Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: Aigle, Bell Lap Coaching, cyclo-cross, cyclo-cross training, Switzerland, vicki thomas, World Cup
This is Vicki, updating you on my new travel/training plans for October and giving you a taste of how we train for cyclo-cross…
Some exciting things happening lately…. Originally I was traveling to Aigle, Switzerland on Oct. 14 to race at the World Cup on Oct. 17. Now I’m not doing this….
Instead I’m traveling to Aigle, Switzerland on Oct. 2… To attend a 15 day cyclo-cross training camp taught by the legendary Erwin Vervecken! This is a camp run by the UCI – so I’m confident that it will be well run and a really good use of my training time. We’ll be staying in Aigle, training daily, staying together and prepping for the World Cup on the 17th. I’m pretty excited to be able to attend this training camp. At first I wasn’t sure if I should go, but such opportunities don’t come along every week. Seize the day!
My dad is still coming to the races – change is that instead of meeting him in Frankfurt, I’ll meet him in Aigle. So luckily everything works out quite easily. I have to say that I received outstanding customer service from Air Canada getting my flight changed. Also big shout out to Simon Burney for me in navigating some bureaucratic hoops for me – I owe you Simon!
Had a great day of training yesterday. Met up with Karl and Conor to do some ‘cross skill work out at Karl’s place. He has built a pretty cool ‘cross training course that has some challenging terrain. We all had fun tackling the sand, run-up, steep descent, and testing our limits. Just what I needed since I’m in a rest week right now… (Steve, I took it easy and made sure not to go into the red zone.) I took some photos of Karl’s course so you can see what is possible with a bit of hardwork and creativity:
Fast descent or steep climb – look out for the ruts!
The course after the descent/before the steep climb:
The really steep descent or quick run-up (other side of the dirt hill):
Part of the sand track:
Many thanks to the Hoppner’s for their hospitality – we kind of took over their house last night with our training, endless chatter and then enjoying the fine meal. Thanks again – it was a great night.
Today is looking a good training day as well. I’m kicking things off with a cyclo-cross practice session with John – he is new to cyclo-cross, so I’m sure we’ll have fun learning the basics. Then I’m off on my road bike for recovery ride. I received some wise words from my coach yesterday and they deserve to be shared with you:
“Just a gentle reminder to make sure you take your recovery days as seriously as your rest days!”
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, cyclo-cross training, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Ottawa Cross, Ottawa Cyclo-Cross, vicki thomas
Vicki here checking in from the cyclo-cross bike…
Monday night was a special night. I drove to Chelsea, Quebec for a cyclo-cross practice session with a group of pretty cool people. The plan for the session was to focus on the basics, keep things relaxed, and in the end have fun doing it. Speaking for myself, it was a great evening of riding, learning, discussing, and simply being outside enjoying the night.
This is the second such cyclo-cross practice session I’ve done and I’m thoroughly enjoying them. It is a great feeling to be able to give back to the community. There is nothing I like better than helping others and showing them that yes, you can learn to ride that tricky corner or get comfortable in the squishy sand. I know what it was like when I was learning – at times floundering around trying to figure things out. So it is just a super feeling to be able to help others who are going through the same things.
We discovered some fantastic trails for a good session of follow the leader and then it was back to the slow heavy grass for some skill work. Dismounts and mounts, breaking these techniques down to a slow speed and gradually increasing the speed, eventually adding in the barrier. Then it was time for turning and more turning.
At the end of the session everyone had rosy cheeks and I could see the improvements in each person. What a great feeling. Thanks for coming out to the cyclo-cross practice session. Looking forward to next week when we tackle some sand, do a bit of running, and uphill dismounts.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again – it is the cyclo-cross community that makes this sport so darn awesome!
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, vicki thomas, Cross Vegas, Interbike
It’s Vicki here to update you on how things are going…
Guess you can tell by the title that I’m having one of those good days. Actually, day is too narrow – lets rephrase this to seasons or phases or times. Anyway, lets just say that I’m in a good place right now. Everything is just coming together so perfectly for the upcoming season.
I had a fantastic ride today. Legs felt great, ticking over nicely and just really loved every second of it. Rode to the little town of Merrickville today. It was super windy but it was sunny and dry – no complaints here. Great afternoon at the office.
