2009 Race Season Recap In Pictures

My last entry was from my first bike race at the Valley of the Sun stage race. It was a good introduction to the world of bike racing.

Next it was off to Vegas (well technically Henderson NV) to meet up with everyone from London down visiting and to watch them race the half marathon called the six tunnels half. It was a lot of fun.

Biked through the desert.

Had a few drinks with good friends at the local biker bar at the top of the mountain Good thing we blended right in with the locals !!

We cleaned house at the race - they may not have known where London Ontario was before the race, but they certainly do now !!

Hit the Hover Dam on the way home. Pretty amazing. Pics don't do it justice.

After Vegas it was on to the Arizona State Road Race Championships in Globe AZ !! Unfortunatley no pics available - but i did manage to come in 2nd in the Cat 5 mens race. Despite having a great day on the bike and just narrowly missing out on the win in a 2 man break away and then sprint for the line - i still ended up chicked, as Christine managed to out sprint the competition for top honours in the Womens Cat 4 race in her first season racing. Damn it ! Just kidding, great race babe. Sorry no pics, but if you want proof, check out the link below

http://graskyendurance.blogspot.com/2009/06/arizona-state-road-race-championship.html

Next came The Dueces Wild Triathlon Festival where I did the Aquabike - 2 km swim, and 90 km bike. Despite having a slower than average swim after being out of racing for over 8 month I managed to pull back the leaders out of the water on the last hill coming back into town, and to hold off a very hard charging NM TT Champion to hold on for first place. It was a good thing I didnt have to run, as I went way too hard on the bike to be able to run.

There was a bit of a long break after Show Low involving lots of training and catching some rays - and a VERY long drive back to Canada to return my leased Mazda 3. Awesome trip - but NEVER again.

I didn't end up racing until mid August when I did my first full half IM in Utah since breaking my hip. It was an amazing trip - the drive there was a little long, but the scenary was AMAZING.

The race itself was HORRIBLE. First off I thought camping the night before would be a good idea. NOT a good idea. Between the bugs, rain, and lack of decent light trying get ready for the race, it was a complete disaster. The ground surprisingly isn't that comfortable either - and the regular campers have a tendancy to stay up late drinking around the campfire. Not the best for sleeping.

The weather for the race was cold (actually FREEZING - as snow fell on the near by mountain at Sundance) and rainy as two separate storms came in at the same time, bringing 50 mph winds soo strong it nearly blew me off my bike several times. In addition the swim was shortend b/c they couldnt get the bouys to stay in place with the waves stirred up by the storm. The bike was brutal - after suffering 2 mechanicals, and heading off course I was way off the pace, and just tried to hang on to finish and start the run. The run was HARD - as i tried in vane to catch up to Chissy. The course was pancake flat, but felt much harder. Not having run more than about 12 km before the race, I managed to hold on to finish in 5th in my AG - and about 15 minutes behind Christine. Chicked AGAIN !! (this is a bit of a theme)

After Utah I decided to head home for a little visit with the family and friends.

While there I did the Muskoka 70.3 race in northern Ontario. Luckily the weather was much better than expected - as was my race. The course and scenery in nothern Ontario were amazing. The course was much tougher than I expected with the bike being about 4 km long, and both the bike and run hitting you with a seemingly endless array of hills.

I had a pretty good swim and bike - coming into T2 in 2nd place in my AG. And managed to hold on on the run to take 3rd place in my AG. Lucky for me the competition was a little weak. And thanks to a flat tire on the bike I managed to avoid being chicked yet again.

After Muskoka came the Soma Half IM in Tempe Arizona. The course is flat and very fast (not really a great course for me), and used as a tune up race for many of athletes doing IM Arizona in November. The swim is a simple rectangular swim - almost exactly the same as IM. The sun shinning off the water however made sighting almost impossible. Navigating through the slower swimmers in the earlier waves also proved a bit of a chore. The bike course was 3 laps, and VERY technical with lots of tight turns - and with 1200 athletes of all levels racing at the same time, it was also very nerve racking. Usually the bike section of the race is usually my strength, but still a little nervous about crashing again, I was a lot more cautious than most, and lost a ton of time on the corners. I did however manage a decent run (1:35 !!) - pulling back several of the faster bikers to take 4th in my AG. Despite my improved run leg, I was badly chicked yet again (I was beat overall by 2 minutes as Chris beat me out of the water by 30 secs, and on the run by almost 4 min - and I only managed to put 2 minutes into Chris on the bike - YIKES !!), as Chris destroyed the womens field, taking first overall AG and beating the top female pro by 8 seconds.




