We have to do this for how many days????

We arrived in Gruissan on the Wednesday before the race, a small touristy town on the Mediterranean. The weather was terrible – pouring rain, cold, and very damp. All the teams were staying in a trailer park for the first few days which was very entertaining, it was my first time experiencing trailer park living. The rain was disconcerting – the winding descents and small roads were going to be challenging enough without it being wet and cold.
The race productions officially kicked off on a very rainy and stormy Thursday (May 14th) with team presentations in Carcassonne. There were many speeches and each team was called up on to the stage – we were given cowboy hats which was good for some funny photos. It was nice to put a face to the names of the fast riders and of course to hear the accomplishments of the riders and teams that we would soon be sharing the road with. It was amazing to sit there and realize what we were about to be a part of. It doesn’t get much better – tomorrow we would start racing in one of the most prestigious stage race in women’s cycling. The winds were howling and the trailers were shaking all through the night before the race start – on the bright side the strong winds seemed to have blown the dark rain clouds away.
The tour got started with a short and fast 3.9 km prologue in Gruissan – an individual race against the clock that is spectator friendly and establishes a race leader to pull on the yellow leader’s jersey for the first real day of racing. There was much discussion by all the riders and staff about which equipment to use. Normally the big teams with the fancy bikes would pull out every piece of aerodynamic equipment for a time trial, but the winds were so strong and the gusts so unpredictable that it was difficult to know what could safely be ridden. Vince, our National team coach, made the call that no riders on our team would ride disc wheels – it was not worth risking being physically blown off the road. The ride to the race venue was scary – it was hard to stay upright on my time trial bike with my race wheels (a Zipp 404 front and 808 rear for those that are curious). A gust would hit and we’d be abruptly pushed several feet across the road. The excitement of the day continued for me when I crashed hard on my rollers while warming-up. I hit my knee on the headset as I tried to save myself from falling. So just in case the race wasn’t going to be hard enough, I was starting with one sore swollen and bruised knee that was painful to bend. The prologue started from a ramp and each rider had a lead moto in addition to their team car following with a spare bike. It was really cool! Usually the short and fast prologues are a good race for me because they require lots of power, but I didn’t have a good ride. I nearly crashed twice because of the winds and had a couple other close calls. It was a scary ride and I was a little shaken after – I had never before become that close to crashing in a time trial. Vince and Serge were in the follow car and they thought I was going down for sure on one of the corners, so I think they were pretty happy that I crossed the line without further incident. Our best rider was 32nd place and I was just happy not be last after my eventful ride! So it was home to ice my knee and get ready for the first real day of racing.
We woke up the next morning to a calm warm day – what a relief! Stage 1 was a 116.5 km race that would start and finish in Rieux-Minervois. With only one GPM (a system of classifying the hills), the pack stayed together for a sprint finish. My knee was very sore from my rollers incident, so although it would be the easiest of all the days, it was still a hard day. Our team leader Julie, blew her rear tubular at the base of the climb and luckily stayed upright...not so lucky for the 7 or 8 riders that crashed behind her. Moriah and I were called on the radios to stop and wait so we could help get Julie back to the group – our job was to wait until the team car changed her wheel and then help to get her back into the group. The wheel change took a very long time, because all of the cars were stuck behind the crash that had ensued from Julie’s tubular blowing, so our “easy” day was made a little tougher with the chasing to get back to the pack. Our sprinter got in the mix for the finish and did a great job to finish in the top 20.
Team time trial day! This was an exciting stage – it’s not very often that races have a team trial and for most of our team, it would be our first TTT experience. The course was a 27 km loop from Port La Nouvelle with a couple small climbs. We had done two practices as a team to determine the best order and get comfortable riding together in a time trial formation. One of the challenges in our group was that one of our riders didn’t have time trial equipment, so she wouldn’t have the same aerodynamic advantage as the others. I was the starter which was fun – I got to lead the team down the start stretch and into the first tight corner. We started out well, but going by the 10 km mark we started to lose two of our riders. The finishing time is determined by the 3rd rider to cross the line, so we needed to keep at least four riders together in case of a mechanical. Vince made the call from car for the two riders to sit on the back while four of us rotated through. At the bottom of the first climb we lost the two riders, so we were down to four. We had to keep the reins on Julie because she could have just ridden away from us all. That’s one of the fun challenges of the TTT – figuring how to get the most out of all the riders while getting to the finish as fast as possible. Julie took some longer pulls and we kept the pace on the climbs a little slower to help keep from losing any more riders. Having fewer riders to share the work made the time trial even tougher, but we gave a great effort. We finished 10th of the 19th teams and only 4 seconds back from 8th – not bad for our first TTT together against some very established teams.
As I write this race report it is becoming evident that I started to get tired after about 4 days. I’m having a hard time remembering what happened in the race – each day is a blur of waking up and eating until you couldn’t eat anymore, followed by afternoon racing to exhaustion. The racing was so aggressive – attacks would go from the gun and the speed during the ‘depart fictifs’ would often be 40 – 50 kms/hour. It became a game of seeing how long we could hang on before being blown off the back and forming a group with which you would ride to the finish fast enough to ensure that we made the time cut. The hardest stages came later in the week and the final day was no exception with 5 GPM’s and 2 sprints. The roads were amazing – beautiful scenery which sadly I was usually too tired to notice. The roads were often so narrow and winding that it was so difficult to move up in the pack. The gendarmes did a fantastic job of following the race – each day there were probably 20 + motos that would speed ahead to point out and whistle violently about upcoming obstacles with their little yellow flags.
On the morning of the second to last stage Ina came in to the lunch room and looked at the spread of food – the usual bland pasta, rice, baguettes, and pork – we were served so much pork – and stated that “it’s time to go home” in her German accent. Everyone laughed and you could feel that all of the riders and staff shared the same tired sentiment. I feel proud that I was able to finish the race, but I would love to be able to go back again and contribute more to a team performance. Unfortunately Julie, our GC rider, crashed out on stage 5 due to a very inopportune stopping of the photographer’s moto on a downhill roundabout. Thankfully, she didn’t break anything, but of course it was extremely disappointing for her not to be able to continue.
We had a fantastic support crew – we were well cared for and they always kept us laughing. Serge kept our bikes running smoothly and our Michelle kept our legs feeling as good as possible and made us the best race food ever – the team favorite was kiwi sandwiches on pain au lait...YUMMY! After a week of racing the thought eating more gels was not very appealing so it was always exciting to unwrap the small tinfoil surprises. It is simply amazing when you look around at the amount of time, energy, and volunteer power that goes into putting on a race like this. It makes you realize how deeply woven cycling is in European culture. Each day there would be many people out cheering in each small village through which we raced – it made me feel like we were part of something much greater than a bike race. What a trip and what a race. Now it’s time for some real recovery...or as much as I can fit in before the racing begins again on Saturday!

