Festival de Velo

Another weekend and another race dominated by Jetfuel. Sunday we raced in Kitchener at the Festival de Velo, a fantastic event held downtown on a course that lapped City Hall; the street closures and public support were impressive.

Johnny Jetfuel, our sponsor, came out to the race, as did the girlfriend, her grandmother and the sister, an entourage requiring a good showing on the part of myself and the team. I had really come to the race to work for Josh, the home town boy, but he told us before the start that he wasn’t at 100%. A crash, a new bike and a cold were all putting him off his game. So, what did that mean the team strategy would be?

Well, Thorben took care of that problem nicely by getting into a move almost off the gun. Initially there were three riders that had escaped together, but soon it was just Thorben all on his lonesome, this with an hour and a quarter of racing plus ten laps left. In the field the chase was slow to get rolling with the Midweek and Gears teams alternatively on the front. Every now and again there would be a three place prime, although with Thorben up the road they were always for second and third, still guys were sprinting.

As the race wore on Josh and I rode the wheels, hoping that Thorben would lap the field, the only way we thought he would have a chance of surviving to win. Eventually the chase started to get organized and the pace picked up. After a while they had Thorben in their sights; he had stayed away for over an hour of racing, very impressive.

Figuring that Thorben would be super tired Josh and I figured it was up to us. Surprising everyone though Thorben launched a couple of great attacks leading into the last ten laps, once again taking the pressure off Josh and I. As we approached the last ten laps moves were slowly getting more ground before being brought back; the field was getting too tired to drag themselves back to the front.

Just as the hour and a half of racing ran out and the last ten laps began there was a flurry of attacks in which the field was stretched into a long line, it was the perfect opportunity to launch an attack to try and win the race. Again, as I did in Ottawa, I attacked as the field brought back an attack. It is at moments like this that the field seems to release a sigh of relief and relax for a moment, the perfect time to break away.

Coming off a slight rise in the course I accelerated up the side of the group and flew through the corner, swinging to the other side of the road to press home any advantage I had. Behind there was little reaction and right away I had decent gap. Most importantly there was no one on my wheel; if I could hold off the field I would finish solo for the win.

The only time gap I heard was twelve seconds with seven laps to go, not much if the field were to accelerate for the finish. I never looked back and just kept up a rhythm that I felt I would be able to hold to the finish. The next thing I knew, with three laps to go, there was the field in front of me. I had almost lapped them in seven laps and so won the race.

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Chocolate milk at SuperWeek

The races here don't start until 6pm everyday. So you race that night, get in bed around 10 or 11, depends on how far the race is, sleep until you wake up, watch the Tour, go for a 1-2 hour ride in the mornings, come home, shower, eat lunch, pack the car, and do it all over again. Chocolate Milk, is my recovery drink.

So now for yesterday's Race in De Pere, A suburb of Green Bay. It was a new course, very tight with all fast corners. A hair over 1k around. It was like a rectangle, but one end had a 200m straight away, the other, you almost didn't have to pedal through. So 4 corners in total.

My legs felt like wood the first 80 laps. My Jetfuel Coffee teammate Ryan Roth was being very attentive at the front trying to make the split, but had no luck. There was a few moves that would look like they'd stick, but none of them did.

With 10 laps to go, I kinda got a "second wind" I went off the front with 4 guys, they were messing around, so I left them behind, did about 3 laps solo 20 seconds ahead of the pack and about 25 seconds behind the break of 5 or so guys, who were also about the same distance behind the lead group of 7 or so guys. So as you can tell, the race was blowing apart, with only a main field of maybe 30 guys. I was soon joined by 3 more riders, 2 of which we dropped a few laps later and with 4 to go we got caught by the pack. I wasted no time, and launched on the far side of the road and went again, taking 2 guys with me, we caught the next group on the road in front of us on the line, so we were not able to sprint past them. We needed another 200m and I'm sure we would have caught them sleeping. In the end I was 17th. it was a very hard fought 17th place that's for sure. So for now, 2 days off. then 2 more days on.