I’m getting my schedule sorted out and have registered for a bunch of races already. Today I registered for Cross Vegas! I’m stoked. Can’t believe I’m going to race at Cross Vegas. I’ve wanted to race at Cross Vegas for two years now. Can’t really believe that I’m going to race this race. Kind of crazy, in 2007 I was racing with the 3/4 women’s field and held a masters license – now in 2010 after a few successful seasons in my legs, I’m racing in the elite women’s field at Cross Vegas. Cool. Very cool.
The Cross Vegas trip will involve a lot of firsts for me. First time to Las Vegas. First time racing at Cross Vegas. First time at a bike trade show. First time doing an evening race. A lot of first times. No complaints here. I’m super looking forward to the race and to attending Interbike.
Oh, in case you missed it, I’ve started writing rider diaries again for Cyclocross Magazine, my latest rider diary is posted. Also there is an article about the latest Stevens cyclo-cross bikes that Katie Compton, Marriane Vos, Hanka Kupfernagel, Niels Albert, and I will be riding – check it out. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of Canadian Cyclist Magazine to read some of my latest articles.
Well, I guess that is about it. Tomorrow I’ve got a great day of training on deck. Hill sprints and cyclo-cross starts in the morning chased with an evening cyclo-cross ride with Karl and Marc. I’ll strap on the helmet camera tomorrow night and shoot some video of my favorite sand course.
Vicki here with some thoughts on the upcoming season and what I need to do to be the bike racer I know I am….
It is kind of hard to believe that we’re in the last week of July. The summer is whipping by and soon enough it will be fall and time for long-sleeve skinsuits and Dugasts. You know what this means, planning, training, and thinking ahead.
I’ve had a great few weeks of training. My niggling wrist injury is behind me now and the bumps and bruises from my wipe-out on the wet bridge are starting to fade. I’ve been getting out on my ‘cross bike five out of seven days. Sometimes this is for a ‘cross ride on the singletrack and doubletrack trails and other times it is for a focused one hour or 45 minute skills session. I’m seeing some good progress. Getting faster, feeling more smooth, and my confidence is catching up with my fitness.
Last night I was flipping through an old copy of Road magazine (can’t remember the month) but this one features an interview with Tim Johnson and one with Katie Compton. I’ve read these interviews so many times that I kind of overlooked the rest of the issue. Last night, I read an article with the catch phrase “What motivates you?” – wow this is an excellent article. Definitely gave my brain a work-out and forced me to really think about and be honest about what motivates me.
This reading coupled with a great supper-time conversation with Marc about the upcoming season and what I need to do to race where I “want to” had the effect I expected…. I woke up this morning with my brain swirling with excitement and eagerness to get out and ride. To attack the flags and barriers faster, to lean my bike further, to pedal faster, to sprint harder, and to do just do everything I’ve been doing better.
Last year was a great season for me – I realized a big goal and had some break-throughs on the bike. But I still need more. I need to get over my fears of technical descents. I need to not let the course beat me. I need to let go of the brakes. I need to always be pedaling and looking ahead. Only positive thoughts can enter my brain. I need to remember that I have the tools, the skills, and the desire and to put these into use at each and every race and training session. This is the season when I need to see “real” growth – my time to be the racer that I know is inside me.
Yes, this is exciting. And kind of scary. But I’m tired of holding myself back. I need to let myself go – relax on the bike, pedal hard, focus on the course and let the bike do its thing. This year that descent at the Zolder World Cup will not phase me. This year the deep frozen mud ruts will not be an issue – just put my wheels in them and pedal. This year soft and squishy corners will not cause me to overbrake and needlessly slow down.
This year I will attack, attack and attack some more. I’ll attack my fears. I’ll attack the ruts, I’ll conquer the descents, I’ll let my bike float through the corners. I’ll race to my potential and then I’ll raise the bar again. I really don’t have a choice. I’m at the phase in my racing where I have to make these gains to see a difference in my race outcomes. Wattage is important but it doesn’t mean anything without the technical skills and confidence.
This is my season. I can feel it. To steal a few quotes/tattoos from a couple of very inspiring Canadian cyclists:
Svein Tuft: We Will Never Be Here Again (tattooed on his right forearm)
Christian Meier: Last Chance (tattooed on his left forearm)
I’ve been mulling over what words I would get tattooed on my left forearm… My options are:
Go Now
Now or Never
Hard Work Wins
Seize The Day
What about you? What would you get tattooed to keep you driving, striving, and achieving?
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, Mark Cavendish, vicki thomas, world championships
Vicki here with a few words of thanks and a weekend riding recap….
