It is once again the day before a race. This means there is a bit of a ritual to go through. Just like the pre-race warm-up ritual, every rider has a system for getting ready for the race the day before. Myself, well I like to be organized. Some might say over-organized. I’ve relaxed my organization tendencies a bit but I still like to have everything taken care of. This way, I can relax.

So today was spent getting ready for the race in Niel. I got in a very good ride this morning. Hit up the great bicycle path and popped out along the canal for more great bicycle path riding. Got in a little over two hours with some sprints to open my legs. The time really passed quickly today. It was pleasantly warm as well. I had some really good sensations during the ride. Physically and mentally. The sprints went well. All in all, a very enjoyable ride.

As soon as I got in I got busy cleaning both bikes. They were both just a little dirty from the last two days of training. Cleaned the Nommay mud off the shoes. Got tires sorted. Got the bucket organized. Wheels in wheel bags. Everything is organized in the garage for easy packing in the morning. Now I just have to get my race bag organized and prepare my food. This takes little to no time since I pretty much take the same clothes and food to each race.

Best part of the day was the afternoon. I had a wicked good nap. Tuned the laptop to CBC Radio and dozed while listening to bits and pieces of The Current and Q. Woke up feeling well rested. Got a few errands done and now I’m back at the house relaxing. Considering watching an episode of Californication. So glad Marc loaded my computer up with some television shows and movies. Only programs I’m missing are The Amazing Race and Top Chef.

So race tomorrow. I watched the video of last year’s race. Wow – what a muddy slog. It helped to watch it though to see that even the top elite men were running descents and struggling in some sections. Helps me keep perspective. I’m not sure if the course has changed much this year. Find out tomorrow morning. Jos and I are hitting the road early. I want to get there in time to get registered, do a few laps of the course and then have time to chill out and then hop on the trainer. Looking forward to racing. I’ve got a few mini-goals I want to accomplish tomorrow. Should be good. I presume we’ll stay to watch the elite men’s race. I’ll bring my camera and try to take some pictures for you.

Alright, time to get off this computer. (Well, one more blog post to write for Victoria’s Island and then I’m going to watch some David Duchovny action.) Thanks for reading. Tomorrow is a national holiday here in Belgium (well I think all of Europe). Strange that November 11 is not a national holiday in Canada.

Well, that late night fervor that I expressed last night was still with me this morning. I kind of new it would be. That’s just the way I am. So after a big weekend of travel and a late night, I was up early this morning to get in my first ride of the day before running some errands.

Literally out the door as the sun broke through. Great way to start the day with a smooth recovery ride. No SRM. Just me, the bike and some newish roads. I really didn’t have time to get lost today. So I stuck to a simple route. The plan was to do an out-and-back. So I pedaled my way to Zichem and then took a right turn. I ended up in Scherpenheuvel. I had first been to Scherpenheuvel in the summer of 2007 when I was here for two months of road racing. This little town features a basillica. I rode to the basillica to check it out – unfortunately it is under wraps – looks like cleaning of the facade is being done. I made my way through this little town and then headed back to Blauberg. A good little ride to clear my legs and head.

I was quickly off for a few errands – return one car and pick up the new car. The new car is the ultimate cycling vehicle: Renault Kangoo. Sliding back doors. Back seats fold flat. Massive amounts of head room. I’ll get to test it out on Wednesday when I race in Niel. I attempted to get my phone sorted out but the phone expert was away so I’ll return to the electronics shop tomorrow.

Zipped home and got ready for the second ride of the day. The aim of the afternoon ride was to check-out the trails in Averbode. Averbode has a pretty amazing Abbey and a big beach/recreation area. This works out to some pretty good riding trails. I bumped into Jos on my ride there so she took me the rest of the way and showed me the trails. I managed to put together a pretty good little course that connects some steep climbs, sand, descents, a bit of road and more trails. Looking forward to going back on Thursday to practice. I did get in a couple of standing starts. I want to work in the standing starts to pretty much every ride I do. It is strange, when I practice them I truly do “blast” off the line and I’m moving rather quickly. But for some reason I can’t harness this same aggression and explosiveness at the start of races. I’m starting to think it is more mental than physical…

Well, not much else going on. Racing again on Wednesday in Niel. I’ll watch the video tonight to get an idea of the race course. As I mentioned yesterday, Jos was a massive help on the weekend. Not only was she my pit man, she also took some photos of me during the race and one of me and Nikki warming up in “our tent”.

