Nationals in Lac Megantic

I decided to race Nationals in Quebec this year which was probably a year or 2 premature based on my fitness level.

Nonetheless me & my buddy Patrick talked about doing it way back in Mauii late in 2011.

The learning experience we could pull away would predictably be very humbling since your racing the best in the country.

The race was 180km including 7 laps of Mt Morne near Lac Megantic. This was about a 2km hill that was very steep. A definite separation point for anyone who had the legs vs the guys who didn't. Being only a week out from Banff i was a bit concerned about fatigue but had confidence I could at least race with the local cat 2 Alberta boys in a stage race.

Sure enough the race didn't disappoint. All the big boys were there except Ryder himself. Meier, Tuft, Britton, Sparling, Hamilton, Routley, Bell, Barry, David V with Europcar, Dominique Rollin with FDJ. Among these riders were other incredibly talented National level riders that definitely made the main peloton feel a bit inadequate for sure.

The race started in downtown Lac Megantic & a "neutral" roll out to the start was the plan. Torrential rain shot down from the sky as soon as the race started. It was difficult to see in front of you & braking was compromised immediately which made things sketchy. Any of the riders that started in the back wanting to get to the front did so by hopping curbs in the neutral area during the rain which made things lol uneasy lets say. Rolling over a few railroad tracks caused a few crashes in the neutral area.

Once the peloton made it to the start area relatively unscathed the neutral car blasted off and the race was on. The speed was holy shit fast on the flats given the reduced visibility from the rain which I expected it to be. What I didn't know was we were going 69.9km/hr on a slight decline by no means an actual downhill. I was in my 53x11 spinning out trying to move up on Rollins wheel to the front 1/3rd of the pack.

When we hit one of the last big ass rollers I went from the front 1/3rd of the pack leading into it all the way to getting spit out the back getting dropped. In absolute shock & frustration with a feeling similar to Pigeon Lake left me with questioning all kinds of things. Why the f$ck am I here, why did I come, Jevon at 170ish pounds your fat compared to these riders, not strong enough blah blah blah. Mind Games.

I trooped it out for 2 laps of the mt morne section on my own trying to catch any riders that were dropped. All of the guys that were dropped ahead of me had already pulled out by the feed station at their team cars which wasn't surprising. I had come so far to try my best to keep going & maybe not get lapped. I inevitably knew I was going to be lapped within the last 5 laps but I wanted to try to get at least 100km in before i was passed by the breakaway group. Passing the feedstation I could sense guys that had already pulled out were wondering wtf I was still in the race. I had obviously no chance of catching the peloton & maybe they thought I was embarrassing myself. I didn't really give a shit because they elected to pull out. I understand a lot of these guys race way more than I do & know when to pull the plug & rest up for the next race. I flew down here & wanted to race vs the best in the country so I was gonna go as far as possible to try & finish whether it be lapped with a DNF or maybe not lapped with an OTL time. At least I could try to get a good workout in. Well that was short lived because my rear went flat before I could start the 3rd lap of Mt morne. Pulled to the side of the road & became a spectator. About 10 minutes went by & I saw the breakaway group blaze past with Britton crushing it. That guy rode so hard & should of won the race. Too bad things didn't play out for him as he raced the best in my eyes. That gave me the sense that I could of got maybe 2-4 more laps in but all is history. Congrats to the winner Ryan Roth with Spidertech & to Michael Barry of team Sky for a second place finish even after his very bad crash at Quatar.

Watching strong local riders from H&R, Trek Red Truck & Garneau get shelled was definitely an eye opening experience. I guess the lesson is there's always a bigger fish. If your the biggest fish it's probably a small pond.

Since getting back home I haven't done anything in a designated regime at all. I have been doing some running & swimming as well as light biking trying to wrap my head around what is required to be with those guys. All in all I was able to win a Cat 3 stage race & get into Cat 1/2 this year & race some big races & gain valuable lessons that I will become stronger from. The bottom line is I need to be stronger & lighter than I am now. I may be back next year depending on where my fitness is at but at least I now have an understanding of what it takes to stick with the main group. I'm gonna finish the season off with racing a fun hill climb in Golden with my teammate Evan Bayer & then perhaps some of the Tour De Bowness stage race.

I want to congratulate my buddy Patrick Paquette on finishing his first debut at Nationals. Patty will be back & more dangerous in the next few years & the fitter he gets the more people need to watch out that's for sure.

A huge congrats goes out to my teammate Evan Bayer again for destroying the cat 3 field at RMCC stage race in Canmore & earning his Cat 2 upgrade in only one season. I don't know many riders who just started road biking that can do that so cudos to him.