Finnito, Complete, Kaput, Done and Done...

I am back on Canadian soil! The tour finished on Sunday afternoon with a road stage in Limoux. The festivities wrapped up Sunday evening with a banquet awards hosted by the race organization for the racers and volunteers. It was long day - by the time we returned to the hotel and packed our bikes and bags it was after midnight. We were up at a painful 4 am to drive to Toulouse for our early flights back to Montreal. We had a very tight connection from Toulouse to Frankfurt, so unfortunately our bags didn’t make the trip with us. Hopefully our things will be delivered soon – or at least before the next race on Saturday.
We are staying at a chalet at the ski hill in Bromont for the next 10 days. The air is cool and it’s nice and quiet – a perfect place to recover for a few days before the Montreal World Cup. I don’t think I have ever been quite this tired – the race was so hard. It will take some time for the body and mind to process the experience. I am in the process of writing a race recap and I will post it up soon. We don’t have internet at the chalet, but I can check my emails etc. on my phone.

No World Cup for me...this time round.

Hi folks - I just wanted to let you know that I won't be racing tomorrow. I'm still not 100% and we decided that it would smarter to rest up in preparation for the 10 day Tour de L'Aude stage race that begins later next week. We also have a 7th rider with us right now, so it seemed silly to have a health person sitting out the race while tried to race sick. The World Cup is a big show, so it is disappointing to not race, but there will be many more days of racing to come. The world cups are the next biggest race to the world championships, so you need to be 100% to even hope to stay in the race. I will ride in the team car tomorrow, which will be an adventure in itself. The world hockey championships are taking place in Berne as we speak - Canada will be playing in the gold medal game on Sunday. We tried to get tickets, but of course things have long been sold out.

Couldn't fend off the sickness :-(

Tomorrow we depart for Berne. I have been pretty under the weather, so I haven’t been riding the last few days. Unfortunately our super speedy climber extraordinaire also seems to be coming down with the cold - the frustrating reality of traveling and living in close quarters with others. The weather has been beautiful 20 degrees, so it has been very hard to be inside resting up. Yesterday we received the new Canadian team uniforms and had our photo taking with the mayor of Bissone. The picture was is in the local paper today which is fun. It has been a great stay and I think the hotel and restaurant staff will miss us – we kept them entertained with our efforts to speak Italian while ordering seemingly endless meals. I will post a picture of our team in the new uniforms soon.

