World Cup #7 Champery Switzerland (stop and start)

Today was hard. Straight up, hard. The pace was fast right from the gun as we jammed the start loop and completely bottle necked once we hit the first single track descent. The euro's can hammer crazy hard on the climbs and for some they have a bit more trouble in the muddier, slicker tech sections of the course. This made for frustrating (and fun) racing as really fit guys crush it on the climbs. I had a "kind of" solid start and tried to move up from there. All I wanted to do was to pass was a couple racers per lap. If you try and pass to many racers to quickly you kind of blow up from going to hard, that is unless you are that much fitter than the racers around you and being in Europe, that is hard. I went out a bit hard (as did most) and tried to wing it, three laps in I was feeling my "wing it" tactic and while I was still passing some racers some faster racers were coming from behind. I fought it out and finished in 80th place. It was fun and is always a great learning experience to battle with the best in the world!

After the race Peter and I went for another ride and slammed out another 2500ft of climbing (total today was 6700ft ascended) as we went out and explored the region around us. The time that we have here is defintley not long enough. We are in for a 10hr drive over to Schladming Austria tomorrow and hopefully will see some cool stuff along the way (pretty sure we will). Peter and I are really stoked that and we have Sandra Walter (pedal Mag) to travel with. We decided to join in on there Privater trip over here for these two world cups and it has been great! We would of had a hard time without her (seriously). Anyways I hope all is good back home and I will try to keep you guys updated on what's happening over here.
I am having a great time here in Switzerland and I will try and keep updates flowing.

Suisse...

Here are a couple pics of Champery. I am in complete Heaven here, it is my first time to Switzerland and definitely not my last. We race tomorrow at 2:30pm here, which is 8:30am home time. The course is phenomenal!! I am really glad that I brought my Trek Top Fuel dually and I think it is the bike for the course.

Peter and I are going to go on an adventure after the race tomorrow, he says "not to think about it before the race", Puff I say to that, we are in Switzerland and all I want to do is go conquer stuff! It is seriously everything I imagined, including the amazing cheese and stuff.

Word up from the land of cheese and chocolate!

We finally made it to our first destination in Champery Switzerland yesterday afternoon after a "full travel day". Time change is whatever you make of it. Yelling crying kids on a plane with no "working" TVs is a rough 7hrs. I was so pumped to get to have a bit of a movie marathon on the flight only to find out that most of the planes "in seat TVs" were not working. Yay, I didn't even buy a magazine to read, totally counting on the fact that I was excited to watch movies. I decided I was going to try and sleep, on a 7 hr flight I slept for a whopping 4.5 minutes. Yes! Nothing to read, nothing to watch and not able to sleep, all the while poofing like the Michelin man. Thankfully Peter had a "Runners World" he let me read. Hm mm, I think I am excited to run when I get home?

The course is amazing and so is everything else here! Who doesn't like cheese and Chocolate? The view is good too, although all I want to do is go and conquer everything! Above is the view from our place, all just a tease.

It's Friday already? (with a rant).

Wow that week flew by! I was(still am) a mess from that crash on the weekend. My head still is pounding, especially when I bend over! (I am trying to get fire wood wrapped up before going to Europe, so take that however you want). I was supposed to not really ride that much this week.... Ya that's it. I am loving the great weather and I am supposed to "take it easy" uh? nope. I have to cram in all my big rides that I didn't get ticked off the list this year. So it's cram time! Plus I am heading Europe next week so that means I really have to get fit this week! It's great, get fit and get to see some of the country I only see on maybe one or two rides a year!

I am running a bit out of time here, Laundry is almost done(at laundromat) and basically I apparently burned a massive pile of calories this week. Check this out, in one ride I burnt over 5 grand worth! My new training program is called "get off your butt and ride"(rant coming up). All these people are always looking for the fastest, laziest way to get fit(or un-fat) and its simple, just go do it. Anything, frig it doesn't have to be a bike it can be anything just go do something. There is no healthy way to get "healthy" other than doing what we are physically and mechanically designed to do, MOVE! People are seriously willing to PAY to lose weight and get in shape, just move more and eat less. You even save some cash on the lesser amount of grub your consuming.

Anyways hopefully nobody found my rant offensive, I am just tired of seeing gimmicks on the tube, in magazines etc. All trying to sell you "health". Ya that's it.

Whaa happened?

