Well, it’s been a very long three weeks since my accident in Italy, and while the forced rest period was nice, I have been suffering some serious withdrawal for a while now.  Today was the big day to head into the hosiptal and have the cast removed.  I have been excited like a boy in a candy shop for days now, and could hardly contain myself when I woke up this morning.

After a few x-rays and an MRI, it was time to see the specialist.  The first thing he did was to chop the cast right off.  As good as it felt to be off, I knew right away something wasn’t as I had seen it happening in my head countless times.  That’s when the doctor came back saying there was good and bad news.  The bad:  I have to remain in a leg brace for another 3 weeks.  This was devistating and completely unexpected, as everything felt so good for the last week and a bit.  There’s no point in trying to rush it though, so I am trying to just suck it up and get on with my time.

The good news is I can at least start some physio to regain some strength and mobility.  He’s going to allow me to bend my knee 15 degrees every week to stretch the muscles back out, and there will also be some strengthening exercies to build some muscle back.  I guess in hind sight I let myself get way too excited, even planning a short ride for this afternoon, and that just made the news that much harder.  I’m fortunate that I have so much time before my next important races – not until next year, so I can take my time and do things properly.  It’s important to see the big picture in a situation like this, and I know that I could do more damage from rushing things.  It’s just killing me to sit around and not be out on the bike!

Stay tuned for reports on physio and the healing process, as well as news about next year.  Hoping to have some exciting posts in the near future!

Well, as most of you know I’m in Italy right now for the World Junior Championships.  Yesterday was the first event, where Kris and I would be breaking out the TT rigs to take on the World’s best of a pseudo course which would test every aspect of a rider’s ability.  It had everything from tough climbs, fast flat sections, and a wicked technical descent.

My day started with an early rise, very excited for the day’s race.  After a good breakfast, I spent the morning listening to music, watching some videos that my teammates found to help get me pumped up (really cool versus ad), and some light stretching.  I don’t think I had ever felt as good about a race as I had yesterday.  I knew I was as ready as I could be.  I knew what I needed to do, and I just wanted to get on the road and rip it up.

We got to the venue and things were going great.  I got in a solid warm up, with my legs turning over the gears with the greatest of ease.  With 20 minutes before my start, it was time to head over to the “cage”, the waiting area where you have to stay after getting your bike checked and before your start.  Soon enough, I was on the start ramp hearing the familiar beeps that count you down from 5 seconds to go.  After the long beep at the end, I was on the road.  I got things going and just starting ticking the gear over with no sensation of pain or discomfort whatsoever.  It was almost like I was in a dream, just watching my body propel the bike forward, but not actually feeling the effort required to do so.  It was absolutely magical how strong I felt, and every pedal stroke I gained more and more confidence.  Within the space of the first km, I went from having my goal a top 10 finish, to a top 5, and then I said what the hell, go for the win today!

To do this, I knew I would have to take risks on the descent, but I was happy with an all or nothing attitude for this one, so I just went for it.  I cruised through the corners to the absolute limit of the friction between my racing tires and the rough road.  My rear wheel was just keeping contact as I carved around the corners, but that’s all I needed.  I was going so fast down this thing that the motorcycle intended to lead a ways in front of me couldn’t keep up.  I started to pass it going around a shallow bend, but this is where things started to go wrong.  This had me off my line, and I was fast approaching one of the tighter switchbacks.  I braked a bit, and tried to get back on the line that would take me through the corner safely, but it was all a bit too rushed.  I got there, but then the corner was right on top of me.  I hauled the bike left as much as I could, and started to lose control of the rear wheel.  With a stiff disc wheel and a TT tire pumped so that it is rock hard, once it starts bouncing, it’s really hard to get it back.  I did everything I could to correct my swinging bike, and managed to get the wheel back on the ground.  The only problem was that to do this, it had me pointed straight for the ditch and trees.  Locking up the wheels did nothing, and I went flying over the edge, only to be stopped abruptly by a nice big tree.  That was it, in a fraction of a second my Worlds were done.

