
I had some trouble to get going (as always) so I never saw the front pack and eventually found myself in a nice group. I was also not feeling too good and energized. I didn't do any training this last week to let my knee rest after last week's cross race so the first few kilometers were a shock to the system. I could ride at an okay pace then but didn't have the snap, crackle and pop to make any attacks or try to get away from the group.
Climbing is usually my strength but today I was definitly not at my best against gravity, I wasn't bad and I had no trouble climbing with the mouth closed along with people puffing and panting, I was just not my usual mountain goat self. I did manage to bridge to a group up the road at the beginning but I stayed with that group pretty much all race long. At one point, two tried to escape, I got on their wheels but a few minutes later, we were all back together. The group was sometimes a 15 riders affair, sometimes 40 and at one point I got dropped by a few, found myself alone between both parts but when I got caught by the second half, we eventually caught the others back and we even caught a few groups by the end to come in a very distant 248th with a huge group.
I didn't expect much before the race so I'm okay with the result, my time of 3:24:17 at an average 31km/h on such a hilly course is not so bad considering. I'll be back next year.
We saw the Quebec rep from Cannondale who was racing today on a wonderful 2010 SuperSix Liquigas Team Replica... and I think I'll need to pay my LBS a visit and place my order in pretty soon, impressive bike! Might make such events even more fun than on a cross bike. It's hard to take a layer of clothing off or try to find some food in the rear pocket of the first layer I had going down a descent at full speed on such a nervous bike... It would allow me to permanently set the 9 Ball as a dedicated cross bike...
I don't really get why cycling journalists are surprised to see Cannondale/Cyclocrossworld.com's Jamey Driscoll win Cross Vegas. Yes it's his biggest win to date but he shown over the years to steadily improve and climb the pro ranks on both sides of the Atlantic. I'm sure this wont be his last win.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right? Not this time. I had been cruely teased that something/someone big was coming from Cannondale called Simon but I didn't get much details apart from being related to mountain biking. Yesterday, the company introduced Simon to the press and let the details out...
Simon is an electronically controlled suspension, here applied to a Lefty of course. I know electronics are not new in bike suspension, K2/Noleen/Girvin had a 'brain' years ago supposed to control damping but it was controlling things, not you... and it turned out to be no better than a standard suspension was at the time, which wasn't too great to begin with. Cannondale itself also had their ELO Lefty which was an electric remote lockout that worked really well, a small button beside the grip was all you needed to touch to lock and unlock the Lefty.
Simon not only takes it one step further, more like a marathon worth of steps further. A little motor controls the main valve, it opens it, closes it and everything in between but what is great is the software that controls it. Sensors and accelerometers in the Lefty lets the computer know what's going on and the computer controls the valve accordingly, but also from what you want it to do. With a little joystick, you can navigate the user friendly interface and control pretty much everything: lockout, rebound, bottom out control, pedaling platform, amount of travel (both top out and bottom out limits), high speed compression, progressiveness... It's like having your own suspension engineer built in without the need to even get your hands dirty. Even the initial setup is quite interesting, it tells you the current sag, the suggested sag and suggested air pressure of the main spring. You can then use one of the presets and quickly change from XC to DH on the fly for a sweet downhill section, lock it out for a smooth section, then reduce the travel for a steep uphill then put it on AM for a nasty technical section. You can also customize any variable to your liking.
For now, it's still in testing and no release date or target price have been set. There are still a few things to improve to make it more consumer friendly. The headtube mounted battery doesn't last a long time. It also adds a bit of weight although it pretty much only makes the Lefty closer to the weight of standard two-legged forks. Cost would also be a big issue if they were to release it right now so we'll see how it evolves from here.
Even though it wont be needed or wanted by everyone, there is no doubts Simon is pretty much revolutionnary. It's Formula 1 suspension technology applied to mountain bikes! Now, I'm waiting for my unit to test and help develop it further... Okay, that probably wont happen but it's so far from anything we thought was realistic on our bikes at this point that wishing the impossible now actually looks possible...
