GRAND PRIX SF

For the second year running the team is making the trip down to San Francisco for the "hardest one day race in America"--the Grand Prix of San Francisco. We've ironed out some technical glitches and will be partnering with Pedal to post live photos and race updates from the caravan. Watch for updates on details here and on pedalmag.com as the race date approaches--Sunday September 4th, 2005.

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Form...is that you?

It's been a while, but it looks like the form is finally back. I half-joked with the guys that I was feeling it coming around a couple weeks ago at the "Louis Garneau Montreal-Quebec" race, and that it was only going to get better for the San Francisco G. I hope I'm right.

The thing is, in my current situation, training is often times hit-and-miss. Riding needs to be fit in around working hours, and this sometimes includes jumping out of the car, straping on the shoes, putting wheels on the bike, rushing to the start-line, and going nuts in whatever weekday local race I hapen to stumble across or sniff-out in my travels (more often than not this is a MTB race). To me it seems as if 90% of my time in the saddle seems to be going full-tilt.

This weekend gone by was no excetion.

On Saturday, at another one of these non-Jetfuel oriented events, I once again found myself lining up against a horde of mountain bike riders at the "Hot August Nights 24 Hour Race". The goal here was to have some fun, ride off a coule of fast laps, and show some folks just how much of a rocket my latest full-susension MTB really is. Things went well - rode the first lap (about 50min's) steady coming through in first place, and then went full-out for the second lap (46:30), taking the fastest-lap cometition for the weekend (plus, our team also won the HIGHLY coveted "best campsite" award). You would think my legs would be kinda cracked after this...but it turns out that this preparation wasn't too bad at all...

After a stressful late-Saturday evening drive home in the rain with seized windshield wipers, it was nice to just hop in the car for Sunday's "Conestoga Road Race" and only drive 10 minutes from my front door to the start location. Yup, talk about home-field advantage - over the years I have ridden these roads countless times. They are tough roads though...an excellent 10km loop over rolling hills with lots of wind. As the only Jetfuel rider in the race, I knew I had to be in every move that looked well represented by the other strong teams. After about 30km and lots of attacks I could see yet another dangerous group going away. So with a quick dive through the last corner on the loop, and a hard acceleration to get up to the other three guys, we started to roll. A minute or so later, only one other guy made it across to us, and that completed our group of 5 that would hold the remainder of the field off for the rest of the day. Thankfully we worked well together - but that also meant that everyone was feeling good about their chances for the end of the race.

Now, for the next two hours as the calculator in my head computed many different scenarios and possibilities, I thought about just how I was going to win this thing. Everyone in the group was strong, and I certainly didn't want to trust things to a 5-up group sprint. So, with 15km to go I started to put in the attacks. Everyone responded to a 90% effort on the main climb, so I waited until the last lap to give 'er again. This time it took three separate trys, but finally only Greg Roth dug deep to get up to me. We only rolled for about 1.5 km together with a 10 second gap over the others before I hit it again at the base of the main climb with 5 km to go. Over the top I was alone, and the gap looked to be about 10 seconds, so with a long, rolling headwind section leading into the finish, I knew I just had to keep it pinned. It was UGLY. I managed to stay away, pounding up the last finishing climb, all the while dodging some of the local mennonites in their horse-and-buggy's. I had just enough time to sit up while crossing the line, and when I did I got to see lots of my local cycling buddies and even my old-man cheering me on in my hometown win. Good times.

So indeed, after a long spring and summer, it looks like the form is coming back. Let's hope it stays around for Labour Day weekend, when we hit the streets of San Francisco again.

Results

1. Josh Hall (Jet Fuel Coffee/MSN Sympatico) RS1 2:53:00
2. Jeff Schiller (Gears Racing.Com) RS1 2:53:05
3. Damian Kurzawinski (Midweek Cycling Club) RS2E 2:53:10
4. Heath Cockburn (La Bicicletta - J Lindeberg) RS1 2:53:17
5. Greg Roth (Italasta - Transport Belmire) RS1 2:53:32
6. Darko Ficko (La Bicicletta - J Lindeberg) RS1 2:54:58
7. Michael Moore (Gearsracing.Com) RS1
8. Jason Valenti (Coach Chris.Ca / All Season Sorts) RS1
9. Nathan Chown (Italasta - Transport Belmire) RS1
10. Benjamin Jamesson (USA (0060360)) RS2

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Hello.....Buck?

It's been a while since my last blog. What inspired it you may ask? One or two e-mails a day over the past few weeks to bucker@cyclingteam.info, asking me, "Where ya been? How’s the form?" So I thought I'd tell everyone what I'm up to, because no one likes mass e-mails, I find they're rather impersonal.

