I wrote a report on racing at the Tour of Alberta in September which can be found under “Road Racing News” on the Bicycle Nova Scotia website: bicycle.ns

It was a great experience getting to race with the National team again, always a real honor to wear the maple leaf jersey and to do so under Gord Fraser’s (Canada’s most winning-est cyclist) direction was awesome, and I certainly learned a lot. I can’t thank the staff enough for making it such a great week for us as well, it was a very professionally run project.

© CanadianCyclist.com

© CanadianCyclist.com

I am not doing so well in keeping up with regular updates. It’s becoming more of a monthly thing. This leads to lots to say and probably puts anyone reading to sleep! I will do my best to update race to race and take more pictures to keep the words down.

Tour of Gila was a bit of a disappointment for me. I don’t know if it was the altitude, the heat stroke/ and or food poisoning I had the weekend before, the form, or a combination of all three. I suffered through it but didn’t get any results or even factor into any of the stages.

From New Mexico I flew directly to Stuttgart, where I got to spend some time visiting Katja, and recovering from the jetlag to Europe, as well as the racing. I had caught a bit of a cold between the end of Gila and arriving in Europe so it was good to relax a bit and get healthy and ready for the Ras.

The day following my birthday I took the train from Stuttgart to Leuven to join up with the rest of the Canadian team to complete our final preparations for the racing in Ireland. I had a few good sessions in Belgium, the legs were feeling good again and the numbers weren’t looking too shabby either so I was excited to see what we could do.

Trip to the Mercedes museum with Katja

The trip hadn’t gone so smoothly for a couple of my teammates whos luggage was being held hostage by the Brussels airport (Bikes included). The bad luck didn’t stop there either, Kris, our Director Phil, and I all missed the flight to Dublin because the security lineup was about an hour and a half long when we got to the airport 50 minutes till takeoff. Luckily there was a connection through Manchester and we were still able to get to Ireland that evening. A short morning of travel had turned into an all day affair.

I had been warned that it rains quite regularly in Ireland. Having spent 9 days their with little to no rain though, I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I guess Stu and Alex had enough good karma saved up from their luggage nightmare to keep us dry for the week.

Stage 1 was really fast and aggressive. We averaged 48km/hr for the 145km stage. The racing definitely has a different feel to the bigger races in North America, and so took some time to get comfortable with. In the end a small group snuck away in the last 10km impressively holding off the field.

Stage 2 was another relatively flat day, actually flatter than day 1. Again things were super aggressive, and after about 2 hours I got in a break with Remi and 12 others or so. Eventually more and more riders bridged up to the group and it ended up being the front group of 60 or 70. Again a move in the final 20km went and stayed to the line. I had lost a bottle prior to getting in the break so had only drank 1 and then didn’t see the car to get more until the finish. Because of this I was suffering and cramping pretty bad and just trying to hold onto the group for the final hour or so.

Stage 3 the climbs started. Sort of. The profiles in the book are pretty deceiving, and there wasn’t really any serious climbing. A lot of the climbs you would crest still going 35 or 40k/hr. Again the race was really aggressive. We missed the early break, but when it came back in the final 25km we all rode hard following moves and attacking but it ended up coming to a sprint, where Kris managed to get up for 8^th place. A really solid result in a very fast, and sketchy finish.

Stage 4 was where the shark teeth in the profile got bigger. There were 8 categorized climbs, and although a lot of them weren’t very steep, it was a tough day. Stuart got in the early break that came back around the first cat 1 climb where Remi bridged and then forced the winning move. With Remi up the road I just sat in and held on over the big climbs. On the last Cat 1 I couldn’t quite hold the very select front group and rolled in with the second group. I was still pretty happy with it, considering I was poorly positioned on the last climb so I had been riding across gaps the whole way up and I just didn’t quite have the legs to get across the final one that opened up. It ended up being a great day for the team with Remi riding the breakaway to the line, and just getting nipped at the finnish for the stage win. Still though, a podium was a good result, and we were all fired up, knowing there were lots more opportunities for us to come.

Stage 5 I woke up feeling pretty sick. I had a sore throat and a lot of congestion. Not something you want in the middle of a tough stage race, but since it was just a head cold it wasn’t really slowing me down too much either. Tried to take the day as easy as I could to get healthy for the rest of the week.