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Capital City Criterium

Sunday, following the OBC Grand Prix, Matt Hansen and I did the Capital City Criterium, also in Ottawa. We figured that having made the drive out to Ottawa we may as well do as much racing as possible. It is too bad that more people didn’t feel this way as the race was poorly attended in comparison with Saturday in the Gatineau Parc; there is already a dearth of racing and every race on the calendar needs to be supported.

Having said that, I can’t say that I was feeling too much like racing on Sunday, I could definitely feel the effort in my legs from the day before. Not feeling like racing I just sat at the back, pretty much last wheel, the whole race. Some people talk of the slingshot effect at the back but if you’re smooth in the corners you can ride comfortably. Each corner I would let the group get a small gap, enough so that as everyone braked I would sweep through the corner without slowing down and be back on the wheel. In this way I was able to avoid the braking and accelerating that was going on ahead of me. Even better was that I didn’t have to fight for the wheel all the time.

As the race progressed Espoir Laval, who had several riders in the race, controlled things quite well. I soon figured that there was no point in trying anything until everyone was fairly tired and therefore unable to mount a decent chase. With 25 minutes or so to race Glen Rendall, Bill Hurley and another rider made a nice attack. For a while I was a little worried but with the aggression and tempo still high in the group I decided to wait. It was with 15 minutes left that Matt bridged across to the group but to no avail as they were swept up a lap or two later.

At this point I moved to the front and just as the hour was winding out made my attack. I needed a big gap right off the bat in order to discourage any chase; I timed my attack so that I was accelerating as the field was sitting up on catching a rider who had surged ahead. There was one rider that was close enough to perhaps bridge, but with only five laps left I didn’t want any company. Finishing solo is the only way to assure yourself the victory, so I kept the pressure on to ensure that he wouldn’t get across to me. With a 12 second gap it was just a matter of holding the pace in the hope that there would be no huge surges behind. Crossing the line alone is a great feeling, you have won and can savour every moment.

Throughout the race I was feeling guilty that Kevin, Sheri and my sister had come to watch and I was doing nothing to entertain them. Luckily things turned out well and they were all excited at the manner in which I had won the race, having figured that that was my strategy as I relaxed in the draft all race long. Even funnier was the comment from a couple of riders that they were wondering what had happened to me in the race as they hadn’t seen me. SURPRISE!!

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More on Ottawa

It was a veritable troop that headed up to Ottawa for the weekend. There were the four racers: Matt, Thorben, Stig and myself, from Jet Fuel. Then Thorben’s wife, who was also racing, grabbed a ride with us and finally my sister decided she, and her dog, would come up for the weekend. All in all it made for a great time.

With the racing on Saturday starting at 7:50 in the morning there wasn’t much in the way of sleep to be had Friday night, nor was it possible to eat early enough in the morning to avoid stomach complications; I wasn’t the only one that felt like I was having a visit from the ghost of breakfast past during the race.

The funniest thing about the race in the Gat’s is trying to get to the start line on time. It isn’t like other races where each category lines up one by one. At this race everyone is lining up one behind another and getting past everyone and finding the right category can be a challenge. As happened last year there were a few guys that missed the start; Thorben only made it to our category as they were counting down 5, 4, 3 ….

Held on a course with a fairly decent climb, although it is bigringable and so not overly steep, the race is more challenging than most local events. The only problem with the course is that once over the climb the rest of the terrain is rolling, with lots of downhills and little poppers over which it is hard to keep up the speed; breaking away and staying clear of the field is hard to do.

This aspect of the race came into play on the second lap. I attacked towards the top of the climb, although I hadn’t really intended to, and got a decent gap. Behind a small group with Dominique Perras and a few others guys formed and made their way up to me, followed later in the lap by Stig, who came a cross solo, and then three more riders. This I thought was a move that would stay away for a good part, if not all, of the race. On the climb that lap Dominique and I set what I thought was a pretty decent tempo. To my surprise when I took a moment to look back over the top there was the whole field coming back on us!

With two ascents of the climb left in the race I decided to try and blow things apart on the second last climb. Coming into the base I attacked, getting a good gap right away. The problem was that I had gone too early in the climb and as it dragged on the legs started to suffer to keep the pace up. It was probably here, in going too early on the climb, that I ruined my race. Again over the top a group came up to me. This time there were two VW riders in the group, soon to be three as a second small group came across later in the lap.

