World Championships: Jr Women’s & U23 Men’s ITTs

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Kathryn

I had a great time at the Junior Women's individual time trial this morning. Because women's cycling unfortunately doesn't have the same appeal as men's, I was able to watch the race from a couple of different spots and even see some of the pre-race behind the scenes logistical stuff I find so fascinating.

 

First off, you need a lot of motorcycles for an ITT so that each rider has her own motorcyclist to make sure the road is clear and to have someone to follow.

 

And each rider needs her own support car to follow in case she needs to change bikes mid-course for any number of reasons. The coach is usually the driver and some of them use the loudspeaker to blast encouragement, updates, or instructions to the rider.

 

The scene behind the start house where each bike must be measured to ensure it is within the requirements. There was much back and forth between the UCI official and the coaches of the Jordanian rider regarding the angle of her seat.

 

The first of the 48 scheduled riders warmed up on trainers and rollers behind the start house.

 

The first rider to start wasn't on the official start list for some reason, but the Jordanian was cleared to ride.

 

Alexandria Nicholls sat in the start house, watching the end of the 90 second countdown for her ride to begin. She completed the 16.19 kilometer course in 22:44, averaging 42.730 kph. This ride kept her in the hot seat until the very last rider finished and earned her the silver medal.

 

The media sprang to life when Francesca Pattaro, the first Italian rider, entered the start house.

 

Some riders opted to wear full visors, like Germany's Anna Knauer, while others didn't even bother with sunglasses.

 

Eighteen year old Canadian Kinley Gibson, the Junior Women's national ITT champion, eventually finished in 9th.

 

We Canadians often like to identify ourselves with maple leafs (not leaves, but leafs–I am from Toronto, after all). I later met this photographer and one of his American friends who remembered me from the Tour de France and the Quebec races last weekend.

 

When I initially scouted out the course, I ended up hitting a couple of dead ends due to the way the course looped and the peculiar set up of the fences. Over the course of the morning, I saw dozens of spectators, officials, police, and even riders also getting stuck. Two of Luxembourg's male time trialists tried to figure out how to reach the road for their training ride.

 

In the end, they had to do a U turn and look for another bikeable road.

 

Alexandra Manly crossed the finish line in 22:50, averaging 42.543 kph, and took home the bronze medal.

 

Florence has a lot of remarkable architecture, but relatively little of it is getting showcased. The various courses travel through the city for just a few short, technical blocks and the majority of the races are done on plain roads with unspectacular backdrops.

 

I was able to catch the race about 5 or 6 kilometers in because the first part of the course was a loop. American Kelly Catlin placed 7th.

 

The final rider to start was Severine Eraud, the French and European Junior Women's ITT champion. She was the rider to beat today, but no one could do it. Her time of 22:42, an average of 42.793 kph, meant she became the Junior Women's world champion at eighteen years old.

 

Results

1st: Severine Eraud, France

2nd: Alexandria Nicholls, Australia

3rd: Alexandra Manly, Australia

 

The course remained closed to traffic in the hours between the Junior Women's and the Men's Under 23 ITTs so I stuck around and saw riders from Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Romania, Poland, France, and several other counties out for their training rides. I try to put my camera away between the races, but when I spotted Tony Martin, current ITT champion and, as of yesterday, double TTT champion, I pulled my camera out of my musette at lightning speed and got a shot of him in front of the Duomo as I cheered for him. My unprovoked outburst confused a lot of clueless tourists.

 

The U23 men had their ITT in the afternoon. I was curious how close I'd be able to get to the finish line, so I headed to the Mandela Forum to investigate. Turned out I was about 140 meters from the finish line and there was a big screen broadcasting the race. Pretty good!

 

Some of the riders seemed to scream in agony as they neared the end of the 43.49 kilometer course.

 

Lawson Craddock gave it all he had, as the large gob of spit on his chin will attest, and ended up 5th. The 21 year old first popped up on my radar with an 8th place overall in the Tour of California this spring and has had a solid enough season to earn a contract with Argos for next year. After the race, I saw him at the buses. He looked disappointed to have missed the podium and was visibly uncomfortable from the huge gash on his shin from crashing at a roundabout while on course, but he also looked like he was ready to start focusing on the U23 road race later in the week. When I told him I though he'd had one hell of a ride, he brightened and said, “Well, thank you!”

 

Bruno Maltar may have finished in 35th place, but his helmet guaranteed he looked good doing it.

 

Canadian Alexander Cataford ended up in 33rd place overall.

 

Nathan Brown, the American U23 ITT champion and will ride for Garmin in 2014, came in at 21st place.

 

With so many shadows on the road, it was hard to get clear photos of the cyclists, but I managed to get a decent one of Poland's Szymon Rekita, who finished in 18th.

 

At each time check, Frenchman Yoann Paillot preformed consistently and won the silver medal.

 

When the last rider came in, Australian Campbell Flakemore was bumped off the podium into 4th place.

 

Damien Howson, the other Australian in the race, was on fire. He'll be riding for Orica GreenEdge next year and they'll be pleased he can now add U23 ITT world champion to his palmares.

 

Lasse Hansen put in a good ride and made it onto the podium in 3rd.

 

Results

1st: Damien Howson, Australia

2nd: Yoann Paillot, France

3rd: Lasse Hansen, Denmark

 

Nearly an hour after some of these riders had finished, they still looked wiped out when I wandered through the buses.

 

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World Championships: TTT

Posted on September 22, 2013 by Kathryn

Day 1 of the World Championships!

 

As I explained to at least 15 different people in 2 different languages (apparently the French were better informed than English and Spanish speakers) throughout the day, today was the only day all week when the cyclists would ride for their trade teams as opposed to riding for their country. Of course, that didn’t stop me from putting up my Canadian flag as usual to announce my presence and show my support.

