Cyclocross Dreamin’

This past Monday I checked off a bucket list item, or at least one of those dreams that you always have as a child, but never actually expect to happen. Norco invited me out to Victoria for a photo/video shoot to help launch the Threshold for this year. The initial thought was to head out to a previously used venue north of the city that was great for some MTB footage, although with the intent of the shoot being a training ride ‘A-La-Schooler’ Style, I had bigger things in mind. So the boys accepted my offer, and we headed to the nearest park in town. Well, this park had a pretty fancy view (revert to above photo for details). Ok, enough of the artsy fartsy shots, and on to some riding, and man am I glad we got up early for this (4:30am to be exact). (see photo below)

We were havin’ a good-ol time when they wanted me to ride down this one trail that would have been pretty cool, so I did and after trying to ride the jutting rocks, I double flatted… What are the CHANCES???  Bad news, search the van for more tubes and luckily we came across a cross tube and a 26″ MTB tube. Oh well, we shoved it in and made it work! And to my roadie surprise, it worked awesome! Onto the next venue almost across the street to find some wicked tall grass and a couple super stoked videographer/photographers (Below)

After a short coffee stop, some more filming it was 10 am and we were pooped.

I’m really stoked to be a part of something that has come a long way in the last few years, with major overhauls going into the frame in recent history, it really is a trial and error thing. I’ve been pushing the boundaries on the Threshold for sure, but the amazing versatility of the beast speaks for itself. Stay tuned for what’s up next…

My Roots, Some Green Clothing, and many Thanks!

This one is for those who may not know much about where I come from and how I got to where I am today:

Born and raised in Edmonton, AB. Grew up in a downhill ski family (Hockey was foreign in my family) . I raced until I was in my teens when it got too expensive for all of us to keep racing, so some of us started coaching, and others did other sports. I always loved biking as it was great off season training for skiing.

Randomly in High school I decided to join the military Reserves as a Combat Engineer. They work with explosives, bridge building, construction trades, and lots of other jobs that allow the infantry to do their job. This kept me pretty busy each summer when I was in school and college, although was never all that good for being able to race my bike because I was always gone in the summers. I was in the military for a total of 9 years. This past European CX campaign was pretty neat as I was in Oudenaarde and much closer to all the WWI memorials near Ypres. I took a long ride on a rainy day to go check out the closest one at Passchendaele.

Once I graduated college though, the game changed drastically. I secured a full time gig at Jacobs (engineering consulting) and for the first time since I was young, I had evenings and weekends off to do whatever I wanted without the obligation to study constantly. That’s when I found ERTC (the Edmonton Road and Track Club) and Corey Torgness (Head coach) and started riding more. I shortly got into racing and after a lot of learning how to ride a bit smarter, I made it into Cat 2.

I really have to thank Corey Torgness (my long time coach) for helping me get to the level I’m at now. Without his guidance and tutelage, I wouldn’t know all the things I know now. He has done a great job at thinking about the bigger picture of a career in the sport as opposed to some temporary gains that don’t help you in the long run. Which is the main reason why I’m really only seeing great results now, but am quite consistent as a cyclist.

Above is a classic night of training in the winter. I ski a lot for my base miles, but as long as it’s above -5 out I’ll be on the bike!

Dry Mud, the Ice Age, and a Shampoo Bottle – Paris Ancaster 2013

It’s been pretty non-stop since I left a week and a half ago for Paris Ancaster. Once again, the P2A event has provided non-stop entertainment and an incredible event to attend and even though they had to cut out lots of the really cool sections of the course, it was still just as fun as the first year I showed up.

On Saturday I ran my School of Cross clinic where we went through the basics of cyclocross before previewing the final 5 km’s of the course. We got a bit muddy, but luckily we scared off the rain as well as any crashes on the mud chutes. Thanks to Norco for providing the handouts which made for some fun competitions to get the riders prepped and ready for race day!

