Lake To Lake

Well What can I say, it was a Good Day!! Lake to Lake went really well for me this year! So i rode last year's course the day before and was it ever muddy!! The trails were not in good shape: muddy and ruts everywhere!!  Needless to say i was nervous coming into the race, i knew Corey was strong this year and he was good in mud.  The night before i tried a new recovery drink : Rumble.  It worked great and tasted awesome! I recommend it to everyone!

SO race day i got there and got a nice warm up in, in the beautiful weather in my new Honey Maxx jersey ( I was racing as team Honey Maxx this race).  We had to line up really early which kind of sucked but was smart from the incident at last year's race(check out this facebook video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4857790291347&set=vb.1494818339&type=2&theater)
So off the start Lefebvre took the lead and lead us up the hill.  At the top i attacked hard because i wanted to be the first one in the single tract.  Then at the first corner there were a bunch of hikers that got in our way, so we had to slow down a bit.  Corey was close on my wheel now, so i attacked hard for the next little while punching the pace at every moment I could!  Slowly i started to open up a gap.  For the rest of the race i kept attacking and attacking to grow my gap and it worked i had a solid lead at the end, winning the race!! I felt really good throughout this race! legs felt good and the trails were not as bad as I expected them to be.  I had a lot of fun on the course, definitely the best course they've done so far, highlighted some of the best trails in Niagara.  Looking forward to the rest of the races this season, feeling good!!  Looking forwards to next year's lake to lake as well should be fun, everyone should come out!!

Special thanks to Tom Freure from Honey Maxx for hooking me up for this race.

Here's some pics:

 Nice clean new kit, ready to race!

Crossing the finish line (photo from Digital Sports Photography)

podium shot: Eric Jobin (L), Me, and Corey Brioshi (R)

Race, Race, Race!!

Hey Everybody

These are a bit delayed but I have done a few races since my last post!!  I will try to touch, briefly, on all of them!  So where do I start!

Mont-Tremblant Canada-cup:  Craziest race in a long time!! so much mud! The course was really cool, had a lot of fun preriding the day before with everyone! The start was delayed and super hard, i felt like i was pedalling backwards. The race didn't go so well my brake wasn't working and i got a flat after the first lap (just when i start to get into a rhythm and feeling good).

Huge Starting Field at Tremblant!

Mansfield O-Cup #2:  This was a really good race! Great time camping out with the wolfpak boys. Race day came and i was feeling nervous, legs were unsure(which usually is a good thing!).  I got a call up to the line it was pretty cool!!(mostly because the top 10 were away at the Canada cup in BSP. The start was good i took it easy on the climb and attacked hard at the top on the flats and single tracts.  Worked my way up to 4th by the end of the first lap and then duking it out for 2nd for the next lap and a half.  On the third lap i screwed up (silly mistake) and had to counter the 2nd place riders attack to try and catch back on, but burnt a couple too many matches and blew up just before the last lap.  Rolled in in 8th, still my best race yet.

Manfield's "exit wound"

Sir Sam's O-cup #3:  Wicked course!! I love it there, SO beautiful!!!  Great time preriding and watching the Eliminator race! The race was ok, however I didn't have the legs this time, I was a diesel engine: I had one speed and one speed only. Still managed to pull of a 15th place race!! The best parts of the weekend were swiming at the beach, and rapids with a bunch of other racers and hanging out with Katlyn, Elyse and Joan at the cottage.

Photo Credit to Joan Dundas, Hannah Clarke,

Woodnewton O-cup #1

Well this past weekend was the start of mountain bike season with the first O-cup taking place at Woodnewton.  Having just recovered from my knee injury part way through the week I was a little nervous of my shape coming into the race.  But way more excited to let that bother me :P

I drove to Newmarket Friday after work and there Katlyn and I stayed at our friend Elyse’s place, her and her family were amazing hosts this weekend, I greatly appreciate everything they did for us!  Saturday Katlyn, Elyse and I drove over to the course for some preride laps.  It was great to see everyone again, so I spend a good portion of the morning socializing with everyone.  Then I went for a lap with the Tufrack team.  After I waited for the Wolfpak boys to arrive to do some more laps, but they were late so I went and did one with Elsye and Katlyn.  We went over lines and got to know the course!   The course was awesome, dry and tacky, perfect condition even though it rained all week.  It was going to be a fast race as a few sections were taken out of the race due to rain. When the guys finally arrived it started raining and it was already late so I dint feel like hanging around much longer so we went home for food board games and hot tubing at Elyse’s place.