 

The racing got underway with the women’s 43 kilometer team time trial. I am no where near as well versed in women’s cycling as I am in men’s, so I was eager to see the few female riders and teams I know about.

 

Vaiano Foundriest.

 

Karen Fouta.

 

S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox.

 

Each team was separated by a two and a half minute interval, yet Rusvelo had made up enough time to be just a few seconds behind S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox.


Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies had 3 Canadians on their squad, so I got to exercise my vocal cords alongside my Canadian and Australian friends.


Boels Dolmans Cycling Team.


Lotto Belisol Ladies.


Cipollini Giordana.


Argos Shimano.


Bepink.


Sengers Ladies Cycling Team.


Wiggle Honda.


Rabo Women Cycling Team promised to be a strong squad with Marianne Vos, current world champion, so it wasn’t a huge shock they had passed Hitec Products UCK.

 

Hitec Products UCK.


Orica-AIS.

 

Specialized-Lululemon was the team to beat as the defending champions.

 

Results

1st: Specialized-Lululemon

2nd: Rabo Women Cycling Team

3rd: Orica-AIS


There were a couple of hours between the end of the women’s race and the start of the men’s. My commonwealth companions went for a wander and I made myself abandon my post for an unnecessarily anxious 15 minutes to grab a sandwich.


The crowd was pretty thin for the women but predictably swelled for the men’s 57 kilometer TTT. The 2 newest cycling fans rejoined me and with 3 Americans I had met during the break so, with numbers on our side, we promised to be a vocal group.


The men’s teams each had a three and a half minute gap between them but Velo Club Sovac of Algeria had already been caught and passed by Hungry’s Utensilnord.


BDC-Marcpol Team.


Cycling Team Jo Piels.


Team Cult Energy.

 

Cycling De Rijke-Shanks.

 

Etixx-Ihned suffered a crash when the 5th rider plowed into the fence after missing a right hand turn. The 4 riders ahead of him carried on because it’s the time of the 4th rider to cross the finish that officially counts and the team had already dropped one cyclist, so now they were down to the bare minimum of 4 remaining riders. The one who crashed eventually got into the team car and looked to be cradling his elbow, suggesting a possible and common collarbone injury, and the dropped rider eventually rode by on his own.

 

The first men’s team that I was excited to see was Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategy with Canadian Ryan Anderson and Americans Chad Haga and Tom Zirbel.

 

Rabobank Development Team.

 

Kolss Cycling Team.

 

Adria Mobil. By this point in the race, nearly all of the teams who’d ridden by were not well known. Since I’d taken to announcing each approaching team and any riders of note to my little group, other spectators started to ask which team was next or what country the team was based in, so I just spoke a bit louder from then on and made sure everyone could hear me.

 

Team Gourmefteim Simplon.

 

MTN-Qhubeka.

 

Since Eneco Tour, I’m a Topsport Vlaanderen fan with riders like Laurens De Vreese and Gijs Van Hoecke, so I turned on my voice to the point where people started to ask each other, “Wait, was that one of the big teams?” and the Italian guy who was in charge of blowing a whistle as each team entered the straightaway said to me, “Belgium?” wondering why the Canadian was cheering for a small European team.

 

Vini Fantini.

 

CCC Polsat Polkowice.

 

Vacansoleil announced the arrival of the big teams. When I informed my area to expect them, I also included that I’m a big fan of Juan Antonio Flecha, Lieuwe Westra, and the non-Uzbek speaking Uzbek Sergey Lagutin, so we should all cheer louder than usual.

 

Andre Greipel was the second Lotto Belisol rider.

 

The crowd was starting to get into the race when FDJ rode by and since I’d announced that Canadian Dominique Rollin was on the team, we did a great job of calling his name. Unfortunately, he’d been dropped, which we didn’t know until the 5 riders had gone by and I realized we hadn’t seen Rollin. The good news is that when he did pass us, we had already practiced cheering for him so we really did a nice job.

 

I’m so glad to have discovered how much I like Argos Shimano over this past year.

 

When Euskaltel-Euskadi were in the straightaway, a couple of riders threw their water bottles into the crowd which will have made great souvenirs for someone.

 

There were some Italians nearby so I made sure they knew that Lampre, an Italian team, was next up.

 

Greek time trial and road champion, Ioannis Tamouridis, of Euskaltel and William Clarke or Argos had been dropped by their respective teams and they seemed happy enough to have each other for company.

 

And then it was time for Garmin! I’d already prepped everyone by telling them who was on the team, that it was important we all yell like idiots for them, and I had even shared a couple of my favorite stories about cheering for the Garmin boys, but I think everyone was still a but stunned to see my reaction. In fact, the people across the street actually turned away from the oncoming riders to watch me. The moment that Garmin entered the straightaway some 80 meters away, I just began yelling like my house was on fire and there were people trapped inside. I was excited to see Christian Vande Velde leading the team in his last professional race of his accomplished career. I’ll miss you, VDV.

 

Now that people knew what sort of volume I was expecting when I said it was important we all really cheer, I was thrilled as always to see Maciej Bodnar and Cannondale next.

 

Garmin had dropped 2 of their riders. David Millar rode by after Cannondale and it was an even longer wait for Andrew Talansky, who looked miserable, to appear.

 

AG2R got a big cheer from us as they rode by with Hugo Houle (left).

 

Belkin.

 

All of the spectators and crew had taken note of me by now so when one of the volunteers ran over to tell me that Saxo Tinkoff was next, I had no idea why he had done so but it was very kind of him.

 

Astana.

