Wow, i have a blog, i forgot about the :P
not really, but man it has been a very long time since i has posted on here!!!
So since the last time i posted, i started university, in biomedical engineering, i raced the provincial championships at duntroon, i've raced the entire U-cup mountain bike series, and trained up here in Guelph.
Provincial championships, didn't go as planned unfortunately, but thats ok, such is life. Unfortunately i bonked at this race.
The U-cups have been awesome, we had them at Mansfield, Boler Mountain, Hardwood, and Ganaraska forest (yesterday). These races are a hoot and a half, lots of fun, some really good competition and a great bunch of people to have fun with. In the series i think i finished top 5 overall. the first race i was sick, so i finished 7 or 8th i think, the next one i finished finished 8then, then the next two in 4th. With the last race being a sprint finish only seconds behind 2nd.
Now my season is finally over, man that was a long season, but thats fine by me, i love doing what i did.
I'm excited for next years season and will hopefully crush it. For now i get to realx for a bit and start training for next year. Maybe throw a few Cyclocross races in there for kicks.
catch ya later
Cover Photo
Monday, 17 October 2011
Monday, 8 August 2011
need indestructable bike!! :P
Hey guys,
So i've decided that i am going to hire a team of researchers and mechanics to make me an indestructable bike thats light weight and awesome!! haha, i wish
The Kelso O-Cup was this past weekend and as you can maybe guess i had a mechanical, my chain broke. The race, the part i did, went great, the start was ok a little off what i wanted but still fine. I was a little slow on the first decent/corner because i hadn't done that at race pace because the tuesday nighters went straight down instead of around. The went well felt good and strong. In the trails i started to pick people off one at a time unstil i caught up to Etzl and was on his tail (he was third i was forth) but i was ready to pass him because he was slower in the trails then me so i was getting ready to do that when we came to a sharp left then up a hill and my chain snaped, ending my race. I was bumed about it, Kelso was MY course and it was going to be my race, i felt fantastic and was going to crush it. It sucks but oh well what can you do.
Looking forward to the Provincial knowing that i can put up a good fight with some of those guys now. That will be an exciting race.
peace
So i've decided that i am going to hire a team of researchers and mechanics to make me an indestructable bike thats light weight and awesome!! haha, i wish
The Kelso O-Cup was this past weekend and as you can maybe guess i had a mechanical, my chain broke. The race, the part i did, went great, the start was ok a little off what i wanted but still fine. I was a little slow on the first decent/corner because i hadn't done that at race pace because the tuesday nighters went straight down instead of around. The went well felt good and strong. In the trails i started to pick people off one at a time unstil i caught up to Etzl and was on his tail (he was third i was forth) but i was ready to pass him because he was slower in the trails then me so i was getting ready to do that when we came to a sharp left then up a hill and my chain snaped, ending my race. I was bumed about it, Kelso was MY course and it was going to be my race, i felt fantastic and was going to crush it. It sucks but oh well what can you do.
Looking forward to the Provincial knowing that i can put up a good fight with some of those guys now. That will be an exciting race.
peace
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Tuesday nighter
So another succesfull tuesday nighter yesteray at kelso riding the O-Cup course. The course was sweet. i love the entire ting (even the long climb up accension) The race went very well pulled another victory out of my pocket there yesterday.
Started out strong up the first little climb in the lead, then i looked back and saw i was already starting to put a gap on. When i saw that i was like alright i guess i'm going for the win right off the gun. ( i wasn't really planing on doing that but it's how i seemend to go). The climb went well, felt good and strong and i wasnt spining out like last time. Tyler Macdonald caught up to me on the climb but at the top and in the singletrack i dropped him. After that it was me on my own racing away trying to get away and build a bigger lead (just like last years O-cup), and i kept on thinking i was hearing someone catching up. it help my for sure go faster, even though no one was there. Finished the race and still felt i had energy to spare, which is prbably a good thing, that tells me i'm ready for four laps at junior ex speed. It's going to be a crazy, but awesome race this weekend. This is my course, i love it and have always done well here, hopefully i can repeat that again this year!!!
