Lake of Bays

In one of the best actions films of all time, Armageddon there’s a scene with Owen Wilson asking what the “conditions” would be like on an Asteroid. After hearing these he said ok just say “scariest environment imaginable.” It was no surprise that I had the voice of Owen Wilson rattling around my head on Sunday when I was in the group at the Lake of Bays road race riding along a wide open highway with no shelter from the snow, rain, sleet.

Backing up a bit, I had been looking at the forecast with interest since registering for the 170km Road Race held at Deerhurst resort. After factoring in a margin of error it wasn't a surprise to arrive there with snow falling.

Combine a 75km lap around a lake, with no shortcuts back, and freezing temperatures rain, sleet, hail, snowsqualls, crosswinds, and we all knew on the start line it could become an epic day on a bike. We were a wave of our own since we were doing 2 laps around the lake for a total of 170km once you ride to the loop and back from the resort. The other categories were slated to do a single lap for 96km.

Rain started pretty early on our ride out to the loop, I felt heavy with my full winter kit on but with team orders to “not get sick” I was willing to stay warm at all costs. A few teams in attendance, JetFuel- Norco had strength in numbers, Real Deal-Gears had some firepower, and Stevens from Ottawa had a solid crew out as well.

Attacks started pretty early on with Travis Samuel of JetFuel-Norco going off the front with another rider. Being a lone wolf I was perfectly fine sitting in. As we hit hwy 35, I looked at my Garmin and saw and AVG speed of 33kph. So much for the planned 40. And it was a hard 33kph, with lots of attacks and counter attacks. Seemed to be coming from Ed Veal, but Jet Fuel always seemed to bring things back together. And the wind was downright nasty for the first half lap. I hit the front once, on a DH pedalling hard and barely broke 40kph. A rider after commented saying we were riding faster up hill than down.

When we rode into the third snowsquall, and after almost riding over a guys head narrowly missing a big pileup. I made the call to pull out of the race at about the 50km mark. But i was still 50km from my car which was parked on the other side of a lake. So I stayed with the group just keeping an eye on the distance until I could turn off. The pace really started to pick up as well after the feedzone, and by the time we finished the lap the speed was up to 35, but my hands were blocks of ice. With no dexterity shifting was hard with the Di2, and braking was pretty much out of the question. At the turn off I turned off with another rider, about 20 or so brave souls continued on for another 75km lap. The other riders who were dropped also turned for the resort behind us.

I rolled in for my 2^nd (by choice) DNF in 18 years of racing bikes. Which I am ok with.

The hotel lobby was littered with bodies huddled in blankets, with lots of racers in the “my teammate has the car keys” boat.

We would occasionally get reports from the road and the group seemed to be dwindling. In the end 13 brave souls rolled into the finish after nearly 5 hours of racing. 

I pushed the AWI board pretty hard to award Man ride points to the finishers, With Mike Mandel being awarded the most since he was out there the longest but my request was denied. Its under appeal right now.

hats off to Bruce Bird and WOB for a great race, I'm sure if I could have seen the course would have been beautiful.  

Promised myself I wouldn't cry

What a week we've had weather wise, maybe I literally get sick of the cold weather? Mentally for sure but physically is that possible?

Lets keep this positive, my deep depression that was April and not racing is over and I finally swung my leg over some bikes to race.

Wednesday, May 1 where my first race of the season was also where I first raced ever, a midweek wednesday nighter at Coulson Hill in Bradford. Not a "big" race but the spok o motion guys showed up looking fit. 1st lap had me in a spot of bother, Steve Prosser (woodnewton sen ex winner) put down a good effort and opened up a healthy gap. I was able to bring it down and go by. So nice to finally be back racing bikes.

Did some nice MTB rides this week in copeland and sugarbush and "other", trails are already super sandy, but its better than a couple feet of snow. Even got my friend Krista out into the copeland she didn't like the roots that made her "tires go sideways" and only swore at me once so it was good.

