Bike Alberta #4

Finding Truth at the Tour du Jura
So, in last week’s post I focussed on learning from the little mistakes I was making with the goal of remaining optimistic and progressing in mind. I did not address, however, something larger holding me back, and it was visible in plain sight. I have been feeling as if I am trying to catch up on my recovery without being successful. As I have continued through training, I have found it harder and harder to do the same volume. This weekend, I finally recognized that I have been overtraining/under-recovered for some time.

Thursday began with rain once again, making it difficult to want to get out on the bike for a slow-paced recovery ride. The rain turned into a light drizzle and I decided to head out for a brief turn of the pedals around town. I didn’t stay out too long as it was cold and wet and I had felt like my past sickness was maybe returning.

Friday morning I woke up and got everything prepared as that night I would be racing. I met the team at 2 pm and we drove off to Voiteur for the first stage of the Tour du Jura, a 5-6 km uphill night prologue. It stopped raining in time for the team presentation, but substantial flooding was occurring and the river running through Voiteur was very close to overflowing. I began warming up and while a little rushed, made to the start, where they mounted two small LED lights on the bike. As I made my way up the mountain to Chateau-Chalon, I crossed streams flowing across the road, briefly distracting me from the pain of the race.

As I approached half-way I began to feel stomach acid burning my throat every time I pushed harder. This forced me out of the big chain ring which the team wished me to ride in, and I therefore rode slowly on the most important part of the climb. I crossed the line in pain as I should have been, but without having felt as if I made a huge effort. I was unable to push as hard as normal, but I attributed this to the stomach acid and just reminded myself to take an antacid before I race. I was 85th on the stage.

After a rather small amount of sleep, I awoke Saturday morning prepared to face the large amount of climbing ahead of me in the second stage. We rode to the start at Aire du Jura, a tourist attraction, and were soon lining up. I had changed wheels to race on my Mavic Kysriums, which were lighter than the team’s Aksiums. Being pressed for time once again, I neglected to check that the gears were aligned the same. Within the first kilometre I had problems with ghost-shifting in all but the hardest gears. So I rode with a slow cadence as we approached the start of the climbs. On the first GPM, the road kicks up well over 10 percent and the pack seemingly fell apart. I felt strong enough to stay at the front, but the gear I was in was much too hard for the grade and when I shifted down, my gears were ghost-shifting all over. I made it to the top with a group off the back and was within reach of another chase group. They were within sight and we put in a large initial effort to join them. As the race turned once again to the climbs, we lost sight of them. Much of this was due to the lack of cohesion in my group with the chase being sporadic and poorly organised. Late in the stage as we climbed into the snow and mist near Switzerland, I found myself too strong for the group I was in. I crossed the line at the front of the group, determined to be much higher up in the next stage. It turns out my teammate Nicolas Bourdillat won the stage with Emilien Broe 4th and both in a small breakaway group. This put Emilien in the best young rider jersey and gave Nicolas the most aggressive rider jersey for his attacking. I was now in 91st and thirteen minutes back from the leader.

The third stage on Saturday afternoon was supposed to be relatively easy as it was mostly descending down from the Alps at the border with Switzerland. For the entire neutral start I rode right at the front, drafting the press motorbike. As the ‘depart reel’ got underway, I was at the front and feeling alright. I looked to Nicolas, a few kilometres later, whom I wished to help improve his good position and he said “allez Spencer”, sending me up the road to take pressure off himself in the chase. The timing was poor and I should not have listened to him as Emilien had just attacked and as I tried to open my gap over 15 seconds, we turned onto the only GPM of the afternoon. I soon was back in the pack and sliding back. I pushed hard to stay with them, but all of a sudden I just blew up. This wasn’t a normal cracking like I have experienced before. This time I had nothing to push with. I couldn’t hold onto people I should have been able to drop and quickly fell out of the caravan with only the broom-wagon behind me. I tried to push myself harder, but could not push myself. I took risks on the potentially icy roads descending from the GPM and passed another rider, giving me motivation to work harder. Still, with this motivation, I could not get my legs moving faster. Later in the stage after overtaking another rider and being overtaken by the previous motivator, I found myself at a level where I could not push past a soft-pedal or raise my heart rate above 145, which is very low for me. At approximately 15 km from the finish, I was caught by the last rider and the broom-wagon. I pulled over and stepped off the bike, getting into the sweep vehicle, inadvertently coercing the other rider to do the same. My team held the best young rider jersey, the team classification and Nicolas was second on the stage.

Sunday morning I woke up with ease and tried to relax while everyone prepared to race. In Arbois, we ate our lunch and before the start, headed off with our mechanic to give our riders feeds later on the course. It was interesting to follow the race by trying to show up at each successive position before the riders, but it was not my preferred way of attending a race. That night we lost all of over classifications when a breakaway got away containing none of our riders.

This week has been rather relaxing, with me off the bike to recover from overtraining. I have been able to do many things I wanted to get done as well as spend time doing different activity. Today, for instance, I went for a long walk to the park in the center of Le Creusot, which with 20 degree weather and the season, was quite beautiful. I am not hiding anything from myself anymore. I have recognised that I am under-recovered and understand the reasons it has occurred. I will have to come back slowly, but I can come back to form and be much stronger than before.

