Road Provincials

Fantastic day at the 2013 Road Provincials. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and the racers were revving. The day was simple: start, go hard, see what happens and try to win. This is my approach to all road races. 

The race started off simply with an attack here and there. Nothing too major came until 2nd lap out of 8 on a 12km loop. Break away here and there, pull them back, go off, get pulled back; it was a regular day. Nearing the middle of the race 3 riders were able to get away. Seeing the wind was blowing and the climb on the lap was quite tough I had decided to let them go. Then another two riders went out to chase. It wasn't until half a lap later that I had decided to go after them. Taking two riders with me, who I also ended up sharing the podium with, we started our long trek up to the front. I believe it was a lap and a half until we made up the time to the lead group. There we decided to work and make our break stick. The next time split we got was 1 minute, 20 seconds. Things were looking up for us. Nearing the end of the race, however, I was getting nervous as Miles Eastwood of CHCH was sitting in and saving energy. On the last climb I set the pace and waited for Miles to make his move. When the move came I was ready. I sat on his wheel cresting the climb and let him pull in the wind. Rounding the last turn to the finish we found ourselves in a tail wind. This was perfect to attack! Kicking hard out of the turn I got a good gap. Slowly dying as I crested the final climb into the finish I was super happy it was over!

Provincial Champion! Woot!

Thanks to Team CDC and Barrie Cycling for all the support.

 

Mountain Bike Nationals

Nationals always marks an important part in anyone's year. Even though I had already been to CX nationals and road nationals this was the big one to me. Mountain bike nationals held at Hardwood Ski and Bike was where I would attempt to go for my third national champion jersey and my 4th national title. The course at Hardwood was excellently built. The venue was loaded. The people were there. Now all that was left to do was race!

In the week leading up to nationals my brother and I were with team Ontario. We stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast, had some excellent mentoring and had a great time with all the others athletes that attended! It was great. Unfortunately, this time around, Brendan Arnold of the OCA was not willing to place bets with us based on results (When I was at road nationals we made a bet that if I won a jersey he'd shave his head into a Mohawk. He wasn't keen to bet this time around). All week we worked on the course getting lines, trying the rocks and slaying coffee run. The intense heat was something that took some getting used to and required lots of hydration. Luckily for us juniors and cadets, we were racing at 9am so the heat wouldn't pose too much of an issue. 

On Thursday leading up the race, the national cross country eliminator was held. A very interesting course as the first section was quite technical and the last section was primarily fitness based. The strategy was to sit 2nd wheel the entire time and move on each round without having to work too hard. This was a great strategy as it allowed me to save energy and ride safe and smooth. In the quarter finals I missed my pedal 3 times off the start. This put me in last place. I thought to myself that this wasn't going to be good if I couldn't get up into second. Putting the pedal to the metal, and without sliding out on the hay, I fought my way back up.

Eliminators are so exciting to watch and ride as they are extremely fast pace and tight. Two inches in front of someone else and you can move them wherever they need to go - most of the time they go behind you.

 I had made it all the way to the finals. There I was met by fellow Barrie resident Mitch Bailey and two other Quebec riders; Léandre Bouchard being one of them. This racing was going to be intense. Off the start things were looking good. I passed Mitch in one of the technical pieces and was on Léandre's wheel. Going over the last Joyride jump Léandre slipped his pedal; I made my move. I got a little bit of a gap over Mitch. This was it, 4 turns, a drop, a log and a finishing straight and I'd be home free! However it didn't turn out that way... I slipped out on one of the turns, put my foot down...but quickly pulled the bike back underneath me and continued. And then it happened... I looked down and my chain had fallen off. Quick shift and I was able to pull it on without breaking anything. Now I was in third. I stayed in that position as I could not make up the distance between Mitch and I. I think 3rd, at the first ever national eliminator, as a junior is respectable. Fist pump to that!

So the eliminator was successful and it was fun! The cross country race was good too. Early morning start, cool weather and the recent rain helped out the course greatly. Off the start I had to work really hard to get a gap but I knew if I could get to coffee run first I could really get a gap. Well the plan was executed perfectly. I had a solid gap coming into the feedzone first lap. All I did then was try to make it grow. A few more seconds here and there until I hit 1.5 minute gap. Then I toned it down to ride safe and bring the jersey home. It was a successful race, no drama, the course was great but I did dab once... 

It was a fantastic day for the Disera household as little brother Quinton also won his race in cadet. Two national champions under the same roof - Flückiger brothers better watch their backs! 

Big thanks to:

Ontario Cycling Association for a great project

Angry Johnny's

Norco

Louis Garneau

And M&D Racing! 

Next steps will be the World Cup in Mont St. Anne. The next big focus is World Championships in South Africa! Going to be good! 