Started out strong up the first little climb in the lead, then i looked back and saw i was already starting to put a gap on. When i saw that i was like alright i guess i'm going for the win right off the gun. ( i wasn't really planing on doing that but it's how i seemend to go). The climb went well, felt good and strong and i wasnt spining out like last time. Tyler Macdonald caught up to me on the climb but at the top and in the singletrack i dropped him. After that it was me on my own racing away trying to get away and build a bigger lead (just like last years O-cup), and i kept on thinking i was hearing someone catching up. it help my for sure go faster, even though no one was there. Finished the race and still felt i had energy to spare, which is prbably a good thing, that tells me i'm ready for four laps at junior ex speed. It's going to be a crazy, but awesome race this weekend. This is my course, i love it and have always done well here, hopefully i can repeat that again this year!!!
Canal Days
Another great time spend riding up in th Hood. So on the weekend Shorthill Cycling Club held their annual Canal Days Mountain Bike Race. As always it was a blast, sweet course, great riders and a fun race. Unfortunately my race turnd into a duathlon :P as my deraileur got nocked out of place, not really sure what happened but it happened. Oh Well!!
The race started out well solid start then we got into the trails, wasn't were oi wanted to be but whatever i was fine with that because it was a just for fun race. We got to mud lake and JC and myself started to make some fround on the next guys. We workd together for the first lap until the seconf lap he flatted. Then i was alone, doing ok holding a solid pace. Then my deraileur went about 3ish kilometers from the finish. So i started to run, but then after no one had caught me after a while i thought maybe i can still come in second place even while runing so i started to push a bit. Steve ended up catching me in the lap km. BUt i still managed to make third place.
Solid race lots of fun, really technical course. Congratz to Andrew on his second victory on this course and to Katlyn on an excellent race.
The race started out well solid start then we got into the trails, wasn't were oi wanted to be but whatever i was fine with that because it was a just for fun race. We got to mud lake and JC and myself started to make some fround on the next guys. We workd together for the first lap until the seconf lap he flatted. Then i was alone, doing ok holding a solid pace. Then my deraileur went about 3ish kilometers from the finish. So i started to run, but then after no one had caught me after a while i thought maybe i can still come in second place even while runing so i started to push a bit. Steve ended up catching me in the lap km. BUt i still managed to make third place.
Solid race lots of fun, really technical course. Congratz to Andrew on his second victory on this course and to Katlyn on an excellent race.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
12 mile # 5 (2 for me)
hey guys,
so 12 mile #5 was yesterday, it was fun and went pretty well. Finished in a tie for second place with teamate Justin. The run didn't go as well as it has before and i fell behind a bit. Then i got on my bike and stated to go. Started to sit in to a pack but then realized that Justin and Andrew were on their own up ahead so it was time for me to jump up to them. Caught up and had no problem holding on and working with them. I could have pulled but i just didn't, dont really know why. Then got into the trails and i was third behind Andrew and Justin. Things were going good. Then we got to the gravel road again and JC went for a pull, i sat in behind him then desided to jump him right before the single track but so did justin and he's a little faster sprinter so he won it. For the rest of the race it went sort of like that. Then we had a sprint to the finish and we tied on the corner of the bridge.
I feel like i could have pushed harder but i was stuck behind justin. He started to get tired and i noticed. However he still had enough punch to beat me in the sprints. Good race, lots of fun, looking forward to Canal days and having a great race there, and the next 12 mile.
so 12 mile #5 was yesterday, it was fun and went pretty well. Finished in a tie for second place with teamate Justin. The run didn't go as well as it has before and i fell behind a bit. Then i got on my bike and stated to go. Started to sit in to a pack but then realized that Justin and Andrew were on their own up ahead so it was time for me to jump up to them. Caught up and had no problem holding on and working with them. I could have pulled but i just didn't, dont really know why. Then got into the trails and i was third behind Andrew and Justin. Things were going good. Then we got to the gravel road again and JC went for a pull, i sat in behind him then desided to jump him right before the single track but so did justin and he's a little faster sprinter so he won it. For the rest of the race it went sort of like that. Then we had a sprint to the finish and we tied on the corner of the bridge.
I feel like i could have pushed harder but i was stuck behind justin. He started to get tired and i noticed. However he still had enough punch to beat me in the sprints. Good race, lots of fun, looking forward to Canal days and having a great race there, and the next 12 mile.
Friday, 22 July 2011
kelso tuesday nighter
So on tuesday i went up to kelso with Katlyn for the weekly race they hold there. We had done a few of them last year before the O-Cup there and that was our plan for this year aswell. The went pretty good. Going in to it i was a little sore from the weekend's training. The plan was to practice pacing people in the single track and also passing some there too. First lap i just sat in to get an idea for the course (it was a pretty sweet one as always). Things went well. Second lap trevor and i started to pull away a bit. Wasn't pushing to 100% but still pushing a bit. He was a local to the area and so i thought i would hold his wheel through the trails and learn the good lines. Third lap i passed Trevor and started to pull. in the single track i heard Trevor fall. I held back to see if he was ok and and then it was my cue to drop the hammer. Ended up taking the win!!!
