Hang on, baby Jesus. (Canada Cup #2)

This is gonna get bumpy.

Had a pretty solid week of team building up in Baie St. Paul, which as I noticed this year, is actually a really beautiful place… when graced by the sun’s presence.

The team, looking' fly.

 Slipped in for my first top 5 in an Elite category Canada Cup (2^nd U23) on a fairly classic Baie St. Paul course. It was very buUuUuUmpy, with 2 major climbs and a couple solid sprinting sections… very few drinking sections. Tried out coach Mike’s advice in that I only carried one bottle for most of the race and just took a sip of another and tossed it in the feed zone, very good call for this course.

The head of the group at the start.
(From Facebook; Florence Gauthier)

 Went with the Top Fuel again this weekend after quite a bit of contemplation… eventually was convinced on the Top Fuel after some substantial peer pressure. Both the Superfly and the Top Fuel felt really great out there. Thanks to the Trek Canada team manager, Taylor Near, who brought both bikes for all of us all the way up here, was great to have the option.

The gaps were tight, everyone was riding super strong, and for the most part it was a very smooth race. The Brendan Arnold “inner bastard” was definitely released on the better part of the first lap out there, probably the most aggressive Canada Cup start I have every been a part of. Had a bit of a "run in" going into the last descent on the first lap, had a (super manly) hissy fit, was called "Adam" by a few riders as they went by while I was on the ground, then chased as hard as I could back into the race. Tight racing, great trip, super excited to get back on the home course.

Kudos to Miss Cayley Brooks of Trek Canada for taking the win in
U23, in another great race for her this season!

Oh ya, and that guy from Victoria who won that little race over Italy; that was pretty neat too I guess. (!!!!!!!!!!) Oh (baby), Canada!

It's so damn hot, milk was a bad choice. (Canada Cup #1)

As with tradition (or the past few years at least), the Tremblant Canada cup was wicked hot. Not the whole week leading in or anything, just right on schedule for the actual race day.

My sensations going up the climb.

Passing Cayley? Or Cayley catching me?!

The race started out FAST, once again in traditional Tremblant fashion. The dry conditions made the course ideal for race day.

Riding the bike like a wild bull...

All in all, it was a good first race with most of the Canadians, and "good sensations" are definitely on their way after getting the 3rd MTB race of the year under my belt.

Climbing felt great, descending was super comfortable... first time racing a dually, and the Top Fuel 9.9 was amazing for getting max recovery on the descent with very little extra weight for the climb. Great bike for the course no doubt.

Finished up top 10 at the end of the day in a terrifying "Norco Andrew sandwich". As much as splits were appreciated, "15 sec to Andrew" was both confusing, and terrifying with (Andrew) Lespy and (Andrew) Watson on either side of me for most of the race...

Now the team is just chillin in beautiful Baie St Paul, QC soaking up the Northern Quebec sun!

"Well, I think I'm pretty much better at everything" (Ontario Cup #2)

Had a great day yesterday at Chico Racing Ontario Cup 2 at Woodnewton. Right from the start, a train (of 3...) formed with Pete Glassford, Steven Noble and myself which stuck together for the first three laps of the race, but was slowly disintegrated to Pete and myself and finally just Pete due to his relentless accelerations on every piece of open trail. 

All in all it was a good day out there for the whole team with cbrooks taking the win in the elite women's race as well as Jon Barnes on the podium in Master Ex.

Good to be back home and racing with familiar faces, as well as passive aggressive joke arguments (refer to title...) with certain teammates. I'm going to have to step up my game so I can be better at at least one thing... Unfortunately after typing those two words I now have a certain pop song stuck in my head thanks to whatever radio station was playing at the race venue.

The train.

Lots of mothers out supporting on mother's day!

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, will a cyclist blog about it?

Back home from school now and right into the swing of training out from the home base again already... One time around the favourite Barrie-Creemore-Wasaga loop yesterday (racing back into a headwind trying to make it to an appointment... I didn't) and a nice 4 hour tour around Hardwood + Copeland with Coach Mike. Just remembered I have Strava... so maybe I'll start actually uploading again. Also, it looks like Peter Glassford and I need to step up our game... Creemore.

Helping out with the OCA Cadet development camp tomorrow out of Hardwood and then back again Sunday for some fun times at the demo day with the Trek guys to pick fights with other brands and such. Come check it out.

Excited for exams to be over (7 of them over about 3 weeks? = hell) and loving the life around here so far, although I wasn't excited to see these when I got back....

But hey, what was I going to be doing Monday to Friday until August... other than the whole training and travelling thing... a week and a half until Quebec bound again, a bit over a month until Nationals/ MSA and Windham world cups, and just finishing the final details for the Val d'Isere World cup in July. #GL ?

"boom".

