There sure is a lot of “hurry up and wait” going on today. Today is the day before the big day. The main item on today’s agenda is to pre-ride the course. Everything else is pretty much ready to go. Bikes are in good shape (Jonas will check them out for me today at the course.) I’m organized (as is normal). Just really sitting and waiting.

Again, the temptation is there to go out and stretch the legs and the eyeballs. But I’m not here for sightseeing. Don’t worry, I’m having a great time. After all. It is October. I’m in Italy. It is 25 celsius. The sky is blue. I get to race in the first World Cup of the season. How can I not be having a good time. This is a bike racer’s dream.

Truly living the life. Best to soak it all up. Each and every experience like this is a building block for the next race and challenge.

Many thanks to Christine Vardaros and her husband Jonas for the extreme generosity and friendliness. Christine and Jonas are staying at the same hotel as me. (Well, I’m staying here because Christine told me about it…) We hung out last night. Was nice to just chill out and chat with people. Christine and Jonas brought me many goodies from Belgium – waffles, specculous cookies, and the coveted All-Bran Choco. Thanks so much guys – I really appreciate everything.

Heading over to the course in a couple of hours to pre-ride and pick up the numbers. Then it will be back here to relax, eat, and get ready for tomorrow. Feeling good. Strong sensations and looking forward to racing. I’ll post up later with my thoughts on the race course.

All the best to everyone racing in Gloucester this weekend. I’ll be with you in spirit. Pedal hard. Have fun. Go Marc!

Dudes, I can’t believe how smoothly things are going for me here in Italy. Got to admit I did have a few moments of panic on Tuesday when the reality of the trip started to sink in. When I really clued in that I would be traveling to Italy alone for a World Cup with my bikes and doing everything myself I started to question my decision. But I reminded myself that I’ve gone to many races in Europe alone and that this was no different.

And you know what? I was right. This is no different. Sure I had to drive a car alone. So what? If I was born in Italy, I’d be driving. Had to put the bikes together myself as well. Well, with some help from Vince and Marc I got it done. I took my time and focused on each small task that had to be completed. Then today when I was out for a spin, I stopped in at a bike shop (Bicci and Bikes) and had the mechanic Claudio, check-out my headset for me. He didn’t speak English. I don’t speak Italian. But we got through it just fine.

Tomorrow I’ll go and check out the race course. Most other racers will have at least one support person with them. Well, I’ll manage as well. I’ve already arranged with Christine Vardaros (American racer based in Belgium) for some help tonight. Her husband Jonas is going to give my bikes the once-over. And I’m sure that if I have any issues tomorrow, I can find someone at the race site to help me out. Really all I can do is ask for help.

So Saturday I’ll go and do some pre-riding. I’ll do a few laps. Then section the course down and practice any tricky or important sections. Then I’ll do a couple of hot laps. Followed by one easy lap. Then I’m done. Not a lot of riding. Just enough to get a picture of the course in my head and legs.

Went out for a little spin today to test out both bikes. Did an easy roll around and checked out the sites. Legs felt really good. Thought they might be a bit sluggish. But so far so good. I made sure to drink a ton of water during my travel day(s). I also wore my compression clothing (socks and shirt) – I think this helped. I think the larger than normal supper last night followed by 12 hours of solid sleep helped.

I’ve written a full account of my day over at Victoria’s Island if you want the nitty-gritty on what I’ve been up to.

As for the rest of the day? Well, it is tempting to go into Treviso and do the tourist thing. But I’m not going to do it. I want to make sure I’m well rested and ready for Saturday’s pre-ride and Sunday’s race. I suspect that I might be hit with some fatigue later this evening so I don’t want to make things worse. Think I’ll go set out on the amazing hotel terrace, take my book and just enjoy being in Italy. Tough not to go be a tourist for a few hours. Really tough. But my reason for being here is the World Cup. Treviso won’t be going anywhere. (Besides, I’d rather check out the city with Marc…)

Marc is on his way to Gloucester for New England World’s. Wish I could be with him. Love watching him race and I love racing at Gloucester. I’ll be racing with him in spirit this weekend. Best of luck to the rest of the Ottawa and Cyclery crew headed down to race. Massive thanks to Mike and Cathy for taking in Marc this weekend. Looking forward to reading the race reports.

Many many thanks to my sponsors – without whom this trip and season wouldn’t have been possible.

