With the end of the mtb race season looming, Ken and I immediately started thinking about our plans for 2011, and found out about a new race on the Canadian stage race scene. There is a nicely designed website up already, and with sponsors like Hammer Nutrition and support from Deadgoat Racing, it seems legit enough. But to find out more, I caught up with the man with the plan, Mark Kaltenbach, for some bikeridr Q&A. Here’s the low-down:

What made you decide to organize your own stage race?
I have a background in event organization, specifically in Triathlon. After doing the BCBR in 2008, I kept thinking about how great it would be to have a three day event that you could host over a long weekend. In Fernie, last September, it hit me that this was the perfect venue. Fernie has a multitude of trails of such varying terrain and all of the facilities that a multi-day race would need to be self-sufficient. The warmth and hospitality in Fernie definitely helps. It was then that I started to organize the Furious 3 multi-stage Mountain Bike Race. At first I thought that I would host the race in 2010, but I quickly figured out that it would be a rush to get it together and organized properly so I changed the agenda and decided the inaugural event would be on the weekend of July 1 to 3 of 2011.

How is the Furious 3 going to be different from other stage races in western Canada?
Rather than being a race that goes from one location to another, Furious 3 begins and ends each day in The City of Fernie. The goal here is to make a race that is ‘friend and family’ accessible. The racers can bring their friends and the whole family to support them and enjoy the race and the festivities surrounding the race. This also allows racers to choose how they want to experience the event. They can camp and eat hotdogs cooked over the camp fire or they can stay at 5 star hotels and eat at fancy restaurants every night. Our biggest mandate is to support the organizations such as The City of Fernie, The Fernie Mountain Bike Club and Trails Alliance, The Elk Valley Hospital in Fernie and all of the local businesses and the economy of Fernie that support us. We will also strive to have as much single track as possible, which really isn’t that hard to do in Fernie. There are so many unique aspects of Furious 3. We are a race for the person that doesn’t want to, or can’t take a week or more off , or just doesn’t have cash to pony up for one of the longer races. Although, I’m guessing, after doing a 3 day race, a lot of them will be looking at doing the longer races as well.

Do you see yourself as direct competition with the Transrockies, or BC Bike Race? If so, how are you going to carve out your piece of the pie?
I don’t see us as competition for the other multi-day stage races that are currently offered. In fact the goal here is to feed those races with more athletes to sign up for their races. Our date was partially picked due to its proximity to TR. Furious 3 will take place approximately 5 weeks before the TR. Thus anyone doing TR would be able to use Furious 3 as a warm up, or practice race to get ready for their larger goal. There are also a lot of people out there that want to get into doing longer races, but need that stepping stone to get them to where they feel comfortable signing up for BCBR or TR.

What type of a course can we look forward to?
The course will be predominantly single track with mostly Blue rated type trails, trails that pretty much any mountain biker can do without too much trouble. But for those who are looking for some challenges there are some more challenging uphill and downhill technical sections, all of which will be walkable for less experienced riders. So far the only challenge has been choosing from the plethora of available trails to use and how to link them together. The City of Fernie has been easy to work with and the locals have welcomed us and been more than accommodating. I can’t believe how many phone calls and emails I’ve had from locals asking how they can help.

Is there a reason you’re only looking for 200 riders in 2011?
There are a couple of reasons. It is our first year and I want to make this the best possible experience for the athletes without extending our resources. I also want to show BC parks and The City of Fernie that we want to build this as an ongoing event year after year and that we will maintain, rebuild and support the ecology and economy of Fernie and the area. Also one of the days will mostly take place on BC Crown Lands and we are currently in discussions about how many people we can have on the trails at any one time. If registration goes crazy then I will be able to show that we do have the interest and that we will be able to backup our mandate and we may be able to allow a few more racers either in 2011 and/or moving forward into 2012.

Registration opens in just a few days, Friday September 17^th, 2010. And, like Mark said, there are only 200 spots available. The race dates are July 1 to 3 of 2011. Check out the Furious 3 site here.

No related posts.

Sadly, as August makes way for September, the mountain bike race season comes to a close and many racers will be hanging up their team kits until the spring. But, with the cooler temperatures rolling in, if you’re one of the race-addicted and you listen closely, you can already hear the foreboding call of Cross! Ahh… Yes! Cyclocross, the demented sport of racing rigid framed bikes, with skinny tires and cantilever breaks over loamy, grassy knolls, through sand pits, up stairs, and over wood plank barriers… How could you turn that down?!

This season I’m back for more punishment, and thanks to River Valley Cycle, this half of Bikeridr will be using the right tool for the job, racing in style on a sweet 2010 Kona Major Jake.

“The preferred bike of our Orange Crush cyclocross team. Yes, those talented and perversely fit Kona cross racers Ryan Trebon, Wendy Simms, Erik Tonkin and Barry Wicks. Lungs and legs that have been tearing up the North American cyclocross scene for the past few years. Kona Race Light Scandium Butted frame, an assortment of beautiful, super light, major fast components, and you’ve got our top of the line, competition crushing cross bike. If you’re thinking about spending three times as much for a carbon CX race bike, reconsider and think about getting two of these and hiring a mechanic to keep the other one clean in the pits.” – Kona

Hopefully, combined with me being a year wiser, and maybe a little fitter than last year, I’ll do the bike some justice out there. Wish me luck! In any case, it will be awesome getting to race on such a killer CX machine, and the bike will be for sale through River Valley Cycle at a sweet demo-deal price afterwards! So if you or someone you know is looking to pick up a new CX rig, you can let me know, or contact Syd at the shop for all the deats.