 

There was an Italian couple who were keen to see Fabian Cancellara, so as RadioShack Leopard Trek approached, I didn’t even bother to announce the team, I just told them Cancellara was on his way.

 

Katusha.

 

Movistar.

 

Sky.

 

There were a few Aussies around and since I’m a Svein Tuft fan, we all went pretty crazy when Orica GreenEdge rode by.

 

Taylor Phinney led BMC through the turn and into the last 2 kilometers.

 

The final team of the day was the defending TTT world champions, Omega Pharma-Quick Step. They boasted a solid squad with experienced riders like Sylvain Chavanel, Kristof Vandewalle, Peter Velits, Niki Terpstra, the Polish road champion Michal Kwiatkowski, and current individual time trial champion Tony Martin who is an absolute beast.

 

Kwiatkowski had been dropped and he looked like he was in a spot of bother as he pedaled home slowly.

 

One of the main reasons I had selected this particular spot for watching the race was not only that the left hand turn would force the riders to slow down but also because I had discovered there was free wifi available. As the last few teams passed us, we had been checking online to get updates at the various time checks along the course. With just OP-QS out on the course, we knew Taylor Phinney had disappointingly finished just off the podium yet again (he was 4th at the London Olympics in both the ITT and the road race) but the question remained: would OP-QS beat Orica GreenEdge in a reversal of this year’s TTT at the Tour de France? I’m not sure I’ve ever hit the refresh button so frantically but we finally had our answer: OP-QS had won by 0.81 seconds. I was torn between being thrilled for Niki Terpstra and his teammates and being gutted for Svein and Orica.

 

Results

1st: Omega Pharma-Quick Step

2nd: Orica GreenEdge

3rd: RadioShack Leopard Trek

 

My spectating buddies all went their separate ways and I had no idea what to do with myself. There was far too much adrenaline in my system to go for a simple evening stroll by the Ponte Vecchio, so I high tailed it to the finish line in hopes of maybe waving my flag at the Orica bus somewhere along the way.

 

But it went even better than I had hoped.

 

I arrived at the finish and saw there was a bit of a commotion at the media tent even though I didn’t see any riders giving interviews. I turned around and there was Tony Martin, just walking by himself. It took me a second but I found my voice (after not being able to turn it off up to this point) and congratulated him. I’ve been lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions and he’s always been incredibly approachable. It’s wonderful to see that he doesn’t change even when he’s just won a gold medal half an hour ago.

 

Before I could even get over my excitement at talking to the beast himself, Sylvain Chavanel walked by and smiled when I congratulated him.

 

I got to congratulate Kristof Vandewalle, Michal Kwiatkowski, and Niki Terpstra, my favorite OP-QS rider, who definitely recognized me.

 

Sylvain and Tony were highly in demand from the press.

 

After posing for pictures, Sylvain tried to sit down. I say “tried” because his legs didn’t want to cooperate and it was one of the most ungraceful things I’ve ever witnessed in my life. If you’ve ever watched me try to sit down in a controlled fashion after running a marathon, you know what I’m taking about.

 

Meanwhile, Kwiatkowski and Velits hung out on the step like a couple of middle school kids waiting for their mom to pick them up at 3:30.

 

You never know when you’ll get another chance to take your photo on the finish line at the World Championships!

 

I figured Orica GreenEdge must have been long gone by then so just as I was starting to think about what I should do next, Michael Hepbuen, Daryl Impey, and Brett Lancaster of Orica materialized out of nowhere. I congratulated Brett and asked him to please pass my congratulations on to Svein, adding that Svein would know me as “the Canadian.” Brett said, “Oh! You were the one with the flag!” He explained they’d all seen my Canadian flag during yesterday’s recon of the course. I could hardly believe they’d seen me since they all looked so focused on thir ride, and then Brett added, “Yeah, Svein said you come to all the races!” I’m glad I wasn’t sitting down because I know I would have fallen off my chair.

 

I made my way to the 2 remaining team buses in the parking lot. Daryl Impey was posing for photos and signing autographs but he looked like he was knackered, so I didn’t want to impose and just congratulated him.

 

There was a woman holding a bunch of flowers and when I asked whose they were, she said they belonged to Luke Durbridge, Australia’s 22 year old road and time trial champion who was surprisingly excluded from the both Australia’s world championship road and ITT squads. Laura was friendly and chatty so we had a good 10 minute talk before it was time to call it a day.

 

Wondering what a parking lot must look like after thirty odd team buses and countless fans have spent an excited afternoon there? In a word: spotless.

 

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TTT test run

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Kathryn

I'm back in Florence for the second time this year and both times I've been here, it's been to watch cycling.

 

The UCI World Championships will take place in the city over the coming week, starting tomorrow with the team time trial. Today was the first day the organizers closed the course to cars, so teams took advantage of the opportunity to do some recon on the course.

 

Lotto Belisol is one of the few teams with both a men's and a women's squad.

 

Orica is another team with 2 squads. Unfortunately, there was a crash right where the team was to make a right hand turn, which causes some minor chaos temporarily but everyone seemed ok and they were up and going again a few minutes later.

 

Team Specialized-Lululemon led out by German road champion Trixi Worrack.

 

I picked my spot because it featured a decent straightaway, giving me time to spot the teams approaching, and because of the 90 degree left hand turn which forces the riders to slow down. Even with all that, I was too excited when I saw BMC, the first men's team on the course to approach, to take photos–oops–but I did get some clear shots of AG2R, the team of Canadian Hugo Houle and Frenchman Jean-Christophe Péraud who crashed out of the Tour de France after suffering a brutal crash during his warm up and then again in the same spot during his TT.

 

Cannondale with Peter Sagan (center), winner of Sunday's Grand Prix Montreal, and more importantly, my favorite Polish rider, Maciej Bodnar (behind Sagan).