Yes, okay, I’m ripping my blog title off of Mark Cavendish’s book Boy Racer… Sorry, sometime a girl has to dig deep to find a title and as I have an affinity for Mr. Cavendish’s book, I thought I’d honor him with my title. If the Manx Missile is reading this blog, lets hope he posts up in the comments… Come on Mark – we know that you have lots of down time right now – you’re only in the last week of the biggest race in France… Alright, I suppose I can dream that the likes of Mark Cavendish would read this site… Now on to the real meat of this post.
Really all I have to say is: thanks! Thanks for the support. Thanks for the emails. Thanks for the Twitter messages. Thanks for the Facebook messages. Thanks for the blog comments. All of these seemingly small things add up and give me a great feeling. The encouragement, the words of wisdom, the understanding – it keeps me coming back for more and wanting to do my best.
This might sound a bit lame but it is true. I’m in a funny spot as a bike racer – I don’t race with a team. I train primarily alone. I really have only myself to look to for motivation when things are feeling a bit tough. But thanks to your constant support, I know that there are people out there who are very similar to my teammates – encouraging me when I need it, giving me a kick in the butt when I need it, and simply just being a presence through the good and the bad.
Speaking of good – I had a fantastic weekend of training. Saturday saw me up bright and early and out the door by 6 a.m. so I could get my intervals in and ride to the Gatineau Park to hook up with Skip so we could ride out to watch the OBC Grand Prix. It was an excellent morning of riding, chatting, handing up bottles, catching up with friends, cheering on Marc and the Scott Boys, watching the Stevens girls rip up the field, and seeing young Timothy cross the line with a big grin on his face. All in all a great day to be a bike racer in Ottawa. Sunday was equally fine. Marc and Shaun convinced me to come out on the Scott team ride. I was a bit hesitant as I didn’t want to slow them down – but luckily they all had six laps of the Gatineau Park in their legs! What a great ride – my first time doing the MacGregor Lake loop. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The conversation was good, the pace was perfect (just enough to push me out of my comfort zone) and the time whipped by. Thanks guys for a great ride!
So an excellent weekend of riding, friends, cheering and simply having fun on bikes. Life really doesn’t get any sweeter.
Looking forward to the ‘cross season starting. My race schedule is looking pretty good with lots of variety of races in it and of course with the big one in January in St. Wendel, Germany.
Now, I best be off and go finish Mr. Cavendish’s book. It is a great read. In fact I channeled my inner-Manx Missile on Sunday during the ride with Scott Boys. I thought about what Mark goes through to make it through the mountains so he can unleash his sprint at the end… This actually did help me focus on the wheel in front of me and to get up and over some of the hills on Sunday. So thanks Mark – you are doing for me what I hope I’m doing for others!
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, vicki thomas
Hi, it’s Vicki checking with an update about my sponsors, race calendar, training rides, and thoughts of Belgium…
I know it’s not a very ‘cross-focused title, but sometimes it is challenging to come up with a catchy title. I should be thinking of the search engines when creating my titles (so say the search engine optimization folks) but sometimes I just need to let my fingers do the talking. Okay, enough about the title, lets get onto the argy-bargey (thanks Phil, Paul and the cool dudes at the Velocast for this fine word)….
First off – big news – I have update my sponsors page. I’m honored to be supported by such a fine group of companies. Without their support, this sweet life I lead racing my cyclo-cross bike all over North American and Europe simply wouldn’t be possible. So click on over to the sponsor page to read about these great companies. Just to make it easy for you, I proudly present my sponsors for the 2010 – 2011 cyclo-cross season:
-KingsBridge Disaster Recovery: the leader in business continuity and disaster recovery planning software.
- The Cyclery: this Ottawa bike store has all your cycling needs covered and the friendliest mechanics in town.
- Stevens Bikes: the fastest cyclo-cross bikes around. Just ask the current Women’s World Champion.
- Outdoor Gear Company: dealers of fine Giro helmets and sweet Mavic shoes and wheels.
- Clif Bar: tasty Shot Bloks, Clif Bars, and Luna bars. You’ll never go hungry with Clif in you jersey pocket.
- Champion Systems: custom sublimated clothing for an affordable price – now there is no excuse for bad kit.
- Bell Lap Coaching: coach Steve has the skills, the knowledge and the dedication to take you to the next level.
- Oakley: Jawbone, Radar, Full Metal Jacket, Enduring… Plus smooth t’s, luggage, caps. Be fast and look good.