(written earlier this morning in Frankfurt)

So, I know I’m in the right place for me. Just saw a guy ride his bike through the Frankfurt airport. Yes, he was riding it. Not walking it. Not dragging it in a bike box. Pedaling through the terminal. Cool. Doubtful I’ll ever see this in an airport in North America…

So chilling out here in Frankfurt for a bit. Have kind of a long lay-over before my flight to Venice. It was either a 45 minute sprint through the airport or a 6 hour lay-over. I chose the 6 hour lay-over. Determined that this would help ensure that my trusty Stevens Super-Prestige bikes make it on the flight to Venice. Besides this is much less stressful for me. I’m sitting in a comfy chair in the Sbucks. Watching people. And being watched. This is what happens when you are wearing a compression shirt. As you know compression shirts are tight. And hot. Darn hot. Too hot to be wearing the comfy baggy shirt over top. So basically I’m naked from the waist up. Ah well, kind of used to this from spending a lot of time in spandex!

A crazy thing happened on the plane today. I was in the bathroom and quickly glanced at my reflection. I had the biggest grin on my face. I’m talking massive. Reality sunk in. I was on a plane. Making my way to Treviso, Italy because I’m racing in the World Cup on Sunday. How awesome is this? I really can’t believe it! I know it shouldn’t be a shock or surprise. I mean this is the path I’ve been working on for a while now. But when it all comes together the first time it is still a bit of shock.

I can’t really explain how happy I’m feeling right now. I just simply am. This whole trip feels right. It fits. What a feeling. Yes, there will be some craziness – putting together two bikes, driving in Italy, etc. But I’m not freaked out by it. I feel ready. I can handle the curve balls.

This is thanks in a large part to my number one supporter – Marc. This guy has my back every time I turn around. Words of encouragement. Advice. Stern words when require to shake me out of a fog. He is just so supportive, it really is overwhelming. Truly wouldn’t be here without him.

(now writing in real time from Hotel du Raggi)

Well, I made it. Long lay-over in Frankfurt combined with a one hour flight delay caused me to start to feel some serious fatigue. But hauling my gear through Marco Polo airport and driving gave me a second wind. Got here to the hotel without the trusty GPS. Not sure how I did it – followed some cryptic directions and the next thing I’m here.

Put the bikes together. Probably took longer than it should have but they are together now! Lucked out and was given an extra little room in which to store my bike boxes and bikes. The hotel staff are super friendly. Good supper here at the hotel. Tomorrow I’ll take the bikes out for a spin and then thanks to Christine V.’s husband, they’ll get a good once-over to make sure they are put together correctly.

So far things are really coming together. Got some emergency headset help from Vince over the phone. Thanks Vince – you saved the day. Now I think I’ll hit the hay. I’m beat. Thanks for the emails and messages of encouragement. I’ll be racing on Sunday knowing that so many people are cheering for me. This means a lot.

f you know me – personally or peripherally through this web site, you know that I struggle to manage race stress. In the past, I’ve had a tendency to let the perceived enormity and perceived expectations to get the better of me. Resulting in a rather high-strung, unsavory version of myself coming to the fore moments and hours before a race. This is not good. Wasted energy and emotion which could be channeled to the pedals and race course was being wasted. So this year, I vowed to be different. To be better.

Reasons for this are two-fold: I will race better if I’m not so keyed-up and I need to keep my stress down to keep my UC in check. So two very important reasons to get on top of this race stress business. Now, don’t get me wrong, I recognize that some race stress is a good thing – it shows that one is hoping to doing well and wants to achieve a solid performance. But at times this race stress, for me could get me wound up rather tight. Hence the vow.

I’m pleased to say that I’m two double race weekends into the season and I like to think I’ve done a pretty good job at handling the race stress cauldron. Yes, I still get a bit of a nervous stomach and my voice might get a bit more urgent at times. But overall, I’m entering the races with a completely different mind set and body awareness. I wish I could pinpoint three or four key things that I’ve done to change things. But for me I think it really has been a result of a slow but steady concerted effort over the summer and fall training periods of working at improving my own self-confidence.

It seems that this improved self-confidence has helped to take some of the fear out of racing. Since I believe in my abilities, my training, my nutrition, my equipment and my mental strength – I no longer have the crazy thoughts entering my brain. I’ve also tried to force myself to relax a bit. I used to stick to a pretty rigid race day plan. I realized this doesn’t work. As soon as one thing doesn’t go according to plan/schedule, everything else would be messed up. Now I approach the race weekends/days with a loose plan of how I would like things to unfold. I have a solid idea on what I’ll eat race day and when. But the rest of the day is flexible.

For example, take this past Sunday in Vermont. Normally, I’d get on the course after Marc’s race to get in a few more laps of the course. But since it was raining and damp, I made a last minute decision to wait until the elite warm-up period to get my last laps in. Cool. This was a change for me. In the past I would have gone out done the laps. Gotten cold and damp and fretted about being cold and damp. Instead I set the bike up on the trainer, spun my legs out, chatted with the folks around the car, got kited up and then hit the course for the elite warm-up. I arrived at the line loose, dry and confident with seeing the course minutes before the race start.