 

Argos-Shimano.

 

For whatever reason, FDJ was heavily separated when the first 2 riders approached the left hand turn. This was great luck for me because the second rider in this photo is Canadian Dominique Rollin so there was time not only for me to cheer for him but also for him to recognize me and give me a friendly wave!

 

The second time BMC rode the course, I had my act together. Taylor Phinney, third from right.

 

In the BMC shot, you'll see a team fast approaching. Garmin! As usual, they hadn't announced their riders for the TTT until the last minute, so not only was I trying to take photos and cheer in general for the team, I was trying to pick out who would be riding in tomorrow's TTT–no easy task given their speed and visors but I managed to clearly pick out Andrew Talansky (center) and David Millar. Their squad will also include Rohan Dennis, Christian Vande Velde, Dave Zabriskie, and Tyler Farrar. What a team.

 

Katusha apparently couldn't be bothered to limit themselves to the required 6 man team and completed the course with 8 riders. Vladimir Isaichev, fith, in the white jersey of the Russian national champion.

 

Lotto Belisol with Andr Greipel at the front.

 

Defending TTT champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step are fielding a strong squad.

 

RadioShack Leopard Trek led out by Fabian Cancellara, aka Spartacus. Do you see any one behind the car? Nope? I didn't either, but everyone's favorite 42 year old cyclist was tucked in after the car. When he passed me I screamed, “GO JENS!” and, in true Jens style, he reached his arm back to give a happy wave despite riding at near full gas.

 

Orica-GreenEdge with my favorite Canadian to ride tomorrow, Svein Tuft, third from the right.

 

It's no secret that BMC is hungry for the win tomorrow, riding the technical section of the course through the city 3 times while the other men's teams just rode it once each.

 

It's a little hard to see due to the bright sun but Edvald Boassan-Hagen's helmet hasa huge Norwegian flag on it instead of the standard Sky black and blue.

 

Vacansoleil with Uzbek Sergey Lagutin on the far left behind Johnny Hoogerland in the Dutch national champion stripes. Juan Antonio Flecha was bringing up the rear.

 

Michael Mørkøv with the Danish national champion's jersey with Nick Roche of Saxo.

 

It soon became a bit of a free for all after the teams passed and the Under 23s and junior cyclists slotted to ride the individual time trial in the coming days took to the road. Go Canada!

 

Categories: Canada, Italy | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Cairo, Egypt

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Kathryn

Hello, reader! My trip to Egypt was already a few months ago but I never finished posting about it because I got more than a little sidetracked following 5 different cycling races across 8 different countries, so bear with me as I finish up Egypt! (And don't worry, there are more upcoming races on my calendar!)

 

The National Museum has an overwhelming amount of ancient artifacts. The building is practically bursting at the seams with sqtatues, jewelery, furniture, carvings, mummies, and just about everything else under the sun. It turned out to be a good thing that the museum doesn't allow photos because otherwise you'd go through an entire memory card in no time. Unfortunately, relatively few of the artifacts have a description so Viraj and I just made up or own interpretations.

 

There was a big Christian community in Cairo pre-dating the Islamic era. Our first stop was to see the Hanging Church which was likely built during the late 7th century. The name comes from the church's suspended location above the Babylon Fortress.

 

 

Th church doors.

 

The church's interior features beautiful woodwork.

 

The Greek Church of St. George is nearby. It was originally built around the 10th century but the church visible today was rebuilt following a 1904 fire. As large as it looks from the outside, inside it has just a few small, cell-like chambers.

 

Legend has it that baby Moses was found in the reeds where the Ben Ezra Synagogue now stands. The synagogue was discovered to have house an important collection of discarded religious texts in the 19th century. Those manuscripts are now split between different academic libraries.

 

There are a few pockets across the city known as Islamic Cairo densely populated with mosques and madrasas.

 

Al-Rafa'i Mosque.

 

Sultan Hasan Mosque.

 

The citadel.

 

While in Egypt, I tried to dress conservatively in order to be respectful but some of the mosques still wanted me to be even more covered up, so I was given a green silk cloak to wear which made me look like the Green Goblin. Viraj found this quite hilarious.

 

We didn't experience tremendous variety in our diet while in Egypt, but we did have some great meals, including a traditional dish with 2 types of noodles, tomato sauce, lentils, and chick peas.

 

A feast of pita bread, falafel, hummus, salad, and our favorite drink which was a blend of strawberries and mangos.

 

One parting photo. Cairo is far more diverse than I had expected, as you'll notice from the variety of outfits in this storefront (the burkas are on the far right).

 

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GPCQM Montreal

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Kathryn

Arriving early to the start/finish line ensured us the best possible spot to go for rider autographs. Unfortunately for Hermano, Cameron, and I, the street was a wide boulevard with a median running down the center that promised to make it difficult to entice the peloton the sign autographs.

 

In fact the median was only the first obstacle we were to encounter and it wasn't even the worst one. Nope, not by a long shot. A man who worked for the race had obviously been instructed to direct the riders to the start line immediately after that team had finished the team presentation, unbeknownst to me. So when I saw Ryan Roth and cheered for him, he started to make his way over to sign my flag until evil-fan-hating-man put his hands on Roth's shoulders and told him to go the other way. I could see Roth gesturing that fans wanted his autograph but the evil-fan-hating-man insisted. To Roth's credit, he chose to ignore evil-fan-hating-man, dismounted his bike, and came over to sign my brand new Quebec flag. When he picked up the marker, everyone let out a huge roar to let the Canadian rider know how much we all appreciated his effort!