In keeping with the updates theme, I’ve also updated my 2010 – 2011 race calendar. I still need to fill out the racing while I’m in Belgium, but I’ve got the World Cup and elite women’s races listed. Like the past three seasons, I’ll be racing with the junior boys when there isn’t a women’s race on the calendar. Anyway, click on over so you can see where I’ll be out having fun and chasing my cyclo-cross dreams this season.
Have to say it is full-on cyclo-cross mode around here these days. Recovery rides are spent in the woods riding my trusty Stevens bike. The trick is of course on these recovery days to keep the legs from getting to excited… To do this, I focus on small things such as: eyes up at all times, constantly pedaling, riding with my hands on the tops rather than the hoods (to curb the over-braking tendencies), to only use the rear brake, and to focus on a high/smooth cadence. By doing this I’m able to maximize my time on the ‘cross bike – even though I’m not ripping around at top speed, I’m still training my body and mind with some crucial skills that come race day, will be second nature.
Today, though was not a recovery day… Nope it was all about that crucial first “45″. The start is perhaps one of the most important sections of the race. A solid start can help you get into a hard-charging group and often can help you avoid the “first corner” pile-ups that happen as the course narrows from the start/finish straight to the hole shot. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I have not had a good history with my starts. I’ve had trouble getting amped up for the start and for really putting all my energies into blasting off the line. Well, this is all history for me now. I’ve been working all summer on short intense sprints, my mental attitude to the starts, and really I’ve recognized that if I want to be in the race – I need to start better. So today I drilled myself into the ground with five 45 second start intervals. This may not sound like much but when each of those intervals is done at full gas, five is plenty. I like the numbers I’m seeing. I like the explosion I’m getting in my legs. I’m learning how to use the entire bike to propel me forward. I can tell already that my starts are going to be better this year. Great way to be feeling on this mid-July afternoon.
The rest of the training week is full of tempo intervals and lots of time in the saddle. Nothing like the Sunday long ride to put a smile on my face. I’ll also get out on my ‘cross bike each afternoon for a skill session. Focus will be on barriers, dismounts, mounts (flat and uphill) and uphill/downhill turning.
I’m really looking forward to getting back to Belgium. I wish I could be out riding at Averbode and Kasterlee this weekend! Not to mention hanging out with the ‘cross gang before and after the races. Soon enough though I’ll be back in Blauberg for a winter of racing, training, and soaking up life.
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, vicki thomas, world championships
Hi, it’s Vicki checking in with a blog post about my training for the upcoming cyclo-cross season and a big shout out to my sponsors. Thanks for reading…
It is mid-July and I’m starting to feel the rewards of the long hours and efforts in my legs, lungs, heart, and soul. The early summer months were spent doing more riding than I’ve ever done before – lots of long rides, lots of intensity, lots of time with just me, my bike, and my iPod. Focus was on cadence – getting my legs ticking over at a speedy rate, spending lots of time in my tempo zone building and pushing forward, lots of long steady rides that built up physical and mental endurance.
Now it is time to switch gears a bit and focus on race preparation. This means I’m still doing long rides but the intensity has been notched up and changed focus a bit. Cyclo-cross is all about accelerating, maintaining speed, and keeping this speed for the 40 minutes of technical and flowy riding. Throw in some barriers, stairs, sand, mud, tricky descents and you have one of the best ways to spend time on a bike. To get ready for this assault on the senses, I’m working on start intervals, accelerations, threshold work, long rides, and technical skill rides. I’ll start doing some criteriums and road races to get some race intensity into my legs and to continue to build up my mental confidence.
This is a great place to be. The summer so far has had its share and ups and downs with some injuries and health issues. But I’m not letting this get me down. As I’ve written before – “everyone has something”. I have learned to handle my “something” and not let it beat me. I’ve also learned that rest, recovery, sleep and proper nutrition are extremely important. It really doesn’t matter if you do the training if you don’t let your body recover and fuel it sufficiently. I’d have to say that so far this season of training has been a massive success – I’ve learned so much about what I can handle physically and mentally. I feel like a different athlete.