Summer's over, fall is here and that means one thing for many racing cyclists: cyclocross season starts! To me, previous falls meant fun mountain bike rides with friends, no trainings, no glances at a HR monitor, just riding for the fun of it. Last year I wanted to give cross racing a try but I didn't act on it quickly enough and missed the very short race season in Quebec. This year, I was there for the first race, the Grand Prix Cyclocross de Magog that took place this past sunday.
I was on vacation for the last three weeks so I did get to ride but I didn't do much specific or structured trainings, I just enjoyed the riding. I did get out on the cross bike and tried to get more comfortable doing dismounts, remounts, running up steep grass inclines and riding in sand. I felt okay with the dismounts, so-so with remounts, okay with running and sand riding so I lined up sunday morning feeling like I could expect not to be last but I knew I would be far from the front, not only due to my lack of cross specific skills but also because I knew my top speed, my red line zone wasn't up there. Add a cold that sticks like a gum under a shoe so I thought I would be fine racing a steady pace for an hour or so but wouldn't be able to attack, attack, attack like cross needs. Basically, I headed to the start with modest ambitions: learn, have fun and enjoy a nice sunny day.
After a warmup, a gel and water, time to head to the start line.
Everyone doing a 60 minute race were starting together in the school's bus parking lot, that meant some seriously fast and experienced guys and people like me. I could have raced in the 40 minutes Sport category but I figured I'd learn 50% more, have 50% more fun and risk crashing 50% more by riding in the Masters 30-39 category.
Much to my surprise, I was called to the line since I was one of the early registered racers. The two front 8-wide rows were called, elite or not, I was on the second row with plenty of much faster racers behind me as we were 65 starters. Of course, when the go was given and we headed into our starting loop, I lost some places but that was okay. I decided to try to hang on with the pack but if I felt it was too fast, I'd just go at my pace and do my own race.
The start was very fast, elbows touched...
After a paved straight drag strip from the start, we had a wide radius 180° to the right that led us into the sand where we had to zig and zag. As I thought, with the first lap traffic, running was the better option, for now. After that was some taped maze-like grass section with a few off-cambers straights and corners. The grass was dry, hard and fast but very bumpy. Then we were back on the start straight and now doing full laps. Instead of turning into the sand, we now hoped over a curb on a grass left that lead to the first barrier at the bottom of a steep run-up, then back down, a sharp 180° on concrete, up again, through a parking lot and then dismounting to cross the greasy ditch of death followed by a steep rocky and rooty run-up leading us into the woods... Okay, it wasn't that bad but on every lap, I tried to find a place where I wouldn't sink to no avail, I had mud over the ankle each time no matter where I tried. Thankfully, my Eggbeaters didn't mind, some SPD users had more problems after the run-up.
Chasing before the ditch.
In the woods, it was pretty fast, one sharp loose corner followed by a steep uphill was the only real difficulty as many weren't able to pedal it up. On the first lap, I had to run it because there was just no room to pedal it. After that was a fast gravel and grass trail that I used to recover on almost each lap. It spit us out of the woods on grass again around a football field where we had a sharp off-camber 180°, a straight, a short up leading to an off-camber section featuring a sharp hairpin followed by two barriers then another 180° leading us back through a short wooden rocky trail and then back to the school area. A long sentence right? Need to breathe? No, it's cross so we keep going. Through the parking lot again, hop a curb, left and down a steep grass descent that launched us full speed on a long flat section of grass then pavement then back into the sand...
Preparing a pass at the top of a climb.
Now, after the first lap, we had more room to ride, run and jump. The sand became easier and faster to ride as a track became compressed by the racers. My race was then pretty steady, going pretty good at a pace I knew I could keep for the hour... I probably could have gone faster but I was having a blast! Only things to note after that, I started to get lapped by a few of the faster riders, but only in the last minutes of the race so I finshed one lap behind. Could be better, but given my experience and condition, I thought it was pretty good. I managed to pass riders here and there (here being on the bike, there being running) throughout the race, even lapping some that finished 2 laps down. When I finished though, my back hurt. The bumpy grass sections were giving me a beating so when I stopped, my conclusion is that my back was happy to finish but that my legs weren't close to being used at 100%. Maybe my back would have prefered lower pressures in my tires but a botched bunny-hop over a curb had me really surprised I didn't flat my rear so the hard tires maybe saved me there... I also hurt a knee during the race but I only found out after the car ride to go eat and drink afterwards. When I got out of the car, I felt the pain with my knee at an angle. I think it might be from dismounting into the sharp off-camber hairpin leading to the double barriers, all my speed went straight into and got redirected by my left leg...
