Two double days in a row… Doesn’t get much better. Both days with time spent on the road bike and the ‘cross bike. Perfect combination of training.

Tuesday was an excellent day of training and racing. I kicked the day off with a skill session in my local park. I focused on dismounts/mounts, turning, and some start intervals. The usual stuff. This year I’m teaching myself a new way of dismounting… I used to always pre-unclip the left foot as I came into a barrier or obstacle. Now I’m only unclipping the left foot at the last moment before dismounting. This method is considered by some to be rather “risky”. Well, I also thought it was a bit risky until last week when Marc showed me how to do it and then we put it into practice in the woods. I’ve learned that it is much faster and when done correctly, there is no risk involved. So I’ve been spending a lot of time breaking down this dismount technique and working on getting the basics of it correct so when I do it at speed, I won’t have any issues.

Second part of Tuesday’s training day was spent at the Tuesday night training criterium. Again, another fast night at the local training race. All the usual suspects were out with a few new faces in the crowd to mix things up. I was having a great ride until my chain started to act up. All of a sudden the chain started hopping and skipping all over the cassette. This made for some rather erratic pedaling and riding. I stopped to look at it – couldn’t see a problem so decided to jump back in…. Well, as soon as I applied pressure to the pedals, the chain jumped from the big ring to the small ring and was chattering all over the cassette. Sigh…. Thanks to Shaun and Vince, I discovered that I had a “kink” in my chain and it was a bit twisted… Bummer but at least the chain didn’t break during the race. All in all, it was a great night of training/racing. I hit some good numbers and I did feel comfortable in the pack. Nice to see this form at this point in the season. Extra bonus of the night was catching up with my pal Sheri Jay.

Today is another day of doubling-up. Doing things in reverse today, starting with a road ride in the morning and a ‘cross ride in the evening. Today was all about 1 minute efforts on the road bike. Yeesh, never has a minute felt so long and so painful! Ah well, money in the bank for the upcoming cyclo-cross season. Looking forward to getting out on my new cyclo-cross bike again tonight. I have to say, I’m really liking the way the new Stevens Carbon Team feels. It corners really nicely. There are some smooth finishing touches on it like the flattened out top tube that allows the bike to rest on my shoulder nicely. And the paint job is slick – I love that yellow! Tonight Karl, Conor, and Marc and I will hit up the trails for some fast riding. Nothing like a night of chasing the fast guys through the woods, sand, and trees!

Yep, some pretty good days around these parts. Cyclo-cross season is right around the corner with my first race on Sept. 11 in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania. Can’t wait. My new cyclo-cross clothing will be arriving any day now. Looking forward to showing off the red, white, and black Ottawa Cross kit again this year. Many thanks to Champion Systems Canada for the excellent support this year.

If you find yourself wondering about cyclo-cross training, why not join me and a few others on Thursday morning for some ‘cross practice? The 90 minute session will focus on the basics of cyclo-cross with dismount/mounts, uphill shouldering, follow the leader, and a few other drills. Good time with a relaxed tone guaranteed. Email me for details.