Everything is coming together off the bike as well. I’m pretty happy to announce my sponsors for the upcoming cyclo-cross season. Without the support of these companies, I really wouldn’t be able to chase my cyclo-cross goals and live the dream. Thanks to the following outstanding companies for their support:
KingsBridge Disaster Recovery
Stevens Bikes
The Cyclery
Outdoor Gear Canada
Clif Bar
Bell Lap Coaching
Oakley
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, stevens super prestige, tabor, vicki thomas, world championships
Vicki here to tell you about my morning at the “office”…
Today the training schedule called for 60 minutes of recovery. So like any other eager cyclo-cross racer, I rolled over to my local park with my barrier and flags. Nothing like playing in the park on a Friday morning to put a smile on my face. This little park is a decent place to work on skills – it has a slight incline/hill for setting up the flags and thanks to the soccer field there is room along the side to set up my barrier.
The focus of this session was “back to basics”. Really break down the dismount and mount technique and focus on fully turning the front wheel while traversing the flags. I also gave myself mental cues to focus on keeping my eyes up and maintaining steady pedal pressure going into, during and out of the turns. “Keep pedaling” and “Eyes up” were ever constant in my brain.
I started the session with a “riding the lines” drill. Basically I ride the white lines on the soccer field and focus on making fast turns at line intersections – all the while remembering to look up, to keep steady pedal pressure and to play around with how far I can push the tires, bike lean, and body lean. After this it is time for dismounts and mounts. To warm-up I don’t use the barrier – rather I cruise along the field slowly and focus simply on dismounting properly and then focusing on a smooth mount – there is no running, no lifting of the bike, or heavy breathing.
I find doing these warm-up drills get my body and brain focused on the motions of cyclo-cross and really gets me ready for the faster paced barriers and tighter turning drills. Next it was time for dismount and mount practice with the barrier. I start these drills at a slow pace, gradually building to a faster speed – if I find myself making sloppy mistakes (such as missing the pedal, stutter stepping, etc.), I slow down again and focus on clean smooth technique. One of my goals today was to focus on getting back on the bike quickly, I have a tendency to take to many steps after the barrier.
Next up was turning – thanks to the little slope, I was able to set up my flags to allow me to practice turning uphill and downhill. This works a number of skills at once – keeping the eyes up, constant pedal pressure, really using the upper body to turn the bike, fully turning the front wheel, getting used to letting the bike “fall” down the hill, using only the back brake, and also working on braking, pedaling and turning all together.
Final phase of the session was connecting the barrier and the flags. Ride through the flags up the slope, turn and descend through the flags, thenattack the barrier, pedal a bit, turn around and attack the barrier again, and then back to the flags. I just keep repeating this little drill – I get two barrier sessions and lots of turning in with each “repeat”.
To cool down, back to the soccer field – riding the lines and some slow and easy dismounts and mounts.
There you have it! This is how I spent my morning training session. Because today is a recovery day, I did not do any of these drills at full speed – rather I focused on technique and being smooth. The mantra of “go slow to go fast” definitely holds true when working on cyclo-cross skills.
This morning I was riding the Stevens Super Prestige I raced on at the World Cyclo-Cross Championships in Tabor, Czech Republic. This message on my stem brought back some excellent feelings:
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: cyclo-cross, vicki thomas, world championships, ulcerative colitis, Specific Carbohydrate Diet
It’s Vicki here with another blog post on my cyclo-cross racing life…
Mmm, I love baked goods. Nothing quite like a squishy gooey cinnamon bun or a rice tart from my fave Belgian bakery. But sadly, I’m not talking about such soothing baked goods. Nope rather baked goods refers to how I felt out on my ride today. My plan was to “beat the heat”… Ya right!
Lets just say the “heat beat me”… I had an innocent 75 minutes on the plan today some endurance to warm-up the legs and then tempo intervals to shake things up and get the blood flowing. No problem. I had two full water bottles with a bit of apple juice in them and I was ready to go. Hit the road just after 9:30. Perfect – still not too hot and a slight breeze to keep me cool.
Ha! Well, the first hour or so was spot on. Great ride. Legs were ticking over smoothly and I liked the numbers I was seeing. And then the it happened. Almost as soon as I finished my last interval – the goosebumps came on. The hair on my arms was standing straight up, my legs were covered in goosebumps and I felt cold. Uh oh.
Not sure if it was a bonk or heatstroke or a combination of the both. Whatever it was, it resulted in a death ride home. What normally takes me 30 minutes or so took close to an hour. It was all I could do to turn the pedals over. I stopped worrying about power, cadence and speed. My focus was getting home. I had about 3/4 of a bottle left at this point. I stopped at a couple of businesses in hopes of filling up my bottles but strangely there was no one around.
