Bikes On Broadway 2012

Rolled down to Saskatoon with my buddy Shawn Ball to meet up with his parents & do the stage race.

Time Trial (8.20km ish):

I made 2 big errors in this time trial that placed me with a somewhat disappointing 7th place finish. The first mistake was taking out 3 or maybe 4 spacers in my front headset to make myself more aero. This was about a week prior to the race so I hadn't had any riding to help my body adapt to the new position. Also I didn't bring my trainer which was a fail because there was no place to warm up as the ITT started downtown Saskatoon. This resulted in my body not being warmed up enough for the short intense TT & the new positioning immediately caused glute cramping/hamstring cramping that I had to get to subside. Felt strong but couldn't get comfortable at all.

Road Race (96km):

The road race was controlled during the beginning lap by the 2nd place GC leaders teammates. Stephen Paiano was 2nd place GC & he is a beast on the bike. When he leans out more his power to weight ratio is going to be ridiculously dangerous. A few riders tried some surges about 10km in but nothing went clear. Mid way through the first lap 2 riders jumped & I went with them. One of them was a strong small punchy rider named Pedro & the other a Regina Junior. The Regina junior was gassed & Pedro was trying to recover so I pushed the pace sitting on the front trying to get us a gap. I knew that I would have to do majority of the work to make this break work but was fine with that. The pack wasn't comfortable letting us go as we were working reasonably well together so they reeled us in before the turn around. I was already at the front of the group at the turn around so I got up to speed & then put in a surge & was with two riders that wanted to go one of them being Pedro again I believe. Brett Person bridged to us & we had four riders trying to get away again. The pack brought us back within 1-2km & then the 1st place GC rider tried a counter attack but the peloton shut it down. Almost midway through the second lap my teammate Jack Vandyk got off the front with a few riders so I posted on the front to block/disrupt the chase. Just as we anticipated Pedalhead sent two riders to the front to reel in the breakaway. They spent 1-2km of effort on the front & reeled in the breakaway. I immediately launched a counter attack & heard Brett Person crushing the pedals behind me wanting to go. I eased up & we joined up to make a two man train. I kept pushing the pace & putting a lot of time on the front to increase our time gap before the turn around. We ended up with 30 seconds at the turn around & I was semi-believing we had a shot at staying away. I continued to push the pace to allow Brett to recover as he is normally a pack sprinter so this was way out of his comfort zone. What an animal to take the breakaway risk! We worked well together & the turn around beginning the 3rd lap we had 1 minute 20ish seconds on the peloton. I was somewhat relieved to see my teammate Jack on the front soft pedaling before the turn around so I knew they were being disrupted. We kept pushing the pace starting to fatigue but at the final turn around I was confident we could stay away. Brett was starting to fade so I kept shouting encouragement as I wasn't interested in putting any surges in & trying to go in solo. As we neared the line Brett told me to take the W & I thought that was more than fair based on the amount of work I did & our synergy together. We pounded fists for the gutsy effort & I rolled in for the uncontested victory.

Criterium:

The breakaway put Brett & I into 1st & 2nd in GC by over a minute or so. I only had the lead by 4 seconds which made things interesting as he is a stronger sprinter than me. I tried to control the pace during majority of the crit & spent a lot of time at the front. Dave Holmes went down early in the race on a sketchy corner as his tubular came off the rim. I didn't enjoy seeing him go down as I know the crit was a focus for him. I went for the first prem & was pretty sure I got it but the results showed that I didn't? Maybe a small glitch perhaps. I saw Stephen contesting it to try & jump up a spot in GC to 3rd place but I was quite concerned about Brett finishing with the win & moving to 1st in GC so had to go for it. This gave me 9 seconds (so i thought with the prem) lead on Brett which made me feel a bit better but was still worried. There were time bonuses for 1st place (15 seconds) 2nd place (10 seconds) & 3rd place (5 seconds) so I needed to take another prem & podium in the crit if Brett won or finish second place if he took the win. Trying to win the crit in the final lap sprint is something I don't enjoy at all & would much rather fancy my chances at getting off the front 3-4 laps before the finish. I also had ambitions of keeping Jack in the peloton & reducing the surges at the front to not risk him getting gapped. He was riding strong mid-late race so I was no longer worried. I continued to line out the group & then put in some perpetual attacks out of the corners. Some gaps were created & then shut down but I continued to attack off the front or 4th wheel back trying to have the group let me roll off. It didn't happen which was okay & the final lap came with the usual strong surge. Sketchiness is unfortunately part of the final lap & some Saskatchewan Junior chose a terrible line in the most narrow corner & took himself out along with Brett Person which I wasn't happy about. I was worried about his sprint but still wanted to leave it out to me trying to stay on his wheel at the end. Brett still ended up 2nd in GC as a rider who crashes in the final lap gets pack time which was great to see. I took the overall victory & got my upgrade points for Cat 1/2. Jack also held on to 6th overall which was an awesome end to the weekend of racing.