Race day came and we got there to watch the 11:45 races go off; it was cool to be back in the race environment!  Got my warm up in with new team mate Eddie Skala on the warm up track, then off to the start we went!  The field was another big one with guys from Quebec coming down to race and some big names like Derek Zandstra (National Champ), Adam  Morca, Peter Glassford.  So I knew it was going to be a fast race! I managed to get myself halfway up in the start gate.  Then the race was off had a solid spot entering into the first single track, top 15 I think, much better than last year’s start!!  There was a big group with all the fast guys, I held on to them for about 2/3 of the lap I think then got dropped, but was pretty happy with that!!  I saw my buddy Jon Slaughter just up ahead of me, maybe 10seconds, so I started to chase him down!  Coming through the lap section on lap one I dropped my chain and 4-5 guys passed me, including Chris Fruetel.  So I was back on the chase, caught them around the Lap.  Starting Lap 2 we had an unreal amount of lap traffic to go through which made it hard to make moves as they would be slowed down by lap traffic in the next single track.  Ryan Atkins, Mark Windfield and I broke off and got away from the rest and then they got away from me with the help of lap traffic.  Rode steady for the rest of the race until lap 5 where I crashed twice in the single track and Chris and Scott Lynch caught me again.  So I put in a hard effort to catch them.  Scott had gotten away from Chris so it was the two of us and man we had an epic sprint finish, Chris got me by the width of our tires :P  Great race though on his part, it’s great to see him fast after an unlucky season last year!

Overall a great start to the season all things considered!! Looking forward to the next race!!  Thanks to all my sponsors for the support along the way: Honey Maxx, Clif Bar, Schwalbe, Niner, Inception Cyclery, Wolfpak Racing.

You can see pictures here: http://apexphoto.zoomphoto.ca/v5/event_gallery_search.php?frmIndex=28&submit=Search&event=19232&photog=apexphoto

Better late then never - Homage 2 Ice race report

Well this post is a little delayed, but oh well at least its happening!

So as the Day approached for H2I I was getting nervous as the weather up here was still so snowy and I knew the course would be covered in snow still! That and I haven't ridden mountain bike all winter, and haven't touched my new bike yet!  Katlyn was going to bring it up to me to the race, as it was still being built!  So to accommodate for the snowy course the organizers pushed the race started ahead to 8:30am as opposed to 11am as it normally is.  Coming into the race I was nervous(from the reasons I mentioned already) because I won this race and the XC marathon series last year so I wanted to defend that title this year!

Race Day came and it was nice to live close by in Collingwood, the drive in the am was shorter! But got my bike from Katlyn and it was looking great! so excited to ride it! Set it up quickly to approximately where it should be (should have put the seat up a little higher still and inverted the stem, but oh well). Katlyn and I then went out for a little warm up spin, maybe 10mins, this was the first time for both of us being on these new bikes of ours.  Then off to the start, I found myself in the second row. In the start gate I was looking around for my buddy Chris who was suppose to come to this race too, but he was nowhere to be seen! I thought that was strange.  And then the gun went off, its go time!  I tried working my way to the front, putting in a solid effort (with little to no warm up this proved to be tough :P).  When I got there I settled for a minute to catch my breath and next thing I new everyone else was there too! This was way different then last years start where I was off the front on my own right away.  Got into the first single track climb in second and first place was just ahead of me, so I attacked and closed the gap. In one of the snowy double tracks soon after I fell into some deep snow and then he got away.  I tried closing the gap but was really struggling with the snow!  But I kept the pace high because I knew everyone else was still close behind.  When we got to the road section a group of guys were working together and caught up to me, so I jumped into the group and made sure I was always first or second wheel. Then we hit the trails and I was able to get away again, until the hike a bike section. this was through snow that was almost knee deep!! it was probably the hardest part of the race :P a couple guys got away after this section as they were able to mount their bikes faster then me and we were near the end of the lap, but they were half marathoners so I wasn't worried.

Second lap I rode with a singlespeed guy form Cycle Solutions and it was a game of stay upright on the bike! I didn't always succeed.  When we got to the road section another guy caught up to us, but I put in a big attack and got away and cruised across the finish line in second (and first in my category: open men 40 and under).  Katlyn did amazingly as well, she finished second female overall not far off the leader! she's going to be strong this year that woman :)  Oh and going with the title (better late then never) Chris showed up at 11 for the race, what a guy!! but he had an awesome race in the worst conditions of the day, well done buddy!