Stage 6 again looked much tougher on the profile then it actually was. The climbs in the end were short, but still tough, and being day 6 were enough to blow the group apart. On one of the last ones there was a crash in the group that myself, Remi, and Stuart all got caught behind. Of course it happened on one of the many goat paths of a road we raced on this week so the road was blocked with 2 guys on the ground. It was a really tough chase back for Remi and I but luckily we made it and finished in the lead group. Stuart unfortunately had to come to a full stop at which point it was too much to close the gap back to us. I tried to set Remi up for the sprint in the final, but picked a bad route around some traffic furniture and lost position.

Stage 7 was another really tough race. I managed to help keep Remi in the front group and hold his GC position. Some really beautiful scenery and climbs again for this stage. If I weren’t in so much pain it would have been quite the enjoyable ride! It was great seeing some family friends from Wolfville at the start as well. They were in town for a wedding, which happened to be at the hotel we were staying at and came out to see the circus begin for the day.

Stage 8 traditionally ends up in a sprint, but with the GC race being so close, and Remi only at 24seconds we were determined to give everything we had left. After an hour or so of moves consistently going nowhere, Stuart got in a 2 man group, and the yellow jersey decided to let it go and take a nature break. When I saw that I thought it might be Stu’s lucky day and the leader and his team would actually let the non threatening breakaway go, but the Belgians were keen on sprinting for the stage. We had been hoping to get a bigger group, with Remi or a few of our guys and someone else threatening on GC up the road to pressure the yellow jersey, but with Stu gone we were going to wait until closer to the line. When we reached the finishing circuit no one really had much left. I was hoping to make a go just to see if something might stick to the finish like in the early stages, but a crash at the bottom of the last climb held Remi and I up so we chased with everything to try and get back to the front group. In the end we got within 15 seconds, and he held his 5^th place by 6 seconds. Cutting it a bit close! Felt good to finish what is the toughest race I have done I think, at least in terms of length. I ended up finishing 17^th overall 2:40 down or so. It was a great week for the team overall with a podium and 5^th on GC. It was a great team of guys too and we had a lot of fun racing together. I would like to thank Cycling Canada for making this project happen this year; I think it was really good experience for all of us, as well as Global Relay Bridge the Gap for helping me get here.

View from one of my many train rides

The gypsy traveling continues

Bikes ready for stage 1

Stage 3 we made it to the Atlantic coast

Had a few hours in Dublin on Monday before returning to Belgium

This was the first trip to Europe I have had where it really didnt feel so foreign and different. I felt pretty comfortable, apart from not speaking any German, Flemish, Dutch.. Or Irish for that matter! An easy week here back in Germany now, and then its time to head home to prepare for Beauce. I think this week has been great prep for it, and I am really looking forward to the block of racing to come!

Tour of Walla Walla was a big success for the team. It was the first bigger race with Team H&R BLOCK of the year, and time for us to put everything together and step up the results from the past few training races in BC. It was also the start of a long journey for me. On the 18^th we made the drive down to Walla Walla Washington. We were lacking a few of our strong riders, but the team was fired up and excited for the race.

Stage 1 was a short road race at only 100km but had a good climb on each of the 4 laps. A break went early but came back with about a lap and a half to go, when Adam Devos attacked solo. Another guy joined him towards the bottom of the climb, so I decided to go for it and bridged over the top of the climb, the three of us worked together well and got the gap up to 1:20 at one point. There was a long cross wind section before the final climb though and the Hagens Berman team were chasing hard. They were brining the time gap down quickly, especially once we hit the strong headwind up the final climb. Adam and I just managed to stay away by a few seconds by the top.  He tried to go early, worried about the pack closing so fast but with the headwind I got in the draft and waited till 100 meters to go and came around for the win! It was a really good feeling to get a win for the first time in a while, and great start to the weekend.

Saturday was a double day, with the TT in the morning. I had a good ride and managed to take the stage again by 4 seconds. It was going to be a tough fight to keep the jersey from strong Hagens Berman and Trek Red Truck squads though. In the crit they showed how close it would be, with Ian Crane (HB) taking the intermediate time bonus and the final sprint bonus, putting him just 5 seconds behind on GC. Jesse Reams (TRT) almost held off the field with a dangerous late race move as well, which would have put him very close in the GC race.

The team ready to go for the final stage

Sunday was the big final road race, it was a tough circuit, that we all knew would wear on everyone after 150km. The team did a good job early on by letting a break go, and keeping it in check. We tried to minimize the amount of riding they had to do because we knew it would be a long day and I wanted to ensure there would be some teammates left on the final lap. In the end Hagens ended up chasing the break back quite impressively and set up Ian for the sprint.  All he needed was a time bonus for first or second on the stage to take the overall as long as I wasn’t right behind him. In the end, it was a close finish, but I managed to take second in the sprint and keep the overall lead by 1 second. It was a great end to the weekend, and I was really happy to be able to hold onto the jersey and get a good win with the team.