 

Argos was introduced not long after and as much as I like the Argos team and riders like Degenkolb, I will always be faithful to Frank Parisien, who paid no attention whatsoever to evil-fan-hating-man and simply said to me, “Do you have something for me to sign?” I got a 2-for-1 as he signed both my Quebec and Canadian flags.

 

Sweet little baby Jesus Herrada posed for a picture with me in the hotel lobby yesterday and today I added his signature to my flag.

 

Rui Costa signed for me in Quebec, but he was just so happy that I wasn't about to turn down another autograph.

 

My favorite team took to the stage and a journalist came to the couple next to us, who were also Garmin supporters, and asked which rider they'd most like to meet. Of course they said Ryder Hesjedal and the journalist promised to do his best to get Hesjedal to us. I did cringe a little: Hesjedal definitely knows me and I know that he's a low key guy. I try to respect this about him and not cheer like a maniac for him (but still support him with a more mellow tone) but of course whenever he does come over to sign for me, my neighbors go wild and that's the end of my attempt at respectful mellowness. Blarg. Lucky for me, today Hesjedal didn't seem at all to mind the extra attention (as the star Canadian in the Grand Prix series, he had to expect it) and, after he'd signed for other fans, he autographed my super large Canadian flag as well as my Garmin sign.

 

I love getting the chance to exchange a few words with Andrew Takansky and today was better than usual because Hermano got to meet him for the first time.

 

Alongside the young American was a veteran American, Christian Vande Velde, who finally gave me an autograph. Success!

 

Fabian Wegmann, who had come so close to making the podium in Quebec, signed my flag.

 

Michael Albasini couldn't be bothered to listen to evil-fan-hating-man, and have me an autograph.

 

Riders were testing out their legs and taking a peek at the climb that was just around the corner from the start and I caught Jerome Pineau on his way back from checking out the climb.

 

John Degenkolb had to pull a U turn to be able to sign.

 

It was time for the race to start, so,the peloton gathered en masse at the start line.

 

At 11am sharp, the gun sounded and the peloton was off!

 

Once the pack had passed, the 3 of us booked it through the wooded park and up the hill to watch the race on the slow and steady climb. There were 7 cyclists in the breakaway and I experienced a moment's panic of who to cheer for–I'm a big fan of Argos and RadioShack in particular–but it was no contest. After Canadian road champion Zach Bell had been so good to me in Quebec, I threw my support (and my voice) behind him.

 

The peloton followed a few minutes later and I picked out Ted King as the Cannondale rider on the far left, so I gave him a cheer and a wave. He recognized me right away and first gestured to his mouth before giving an enthusiastic thumbs up, saying that the maple syrup cookies were excellent!

 

As the laps around Montreal continued, Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Jerome Pineau did a massive turn at the front, leading the peloton for an incredible 7 of the day's 17 laps.

 

Gabriel Rasch and Niki Terpstra.

 

Ryder Hesjedal.

 

Frank Parisien and Ted King.

 

With each lap, the peloton thinned out like Andy Schelck's arms (I wish I could take credit for that simile but, alas, I got it from twitter) until there was just one lap to go. We sprinted back down hill to the finish line where a huge crowd had gathered.

 

The crowd roared when Ryder Hesjedal attacked.

 

The winner? Perhaps you've heard of him, a Slovakian by the name of Peter Sagan.

 

The podium. Peter Sagan in first, Simone Ponzi in second, and Ryder Hesjedal in third.

 

King of the mountains was Jan Bakelandts, of whom I'm a big supporter. I got to congratulate him after his win as he rode back to his hotel to get cleaned up.

 

We walked to our hotel on cloud 9 after a fantastic day of spectating. TedKing was in the lobby and again thanked us for the cookies. He is definitely the best autograph that I didn't get this weekend! BMC was loading their gear and luggage into the team vehicle and Hermano got a photo with Tejay Vangarderen.

 

When we sat down in our room to relax after a long day on our feet, we turned on the CTV news and 30 seconds later saw ourselves in the race segment.

 

Today's 11 autographs came from: #21 Ryder Hesjdal, #26 Andrew Talansky, #27 Christian Vande Velde, #28 Fabian Wegmann, #41 Rui Costa, #44 Jesus Herrada, #64 Jerome Pineau, #121 Michael Albasini, #151 Frank Parisien, #154 John Degenkolb, and #208 Ryan Roth.

 

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GPCQM transfer day…and a few riders

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Kathryn

Hermano and I traveled by train to Montreal today for tomorrow's GP race. Walking the short few blocks to the hotel, we saw several riders from Lotto and a couple of other teams returning to the hotel from their training rides and as we approached the check in desk, there was Jesus Hernandez, complete with bike, trying to sort out a problem.

 

Our room wasn't ready yet so we happily hung out in the lobby and, since there were plenty of other fans grabbing riders for photos and autographs, I went in for a few photos myself. Below: Gert Dockx.

 

Peter Sagan is easy to spot under the worst of circumstances, so when he wears the cowboy hat he won at last week's Tour of Alberta, he is unmissable.

 

Simon Geschke was happy to take a photo with me.

 

A few of the Garmin boys had finished their ride and we eagerly watched to see who was walking through the door first. I'm not sure how long a nanosecond technically is, but I would guess it took us each less than half a nanosecond to recognize Christian Vande Velde, one of our absolute favorite riders in the whole peloton. It was awfully kind of him to pose for a picture with Hermano as I gushed about how excited we both were to meet him.

 

Jonathan Castroviejo agreed to take a photo with me.

 

I was at the Tour for Matteo Trentin's stage win so I was really happy to get a picture with him.

 

The rest of Movistar filed in and I got a photo with current Spanish national road champion, Jesus Herrada (who I will forever think of as “sweet little baby Jesus” after the race announcer interrupted his French commentary to point out Herrada).