If you would like to support me in my endeavours I encourage you to please check out my website www.pwrper.com/peter and click on the donate button at the top. Any and all help is appreciated! 

Nationals Monsoon - Road Race & Crit

As I post this, my experience in the beautiful Lac Mégantic, I would like to express my condolences to all the wonderful people of Lac Mégantic. As this post is after the terrible train derailment that leveled the downtown.

This blog is about the Nationals Road Race and Criterium. 

Rain. That's an understatement. 

After the ITT the skies unleashed. Friday was the day to do road race recon. We decided that doing a full 55km lap was too much if it was to rain the entire time. Instead we drove out to the bottom of beautiful Lac Mégantic and rode the hills back. The sky was dark, but not yet raining when we left the safety of the vans. It didn't take long to get a little rain, but we managed to stay relatively dry. This however was only the case for recon day, because race day was a whole different ball game. 

After some strategic talking that night (very unusual for a mountain biker) it was time for bed. We knew we would be waking up to thunderstorms and maybe a teeny, weeny bit of rain...

Race day. Hummm sky dark, air damp, low ceiling - terrible day for flying - but I guess we could race bikes. As we lined up to race one might say, 'hey it might rain' or 'hey look at the wall of torrential downpour coming across the lake!'. Legitimately there was a wall of water. 

Well as you may have guessed it began to rain. The setting of the race and my personal nervousness was heightened. I don't wish to crash on the road, I don't believe it would be enjoyable. Within the first couple minutes of the race the usual happened. Break away here, attempt there; nothing was sticking. The Ontario team was to send a rider up the road. There were some solid attempts but Quebec was having non of it. They were going to bring everything back. As for myself, well I couldn't move to the front without an entourage of other riders, I couldn't move to the back without people staring nervously over their shoulders at me - you could say that I was marked. Very interesting contrast between road and mountain in that regards. You can be marked on a mountain bike, but you'll probably just beat everyone to the single track first. Road, yea don't try to go up the road, they don't like that.

Sorry I got off track. The weather, now pouring, with the occasional lightning bolt(s) in the distance progressively becoming more frequent. You could say it was intense. On one of the descents Mother Nature decided to unleash some marble sized rain drops. My face, lips, arms, legs were numb but that wasn't the worst part. The scariest thing happened to my on that descent. I hit a section of the road that was covered in water, deep water, and hydroplaned. It was scary. I was slowly being sucked off the road but managed to regain contact with the pavement. I wasn't the only one to experience this as there was lots of screaming when we got to the bottom.

I had tons of wonderful one-sided conversations with people about the weather, how they were feeling etc etc. For some strange reason talking, or being able to talk, was throwing people off. The French riders would look at me like I was an alien because I was chatting. What? No one else likes to talk? I guess not

Unfortunately there was a crash, well there was a couple but this one stood out because I saw Adam Jamieson flip over the bars. Adam is a neighbour and a good friend of mine and I've seen him go over the bars many times on a mountain bike. It was unfortunate that he broke his frame and could not finish the race. 

Nearing the end of the race the lead of the group consisted mainly of Quebec riders with some CHCH, Ontario, and one rider from Nova Scotia - who may I mention killed it! Awesome job dude. The strategies had been ditched, nothing had worked. It was Will Elliott, Jack Burke, Sean Mackinnon and myself left to defend Ontario. Sean slowly cracking, Jack consistently pulling and myself too marked to do anything, this one was for Will. With 25km to go Will would try to get away, but couldn't get it to stick. Even with his skillful tactics he needed someone else, but I couldn't do it. At 15km to go, right after Will had been caught again, I decided to take control. I jumped on the front and drilled it situating Will on my wheel. 42-46km/h was the poison forced onto everyone in the group. Sean would occasionally come up and give me some rest, but this was it, I was going to turn myself out and get Will to the finish. With about 2km to go it was hurting. No one had yet to counter my pace but on the final little riser before the descent into town I was overtaken. I wasn't yet ready to give up control so I brought Will and Jack to the other side of the road and paced them out. On the descent I was giving it. Oh man junior gears, just spinning so fast! With about 350m to go I was overtaken and boxed in. I couldn't get out to give Will a lead out, but somehow he was able to get out and got into the mix. The last turn, 200m before the finish, was gnarly. Off camber, two cross walks, two manhole covers - oh and it was raining! At this point I really didn't care because Will had made it into the mix and I was spent. Hitting the exit of the turn I stood to sprint and quickly found myself sideways. Remaining rubber side down I used my traction control to get myself safely across the line. 10th was earned on that rainy day. Will got 4th. 

Thanks to the OCA and all the guys on team Ontario! Everyone did awesome!  

The crit was that of a different nature. May I say in my favour as well as in our control? 