Go Time:

I was pretty pumped to chat it up with Jon Page in the first 10 k, until everyone got so antzy that it was impossible to stay directly beside someone and hold down a conversation. I was also pumped to hear of his Fuji signing for the next 3 years! After the first gravel section where the real gaps happened the year before things were still relatively together, so we just kept the pace decent until the next real off road section when the slinky broke and the true race started. It was Lindine, Garrigan, Page and myself which was a really good mix of guys to put start putting the hammer down. Although shortly after that we went through a really boggy field section and Page and myself (both of knobbier tires) ended up lagging behind the two leaders (who were both on file treads). Only due to a miracle did I end up catching back on as I was able to find the sweet spot on the road that was packed down a bit more than the rest. Page was edjected. As the week leading into the race was sooo wet in Ontario with potential for boat loads of freezing rain, it flooded most of the cool sections of the course which meant a mandatory course change for the organizers. Not knowing the course would be much different, I figured I would come prepared for some mud. Alternatively, we didn’t spend much time in the mud, and lots more time on hard packed ground. But in the early afternoon as the sun came out, the frozen ground turned to a mushy bog, not ideal for anything with tread…

Also super pumped to see some kids out front of their house made a jump and put it in the middle of the road. I got some good air time on such a sweet jump (which I yelled) I’m pretty sure they were too young to get the Napolean Dynamite reference, which made me sad Then due to the shortened course and super fast times we were posting, the police road crew weren’t at their posts yet, so lots of the major intersections weren’t patrolled yet. The race organizer did a great job of helping us get through them with very little trouble.

Then the hurt came. Mike and Justin layed down a pretty tough pace going through another boggy section which was just too long for me to get back on afterwards and off they went. I knew it in my head that it was a little too far out to be dropped, and hoped that I could ride it into the finish while holding off the imminent chase group (which now included Page). But the great thing about P2A is that the best parts of the course come in the last 5 km’s. I guess Mike crashed pretty hard in the second mud chute which is a yearly ritual for him to do at least once and punctured pretty hard having to roll it in on a front flat. I came by him on the base of the final climb to finish 2nd for the second year in a row.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Allen

Congrats to Lindine for holding strong and managing the World Cup Zolder style mud chute to claim his first P2A jersey.

Many thanks again for the organizers of P2A. This year stood out as a special one with all the celebrity cyclists who showed up: Gord Singleton, Curt Harnett, Steve Bauer, Tara Whitten, and many more. True Canadian Heros!  As well as the future in-laws for hosting me and a few pounds of mud over the weekend…

Check out this wicked cartoon someone came up with: http://www.brantnews.com/opinion/editorial-cartoon-50/

Results from the weekend

http://www.escapevelocity.bc.ca/spring#results

Weather shifts makes Aaron feel ups and downs funny

Every year, I’ve made the decision to stay up north and get my base miles of training in on the skis and the rollers, and whatever other winter sports I can fill it with to have myself prepped and ready to rock it hard for the new road season. The alternative to this is to head south, not work, instead spend money, and get a nice sun tan. I never regret my decision to do this, but sometimes dream of what it would be like to do something like that.

With snow still on the ground, it being the beginning of April, AND there are calls for another storm this weekend with a potential for 15cm of snow, I’ve been doing a lot of dreaming…

On from the rough parts, and on to the good parts! I headed out for the 2013 Team H&R BLOCK road team launch in Vancouver last weekend and after a couple days of getting to know the guys, learning to speak a new kind of Kiwi and trying my hand at translating Italian (I speak absolutely no Italian) we were all acquainted. I had an opportunity to test ride the Prototype that lead to the Norco Tactic, but the final product in all it’s stealth black and team decaled glory is just so much damn cooler. And boy do they ride like a charm. It’s really great to have been able to spend the day with Norco and learn all about the extra time and money they put into ensuring a quality final product. And get this, they’ve been around for almost 50 years! I don’t know how many beater bikes I’ve seen around Canada, but most of the oldest and longest running ones almost always tend to be Norco’s. Ok, now to the cool stuff you’ve been reading for:

On the weekend, the team signed us up for some BC spring series fun. Stage race to boot. All happening in the Langley/Ft. Langley area. FYI: I found out I was racing only 3 weeks ago, and found out last week that it would be a stage race, so it’s been great fun trying to prepare myself for the inevitable: A hard couple days on a bike.