 

Peter Velits and Polish road champion Michal Kwiatkowski took the time for a photo with me after their shopping excursion.

 

In between photos, we saw dozens of riders from most of the teams making their way back to the hotel after their rides and then again heading out in pairs to do a little shopping and sightseeing. Frank Parisien stopped to have a good chat with us and I introduced him to my friend and fellow cycling fan, Cameron, before we met up with another one of our cycling fanatic friends for an absolutely fantastic dinner.

 

What an exciting day…and there wasn't even any racing!

 

Categories: Canada | Tags: , | Comments Off on GPCQM transfer day…and a few riders

GPCQM Quebec

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Kathryn

The clouds this morning looked like they were going to cooperate for the 201 kilometer race which would take the peloton on a 16 lap circuit through Quebec City.

 

My brother, who I call Hermano, and I scouted out the team presentation area and parked ourselves in what we hoped would be a good spot to try to catch the peloton’s attention. Pay dirt!

 

David Veilleux told me he remembered me from the Tour de France as he signed my flag. Since he announced his retirement earlier this week and is from Quebec, the local fans around me were thrilled to have Veilleux in front of them.

 

My pal Frank Parisien rode right up to me and started to hand out his rider cards. He’s another Québécois rider so, again, my fellow spectators were super excited.

 

I had cheered for Zach Bell, the current Canadian national road champion, as he rode by earlier in the morning, so when he had to pass me again, he came straight over to sign.

 

I continued to impress the other fans by getting Québécois rider Hugo Houle to sign my flag.

 

Sky has always been a hard team to get autographs from but today was my lucky day! Jonathan Tiernan-Locke is a young rider with a promising future.

 

Geraint Thomas, who rode the Tour de France with a broken pelvis.

 

Joe Dombrowski is a baby-faced American who shows tremendous potential.

 

Dominique Rollin saw me and laughed that I was at all the races after he first meet at Eneco Tour.

 

Sky was still in the area and I had to give it a try when I saw Chris Froome. Much to my surprise, he came over! As he autographed my flag, I told him I had seen him in July in a little race in France and that I thought I remembered he had had a decent result, which got a good chuckle out of the Tour de France champion.

 

At the Tour de France, I met Uzbek Sergey Lagutin just once. Of course I cheered for him whenever I saw him but we only ever talked once at stage 5, so I couldn’t believe it when he came over and joked that I must be following him. I’ve said it before but it astounds me how so many riders seem to really see what’s going on around them and take in their surroundings, as opposed to being focused to the point of shutting out the world around them right before embarking on a monster cycling stage.

 

When I asked Fumiyuki Beppu if he was enjoying Canada, he said, “Yes,” before he leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, “It’s better than France!”

 

I told Rui Costa that I was at both of his stage wins at the Tour this summer and that memory got a huge smile out of him.

 

Meanwhile, each team was presented to the fans on stage. Marcus Burghardt flashed a big smile when I cheered his name.

 

When I first saw the start list a couple of weeks ago, I was awfully excited because I love to see Jan Bakelants race and he is wonderfully friendly. I got his attention and he rode over to me and promptly made himself comfortable. He hung out for a good long time, just chatting about racing and Canada. In fact, I missed getting autographs from other riders because he stayed put for so long, but I wasn’t about to complain. He also suggested that I name my firstborn Jan which I will now bear in mind should I ever have children!

 

Cannondale was waiting their turn to go on stage and when I called for Peter Sagan to come over, everyone around me started yelling and cheering for Sagan, who kindly signed my flag.

 

I like Sagan enough, but there are actually several Cannondale riders ahead of him on my list and I got to give a gift to one of them today! If I’ve learned one thing from following Ted King on twitter it’s that the man appreciates maple syrup, being a good New Hampshire boy. I picked up a box of maple syrup cookies here in Quebec City with the hopes of getting a chance to give them to Ted. I figured the odds were not in my favor but I had to give it a go. I spotted Ted maybe 15 feet away and called his name, holding the box of cookies out in front of me. He casually turned to see who was talking to him and when his eyes fell upon the cookies, he said, “Maple syrup!” and was suddenly right in front of me, like a fish to bait. I gave him the cookies, explaining they were a welcome gift to my country, and he was super excited. In our shared excitement, I forgot to ask for his autograph, but somehow I have no regrets!

 

As he waited for Cannondale’s turn to take the stage, he posed for the photographers with his prized cookies before turning back to give me his official thumbs up approval and saying, “I’ve had these before and they’re really good!”

 

After meeting Ramunus Navardauskas, Gediminas Bagdonas, and Aidis Kroupis this season, I’ve become quite partial to the Lithuanian riders so I was really happy to get an autograph from Tomas Vaitkus, the reigning Lithuanian road champion. I’m not sure the spectators around me knew who he was, but they were all so excited and impressed that so many riders had come over to greet me and sign my flag, that they were happy to keep cheering.

 

Garmin rode up and parked themselves nearby, talking and checking their bikes. I had my “Canada loves Garmin” sign at the ready and the crowd around yelled so loudly for Ryder that he had no choice but to come over and sign. He is a pretty low key guy and I get the impression he doesn’t love massive amounts of attention, but he was a great sport and even said he remembered me from the Tour.

 

Thomas Dekker is a man of many interests off the bike, including promoting his new line of underwear, though we stuck to bike racing today when he signed my flag.

 

When I met Brent Bookwalter at the penultimate stage of the Tour, I immediately had to add him to my list of the nicest guys in the peloton. He was so easy to talk to (I am largely cured of my cyclist induced tongue tied-ness, but it still strikes me from time to time) and genuinely interested in my travels which meant a lot to me. It’s easy for the conversation to be all about the rider so it was really special to see that an athlete I respect wanted to hear about my life. When he was riding by this morning, I called his name and he came over with a big smile, saying “You were at the Tour! I remember you!” before I could even open my mouth.