So mind over matter and just focus on getting home. My mind was beginning to wander from listening to my podcasts to food. A sure sign that things have gone badly. Funny how appetizing a recovery drink seems when you’re out baking on a hot road far from home! Luckily as I rolled into town, I came across a couple just getting out of their car – they kindly filled my bottles with ice cold water (thank-you). I rolled home very happy to be returning to air conditioning. And no, I haven’t been outside since!
I’m sure this bonk/heatstroke incident was induced by my dietary changes over the past few days. As you know I’m following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and in the first week of the diet, carbohydrates are strictly limited. Today I was able to add bananas to my diet – but there aren’t a lot of carbohydrates in bananas. Still the dietary changes are making a big difference in my ulcerative colitis symptoms and I’m feeling much better than I have in a long time. It will take a bit of time and research to tweak the diet to make it work for cyclo-cross training and racing, but I know it can be done. I’m currently reading The Paleo Diet For Athletes – very interesting read and follows many of the same principles as the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.
All this to say – it is hot out there! Make sure you take more liquid than you think you need on your ride (normally I wouldn’t need two bottles for 75 minutes…) and bring some food in case the dreaded bonk/heatstroke sets in. This heat is nice but really, I’d take some rain right about now! Tomorrow is a recovery day for me so I’m off to play in the woods on my cyclo-cross bike and then to the park for some skills and drills. Good sensations all around.
Filed under: KingsBridge Train | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, cyclo-cross, disaster preparation, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software, plus 3 networks, tabor, vicki thomas, world championships
For the past three years, KingsBridge has sponsored an Ottawa bike racer. Vicki is a cyclo-cross racer and this past season; she represented Canada and raced at the 2010 World Cyclo-Cross Championships in Tabor, Czech Republic. Some of you were fortunate enough to have met Vicki in our DRJ Spring World booth in Orlando, the rest of you will have to wait until the DRJ Fall World to meet her. Vicki has a website where she writes daily about her training, racing, and life as a bike racer. We thought you’d enjoy reading about her life and seeing the other side of KingsBridge. So in the next few days you will start to see Vicki’s Ottawa Cross blog posts appearing on the KingsBridge blog. But before this happens, we thought you should hear from Vicki herself and let her introduce herself… So without further adieu, here is Vicki….
Wow – with an introduction like that, I’m not really sure where to start! But here goes… Well, as you read, for the past three years, I’ve been very fortunate to be sponsored by KingsBridge. The support that Skip and his staff provide is truly overwhelming – thanks to these guys I’m able to travel to Belgium for the winter months and live like a professional bike racer.
Now, you might be sitting there wondering “what is cyclo-cross”. Cyclo-cross is one of the most difficult forms of bicycle racing. It is a winter sport, with the season starting in late September and ending in mid-February. Woodland trails, open meadows, mud, and short, steep hills are the main features of a cyclo-cross course. Normally the circuit is 2.5-3 km in length, and the race duration is around 40 minutes. Cyclo-cross is also the most popular discipline of bicycle racing in North America. The United States championships are held over four days to accommodate racers and fans. In Europe, spectators arrive upwards of four hours early and will pay 20 dollars to watch the race.
So, this is what I do. I race my bike in the cold winter months through mud, sand, rain, snow, and ice. And I love it! There is nothing quite like a cyclo-cross race. The races are short at 40 minutes so every minute is pretty darn action-packed. Throw in 20,000 spectators at a typical race in Europe and you’ve got a very exciting atmosphere.
I’m based in Belgium from November to February where I focus solely on racing and training for cyclo-cross. Being in Belgium allows me to compete on the European elite circuit and the World Cup circuit. My goal this season is to once again represent Canada at the 2011 World Cyclo-Cross Championships in St. Wendel, Germany. To get there I spend a lot of time out riding my road bike (to get in base miles and fitness), my mountain bike (to work on technical skills), and my cyclo-cross bike (to work on cyclo-cross specific skills).
To keep my sponsors, fans, and family up-to-date, I created Ottawa Cross as a way to let everyone know what is going on. During the off-season, I typically write about my training, goals for the year, and general musings on the bike racer life. During the race season, I write race reports, updates on training and recovering, and pretty much anything else that is going on. I try to be honest as possible on my website – I don’t believe in sugar-coating things. If things are going great – then you’ll know about it. If things are going not-so-great – then you’ll know about it!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading about my bike racing life. Enjoy the ride and please don’t be shy to comment on my blog posts – I love getting feedback and finding out who is reading.