Good race, had a little trouble onthe climb with the loose gravel and sand. Also i found myself slipping around on some of the corners. I'm going to have to play with the tire pressure to find the right one.
Can't wait for the next one, and the 8x12 this week
Good race, had a little trouble onthe climb with the loose gravel and sand. Also i found myself slipping around on some of the corners. I'm going to have to play with the tire pressure to find the right one.
Can't wait for the next one, and the 8x12 this week
Friday, 15 July 2011
Buckwallow
This is the race and course that i've always had mixed emotions about. during pre rides i absolutly love the course but once the race starts things start to get sketchy. Last year when i raced here i had a few mechanical issues (ie. cracked frames and my seatpost dropping on me at the start). But anyways this year:
The tuesday prior to the race i went up with the lib boys and we got the lib school bus rollin through thoses trails for a good 3.5 hours of solid riding. This was a tone of fun, the course looked great and i thought i was ready for the race. I still had a little hesitation at one point in the elite section, West D' Nile, but this section was so cool.
Saturday made my way up with Andrew and met up with Justin at his cottage. We rode over to the course and did our customary 3 laps then rode back to the cottage. Later we rode over to a beach and gooffed off on a Tarzan rope for a while then rode back. i felt ok at the end of the day, but was a little worried i may have done too much work that day. We had a great pre race feast, as always.
Race day came with a cooler morning, but soon the temperature rose and became the scortching day they called for. Got a pretty good warm up in with andrew even though his knee was killing him. LIned up at the start and was ready to rip it up. I was confident and excited cuz i had a chance at podium because Bretton and Marc-Antoine were in Windam.
The start was great, had lots of power and settled in the a train of the top 5 guys : Dan, elliot, Corey, Dominic, and myself. Everything was going great, we were flying and i was keeping up no problem, we started to put a little gap on the chasers, then we came to West D'Nile and things were downhill from there. Unfortunately i had did a stupid screw, something that shouldn't have happened. We turned a corner and i went to tight and hit a rock and crashed, my chain fell off at the same time. I had to stop and put it back on. When that was all done i was in last place, and stuck behind these guys throught the rest of Wst D'Nile. We got out and i dropped the hammer in attempts to catch the others, i mannaged to catch the chase group of: Micheal G-P, Daniel HIll, and Ian Bagg, at the start of the second lap but by that time i had just blasted out the hardest lap ever in the hot weather. I was beat, my energy was dropping and so was my motivation. They dropped me again and that was it.
I managed to finish the race, i thought of dropping out a few times, but said "No i'm going to finish". I caught and passed Ian because he was cramping bad. I finished in 7th place ( but something like 11 minutes back) not my day for racing.
Oh well thats mountain biking for ya, unpredictable and crazy.
I'll come back at kelso and do great, i love that course and it suits all my strengths, that will be a great day for racing, hopefully!!
Catch ya guys later
The tuesday prior to the race i went up with the lib boys and we got the lib school bus rollin through thoses trails for a good 3.5 hours of solid riding. This was a tone of fun, the course looked great and i thought i was ready for the race. I still had a little hesitation at one point in the elite section, West D' Nile, but this section was so cool.
Saturday made my way up with Andrew and met up with Justin at his cottage. We rode over to the course and did our customary 3 laps then rode back to the cottage. Later we rode over to a beach and gooffed off on a Tarzan rope for a while then rode back. i felt ok at the end of the day, but was a little worried i may have done too much work that day. We had a great pre race feast, as always.
Race day came with a cooler morning, but soon the temperature rose and became the scortching day they called for. Got a pretty good warm up in with andrew even though his knee was killing him. LIned up at the start and was ready to rip it up. I was confident and excited cuz i had a chance at podium because Bretton and Marc-Antoine were in Windam.