Living in luxury

We stayed for one more night in Luxembourg before traveling to Switzerland. It was about a 7 hour drive, but it took much longer because we are caravanning with the three team vehicles. The van that was most recently acquired from the New Zealand team has some difficulty getting up the hills at speed, so we had to take it pretty easy until Michelle would come barreling past us on the descents. We are staying in a small lakeside town of Bissone, approximately 10 kilometers from Lugano and 15 kms from the Italian border. We are also very close to Lake Como. I would never have known that we are in Switzerland – it looks and feels like Italy and everyone in this region speaks Italian. The weather has been glorious – shorts and jersey weather for riding. We are being absolutely spoiled as the lucky beneficiaries of the Vince’s reconnaissance trip to see the 2009 World’s course venue in Mendrisio (approximately 15 km from our little town). Julie, one of the young and very fast girls on the trip will also be racing at the World championships and so we are riding the courses and Vince is doing videoing so the other athletes can see the course. We are staying at the hotel where the Canadian team will stay and although it is a much nicer than the typical accommodation for Canadian Cycling Association trip, Vince felt it was important for him to check it out before the event. We have a package arrangement with full pension and the restaurant food is incredibly delicious (see pictures) – breakfast is a buffet and for dinner and lunch we order off the set menu. We can have an appetizer, entrée, and desert for each meal if we wish. We actually spend much more time relaxing over meals, overlooking Lake Lugano, than we do riding. I have unfortunately caught the cold that one of the other girls had (even with my anti-vial drops!), so I have been riding less. Hopefully I will be able to shake it before this weekend’s BIG race. On Sunday we will race the World Cup in Berne – it is a very challenging course with a cobbled climb and descent. The riding I have done has been magnificent – once you get off the busier roads, and there are many cyclists out and about. Today I saw Nicole Cook, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist from Great Britain, out for a training ride around the lake – pretty unbelievable to stumble upon such famous riders. We have three more days of luxury before we move to Berne in preparation for the World cup.

Race report...

What fun! We were treated to a very kind introduction to European racing – the hills were gentle, the roads were wide and smooth, the weather was beautiful, and fewer of the top riders were in attendance so the peleton was just a nice size – about 100. The way the race unfolded also made for an easier day – attacks went very early and soon a break of 10 riders including our top rider was away. Only one the top teams was not represented in the break and so the onus was upon them to chase. Our job was to try and sit near to the front and be ready to follow any wheels that tried to go up the road, or in the event that the break was caught, get ready for the counter-attack. This particular race was less intimidating than I had expected, but it will still take time to find my way in the peleton. Often I end up sitting near the back of the group because I am not aggressive enough and people “steel” the wheel that I am on, but I think I am slowly improving. The other entertaining difference was how vocal the women are – it seems that there is always yelling in French and Italian. Mostly I just ignored it because I was warned that when they see the Canadian jersey that they try to push you around – which they still do quite literally. In the end the break, which contained the strongest climbers, stayed away. The remaining group of about 50 contested the field sprint. This is definitely not my strength, but it was fun. There was a median in the road about 500 meters from the finish – the sprinters took it down the left side and I ended up on the right, and so I wasn’t in the mix. All and all it was a really fun day – I think I finished about 40th overall. Dan was able to catch the last half of the race which was nice. Dan and I went out for a delicious pizza after the race before he drove back to Houffalize where the Canadian crew is preparing for Sunday’s World Cup Mt Bike race. Dan will then fly direct to Penticton where the 13th Annual Dan’s Camp has already begun.

Off to the races!

We arrived in Luxembourg yesterday for the Elsy Jacobs Grand Prix. Elsy Jacobs won the first ever World Championship cycling event for women (1958 I believe) and this is the second addition of the race. The event is held on the on the first statutory holiday in May, so there should be many spectators out to watch the race. In addition to getting very lost on our ride yesterday, we also pre-rode the course. It is quite hilly, so the race will likely break apart quickly...it’s going to be very hard! We will complete 10 x 10 km circuits for 100 km.
For UCI races the race organizer is required to provide a hotel and race meals for all of the teams and support crews. I’m not sure how it’s financially feasible, but it’s nice for us. We are staying at a hotel with teams from the US, Finland, Belgium, and Italy. For dinner we had lots of pasta and a large piece of unidentifiable meat...possibly pork? Not very appetizing in light of the Swine flu outbreak. Breaky was more my style – a variety of meats, cheeses, breads, yogurt, and muesli. We will have another meal at 11:30 before leaving for the race. European racing often starts later in the afternoon which I appreciate. The hotel is bustling with lots of activity and many languages. The mechanics have their own little club and they are all outside laughing and working on bikes, coaches are at the managers meeting, and riders seem to be pacing around doing I’m not sure what. It’s hard to focus on racing because it’s just so fun to sit back and observe this foreign world! Dan is only about 40 minutes drive from us, so he is going to try and catch the end of the race and then we will go for dinner. We will then leave for Switzerland early tomorrow morning. With any luck we will have an internet connection in Switzerland and I will be able to post an update about our first racing adventure.