Race reports

Race reports here they come….
Maple Ridge was a local race held by Local Ride, which had three races in two days. First was the road race, and in my humble opinion one on the tougher Canada races in the West. There was a good size field of women ready to tear it up. The road course was a lap course of 10km. We have to do seven laps in total. Oh how I hate lap courses, ‘cause you get to do the same hard stuff over and over and over again. It doesn’t just hurt once on a killer climb it hurts seven times. By the time that the five laps rolled around, I was in some major pain and was pretty close to cracking on the hills. The race wasn’t that exciting and finished in a group up hill sprint. Now that’s really never a good thing for me because my sprint is average and my hilling climbing is below average and put those two things together you don’t get above average that’s for sure.

The time trail was about 3 hours after the road race which doesn’t give a person much time to recover. But everyone is in the same boat so suck it up princess. The TT went, bad, terrible, it was one of the worst TT that I have done. I was anything but unhappy about it; it was like I was doing intervals and decide that I wasn’t going to work hard. I was pretty mad at my self but while riding there wasn’t much that I could do about it besides finish the race.

The Crit the next was tough; I wasn’t able to get in a break off the front so I tried to settle into the three spot in the main group. My legs weren’t feeling it so I really couldn’t get any good attacks in off the front. I tried on but I went wide on a corner and jumped the sidewalk… people went scrambling.

Wenatchee!!!
Wenatchee was so hot and warm for the whole time we were there, got a good sun tan. The TT was the first event and it was one of the best time trials that I have done this year. I this the reason why this one was a lot better then the others was that a) it was warm and b) I got a very good warm up in. The last few TT have been in cold wet weather and I think my legs just really cramp up in that weather. This TT was about 14km long and it was a fast course. I really enjoyed it. I didn’t get great places nor was I in the points but I was pleased with the feel of how I rode it.

Wenatchee is a neat little town which has a big river running through it. After the TT we were still really hot so we found a place on the river that had a dock and jumped in. The water was so cold that your hands went numb very fast but it was so nice. I really want to go to the beach now.

The crit was later the night and it was still muggy and hot. I knew that I had to do something in the crit because I wasn’t in the points and it was going to move up in placing I only had 30 minutes to do it. I made an attack early into the race and I was able to get away and was out front on my own for a couple minutes till one girl bridged up to be. We worked together for about 10 minutes or so till the group caught us. I was pretty cracked when the pack ate us back up and almost fell off the back of the group. I was able to hang in till the final sprint and I got 8th place which I was happy about but I would have like to have stayed away in the break.

Ah the road race… it was tough. Being a non hill climber when I see that there is an 8km climb in a course I shutter. With these types of climbs I have try to stay with the pack for as long as possible. I got dropped from the lead group on the first time on the climb about 6km into it. I was able to work very hard on the down hill and flat part and I caught the group of 10 rider. The only problem was that I caught them at the base of the climb… and the climb started and about 2km into it popped off the back again when a girl attacked. I never lost sight of the group on the climb, they were only about 50m in front of me but there was nothing that I could to catch them at this point. After the climb I time trialed after them for about 10km and I caught them with only about 7 km from the finish line. By this time there group have split into parts and there was a group on 5 girls up the road a ways. I was able to sprint a bit in the end got 9th place.

It was a good weekend I really enjoyed racing in nice weather.

Life as I know it

I’m not very good about keeping my blog updated; I seem to find other things to do instead of writing like watching TV and ya that’s about it. I’m usually too tired to think at the end of the day and therefore if I do try to write it doesn’t make any sense at all. An example of think would be “Rode bike today, legs were tired – thought about food, I need to pick up food, why is food so expensive here? Fruit apples and bananas, monkeys eat bananas – I wonder if they have monkeys in BC?...........” And there you have it, my mind jumps from one thing to another to coma blankness.

Living on my own is pretty different then from living at home. I never would have thought that I would have moved out at eighteen and technically I haven’t “moved out” but have just been living somewhere else for the past two month. I will be going home in the beginning of June which I’m pretty excited for. I will be so nice to see everyone again and not have to ride in the rain.

One thing that I hate, I know hate is a strong word but I really, really don’t like (you) rain. (I don’t know if you got that quote from the band Plain White T’s, but that song sums up the way I feel about the rain). Being a prairie girl we almost never have to ride in the rain – and if it does rain in Sask I stay indoors if I can help it. Since I’ve been out in BC I have started to melt in the rain and not in a good way. Give me wind, hills, cold, snow, ice, even heat (I really melt in heat too but I get a nice tan from that so that’s ok) but rain just kills me every time.

I’ve been getting a lot better at hills since I’ve been out here (well duh), there are not too many big long hills around where I am living in Abbotsford but I make do. My sprinting has come along way too. I feel that it’s only my time trialing at has legged a bit behind this year. Overall though I have been improving greatly from where I was last year. I have done more races in the States this year then I have in Canada. I got a late start on racing this year, I wasn’t sure it I was ready to move up to the cat ½ and start racing with the “big dogs”. I have only raced 4 stage races this year with my first race been in April. Last year I started racing in February which is very early I know but it would have been nice to maybe start racing is March so that when the time came the bigger races started I wouldn’t have feel so nervous.

I don’t have time to write any more right now, so I’ll save my race report for another day. If I forget here is a note to self – Race the Ridge and Wenatchee Stage Race. Reports MUST be written. There shouldn’t forget now.

Cheers
JG

Update

Well the Penticton camp is now over and base miles are done with for the mean time. The camp was pretty fun it was nice to see every one again. I got a little bit sick on the camp after being out in the rain and snow for a couple hours on one ride, but just took a rest day and I was ready to get back out there. Also Advil works wonders.