Now I don't need any more points & can just focus on putting my best effort into cat 1/2 races to potentially achieve my next lofty goal. The next goal is to try & obtain some solid results that could maybe put me on the radar for a Trek Red Truck team or a H & R Block team. This is a 1-2 year goal but I will try my hardest to make it possible for the beginning of next season.

Coming up for racing is the Pigeon Lake Provincial Race, Banff Bike Fest if my body is ready & then Nationals in Montreal with my buddy Patrick Paquette! My goal at Nationals is to see if I can climb with the main peloton & perhaps hang on until the end of the 180km race. I don't have any expectations & am mainly interested in seeing how fast these guys go up hills & where my power to weight ratio needs to be in the future.

Velocity 2012

Well first ABA race of the season has come & gone!

Time Trial:

Felt fairly strong coming into this & was subconsciously thinking I had it in me for a solid ride. I think the first year I did this my time was 15 minutes & the second was 14:02 & I wanted to shatter this time. The wind wasn't strong this year & all the times were fast. My power meter was giving me issues all weekend & started during the TT which made things interesting. I was going very hard and the watts were reading zone 1 readings so I knew it was not correct & just paid attention to getting my lap speed up. Ended up with a time of 13:10 according to zone 4 but i stopped my garmin at 12:58 & thought I would be right around there. Anyhow no biggie I ended up 3rd which was cool.


Road Race (5 laps 112km): The road race started out super slow some small attacks going here and there. Top Gear & RMCC came to play & posted riders on the front of the group & then launched riders out & blocked/slowed the peloton to let the riders go clear. A few other surges happened but nothing was serious until the 2nd lap when a RMCC guy went clear & Craig Fraser from Top Gear bridged to him. Top Gear then had about 5 riders posted at the front blocking everything & slowing the group down to a casual training ride. While 2 guys went up the road threatening my 3rd place GC I didn't see 1st & 2nd really showing any concern about losing GC podium placings??? It was clear to me that this wasn't good as there was no way the peloton was gonna bring the group back as control wasn't being taken away from the teams representing the Breakaway. I decided to jump part way into the second lap & went up about 50 meters and did some tempo spinning but not really attacking trying to see if I could draw out a few riders surely thinking someone wanted to come along. Waiting... waiting. looking back... looking back.. fuck it i'm going.. I quickly put some serious time into the group & was making headway to the 2 leaders. I chased & suffered in a way I haven't felt before where you know your the only guy that can bring the breakaway back. Got it down to about 30 seconds & a truck pulled up to me & said I had over 2-1/2 minutes on the peloton keep going! By this time I had already been away for two laps on my own & was getting close to being in the hurt locker. I kept eating & drinking trying to keep the tempo up hoping the breakaway would ease up or a lull would happen somewhere. Well it didn't & approx 40+km of solo riding to try & bridge I was brought back for part two of suffering. Any rider knows that once you put in a sustained effort in a race & tax your reserves it is an absolute battle to hang on to the peloton & that held a true as ever. My glutes were in a world of hurt but my cardiovascular system was actually feeling really good still which is awesome I think. I was stretching trying to avoid complete locking up of the legs to hang in the peloton & managed to stay in with a same time finish to remain 5th place in GC. The breakaway ended up staying away & the two riders mixed up the gc placings which was expected.


