Italy

Oh wow that’s all I can say, I’m so bad with keeping up with writing and updating my blog. Though in my defense I did break my computer screen and have to order a new one, but at the same time we did have three other computers in the house. I guess I can continuo off where I let off.

ITALY

The Race - We went to Italy for world juniors; it was thousand times better than going to Moscow the year before. The races didn’t go as well as I had hoped, looking back on the races I think that I didn’t get the right training this year that I need to do well. I was injured lots and sick about every two months like clockwork. In the month before worlds I was mostly was racing and resting and traveling there are not much training for Worlds.

The Food – The food we ate at our hotel was amazing, tasty and delicious, though we did have pasta lease once a day. When I got home I never ate pasta for three weeks. There are a couple nasty story about food from Italy. I ordered fried fish, thinking that I would be a fillet of fish. What came to the table was a school of baby fish with eyes looking at me, fins and everything. Let’s just say that I had a panic attack and couldn’t eat anything that night.



The Landscape – Italy is beautiful, whether you are in Roma or the seaside of Gradamara. I have the pleasure of being on both coast and I must say I love the “east coast” and there beaches. I only got to the beach once in the day time. That one time on the beach I burned so bad.



Well that’s it for now, Italy in a nut shell

JG

France

FRANCE




We were in France only 5 days for the race Tour feminine de limousine. This race didn’t go so well for me thus no race report on my blog. Here the deal, the food there wasn’t great; the French really aren’t naturally that great of cooks. So I got sick from either the water that I was drinking or the food. I did the first stage thinking at the start that I not feeling good was just nerves. Boy was I wrong. I was in some major pain and it was from my stomach. I’m on this big loop that’s only about 80km long. I can’t quit simple because the fact where the hell would I go? I’m in the wild countryside of France and the finish is 80km away and that’s where the Canadian team is. I had to choice but to finished.



Feeling no better the next day I raced the time trial. I hadn’t eaten well the day before and was pretty much cracked from the long road race so my legs had nothing in them on this day. I was climbing hills in my easiest gear still barely making up them… they were not hard hills either, people could big ring them but I was just so done.



We didn’t get to look around at all while we were there so I think I kind of missed the true beauty of france.

Cheers
JG

Belgium

BELGIUM




Belgium is a neat place to see, the culture that they have gives a small town feel. While I was there I stay in a town call Tielt-Winge and it was a super small town. But here is the interesting place Eddie Mechrx was born not too far from the house we were in only about a 1km or so away.

Everyone rides cruiser bikes in Belgium, the older and more rust on the bike and the flatter the tires the cool the bike is. If doesn’t matter if you are 10 or 80 years old, everyone has one. At the house they had a couple of old cruiser bikes that we would ride to go to the eurospar, with is the local grocery shop. I loved ring those bikes, it make me feel pretty European and I couldn’t wipe the stupid grin of my face.



We didn’t do much in Belgium and we were bored lots are live was kind of a ride, eat, internet, sleep routine. One of the days we went to Leuven to the square. It was a beautiful place to go and see with huge big castle churches and coffee shops on every corner. That day we were in search of vegan food for one of the girls. Being vegan in Belgium quite tricky, being vegan in France while “camping” worst. I could never be vegan just because there are too many good kinds of food that I enjoy eating way too much.

Cheers
JG

Europe

My Europe trip is coming to an end, I have seen many places and met lots of new and interesting people.  I have been to Holland, Belgium, France and Italy in the 5 weeks that I had been away. As much as a love seeing new and exciting places I am glad to be coming home soon.  Living in hotel and eatting meals out everyday is not all its cracked up to be.  I am dying for some Canadian food.  Food in Europe has been okay to say the lease, only a million times better then Russia but you can't beat our Canadian cooks! Today was the first day that I had a good salad, a salad that I could eat and say wow I ate something green.  Itlay is not big on salads or veggies for that matter. Pasta, bread, pizza, I think I had enough carbs for the rest of the year.

I don't had wireless at thsi hotel that I am staying at, but writing this from the hotel computer. European keyboards or a bit different from the one that we have in Canada, it took me a bit to figure out how to work it, so please bear with me on the grammer. 

Italy is a wonderful place, one of the nicest that I have been. I have traveled from one coast to the other.  I must say the I prefer the Italy country side to the city.  Rome was nice to see but i would never want to live there in a million year. Its too busy and the people aren't as nice.

