The Redlands Time Trial is a fast 11 km out and back. On the way out this course is a stepping climb with the toughest part of the climb in the last two kilometres, and it was a tricky one to pace for a number of reasons: rough roads, grinding climbs, and fast down hills.
I will be the first to say that having a positive attitude is essential in achieving goals, but after my season last year I also learned to balance that zest with realistic expectations.
In the wise words of my coach, biking is hard, try harder. This pretty much sums up the last couple of months of pre-race season perpetrations.
Last week my brother (Nigel) and teammate Kyle Buckosky started our trip home from Oxnard, California. We had had been renting a house with various other cyclists from BC, Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec for the last two months. It was so nice to get away from the rain and to be able to prepare for the upcoming season in a warm, sunny climate.
The season had been off to a good start down in California for me. With this being my first year as a U23 and first year racing with TRT I wanted to make sure I set my season up as best as possible.
80,000 screaming, drinking, and jeering fans. 80,000. Within my three months in Europe, I’ve been to a lot of big ‘cross races where spectators were lined shoulder to shoulder around the entire course, but this was at a whole new level.
Trek Red Truck Racing Team is pleased to announce their 2016 roster. Their high performance program is focused on developing young cyclists on and off the bike. TRT wants to build off of last year's successes which saw six team members race on the World Stage (World Juniors, World Championships, Pan Am Championships). Other 2015 highlights included taking multiple podiums at the Sea Otter Classic, National and Provincial championships and team captain, Denise Ramsden, winning the prestigious women’s Gastown Grand Prix. Just as importantly, TRT contributed over $5,000 in scholarships to team riders pursuing post-secondary education.
With thousands of eager Winnipeg fans cheering them on and thousands more watching online, Red Truck - Garneau’s Raphael Gagne stormed to victory and a new national title over Geoff Kabush this past week at the Canadian National Championships.
Red Truck – Garneau p/b Easton Cyclocross Team becomes Canada’s most high-caliber cyclocross team and one of the top teams in North America.
Once at the race it’s always fun finding the right street to drive down to get to team alley. Of course we got this horribly wrong, pleading with the officials to move barriers as we were stuck on a street dead ending onto the crit course. With the Cat 3 race starting only the ninja-esques back up skills of Geordie saved us. We show parked the van and set up with time to spare.
Sunday morning at 7:30, usually the last thing I'd be up early inflating my tires for is suffering for 30 minutes straight up a mountain. In August every year though, local club Glotman Simpson Cycling puts on a fundraising challenge race, The Cypress Hillclimb Challenge, to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer Research. So last week Craig and I found ourselves up while the air was still cool suiting up to head up the mountain.
Racing BC Superweek is always a highlight of any BC racer's year. Racing with giant crowds in your hometown areas is amazing, having almost the entire Vancouver cycling community out to watch these big crits makes you feel the weight BC and Vancouver racing carries, and getting to throw ourselves in with the 'Big Boys' of North American crit and road racing is a chance to show off our sponsors and ourselves as athletes. That being said, it goes without saying that Superweek is a showcase for our team.
Gastown Grand Prix is arguably the marquee event of BC Superweek. All the other races are awesome – but Gastown has the biggest crowds, the biggest field, and the biggest prize purse. For us at Trek-Red Truck Racing, it also has the biggest sponsor turn out, giving us a great opportunity to show off our racing skills in front of those that support us.
Race reports often seem to contain a lot of "rah rah, go team!" mentality and miss out on the nuances that make cycling the beautiful sport that it is. We sometime joke that to win a bike race you just need to push on the pedals harder than everyone else. There's an element of truth in that, but it captures only a tiny essence of the complex mixture of attributes needed to be a good criterium racer.
The 2015 Pan American Games were my first ever international games. They wrapped up this past Sunday in Toronto and I managed to come away with a gold and bronze. My main focus for the games and why I was selected to the Pan Am team was the team pursuit on the track. We knew going into the event that the Americans, with a revamped team, would probably be our biggest threat and come out with a good ride to put pressure on us.
A few years ago, the idea of Ironman was hatched on the US Xterra Pro Series Circuit with my good friend Danelle Kabush. As we both are born in 1975, I suggested we do something special on our 40th year on the planet. I remember saying, "Let's go do that Ironman race in Kona". She laughed.
"Uh, Brandi, you have to qualify for that race."
The last race in the Tour de Delta is the UCI road race around the suburbs of Tsawassen. This year the course had changed, leaving a few parties confused, but ended up making it more exciting for the spectators as they were able to see the racers pass by the start/finish twice a lap.
Gastown is the biggest race of the year for the Trek - Red Truck team sponsors, and is a key event for most of the riders, allowing them to showcase their sport in front of a hometown crowd of friends, family, and sponsors.
If you follow this blog at all, you may have read previously that fellow TRT-er Leah Guloien and I came up with the brilliant idea of doing the Leadville 100 MTB race this year. At the same time that we were making these good decisions back in January, I also decided that it would be a good idea to register for Test of Metal – why not do at least two mountain bike races before Leadville right?
I came into this season with a few goals on my list of races this year. The provincial road race being one of particular importance to me. Really though this race was a carry on of my targets from last year.