Three riders from the same group was too many and once more I tried to make a selection on the climb, this the last of the race. I could feel that the legs weren’t so good but in making my effort the group whittled the group down to four riders: Dominique, Martin Gilbert and Kevin Lacombe from VW and myself. Not the selection I had hoped for as now there was still the problem of having the two VW riders with us and worst of all now my legs were pretty much shot. There wasn’t much left to do than to cover attacks and hope for a good sprint.

Dominique did make a few attacks but in the end it was Kevin and I who seemed to just drift off the front of the break somehow in the last two kilometres. We traded pulls into the bottom of the climb, the other two just a few seconds back. I positioned Kevin to be in front of me, but there was the pressure coming from behind. What I didn’t want was for Dominique to drag up Martin, who was sitting on, and then get totally blown away in the sprint. Really I suppose I cracked a bit mentally and should have waited longer to launch the sprint; as Kevin came by me I was suffering just to keep the pedals turning over.

Having forced the selections of the race it would have been nice to win, but I was also looking forward to a hard day out on the bike. Had I not pushed the pace, and myself, on the climbs the race would not have been challenging enough and so in the end I was fairly happy with my day out.

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A Weekend in Ottawa

This weekend while Buck and Ryan were at the 'original' Superweek and Jeff was at 'Canadian' Superweek, Stig, Thorben, Andrew and Matt came to Ottawa for the classic road race through the Gatineau Parc. This Race is followed by a Sunday criterium.

Andrew had a great weekend, and he is holding his Beauce - CHIN - Nationals form really well with a first and a second. He finished second on Saturday after 5 laps of the tough 21km circuit in the Gatineau Parc. Sunday, he rode a conservative race untill the final seven laps. Matt hit first with about 8 laps to go, counter-attacking the day's major break. Andrew countered Matt's move and soloed the final 5 laps.

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SuperWeek Woes

While many riders are out at "Canadian" Superweek, I'm in the USA at the "original" Superweek...

So it's the big crit in Chicago. I dont feel stage win is impossible. It's all about staying active, near the front, in the top 20 guys and balancing the timimg to sprint for a prime, and go on the attack.

Yesterday in the other $10,000 day, here at Milwaukee Superweek in Bensonville IL, I was being very attentive, because this was a major goal for me as I got in the winning break here 2 years ago, but messed up the finish.

I was riding in the top 10-20 guys for the first 45 laps of 70, when a rider from the McGuire Real estate ->"PRO"<- cycling team couldn't handle the speed going into the last corner of the 7 corner lap. We were single file strung out and in the top 10 riders right at the front of the field, and the guy dumps it right in front of me. I locked the Cervelo up and slid 10 feet to T-Bone him right in the gut, and land square on my left Buttock/hip. No bad road rash but a very very bad Charlie Horse. I took my free lap, and almost couldn't pedal the bike, so I had to pull out.

My bike is fine, thank heaven and after hours of icing and a forced day off the bike, I think I will be good to fight tomorrow. That's it for, more later this week.

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CHIN - wrapping up 3 weeks of GREAT racing!

Monday I flew home to Toronto from Nationals and once again returned to my demanding regimen of one hour rides in the hopes of being fully recovered in time for the CHIN Picnic race on Thursday. Well, Tuesday I was feeling a little rough around the edges, Wednesday as well, but finally Thursday the legs came good. We have a really great sprinter, Tim Lefevre on the Jetfuel Coffee team; a guy that can hold the leaders jersey at Milwaukee’s Super Week has got to be a good sprinter. Our plan was to follow the moves all day long, in the hope of coming up trumps with the right combination of our riders in the move. Our team was really strong for the race, with four guys that were capable of winning out of a break and Tim sitting back as our trump card for the finish.