Criteriums are something I am not familiar with. Well I guess that's not entirely true as they are sort of like cross races on the road. Anywho, Adam Jamieson and I decided it was our day. Starting off as a beautiful day, the road was dry (Thank You!) and the legs felt good. I started at the back and had to beat my way up to the front of the race. This took almost 8 laps until I felt comfortable. It was great shredding turns and going fast. Very rarely did I come out of my junior gears. Sean Mackinnon was up the road mid way through the race. Unfortunately Sean was being reeled in. As Sean was being caught Adam pulled up beside me and told me to go. I trust the Chief so I decided to do it. We got away effortlessly through the turns. This was at 18 laps to go...out of 36. We dangled. And dangled. Big shout out to the CHCH and Ontario boys that were chasing down people trying to bridge. There was one rider that got too close for comfort at 3 laps to go. He was sitting about 30 feet off my wheel and the pack was about 50 feet behind him. I may, or may not, have screamed at Adam to go faster. It was close! Last lap Adam was totally wrecked. Like Statefarm I decided to be a good neighbour and bring him in. Pulling the whole last lap and gaping Chief on the last turn we rolled in. Good times. Painful times.

Thank you Centurion Development Canada for their support, the OCA and the team. Fantastic experience and exposure to the road scene. It was fun! 

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!

West Coast

The Golden State.
Thank you to the Ontario Cycling Association for a wonderful time down in Oxnard, California. What a sweet time it was!

LA - What Up?!

After an insane travel day - 22 hours - we finally arrived. We didn't even unpack, just straight to bed. The next morning we built the bikes and were off to the races!
On the first couple days we rode along the Pacific Coast Highway and into some of the smaller mountains. California is a beautiful state. Riding along the ocean was breath taking.
On day three of riding we ramped it up a little. Gibraltar was the weapon of choice: a massive climb, situated just in from the coast and venerable to all of the ocean winds. It was a gnarly time. At the top of Gibraltar, after racing up it, we continued to climb a little. After hitting snow at 3600 feet it was time to descend. A tight, windy, steep descent was what awaited us. It was fantastic! It wouldn't have been terrible for the ride to have ended there, but this was not the case. It just so happened that i got into the group with some of the fast U23s, we held 45-55km/h going down the PCH for about 45 minutes. It was ridiculous. Just a fantastic time!
The rest of the camp included more mountain passes, riding through Malibu (seeing some sick cars), battling the head winds in the strawberry fields, and some attempted surfing. I celebrated my birthday while I was in California. Pretty cool to turn 18 in such a cool place. The team organized a Throwback Thursday themed party, equipped with cakes and thrift shop attire. I got an amazing suit out of it.
California is definitely one of my favourite places now. Living on the ocean, riding in the mountains and chilling with movie stars is a lifestyle I could adapt to easily. I look forward to making many more trips there in the future.

Cyclo-Cross World Championships - the Race

The 2013 Cyclo-Cross World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky started off a bit interesting. With tornado warnings early in the week, hot weather turning to snow, and then potential flooding the races were bumped up to Saturday. This meaning that all four of the categories would race on Saturday. Not a huge deal for us juniors seeing our start just became an hour or so earlier.

On the morning of the race, it was cold obviously, and there was a fresh dusting of snow on the ground. This was going to make for an interesting seeing just two days before everything had been a mud pit. Meaning that all of the mud and muddy ruts would have become frozen bobsled tracks. Almost too Canadian for comfort...

The course was open for training for an hour before our start. The boys and I headed out for a lap or two before retreating to the heated trailer to jump on the trainers. After a good warm up it was time to make our way to the start boxes. The start was the part of the race that I was most worried about. It was going to be violent, fast and potentially deadly. I was sketching out a bit, not going to lie.

Rolling up to the line I was the 20th call up. Quickly forcing my way up a bit towards the front and I became second row. This was going to be a good race, I felt good, confident, but insanely nervous. When the light turned green, we were off!
Sprint, sprint - BREAK! (As buddy here almost takes you out flying across in front of you) Around the first turn and down the straight, settling into single file, picking them off one by one. Over the first sand pit, avoid the cartwheeling American. Up the stairs on the flyover, run over the German that tripped. Up the switchback, sliding on the icy ground. Battle for your spot, don't give in, don't give up a position - this is worlds!

The first three laps or so were successful, moving my way up from 21st to 12th. Then it started to slip away a bit on me. A position here, a slip there and I found myself in 17th. Battling with two British guys where I found myself in some tough competition. Between the screaming back muscles and the phlegm ridden breaths I held it, all the way until the icy off camber section. I slide out and they were quick to go past. For the last lap I chased and chased but couldn't pull them in. 19th is the position in which I finished. 19th in the world.

Good day at the office.