The start was great, had lots of power and settled in the a train of the top 5 guys : Dan, elliot, Corey, Dominic, and myself. Everything was going great, we were flying and i was keeping up no problem, we started to put a little gap on the chasers, then we came to West D'Nile and things were downhill from there. Unfortunately i had did a stupid screw, something that shouldn't have happened. We turned a corner and i went to tight and hit a rock and crashed, my chain fell off at the same time. I had to stop and put it back on. When that was all done i was in last place, and stuck behind these guys throught the rest of Wst D'Nile. We got out and i dropped the hammer in attempts to catch the others, i mannaged to catch the chase group of: Micheal G-P, Daniel HIll, and Ian Bagg, at the start of the second lap but by that time i had just blasted out the hardest lap ever in the hot weather. I was beat, my energy was dropping and so was my motivation. They dropped me again and that was it.
I managed to finish the race, i thought of dropping out a few times, but said "No i'm going to finish". I caught and passed Ian because he was cramping bad. I finished in 7th place ( but something like 11 minutes back) not my day for racing.
Oh well thats mountain biking for ya, unpredictable and crazy.
I'll come back at kelso and do great, i love that course and it suits all my strengths, that will be a great day for racing, hopefully!!
Catch ya guys later
Monday, 4 July 2011
Road Nationals
So this weekend i decided to race at Road Nationals. I thought it would be as race just for the experience, and that's what it turned out to be. Unfortunately I could finish the race, i only finished 3 of 10 laps. There are probably many reasons for it but i don't want to be a complainer but i dropped mainly because one of my spokes on my front wheel. As well i was trying a new energy drink and it didn't taste good so i didn't ddrink much and so i was most likely dehydrated.
So the first lap was going fine, i was in the peleton holding on well, on the climbs i was keeping up without much problem. then on the way down i think is where the breaking of the spoke happened. And so my wheel was no longer straight, it was rubbing on the brakes. At the bottom of the hill the group started to pull away on the flat. When a hill came i caught up again and was back in for a bit, until the next flat. So i think that the rubbing and the dehydration may have had something to do with that. However they were pretty strong.
I got dropped at the top of the first bigger climb where there was a flat section on the second lap. After that i was on my own.
For the rest of the second and third lap i was on my own and start catching up to a few people who were being dropped of the back of the group, and passing them. I was noticing that my spoke might be broken at the end of the first lap and the start of the second. I didn't want to quite then i thought, no way Jose am i going to quite yet, i wanted to a least finish half the race. But i was being passed by all the groups behind me so i thought i'm going to get nowhere.
It was cool to be there, it was also fun to watch the rest. I was upset i didn't get to finish the race. I thought that i would be able to hold onto the group for the whole race, and it was disappointing to have to DNF. Oh well lesson learned, dont try a new drink during a race.
Congratz to Katlyn for an AMAZING race, finishing 5th overall. (her second ever road race). Also congratz to Etzl for a super race, unfortunately his gear failed him at the last sprint. Congratz to all other racers!!
Now i'm back in the MTB business for a while!! With Buckwallow this weekend. Tomorrow i'm going up with the team LIib guys for a a few hours of riding!!
Peace out guys
So the first lap was going fine, i was in the peleton holding on well, on the climbs i was keeping up without much problem. then on the way down i think is where the breaking of the spoke happened. And so my wheel was no longer straight, it was rubbing on the brakes. At the bottom of the hill the group started to pull away on the flat. When a hill came i caught up again and was back in for a bit, until the next flat. So i think that the rubbing and the dehydration may have had something to do with that. However they were pretty strong.
I got dropped at the top of the first bigger climb where there was a flat section on the second lap. After that i was on my own.
For the rest of the second and third lap i was on my own and start catching up to a few people who were being dropped of the back of the group, and passing them. I was noticing that my spoke might be broken at the end of the first lap and the start of the second. I didn't want to quite then i thought, no way Jose am i going to quite yet, i wanted to a least finish half the race. But i was being passed by all the groups behind me so i thought i'm going to get nowhere.
It was cool to be there, it was also fun to watch the rest. I was upset i didn't get to finish the race. I thought that i would be able to hold onto the group for the whole race, and it was disappointing to have to DNF. Oh well lesson learned, dont try a new drink during a race.
Congratz to Katlyn for an AMAZING race, finishing 5th overall. (her second ever road race). Also congratz to Etzl for a super race, unfortunately his gear failed him at the last sprint. Congratz to all other racers!!
Now i'm back in the MTB business for a while!! With Buckwallow this weekend. Tomorrow i'm going up with the team LIib guys for a a few hours of riding!!
Peace out guys
Monday, 13 June 2011
This is new/Albion hills
Hey everyone,
So i decided to finaly make a blog!!! it was pretty simple :P So we'll see how this all turns out.