Wonder what Cyclocross is? Check out Barry Wicks from team Kona in this trailer for ‘The Cyclocross Meeting’:

This year will only be my second season so I can’t claim to be an expert in any way. I did, however, learn a lot last year and in most cases, I learned it the hard way. So if this is going to be your first season of Cross, here are a couple tips, so you hopefully don’t need to repeat my mistakes:

1. Cyclocross races are short, it’s true, at least by cross-county mountain bike standards. But don’t be fooled by the measly 45 minute race time. Be ready for an all out, lung exploding, leg crippling, dead sprint pace for the whole 45 minutes. There aren’t any big downhill sections in Cross races, so you can’t rely on these for recovery time like you can in an mtb race. The courses are also designed to be twisty, so that you can’t really ever carry any speed, or coast. You’re almost always breaking into a turn, and then accelerating back out. This start/stop pattern lends almost no opportunity for recovery. My tip: although it’s a sprint, you still need to pace yourself. So head out and see what it feels like to try and sprint, and be ‘on the gas’ for 45 mins straight before you do your first race. In my first race, I wasn’t ready for this at all. End result was me going out as hard as I could off the start, and then blowing up 20 mins in. Woooo! Good times.

2. The ground in the fall can be grippy and dry, wet and slick, or even hard and frozen. For this reason, my tip is to pay attention to your tire pressure and don’t be afraid to run them soft. I ran my tires too hard all season, thinking I wanted ‘rolling efficiency’, but the end result was, more often than not, me not having the grip I needed to make the tight turn, climb short but steep hills and hold a line on the off-camber side hills. Let’s just say I took a lot of spills. Woooo! More good times. Also look into toe cleats for your shoes. Gordo loves these things, so they must be good, and your shoes probably come ready, and almost any soccer cleat should work.

3. A major part of what makes Cross, Cross, is the use of man-made obstacles. Sand pits, wooden barriers, bridges, and stairs can all be part of the course. Though sometimes a sand pit is ridable, the rest if these obstacles typically involve mounting and dismounting. So, my tip is that you practice this before your first race, because there is a right way, and a wrong way to do it. When you’re in a tight group of other racers, stopping, getting off your bike and then jumping the barrier won’t make you any friends, and likely cause a pile up. You need to know how to dismount on the fly. Here is a video on how to do this properly.

4. If you’ve never ridden Cross, and you’re just looking to try it out for a race, you can use your mountain bike. I didn’t know this, so I tried to fit out my road bike with knobby tires and race with that. Needless to say, it didn’t really work that well. Road bikes and Cross bikes, though looking similar, have different geometry, as well as different wheels and gearing that make the Cross bike a much more suitable tool for the job.

I hope some of that will be helpful to someone out there. Like I mentioned, I’ve only got one season under my belt so I can’t offer too, too much in the way of sage Cross advice. So if you’re a seasoned Cross racer, and you’re reading this, feel free to add your two cents.

Last season I found that most of the Cross racers I recognized were mainly only the ‘faster’ mtb racers (Sport and up). I didn’t see a lot of Novice mtb racers at all. This season, I hope more of you will come out. Give it a try. Like I said, you can ride your mountain bike for the first couple races, so there isn’t anything holding you back. Fall is by far my favourite time of year to ride, so let’s get out there! The race season continues!

For the ABA Cross season schedule click here.

Related posts:

1. Disc Brakes in Cyclocross
2. Cyclocross Is Sooooo Bleepin’ Hard
3. Dairy Queen Double Dipper

This August marked another chapter in the Bikeridr saga… A chapter where paths diverge, where each man is forced to make his own way, to etch his own destiny. You read correctly… This August brought the TR3 to the Bikeridr boys.

We knew it was going to be an entirely new grab bag of pain, suffering and epic awesomeness (yes, I just said that) compared to last years Transrockies. But before we get started – A quick shout out to all our readers who came up and said hi:

Thanks so much! We really appreciate it!!

Fernie is well known for its world famous singletrack riding. Designed by multi-time TransRockies Finisher and Fernie trail-builder extrordinaire, Pat Gilmar, stage one will highlight some of the best and funnest singletrack in Fernie. To minimize congestion on the narrow trails, this stage will be a time trial.

Sheldon’s stage wrap-up

Starting in Fenie this year, seemed like a great idea.
 
Great little mountain town, with world-class riding, what could be better? For me though, because the event + teams were all spread out over the town with people staying in different hotels, the camp being way down at the school, the registration over at the Community Hall and the start/finish line downtown, I felt that day one was missing something. For lack of a better word, it was missing a sense of ‘critical mass’, and seemed a little ‘disconnected’. Of course, I’m comparing this with last year at Panorama Village, where everything appeared so well contained and was within easy walking distance.
 