Close sprint on Stage 4, with time bonuses deciding the GC.

After the race I joined the Trek Red Truck team for the night, before beginning the drive down to Phoenix, AZ. This was our intermediate stop on the way to Silver City, New Mexico for the Tour of Gila. We spent the week just outside the City in Chandler, which was extremely hot, but a good week. The TRT team is a great crew to hang out with.

Spent the night in Las Vegas on the road down to Arizona.

Lots of flat dessert roads for TT training in AZ.

Gila was my first race of the year last year, so I am looking forward to taking the experience I gained last year, and some good form to make the most of it and hopefully get some good results here. From Gila the journey continues across the pond for a couple exciting weeks. I will be racing An Post Ras, also known as The Tour of Ireland, with the national team. It’s another UCI 2.2 race, 8 days, all road stages; I am really excited to be racing it!

Thanks for reading,

Garrett

Redlands bicycle classic is a race that I have always wanted to do. In the past it always occurred as the weather in Nova Scotia was starting to turn to spring and is always the first big race of the North American season.  Team Rio Grande was kind enough to offer me a last minute spot on their squad for the race so with some encouragement from my family and coach I went for it and booked a last minute flight for LA. I was super excited to put my new Norco Tactic to a good test as well. It’s an amazing bike, and attracted a lot of attention through the week.

This year, the opening time trial was a flat and fast one, up at Big Bear Lake. I didn’t bother bringing a TT bike so wasn’t super focused on the TT, but planned to go hard anyways. I ended up finishing around 1:20 back, about what I expected for the gear I had and how my time trialing is at the moment. The course was more technical in the second half, so going in blind having not seen it before; I rode the corners pretty conservatively.

The Beaumont Circuit race, stage 2, was just under 200km with 2 small climbs a lap. Enough to wear down the field by the 5^th lap and make it a bit of a race of attrition. Early on I followed a few moves trying to get in the early break but when I saw guys like Mancebo and some other GC guys try to jump in moves I figured nothing was going to go anytime soon. Of course as soon as I let myself drop back in the group a move went, although nothing ever stayed away for more then a lap or so. Starting the final lap I crashed. I got up ok and my bike seemed fine apart from the bars being sideways so I straightened them out and hopped back on. Luckily the group at the time was split up and about to come back together. By the time I was up and running again the 3^rd group came by and I had a ride back up to the front group. After that I was feeling a bit sore, nothing serious, but the motivation to fight for wheels and get up to the front for the final climb was down. I ended up finishing in the second main group, about a minute down.

Saturday’s criterium was a super technical 9 corner 1mile lap. With fresh road rash I was in no mood to risk going down again, but managed to get into a good rhythm for a bit, and sat in the front half at least all race, far enough up not to get gapped off the back, but not far enough up to make it easy. It was actually a pretty fun course, although the uphill finishing drag at 52km/hr plus was always painful.

Sunday’s Sunset Road race was the stage I had most been looking forward to. It was a tough circuit with each lap consisting of a tough climb, and then a technical descent back to the bottom of the climb. I was feeling good on the climb out to the circuit and the first time up I sat near the front thinking it was going to be a good day. Unfortunately though, the first time down the hill I flatted and had to wait 3 minutes for a wheel change. They do not allow a caravan on the short circuit so it was just neutral service. By the time I was rolling again the race was long gone. I rode around a few laps chasing in hopes of catching a group of dropped riders at least but eventually ended up being pulled, along with ¾ of the field.

So, Redlands was a pretty big disappointment, with lots of bad luck and not much to show for the trip, just some road rash, and experience to go back with next year. Hopefully the bad luck is out of the way for the year though, and there is lots of good racing for the year still to come! I’m excited for Walla Walla coming up, it is one of the biggest races in the Pacific Northwest for the year and I have never been on the west coast in time to race it before.

The trip down from Santa Cruz to LA for San Dimas was a bit of a bittersweet time for Ben, Dave and myself. We were all super excited for the racing, but not so much about leaving our Santa Cruz home for the year. Fortunately, since the trip, Vancouver has been very kind to us. Or we have been kind to it and brought the sunshine here, as it has been 15 and sunny everyday this week.

