(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.