Crit: When you hop on the trainer to warm up & your legs are tired you know its going to be a hard day. The Crit started out very fast with strong surges into the wind & before the technical corners. I had to play it disciplined as my legs were no where near 100%. The group got shredded to about 11 guys & I tucked in behind whatever wheel I could find until the last lap. Well bell lap came & I thought all this disciplined wheel sucking & no off the front attacking would pay off in the end. I jumped starting the bell lap & the light switch to my legs was still off just like it was at the beginning. Let's just say my legs put me into my place as my cardio system wanted to go but the legs said not today jevro you kicked the shit out of us yesterday.

I think I ended up 5th or 6th on GC depending how things get sorted out as me & Eric Johnstone are tied in time. I came here not with certain point or placing expectations but to race smart & race to my potential. I took a calculated gamble in the Road Race as I had confidence I could bridge to the leaders when I had the gap. If I had bridged the entire weekend may have played out differently but that's how she goes. Shoulda, coulda, didn't...


Congrats to Craig Fraser for a podium today was good to see a great guy do well in a stage race.


A huge congrats goes out to my cat 5 teammates Evan Bayer & Rob Leishman who managed to both podium (Evan 1st Rob 3rd (maybe 4th?) in GC!! They are relatively new to racing & have already accumulated enough points to get into Cat 4 which is great! With some coaching from Jack & Ashley about more tactical awareness they will be a force to reckon with in Cat 4 & maybe even cat 3 this year!.

Back From the Desert

Well back to Calgary & realizing this isn't anything close to the ideal climate for an aspiring cyclist. Now that I think about it the only thing keeping me from moving to Victoria for at least half of the year is the business. I am thoroughly enjoying growing the business & endeavor to get it to the self sustaining level of current business & progressive growth. When growing a business as this is the first of more I hope to build, realizing the evolutions of a business are crucial. The very first step for me with creating the business was to see it as an outsider. Approach every decision made for that business as a decision that doesn't require your full involvement. This isn't an easy task at all as most start up businesses you see yourself performing as much of the labor as possible wondering how on earth you can let go of your grip on all aspects of the business. Other steps after that are of course hiring the very best staff possible while you take on your initial growth as a business. Acquiring new business & maintaining existing clients is the next evolution for us. Social media avenues we implemented last year have been incredibly successful for us but we need to stay on top of the curve & remain competitive. We will be implementing some larger budget/volume advertising techniques that integrate with social media with goals of achieving a larger future market share in the next few years. This is a very exciting business to continue building & applying equal amounts of energy to Cycling & the business is a constant balancing act. Futuristically speaking We hope to soon hire a sharp sales representative that can look after all avenues of future business growth with the focus being Builder/Commercial all while maintaining existing customer relationships. I spent some time in Palm Springs with a fellow I nicknamed Sandtani. Sandy & I put in some solid consistent riding racking up the volume & building a great friendship. We did a few group rides down in the desert & I felt more than comfortable mixing it up with the A group each time. Was great to get some pre season race simulation in my legs. After a week off back home that was much required from all the mileage I am ready for action at tonight's spin class with the coach. I'm excited to see how the body feels & decide whether I can apply the gas or back off of the pedal. The nice part is I am becoming smarter & more competent with nutrition specifically post workout, recovery (active or complete) & listening to my body for cumulative fatigue. It sounds lame but your body does actually give you the most subtle signs that fatigue is current & burnout is imminent. It's whether we are too proud or overconfident to listen to the advice the body has to offer. I found that i need to back off the gas pedal when the body & mind are tired simultaneously. This gives clear signs that your adrenals are somewhat depleted & cumulative fatigue is too high & it's time to back off. How long to back off is the next learning curve for me i'm trying to decipher. We will see how it goes. Also wanted to send a shout out to Chris Hooper was good to ride with ya in the desert congrats again on Hoops Junior! Until then back to the indoor trainer & seeing how another training camp can fit into the schedule. Happy Training. Jevro

Bikin & Hikin

Time for a blog update in the off season. Been pretty steady as she goes for riding & the business. Was able to sneak away to Maui for a couple weeks at the End of November with my buddy Patrick. Patty was great to ride with on the trip as we had quite similar strengths although longer climbs he definitely had the advantage. Every time I climb it seems to be becoming more and more enjoyable to do which could be a good thing for racing. We had some great rides from part of the way to Hana, the West Maui loop, climbing Haleakala a couple times which had it's highlights. We were able to run into Ryder Hesjedal, Rob Britton & Tyler Farrar on the climb up & at the top which was a highlight of the trip for sure. It would be great to have a place in Maui one day near Paia which is at the base of Haleakala. I would even consider getting a place in Makawao or Haiku which are part way up the hill. All in all a great trip.