Yesterday was our Ontario world championships! It was a great course, maybe one of the best Kelso courses to date, it was fast and had good flow.

I had a solid start with mike g pinning it super hard up the crappy grassy section! We quickly grouped back together at the base of the first climb. The pace that was being set was quick as the group of 4 of us (Garrigan, Watson, Glassford and myself) all rode together for the most part of the race. Mike G and Peter put a few really solid efforts in the first lap and Watson gave'er on the lap around. Peter and mike pounded really hard up the climb on the end of the third lap opening up a slight gap on Watson and me. I shut it down pretty quick at the top of climb and I actually felt good. Much better than the first 3 laps. Part way through the 4th lap I got to the front and put in a good effort, as I was feeling better as the race was going on. Kelso is such a fast course that if you try and ride away from anyone you quickly get realed back in because usually by that point in the race we are lapping riders and get caught quickly in the singletrack.

So halfway through the last lap it was still a 3 man race and we were all trying to figure out how the race wad going to play out in our heads (at least I was). Then it happened! Not sure what exactly did happen but all I know is that I hit the deck really freaking hard! Watson was right on my wheel and apparently I clipped a tree, which shot me face first into the second tree( I hit the left side of my head, cheek bone and temple area). Then I did a nose dive head first into the dirt. I don't remember anything really except Watson handing me my bike! (thanks man). I got up pretty shaken and did a "all systems check" once I got back on my bike. My head really hurt bad. I feel frusterated for crashing and especially in such a mindless section of the course. I rode in feeling weird, I guess it's kinda hard to explain but basically croozed in for third place. I had lost the edge to fight for the win as both Peter and Andrew were both riding really strong. At the end of the day it was a great race and a fun battle.

I awoke this morning thinking, hmmm I wonder how I am going to feel when I get out of bed? Yep, crap. Yay, everything hurts especially my right knee, which is crazzy swollen! My face feels like I was in a bar fight last night and it didn't go so well for me.

Anyways enough of me being a baby and complaining so much. Good ride this weekend boys. After all that's why it is called the "Ontario world championships".


-- Post From My iPhone

Pics.

Lots of great training this last few weeks. Provincials are this weekend, then I am off to Europe for the last two World Cups. Here are some pics of what has been happening lately. I got out for a few days on Georgian Bay for a great kayak trip. We had amazing weather! All sunshine and wind! Yay.

Stranded in this spooky town.

I really didn't realize that it has been almost two weeks since I updated my blog. Working from today backwards I will fill you in on what's been happening, okay here we go.

Today I got the new issue of Whats Up Muskoka and found it amusing that my mug was on the front cover! Cool! The photos used in the mag are from the Canmore Canada cup a couple of months ago. Both images are from Brad Chisholm ( thanks Brad) great shots! The article was written by Sandy Lockhart and is very well done! (thanks Sandy).

Sunday was O Cup #5 at mountainview in midland. I don't even have a race report for that because it is really hard to explain what 6 min of racing feels like, other than it sucks. All the prep, from me and everyone else that was there for me, to only get 6 min of racing in before you have a "un- fixable" mechanical. I ripped my rear derailer right off! It would of taken me forever to run to the tech zone, so I opted to pull out. I really hate opting to pull out, it is not a good feeling. I didn't know what to do? Yell? Did that. Throw bike? Na not my style, or sportsman like. Cry? Not imortant enough of a race. Also I don't cry. Ever. To tough I guess (kidding on the last one).

So that led me to my record time around lake muskoka of 2hr14 min or avg 39.1km/hr. I drove home, warmed up riding into town and pinned it. I did the loop clockwise and dodged crazzy thunderstorms everywhere. I made it from gravenhurst to port carling in just under 1hr!! That was fun. I could of come home after my 6 min of racing and turned to "the bottle" which I almost did, but instead I went and did something more productive. Although I did have a handful of "lo carb" wobbly pops when I got home after my ride. They were much better after my ride then they would of been if I didn't drill myself before hand.

The world cup in Bromont was muddy. Everything was able to be ridden and that was way better than the Canada cup there a month ago! The euro's are so friggin fast! and there are so many fast guys it's insane. Cycling in Europe is much different than in north America. Anyways I was sick at the world cup at saint Anne and I was still sick in bromont and that was way to frusterating to express. I still had a solid ride finishing 50th.

I forget everything else that has happened recently, so on that note I am going to go cut the lawn.

Peace


-- Post From My iPhone