For me, the Time Trail scenario only compounded my feeling that the event lacked cohesion, with solo TR3 riders and TR7 teams going out at all times of the day, spanning from early morning, until early afternoon. My start time was 1:43pm, which wasn’t too bad because both Sam (Mothana), and Ken (Hurd) went out just minutes before me. It had been raining all night and morning, so standing on the start line watching other riders come in, covered head to toe in mud brought back some vivid memories from 2009. But, lucky for me by the time I rolled out for my lap, the rain had pretty much slowed to a drizzle, and I even saw some sun :-D
 
The TT course itself in my opinion, was nothing short of AWESOME! The course designers did a great job putting it together. Huge climbs, including the Hyperventilation Trail, followed by incredible Fernie single-track downhill – and the mud just made it all that much more fun. During the final KMs, I had too many close calls to count, as I slipped and slid my way down the muddy mountain. Unfortunately though, just like many other racers that day, I had some mechanical issues right from the start, with dreaded ‘chain suck’ and some shifting problems. Looking back, it was pretty funny actually because I had passed Sam not 15 minutes into my lap, as he stood, stopped on the side of the tail, trying to get his already muddied drive-train to comply. Then it wasn’t until Check Point #2 and hours later that I saw him again when he surprised me and caught up! At that point, I’d been stopping off-and-on, fighting with my chain as well, but just quickly cleaning it off by spraying it down with my water bottle. To add to the excitement, Mike (Sarnecki) and Mike (Blennerhassett) showed up at the same time, so I hammered it from CP #2, trying to stay in front of all three of them. I knew Mike and Mike were bound to catch me, but I still had to give it a go! And, well, sure enough they did, leaving me with Sam still to worry about.
 
All I can say is, what goes around comes around, so just like I’d passed Sam at the beginning of the stage, there I was stopped on the side of the trail with only a few KMs left to go as Sam flew by me! Hahah… Karma, baby! Karma! I watched him disappear down the trail as I emptied the last of my water bottle in a desperate spray to get my rear derailleur to finally release. I then decided to just stick my bike into a high gear and ride it in pretty much as a single speed to avoid any more mishaps. I hammered as hard as I could, trying to catch him, but just watched as Sam crossed the finish line in front of me as I sprinted, legs and lungs burning, down main street… Good times!
 
Stage Time: 3:17:35 | Place: 55/90 (Open Men Category)

Ken’s stage wrap-up

The climbing gets underway early with a long spin up to coal creek summit, followed by some incredible new singletrack descending back to the Elk Valley. A mix of rolling trails and road bring you to the town of Sparwood, where busses will be waiting to take you to our camp up the road in Elkford.

Sheldon’s stage wrap-up

Leaving Fernie in the AM after a classic Transrockies big breakfast was a great way to start the day. We knew we had a lot of climbing ahead of us (1,900 metres). I felt pretty good after Stage 1, so I pushed a fair pace up the mountain to CP #1. This was all fire road, so all very straight forward. After CP#1 though, we started the single track climb, and the ground was still pretty darn soft and soupy. I had a hard time turning the pedals over through this section. To add insult to injury, my drive train decided to start giving me grief again as well. I had to hike-a-bike for a little while in here, but thankfully the top wasn’t all that far and the amazing Porky Blue descent was there waiting for me. I think that was the best, and most fun descent I’ve EVER ridden! It was fast, tacky, steep and if you could manage to force yourself to pry your eyes away from the trail ahead as you screamed down, the views were stupendous! This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had on a bike:-D
 
Down at the bottom though, I was quickly reminded that in the Transrockies, there is usually always more climbing. In this case the 30KMs of rolling fire road into Sparwood that nearly left me a broken man on the side of the trail. I’m still not sure if I wasn’t eating, or drinking enough earlier in the day, OR maybe it was the 1,700 meters of climbing we’d already done that day, but this section was a struggle and a slog… Many of the teams I’d passed on the downhill caught me and slowly rolled away into the distance as I grimaced and strained to keep pace. This was even despite a very generous (Open Men) team that caught up and said, ‘Jump on! Let’s Go!’ offering a pull. I managed to hang on to them for 10-12 KMs or so, but eventually had to let them go. When I rolled across the line in Sparwood, let’s just say I was happy and relieved.
 
Ken, just having had his slashed open knee stitched up was still there to greet me with a grin, even though he’d come in well over an hour before me. That, was a shocker!!!! He’d beaten me be quite a bit on Stage 1, but I’d honestly thought little of it. Maybe he’d just had a good day? Maybe my mechanical issues had slowed me down more than I’d thought?  Stage 2 told me otherwise… Ken was riding like the 6 Million Dollar Man and there was going to be no friendly rivalry in the standings. I will admit, this was a tough pill for me to swallow in some ways. After all, my goal is always to beat Ken. I mean, what more noble cause could there be, haha! So to see the gap he’d stretched out, and to know it wasn’t just a matter of me digging a little deeper to make up the time was discouraging. At the same time, I was also both amazed and proud of my buddy! I think he was just as stunned with his performance as I was actually, but there was certainly no question, he was racing at a new level, and it was awesome to see. I on the other hand I’d just had a mediocre day out there.
 
Stage Time: 5:24:47 | Place: 64/85

Ken’s stage wrap-up

Next, cross the spine of the continent – the Continental Divide – into the province of Alberta and the vast parklands and trail system that make up Kananaskis Country. Expect a sharp, steep ascent to reach the max elevation of the week on the Continental Divide, and then enjoy a fun descent to finish at the scenic Etherington Creek Campground, and our first Wilderness Camp.

Sheldon’s stage wrap-up

Tent life is ‘okay’ but not ideal for getting solid rest, at least for me. I woke up tired, stiff and sore, but still optimistic. It was Stage 3/3, the sun was out that morning, and you could feel the air quickly warming up. I had to be happy about that, given the number of cold and wet TR mornings I’ve ‘enjoyed’. My bike was back in working order too, having left it with the mechanics for a drive-train teardown so I felt more than ready to finish the 2010 TR3 off.
 
This stage was really broken three parts: 40km of fire road with very little climbing, followed by an intense climb with hike-a-bike, and lastly a brilliant descent down the backside into the Etherington finish. My strategy, knowing that Ken was racing in another category, was to just try and stay ahead of my pal Sam. After two days of racing, I only had 17 minutes on him, so really anything could evaporate my lead… My plan then was to try and take it easy on the first 40KM, knowing the climb would be the make it or break it point for me. Sam is a faster downhiller, so I had to get to the top of the climb first, or I was sunk.
 