The crit was in the morning and I was actually getting pretty excited about it. Plus, a functional bike helps out a lot. Basically, after a bunch of laps, we were still together. An attack came, and I went with it. I wasn’t really sure of my fitness, with it being the first race on the bike this year and probably my 5th ride outside, and the whole team of 9 strong behind, I decided to sit on, and hope for someone to bridge up later. With a few laps to go, we were still away, and the pack wasn’t too far away in front of us, I knew it would come down to a sprint from the break. With one to go, as we speedily integrated into the pack, Curtis went left, I went right, and it was a bad move. The pack was going quite a bit slower than we were, and I messed up. Curtis went to the front, I tried to sneak in behind the H&R leadout train, it was chaos and I didn’t have the legs to follow through, or make up the extra 10 spots I lost in the pack when we went through the only sharp corner on the course. Curtis was off and I hobbled in for 2nd place. Not a bad start to the road season, but not what the team had in mind. Hats off to Curtis for riding a hard and smart race.

The TT and the road race didn’t go so hot for me, and the team did alright, but with it being so early in the year, there are still many things to improve on.

Plus side: Our team is stellar and no one can be considered ‘cancerous’. I’m really looking forward to suffering for the boys this year!

Ups Downs and In-betweeners

I was told once by a pro CX rider I looked up to when I first started riding what it was like to ride your bike as a job. He said, “Sometimes it’s the best job in the world and sometimes it’s the absolute worst job you ever want.”

I took that to mean a few different things, but me being an optimist just took it as meaning that sometimes you have good days (like winning a bike race) and sometimes you have bad days (like getting injured or crashing in a race). But it didn’t quite describe what it’s like to rehab back from an injury. In my opinion, crashing falls somewhere in the in-between.

As most people who follow my cycling exploits know, at the tail end of my Belgian campaign, 3 days before flying home, I crashed while out on an errand, dislocated my shoulder, and subsequently had to relinquish my spot on the Canadian Team for the World CX Championships. This being a pretty big deal as it is the first year that Worlds will be held outside of Europe since it’s inception in 1950. Not only that, but It was poised to be my first team project with the real Canadian Hero, Geoff Kabush. But what have I been up to since?

I’ve heard of the lows that athletes will go through when they aren’t on the top or competing as they are used to, but living it first hand has been hard. Not being able to go to worlds has been one thing, but not being able to train even though it’s the off season, early season, dry-land training whatever is another thing. Depressed? As an optimist and a true athlete, it’s hard to give into said title. It’s like when you start to get sick and everyone tells you that your sick, but you pass it off as something caught in your throat, or some of your meal that went down the wrong tube.

But now that the worst days are behind me, it’s time to get back to what I really love doing: Telling my friends how much more I trained than they did last week.

Here’s to coming out of the funk, and holding the head up. What else am I going to do. Nothing else brings me so much joy.

Norco Threshold 2013 Promo Video

Mud, World Cup beat down, and a shining glimpse of hope

I haven’t blogged in a while, and I told myself I’d have all the time in the world to catch up on this once I got to Europe, but since I’ve been here, it’s been non-stop bike stuff. Go to bike race, hurt lots, come home, shower, wash clothes, clean shoes, wash bikes, lube chains, re-grease bottom brackets and bring them back from the dead, re-grease wheel bearings, true wheels, ride when I have time, sleep when I have more time… It’s been a pretty big bunch of bike stuff, and a never ending check list! But it’s been fun! Kinda wish I had my own personal mechanic out here!

Leuven Soudal Classic:

We showed up to the first race n Belgium and were thrown head first into the deep end of the pool. No life jacket! The course was knarly and really quite short. It had a couple super steep ups and downs which on the first lap provided some entertainement, and as I was the last one to the first uphill, I had to wait about 30 seconds before I could even go anywhere! I got to wave tot he crowd and have a good time, till it was back to business. I was really able to make up some good spots towards the end of the race, but after loosing probably 2 mins on the first lap, it was doomed from the start. I made it to 45 mins in before getting pulled out as Niels Albert was charging pretty hard behind me and it makes sense, he did finish almost a minute ahead of anyone else. Oh well, onto the next one.

