There are many good reasons for a bunch of Canadians to be found in Phoenix, Arizona in February. After two years of little to no travel, neck deep into a seemingly endless grey west coast winter, a trip south was overdue. But the best reason of all to crowd into a house in the desert with eleven of your closest friends is for a bike race
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Road
In late June I headed off to California to get some solid training miles in the warm hills of Irvine and the surrounding areas. During the two weeks there, I was able to put some serious miles under my belt, as well as a couple of fiery group rides.
Cycling BC Provincials was set to be a great day for racing. With the smoke clearing out the night before, the weather was perfect for a fast day out. As Red Truck’s only junior athlete I had my work cut out for me
This past Sunday was the inaugural Tour de Concord, a criterium set in Metrotown in Burnaby. The event put on by Concord Pacific and Cycling BC brought big crowds, creating a great atmosphere to ride in. The course was fast and technical with lots of corners.
The last weekend of BC racing was set to be rowdy and rough with many of the local road racers showing up for some exciting gravel racing. Saturday's Rock the Ridge was a flat course with lots of rough gravel farm roads and loose dyke paths.
The inaugural Tour de Concord took place on a short, tight and technical 850 meter long course in the centre of Burnaby’s Metrotown. A tight right hander after the start/finish straight led onto a long back straight along Kingsway which proved to the best (and only) place to meaningfully move up before a highly technical series of corners ahead of the finish.
This past Sunday saw the return of the Provincial Championships in the Hatzic Valley. Thankfully the winds shifted, clearing the smoke out of the area, but making the undulating 18.5km loop hot and humid.
After a brief warm-up lap with the entire team, we were quite quickly off to the races. We had a neutral roll-out behind the moto until the top of the hill, but I don't think the driver realized how hard we were having to go.
While in the Windy City, Red Truck's Fiona Majendie took the opportunity to race the local Intelligentia Cup and flew the Canadian Red Truck jersey!
Our first team race since BC Superweek 2019 the Red Truck gang was excited to get back to bike racing, and the challenging dykes In Pitt Meadows at Jeremy's Roubiax was just the place to put our legs to the test.
If you have been around cycling for a little while you may have heard of the Tour de l'Abitibi, you may have even competed in it. The race is renowned for its super fast stages and 150 junior rider fields which hit the deck more than Tire Touch Timmy. I had the privilege to race on the Canadian national team for the event and with a really strong roster we were looking good for some results.
Wednesday the 19th of June marked stage 1 of the 2019 Tour de Beauce. Things kicked off with a hot one, also the longest stage of the week, 177km. We started in St. Georges riding 40km along some classic Quebec roads, undulating and with plenty of potholes. It was full gas for that first hour all the way out to the circuit.
I was reminded on Saturday of the truest high I feel when racing my bike. It’s not winning. It’s not speed. It’s going into the race as a team with a plan, and riding as one perfectly functional and dominant unit to execute the plan flawlessly. You feel important and most of all, you feel as though you are part of something bigger.
Following a disappointing performance at provincials, wherein a misjudgment of my abilities (in addition to catastrophic cramping) resulted in near disaster for the team, I quickly re-evaluated my goals, packed my bags, and headed south, determined to force my body into some semblance of form.
The Provincial time trail was a 40km course out in Fort Langley area, I’ve been on the podium several times at TT Provincials so I was looking to do well. It was an absolutely miserable day out there, so much rain made for a slippery course.
Jeremy's Roubaix is quite the contrast to the normal races that we attend for the year. It takes place on the on-and-off the gravel dyke paths in Maple Ridge BC. Our race was 100km, about 50km of that was on the gravel sections.
The team has been super busy over the past couple of weeks, and there is a lot to catch up on! For me, it has been two full weeks on the road, travelling and racing my bike. I am writing this as I fly home from Quebec, where I was just racing the Grande Prix Cycliste Gatineau with the National Team. But I won’t get ahead of myself, I will start at the beginning and hope to keep the read interesting and not overly lengthy (no promises).
The Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race was the last race of the Tour of Washington series, and the women’s team made it a goal to move Holly up to 2nd place in the overall points GC. I was excited to host the team at my house and take them on some Olympia roads the day prior to the race. It was a nice way to spin out the legs after experiencing the worst I-5 traffic on a Friday afternoon.
It’s 5:45 am in Wenatchee, Washington. I’m sure that somewhere people are waking to the sight of dew glistening on grass in the warm early morning sun of late spring accompanied by the sounds of peaceful birdsong. We, however, are awoken quite abruptly by a chorus of flipping tires, grunts, and death metal.
This weekend the team went to the Tour de Bloom in Wenatchee, Washington. The islanders got picked up from the 7am ferry and the road trip started from there. It was not long before we were stopped and outside of our vehicle at the border. The nexus cards this time didn’t help us save time because a few of the cards were inactivated. An hour later we were back in the van headed to the apple capitol of the world!