Sunny days in Vancouver

Hill Climb: The hill climb was a much-anticipated race for us. Dave and I were both pretty confident we were climbing well, and hoping to get some good results. In the end I was left a bit disappointed finishing 30^th, nowhere near the top 5 I was hoping for. It wasn’t all bad however, the numbers were decent, I had paced myself pretty well, finishing the last km really strong, and I lugged my 32spoke powertap up the hill along with a deep front TT wheel since they were all I really had available. Hard to know how much difference these things make, but times were close and I think it was a good learning experience and if I were to do it again I could go better.

Road Race: The road race was a bit of a hard day for me. I struggled a bit with asthma issues brought on from the LA smog, as well as some early muscle cramping and bad positioning. Just listing the excuses here I know! It was a really technical course that had 2 pretty short climbs per lap and was definitely a race of attrition with all the laps we were doing. I got dropped a few laps to go just from bad positioning and gaps opening up while the field was strung out single file. I eventually got caught and rode in with a decent sized groupetto but unfortunately they had a really tight time cut in order to bring the field size down for the crit and we were outside of it.

I tried to make the most out of my last Sunday in Cali. With no crit to race I decided to head into the mountains and check out Mt. Baldy. It was a really awesome ride, seeing the roads in the mountains showed me how surprisingly good the riding around LA is. If only I were able to breathe properly, and could enjoy it! Also really cool riding some more Tour of California roads. Really makes me want to do that race at some point. After watching Dave race the crit we hit the road and began the long trip back to Vancouver. The drive went smoothly though; we arrived late Monday night and enjoyed Christmas #2 on Tuesday getting our new Norco Tactics, and all our new team gear. Giordana has always made amazing kits for us, but somehow they have managed to step them up even more this year. Nicest stuff I have ever worn. Really liking the new colors as well.

The new Tactic

I’ll give another update shortly on team camp and the new bikes. It turns out, thanks to team Rio Grande, I will be heading back to California this week to race the Redlands Bicycle Classic, which I am really excited about.

It’s been a long process, but I finally have some sort of a blog going. I say that because I have been planning to make a website for a few years now, but always questioned whether it was worth it and just ended up putting it off. But baby steps here, I decided it was best to just start with a free blog and see how that goes. Really I have no excuses now, as I shouldn’t have trouble finding the time for it.

I can’t believe I’m heading back to Canada in less than a week already. Santa Cruz has been an amazing place to train. In the less than 2 months I have been here I seem to have gone soft, and can’t imagine training in the rainy, traffic filled village of Vancouver again. I suppose I will manage though, I am super motivated for the season, plus I will have a fresh Norco Tactic waiting for me to ride. New bikes are always a good motivator! I always feel bad breaking in a new bike in the rain though.

My “winter’s” training has gone better then ever before. I had some solid hours back home leading up to my California camp and everything has gone smoothly here. I have been training much more consistently and specifically this year, and I can already see it starting to pay off. I even had some NS company for a few weeks. Andrew L’Esperance came down for an extended reading break, so it was sweet to get some good rides in with him and hang out, as it had been a while.

Enjoying the opposite coast with L’Espy

Amazing views just about everywhere you ride.

I’ll give a brief update on the racing I’ve done so far:

Snelling Road Race started the season off, but was short lived for me. I flatted on the first lap, and being the first race of the year we had to forget something – turns out it was spare wheels, and the neutral service was actually just wheels in, wheels out so it wasn’t much of a race day. It was however, good to see teammate Dave Stephens mixing it up and riding strong. Jesse Reams also showed he is starting the season off well finishing 5^th. It was nice catching up with Stuart Wight a bit too, be nice having a few Maritimers around the races this year

Merco Cycling Classic was up next. A 4 day stage race that is really well attended with many of the top domestic pros. No results really to write home about, but showed myself that things are on track, and got back into the flow of racing. On the last day, after another flat, I managed to get into a pretty good looking move for a while, but it ended up coming back together for a field sprint. I avoided the massive crash in the last km so can’t complain about that.

This coming weekend we are racing San Dimas Stage Race, which I am really excited about, before the long drive back up to Vancouver. I am still in search of a team to ride Redlands with which would keep me down here another couple weeks, but at the moment it isn’t looking good.

So, I have started a blog.. But if you are reading this, you have probably figured that out. I am still sorting some things out, but for now this is it..

I’ll post an update on how the seasons started shortly. In the mean time though, the first 2 skits of this are pretty funny!