The weather has finally been killer here in BC, and I'm loving the shorts and jersey riding. Only a couple more days before I fly out of the big city for another big...french city, which I'm super glad for the change.

Today is a double day of riding. Two rides with a break in between apparently is better for recovery as opposed to doing one big lump sum of a ride. This morning was horrible intervals of 15 seconds on, 15 seconds off @100% for 10minutes straight. I did this 3 times up the crazy hill in the neighborhood. Its funny that I have no problem finding a 10minute+ climb with 16% grades in this neighborhood...this is just to get home.

So now I'm just sitting, doing nothing until I muster up enough energy to go for a 3 hour MTB ride. I haven't been on the MTB in about 2 weeks so I'm looking foreward to the change.

So I got a flat on the scooter. No problem. I'll just get a Tubeless automotive plug kit and fix the rig. I've done it 300 times to cars working at the shop, and I figure this wouldn't be any different.

So I plug the tire...but the air wont hold. Hmmm I try it again...no go. I check the tire...yes it is a tubeless tire. I'm wondering why this isn't working. Then upon further inspection I realize there is a tube in it? Seems very shady to me. The tire is new-ish but there is a tube in it.

Oh well I'll just take the wheel off and find a tube for it somewhere. Luckily for me I'm thinking this Japanese engineered super machine must have been thought through. Sweet, its a left side drive-mono-swing arm thing, which makes it super easy to take the wheel off....just 3 nuts.

So I undo the bolts thinking I'm in the clear when I realize there isn't enough space to take the rim out unless you completely take the muffler off. What the hell. Who thinks of this? Someone must have been drunk off Saki when designing old Gemma.

Yes! this is the exciting life of Ryan! How 'bout that EuroCup!

Burlap

Post number 175 on the old Fine Grind.


Yesterday I went on on the last solid ride before Nationals. Coach Luc prescribed 5 hours and 5 hours was had. I got a chance to ride a loop I had done in a Spring, and haven't had a chance to get back out that way . Problem was the loop wasn't long enough so just moasied around the Harris Roubaix course a couple times to get the time in.


Finally there was a nice day, and I rolled in just over 160km with 1500m of climbing. The salt stains speak for themselves.


And the rain just started.

I'm getting tired of travelling as a bike racer. Its not that I hate travelling, just when you are an athlete it makes things so much more difficult. For one I have 2 bikes. SUPER pain in the ass getting through airports there. Not to mentioned big money. West Jet I hear has just changed their luggage allowing 1 free bike onboard per passenger. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

For another thing I usually have to carry my $3000+ racing wheels with me on board. Some airlines don't care, but others will make a big stink about it. I wouldn't be such a jerk about taking my wheels on board if they could frigging handle them with care, which they claim they do but everyone knows is a damn lie.

Another thing. Things like getting decently timed flights is easier said than done. Getting in at 8pm is much better than flying all night and getting in at 6 am in another time zone. For most people doing a Red Eyes sucks, but its usually wayyyyyyy cheaper so its not a big deal. As an athlete a Red Eye will mess up your riding for a week. I've only done it once mid-season and I'll never do it again.

Anyway, so logistics as well. I currently need a place to stay in Montreal on July 1st and 2nd....anyone know anyone? Hmmmm

I just got back from the Chiropractor. Luckily the Chiropractor in Port Moody also happens to be the Olympic team's Chiropractor. He cracked me somethin' fierce and said I should probably take it easy tonight. So..that what I'm gladly doing. A season worth of crashes has made part of my body tighter than a Vancouver bus in Chinatown.

Tomorrow I have a good 5 hour ride scheduled. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and I can get a ride in without leg or arm warmers. 5 hours is a good number because it will give me a chance to explore this area a little bit more. With a 4 hour ride I usually just stick to the routes I know but that extra hour ads some exploring lee-way time.

Basically there is nothing going on. I wonder what Izaiahs doing right now.....

(Its crazy how much stuff 3 cyclists can take)

We arrived in Banff pretty late on Friday night. I didn't ride Thursday so I found myself on the rollers at 10:30 at night in the doorway of the hostel. Even though it was pain in the ass, it made the legs feel better.

Me, Scott and Sebastian managed to weasel our way into a dorm with 3 other cyclists from the Total Restoration team from Kelowna, which was tight, but good because we knew people weren't going to be going through our cycling stuff or checking out our bikes in a bad way.



The TT was early the next day, and I found myself riding one of the most beautiful courses I've ever seen. We didn't get a chance to pre-ride it, which I regret not only because of the advantage of knowing the course, but because it would have been nice to soak in the views. Time was lost when I avoided a mountain goat that wondered onto the course.