Sam and I rolled out in sight of each other the whole first 40KM. He got to check point #1 just before me, while I rolled into check point #2 just before him. I scarffed down as much food as I could, and quickly cleaned my drive-train to hopefully prevent any of the issues I’d had the days before. Then I set out ahead of Sam. Right away, it was tough going. Muddy, rocky, wet single-track that followed and crossed a creek for quite a while and then ‘IT’ started… We’d been warned the night before in the Stage Briefing, about the trail up the mountain. Organizers let us know much of it would be hike-a-bike and over grown with Alder bushes. Well, they weren’t kidding… This trail went up and up and up for what felt like an eternity. And the Alders were thick enough to cover the trail most of the time so you were pushing the bikes through these branches, getting smacked and whipped – not that much fun. Fortunately, they thinned out after a while, and then the climb was just rocky, muddy and steep. Some sections were even ridable, but for the most part this was a pure hike-a-bike experience like none I’ve ever encountered. It was just one false summit after another, and when I came around the last bend, thinking it was the top, to look up to see there was more, I honestly could not believe my eyes. I had to stop and squint to see if those were actually racers, way, way, way up near the top of this cut line. Sure enough, those little dots were racers, and after already hiking my bike further than I’d ever done in my life, I tossed my bike on my back and started up again.
 
This was one of those true physical tests though, the kind you wouldn’t easily take on if you really knew what was involved before hand. But once you’re faced with it, you bear down and push on, and when you do finally get to the top, after hours of carrying and pushing your bike, you take a second to look around and think, ‘WOW! I can’t believe I just did that! And look where I am…’  This, to me, made it all worthwhile, and I still had the descent to look forward to. Sadly, on the way up, my rear break had started making a metallic clinking and squealing sound. I’d stopped to look at it, sprayed it out and sure enough, my break pads were gone… One of the Course Marshals (Ambassadors) stopped to take a look and confirmed I’d worn them down to the metal. I was furious with myself! ‘Why hadn’t I gotten them checked the night before?!’, or better yet, ‘Why hadn’t I checked them myself?!’ Now I’d have to ride down the backside of a mountain with only my front break, and by the looks of it, I only had about a 1/3 of breakpad life left there!
 
Well, by the time I’d made it to the top, and started that downhill, it didn’t take me long to pretty much say ‘screw it!’. I tried to maneuver down using my front break only, but that trail was seriously steep and rocky, bouncing me all over the place. I needed to use both breaks. So, despite the crazy loud metal-on-metal SQUEEEEEEEAAAAALLLLL!!!!, I jammed on those breaks where ever I needed it. I figured if I melted the rooter clean off the bike, then I melted the rooter clean off the bike! Fortunately, I got to be bottom ‘sans’ incident. The worst part, other than the horrendous noise, was I had no breaking modulation on the back. I’d apply the break and there’d be nothing, nothing, nothing and then full lock out and skid out! This made for some ‘interesting’ moments to say the least, but once I hit the fire roads I was able to just let it fly all the way into the Etherington Creek campground, which was a truly beautiful spot to finish – remote, thick Rocky Mountain wilderness all around. That was fantastic!
 
Stage Time: 6:17:44 | Place: 67/85
Total Time: 15:00:07 | General Classification: 63/83

Ken’s stage wrap-up

So, with 3 days in the bank how did we feel about things? How do the full Transrockies and the TR3 compare?

Sheldon’s stage wrap-up

Ken’s stage wrap-up

Related posts:

1. Ready for the TransRockies?!?!
2. Top Ten for 2010
3. Not TR3 ready – yet

With both Sheldon and I having fairly serious commitments this summer it just wasn’t in the cards for another full fledged 7-day epic. As we pondered what this summer had in store for us we eventually determined that the only logical alternative we had was the TR3 – well, as logical as mountain bike stage racing is ;-).

Granted we may not be officially racing together this year, but we’re still Bikeridr teammates… Here’s how we’re feelin’ from the north and south of Alberta!

You’re racing for less than half of the time/distance from last year (3 days from 7), how has your training differed this year from last?

With only 3 stages, which one(s) are you most stoked for, most apprehensive about? Do you even care?

What’s the game plan going in – Are you treating this as a race, or as more-so an epic weekend ride?

Do you anticipate being satisfied with a 3-day experience, or do you think you’ll be left wanting?

How are you feeling about this being a solo endeavour?

Related posts:

1. Are you ready for a stage race?
2. TransRockies – Alberta Bound
3. Not TR3 ready – yet

As July slowly draws to a close, we say farewell to the Tour de France. Groggy and hungover from Tour withdrawal, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the past 3 weeks, 3,642 kilometres and 91 hours. Hopefully you’ll give me your thoughts as well!

I obviously can’t speak for anybody but myself, but I found this Tour fascinating… It had all the ingredients for high drama and it delivered in spades:

• An aging champion, coming back for one more round
• A young Canadian, putting on an stellar performance
• A man who many love to hate, but is without question the ‘fastest man on two wheels’
• A dropped chain, a controversial attack

An aging champion, coming back for one more round

I don’t think anybody can argue that things didn’t really pan out in Lance’s favour this year. Things started optimistically with an amazing 4th in the opening time trial but seemed to quickly decline. After all the drama whipped up by the media, watching things play out was far from fulfilling. While, personally I don’t think Lance had the legs to win the Tour this year (evidenced by his inability to shake his break away groupo on Stage 16), I would have much preferred him loosing in a test of mettle, rather than succumbing to crashes and mechanicals.