Thanks again for the kind words and emails of support. Couldn’t do this without you helping me along. Okay, off to watch some race video. If you’re in Ottawa, hopefully you can get out and enjoy the fine weather.

Ah, back from a very good weekend of racing. Admittedly, the result from today’s race could have been better. But it is what it is. I still had an excellent weekend and had a positive race experience. I’ve written about the race over here. But suffice it to say, I finished 35th. Not as good as a result as my first World Cup. But still a decent result for me.

As you know from reading yesterday, I traveled to the race with Jos and we had a fine time last night with our super meal at the Flunch and then rather relaxed evening in the hotel. Today started off much the same and continued with the same happy attitude. Solid breakfast in the hotel. Have I mentioned how much I like France and how much I enjoy European hotel breakfasts? Well, I do like both very much. So great early breakfast of fine museli, warm soft bread and a bit of yogurt. Perfect way to start a race day.

We set off at around 9:30 with first item on the agenda being a bakery. We wanted to get some food for Jos for the day and some food for me for after the race. Well the first place we stopped was definitely out of our league. It was a rather posh chocolate type shop – too rich for our wallets and no bread to be seen. Just as well since three macaroons cost 50 euro! Anyway after having a laugh about this place we found a great little bakery. Full of scrumptious bread, cakes, chocolates, and snacky food. We left with two mini-quiche, two almond croissants, one mini pizza (tomato sauce and black olives), and a fine loaf of bread. We got by with my not-so-good Saskatchewan French… The poor ladies in the bakery were probably happy to see us go! Really they were super patient with us.

Suffice it to say, that was the best quiche I’d ever had. The pizza was also perfect – no cheese on it – just a shmear of tomato sauce and four perfect black olives. The almond croissant rounded things off just perfectly. So this was a welcome meal after the race. And can’t forget the smooth bottle of Cecemel I chugged down while walking to the race building (permanence) to get a shower and collect my start money. Yes, start money. I now earn start money at World Cup races. Sweet. Of course now I have to open a Belgian bank account so I can deposit the cheque…

After a quick shower and pack up of the car we were off. The drive home was completely painless. Went by very quickly as Jos and I simply gabbed the entire drive. One stop to get some drinks and stretch our legs and then we were home. Perfect ending to the weekend. Many many thanks to Jos for all her help this weekend. Made a massive difference to my race experience. Also thanks to Matt for helping me out and just being there to do anything that needed doing.

I’ve written in my race report how I am feeling about this race experience. Don’t worry I’m not upset or feeling down in the dumps. Rather I’m super motivated. I want to get on my bike right now and get practicing the skills I need to improve on. This race reinforced to me that even though I’ve done a lot of hard work to get where I am, there is still much more hard work to be done. So no time like the present. I’m super motivated to improve my technical skills – this includes mud riding, learning how to attack things such as off-cambers, to improve my running up steep climbs, work on mounting the bike faster, improving my starts and accelerations. Just all the little things that really do add up during the race and cost me time.

Monday is a new day and I’m looking forward to being a bike racer and getting out there and working hard. Sure, I would have liked a better result (but apart from the winner – who doesn’t?). The true riders and racers are proven by how they handle the not-so-great days. Well, I’m going to handle it by facing it head on and improving. So if you see me out there in the woods of Averbode or Blauberg – feel free to stop me and give me some pointers. Heck, if you want to hook up for a training ride – you know how to contact me.

