Cross Country Re-cap:
Hot day out there, like 26 degrees and we now start at 2:30 pm as Pro's this year. Peak heat of the day. Also the wind was blowing at about 50 kp/h, which just so happend to be a headwind up the climbs..I got called up in 75th or something like that. There were 95ish starters on the line. From the gun it was fast and furious through a little 700 m start loops, which actually made things a little more crazy then a start loop is supposed to do, people were just dive-bombing through the corners. Turned out good for me, as I was able to stay upright on the bike and gain some places. Felt bad for all the people that went down in the beginning. Then into the climbs we went, with the major climb of the day hitting almost 30% in some sections, we named this climb the big bastard. As it was a bastard to climb. Maintained my position up the climb, maybe gained and lost a couple spots, so it all evened out. I was saying the day before the race I am going to get off my bike and run past a ton of people on the climb, but of course that's all talk and once your racing your legs are just dying in that section, so that was out of the question. I just kept it going good and hard and tried to not get to paranoid about being so far back and just work my way through starting lap two when the race spread apart. I worked hard for a lap and half to move through the field and it played out that it was too hard of an effort for this early season, and I just started to fall apart and get slower and slower after that. If you watch the womens race re-cap at
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236820-us-pro-xct-1-fontana/322299-pro-womens-xc-us-pro-xct-1-fontana-ca
I can personally see that Lene Byberg is climbing faster than I was during my last 3 laps. So pretty much that is the problem right there...I think everything added together to make for not such a great showing last weekend. Which is life, I have years ahead of me to make this weekend not even exsist, racing wise of course. It`s actually pretty funny looking back and watching the womens ride the hills twice as fast as me, not be sexest or anything of course. In the end I believe I ended up 43rd. Just out of getting valuable UCI points! I quickly grabbed my delicious bologna and cheese sandwich and headed out for my cool down with the rest of the Canadian clan. We then headed back to the hotel and jumped in the cold pool with are chamois still on and all. Back to the hotel for a stretch and foam roller session. Then we put the legs up and had some special inter-web time. Here is the men's race:
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236820-us-pro-xct-1-fontana/322252-pro-mens-xc-us-pro-xct-1-fontana-ca
Short Track Re-cap:
So today I woke up feeling good and super phsyched up for the short track race at 3:15 pm. I was thinking ok, first race is out of the legs and lots of time I feel great my second day of racing. So oh dang I was ready for rip it up today. Started out the day with our regular pre-race meal a la hotels free continental breakfast. Which consisted of coffee, fruit, waffle with peanut butter, bananna, yogurt and syrup.
With a little big of scrambled eggs on the side. We suited up in a maple leaf jerseys and our "Race Clean OWN YOUR VICTORY" socks and arm bands. Jumped on my Rocky Mountain Vertex Team RSL and opened up one of my DR Vie Go bars, munched that and I was set to race! We rode 40 min to the race course to get a good warm up in, needed to really open up the legs. Got to the course and laid under a tree for a bit and tried to cool down before we start our efforts in warm up. Was laying there looking at "In and Out Burger" they had a stand set up and gave every racer a free burger. So I had my ticket in my back pocket because the first thing I was going to do after the race was get my burg. Went out and did our warm up on the course, which was a 1.5-2 min course which a 15 sec little climb. The short track races are 15 min plus 1 lap, which makes it even faster out there and more spectator friendly. The Canadian Cycling Association was trying a new pre-race cooling technique. Which consisted of us putting out hands in a cold ice cubed and water filled bag so cool our hands and try to cool the blood while is circulated through our bodies. Definitely worked well, as I was getting shivers before the race in L.A.'s 28 degrees. Had a way better call up today, no clue why but I wasn't about to ask. Off we went and the start went pretty well as I gained a bunch of places and seemed to be in the top 25 and hopefully still going to pass some more people. Things were going well until about half way through the race I dropped my chain off the big ring and of course it had to be the time when the chain doesn't nicely go back on it had to bounce around a bunch get a little stuck and then go back on. Definitely lost a few places, like 15 or so and then chased pretty hard for a lap and blew the energy I had left, it's that kind of race where you go just above your limit and if you push too hard to early you can't recover too well. Anywho it was a great learning curve this weekend, learning that guys in 40th place can climb dam fast, but the reason they're so far back is because technically they're not so great...So good experience weekend and now the first race is done and the season is on! Pretty excited about that.Oh our way back into L.A. we stopped by Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Blvd. and Had dinner on Hollywood Blvd.
Oh one more funny thing to add, on my trip home my flight from LA to Calgary was pretty late and once I landed in Calgary I had 15 min to get my bags, go through customs, then security and then board my next flight. And of course in these situations they're never easy. So I got off the plain and hussled to baggage claim, where there must have been a couple hundred people all in the same situation as me, with a flight to Toronto about to leave and flight to Frankfurt!!! Uh oh. I ran around looking for my bags and they were late coming out, but some how I managed to make up time by jumping to the front of the customs line with no one even asking because I came from the opposite side of where everyone was lined up. Got through that mess after being questioned. Then I had to wait in a line to drop my bags off,now 7 min until my plane was leaving, luckily the line was slow but the girl as the desk didn't even look at my papers, she just said "Run, if your going to get to your flight!" I liked her very much. While I was running around looking where to go I stopped and looked at the airport map and this young very attractive girl came up beside me because she saw me running and asked if I knew where I was going, if this was a normal day it would have been perfect chatting with her. But I had to say "Sorry I don't gotta run!" That sucked but it had to be done...I ran up the escalator that was coming down because the one going up was backed up with people. I ran all the way to the other end of the airport to my gate, I got there and lined was huge and all backed up. Then a guy came out and said "Everyone the security gates here and backed right up, if you head to the other side of the building to another gate you can go through that security where no one else is, then there is a bypass to get back to the gates here. I jumped the ropes and ran as fast as I could back across the building. Now only 3 min until my plane left. I got there and the line was big, apparently people had already be told the same thing. I went to the front of the line and asked everyone if I could budge to the front as my plane was now leaving in 2 min. There luckily let me do that. But there was some moron guy freaking out about his water and not wanting to dump it out. He was on a mission to get through with his water, finally security came and took him away. My stuff was already going through the scanner, I got the through the body scanner good. I was hoping that for the first time ever my bag would make it through without getting the extra search, and some how it did. I only took thing that wouldn't need extra searching on the way home. Which paid off. Now I had less then a minute to get to my plane. So I grabbed my bag, put it on, grabbed my laptap with one hand and my shoes with the hand, I had no time to put my shoes on or put my laptop in my bag. So I just started running and I ran all the way back across the airport and got to my gate literally 30 sec before they closed the gate. Unreal.
Here is some good videos of the races and pre and post race interviews:
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view/236820-us-pro-xct-1-fontana
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