Arrivé

I made it here on Friday after way too much travel. It was something like 18+ hours of travel. I arrived at the airport where Yanick, a few friends and Logan, a Californian sprinter, picked me up. We went to one of the teamates home in the hills for supper. There I ate too much and was physically sick on the drive home. I was tired and was asleep soon after arriving at Yanick’s. Yesterday Logan and I went to preview the course for today’s race. It was a good ride, but a little hard for just being off the plane. The course was a criterium in Grasse, less than 5 km from our home. It was really technical with 4 or 5 traffic circles and a few speed bumps. The course was 6 km per lap and there was also about a 2 km climb. I enjoyed the ride and rode back home to prepare for the race.

The race today was good. The pack size wasn’t too big or small, about 70 racers. It was a Cat. 1/2/3 race with seniors, juniors, and masters. The race started well. I broke away in the first lap to counter a rider from a good team from Monaco and established a good lead. I sat up after realizing they weren’t chasing and knowing there was still 70 km to go. I attacked about 5 more times in the next 3 laps and was chased hard each time. Soon after, a break went with about 8 guys and the pack didn’t react. Logan said it would stay away and that I should go, but I was tired and thought it was still too early. Logan brideged up almost immediatley after with another guy and stayed with the break to the finish. The rest of the team including me blocked and chased down break attempts for the rest of the day. Logan won the sprint in the break and behind, I was top 4 or 5 in the pack sprint. In the junior classification I beleive I was second with Logan first. Overall I think I placed top 15. Not bad for first race of the season and being quite jet lagged.

Tommorow will be a recovery day and on Tuesday is another circuit race nearby in Vence.

Welcome Spring!

I have been really busy for the last little while with school, training (I forgot to mention I started again) and organizing details for my stay in Europe. I started training a few weeks back and feel great. Suprisingly, I don’t think I lost much fitness either. It feels amazing to be back on the bike and I feel like myself again.

I got back on the weekend from 10 days in Penticton with the Olympic Oval for their annual spring training camp. It was good to see some old friends and new faces, but more importantly have people to ride with who will push me to ride hard. It was a pretty eventful camp, with lots of riding, some good time trials, an abundance of hills, the occasional crash (Jess and Steven), and a rather interesting 2-up team time trial in the best costumes Liquidation World had to offer. I found a new favourite coffee shop that just so happens to bear the same name as the region I will be living in for the next couple of months – The French Riviera Cafe. Overall it was a good camp full of hard riding and fun times. The picture above is of Neal and I riding one of our six times up Giants Head Mountain in Summerland.

 So, I am almost there. In just over a week I leave for France. Later in my stay I will go to a UCI stage race in Germany with a group of other Canadian juniors on a National Team project. I am doing many race days in Europe and can’t wait to compete. I leave next Thursday and return on the 11th of June. I will try to post as many pictures and results as I can.