Banff Bike Fest

This past weekend brought my first stage race in hometown Banff.

On the Storm Hill climb, I did what I said I did not want to do...start to quick. 3 minutes in I was saying shit while huffing and searching for more air and trying to clear out the acid in my legs. Finished 5th, but 2 secs off 4th and 3 secs off 3rd :( Note to self, don't start too quick. Chalk it up as all part of the lessons learnt in each race.

Friday's race on the 1A was my highlight. Being paired up with the Cat 2/3 group, I was unsure how to play out the race..do I bother chasing breaks when they could very well be cat 2/3 and burn out? Robbie said to hold off unless it was a group of 10 or so. Did not have to worry as the 45 odd person pack rode together to the turn around and went up the 7 odd mins climb up the split road. At the top of these climbs I noticed how many riders were somewhat suffering and I felt well. 2 odd km's left and the pace picked up, I knew we had a good kicker to end the race and hung in around 10th spot. The boys who took off were now slowing coming up the last km hill. Up the first bump and the sprint was on up the hill finish. I really wanted to stay ahead of the 3 Cat 4 riders I knew, got out of saddle and gave er...ended up taking aaron schooler at the line for 2nd overall!! 1st in cat 4 as well.
I am stoked to beat out the 24 odd cat 2/3 riders to the hill finish...great to take the race on my home road. :) pays off living in the mtns and training on the hills.

Saturday brought my first ever T.T. Did not want to start too quick and burn out. Overall I was happy with my results...legs were a tad soar from Friday. 6th place 7 secs off 5th and 9 secs off 4th. James Jenzen is a machine in the T.T...hope I am that strong when I am his age. Loved being in the TT position, envious of the all boys with their multiple thousand dollar TT bikes...hanging in there with my 6 year old cannondale.

Saturday night's Crit was my first crack at a crit as well. Plan was just to not crash and get a groove on as the race proceeded. Stayed in top 4 or so feeling well and focusing on avoiding the 6 odd spills that occured right in front of me.
Last lap, behind Thomas down Bear St when Kevin came by us. Into last corner and not sure what happended as it occured so quickly...ended up in the bus lane and came back to out sprint Thomas just shy of Kevin - good job Kevin :)
I definitely lost this race as I envisoned the days before being in 3rd going in straightaway and sprinting for 1st....but came around last corner waaaay to wide and Kevin was all of a sudden too far.
Shoulda coulda woulda's definitely, but was happy with a 2nd place and in general where I was positoned the whole race....and no crashes for my first ever Crit. Again learning experience every race.

Don't dwell on mistakes, learn from them.

Full results are not out from ABA, but should have enough points to move up to Cat 3 now.

Pocketed $350 as well, help pay for diapers :)

Would have loved to have Seth on the podium with me. He is toooo cute in these photos though!!

Overall a great weekend. Huge exposure for Banff, I strongly believe this can turn into Canada's top road race someday.

Props to Steve, Scott, Darren and Keith who rode well in the invite race..good job boys.

Last few weeks

Unreal that it is mid June already....slow down please summer
Have had a fun last few weeks, going back to Pigeon Lake Race.
Did not have huge expectations with a 120 km race as the only time I have ridden that distance this year was mid April.
With 45 guys in the pack, I made sure to stay top 10 through the race to avoid any crashes etc.
I am 100% still learning road tactics and being patient through out...as I messed up a few races last year getting to excited and chasing when not needed...and burning out.
A few teams of 5 or 6 guys watching them take turns sending guys out looking for rookies like me to chase them and burn out. patience my friend.
Fun course with 4 laps which included a head wind, 2 cross wind sections and a tail wind. I was happy how I placed myself in these sections, especially the cross winds.
Couple guys took off just before the tail wind section and decided to join them. 4 or 5 of us began a small gap as we were cruising with the tail wind and all....not the best communication between us resulted in our gap falling apart. Thats okay...3 guys again take off on final cross wind section, catch them as the loop ended. James takes off and the pace picks up. catch him heading into final corner before the 1.5 km finish.
Thinking I am in great position -4th - sitting on the center line with the cross winds...no... all of a sudden 5 guys come bombing bye us and I realize I am boxed in on the center line. By the time the 4 of us break up the 5 guys are 50 -100 m ahead. Sprint as hard as possible with 3 of us finishing within an inch of eachother - I was the loser of this placing in 8th.
Overall happy with my patience through the race, right postioning and more lessons learnt for next race. Don't dwell on mistakes, learn from them.
Next few weeks brought the usual 2 odd hours a week consisting of intervals on the trainer maximizing time. Love this one 10 secs Hard 20 secs Mid...for 10 minutes....burn burn!!
Last Thursday was a beauty Hammer Night with the Canmore boys. 75 odd kms - 2.5 hrs of goodness for the legs - hills and hills.
Friday off
Saturday on the 1A with Keith to re con Storm HC. 2 laps up that sessing it out...going to be a killer 17 odd minutes.
Sunday was on the trainer again
10 mins S.S 5 min cool 10 mins S.S 5 mins cool 1 mins hard 1 mins cool x 5 5 min cool repeat again
nice to do longer (10mins) just below LT followed by 1 min at or above LT
A couple walks in the afternoon up and down the hill to home...felt the legs pushing Seth up.
Overall great to ride 3 of 4 days to prep for the Banff race in 2 days
Had an invite on Saturday to join the RMCC team for the invite race. After thinking it over for a day I decided to stay in Cat 4 and try to gain points for upgrades. Being that I am only racing a few times this year, to give up 4 opportunities for points is too much to give up. The invite race would be a great opportunity to race with that caliber...the legs would not be there especially by Sunday's race though.
If it was last summer or next summer I am sure I would have accepted. But with the circumstances I need to take advantage of 4 stages and will still have a riot racing in Cat 4
Can't wait to suffer on Storm. Racing on home turf -1A road - will be so much fun. My first TT nad crit should be entertaining as well.
:)

Little Seth now 6 months old

Well, our little baby boy is growing up quickly. 6.5 months old already, where does the time go?
Have been feeding him solid foods now for a few weeks - yams, avocados, green peas, black beans and rice cereal / apple sauce. He just chows down whatever we give him.
This last week he has been sitting up on his own for minutes on hand...too cute!! We had his 6 month doctors appointment this week, 16 lbs now. Doc says he is very strong for his age...must be his parent's genes :)