Nationals Individual Time Trial

Wow! What an exciting experience! 

The scene, Lac Mégantic, Quebec, beautiful green rolling hills, fast ripping roads and French people. Good times for sure! 

The individual time trial was the first event. I do not own a time trial bike for the record, instead I borrowed one from Matthias Schmidt. I had nice little training ride three days before the race. This was my first time riding a TT bike. I rode it for the second time doing course recon. The course was a rolling, turny course with some elevation gain. I was extremely concerned about the climb that was in the course as for it was a solid kilometre or two. Besides that, to a mountain biker it just looked like road - not much to it.

Race day I was nervous for no apparent reason! I had never done a TT before. This was my third ride on a TT bike. This was going to be experience. However, I was still nervous. Lining up in the start gate with my borrowed beauty I took a few deep breaths and went for it. I was told to not go too hard off the start, keep it just chilled out for a while then crank it. There was a tail wind on the way out so I just ripped like mad. Beautiful junior gears allowed my to tuck down the climb. At the turn around I was ready to turn the gas on. Into the head wind and up hill. Cranking out some good watts I had caught my 2 minute man. Riding it like a mountain biker with some good digs on the climb and recovery on the decent. At the lap turn around I almost hit the fence - I like going fast around turns ok. On the way out for the second time it was flying time! I had to save a little for the way back though! At the turn around someone yelled to me that I was in the lead, my immediate thoughts: "you're lying." After thinking about it a little more I thought that maybe they were right as I just came from the tail wind section; then it hit me. What if I could hold it throughout the head wind section? Giver!!! And that's just what happened. Cooking up the climb and sprinting my face off (in an aero position) I came out with a time of 39:09 for 30km. It was a fantastic result as this was my first time and I astonished myself. Apparently I was in the lead. Only Adam Jamieson had to finish. When Adam came in for 4th place I knew I had done it! 

National Individual Time Trial Champion! 

Woot!

Shout out to Will 'Nub' Elliot and Jack 'ITT' Burke for their podium finishes! 

 

Pizza and Pasta - Val di Sole World Cup, Italy

What an adventure! 

Val di Sole Italy was the place this round. The purpose, World Cup XCO and XCE. 

First off let's set the scene. Picture great pine trees, grass and bush covered mountain with snow caps on top. After a long flight over to Milan Italy we got in the cars. It was a 5 hour drive up to where we were staying. A few stops at some Auto Grills on the way were as I was told 'necessary' we arrived. The venue was just off a two lane highway, in the middle of two mountains, about 2 hours away from any major cities. The town we were staying in was one I would categorize as a 'Classic European Town' with all the twisty roads, tight parking spots and beautiful old world architecture. The place we were staying in was a beautiful hotel. It was very nice. For example, the shower had an electronic display to control the radio, lights, fans, Bluetooth, and volume. It was so cool! Well, enough about the setting, on to the course!

The course in Val di Sole was hilly. I don't consider myself a climber, I survive but I wouldn't say I excel at it. Well, this course was a collaboration of 8 climbs per lap. It started off on a start loop, then up. 7 of the climbs were what I would call steps. There was very little down, if any, between these climbs. After the 7th climb (which had a section that my Garmin said hit 47%) it was party time.  I'm sure the view would've been very nice if I wasn't cross eyed from going so hard. Next up was the downhill. I heard people talking about how this was the longest World Cup downhill. It was some switchbacks with some drops. Then a gnarly chute. That section was fun! Then it shot you down the ski hill. Good good times going 50km/h down that. Then it was feed zone time, and up the last climb. The last climb was gnarly. Straight up! Woo! The whole lap was 4.18km and roughly 210m vertical. 

Race day was awesome. I love racing early because there is no time to think. The key is to not think, don't use your brain and you can't get nervous. Starting at 9:30am, 5 laps, #45. Ready? Go!

Pacing was key for this race and especially for me. I did not want to blow up. Chilling out on the start loop and letting everyone else just blow their brains out around me, I held strong, doing my thing. Come the 3rd lap I was hurting, but apparently not as much as other people as I was able to make up some spots. Thanks to Head Coach Dan Proulx for keeping me calm and on track. 4th and 5th laps I gave it! Finishing just behind 6th and 7th place in 8th place. 8th at my first European World Cup! I was super pleased with that! 

Thank you to Team Canada and some awesome mechanics. 

Thank you to Norco, Louis Garneau and Angry Johnny/Emma!

And mostly all of my supporters! 

Check out the interview! http://youtu.be/iYO6zGi_1Rk

Next up is road nationals! Time to switch gears!