With Lance firmly stating unequivocally that this is his last Tour my main fear is not for the peloton, or for Lance, but for cycling in North America. I simply hope that our sport can continue it’s growth without it’s one universally known cyclist sitting in the limelight. Regardless of how you feel about Big Tex, you can’t argue what he’s done for both cycling (and cancer for that matter!).

A young Canadian, putting on an stellar performance

After the unfortunate crash of Christian Vande Velde and the eventual withdrawal of Tyler Farrar, Garmin Transitions were in a tough spot and a certain Canadian rider found himself with the unforeseen opportunity to do his team proud.

What ensued was nothing short of remarkable.

From breakaway after breakaway, to climbing like a man half his size (not to mention fishing fourth on the Col du Tourmalet), Hejedal put in an awe-inspiring performance. With the North American void Lance leaves behind, is Hejedal poised to carry that flame? No pressure, Ryder ;-)

A man who many love to hate, but is without question the ‘fastest man on two wheels’

“Nadal syndrome,” is something Sheldon coined where we just can’t stand an athlete, despite them giving us next to no reason to dislike them. The ‘Manx Missile’ has filled this Tour role nicely… Cavendish is next to untouchable in a flat-out sprint yet despite being fantastically talented and charismatic, I can’t stand the guy. I had high hopes that Tyler Farrar would be able to take a stage or two, but after his wrist injury it simply wasn’t to be.

Despite Cavendish’s speed and talent though, I’m glad that the Maillot Vert is about more than that. As far as I’m concerned Cavendish can have his stage wins, as he obviously deserves them. To me though, the the Green Jersey should go to somebody who’s more than just a sprint specialist. It has to be. A stage victory is enough for the sprinters. You need to be able to show me something for more than 15 seconds. Look at Thor Hushovd’s performance last year where he launched a brazen solo attack on a mountainous Stage 17 to claim both intermediary points and solidify green.

Maybe I’m a Thor fanboy. Maybe I want the Green Jersey to be something it’s not. Alessandro Petacchi did the jersey proud this year, but I just hope that more men like him and Thor are able to keep it off the back of pure ‘stage sprinters’ like Cavendish in years to come.

A dropped chain, a controversial attack

The 2010 Tour de France quickly came down to a battle between two men. After Fabian Cancellara convinced the peloton to neutralize the second stage (because of the massive crashes – coincidentally including his team mates Fränk and Andy Schlek) there was much talk about the ‘gentlemanly conduct’ that exists as an undercurrent with riders in the Tour de France. If only we had known what sweet foreshadowing this was to be…

As the riders wound up the Port de Balès (the final climb on Stage 15), Andy Schleck made an initial attack and easily cleared his group, but as he prepared his attack is earnest he dropped his chain – whether part of a mechanical or rider error, I’m not sure. Contador was quick to counter and gapped the hapless Shleck. The media and the internet were almost instantly a-buzz. Should ‘gentlemanly’ rules have applied, as was the case in ’01 and ’02 when Jan Ulrich and Lance Armstrong both waited for each other (under admittedly different circumstances)? Or was the counter attack justified?

In my mind, Gerard Vroomen (co-founder of Cervélo TestTeam) and Ryder Hejedal captured it as eloquently and succinctly as possible on Twitter:

Gerard Vroomen: Contador just gained a great chance to win, but he lost the chance to win greatly.

Ryder Hejedal: If you draw your sword and you drop it, you die.

If Schleck had been caught up in a crash of something out of his hands, I would be outraged, and write Contador off as a classless chump, but in this case Andy gave it a go, and it didn’t pan out. Contador attacked when he saw weakness… He didn’t wait to see what the problem was (though I suspect he knew it was mechanical in nature), he just dropped the hammer. I’m sure this is practically instinct for these guys – Despite being three weeks long, the Tour doesn’t provide an abundance of chances, you have to make the most of the ones that present themselves.

Despite saying that it’s not what he would have done, Andy appears to quickly put the incident behind him. And if you want to hear Contadors thoughts/apology on the matter you can see it here.

So with that, I open the floor to you – Agree with me, argue with me, or add a new thought to the mix… Let me know what you think!

As an aside, I was able to enjoy all but the weekend stages of the Tour courtesy of Versus on the 2010 Versus Tour Tracker. I did receive some emails indicating frustration with the application, but for the most part the feedback (that I received) was overwhelmingly positive – I look forward to what they have in store next year!

Related posts:

1. A Photographic Tour de France
2. Lunch with Lance
3. Versus 2010 Tour Tracker

A friend of mine sent me a message the other day wondering if there was a women’s Tour de France. As with most sporting events, I assumed that there was – just that it received little media coverage, a seemingly unfortunate fact of women’s racing.

After a little digging I found that, in fact, no women’s Tour de France exists; though there is one race in their season considered of equal importance to the Tour. The Giro Donne (aka Giro D’Italia Femminile) – A 921.9km, 10 stage race that traverses through Italy in much the same way the Tour covers France.

Having watched the women’s pro field at the 2010 Canada Cup I can’t imagine women’s cycling being any less exciting than the mens, but with very little coverage, and a lower quality of coverage than we’re accustomed to (ie. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen’s animated commentary), I’m not sure the women’s cycling has the momentum to take some sporting limelight… Cycling has enough trouble finding mainstream coverage to start with.