Four of our guys did a fantastic job of controlling the race all day: Thorben Wieditz, Matt Hansen, Ryan Roth and Josh Hall. These guys rode the front all day and still managed to ride in the lead out for the finish, impressive. With ten laps to go Tim made the call that we would start our lead out for him with five laps, about five kilometres, to go. Come five laps to go the team got together on the front, it was little chaotic for a few moments as we weren’t going super fast as we tried to get organised, and started to dial up the speed. There were six of us pulling through in a nice steady rotation, trying to go fast enough that people wouldn’t be bothering Tim as he rode our wheels. Coming into the final lap there were three of us left to lead team into the finish. Geoff Hansen did a superb turn all through the back stretch, swinging off just as we reached the second last corner, at which point it was my turn to pull. Tim had told me during the race that he wanted it super fast through the last couple of turns, so I opened up the throttle full on as I hit the front. Jamming on the pedals I gapped Josh a little bit and behind I heard Tim shout “let him go”. Hearing that I didn’t look back but just went full out in the eleven to the line. Crossing the finish I looked behind to see Tim throwing his hands in the air, it was a one-two finish for the team and we had garnered ourselves bragging rights for another season.



The best part about the CHIN Picnic is that it is a great social occasion. All kinds of people come out to watch and before and after the race it is a just a constant stream of hellos and greetings. This year there was a great contingent of supporters from the Jetfuel that came out to cheer on the team, thanks everyone for coming out!

If the rest of the season is as much fun as these last few weeks it is going to be a blast!

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From Quebec to Kamloops

With only a week lying between Beauce and the Nationals in Kamloops there wasn’t much to be done in terms of training. My week was comprised of 1 to 1.5 hour training spins in the 39x17 on the bike paths of Toronto, making for some great coffee rides. On the Friday I flew out to BC with my partner in crime and team mate Matt Hansen, a great travelling companion with a sharp whit and a penchant for launching into long engrossing discussions about absolutely nothing; he would have made a great writer for Seinfeld. We stayed in the lovely Ranchland Motel, which unlike many of the other cheap hotels on the strip paralleling Highway 1 unfortunately didn’t have free porn. Probably a good thing actually as in this way we were able to line up on the Sunday fresh for the race; with free porn the tendency is for the TV to stay on late into the evening.

And so to race day. It had been 40C all week, unseasonable warm for June, but we were lucky as race day dawned cool and slightly overcast, perfect racing conditions. This year the course at the Nationals was incredibly challenging, a 10km circuit with a 2km climb (that’s an approximation on my part) which had a couple of nasty steep sections; I rode a 30x26 for the race and used it! The plan was to get into the early break, in which the pace on the climb would be steady rather than the surging that would go on in the peloton. Well things went to perfection on this part of the plan as early in the race I found myself in a good break of 4, bridging across to some guys two minutes up the road. Soon there was a good sized group clear, with Fraser, Tuft and Wholberg eventually gracing us with their company. In the end there were six of us away and there were moments when the time board read forty seconds to the chase, but no one came close enough to endanger our lead. With a distance of 180km the race wasn’t a cake walk and everyone in the break was suffering towards the end of the day. In the end the race came down to the final climb with Alexandre Lavallee launching the attack that made the final decision. I wasn’t able to follow and that was that, I rode in for my finish. All in all it was a great weekend. I did the best that I could, didn’t crack as I sometimes have a tendency to do and enjoyed an incredible day of tough racing.

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The Beauce

This year’s Beauce was probably one of my most successful. I did miss a couple of the more important breakaways, but since I wasn’t there as a true GC hopeful it wasn’t the end of the world. I managed a couple of great stage finishes, notably a fifth place in the criterium after being part of a break that lapped the field, and played a role in helping my teammate for the week, Dominique Perras, defend his GC position. (Andrew road the week for the National Team -Ed). In part the race is an annual reunion of all the Canadians. I was joking with Alexandre Lavallee, of the VW team, that this year was my ninth GP de Beauce in a row; he topped me easily with eleven I think it was, having started as junior.

“The Beauce”, as some like to call it, is made up of some of, probably, the most challenging courses on the international calendar; for the 2004 edition of the race there were four stages that had close to 3000m of climbing. One of the most fun things at the race is hearing all the Europeans swearing as they see the course unfolding before us. “Not another @#$#%#$% climb!” is the common phrase. “Por que dio!” was the favourite of the Italians last season. Add unbelievably rutted and pitted roads to the hilly terrain and you have a recipe for complete crushing of the peloton.

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