 

Around this time, Saxo joined the bunch in waiting to go in stage. There were a few guys on the team I was crossing my fingers to get autographs from. I figured Alberto Contador would be too hard to get so I wasn’t even planning on trying but since the fans around me had been loving all the attention from the cyclists, they screamed so passionately for him that he came over without me even opening my mouth! I’ve gotten crowds riled up before but this was the first time they’d persuaded a rider to come over without me having to do any work at all.

 

Timmy Duggan was delighted to sign for me and since I knew he and Ted King were great friends, I told him to make sure Ted shared his maple syrup cookies with him! He laughed and thanked me for the tip.

 

As I added all of these autographs to my Quebec flag, it was finally Cannondale’s turn to be presented to the fans. Unfortunately, there was a pole in the way so we couldn’t quite see everyone’s face but there’s a really easy way to tell who the rider is on the far right without resorting to process of elimination. What’s that he’s holding in his hands? Maple syrup cookies! Yup, Ted King had been hanging out and riding around all this time, happily clutching his box of cookies.

 

Karsten Kroon.

 

Cyril Gautier.

 

Matti Breschel.

 

Garmin fielded just 6 riders instead of a full 8-man roster. Left to right: Hesjedal, Dekker, Stetina, Danielson, Talansky, and Wegmann.

 

I met Kevin Reza back at the Tour and even coincidentally stayed at the same hotel as Europcar one night, and every time I saw him, he was smiling. Today was no exception!

 

One autograph I wasn’t able to get at the Tour was from Polish road champion Michal Kwiatkowski, who wore the best young rider jersey for many stages. I saw him today and called out to him as he rode by, but he had already passed me by the time he heard me. He pulled a U turn, inspiring huge cheers from the spectators around me, and signed my flag.

 

I’ve been fortunate enough to me Niki Terpstra a few times in the last couple of months but I still couldn’t resist and asked for his signature yet again. He definitely recognizes me by now and shakes his head with a smile whenever he sees me.

 

Sky was the last team to be introduced and the peloton perched on the start line. The riders watched as the RCMP gave a 21 gun salute to start the race.

 

Because it was a circuit course, the riders completed a lap about every 18 minutes, meaning we not only saw the peloton often but the time passed incredibly quickly between laps. There were 2 giant screens broadcasting the race so we were kept well up to date on the breakaways and ongoings. After the race had officially started, most of the fans around me left to watch from different spots on the course, many of them shaking my hand and thanking me for bringing the riders so close and for a memorable morning. Their enjoyment made my day (but I wasn’t about to trade my autographed flag for anything!).

 

For the first several laps, Machado, Agnoli, and Bilbao escaped the peloton.

 

The peloton.

 

Cannondale and Movistar took turns at the front of the peloton throughout much of the race.

 

With just a couple of laps to go, the composition of the breakaway changed and BMC made a big move to get 3 of their riders, including Tejay van Garderen, in the break.

 

The weather was had begun to threaten another rain storm like yesterday and around this time, riders started to abandon the race. Hugo Houle suffered a broken chain and shortly after abandoned. The poor guy looked awfully frustrated as he talked with one of the AG2R staff members.

 

Another rider to abandon was David Veilleux who received a heart warming hero’s welcome as he rode past the crowd.

 

Niki Terpstra launched a daring solo attack.

 

The scene as the peloton entered the final kilometer.

 

Terpstra was ultimately caught and others tried to attack but without success. A bunch sprint was headed towards to the line with any number of legitimate contenders at the front. The rider with the strongest final kick today proved to be Robert Gesink.

 

As the peloton finished, everyone looked shattered. It was a long and dusty course with nearly 10,000 vertical feet of climbing. As the riders removed their glasses and nose strips, it was remarkable to see the amount of dirt caked on their faces, as if they’d just finished one of the spring classics instead of an urban circuit. Below: Ryan Roth and Marcus Burghardt.

 

 

The press swarmed Ryder Hesjedal.

 

The podium. Robert Gesink first, Arthur Vichot second, and Greg Van Avermaet third.

 

Tiago Machado won King of the Mountains.

 

The highest placing Canadian rider was Ryder Hesjedal.

 

Today’s 32 autographs came from: #1 Chris Froome, #3 Joe Dombrowski, #7 Geraint Thomas, #8 Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, #11 Peter Sagan, #21 Ryder Hesjedal, #23 Thomas Dekker, #31 Alberto Contador, #32 Matti Breschel, #33 Timmy Duggan, #35 Karsten Kroon, #41 Rui Costa, #48 Francisco Jose Ventoso, #63 Michal Kwiatkowski, #65 Niki Terpstra, #71 Borut Bozic, #82 Jan Bakelants, #91 Lars Petter Nordhaug, #105 Hugo Houle, #112 Brent Bookwalter, #113 Marcus Burghardt, #122 Fumiyuki Beppu, #124 Tomas Vaitkus, #126 Cameron Meyer, #141 Romain Sicard, #166 Dominique Rollin, #183 Sergey Lagutin, #188 Danny Van Poppel, #191 David Veilleux, #194 Cyril Gautier, #196 Kevin Reza, and #203 Zach Bell.

 

Thanks, Hermano, for being on photo duty today while I gathered autographs!

 

UPDATE! Thanks to my friend, Matt, I’ve added several of his photos of riders signing my Vuelta shirt from the stage 13 sign on in Valls last week. Click here to view!