I would have posted earlier, but I was just too damn high.

En route back to school in Montreal after a sprint trip through Mexico for the Pan Am championships way up in the sky.

All in all, the trip was a great experience with an awesome team in an area I have never raced before. The experience was there, but the result definitely was not....

I could put a bunch of post race excuses in here, but in reality it all probably could have been prevented with better planning and care. Lessons learned:

#1 Don't joke around about altitude, it hurts. Borrow a tent, do something to acclimatize for the love of god, and be careful doing it. (Unless you're South American/Live there/Are superman [McNeely])

#2 You may not drive a pick up truck in Mexico without something living in the back.

#3 Don't over do it going in, and do not make bad decisions the week before. - after having my car broken into the weekend before, followed by a trip to Kingston in the morning, ride and social gathering after driving back to Montreal the same day followed by a week with an exam, lecture, labs and prepping for the race WAS too much, and my body let me know that in a number of gross/unpleasant ways... Also found out I have an allergy to Azithromycin. How neat is that?!

#4 Don't mess around with tire pressure the day before the race (I am a junior at heart). Yes, I did get a flat going into the last lap just after the tech zone, but it was absolutely my junior selfs' fault - I was cornering too hard on low pressure and rolled the tire. Ugh.

#5 Smiling and nodding is NOT always the best thing to do when you don't understand somebody...

#6 No running water the morning of a race with all the racers in the same building = smelly situation.

That does look like a bunch of excuses, but all in all, respect to the rest of the North-North Amercians (Us+Canada) who killed it out there; especially McNeely(4th), Guthrie(5th) and Subaru-Trek's 'Finsty' (1st) who went by be like I was crab walking up the climb on the first lap, impressive ride.

Photos from Andréanne Pichette.

The team.

Smiling and nodding...

Didn't work. 

School bus.

Volcano? in the distance en route to the course.

View from the HP centre.

The hill people of the GKA

Did the annual trip to Kingston last weekend to meet the parents and pick up the goods that I'm bringing with me to the Pan Am Championships on April 7th in Puebla, Mexico.

The highlight of the pick up would have to be this years race hard tail, the Superfly Pro. Makes it feel like the roads around here aren't like a minefield!

Super-stealth, Superfly Pro looking ominous in my cave of
an apartment...

Made a stop by at QueensU while I was in the greater kingston area to go for a ride with their stacked cycling team. Got to ride with a few team O and team Canada riders on some surprisingly exciting roads for eastern Ontario, had a blast for sure.

Highlight of the ride: stopping for a 'pit stop' on the outskirts of Kingston and being approached by a man in all camo on an ATV that he rode all the way from 20 ft away. He just stared at me and said, "ya pissin?.... you better not be pissin" after a sufficient amount of awkward staring and weird noises that were supposed to be words coming out of my mouth he floored it out of there... and so did we.

Excited to get going on the season now that all the new team gear is here and I've got a feel for the race bike. Also, as a nice little surprise this week I found out there are team hats! Now I can look bro. Even in tights.

Dirty south (dirty dirty)

Back home from the famed Rocky Bottom OCA camp in South Carolina after a week of riding, emasculation and internet/cell service withdrawal (emasculation = the sprint day and push up/bottle hold competition...). In all seriousness it was once again an amazing camp (5th time down there maybe?), and it was great to see so many new, young faces getting into the Ontario development program that has become a very smooth running, motivating, supportive machine.

Had a few amazing rides through Highland/Cashiers, some Blue Ridge, and of course the traditional Caesar's head climb (done as an ITT this year instead of a testosteronefest) as well as Sassafras and Becky Mtn, with some other places in between. So many amazing rides down in that area it's hard to list...
[Pictures from Rocky Bottom at the bottom / Team Ontario]

Back home now and getting excited to pick up some new swag for the season on Saturday (including this years Superfly Pro ready to go for Pan Ams!).

Psyched to find out today that Trek Canada has picked up a new supporter who will be helping us out with essentials like cleaner, ProLink Lube and ProTowels and everything in between. If you haven't seen them before, check them out here!

There has also been a bunch of other exciting stuff happening during my internet hiatus, like former Trek Canada'er Emily Batty's podium finish at the RSA World Cup (!!!) where Adam Morka also competed, as well as Cayley and Pete at the Bonelli US cup, and some exciting new product on Cayley's bike. Im not entirely sure if that rant made sense... so you can check it out at the Trek Canada site if any of that tickles your fancy.

The group down at the 'Camp for the blind' this year

Carried by the strength of the other team members, our team
came second in the off-day olympics...
Everyone likes the underdog more anyways.

Getting ready to go out and climb Caesar's Head

The elderly of the campers. 

This is me sprinting...

Already behind... must be because I was the only one
not wearing a skin suit..........