St. Niklaas UCI C2:

This one I was really looking forward to! I got confirmation that they would be able to provide some start money, and they even handed it out before the race too! Checked out the course and it was mostly flat with a big sand section on a beach, a couple ups and downs, before heading onto a running track for the finish. They also had one section with a big concrete wall that was hopable for me but no one else was riding it. It really gave me an edge every time I came to it as it probably saved me 5 seconds per lap!

The race played out really well even though I had a bad start. Out here, it seems when I have a bad start, I seem to come out of it on top because I’m able to see the pile ups and am able to avoid them. I soon enough rode around a lot of guys and straight through to mid-pack even before I got off the running track. The rest of the race, I was duking it out with some U-23 riders in a group of about 5 guys and finally was able to come 2nd out of the group I was with. It really upped my spirits and I was now ready for the tail end of the ‘holy week’ of cyclocross.

World Cup Namur:

Things got off to a bit of a rocky start when in the car half way to the race, I realized that I forgot to put in my contacts before we left, so I either had to race in my glasses (a huge no go as they’d fall off ) or no contacts at all). I decided to race without them as it was pretty muddy. I was able to do a couple laps in pre-ride with the glasses on to check out the pretty hairy descents in the course and pick the good lines. But the thing in cyclocross is that the course always changes as the race progresses, so if you aren’t able to change with it, then your out the back with a parachute. The course was basically a MTB course with lots of ups and downs and most of which was super muddy so you had to run soo much of it. It was hard to get into a rhythm. I tooled around kinda half wishing it would end, but then I got pulled shortly after the 30 min mark. I was bummed to get pulled so soon, but relieved that I wasn’t risking my life any more with not being able to see and all. Onto another race…

World Cup Zolder:

This race I was really starting to look forward to. The last time I raced here was probably 3 years ago and I was able to finish on the lead lap, which was really cool and hard to do at the time. Although it was before the 80% rule came into effect. So I was really hoping to have a good one here. I came the day before to pre-ride the course and pick up my race package, so I really had the course dialed in pretty well. It was also quite dry when I pre-rode so it was poised to be a super fast race!

Come race day and it was still pretty dry and fast. As it typically does, the weather turned for the worst during the elite men’s race, so we got a pretty good dump of rain after the race started. I again had a bad start and was off the back before the first corner, but in doing so, I was able to avoid the major pile up on the first couple corners to put me almost in the mid-pack. I was really doing well to maintain my position and after a couple fobbles in technical bits, I was really looking forward to staying into contention. After a few laps, I wasn’t far behind TJ and I wasn’t making many mistakes either. J-Pow had some bad luck and towards the end of the race, he was riding with me even. With 3 laps to go I was with Lindine and Powers (as they would ride away on the flat stuff, and I’d catch mack up on the technical bits, until I went through an unsuspecting mud pit and caught my bars on a fence post and crashed on the road. I went down hard and lost contact with the group, which of course was the last couple riders to make it onto the lead lap. I got pulled on the start of the last lap as the leaders were charging hard behind me. The 80% rule sucks, but it is there for a reason I guess.

Now onto Diegem, night race, I’m really looking forward to it! Then flying back to Chicago for the New Years Cup!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Belgium Arrival, Jetlag, and Forgetting the Euro Awesomeness

If you asked me if I thought it was a good idea to fly to Los Angeles, do a couple bike races, fly to Vancouver, drive to Bend, OR, race your ass off for another 2 days, Drive to Vancouver, then fly to Belgium all in the span of 10 days, I’d tell you your stupid.  Well, hindsight is 20/20.  A lot of things have been 20/20 on this trip, but I made it here none the less, and am now finally settled in.

LA was a good go albeit muddy for both races which is a rarity in those parts.  Had a pretty fun race on Saturday even though I only had one functioning mud wheel set.  The other had some flats I had to deal with, so I made do with my all around tread.  Thanks to Donn with Clement Tires for setting me up with the new MXP’s and some more PDX’s.  I imagine they will come into some great use in Europe. It wasn’t all rain though:

Then onto Bend.  Bend, well… There isn’t much I want to say about Bend, other than that I was there… Bad starts both days lead me to some not so hot races.  I’ve never been last man around the first corner before in a race in the States, and due to my start on the second day after the gun went and I ended up with both feet firmly planted on the ground straddling my bike, it wasn’t going to turn out to be a fun one.  For those who have taken my School of Cross clinic before, note:  This is not how you start a cross race.