I’m off for the night. Have a good one. Congrats to Marc for a fine racing this weekend in Northampton – 11th both days. Many thanks to coach Steve for hosting Marc this weekend. Thanks for reading. Also, thanks to all the people who were cheering me on out there today. It does help a lot to be racing and hear someone cheering for you. I don’t know who you were – but thanks so much – it is greatly appreciated. Kudos to Katie Compton for a fine ride today (also thanks for letting me barge in on you and Mark and ask you about how to handle this cheque business…).

Okay, going now. Tea is getting cold and it is kind of late. Big day tomorrow. Next race is on Wednesday in Niel.

Yesterday while pre-riding I saw and introduced myself to Balint Hamvas. Balint runs the cyclephotos.co.uk web site. We chatted a bit about the race course and he said he would try to get some photos of me out on the race course today.

Balint took a couple shots of me yesterday and found a photo he had of me from Treviso, Italy:

Thanks again Balint! Be sure to check out his site for some awesome photos.

Another World Cup on deck. How cool is it to type that? Really, I’m just feeling super stoked to be here right now and able to race my bike. Guess you can tell I’m feeling pretty good!

Had a great drive down with Jos. Many thanks to Jos for coming along with this trip and doing all the “dirty” work for me. Jos is doing it all – the bulk of the driving, the pit work, team manager work, you name – she is it. I’d have to say the Canadian delegation (i.e. Me) couldn’t have asked for anyone more qualified.

Thanks to the wonders of the GPS and the Internet we found the race site pretty easily. Got set up right next to Nikki Harris and her boyfriend Matt. Again super nice to see some friendly faces and to get connected with them again. Also got to say hello to Christine and Jonas. Really is quite refreshing to see so many people that I know.

So the course. Well, it is very very grassy. That kind of bumpy long grass that sucks your legs and tires into the ground. Almost feels like there is quicksand under the grass. But that being said, I think it is still a “fast” course. We rode it when it was a bit soggy and wasn’t raining. I can get around it really really well. In fact I think it suits me. Some sections where I can really open it up. Some steep climbs – one that I can get up and one that everyone including the men are having to dismount and run. Some fun fast descents. These are quite good because they are quick and are very wide open. There is a very tricky off-camber section. I was able to ride it once but otherwise slide out. It seems you need to get the exact right angle with the exact right speed and rear wheel pressure to get over it. The feeling is that with the rain we are getting now and two races before us that it will become a run (as it did last year).

Really the super lung burning, leg killing stuff is altogether – up one climb, descend, up another climb, descend, and onto the off-camber. The stairs at the start are another matter. They don’t seem so bad at first but then they get super steep! Good thing I’ve been working on my running. Then it is really riding on this bumpy sloggy grass.

Going to get to the course for 10 tomorrow. Then as soon as the juniors have finished at 10:40, I’m going to hop on. Need to test out the tires again and see what has changed with the rain. I test the Dugast Rhinos today with around 30 psi – they seemed pretty good. Then I tested some Michelin Muds with 30 psi as well – they seemed pretty good. But what I am going to do is see what tires the U23 men are running – this will be the real key to determining the tire selection. I also have some Dugast Typhoons here and some Challenge Grifo clinchers. So I’ve got lots of options.

Picked up the numbers and all the passes with minimal hassle. At first they were going to make us wait until after the manager’s meeting to get the parking pass… But I told them that I was here alone and didn’t have a manager so could I “please have my pass now?” – the answer: yes. Perfect. So we’ve got all we need.

Found the hotel with minimal headache. Staying at the All Seasons Hotel in Belfort. Have to say it is pretty darn good. Big room – plenty of room for my bikes, wheels and all the other stuff. Massive bed and television. Perfect for some relaxing tonight.

Speaking of relaxing, I’m just going to dash off and have supper now. It was Jos’s birthday yesterday so we are off to celebrate. Have a good one. Thanks for reading.

I’m feeling good for the race tomorrow. Sending speedy vibes down to Northampton to all my pals racing this weekend.

I think it is appropriate to once again, close with the words of coach Steve:

“Go Like Hell”