Out of 65 starters of the hour long race, I eventually finished one lap down, 46th overall. Of course there is much room for improvement but that's a good thing. Now I know what it's all about and I'm really looking forward to the next race. The next cyclocross weekend is October 3rd and 4th in the Trois-Rivières area but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make those at all, or maybe just the sunday race, we'll see.
A guy that was there thursday at the practice and raced sunday had a camera on his bike, here are short montages of the practice and the race.
This week, I'm trying to take it easy, rest, recover that knee and the sore back because next weekend might be a hard one. I got the confirmation sunday night that I was in for a road race saturday and I'd like to make it to the last mountain bike race of the year sunday. Again, we'll see for the xc race but after that, only cross races remain until the snowflakes start falling.
The mountain bike race season is more or less over. It ended beautifully for the top pros with the last World Cup in Austria. For some, it's 'ride just for fun' season, some will take a break and some will switch to cyclocross...
I'm transitioning less radically. I did my first cyclocross race yesterday (more to come about that), I'll be doing another road race that wasn't planned saturday and if I still have power left, a last mountain bike race this year the very next day. Then it will be only cross until the winter arrives, that's as far as racing is concerned, there will be plenty of nice fall days for fun rides with friends.
Tonight, the course designer and organiser of the Grand Prix Cyclocross de Magog invited people to train, discover, test and give feedback on the course for the race that will take place sunday. As it will be my first cyclocross race ever, I jumped on the chance to check just how bad I am. The course is pretty nice and has features expected in a cross race: barriers (single followed by a steep climb, doubles), sand (with a few corners to make it tricky), grass, gravel but also a muddy ditch followed by a steep climb and a surprisingly long and fast singletrack section. It should be fun and painful.
What I discovered is that the heartrate will be pinned way high for the whole hour and I will suffer, I'm not so bad at dismounts but could improve on remounts. I can ride sand fine until there's a sharp corner. As it's the first race, I'm fine with my lack of skills and expect to be lapped, especially since I'm starting with the elites and experts.
Technically, the bike is almost dialed. Fit, tire pressure, everything except the gearing. I have some compact road chainrings, 34/50 and I find the spread too wide and I have to shift between rings way too often, always feeling like I'm not in the right gear with my 11-26 cassette. Those who know me and that have read my thoughts about going 1x10 Adam Craig Geoff Kabush style on the Scalpel for next year will know how much I dislike shifting between chainrings, much prefering just shifting on the cassette. Quicker, smoother, less risky. So I may go hunt for some rings before sunday. Ideally, I would go with a single 40 or 42 ring but as I'm lazy and dont want to re-install the cable and derailleur when the bike sees it's double life as a road bike (I still haven't found a way to sneak a 2010 SuperSix in the house without it being noticed), I may try to find a 38 and a 46 or something. Oh yeah, the bike really turned some heads, kids were drooling over the team issue Cannondale CAAD 9 and it's low weight. The bike wont be an excuse if I suck...
And as it's cross season, I thought I'd share the link to pdxcross. For those who don't know the site, it's got among the best cyclocross pictures I have seen over the years. Have a look at their new site and expect some great photos as the cross season progresses. They also have a book of dirty pictures for you cyclocross pervs. Enjoy.
Thanks to Cannondale Factory rider Roel Paulissen, you can have a nice look at this past weekend World Cup XC course with yet another of his helmet cam lap. There are a few nice sections in there...
In a week, I'll have tasted my first cyclocross race ever. I have no clue if I'm ready or not, I'll try to do a few practices to get familiar with dismounts, remounts and other cross specific techniques this week but... I just hope my bike remembers how it's done.
Today's ride was a 104km split 50/50 between road and gravel, sunny but with a chilly wind on the South Shore. I could get used to be on vacation all summer long!