That said, I don’t really understand why people aren’t interested… ;-)

Sexist inuendo aside, La Gazzeta Della Bici has a series of articles on just this topic authored by Pigeons, a regular contributor to Podium Café. If you’re at all interested in the inner workings of women’s cycling I would invite you to start here:

How to follow women’s cycling – by Pigeons

As you might imagine, women’s cycling is much the same as men (with the obvious exception of women riding the bikes instead of men), but two of the key differences are:

1. Team Size
   Women’s teams are smaller than men’s (usually 6-8 racers). As such the women are forced to be more well rounded cyclists, rather than being able to focus specifically on certain disciplines (ie. sprinting, climbing, etc.)
2. Race Limits
   For unknown reasons the UCI has limited the length and duration of women’s events to 130-140km/day and 6 stages (though events can be longer with special permission). Compare that to the Tour de France – 21 stages and 3,642km over, that’s quite a difference!

   Despite the antiquated feeling of this regulation, the nice by-product is that the women usually have more energy over the course of the race and you can (generally) expect way more attacks.

There are other differences as well, but I would imagine as a spectator these would generate the biggest changes in dynamic.

Even those in the pro mens circuit appear amped about the women’s scene, as is evidenced in the video below. Truth be told, outside of mountain bike racing, and the mixed group in the Prairie Roubaix I haven’t experienced too many women’s races, but that’s something I’m hoping to rectify – on both a local and international scale!

“Women and men are a little bit different… Men will do about 80% of what you say and.. Women will do 100% of what you say.”

For those interested in diving a little deeper I hope this has helped point you in the right direction, but for those who just want to name drop to prove their expansive knowledge of the sport, I’ve included a handy flowchart to satiate your needs ;-)

Related posts:

1. Versus 2010 Tour Tracker
2. Dairy Queen Double Dipper
3. Le Tour de France – Retrospect

I challenge you not to love Jens Voigt. This man is made out of chiseled granite and railway spikes. He is truly the stuff of legend.

For the second year in a row a bad crash threatened to take Jens out of the Tour de France.

After a front-tire blow-out, shattering his bike, tearing open his elbow and being covered in road rash at the start of a 25km descent, Jens had some choice words for the Broom Wagon.

From Bicycling.com:

That stage pretty much got off on the wrong foot. For starters, we just went out so hard. We started out climbing up the Peyresourde Pass and everybody came out with their guns smoking.

I came over the top only 20 seconds down on the front group, but about 2 kilometers into the descent my front tire blew and I thought, “Oh God,” and I went down. Just one year after my horrible crash, and there I was tumbling on another mountain descent. And let me tell you, about the only place that feels good right now is my right ankle. The rest of me is all road rash. Plus I’ve got five stitches in my left elbow and then there are some ribs that are not in the right place! I may have to get x-rays, but I hate x-rays (the radiation), and plus, if I’ve got a fractured rib, what can anyone do about it?

The worst thing of all was that I almost got forced out of the Tour for a second year in a row. The problem was that the first team car was behind Andy Schleck, and the second had decided to go up ahead to hand out water bottles at the foot of the next climb. As a result I had no bike, because mine was shattered.

Jens Voigt on his 'junior' bike (note the toe clips ;-)

So then the broom wagon pulled up and was like, “Do you want to just get in?” And I said, “Oh no, I don’t need YOU!” But there I am with blood spurting out my left elbow and no bike. Finally, the race organizers got me a bike, but it was this little yellow junior bike. It was way too small for me and even had old-fashioned toe-clip pedals. But that is the only way I could get down the mountain, so I had to ride it for like 15-20 kilometers until I finally got to a team car with my bike.

Then, I still had to get up to the grupetto. All I can say is that that desperate times need desperate measures, but I got up there. And once I did it was grupetto all day long.

Needless to say, I had plenty of time to come up with a fitting book of the day. It’s from the Disk World series by Terry Pratchett. In it, the protagonist is Conan the Barbarian, who is a 70-year-old who has just survived everything. At one point he, and his other old warrior friends capture this village, but then they find that they are surrounded by an army of tens of thousands, and his only reaction is, “Oh man, it’s going to take days to kill all these people!” And that’s the way I was today when I was lying on the ground. I just thought, “Oh no, I’m going to Paris this year, I’m going to Paris. There’s just no way you are going to get me out of this race for the second year in a row!”

I wanna be like Jens.

No related posts.

For the most part, I don’t know what I’m doing. I haven’t been racing long enough. For example, I don’t know how I should feel before a good race, versus how I feel before a bad one. I’ve thought I felt great, and raced terribly, and visa versa. Sure, I’ve read a lot, and talked to a lot of people about this stuff, but for me it’s still just guess work.

Last weekend at Nationals in Canmore, I had a good race. Best result of my season for sure, coming in 3^rd. It was a great experience landing on the podium, and one I’d like to repeat. But now with only 2 races left this season, I’m convinced more than ever, repeating that is going to be something that’s a lot easier said, than done…

Kabush signing my jersey

A seasoned racer who has a pre-race routine, a specific pre-race ritual concerning training sched the week before, favourite meals, knows measured volumes of fluid intake, their sleep patterns and so on, might be able to confidently repeat a performance. Me on the other hand, I’m still learning about all this, and about myself. That said, I have learned a thing or two about me. None of these are ground-breaking, but very likely, many of them may apply to you as well:

I really need my sleep. I am an 8-9 hour a night guy, day in and day out and I know this. If I get less than 8 hours sleep one night in the 2 days leading up to a race, I will do worse. Case in point, most of my races in 2009. Excited about the race, Ken and I would normally go out the night before, have dinner and stay out and have a few beers, only allowing for 5-6 hours of sleep. For me, this is not good.