After the camp my mom was going to come pick me up in Penticton and we were going to drive up to Abbotsford on the Saturday but as mother nature had it, she made a blizzard in Saskatchewan. It was pretty crazy to hear some of the stories about the white out highways and crazy high winds. All I can say about that, is that I’m so glad that I wasn’t there when it happened. So I was a stuck in Penticton by myself for a while so I camped out in the hotel room watching TV. We were only a day late with going to Abbotsford which wasn’t bad.

I had my first stage race of the year a couple days ago. We drove down to Walla Walla Washington. I was pretty nervous for the whole race because it was going to be my first time racing as a cat ½ woman. It was a lot of fun being there. It really reminded me why I like racing and reminded me that I was crazy for liking racing and the pain that comes with it. We had a bit of a Saskatchewan reunion down in Walla Walla, there were a few familiar faces that I ran into.


JG

Train Camp day two

It was day two in Penticton today and we were looking for some good riding up into Oliver than onto Twin Lakes. The ride started and my bike was making noise and jumping gears every pedal stoke or so. We stop to check it out, I just thought that the gears were off but it turned out that my chain was bent. There was nothing to fit it with right at the moment so I thought that I could ride it to the next town that was 15km up the road. It was annoying, yes, a pain and a half in the rear end, yes. The noise of the chain was driving me crazy but I made it to the town without breaking the chain. Mike Horn had to take a couple links out of the chain which meant that I couldn’t use most of my gears in the big ring. I was hoping that I would have a new chain by tomorrow but I just check that the one bike shop in Penticton is close on Mondays… Joy, oh well I’ll have to deal with it one more day. Grind or spin are my choices for tomorrow! Who needs middle gears, not me!

The trip out two OK Falls was a long and tiring trip. Seventeen or so hours it took to make it here from Regina Saskatchewan. I was going crazy by… mmm 3 hours in. I wasn’t a good start to the day. I ended up watching movies for about 5 hours of the trip, read a mag front to back and when my eyes couldn’t focus anymore I stared out the window for hours. The mood in the van was pretty mellow; it was sleep, talk, and look out the window. It was a slow trip because of the van’s monster intake of fuel. The first few gas stops were only after about 2 and a half hour. I was so nice to get to the condos and crawl into bed… I was so sleepy and tired.

Well I’m going to talk about the weather now, groan! I know. Well the weather here hasn’t been treating us that nice. The first day of riding it snow and rain… in other words it was wet and miserable. I wasn’t looking forward for a wet ride but it turned out not to be that bad, we missed the worst of it. Today it was cloudy but no rain… hopefully there will be no rain for the rest of the trip, fingers cross. On the way home the wind really picked up and bit back at us. Mother Nature seems like she can’t make up her mind this year.

Well this is it for now; I can barely keep my eyes open…..

JG

Only Weather

The weeks have been uneventful from the last time I wrote. The weather has been warming up bit by bit. Today was the first rain of the year. I was very happy to be around to see it otherwise I wouldn’t have believed it. The weekend was beautiful though, got lots on riding in, about 9 hours in total. The days all have been very windy but that’s spring in Saskatchewan. It seem like it’s almost t-shirt weather…. Wow this is lame talking about weather.

I’m off the Penticton in a couple days for the Sask Cycling climbing camp which should be fun. I hope to get lots of miles in and get faster at climbing and not go backwards for now on. I could touch on the weather and say that it’s going to be cold and wet but I won’t because I’m not going to talk about the weather any more.

Well this is all for now, hopefully I have more to talk about other then the weather…

JG

Spring Riding

Well I'm back in Saskatoon and the weather has been treating us great by Saskatchewan standers. I've been able to ride outside twice on the weekend and besides getting a bit dirty and toes freezing a little bit, it’s been fun. I think that the cars that drive beside us think that we are just a little to keen for spring to come. But the snow is melting and will hopefully (fingers crossed) will continue to. Looking at the weather forecast says that we will get into the low teen by the beginning of next week, then in the spare of two day drop to -4c and freeze everything once again and make a nice icy skating rink of the city!

Riding outside this spring seems hard, I found that it was much easier to ride in warmer weather and not be as tired. But I guess that you have to take the good with the bad. I’ve been riding my cross bike, with weights about the 23lb mark, its like biking with two people holding onto your ankles. It’s heavy and slow but it makes you work harder, or just makes you more tired, and hate that bike more. I think it’s the latter. Haha.

Today was a busy day for me; I rode for about 3 and a half hours then grabbed a bite to eat and then was off to the pool. I still swim and run in the winter, I find that its good cross training and it gives me more options other then the bike. But as soon as the snow all melts or that it becomes nice enough to ride all the time outside those other sports get put on the back shelve.

Life is like riding a bike, If it's easy , it's a sign that you're going downhill!


Cheers
JG

Tucson

Well it has been about a week since I got to Tucson and started riding. We have been very lucky with the weather here; it has been above 20c every day when riding. Our hotel is great, with pool and hot tub, but it’s a bit far from rides. We have to ride through the city for an hour or so to get out.

First day was mount lemon. Talk about easing into it; that was a slap in the face to try to climb that after 3 months on the trainer. It hurt; I hadn’t climbed a hill for probably 6 months. I was pretty dead after it.

I saw a funny commercial on TV, it is for a California milk co. and the cow says “guess we’re not in Saskatchewan anymore” I don’t know but I found it funny. Sorry this was kind of off the subject.

I wasn’t feeling that fresh for the next day of riding. It was a beautiful ride out to Gate Pass, and the view from top of the mountain. But coming from the prairies I haven’t been outside much, and just being out in the fresh air so much was tiring.

Cheers
JG