Overall good race, and I am in the right direction for defending my title!! looking forward to the next one and the ocups to start soon!!

Tour of Bronte Road Race

Well hello there, it has been far too long!  But a new season is underway and there is a lot of new and exciting things for this season!!  So I will start up my blog again to try and capture every (or as many as I can) exciting moment for this year.

So let's back track a bit and see where we're at for the "new" this year:
- New Team
- New Sponsors
- New Bike
- Engaged to the wonderful Katlyn Dundas (the biggest highlight so far :) )


Yes this year I have switched team and will now be racing for Wolfpak Racing/Inception Cyclery.  I am very excited about this new change and it should provide a great year/season with lots of new adventure!  The team is sponsored by Niner Bikes, Honey Maxx, Clif Bar, Tim Hortons, Schwalbe and Inception Cyclery out of St. Catharines.  This year my weapon will be the Niner Air 9 Carbon, I am stoked about this new bike, it should be great!!


So now to the race!  Well it was a pretty cool race and went really well I think!  Not being a roady or having my team there, my buddy Jon Slaughter and I decided we'd team up and be the mtb team :P 

I had done this race before as a junior and almost won it, just didn't time my sprint right, so this time I knew that coming in, and was determined to get it right this time!


So we lined up for the race and of we went (no pace car like last time I did it).  The first half was uneventful really, there were a few guys that jumped off the front right away but we reeled them back in I spent the first half the race trying to get use to road racing and pack riding. Tried staying in the front 1/3 for most of it, but slipped back every now and then. Put in a few pulls,  played some good tactics and held in there a few times! The race realty was a trick of avoid pot holes and crashes, which there were plenty. But it all boiled down to the last lap for the bunch kick! I lined myself up for the last 500m on the front with Adam Morka by my side, we launch our attack and from behind came Nathan Chown (a season road racer) and he wedge between the two of us and blocked/edged my out of his way onto the shoulder of the road (loose gravel and ruts) where I lost my momentum and the pack sprinted, managed to get back on the road and finish the sprint and came 14^th! I was pretty pleased with the result, a good start to the season I would say!  It was a fair and smart move by Chown, I should have held my ground but I got nervous :P either way awsesome event and looking forward to see what I can do on the mtb circuit! Thanks to honey Maxx and Clif bar for fueling the race!

Next Race: Homage to Ice this Saturday! Gonna be an interesting one, trails are still buried in snow!

A little bit of race day action: http://www.sportszonephotography.ca/Cycling-2014-1/Tour-of-Bronte/100PM-Elite-Race/38327280_SrW4V3#!i=3166430654&k=MLbgKwh

Race season is SO close!!

Hey guys,
So race season is almost underway, less then a week away from the first race of the season!!! Wooo!  i'm getting pretty excited to race, a little nervous too but things should be good this year.  I have put plenty of good training in thanks to my coach Alex Sanna.  I feel pretty prepared to race, it'll still be a tough change as i am moving up in age category again this year(up to elite/U23 mtb and S1,2 road). It should be Fun this year, again i am racing to Liberty bicycle race team this year and even better is that Andrew DeCal, my team mate, and i are now in the same categore, so we can race together which will be fun!  The race season looks pretty exciting and includes MTB Nationals in St. Felicien.  Its much closer this year which mean that its in the card.  Well as i make last minute preps for the race season to start i'm getting excited!!

Read Week Bike Camp in Georgia!!!

So its read week and a few guys from Guelph and me decided to go to the States for some good old solid biking hours!  So now we're here in Dahlonega, Georgia.  Its pretty sweet down here, really big mountains which are pretty sweet!!  We drove down friday night-saturday morning stopped at home and got a nice Lasagna meal :) Mmmm yum.  So when we got here we went and did some shopping and then we were off for a ride.  We went and did a nice 3ish hour ride.  Man the mountain caught me off guard definitely.  i guess i was used to the escarpment where the hill last maybe 5 mins at most.  But these are like 20-45mins climbs!!! and some pretty solid climbs too.  But it was cool, was a little tired from a lack of sleep.


So today was a rainy day, so we decided that today would be a great day for a mountain bike ride :)  We found an old US mtb national course!  it was really muddy but really fun.  rode around and goofed off, so much fun.  Unfortunately Alex's wore out his breaks completely and had to leave at around maybe an hour in.  So its was Chris and me for the rest of our 3hour mtb ride.  We were flying goofing around and have a grand old time, as we always do.
This is going to be a fun week
 :)