That leads me to my second observation, beers the night before do not help me. 1, or 2 is fine, though likely not beneficial. Any more than 2, and it has certainly proved detrimental. Not only does alc dehydrate, but for me, now a 35 year man who drinks almost never, I feel like crap in the morning after any more than 3 beers.  So, I need to shut it down after 1 or 2 the night before if I care about how I am going to race the next day.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate… And by this I don’t mean drink a couple glasses of water before the race. I mean stay on the water for a couple days leading up to a race. It can take up to 7 days for your body to fully hydrate, meaning, absorb into your deep tissues. Drinking a bunch of water quickly, and then peeing clear is really only a sign that your body has taken in more fluid than it can absorb at that time. Both alcohol and caffeine will dehydrate, so I need to keep them both to a minimum.

On the podium

Stretch. I am terrible for this. I don’t enjoy it. It hurts and most often I will come up with some reason not to do it. When I do, though, my legs feel soooo, sooo much better. They recover faster between rides, meaning I can train more often, but if nothing else, stretching before a hard effort like a race wakes my legs up, and gets the blood flowing. I’m also less likely to cramp, or injure myself – which are both things I am on board with now that I’m getting older and hopefully wiser.

Eat 2 hours before the race. Eat 3 hours before if you can. For me, oatmeal with a handful of trailmix seems to be a pretty good meal. Easy to digest. Good carbs, and the nuts provide fat, which is great long burn energy that I’ve found is optimal for me, versus just straight carbs. Further to this, make yourself eat, and drink during the race. It’s hard, I know… You’re breathing hard and chewing food, or drinking just interrupts your already laboured breathing even more. But, this is key to making sure you have the energy to ride strong the whole race, and not just the first lap or two. If you can only do one, choose to drink. Find an energy drink you can tolerate that will give you energy, electrolytes and hydrate you. I’m still fiddling with this. Last race, my drink of choice nearly made me puke. Not because it tasted bad, but because it just wasn’t sitting that well. Top of the climbs on lap three, it was a close call. This might just have been because I was drinking too much at once, and not just sipping at it over the race. I am still trying to figure out how to do this.

Know yourself. Are you a racer that can blast out of the gates, be first to the singletrack, gap the field and hold on, or are you more like me, and need to start out moderately? Two weeks ago, at the Edmonton Canada Cup, I chased Ken and Gord for 2/3 of the first lap and blew up after lap 1. They were too fast, and I cracked, leaving me to struggle just to finish in 20th. Last weekend at Nationals, I went out more slowly, paced myself and tried to build up speed as I went – to push hard, but stay steady. The result was 3 moderately fast laps, and luckily, a spot on the podium.

Lastly, pre-ride the course. I never used to do this. I figured I was always just following people anyway so I didn’t need to know where I was going… But pre-riding the course is about more than knowing where you’re going. It’s about knowing what’s coming, and having a game plan. You know where you can push hard, because you know how soon you’ll hit a section where you can recover, or you know where to surge and catch someone’s wheel so you’re in position to pass when you get to the wide section coming up. In Canmore where the trails can be super technical, you’ll know better which line to take, or how fast you can go without crashing. These are just examples, but you get the idea. Knowing the course is a huge advantage.

Gord with the pull

These are some of the things I’ve found to really make a big difference for me. In the end, though, you can do all of this stuff and more, but still fall short in a race, because circumstance plays such a huge part. In my race at Nationals, I was ready physically to race well, and I did, but several circumstances played into my 3^rd place finish. Some of these circumstances were that we raced in the morning before it got hot. I race better in cooler temps. The course was set up to my strengths. It had long, grueling climbs, and tight, twisty, singletrack descents. Had the course been different, with less climbing, the result would have been different. I also had a teammate to ride with when I caught Gord on lap 2. Having him push me just that little bit to stay with him, helped a lot. I wasn’t willing to push myself to the point that I’d blow up again, but he definitely helped me out there, and encouraged me to keep up. Thanks Gord! I owe ya.

So many things come into play in a race, from how hard you’ve trained, to the course design, what you ate, the weather, the field of racers that shows up, to the state of your bike’s mechanical integrity. I mean, blow a tire, snap a chain, and there you go, end game. I guess, that’s why as little, or as much as I know now about racing,  as much as I can control about my diet, sleep, training etc…, you never really know what’s going to happen on race day. You can race smart, but in the end, no one knows how it’s going to play out. I guess it wouldn’t be much fun if we did know, though would it…?

Related posts:

1. Coffee – An Athlete’s Edge
2. Are you ready for a stage race?
3. Smart Bike

Canada Cup race weekend began rather ominously… Driving up to Edmonton we ran through one of the worst rainstorms I’ve ever had the displeasure of traveling through. The effects of the storm on my mood were amplified even more by my apprehension of what all this rain was doing to the course!!

Sadly, my fears were realized Saturday morning when I met up with Sheldon and Gord, to pre-ride the course. I would say optimistically that 1/3 of the course was ‘walkable,’ another 1/3 was super greasy and sketchy, and the last 1/3 of the course was ‘manageable.’

Needless to say we weren’t exactly feeling ‘race ready’ after our pre-ride. Amongst the riders we ran into speculation was flying as to whether or not the course would dry up, or whether it would be a mud-ridden suffer fest.

Come race day, however, I would say the conditions were damn near perfect, with upwards of 85% of the course being nice and tacky, and the rest either requiring a very careful line selection, or a quick muddy run. To be honest, I couldn’t believe the course dried up as well as it did.