Next up the Tucson Marathon in December. Should be interesting. Never done a open marathon before. I will keep you posted.

Tour of the Valley of the Sun

Well this weekend I participated in my first true road race and stage race. The race put on by the White Mountain Cycling club here in AZ consisted of 3 stages - a 22km TT, a 41 mile road race, and a 25 lap criterium.

The first stage - the 22 km TT took place early Friday morning in a tiny little town called Buckeye Arizona, about 50 miles west of Phoenix. In an attempt to avoid having to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get there on Friday morning tired and stiff, we decided to head up to Phoenix the night before and grab a hotel room on the edge of town so we could get a good nights sleep. My race number was 719 and my start time was 9:27:30.

We arrived at the race site at around 8:20 am - after a 25 minute detour to starbucks !! Thank god for GPS. When we got there there were already several hundred of cyclists set up along the cross street from the start line setting up their bikes and warming up on trainers and rollers. It was an amazing and indimadating specticle. Most of the riders were on state of the art carbon bikes, and dressed in prefectly matching team uniforms. A little intimidating to a guy doing his first bike race and wearing a mismatched uniform with NO logos. YIKES !! Think I may be out of my league here !!

Nervous and scared about racing on my TT bike for the first time since my accident 4 months ago, I quickly got changed and began to warm up ASAP. I managed to get about 25 minutes in on the trainer between running to the porta potty and jumping off to get something I forgot or thought i needed (like gels - which i carried in my back pocket but never in a million years risked taking my hands off the handle bars to try and get out of my back pocket).

I arrived at the start line about 10 minutes early to ensure I didn't miss my start. As I stood in line watching each successive rider go off in 30 second intervals I began to feel a little better as many of the riders were also doing thier first road race.

As I lifted my bike up onto the start ramp, I kept reminding myself to start easy and build into the race. Unsure how hard to go on such a short ride with no run to follow, I started off focusing on keeping my cadence high and turning over the pedals at around 100 RPM. My legs felt great. With a slight tailwind and only a slight incline on the way out, by mile 2 I was flying and already reeling in the riders ahead of me. By the turn around I had caught 4 riders and was feeling good. I made the turn for home, looked up the road at the rider about 500m ahead, put my head down and dropped the hammer. Unfortunately it was a lot tougher catching riders on the way home and managed to just pass my 7th rider about 500m from the finish line. I crossed the line in 35:43 - 7th in my division and 1:30 behind the winner. And as usual, after finishing and checking the results an hour later, I wondered if I could have gone a minute faster if I knew I would win ... sure I could have... but as the old saying goes, if I could have, I would have. Regardless, I was happy with my results.

The next day was the road race which took place a little closer to home in Casa Grande - about an hour and a half from home. We left home shortly after 5:00 am and arrived at the race site around 6:30 am. Even before the sun was up - and it was FREEZING !! In fact it was soo cold, despite having plenty of time, I bypassed the warmup on the trainer to sit shivering in the SUV with the heat on full blast.

The New Machine

Well its been 3 weeks since I finally got my new machine - and I have to say I am in LOVE. I figured after breaking my hip I needed something lighter and more responsive to compensate for the extra weight of the added hardware in my hip and the trauma that has weakend the muscles around it. I thought of getting a titanium bike to match my hip, but decided instead to go all out and get the full carbon Kuota Kreedo Ultra(with Carbon bars and everything baby !!) all decked out with Sram Red, and all the extras. I even managed to get Ti Speedplay pedals !!

So to say this machine is light and responsive is a mild understatement. It rides and climbs like a dream, and fits perfectly. I was a little worried at first as I had ordered a size larger than my Giant - but it was definately the right decision. The seat has taken a little getting used to - needless to say the seat looks better than it feels.