Sunday I rolled over to the oro interclub for to race all the local strava competitors, where we put down the garmins and raced head to head, its a crazy idea.( *don't be silly we still raced with our garmins)

I was aboard the nicest road bike I have ever ridden, Di2 Tactic with some C50's from Shimano, my dream of finally seeing what the fuss is about with carbon wheels has come true. They're pretty sweet, they make cool sounds, accelerate great, and seem to like to hold a highish speed. Road racers might be onto something...

With my Norco Teammate Bretton sleeping in, I aligned myself with AWI racing to go up against the teams from Bikeland and Velocity. 

The powers that be gave group 4 a 5 minute gap back to us in group 5. I guess 90 seconds isn't enough when you have 20 guys in a group. I honestly wasn't sure if we'd catch. But we worked very well together and managed to avg 42-43kph for the first 3 laps to bring the gap down to a minute. Then the games began, guys start sitting on the back, nobody pulls through. So I gave her a go to see if I could get across by myself. No dice AWI racer Jacob M, chased me down with all the Velocity guys in tow. #notteamwork

Took another lap to close that final gap, so one lap to go and it was pretty much all back together. Up the 4th I was pretty much stuck on the front, with Rob H on my wheel. I hit the gas hard to string it out up the few rollers there are on the 4th. And a gap suddenly formed, weird how that happens, don't attack just up the pace and they let you ride away, attack and everyone chases you like a dog, must be some sort of evolutionary hunting mechanism.

Once the gap was a few seconds I really hit the gas to open it up and try to make it stick. About 8 km to go. Looking back I could see the 50 or so racers fanned across the road so I knew they weren't crushing it. Gap grew to point where I couldn't make out who was who but apparently Jacob sat on the front and just cruised. #teamwork

Felt really good and strong until I turned south on the 7th for the last 2-3 km to the finish, straight into a headwind. It was all I could do to hold 38kph. I was pretty sure I'd get caught but the gap held steady and I was able to crest the final climb with some distance to the group and roll over the line.
Big high five to Nathan Jeffs who rolled in for 2nd, an athlete I work with who has put in a lot of hard work and has improved a TON over the past 12 months.

41.5kph avg, not bad for a club race.

Post race I rolled over to Hardwood Ski and Bike for their annual demo day where Norco was setup along with a bunch of other manufacturers and shops. Lots of bikes going in and out, so much to choose from these days as well, 10 years ago a demo day would have been a bunch of 26 inch hardtails with v-brakes, now there's dualy's 650b's 26ers, 29ers. 100mm 120mm 140mm lots of options to suit your riding.

Afterwards we hit sugar bush for a tour of the new stuff, always nice to show some folks some new trail they've never ridden before, isnt that what MTBing is all about?

Getting to the bottom of it

After 3 weeks down and out with something I just couldn't kick, I called my doctor to come in and see him...in another week.So I opted for the sketchy clinic route and headed into town. Sure enough it was more than just a cold with the doc hearing “something” in my lungs and prescribing me antibiotics which are used to treat Pneumonia as well as Bronchitis and sinusitis. So its probably one of those things, he didn’t actually say.

Its been really tough to put racing on hold today is the second spring race I was hoping to do but I'm confident if I put my health first Ill be able to hit May and UCI race season in good shape.

Its given me a chance to give the legs a break, I’ve been heading out on some nice easy rides, and skis as well since winter is very nice this time of spring. It will be a little while before we get out on some dry trails up here. I took out the GoPro and took a few shots of my latest road ride.

I'm just waiting to take out my new Tactic on some clean roads, I'm no chemist but I think salt and electrical systems don't mix, but with some rain in the forecast hopefully they'll be clear soon.

I've also been enjoying helping out on some committees and seeing a new MTB specific club being formed here in Simcoe County with the aim of building some more legal singletrack. The riding here is amazing but with the current litigious climate the public land managers are looking for a group to take stewardship of the trails. They have a cool logo so that's taken care of. Lots of interesting stuff going on around these parts with the BCC also taking on some MTB stuff. 

 

All for now, time to get healthy and get training

Andrew

s#@w day!!

Im worried that if the internet has the s word in it one more time today it will explode.