Despite what great shape the course was in, I was in for a slightly ominous start to my race as well… Not used to the clockwork-like organization of Mike and Evan, when I finally decided to grace the start line with my presence (15min prior to the start) I found that everybody had already assembled and that names had already been called… Gulp!

I found myself on the ass-end of by far the biggest racing category of the day (59 riders) and could hardly see Smart and the rest of the boys up there in the front row!

Regardless of my start position, my game plan was simple… Knowing that the majority of the course was tight, technical, slightly damp singletrack, I just wanted to get myself seeded ‘top-ish’ in the pack and either pick my way up the pack, or fade away – depending on how the legs felt. As luck would have it, it turned out to be the former ;-)

I’m still not sure how I did it, but somehow I managed to muscle my way through the majority of the pack on the first climb and put myself just off the lead group of Gord Brenner (RVC) and the “Redbike Train” of Chris Ring, Mark Jung and Sam Mothana. I was feeling pretty gassed after the climb, so I pretty much just sucked wheel for the first half of the lap and focussed on recovery.

With the fortunes smiling, our small crew managed to gap the rest of the field a bit and I managed to hang on. Halfway through the second lap, it was just Gord, Chris and I leading the way. The legs were feelin’ pretty good, so I decided to see if I could get a gap and stayed on the gas through an extended open area. It wasn’t until the singletrack that I realized I was all alone.

The rest of the race, as they say is history… I managed to stay strong and keep a gap, though I was admittedly looking back nervously every once in a while, fully expecting the pack to be breathin’ down my neck, but the catch never came.

While in the early break Gord thought we were leading the race, but I kept such thoughts in the back of my mind… I convinced myself (as had happened many times before) that a small group of really strong riders had broken off the front and that when I finished I would be rolling into a 4-6th place finish… Although I wasn’t completely incorrect, it was only Damian Stachura (Pedalhead) who had broken free of the bunch, and I had rolled onto the podium for a 2nd place finish!! When I read the results list… I truly couldn’t believe it!

Despite being on-site since 5:00, Mr. Smart managed a very respectable finish as well, finishing in the top 1/3 of the field! Talking to Sheldon after the race, I was saying that even though I have the mountains in my back yard, I’m still jealous (and miss) the river valley in yours! Great riding for sure!

The rest of the day was pure gravy on top of my surprising finish, whether it was hob-nobbing and taking photos of the top athletes in our sport, watching the pros rail the course, or chilling out in the Kokanee Beer Gardens. It was a highly satisfying event and a super fun and mellow vibe all day. The kids race was a really nice way to get the crowd pumped prior to releasing the elite racers as well… Those young’uns are so freakin’ cute!

I can’t say enough about the hard work that Mike & Evan put in to this event. It definitely showed! As always, the volunteers deserve a special call out, as they were stupendous throughout the day!

Additional photos of the event can be found here:

• My Flickr
• black_betty2′s Flickr
• lungsnot’s Flickr

Related posts:

1. Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer
2. Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer – Krystyn Ong
3. 2010 Road Nationals in Edmonton Alberta

Our Husky Feature racers of the month for July are the husband/wife duo of Cyclemeisters Gabor Csonka and Spin Sisters Boglarka (Bogi) Gyorfi.

Outside of Gabor’s iconic hot-pink, rigid single speed, the couple is probably best known (and admired) for pulling the whole family together for most of their races. From serious racing roots in Hungary and the Midwest to training, racing, working full time and managing two energetic young kids – we get a brief glimpse into the controlled chaos of their lives!

Gabor Csonka

You’ve been racing for a number of years (including at a professional level in Hungary) – When did you first start racing, and how did you get started?

I started in 1992. I picked up a 12 month loan to pay for my first MTB, (an orange Scott Peak with Shimano 200GS!). The guys in the shop convinced me to try this weird muddy bike race on the weekend. They even give me some VHS tapes with Overend and Tomac and others racing the world cup.  So I did try the race, crashed hard many times and finished 2nd behind the series leader back then.  Later I joined the local MTB club and started to race the national series.

I notice that you’ve raced road, triathlons, duathlons, mountain bike races and running races. I would imagine that mountain biking is your focus?

MTB is definitely my love. All other races I did for training, or just to try it out. The MTB training/racing is way more fun (for me) than running, or even road riding. Icing on the cake is the people; I find the MTB racer community a lot friendlier and laid back than competitors in other endurance sporting events. The best place to find good friends.

Continue reading on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

Bogi Gyorfi

A competitive downhill skier, kayaker, orienteering runner, mountain biker, triathlete and mother! Is there anything you don’t do?

Yeah, I do not work :-)

I am so fortunate to stay home with my kids. I think this is the only way we can keep up this active lifestyle. If I stayed at my profession, I was a gymnastics coach, we could not arrange riding, racing times for sure.

I know that a family can have a profound impact on a persons athletic endeavours (especially a woman’s), what advice would you give to other women wanting to keep their interest in sports, but also interested in starting a family?

After many years of training and racing there is time to try different things, like raising kids… Which is the most challenging thing I have tried so far. After I have reached some of my athletic goals and was not going to go to Olympics… :-) I was ready to have family.

It was a totally different life for the first year, a nice change from the athletic scene. It is interesting how our perspective has changed after having kid… Life just got real and full. We both became whole persons as parents… [con't]

Continue reading on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

You can read the full article on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

Related posts:

1. Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer – Krystyn Ong
2. Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer
3. Burn Out – by Kirk Hamilton