After the epic, grueling Louis Garneau Montreal-Quebec Classic, coach Andrew and I decided I needed some time off. Not just an 8-10 hour week of easy riding, we're talking about some serious get away, and cleanse-the-mind time. I was already near the Ottawa Valley region staying with my Grandma in a small very quiet town of 1,000 people, called Cobden. I don't get to see Grandma too often, so I thought I'd hang out; catch up on some Hemmingway and crossword puzzles, all while keeping my Grandma company. I can't say I didn't ride, because my Grandma's got a sweet old CCM single speed, with a basket and full fenders. So when I wanted to "get a few miles in" I'd cruise around town and maybe stop at the lake, and then slowly putt home.

I didn't want my dear Grandmother to get too sick of me, so I figured I'd take advantage of Cobden's wicked white water on the Ottawa River, only minutes from the house. So I signed up to go River Boarding with Esprit Rafting, on the Quebec side. With a helmet, a life jacket, a big foam board a little longer than my torso and some big flippers, off I went. The river boarding started pretty mellow, and I was starting to wonder what I paid for, but that was a short lived feeling. We ended up going down both channels of the river through all sorts of serious white water. We only skipped one rapid, as the guide said it was a class 5. I was a little worried I'd smoke a rock somewhere in the river and end up breaking my leg or something, but no such thing happened, just a massive charlie horse close to the end of the day.

If you have a chance to try this wherever you are, do it! Explaining it here doesn't do it justice. It was a blast and I even ended up meeting a fellow cyclist from St.Catharines, named Bruce Scott. Bruce was just enjoying a holiday with two of his daughters, staying a day longer to do some white water rafting. I'll have to ask Bruce which was more fun, because I think we both know which is harder on the body!

So, after a little more than a week off the bike, and the batteries recharged, it's time to get ready for San Fran, the hardest one day race this side of Europe (in my opinion). Training is full of hard intervals, push-ups and sit-up's to help get up the crazy steep climbs.

Up next, for my first race in 3 weeks, is the Chris Thater Memorial race in Binghamton, NY. With $20,000 25 places deep, there’s going to be some hungry riders, and I’ll be one of them.

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Fantastic Forest City

As Andrew said earlier, this weekend was a much needed rest for us fuelers. But I thought I would take advantage of the spare time to go down and check out Canada’s newest human powered rollercoaster. The Forest City Velodrome in London, Ontario is 138 m and 49ish degrees of rolling thunder that gives you as much of a buzz as the stiffest espresso.

When we pulled in the building left a bit to be desired form the front. Right now it has the look of a building that would either host a Hansel – Zoolander unsanctioned walk off, or a hang out for late night adrenaline junkies. Of course right now only the later can be found in the area.

You walk into the building at around 5 or 5:30 and you can already hear the music pumping through the building and the rumble of the early arrivals as they thunder around the corners with the bikes nearly parallel to the ground…almost sounds like the land speeders in Star wars…whomp whomp, WHOMP, whomp whomp….

When you come through the tunnel it’s like getting the keys to your dads car for the first time. You can see the flags on the railing straight out from the wind created by the riders on the track. This is my favorite thing about riding a new track, that first impression, when you can already sense the kind of energy and racing atmosphere a venue will create; and this little beauty in London does not disappoint. The surface, the lines, the sound, the racks of bikes in the middle, the music pumping, the people in the stands…I can already sense this small intimate venue can create the same type of energy for racing on Saturday night as you can find at bigger events like nationals.

The professionalism continues throughout the evening with an announcer, well-organized races and high speeds all night. But the best part about Forest City is that is lives up to its name. It really is a little track lovers city. With tiny little riders no more than 8 years old (I would say) already riding and showing great control of the banking and bike. I think that everyone with a bike needs to take in a Saturday night at forest city, the locals are friendly, the races are fast, fun and furious, and the track is a piece of art work that needs to be ridden to be fully appreciated. This facility is a great thing for riders in Canada and has something to offer everyone, riders and otherwise.

I know I will be back as soon as the schedule allows. I am going to have to…by the looks of things those 8 year olds are going to be gunning for my track record before I know it. Hope to see you on the track….

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'Toona Video

We pulled together some video footage on our recent trip to the Tour de Toona and now that I'm back in Kingston after Montreal-Quebec I've had a chance to edit it and get it up on the site. Enjoy: Tour de de Toona Shorts /

Our movies are in .mov format and are best viewed using the QuickTime player. The movie files are not recommended for low bandwidth modem connections, they are about 7-9MB each. Now having said that, you can still view them with a modem, you'll just be waiting a long time for the movies to download. Have fun let us know what you think.