Photo credits: Grégory Oudot

Bike Alberta #3

As I reflect on the past week, I am forced to recognise that many of the situations I find myself in while racing in France are different from anything I have experienced before. Sure, they may mirror past circumstances, but there are newer challenges to face, learn from and make me stronger. These obstacles may prove difficult for the moment, but they help build my experience for the future.

Last Thursday brought out the sun and it echoed my excitement to find some new roads. Riding with Bartosz, I was a little too enthusiastic at first, sprinting up each climb until I hit my heart rate ceiling. I was rather impressed with how I was riding, but I payed for it later. On our way back home I had little energy and came close to bonking at one point. Luckily I had a great deal of food on me and as I approached Le Creusot I began to feel much better.

Friday was a recovery ride and it was well needed after two longer days of climbing at high pace. This time the search new roads backfired as I turned towards what I thought would be flat and found some steep rolling hills. This proved difficult on my recovery ride as each road would challenge my heart rate ceiling. I made it back home without feeling bad, and so thought nothing of it. The next day I continued along a route I knew would be flat. In preparation for the next day’s race, I was not to ride too hard, but faced a little difficulty in the wind. I felt great though and had the power to ride into the wind without really feeling it.

Sunday I awoke and the sun had hidden again. This did not bother me though as I was in a good mental state and looking forward to the race with what felt like some decent form. On the drive to the course, thunderheads bearing walls of rain revealed themselves. Once again this actually excited me as I saw it as an advantage over the other riders. I thought to myself, “I want this race to be as hard as it possibly can”. We arrived at the course and soon it stopped raining, revealing the sun. We got everything organised with the time creeping ever closer to the start and as they were calling the riders to the start line, we were once again in the middle of a thunderstorm. The wind had picked up too, making the start corral unbearable for many.

Sitting at around four degrees with a strong rainy wind, I should have had a good warm up to get my legs going before the obvious flurry of attacks featured throughout almost any European race. This is where I ran out of time, finding myself still preparing my bottles with five minutes to the start. So, the race starts and I manoeuvre myself to the front during a brief neutral start. The car takes off and the pace picks up stringing the pack out. As we go over a little rise, my position at the front has me following the chase of some early attacks. This effort is not that difficult and is less than someone at the back would feel, but afterwards, in the approach of the lap’s real climb I had fallen back into the peloton. This climb is not long, at just under a kilometre, or really steep, but it is into a straight headwind and the road seems to stick to the wheels. Here the pack draws into a line with many breaks in it. I must pull back riders now with gaps in front of me as people are getting dropped everywhere. I chase back and the peloton re-groups a little on the little descent, but the effort really hurt. My legs were aching with pain that did not feel like I was fresh as I had been during the week. By the time we hit this climb the second time, I was in the middle of the pack, but this time when the splits occurred to a greater degree, I felt worse and could not hold the wheels. With legs aching, shortened and laboured breathing and being unable to really push myself, I now headed the first of many chase groups. At first we worked with cohesion, but ended up dropping people and after a couple more laps, it was only my teammate Romain Taricco and I putting in a real effort. As this came to be and it became apparent we would eventually be lapped by the breakaway, everyone seemed to give up. Maybe it was that we were now fully saturated, but it felt like the weather had worsened and the cold now became noticeable. With each of the previously mentioned factors having accumulated and not wanting to get sick again, I pulled out of the race. I felt horrible and uncharacteristic doing this, but in the end I watched 25 of over 80 starters finish. This weather and abandon pattern was seen in races across France with only 47 riders finishing the professional GP de la Ville Rennes.

Spencer’s teammate in the break

Monday was a rather easy day for me without a ride. The only thing I did of notice was clean my bike which, being white, needs it often. Tuesday morning I woke up early and walked to the Lab which is close by. I wanted to check my blood to make I was everything was running fine. Later in the day on my ride, I had some difficulty. After some intervals and just pedalling softly, my legs would contract hard as if they were almost cramping. I also noticed my heart rate was exceptionally high while riding easily. After another interval, which saw the shortened and laboured breathing return, I decided I needed to go home to recover from whatever was causing my body so much trouble. In the evening I picked up my blood results with everything in normal values, but a large number of white blood cells indicated my immune system may still be fighting something.

This morning I awoke with better heart rate numbers and feeling alright. I had planned to do the obligatory training with the under 26 team this afternoon. It was pouring through the day, but when it came time to train I threw on as much clothing as I could and headed to the club to meet the other riders. It was not too bad at the start. It was actually fun riding in the rain without being cold. We rode out to Chagny and turned to Mellecey to preview the end of the 3rd stage of the Circuit de Saone et Loire, a very high level Elite National race, and put on by our club. The ride from here featured a great deal of climbing with a few brutally steep sections. I was tired late in the ride and it was impossible to keep my heart rate under the ceiling on any one of the climbs.
As I keep experiencing these challenges, I have forced myself to look at them as a chance to learn and improve. I look forward to a 4 stage race, the Tour du Jura, starting this Friday. I know that obstacles may rise there as they have in the past, but I am prepared to face them and will do so with a desire to become that much stronger.