For my 500th post, I thought I'd post about my afternoon ride. Sunny, just warm enough, legs felt good so here we go, today's loop in pictures, lots of pictures.
Just to warm up, a few minutes of climbing on that fireroad.
Then you head into the woods for some sweet singletracks. Most are filled with rocks and roots and this first uphill section lets you know what's on the day's menu.
That's the first climb to be steepish, we're halfway up, looking down, the bridge in the distance gives an idea... And yes, the rocks are pretty loose but it's quite easy. From where the picture was taken, the trail turns...
And cross a little stream and has a nice steep little kick to finish it up.
Then it gets smooth and flatter to recover before the next section...
The Jedi section is a fast smooth twisty part, done on the big ring and a big grin.
A few steps to drop, a stream to cross then a small climb and it's pedals to the floor.
A few easy obstacles along the way, here crossing a log pile with one hand handling the camera, shaky.
But it's mainly pretty smooth then back uphill.
The roots and rocks are back soon enough though, not that I complain, this is typical Quebec terrain.
Going back down, still in the fast mindset of the Jedi section. After the corner...
It keeps going down...
From below looking back.
Then it's back in the rocks for a while, followed by a twisty section until you end up on a wider and smoother section.
Another loose climb.
Even though the trails are not officially open to mountain biking, the land owners I met greeted me with smiles and hellos. To my surprise, a lot of work has been done, some half-assed built sections have been closed...
Bridges have been built over mud holes that were getting bigger and bigger from riders trying to go around it.
More rocks, more roots, more fun.
Some nice fences to protect the lake's fragile shore.
After a long smooth and fast section, it's again into the rocks and roots.
A nice natural jump for when not riding a 20lbs XC FS bike...
After more rocks and roots for a few minutes, a long climb with loose little rocks then smooth dirt...
A short kick up then it's into a nice trail full of switchbacks, always up or down.
Tricky corner from above, it's a sharp uphill turn and picking the line through the roots (it may look like the easy way is around the roots then up the roots at 90° but it's loose and really steeper than the camera shows, it's an almost sure fail) with just the right speed, smoothness and momentum is key.
I surprised myself doing it first try, my friend Steakface would be proud. Then it's up the big rock and a few more uphills, twists and it flattens...
To go down again, that's midway down, looking up.
Down down down until you turn back up, with a new option added to the tree crossing.
Up up up.
Then back down...
Between the trees.
Looking back...
And it continues.
A bit further down, still looking back.
Looking back again.
Down then a 180° leading to...
A climb on the side of the hill. Then it goes down again to get back into a smooth trail that climbs for a while.
Only to go down soon after.
Another new bridge with a log ramp down.
Going up...
Back on a part we did from that side, now we climb it but it's not steep.
More of the same...
Yup, but we're getting closer to the end of the loop.
This gets pretty deep in the spring.
Loose rocks.
Last rocky section. Then it's back to the trail head. There I put the camera back in the car as well as the glasses since it was getting dark under the trees and went for another lap. This time, no stops for pictures, bigger gear, more into the red as I did the whole thing again at race pace. I finished just in time, happy and hungry.
The place from the distance.
And back in Montreal.
Cheers for another 500 future posts!
Last weekend was my first road race. A hilly 105km loop starting in Sherbrooke smartly called la Sherboucle. The weather has been nice the past few weeks but did us proud by throwing some rain, cold and strong winds, just for us. Just as I previously thought, the race had a nice northern classic feel and being a man of the north, I didn't mind the wetness and the cold as my body usually fire all cylinders when it's colder but doesn't work as well in the heat. The wind turned out to be a much more influent factor.
My fate as well as for many others, was decided only after a few kilometres when the peloton split. I was in the second half but with the wind, I moved at the front as soon as I noticed the split. Two guys were between the two packs so looking around me, I saw that the strong Nic aka 'spitting bull' was around so I put the gas on and quickly bridged to the two guys, expecting that a few riders would be willing to bridge to the front group as soon as possible. The wind was so strong that the further they got, the harder we would have to work to make it across.