I managed 21st spot of 85, which wasn't bad, but I was hoping for better.

The Crit was crazy. One of the fastest frigging crits I've ever done. It was in downtown Banff with only a 750m loop(most are twice that) which makes for a very tight race. Throw in 85 guys going 50km/h and it makes for an exciting race. I'll be the first to admit I hate crits and finding my way into mid-pack was tough. The boys did well though. Sebastian had great position and Scott went for the win but had to settle for 12th. We all finished in the pack so no time was lost. It was pretty cool because it was a twilight crit around 9pm and the whole town came out to see the race. Afterword they were all cheering and stuff. It was a pretty rock-star feeling

We awoke the next morning to the sound of rain. Which promptly killed the vacation attitude. Luckily as we rolled onto the start line the rain seemed to stop and stayed that way for most of the race. A lot of the riders, myself included were having trouble with the altitude. Banff sits at 1500m, which is substantial but isn't insane, but when your climbing at 90% of your max and cant breathe, its adds a little bit of spice to the race.

The course was pretty crazy, 2 steep climbs and crazy crazy descents...like 70km/h descents winding through closed mountain roads. It was a super nice loop again that showcased the area.

On the 3rd lap(of 9) Trek-RedTruck pinned it up one of the climbs hoping for a break. 3 of their guys got in it and they got about a 45second gap for a couple km's but it managed to get pulled back. The race was pretty mellow until the 5th-ish lap until they went at it again and blew the race apart. I was too far back to make the break, and about 8 guys got up the road.

From there my role was basically trying to bridge back up. I found some very slack racing on the part of everyone else in the main group. Some guys had team-mates in the break which is understandable, but other guys simply wouldn't work. They would sit at the front of the pack, and when I would pull off from my pull they would just soft pedal...like WTF if your going to sit at the front DO SOMETHING, especially if your not working for anyone.

I found it to be very dirty racing, and a lot of sketchy sketchy occasions. At the end of the race I was more frustrated than anything else. There were a lot of Tri-athletes in the group...one guy was riding a frigging TT bike with drop bars???Come on guys! But hey, that's road racing in Alberta I guess.

In the road race stage I finished 16th only about a minute down from the winner, which wasn't as bad as it could have been. So much of the pack blew up. Of 85 starters only 45 finished and a lot were 5minutes+ down. I think it must have been the altitude.

I ended up 13th overall in the GC. Sebastian held on and came in a couple minutes down finishing 36th overall. The Altitude got to Scott and he pulled out 3rd lap, which wasn't uncommon considering how many people didn't finish.

Red-Truck racing killed it again taking 2 stage wins and having great form coming back from the Tour de Beauce. Those guys are riding well this year.


Anyway, so for this week I'm going to try to work on the TT set up. I'm looking for a new saddle as I don't think I can run the SLR anymore. There is a MTB Canada Cup in Kamloops which I might see if I can get a ride to. From there its only a couple days to Nationals. Whoo-ee.

Running to the hills

The team and I are heading to Banff today for my final stage race before Nationals. I booked my plane tickets yesterday and the next few months prove to be full of travelling.

I'll be heading to the Quebec for a week for Nationals, then flying back to BC for a week to do BC Super Week. From there I plan/hope to have enough points to fly back to PEI for about a week where I'll go down to the Tour de Guadeloupe for 10 days. Basically I'm non stop from now until mid-August. I just unpacked my bag from last week's race yesterday, and just finished packing it today for this weeks race.

When I started the season, there were a lot of races I planned/hoped to do. It seems that you have to roll with the punches in this life, and I find myself not travelling to them. I'm still racing the same weeks, but just not the races I had planned.

After Methow Valley last week I made sure to keep in check how the body was doing. After a solid effort in the heat you tend to be a little more tired internally than you might think. Seeing as how it is 2 weeks before Nationals this was my opportunity to put in a bigger week as it offers good recovery time before the BIG race.

Tuesday I decided to race the local Crit along with doing some exploring. It proved to be a good day as I worked hard for Scott as he's the Crit man, and put in a solid effort for me on Sunday. He ended up taking both the Preem and the win, so it was a productive day. Hows this for a team record...Scott won, our Cad3 junior won, and we had 2nd and 4th in the Cad 4's. Not bad I'd say.

Wednesday I rolled in for a good 4.5 hour ride with tons of climbing. I noticed the legs get a little weak toward the end though, but I think would be normal from being tired from the stage race, and Crit from the past few days.