Being back home the birdman made the executive decision to come back to his home nest in Calgary which I'm super stoked about. Training with him definitely encourages me to elevate my game continuously. Now I will be able to have some good sessions with coach VanDyk, Birdman & G-Force! Have already crushed some trainer sessions at the Talisman & am looking forward to laying more base miles indoors Jan-Feb.

Was able to get in my first hike which turned into a very fulfilling journey with J Sparling & N Hamilton which was awesome. Climbed up Mt Allen & had to grow a pair on a few sections but got er done & will be ready for another episode of epic hiking!

Had a solid week off & I'm now ready to focus on more base & the build into early season March racing in B.C if things line up

only CX race of the year

Decided to race the last CX race of the year on the Alberta circuit.

Figured I'd rock the hard tail. Wow that thing is fast but not as fast as cross bikes unfortunately. I will be doing some MTB races early next season with the main focus still being on Road.

Back to training in the off season & seeing how fit I can get!

I hope some of our Alberta boys crush other riders at Cross Nationals & get themselves on the podium!

Jevro

Off Season

Off season is upon us. For me that will mean working harder than I have in the past winter off season.

As cross season is about to start my energy levels are finally back to normal. Got a hard tail mountain bike that I have been rocking a lot in Fish creek. Good to get out & crush some miles without a dedicated training regime in place.

I won't be racing any cross this year as I want to re-start my training program at the beginning of October. Laying a E1/E2 base from October-January I think will really set things up when intensity starts in February.

Had a great chat with the coach for off season plans & 2012 goals to try our best to achieve.

Looking forward to putting my head down & starting up a larger volume based program.

In the meantime it's riding the hard tail & trying to watch a few cyclocross races here & there.

End of the season

Since Devon I was on a big high feeling strong & confident going into Cat3. I had already achieved 2 of my 3 goals for the season which were winning a race & getting into Cat3. My body unfortunately wasn't ready for the 3rd loftiest goal of getting into 1/2 before the end of the season.

The plan after Devon was to go back into a build phase & be ready to throw down in Cat3. My body ended up in a serious hole that I couldn't get out of despite recovery & top ups on vitamins & rest. I was flat. No power to the engine room was left. I had raced more this season than I ever have yet in Triathlon/Cycling. Even though I was listening to my body & trying to be careful with recovery the intensity had caught up to me. I ended up taking chunks of training days off just to try & bring my body back to equilibrium again. This never really happened & I gave Tour De Bowness a chance to maybe salvage any form that was left for the season.

The road race was 132km in the Cochrane area & although the weather wasn't blistering hot it was enough to bonk my already flat form. On the beginning of the third lap I made a gutsy call to bridge to the 5 man breakaway up front & thought this might be the final selection. The peloton reintegrated shortly after & the race turned bad to ugly for me from there. I started to bonk & became dehydrated & the body started to cramp. Although consuming calories & fluid regularly throughout the race this obviously wasn't enough. I got dropped by the main group on the final hill with serious cramping & clawed my way back on the flats. Tried bridging to a group ahead of us & this ended up being my last match. Ended up reintegrating with the peloton & got popped again on the last hill leading to the finish.

The next day the hill climb went much the same followed by the crit the next day. No power, flat as a pancake & watching the race with no top end power left in the tank.

In summary I went from feeling strong & confident leading into Cat3 to feeling weak & vulnerable ending my season. Not a feeling I wanted however I hope this is a learning curve for the future.

I know I can be strong but have to recognize each athletes body responds differently to all types of intensity in different amounts. I have to recognize that my body was extra sensitive in the ladder part of my season & make future adjustments.

This was a year of accumulating points & next season will be better planned out with races being spaced more appropriately from each other.

I am excited for the off season & will be doing some running & swimming & just general relaxation. Heading to Kelowna with the girlfriend on the 19th to watch the ITU National triathlon championships & catchin up with Birdman.