After a long day at the hospital, I hobbled out of there with what I would consider minor wounds, compared to how things could have ended up in such a situation.  I’ve got a torn ligament in my left leg, which has me in a cast for about 3 weeks.  Then there is a slightly broken nose, some stiches, and a bit of road rash, but everything else seems to be okay.  I think I’ll feel like I was hit by a train for a few days, but I can see a quick recovery and being back on the bike soon.

The biggest disappointment for me is not know how I would have done.  I honestly think this was the best I’ve ever felt during a time trial, and I think it would have been a great ride.  Having said that, I take a lot of consolation knowing that I wasn’t racing conservatively, and that I wasn’t willing to settle.  I wanted to leave everything I had on the course.  In the end, I left a fraction too much, but I think that’s what it takes to be a champion.  I’m proud of how I went at this race, just wish it had turned out differently.

Of course, this means I will not be competing in the road race tomorrow, or the Youth Olympics next week.  The next few days will be hectic trying to reorganize the next month of my life, but I’m sure everything will work out.  Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, and I hope to be back for more soon.

Wow, I guess it’s been a while since my last post, so I think it’s time for a quick update.  Since the Tour of Ireland, I’ve been staying at the National Team house in Tielt, Belgium preparing for the World Championships which start of Friday.  This has mostly involved a few kermesse races, but really only using them as hard training rides – not so much for results, and time trial efforts to prepare the TT.

After a few weeks on my own, I was joined by the rest of the Junior team for Worlds, who had just finished the Tour de l’Abitibi back in Canada.  Unfortunately, they were met with some bad luck, and no fewer than 3 out of the 5 showed up with broken bikes from the chaos that only Abitibi can have!  Needless to say it was a bit of a crazy time trying to find replacement bikes and equipment, but thankfully nobody was hurt themselves – it’s a lot tougher to buy a body part than a frame!

Aside from the training and prep, we’ve also been having a good time here in Belgium.  We went to see a post-Tour crit in Harentals the other night, where Cancellara, Basso, Van den Brouke, and a host of other top pros were parading around for thousands of spectators.  These are not so much races as shows, but it was pretty cool to see none the less.

So, it seems everything is coming together nicely for the weekend.  The vans leave on Monday for the long 15 hour drive through the mountains, and the athletes fly out on Tuesday.  30kms of hilly, technical time trial action awaits Kris and I on Friday, and then the rest of the guys will get their legs going on Sunday for the road race.  Things are also coming together for the Youth Olympics, which start not too much after Worlds.  Flights are being booked, arrangements made, and lots of forms signed, so I think everything is going to go smoothly.  Stay tuned for all the action from Italy!

I’ve been making a few changes to the site lately – there’s a new Twitter feed on the right for quick updates, and a new image gallery with a few photos from 2010.  Going to try to get some more pics up in the future!  Let me know what you think of the layout.

The Tour of Ireland has come to an end, but it certainly went out with a show for the crowd and an interesting race for us.  Going into the final stage, we were sitting comfortably in yellow with me holding a 1:50 second advantage over the next placed rider from another team.  So, although it wasn’t over, it would take quite the epic downfall for me to lose the jersey.  Other competitions were much tighter however, with Robin in the points jersey, but with no lead whatsoever, as 2^nd place was tied with 51 points.  He was also in 2^nd, but only by about 20 seconds.  To make things even closer, Anders was only 20 seconds out of 3^rd place, and defending the KOM jersey by a mere 8 points.  Basically what it all boiled down to is us versus two guys, Joe Kelly from the Isle of Man (sitting in 3^rd and tied for points with Robin), and Felix English, the prologue winner and 2^nd in the KOM classification.  Robin needed to beat Kelly to stay in points, Anders needed to keep English within sight over the one climb on the day, which happened to be the finish, and if he could put 20 seconds into Kelly then that was perfect.