And now we travel.

After the race last weekend I went to the feed zone to grab some bottles. I've lost about 10 bottles over the past few weeks so I went to grab some more that people had left behind. Julian picked up a random one and passed it to me as we were scowering the area. I thought it was funny how it happen to have the Blue Cock on it, I could relate after a long day in the saddle.

No Tax on Bikes

Who proposed that idea? Hmmmmmm

http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=145190&sc=98

The Roadie Win!

(Biggest race numbers ever!)

After about 20 races this year, I've finally got a road win. The final stage to Methow Valley stage race was 130km in the heat of Washington State, something us Canadian arnt accustomed to.

I was pretty bummed at the start of the stage and it took a good 40km to get into the race. The race was very rolling with a few steep pitches and longer gradual climbs. On the backstretch a headwind was very persistent as the road snaked up the side of a hill.

Half-way into the race I noticed a guy who seemed pretty strong go for a solo flyer off the front. Seeing as how I was about 5 back in the pack, I chased hard and when looking back on the crest of the climb I noticed we had a good 20 second break. It really surprised me as there were a lot of the powerhouse Carter team up front, who had been controlling the race and had about 10 guys in the pack.

So me and this guy took turns pulling for a lap. I noticed he was fading a little bit coming around on the second to last lap(about 40km to go) he said he couldn't go any further once we reached the steepest pitch of the loop, so on I went. I didn't think a solo break would hold off seeing as how the Carter and Hagaans-Burman team had so many guys, but anyway I thought I would give it a go.

The second last lap I drove it about 90% in a full aero position, mainly trying to stay consistently pedalling and working pretty hard. I drank a bottle of water a lap as it was crazy hot compared to what we've been riding in.

Before the final lap I came through the feed zone and found out I had actually GAINED time on the pack. Upping the gap to about 2minutes, 50 seconds. From here I ate as much as I could stomach and downed another bottle before digging deep and riding the last 20km.

The last lap I could feel the legs cramping and I knew if the pack wanted to chase, they would be coming on hard. So I didn't think about it and just pedaled. At this point I had a lead car in front of me, and another one following me about 20 meters. It felt so PRO. hah.

Anyway, I managed to hold on for the solo win. a couple groups chased hard and widdled my gap down to 45 seconds, but I still had time to savor crossing the line.

One of the real stories was the team who worked like dogs keeping any potential breaks from catching me. Anything that moved Sebastian, Julian, Chris, and Scott were on it and worked perfectly for me. It was more a team victory than anything else as I know how hard they must have worked all day.

Overall I came 5th in the GC, and Scott pulled out a 7th, so it was a good race for both of us.

The nice thing about a hot, hard ride is that it takes about half a beer to get ripped...and burgers never taste better!

In other news Sebastian and I are having a mustache growing competition. We'll see how that goes.

(Sebastian's first encounter with a dishwasher)

This weekend is the Banff stage race, but the team seems to have a rash of broken vehicles, so number one is finding something that will get us there.

Methow Valley

Quick Post here folks before the computer dies. No pics wither as it takes about 45 minutes to load pics on my computer going through about 1600 pics.

The team and I are in Methow Valley for a stage race and so far its going pretty well. I managed to get 8th spot in the TT, about a minute down, and then 10th(I think) in the Crit, which wasn't too bad. The crit was the first one Ive don't since my bad crash in the other Yankee Crit about 3-4 weeks ago. I found it really hard to fight for position and be aggressive with the thoughts of that crash in my mind, but toward the end of the race I felt a little better.

Scott proved he Mr. Consistency and took 3rd in the Crit which is super solid. With the accumulation of points that puts us dead even at 14 accumulated. Which we think puts us in the top 10...tied.

Anyway, tomorrow is the roadie race with not too much climbing according to the profile and is mostly rolling. Pics and other stuff later.

Finally some good sunsets.

In the Sack

I'm falling into the bike racer lifestyle of not training a whole lot. It takes time to recover form back to back hard races on the weekend, then you can only squeeze in a couple good training days before travelling to the next race. Its crazy just how much a mountain bike race takes out of you compared to a roadie race.

The rain has continued to pour here in BC and I found myself on the rollers one day of training. The other days have been good though. On Tuesday I was still pretty cooked so I decided to take the TT bike out for a spin and check out the nice areas of this Port Moody place. It was good to see something other than the window leading into suburbia.

I also took the ride to work on my TT position a little bit. I find it hard to get into a form on the bike where I am 'narrow'. I feel they don't make TT bars wide enough for my damn Maritime lumberjack/coal-mining/fishing shoulders. I guess I'll never be a tri-geek.