Also coaching tip of the month, if you have a little fall on your XC skis and think you hurt your ribs a bit, don't go out and ski hard a couple days later. (even if you crush some KOM's)

All jazzed for the coaching course this weekend in TO, made plans to also get a Joyride visit in, been far to long really interested to see the changes they've made down there.

Ill let Tristan crush some good grooming this weekend and hopefully be back on snow next week for some more prep work heading into the first race of the season.

AD's?

weird it looks like google has taken the bull by the horns and added ads, par for the course I guess. I urge everyone to never click them.

Had a restful rest week last week, it was nice that it coincided with the arctic cold snap. Or as we would have called it 10 years ago "winter".

February 1st, tomorrow almost a beginning of the end of the winter, 5 weeks till heading back down south for some training camp action with the Ontario Team. Looking forward to going back knowing what to expect from one of these camps. Last year was a new experience.

Training wise starting to pick up the intensity, which is a nice change from the long endurance and tempo sessions. A little easier on the brain to have things broken up into shorter intervals.

 Looking forward to getting my Level 2 underway next weekend, hopefully have it finished up by early May. AWI coaching services (working on the name) is expanding exponentially still a part time gig with racing and training but maybe I can help YOU achieve your cycling goals.

The team is moving forward, I expect to put in the paperwork next week to the OCA so there's still time to sign up if your looking for a Team. We promise lots high fives, a sharp kit (by Oro-medonte standards) and no performance expectations.

Ski day tomorrow at Hardwood Ski and Bike, hopefully Tristan is in the groove tonight while grooming.

Big Big Big News

No not really but I grabbed your attention with that title didn't I

But in the news section I have officially signed on the dotted line (actually its not dotted) to ride for the Norco Factory Team throughout the MTB season of 2013. Looking forward to it and even a new teammate Evan Guthrie, yes I had mixed feelings about allowing someone with  nicer stache potential than me on the team but he rides bikes fast and with how do the french say "panache" so I'm sure itll be worth it. Welcome to the team Evan. (first rule don't touch my stuff)

Training: Just about to finish up a solid 3 week build, just two more days till a nice rest week. Good mix of road rides, long skis and specific workouts with the old powermeter on the Kreitlers. Felling healthier than years previous at this point in time, seems like I got to skip this years flu.

Skiing has been good, Hardwood is doing a superb job of grooming in tough conditions. 

Mandatory Lance Mention : only the first two minutes of that oprah interview were honest everything else was either very grey, or complete and utter BS,

AWI Racing: After a formal conference I message the existing Team Members voted almost unanimously (I dissented) to affiliate the team with the OCA to receive full recognition of our result(s). Invitations are forthcoming, We considered the non-profit club route, but hello paperwork, AGM's etc decided it was worth the extra bones to go "private race team" So if your looking for a race team and don't mind wearing "rustic" influenced clothing then maybe this teams for you. More info to come at www.awi-racing.blogspot.com

Race Calender: Still lots to figure out, but Hell of the North is a spring target for sure, not 100% a race in format, but a challenge for sure.

all for now, watching this guy on TV win the Guinness world record for "The most lies on TV in 60 minutes" award

Mount Sugar

Rode up to that peak twice in the past two days with some solid riding partners. Its been a nice change compared to the solo miles I've been putting in.

Yesterday was a little greasy, for a long route hitting a few different trail systems around, got Tristan out for that one. (follow him on twitter @spurtt)

Today was all about the frozen ground after a cold night, infinite traction, Jer and I timed it just right and made it out of sugarbush and the 8th just as it was starting to warm up and that infiinite traction became finite. Even nabbed a KOM, dual credit with Jer for sure.

reading: Towns are loving (road)cycling these days, big bucks to pay organizers to organize events.

also, depending on when MTB provincials are (ive seen three very different Schedules) Sept 15 will be the AWI grand fondo, Tristan Spurr is the route designer, its going to incorporate both Awenda PP and Big chute.

The Hobbit: was a big let down, over the top CGI, dragged out story, it should be two films max not three, #cashgrab acting good, story good, but should have kept it simple and closer to the LOTR mold.