So that’s how it looked on paper, but of course things never play out nicely in the real world.  The day started with some fierce attacks from the lads from the Isle of Man, two of whom were in the top 10 overall.  I worked on covering these guys, and anyone else within 3 minutes of the yellow jersey, and what I didn’t have an instant answer for, Yannick would haul back for me.  I must admit, I was not feeling nearly as strong as the previous days, and it seemed the others had recharged their batteries far better over night, but with the help of a very strong team, we kept the threats for yellow in check.  We did let a group go up the road though, containing nobody on my radar, and Austin slipped in just to be represented.  This was great, it would help neutralize the attacks and would let our guys rest, unless the gap got huge.  That was when Anders told me that Felix English was in it though, and that changed things.  He wasn’t a threat on GC, but if he won the day, he would take big points for the finishing climb, and the rest would be taken up by the rest of the break, meaning Anders would lose the jersey.  That meant the whole team went to the front and got the blue (okay, it was actually yellow, blue, green and polka dot) train rolling.  We managed to bring the gap down, but it was not coming down quickly.  We also got a fright when we heard that we had to stop for a train.  My original thought was that the break had gone through, and in Europe the ruling is that a break is allowed to continue if it makes it through, even if the pack doesn’t.  This could have easily cost us the win, but thankfully the break was stopped as well.  After basically a peleton wide nature break when we were forced to stop, they let the break go back to its original gap, and set us out to chase again.  At this point though, time was running out, and we were all losing horse power.  Basically we decided to forget about the climber’s jersey, so Robin and I could save our legs to defend the two other jerseys we had over the final, 2kms of hellish climbing.  Coming into the final 10km, it was like the calm before the storm, with a very quiet, nervous feel rushing through the pack.  Although I had a big lead, I was nervous something would go wrong, and hoping that Robin had the legs to stay with our friend from the Isle of Man.  As the climb started, Joe Kelly’s teammate went to the front and drove it, quickly whittling the pack down to little more than 5 or 6 riders.  Then it was Kelly himself who jumped, and I think I was the only one who could follow him.  He hammered for all he was worth, and was going a bit too deep for me.  I knew if I cracked things wouldn’t end well, so I let him slip away with about a kilometre to go, knowing if I ride just a bit easier, the risk of cracking goes away, and I could afford to give him a bit of time.  In the end, a small group caught up to me, but Kelly only managed to take 12 seconds.  I had won the Tour!  Unfortunately, Robin wasn’t in the group that finished with me, and he lost the points jersey, but did manage to stay in 2^nd overall.

We finished the stage in exhaustion, absolutely spent from our week long effort.  It was not the way we had hoped the day would go, but maybe we got a little greedy trying to win everything, and it cost us in the end.  It’s easy to be disappointed in losing two competitions, but after a while we realized what a great race we had as a team, all week.  We won 4 of 6 stages, team GC, 1^st and 2^nd on individual GC, and were in the running for the points and KOM competition.  After thinking about it that way, everyone was much happier!  Personally, I have learned so much about racing as a race leader this week, and am trying to learn from the many mistakes I made daily.  Thankfully I had the team that I needed to bail me out when I did make these mistakes, and now I can take those lessons into the future.

So next up for me is a bit of rest and preparation in Belgium prior to the World Championships in Italy.  Following that, I’m off to Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games, and then back to the US to finish up the season at the Green Mountain Stage Race.  Crazy how fast things are winding down, but still lots of excitement to come!

Well, one day to go in the Tour of Ireland and things are still going great!  I’ve been learning a lot about racing in yellow, and although there have been a few moments of stress for me, I think I’m getting the hang of it.

The first day defending yellow started with a group going up the road, containing nobody within 2 minutes of me but my teammate Robin.   So, the situation was perfect for us, as even if they gained lots of time, we would still be in yellow.  There were in fact a few problems with this though, as we were also trying to defend the KOM jersey, and if the gap got too much we would still be in the lead, but we would only have one rider at the top of the leader board, instead of Robin and I both in good position.  So, the plan was to keep the break close enough to be manageable, but maybe bring it back to get Anders some points, or at least keep it low enough to have the two of us filling up the top spots.  Anyway, this meant having the team on the front for a lot of the day, and we weren’t getting a lot of help from the others.  In the end the gap came down enough to have me and Robin in 1st and 2nd on GC, with Robin taking the stage win.  It was all good, but the fact that we had to have the team in the wind the whole time concerned me, and I knew I had to take a bit more control myself to save the other guys.