This time last year I was around to watch the Tour de PEI. In retrospect it would have been a good idea to fly back and see the race again for a good mental break. Last year there was free beer for all VIP's(which most of the crew took advantage of in a surly fashion). I hear that costed the race upwards of $15 000, so needless to say the beer wasn't free this year. Maybe it was a good year to miss. Either way its odd seeing pics of a full on UCI race in your hometown.

With that I'm off to bed. The team and I head down to the US tomorrow for the Methow Valley Stage race. Next week I'm hoping ot have a self imposed training camp somewhere in BC before heading to Banff for the.....Tour De Banff.

From there its off to the Que...I think?

WTF

I haven't been writing a lot because I haven't been doing anything exciting. It rained all week last week which left the riding indoors on the rollers. C'mon really its June...give me a break. Along with the rain its been cold as well. Its a mood killer that's for sure.

In other news I decided to enter a BC Cup MTB race the night before and managed to take the win?! First win of the year is on a mountain bike..hah. It was honestly my 4th ride on the riggus all year(check the previous postings..not a lot of MTB). I really didn't take it seriously and jokingly registered under the name Turd Ferguson(no joke...SNL Skit). It turns out BC Cups are more legit than I thought, and it led to a huge hoop-la when I tried to pick up my race package. They accused me of having a fake UCI licence(Ryan Taylor being the name on it) and called me Mr. Ferguson. Some of the volunteers got it and laughed..so it was worth it.

The trail was super tech, and honestly was probably the fastest MTB race I've ever done. There was almost no room to pass and the racers order pretty much stayed the same from when we went into the woods from the start lap. It stayed very tight until the last lap.From there guys started to get tired and chose my passing sections wisely I guess. It managed to pay off as I took the win in a sprint. No slouch crowd either the current BC Cup leader was there along with a couple other super fast guys. Just picked good lines I guess.

I also managed to see Andrew Brown and some of my Van Isle friends again, which is always good. I'm hoping to make it over to see them soon. MTB races are so much more fun than roadie races.

Anyway. So the real business came the next day in the form of 130km BC Cup road race. I was hoping for the double win, but 80km in, the effort from the day before caught up with me and I was definitely feeling it in the 'ol legs. I ended up 17th(of 60-75?) which wasn't bad, but the team and I were hoping for better.

Anyway, Life is up in the air for me. I have to make some decisions on what is going to happen in the next couple weeks. I also have to work on getting a fishing licence as well.

My life really isn't that interesting. I don't know why I have a blog. Honestly the most exciting thing that will probably happen to me today is that I had eggs instead of Oatmeal for breakfast. 3rd time I've had eggs since January. Exciting huh?

Its raining again, which means the weekly Vancouver Crit will most likely be cancelled. Right now I'm trying to decide if i want to go out for a mountain bike ride or just sit on the couch and read the new book before work. Decisions Decisions.

BC Provincial Championships were last weekend and a full crew of Symmetrics guys were there including current National Champ Cam, Strong man Svein Tuft, and Christian(U23 Nat champ)

They showed the difference between a good Bc Team, and being the highest ranked team in NA. The Symmetrics boys took all top 5 spots.

I knew Sven would go like 3rd or 4th lap. So sure enough they launched the attacks then. I got in 1...got pulled back...then another..got pulled back...then another attack 15 seconds later got pulled back.

By this time I was pretty cooked trying to follow Svein Tuft around, the difference is that both he and Cam attacked about 10 times in 5 km. Nothing seemed to stick.

When the hill came I was pretty winded and found myself in the 30's. It was then that another attack went down and I was too into the reserves to go with them, I was just holding on.

SO that was the race. They built up 5 minute gap. Most of the pack dropped off and only about 35 guys finished( of about 100? I'd say).

During the finial run into the finish line I nearly had 2 heart attacks as going into the 3rd-last corner Mr. Scott slid out on some gravel ahead of me going 50ish...he slid for about 5 inches but kept it up. Whoa, flashbacks of 2 weeks ago.

Then in the final 50m I was behind a GlottMan-Simpson guy, and we were going at it for the line when BAM his pedal came out at like 50km....another heart attack.

By this time I was ready for the finish and rolled in about 26th I think. Nothing great, but it was a tough race.

So not much to report. The team did well as our man Boris took 2nd in the Junior pack, and Sebastian was the only Cad 3 to finish in the main group of the Elites. He got his upgrade since dominating every race since February. Right-O.