So O-cup #4 just went down yesterday at Albion Hills conservation area and it was pretty sweet, not a bad race either. The course was so much fun, i loved it. It was full of nice climbs, fun descents, awesome singletrack (lost of burmed corners), just tones of fun in general!! The race went pretty good.
1st lap was sweet, i started out very strong, following the leaders in a train of about 6 guys, just flying through the course. this was so cool, leading up to the race i had seen picture of people riding in trains and i thought man i would love to ride the race in a train of a couple guys (because it always sucks when you have to ride the race on your own). So i held onto them for most of the first lap. Then Elliot Galbraith started to slow down a bit and i was behind him. Unfortunatly Elliot DNFed this race, i think he wasn't feeling great(poor guy). I could have passed him a little earlier then when i did, but i though if he has energy i dont want to waste mine yet. But i notice he seemed a little off his game so i shot past him on an clamb and never saw him after that. After that i was alone for the rest of the race.
Lap 2 was good still pushing my way through the race. I cauht up to Justin who wasn't feeling good either. Unfortunatly for him it wasn't his day for racing.
Lap 3 i started slowing down a bit, from getting tired and being alone. Also my legs were starting to get sore, i could feel them on some of the climbs(especialy thoses rollers)
Lap 4 i was basically blowing up and trying not to blow up. It started with that nasty climb through the feed, which just drains the life out of you. The Micheal G-P caught up to me and passed me. I held onto his tail for a bit. Then we reached the sandy switch back climb, and i just blew up. I had no energy and my legs were starting to cramp. I decided then that i would stop trying to catch him and pass him, because i knew it wouldn't work. The rest of the lap i was on my own again and i was tired. My legs were cramping on the climbs, i was getting a little slopy with my technique ( but i still did okay in the single track).
Overall a solid race, could have probably kept my 6th place finish but i had a couple slip ups throughout the race that could have been avoid that lost my a fair bit of time. Oh well after racing every weekend straight since Uxbridge my body is starting to take the toll on races. Now i get to train again. Lake to Lake is this weekend, but it will be more of a training race.
Props to teamates Andrew on his 8th place finish in Elite, to Meg on the 2nd in cadet Ex. and Sara at second at the K-W road race. Great job Guys!!!
So i decided to finaly make a blog!!! it was pretty simple :P So we'll see how this all turns out.
So O-cup #4 just went down yesterday at Albion Hills conservation area and it was pretty sweet, not a bad race either. The course was so much fun, i loved it. It was full of nice climbs, fun descents, awesome singletrack (lost of burmed corners), just tones of fun in general!! The race went pretty good.
1st lap was sweet, i started out very strong, following the leaders in a train of about 6 guys, just flying through the course. this was so cool, leading up to the race i had seen picture of people riding in trains and i thought man i would love to ride the race in a train of a couple guys (because it always sucks when you have to ride the race on your own). So i held onto them for most of the first lap. Then Elliot Galbraith started to slow down a bit and i was behind him. Unfortunatly Elliot DNFed this race, i think he wasn't feeling great(poor guy). I could have passed him a little earlier then when i did, but i though if he has energy i dont want to waste mine yet. But i notice he seemed a little off his game so i shot past him on an clamb and never saw him after that. After that i was alone for the rest of the race.
Lap 2 was good still pushing my way through the race. I cauht up to Justin who wasn't feeling good either. Unfortunatly for him it wasn't his day for racing.
Lap 3 i started slowing down a bit, from getting tired and being alone. Also my legs were starting to get sore, i could feel them on some of the climbs(especialy thoses rollers)
Lap 4 i was basically blowing up and trying not to blow up. It started with that nasty climb through the feed, which just drains the life out of you. The Micheal G-P caught up to me and passed me. I held onto his tail for a bit. Then we reached the sandy switch back climb, and i just blew up. I had no energy and my legs were starting to cramp. I decided then that i would stop trying to catch him and pass him, because i knew it wouldn't work. The rest of the lap i was on my own again and i was tired. My legs were cramping on the climbs, i was getting a little slopy with my technique ( but i still did okay in the single track).
Overall a solid race, could have probably kept my 6th place finish but i had a couple slip ups throughout the race that could have been avoid that lost my a fair bit of time. Oh well after racing every weekend straight since Uxbridge my body is starting to take the toll on races. Now i get to train again. Lake to Lake is this weekend, but it will be more of a training race.
Props to teamates Andrew on his 8th place finish in Elite, to Meg on the 2nd in cadet Ex. and Sara at second at the K-W road race. Great job Guys!!!
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