Anyway, the next day I knew I had to present myself in the moves, not so much to drive them unless they were good for us, but just so we wouldn’t have to chase so much.  Things started out really good though – it seemed like the other GC contenders were more concerned with attacking/marking each other than me, so that made it a relatively easy day for us.  As the day went on it was pretty clear that nobody was letting anything get out of sight, and a bunch sprint seemed to be what would decide the finish.  A crash about 3km from the finish caught Austin off guard, and he ended up with a bit of a bloody knee, but nothing serious.  After that, with a strong tail wind, Robin got the big gear rolling and won his first ever field sprint in dominant fashion, for his second stage win in two days.  This also put him in the points jersey, as well as the king of the mountains.  So, things were looking really good for us, with 1,2 and 10 or so on GC, KOM and points jerseys, and team GC by over 4 minutes, but the toughest day was yet to come, on the coasts of Achill island – a hilly, very exposed island which happens to also have some pretty incredible scenery.

Today was one of the more important days – and one of the last opportunities to gain or lose time, aside from tomorrow’s finishing climb up windy gap.  It was another windy, rainy day, but nothing too horrible for Irish standards.  The stage was flat for the first 50km, and then there were 3 good climbs back to back to back, with cross winds wreaking even more havoc on the riders.  With lots of days of racing in everyone’s legs, it made it all the more reason to be aggressive.  After all, the best defense is often a good offense.

About 30kms into the stage, Anders got things rolling for the team, going off on his own, gaining a minute within the first few kilometers.  This brought the other riders up to the front to defend their GC spots, and in the process using up their teammates and even their own legs.  Everyone was looking beat at breakfast this morning, but the head bobbing and choppy pedaling during the stage gave everyone’s fatigue away even more.  It was looking like they were bringing Anders back, but just as he came into sight Yannick jumped across the gap and helped him spin away yet again.

That’s when we hit the hills and cross wind, and I thought this would be a good time to put some more time into the others.  It took a few tries, but after a while I was away on my own, fighting into the wind.  3 others crossed to me, and I stopped working since we were chasing down two Hot Tubers.  They worked hard to bring Anders and Yannick back, but started to lose organization after a bit.  That’s when I hit them again on a small climb, and got a decent gap right away.  It’s funny how sometimes when you’re on your own, you can feel that you’ll be caught soon, but others you just no your gone and can see everyone else suffering in your mind.  Today was just like the second situation, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before I saw Anders and Yannick.  I caught them at the base of a good KOM, but Yannick was beat and dropped back.  Now it was me and Anders, with 2 good climbs, then rolling hills for the 20kms to the finish.  We hammered away, managed to hold off a bridge attempt from one of the Irish guys, and held on to put 35 seconds on what remained of the field by the end.  Behind us, things were blowing to pieces and finishing with small groups, just the type of epic finish that you would expect from such a stage.

Once everything was tallied up, Anders took the climbers jersey, Robin kept the points jersey (but in a tie with one other guy), and I gained a bit of time for the overall.  So everything is coming down to tomorrow’s stage for the other jerseys.  It’s a flat day, with a good climb to finish up.  If Robin can beat the guy he’s tied with, then he’ll keep the points jersey, and Anders just has to place in the finish for some KOM points.  It’s certainly not over yet, but we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

So we’re in the beautiful land of Ireland for the Junior Tour of Ireland.  After Nationals (and Fitchburg for the other guys), we packed up the bikes and hopped on a plane.  Arrived a few hours before the start of the prologue, built the bikes, and we were away!  At least there was no time to get cabin fever waiting for stages!