If you have trouble viewing the videos from the pop up link above, surf to the raw directory and select a video file for download or view. cyclingteam.info/zach The video from this entry is jfshorts-toona.mov

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Motivation? but it's raining

After a blistering summer, in which the grass has turned brown and the midday-avoid- the-heat-siesta has become a set part of my schedule, today was a very strange day. Clouds hung low, showers moved through the area and as compared to other days it was downright gloomy. And so to my desire to go out for a ride, which I must admit flagged somewhat when the rain started to fall.

I realised that motivation is a fickle support for an athlete and one not to be trusted - as was evident today as I struggled to leave the coffee shop. Not even the ribbing I was receiving about the weather was getting me out the door. What was up? San Francisco is coming up at the end of the month and that is a race I really want to do well at, so that means that I need to train.

Well this week has been a rest week, and I even took a couple of days completely off the bike - lost the rhythm of training. And with the rain spending another day lazing about was pretty attractive. Then I realised I was being a total wimp. It could have been a little liquid courage thanks to a stiff macchiato from Johnny that got me going, but finally I was out the door. In the end I had a fantastic day and did 7hours. Not bad for a guy that didn't want to get wet, eh?

The funny thing is that when I was in Vancouver rain wasn't an issue. I would just go out every day with a rain jacket on and if it wasn't raining be thankful to be dry. In TO we must be spoiled or something.

One last point that went through my head. I remembered a comment by some pro, from my days of addiction to Cyclesport, that you could take the first day of rain off but not the second. Since I hadn't ridden in two days I figured that I was technically probably on my third rain day and so had outstripped the rule and had better get my ass in gear. And what a great ride it turned out to be.

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Montreal-Quebec wrap-up

Well this year's Montreal-Quebec is over. I've had some sleep and thougth we should recap the day. We tried something unique yesterday to try to create a bit of a visitor experience on the website, but there is also a racing story to tell.

There is a bit of a special dynamic in the bunch for Montreal-Quebec. The field is a mix of pro1/2 riders and other categories, mostly masters A/B. The field size is 200(+) riders. Some guys are there to win, some are there simply for the experience of riding 250kms in a race. Historically this has often meant that the guys there to 'race' try to attack early and often to shed the 'rif-raf'.

Amongst the teams and individuals there to 'race' the mix of the break has to be right for it to stay away. This year the right mix established itself after about 70kms of racing --before the mid-way sprint at Trois Rivieres. The b,reak included two VW's, three Gypco, 2-3 Premier Techs, one Ital, two from Jet Fuel Sympatico, one Espoir Laval, two from Target Training -- including former Saeco Pro and Giro d'Italia rider Justin Spinelli-- and a strongman or two like Peter Morse riding for Pavan.

Prior to the break establishing itself, Dave and I weren't quite sure what was going on... In the caravan car you normally have a race radio and get minute by minute updates from the chief commissaire's car and instructions for the caravan. Well our race radio didn't work. The power light was on, but no audio came out of it. We were effectively blind. We had spot 12 in the caravan order, which turned out to be just behind spot 9 of John Harris in the ItalPasta Transport Belmire team car. While the caravan commissaire tried to help us with our radio, we would periodically slip up beside John Harris to get an update. His radio didn't seem to work quite so well either, but he was getting more information than us because we no longer had a radio at all.

Before passing the bunch to move up to break, we fed the guys once, as Zach to up about 7 fresh bottles. Then it was up to the break to service Joe and Mark. We had Buck's dad John working roadside feeding and we figured the boys in the bunch--Andrew, Zach, Josh and Buck--would be OK. So, Dave, Bill and I moved up behind the break. At the second feed the gap from the break to the main field was 4+ minutes and we decided the team's best shot was between Mark and Joe in the break and we should remain there, to service them. This might have been a bit of a mistake, as the final roadside feed was still 110kms to the finish, leaving the guys in the bunch to be potentially dehydrated if the bunch or a splinter group made it back to the break.

This didn't happen however, and the remnants of the original break played out the race for the win. Dominique Rollin was particularily impressive when he started attacking with about 20km to go. Dom attacked on the final highway roller on the 148 before the race dips down southward on the country roads beside the river. The final big highway roller is sort of a double roller and Dom pressed his attack over both. Alex Lavelle, Eaneas Feare and Pete Morse were able to react fairly quickly to Dom's move. Joe was gapped, but struggled back with Chris Fredrick. Mark Pozniak was gapped off right away after Dom's move. We were now pulling for Joe. In the end Joe was a bit cooked and trailed in 6th from the front 6 who made the final split. Dom counter attacked himself almost immediately after Joe and Chris made the junction. Dom went again on the decent off the 148 highway down to the country roads in St. Augustine. He maintained a small gap over the steep final climb and increased his lead on the finish circuit around the Louis Garneau Factory HQ.