We were only seven chasing, Nic the locomotive made the move, but two or three seemed not to care and were not helping, sometimes even disturbing our rotations, we worked and worked but our little group had no chances versus the huge front group. I'm guessing the front group were one half of the total field, the rear one the other half... and there we were, seven riders, spending way too much energy and not making any progress. After half an hour, we got caught by a group of around 30 riders lead by a strong bunch... but a bunch of asses. They wouldn't cooperate with anyone not in their cycling club, they were bunched at the front but with the help of the whole group, we could have make more progress against the people out front. A few of us still mixed in the nazis but they seemed to slow the group a lot when their leader was asking his team not to help us and let us go... they prefered to slow down the whole group when they were tired of pulling rather than let others help. I never understood their tactics as they didn't have anyone of them in front. It might have been my first road race but it seemed weird. I wont name their club but they are from a pretty flat area, perhaps they were trying to save themselves for the hills but, being a mountain biker, the course's many hills felt like small bumps to me, nothing to drain that much energy. Or maybe they were just typical roadie snobs who didn't like to hang around a guy with a cyclocross bike?
Anyway, I spent most of the time pissing off these guys by staying toward the front, taking turns pulling, pacing, maybe sometimes too fast on the climbs, I didn't want to risk another split as the wind wasn't getting any weaker. Another club tried to pull away but they were only three and it didn't work. Then, staying up front paid off.
The group split and always took some time to get reorganized on climbs and even worse in sharp corners. After a 90° left corner, I got alone in front, I soft pedaled to wait for the rest of the group but for some reason, it was taking a lot of time. I then noticed a guy alone in front, probably dropped from the front so I looked back, I had a good gap and accelerated to catch the guy in front. Asking him if he was from our group (I didn't noticed him but you never know) or if came from the front, he told me he had been in no man's land for a long time now. Then with my most convincing grin, I asked if he wanted to try to go further ahead and leave my former group behind. He glanced back and smiled: let's go! Nice, I had a partner to escape from the nazis!
It turned out we were pretty evenly matched so we were working quite well together. I had forgot to press the start button on my computer at the start so I wasn't too sure about the remaining distance, I was guessing 15-20km. We caught a few people dropped from the front, they were all either tired or wanted us to think so and get pulled by us so only my new associate and me took pulls. Then, a sharp right across a bridge, I took a pull but when I drift on the side to let another one take a turn, no one came. They were still there but now they were trying to save some energy. In my mind we were still quite a few km from the end and didn't want to be tricked by the other three I was riding with. Time to brake and let them through or accelerate and force them to do something? I accelerated of course and after a quick glance back, the move dropped our latchers. Turn out they were not tricking us but too fried to pull.
I was told the last climb was a 3km wall... We were now climbing but it was not a wall at all so I expected more to come. I was following my partner of the moment but when I understood that this was the final climb, we were already finished with it. Like a total newbie, I didn't attack, I didn't use my climbing legs to drop him and finished a second behind him... Great. But, at least I got beaten by a guy who worked... and it was only for the 87th place, I got 88. For a first experience, it was quite okay and I had some fun, particularly when I escaped the group for some more action... It wont be my last road race.
The World Championships are going on right now and canadian junior rider Antoine Caron will bring back more souvenirs than he was hoping for. The course is pretty technical, Crocodile Dundee might have helped design the rugged course so an on form Geoff Kabush might have a serious shot for a medal and it might help explain why the german champion skipped the most important race of the year.
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, I'm on vacation for a few weeks so I ride more than I write. Just a quick update about recent events... I got another 5th place at the Coeurs Vaillants XC race. I was probably still in the marathon mode because I started way too slow and conservatively, from the back of the pack on top of that. After a lap, I started to put the pressure on and the passings. Usually these races are very short, last year it was 15km in about an hour. This time, it was about 30km and I finished in about 1H50, clocking pretty even times on the last laps. I probably could have done better if I would have started faster but I had fun. Then last week was my first road race, I finished 88th, not so good but it was still a very positive experience. The report is coming.
The following day, we did some terrain exploration with the VVM heads. We found some great future trails, work should start early next season and we're pretty excited.