This is about it for now, cause I really don't have time to write anymore because it is time for bed.  I have a early flight in the morning to Brussels, Belgium.  Going to be one step closer to going home.  I will try to get more writen up soon as there is a lot to tell.

ciao
JG

Dwars Doors De Westhoek

       Dwars Doors de Westhoek was the race Team Canada did on Sunday. This race was combine of 5 pro teams, 2 National Team (yeah Canada) and about 14 club teams for a total for 141 racers. This is the largest group that I have ridden in to date. I didn’t find that there are much of a problem riding in this group besides the fact that if you aren’t continuously moving up you will get shot out the back. This was one of the technical road races that I have done; it had about a million corners in the first lap with was about 50-60km long. When the girls were taking the corners everyone would be slamming on their breaks creating one big yo-yo motion. At more the one point in the race I was sliding kind of sideways with the breaks almost locked up to avoid the girls in first. Remarkably there wasn’t that many crashes in the race and most happened towards the end of it. I was never in a crash nor did I see any, I was told about the crashes in the end from some of the Canadian girls that went down.

     The roads were very narrow I found, they were like paved dirt roads, there are only about enough room for four girls to ride beside each other and then there would be no room to get by. In other words it was tight.

      There are five King of the Mountains in the race all which were in the first 35km of the race. They weren’t very long but some did have a max grade of 13%, I got dropped on the first hill which they all powered up. Me and a group of girls chased to get back on and caught on by the time we hit the fourth hill.

     Once we finished the one big loop we started on a small 10km loop which we had to do 7 times. Part of that loop consisted of, not cobbles but these bricks that are damn close to cobbles. I forget what the words in is French. There are about 2.km of these ‘bricks’ along the start and finish line and feed zone. I have no idea guys can do a whole race on them; I would just get shake to bits and fall off my bike – two km of them was enough for me.

      This race was one of the hardest things I have done. I don’t think I have ever hurt that much in a race before. My heart rate at one point in the race hit 199bpm – Now I know a lot of people would say that that’s not that high for my age, but I have never, ever seen numbers that high for my heart rate. I highest HR that I have seen in the past was 193 and that was in a VO2 max and a time trail. My first reaction when I saw those numbers was ‘oh my god I’m gonna die’.

     It was quite hot out and along with the distance and speed I was really starting to suffer after about 80km’. I ended up finishing with the main pack and placed 76th. Only 91 people got classified at the end of the race, that means that the 50 people either didn’t finish, got pulled or where 5% behind the winners time.

 
       I was so glad when the race was finished and couldn't wait to get off the 'Bricks'. The Bricks that the bikes are on in the picture above is like the stuff we had to ride on but worst. This race was really an eye opener to the racing in Europe and it shows me that I can handle it. I may not be the fast or the strongest but I can suffer it out and mentally not crack till after the race.
          We are off tomorrow morning at 6 am to France for a stage race, Tour Feminin en Limousin. There will be one time trial and 3 road races. The courses are very hilly and it is most likely going to be super hot down there. It’s going to be a hard couple of days




Cheers for now.



JG

little bit foggy

Now I really don’t have anything new to talk about but I’m bored so I decided to write a bit. I won’t talk about weather that subject has been dried out like an old….. I’ll leave that blank, haha. My brain is in a real slow mode right now, I’m having a hard time keeping one thought going and writing it down fast enough that I remember it. I had a nap today and I’m now wondering if that is the cause of it… damn nap but it felt so good when I woke up. But I now just can’t seem to get over this dreaming foggy state. I’m going to have to quit writing because it’s just too hard, I might have to stop and watch family guy the most mindless show around.

JG

Belgium

I have made it to Belgium in one piece and so did my bikes though the airline did manage to break my monster of a bike box. How they did this I have no idea; they would have had to through it out of the plane to bend it like they did. I was hoping that since I paid 550$ to get my bike on the plane they would have taken better care of it. Never fly Delta they are crap, so expensive for bikes to fly international. It didn’t have a good flight never slept at all.


My first flight was from Saskatoon to Minneapolis, and it was on a small plane with only one flight attended. I was on the same flight as a bunch of pro weight borders. Of course I didn’t get a seat next to them, I got a seat next to an old 85 year old man, that couldn’t see and couldn’t hear. And if he wasn’t 85 year old I would have thought that he was trying to feel my ass up by “searching “for the seatbelt. Yuck….



Belgium is a very neat place to see – very European of course. The people here are friendly and make an effort to help you. The first day we got here we had a major thunder storm and the rain was coming down in sheets. I never saw rain quite like that is such a short time. The house we are staying in is more like a loft; it’s pretty nice and homey. The first night jet lag hit me bad I woke up at around 4 Belgium time and was up for about an hour and half before I got tired again and went back to bed.



The riding around here is super nice though I got shaken to bit from the rough roads today. The roads here are very rough but there are interesting things to look at along the way. The change of scenery is refreshing from the prairie plains. It is very flat here like Saskatchewan with a few popping rollers. The last couple of days here have been very winding, not that different from Sask but combine that with rough roads it can be quite difficult.



The first race here is on Sunday at 2 o’clock and it’s a 130km, which is the longest race I have will have to do and have done it this year. It’s a UCI 1.2 race which I must admit that it’s kind of scary. There are going to be about 170 women in the race which is by far the biggest race that I have ever been in.

dat is het voor nu
(thats it for now)


Cheers

JG