What worked and what didn't
For us this race was also a test of some of the gadgets and gizmos we have to create content on the website. We wanted to see if we could create a unique and interesting live update experience with a camera phone. We had some glitches with that; 1) we couldn't tag the photos with a quick text update--and thumb typing in a moving car is a pain. 2) it is a challenge to split the focus a bit between doing the tasks involved to support the guys and create good content. 3) the camera phone photos are a bit blurry. 4) the camera phone battery died with 30km to go in the race, kind of the most important part. 5) it was beyond our control, but not having a functioning race radio really impeded our ability to give meaningful updates, as we were not getting information from the commissaires. We were able to phone Matt who was writing updates on Pedal and I think the synchronization of the three websites: ours, buzznet and pedal created a neat story.

Personally I really liked Dave's lo-tech idea to hand write updates on a clipboard and photo-blog those up to the feed. I actually thought that was really cool. It reminded me of the Bob Dylan video... I think off the basement tapes album where he stands in front of the camera with an armfull of signboards with lyrics on them, dropping them one by one as song plays.

We are going to try to work out some glitches in the 'system' and do a similar thing for the San Francisco GP in early September. Thanks to all those who followed our feed.

see also
» pedalmag.com Montreal-Quebec story
» Montreal-Quebec full results
» The team's buzznet photo story

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Montreal-Quebec Live Photos

Follow Montreal-Quebec live with the team, to the left are the four most recent photos from Montreal-Quebec. The Race photo feed starts at 8:00am Sunday August 7. To see all the photos from the Montreal-Quebec visit the team's buzznet feed. Live photo feed starts at 8:00am August 7. At the finish, it's Dom Rollin (Gypco) who wins this year's Montreal - Quebec. VW's Alex Lavallee took second, and Joe Giuliano (Jet Fuel - Sympatico) took sixth. Thanks for joining us! We will have more photos and a blog here and on pedalmag.com later today. In the final 30kms of the race our camera phone battery died, and we didn't have enough juice to send in photos. We were able to phone in information to Matt who was updating the pedalmag.com live updates. brief results 1. Dominique Rollin (Gypco) 2. Alex Lavallee (VW-Trek) 3. Eneas Freare (TargetTraining) ... 5. Peter Morse (Pavan) 6. Joe Guiliano (Jet Fuel-Sympatico)

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Live updates!

Le classique Montreal-Quebec will take place this coming Sunday August 7. Starting from 8:00 am the team will be posting live photo updates from the race. The photos will show up here on the site and link to our photo blog on cyclingteam.buzznet.com. Be sure to stop by throughout the day this Sunday to check it out.

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'Toona Season

July is over and with it the Tour de France. The end of the Tour always seems to signal the end of summer, even if there are still several weeks left to finish up the season. In these last few weeks of the year the team has two races that stand out from the rest of the season as major goals: Montreal-Quebec August 7 and the San Francisco Grand Prix September 4.

To get ready for the end of the season the team headed to Pennsylvania last week to compete in the 7 day Tour de 'Toona. This is one of the few stage races on the east coast over the summer and after a month of crits we needed something a little tougher to get the legs up to speed.

This race is definitely one of my favourites on the racing calendar with its courses through the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania. The first stage is a fast technical 5km prologue twisting through the downtown streets - definitely one of the best time trials I have done. From there the road stages were fast everyday, with a couple of stages starting out with 47km/hr averages for the first hour of racing.

Starting the race I had little in the way of expectations, not really knowing what my fitness was like. In the end I had a race that was better than I would have expected. On two stages, the 4th and 5th, I was 7th in the bunch finishes, and overall I ended up a respectable 13th. I wasn't the strongest on the climbs but I was able to hold my own and can't complain with the outcome.

I have to say a big thank you to Mom and Dad Miller for coming to the race with us and helping out immensely with the day to day running of the team. Their contributions made the trip a success and a heck of a lot more enjoyable. Thanks to both of you, we are all in your debt.

Fast racing in 'Toona will have been a perfect prep for Montreal-Quebec (it's totally flat) next weekend and riding the hills will have helped with the power. After Montreal-Quebec the focus will shift fully to preparing for San Fran, mainly towards building up enough strength and power to slog over the steep climbs. For that race I'll be putting on a tiny 39x28 and will still be pushing a low cadence climbing. In order to prep there will be many days spent doing hill repeats out on the bike and a bunch of crunches and curls done to get my wimpy upper body ready.

After last year's ride, which was decent but not as good as I would have liked, I'm keen to go back to San Fran and get a little bit of redemption. So it's time to pump up the mileage and see what I can do. One great thing about not racing a whole bunch at the start of the year because of school is that the motivation is still high come August - time to turn on the afterburners.

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