The other component for me that has helped to reduce my race stress are my keywords. Yes, keywords. I have a few personal keywords that I repeat to myself when training, when brushing my teeth, riding to work, sitting in the car, warming up and on the line. This helps me immensely. Kind of like a little race angel on my shoulder. I learned about doing this from various sports psychology books and podcasts. It works for me.

I’ve also worked hard to remove the word “expectations” from my vocabulary. I don’t check these web sites that try to guesstimate how I’ll finish. I don’t look at start lists. I don’t get psyched out by who is or isn’t there. Or even by someone else’s flash kit. I just show up and do my thing. Not an easy thing to do.

Of course, all this being said, I’m by no means perfect on race day. There will be times when the stress does get the better of me. But hopefully I’ll be able to recognize when this is happening and get on top of it.

So there you have it, my thoughts on race stress. I believe that race stress is very individual. Some people thrive on stress. Others do not. Determining what works for you is all part of becoming a complete athlete. Just as important as the training we do, the food we eat, and the equipment we ride.

It was wet. It was slippery. It was a good day to be a cyclo-cross racer in Williston, Vermont. I told everyone it wouldn’t rain today. Well, I was wrong. It rained. I think it rained all night and for a good part of the morning. But it was a warm rain… And besides I’m not made of sugar, so I won’t melt.

We had a great evening at our host’s house on Saturday. Much relaxing, story telling, ice cream eating, and general frivolity was had. I think everyone was a bit tired from the day of racing, bike race watching, hiking and barn sales. But this is what the weekend is for – to squeeze as much in and out as possible. Thanks again to our awesome hosts (Jen and Shane) for taking us in for the weekend and letting us take over their basement, fridge, living room and generally their house. It really was a treat to return to a house rather than a hotel room for the night. Thanks to Skip for helping us out and extending his family’s hospitality to us. Hopefully one day we can do the same.

So we woke up to rain. Oh well. Luckily we had packed our super MEC rain pants and had plenty of layers, gloves, hats, and shoes to get us through. Marc and I hit the race course pretty early to get in some laps since today we were racing on a new course. Glad we did this as there were some key sections that it helped to be aware of for the race. The pump track was back in today as were some more longer rather punishing climbs. All in all, another excellent course set-up by the organizers. Nice to race two back-to-back days at the same venue and have to different race courses.

Kicked off the day with Marc and Steve’s race. This was a blast. Lots of friendly faces in the pit to catch up with. A little bit of pit action for me with two bike changes for Marc. Marc had a couple of crashes today that messed up a very strong ride. He recovered well from the crashes and did an impressive job of putting himself in the hurt locker to ride to a strong finish. Steve had a strong ride as well finishing in the front of the race. Great ride guys! Always inspiring to watch you guys race and hear you talk about the race afterwards. Congrats to Mike and Kathy R. for their fine rides this weekend as well. (Thanks as well for the cheering!)

I chilled out after Marc’s race and pedaled in place on the trainer. Decided that with the rain I didn’t want to go out and get damp and cold again. Luckily with the New England Verge Races, there is a designated elite warm-up period so we have plenty of time to get on the course before we race. I did two laps before my race and arrived at the staging area with just a few minutes to spare. This worked out well – the course was fresh in my mind, my body was still warm, and my brain was not getting distracted with the nervous chatter. So my race was in the end a good one. The result on paper is not what I wanted. But I rallied well from two crashes and a flat tire all in the first lap of the race. I mentioned this in my race report but it needs to be reiterated here: many many thanks to Marc, Keirnan, Shane and Skip today. These guys literally saved my race today – from noticing the ripped tire on my race bike, to loaning me a wheel (thanks Keirnan!), to getting me my race bikes, running to the pit to let Marc know I would be pitting, to helping Marc out in the pit, and for just generally being out there in the rain and damp cheering for me and continually encouraging me. Thanks so much!

We took off from the race pretty quick as we wanted to make some stops at our favorite Burlington shops. We did some browsing around EMS, Barnes and Noble, and Small Dog Electronics and then hit up Moe’s for some tacos and Sbucks for a chai tea and we then we were off. Took our new favorite route home that includes a smooth ferry ride and slid into our drive way just before 10:00. Not bad. One load of laundry is done. Second load is in the washer. Dishwasher is churning away. Bags are all unpacked. Bikes are wiped down. Murphy is sitting here happy that we’re back. And now I’m going to go to bed. Another great weekend of racing, friends, and traveling. I always say that one of the best things about cyclo-cross for me is the community and this weekend I really felt it. People were super supportive of one another – helping out with problems, cheering, showing each other good race lines, and just generally being friendly. Good times were had.