Bike Alberta Post #2

With the time about two weeks ago being plagued by bad luck, there was only room for improvement and that is what this past week felt like. Granted it was not fantastic for training and did not yield great race results, but it proved as a transition period.

Thursday started with optimism as I felt I was almost completely over my sickness. That optimism faltered a little when on my training ride, if the pace increased, I would seemingly choke on the air, experiencing coughing fits and nasal issues. I did a planned effort which was quite fast, but only aggravated my situation. So I turned around and came home to rest. Friday morning I woke up and to my surprise, I felt fantastic and not at all sick. I did the day’s training without difficulty and sensed a good vibe for the weekend. The next day was strictly race preparation as I have become fanatical about doing every little detail to improve my performance on the bike. A lot of the important things had already been covered, but this involves any little thing I can do to save energy or give myself a mental advantage. During the ride that day I did some efforts and noticed a great deal of power on the flats, but a little more difficulty climbing. This would play a role in the next day’s race.

Sunday’s race was a point-to-point race for Espoirs in the 2nd and 3rd category as well as a few juniors. It started in Dole and finished in Lons-le-Saulnier, both in the Jura region. Despite the category being lower, the race was exceptionally difficult at times with an incredibly strong head/crosswind as well as two climbs of around 6 km. The race started mostly flat and a little protected from the wind, causing the usual continual attacks to begin. About 15-20 km into the race that all changed however as the trees disappeared and a full crosswind hit the peloton. Immediately a single line of riders formed in staggered position down the road, leaving the rest of the peloton chasing in the gutter with little to no protection at all from the wind.

I was about 5 riders down from the protection of the half-echelon formation and it was difficult, but what was more difficult for me was the riders falling over each other to get a draft. Riders in front and behind me were riding on the dirt or grass off of the shoulder and others were overlapping wheels, coming very close to crashing. I persisted in my spot, overtaking riders who could not hold on and soon the road turned offering brief protection. As I turned around to see how many riders were there, I saw lines of suffering riders far behind trying to re-connect with the peloton. There were roughly 35 riders in the peloton with maybe 45 behind. Many reconnected as the roads turned into the hillier, forested area near the low Alps.

We soon came upon the first long climb and right from the start I was in substantial pain. It did not feel usual as I am normally comfortable climbing with the peloton for much longer. In my first race of the season, I was able to climb with much stronger riders without faltering. Sunday, however, saw me struggling to keep pace as I slowly slid off the back and formed a chase group. It was not too much of a problem because I was able to lead the chase on the flats and catch the peloton without excessive effort. On the second climb I lasted longer, but about half-way up, I found myself off the back again. This time there was no chase group as I had survived longer than my previous allies. It proved difficult riding into that headwind alone and soon I was caught by two others who helped with the chase. This chase took longer and we did receive some help from the Creusot team car, but eventually we caught a larger group and were within reach of the peloton.

At this point the chase turned up a level as we started an uphill false flat into the headwind. We were so close, but everyone who went to the front could not push faster than 18 km/h. So I put in an effort to finally close this gap and brought the pace up to 20 km/h. I dropped the others and after a few minutes in which I gained ground, I nearly blew up. Soon we did catch the peloton and I found myself looking for a chance to attack. There were already riders off the front, but I wanted to leave this group behind. Riders began attacking when the road turned up for a few kilometres but no one chased. A teammate, Romain Tarico, was the first to go and two others made it out without reaction before the chase started. As we approached 5 km to go I realised I did not have enough left in my legs to make the effort I wanted to. So I waited and tried to recover for the finish. The finish was rather sketchy, having a 400 m descent and then a right turn through a traffic circle at 200 m to the line. I was positioned well in 5th place, but carried more momentum into the traffic circle. The rider in front of me had misjudged the corner and almost rode me into the median as he slowed and our wheels overlapped. This forced me back and found myself finishing 23rd.

Recovery was welcomed Monday as I rode slow and enjoyed the rare sunny and windless day. I found some new single lane roads passing cows and creeks and realised for a moment where I was. That doesn’t happen as much anymore, but when it does it is usually the result of something spectacular.

Training started up again Wednesday with the Creusot group ride. The parcours was mountainous in preparation for the Tour du Jura in occurring in a week. The climbing started with la Coiffe au Diable towards Autun. I was setting the pace from the bottom and was really motivated to prove myself on a hill. I went pushed hard on the front until half-way where I blew up from my effort. The next climb was up le Haut Follin where we rode to Glux. This one I paced myself on and sprinted away at the top despite suffering considerably. We continued our mountain campaign to Uchon. This climb is both feared and loved by the locals. I believe the maximum grade is over 20%. The ride came to a close at a fitting time as the sky opened up on our descent from Uchon. The ride saw an improvement in my ability to go uphill and I plan on continuing to improve this. I have set my sights on the Tour du Jura and will make sure I can fly up the hills by the start.

-Spencer