So the prologue was a 4km uphill TT under crazy rain, wind and cold.  I take it that’s typical for Ireland though, because everyone was running around like it was a summer’s day in shorts and T-shirts!  Anyway, I got going and felt pretty strong, didn’t push nearly as hard as I probably should have though.  I finished without too much pain and the results showed that, with a 20th spot 30 seconds back.    Not great for sure, but no big deal either – 5 more days of racing to gain some time.

The first road stage started this morning, under somewhat nicer, but also rainy and very windy conditions.  We got going into a headwind that had us hammering away just to go down the hills in our little chain rings!  It was insane how windy it was, but soon enough that wind would play to our advantage.  As we made our way around the loop we had to do the crazy wind turned into a cross wind, and Anders and Robin just started drilling it.  I was not positioned great, but saw them get up the road with about 6 others, which was certainly good for us.  After that Yannick, Austin, and me just kind of covered moves looking for a free ride up to the guys.  As we went over the first KOM (actually they call them king of the hill here!), some guy from England just started hammering for all he was worth.  I was on his wheel, and just kept trying to tell myself that surely he couldn’t keep that up!  Finally, he brought it down to a more sustainable pace, and we found ourselves with in a group of 4 with a good gap.  Although this sounds horribly lazy, I pretty much let them bring me up to the break.  Since I already had 2 team mates in the move, it wasn’t my job to bring anybody else, and if they wanted to make it they would just have to give me a free ticket across.  We made up the minute and a half of real estate pretty quickly, and joined them with about 50km left to race.  Now the numbers were really good for us, 3 guys in a group of about 10, since some of the original escapees had been dropped.

It was difficult to get everyone to work well together, but we managed to keep it rolling fairly well, and were sitting at about a minute and a half for the most part.  It was pretty clear that we were doing the bulk of the work though, and towing the others around isn’t exactly what we usually try to do.  So, with about 25km to go I jumped away.  They brought me back pretty much instantly, but that’s when Anders swung his punch and got everyone really good.  Nobody had an answer and Anders rode off into the distance.  At this point, Robin and I were more than happy if the break slowed down, so we no longer had to do a thing.  The others chased fairly well, but the gap was slowly growing, and the other teams were getting tired and frustrated.  I saw a small moment where the others were sitting up, trying to get someone else to work, and that’s when I jumped to help Anders.  I charged away as hard as I could, and got a gap quickly.  I made the junction to Anders with about 12 or 13 km to go.  After his very tough effort he was pretty tapped out, so I tried to do as much of the work as I could, but unfortunately his earlier efforts made that too much.  I had to ride away to gain as much time as I could for the general classification.  At this point is was just a 10km TT with the stage win and overall lead on the line.  I buried myself to gain every second possible, and my gap just kept growing and growing.  The kms seemed to click by slower than ever, and the headwind felt like it would push me backwards, but finally I saw the finish line approaching.  It was so windy I couldn’t even put my hands up, but I came across the line with a good punch of the air, followed by a mighty collapse into the grass on the side of the road.  I was so happy to have taken the win, and pumped about the yellow jersey even more!  In the end I took the win by 1:39 over Anders, who held on for 2^nd, and 1:51 over the original break.  That puts me in the lead by 1:20 for GC.  Now we’ve got 4 stages of taking control of the race, and keeping all the other contenders well in our sights.  It’s going to be a tough few days, but I know the guys are up to the task.  Stay tuned for all the excitement the next few days has in store!

Well, I finally came down off my cloud of winning the TT, and just in time for the road race.  I have to say it isn’t easy putting aside the urge to celebrate, but it was important for me to forget about the success of the TT and refocus for the road race.  The objective was only half done and I was super motivated to step up on the podium once again.  Of course the other riders had different ideas, and here is how it played out.

The course was an out and back on a rolling, windy course with really heavy roads, and it was pretty clear that I was going to be extremely marked the whole day.  With that knowledge, we knew I wasn’t going to slip myself into the early move; it was going to have to be an arm wrestling contest for me to get away.  So the plan was to let a group get up the road a little ways, and then open up the hurt locker over a nasty cross wind section and hopefully bridge with a small group.