Then we were off to Europe.  I am travelling with fresh CX blood Mark McConnell who hasn’t been to Europe before let along raced CX in it.  It’s been an eye opening experience I’m sure.  Took me a few days to feel good again after that flight, but took a bit longer to make sure the bikes were in working order.  CXLA really took a bite out of them.

Fidea CX, Leuven:

The first Euro race back in at least a few years, and it had to be the knarlyest course they could throw at us.  The first couple descents and climbs back up again were no where near ridable, and yes they were 3 m’s wide, but only one real way to get up them, so you could imagine the chaos that ensued after the group hit the first ‘funnel’.  It was insane.  I stood at the back of the group while bars to stuck in wheels, racers yelling at other racers, and the crowd is just loving it.  Taking in the chaos, right, back to the cross race.  Once the mess cleared up, it was a long slog to try and hold off the leaders from charging up behind me.  I figure on the first lap I lost at least two minutes because of the need for the race to funnel through the ‘single track climb’.  Doesn’t leave much time to spare.  Also, another major shock to the system is the 80% rule.  Which didn’t exist the last time I raced in Europe.  This allows the Commissaires the ability to pull you if you are more than 80% of the leaders lap times behind them in the race.  My supposedly hour long cross race was over after 42 mins.  Makes me want to train harder.  A stark contrast to the hour and 6 min races I’m used to in the States.  Cost per hour raced just went up.

We have had some cool new scenery here in Oudenaarde though, a change from my usual residence in Belgium of Tielt-Winge.  Below: Random Castle with Moat (I’m pretty sure the castle is sloping)  Ah, do I love my Norco Bike!

Next up, St. Niklaas UCI Race on Wednesday!

Rocking the CX circuit the hard way – CXLA and the SingleSpeed gong show

Leading into this weekend I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have been pretty busy trying to put the finishing touches on packing and hashing out my whole travel schedule, all the while working a 9-5 job to pay for it all. It gets a little much sometimes, especially when the weather turns…

Mark and I came down to LA fully expecting to start off the trip with a nice warm and dry weekend in LA. As soon as we got here, we knew it was going to be a gong show. As we were getting more and more depressed about the weather, the LA locals were getting pumped. The first time in a long time that the weather was going to show them what true cross is all about.

The first day it just decided to open up. We got rain, and lots of it. It first started misting, then turned to real rain. I wasn’t prepared for the whole thing as I came down without 2 sets of mud tires, and it’s my own fault for not getting them ready and glued up after flatting on it at Nationals. I ended up 11th even with the one lap on the all around tread slipping and sliding. Felt good, but there was room for lots of improvement.

Second day was another gong show, got the bikes as ready as they would ever be (which was nowhere near prepared enough) and headed out for some more pain. This time after a poor start, I settled into a good group with the 2 Kona boys and started making up ground on the others. Only to succum to a rear flat half way through the race, and had to hobble that in for at least half a lap. This day wasn’t as rough on the brake pads though as I was really burning through them on the first day with the rain. Hobbled home for 16th.

SSCXWC = Gong show. A fun experience which is (in my opinion) more fun to watch than race, but to each his own. Drunk cyclists pushing people over, coupled with drunk heckling fans, makes for one hell of an interesting show. The favourite section of the course had to have been what I call the worm. Immediately after the flyover, the spectators (Led by RedBulls Fvourite) started narrowing the course a bit every lap, then proceeded to make S bends out of it with dollar bills held up on mud piles. It was full of many crashes and laughs, until one of the racers went hog wild and started flinging mud in the air which crashed down on anyone in the area. The crowd dispersed, but only for a couple seconds before coming back to revamp the taping again.

Now it’s time to catch up on some sleep and do a total overhaul on my bikes before Bend. We’ll see how that goes…