Starting out, it seemed like nobody wanted to waste an ounce of energy, as nobody was willing to touch the wind to help propel the pack.  We were spinning along at 20km/h for a good while before anyone would show their cards.  Finally, a group found the motivation to have a go, and off they went.  It looked like a good combination of riders for my ambitions, containing no huge favourites, aside from my good friend and fellow maritime boy Ryan MacDonald.  I was happy that he was in it, and thought the rest of them could be good for my plan.  Also to my liking was that none of the other favourites were jumping for it, which meant their plans involved this race either coming back together, or a bridge attempt:  both of which would suit me just fine, since they would have to work to have those outcomes happen.

That’s about where all the good news stops.  Panic was rushing around the pack when we heard the break had gained over 2 minutes in a mere 10km.  The other favourites were worried, but not so willing to chase.  Everyone knew the job had to get done, but nobody wanted to do it.  I sat patient until the hard crosswind section, and prepared for a very epic battle when it finally came.  It was going really well for a little while, I managed to split the group and was whittling it down to the strongest guys, but nobody would work with me.  The gap was there, but I couldn’t just drag everyone along, and eventually the group reformed.  After a few more attempts, it was clear that I wasn’t strong enough on the day to flat out drop the others, and for sure nobody was going to let me go.   The race was shutting down and the break just gained more and more time.

In the end we rolled in way behind, which although wasn’t the outcome I had hoped for, wasn’t the worst thing that could happen.  I knew it would take a monumental performance for me to win, and in the end it was Nova Scotia’s own Ryan MacDonald who took the title.  If it wasn’t going to be myself taking it, there is nobody else I would rather see with the jersey, and I think after spending a lot of time training together and becoming friends, I might have been happier to see him win than myself.

So, another nationals done, and I’m certainly very pleased with my weekend.  I would have loved two titles, but am pleased with how I raced.  Next up is the Junior Tour of Ireland before some intense Worlds prep back in Europe.  Thanks for reading!

Wow, today has been a crazy day!  I just got back from the 2010 National Junior time trial championships in Devon Alberta, where my goals of winning a National title have finally come true!  Ever since last year when I stepped on the 3rd step of the podium, I’ve been thinking about winning a red and white jersey, and today those thoughts finally became a reality.

I want to express my many, many thanks to everyone who has been involved with my cycling career to date, from family, friends, coaches, teammates, teachers…there are so many names I can’t possibly list them all!  In any case, thank you all so much!  There are in fact two people I want to mention though.  These two basically come with me to races from all the stuff they have lent me over the years, and they’re always the first to offer support, so Don and Michelle, this one is for you.

Anyway, I can’t write much since the road race is fast approaching and there are many things to get done, but a post was certainly necessary!  Hopefully tomorrow will bring the same result!

Well, it’s been a while since my last post, and people are starting to wonder if I have fallen off some cliff in the middle of nowhere.  I suppose I am back home, so some people might consider that the middle of nowhere, but thankfully there has been no cliff!  The last week and a half I have been spending lots of time catching up with friends and family here at home, which has been really great to finally see everyone again.

I’ve also been having all kinds of tests done to see if there is anything causing me to feel so tired during races, so many trips to the doctor have been made!  I’m convinced all it is now is that they have taken too much blood to analyze!!  Haha, but seriously, there doesn’t seem to be any deficiencies in my blood or anything, and according to everyone I’ve talked to it is just that the pneumonia takes time to be back 100%.  I’m feeling strong still, just takes a bit longer for recovery, but I think with some focus put on my time after rides and races, I should be good to go.

Other than all that fun I’ve been getting in some good quality training rides, and just making sure everything is ready for the second big trip of the year.  Next week I leave for Edmonton where the National Championships are being held, and after that I go straight to Ireland for the Junior Tour of Ireland with Hot Tubes.  From there, as long as everything goes the way I plan for Nationals, I’ll be headed to Belgium for a few weeks of prep before the World Championships in Italy.  So, another busy couple months ahead of me, but for the moment I’m just trying to make the most of my time at home.  Stay tuned for reports from Edmonton!