 

Categories: Canada, Spain | Tags: , | 2 Comments

GPCQM Sprint Challenge

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Kathryn
I spent yesterday catching 3 flights to leave Europe and arrive in Quebec City. Why? Well, for cycling, of course! This weekend is the 4th annual Grand Prix Cyclistes Quebec & Montreal. I used my layover in Toronto constructively and had a good arts and crafts session which earned me a couple of looks from other passengers.

 

And then the icing on the cake was going to my gate and seeing Garmin's Peter Stetina waiting to board! I couldn't resist and showed him my sign, of which he approved, and then he told me to make sure I cheered loudly for them at the races in Quebec. Clearly he doesn't follow my blog (yet), but I assured him that would not be a problem! When the flight boarded, I spotted former Canadian national road champion Ryan Roth also on the plane, but I wasn't able to grab an opportunity to talk to him.

 

A mixture of jet lag and excitement woke me up hours before my alarm (and sunrise) and I found myself waiting by the finish line for today's event: The Sprint Challenge. This is a great race format. Each of the 21 participating teams has 1 rider compete in a 4 man sprint, with the 2 fastest advancing to the next round until 1 rider wins.

 

But before the Sprint Challenge began, much of the peloton went for their daily ride on the course. My Russian speaking Uzbek friend, Sergey Lagutin, rode with Katusha.

 

Twenty five year old David Veilleux announced yesterday that he will retire from professional cycling after this season to spend time with his family and work on his mechanical engineering degree. I'm happy for him that he's accomplished so much in cycling and is eager for a new chapter in his life but I'm thrilled that I'll get to see him ride a couple more times before he calls it a day. It was nice to see that my cheers for David still resulted in a big smile from him.

 

It was too rainy for me to have brought along my newest Garmin sign but I managed to get Fabian Wegmann's attention regardless.

 

Lots of riders responded positively when I cheered for them but Francois Parisien and Marcus Burgardt both recognized me immediately and said his they contained their warm ups. There was also a funny moment when Andrew Talansky, who recognized me from the Tour de France, and Peter Stetina rode by together. When I yelled for both of them, they both said a familiar, “Hey!” and then looked at each other as if to say, “Wait, how do you know her?”

 

As luck would have it, the rain let up for the Sprint Challenge and Hermano showed up in time for the race despite a delayed flight.

Heat 1: this one wasn't even close. First was Remi Pellitier-Roy and Rollin was second.

 

Heat 2: Alexi Tsatevitch was first and Luka Mezgec was second.

 

Heat 3: Bryan Coquard was first and Matteo Trentin was second.

 

Heat 4: Giacomo Nizzolo was first and Alexey Lutsenko was second.

 

Heat 5: Zack Bell was first and Moreno Hofland was second.

 

Heat 6: Jens Debusschere was first and Geoffroy Dussault was second.

 

Round 2; heat 1: Pellitier-Roy won with Nizzolo in second.

 

Round 2; heat 2: Zach Bell over Alexey Lutsenko.


Round 2; heat 3: Hofland beat Coquard.

 

Round 3; heat 1: Coquard was first with Lutsenko in second.

 

Round 3; heat 2: Hofland edged out Nizzolo.

 

The final: this was a good match with lots of track cycling tactics being played out. In the end, Bryan Coquard crossed the finish line first, with Nizzolo in second, and Hofland taking third.

 

The 3 looked relaxed waiting to be called to the podium.

 

Coquard shook Hofland's hand as Nizzolo checked out the podium girl.

 

The victors.

 

Hermano and I noticed the riders heading to the hotel next door and we were able to catch Hofland for an autograph. We headed in and watched a bit of the press conference but it was awfully boring so we scooped up the race guide and found Remi Pellitier-Roy near the merchandise tent. He posed for a photo with Hermano before signing my flag.

 

 

Categories: Canada | Tags: , | 4 Comments

La Vuelta a España reflection & stats

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Kathryn

Like so many riders, I, too, have had to abandon the Vuelta in the Pyrenees. The good news is that I have more races lined up in my schedule, but we'll get to that.

 

The Vuelta is a totally different animal than the Tour de France. The Tour is prestige and glamour, while the Vuelta is humble and down to earth.

 

The name of the town hosting the finish is applied daily to the finish line with stickers after yesterday's name has been scraped off. And once the new name has been applied, the residue from the previous stickers is still visible.

 

The barricades already looked a little worse for wear at the race's halfway mark.

 

The publicity caravan includes maybe a dozen vehicles and the equipment the finish line crew uses isn't as fancy as at the Tour. The sign on podium looks a bit dated and tired. The Vuelta crews work hard but there isn't the same pressured sense of urgency and perfection. There's an overall diminished media presence and a relatively small international press contingency.

 

Given everything I've said, you might believe the Vuelta is the unwanted stepchild of the 3 Grand Tours. Not so! The Vuelta might be light on pageantry, but it puts on one hell of a show. There's more of a focus on cycling. The sign ons I went to both had fan friendly layouts, significantly increasing the likelihood of getting good photos and rider autographs.

 

The atmosphere was always friendly and people I spoke with seemed to be there either because they were cycling fans or locals wanting to support a big event in their town. Unlike at the Tour where idiots run dangerously close to the riders just to get on TV, Vuelta spectators seemed happy to participate just by being present. And the smaller caravan meant people didn't go bonkers fighting over a free packet of gummy bears!

 

One final thing I appreciated greatly at the Vuelta: no one asked me which cyclist was my boyfriend or husband. This was the number one question I got at the Tour (followed by, “Wait, are there any Canadians riding this year?”) and it got old fast. Everyday, I heard this question, as if it had never occurred to someone that a woman could be a fan of the sport. At the Vuelta, people asked if I was traveling alone and they asked which riders I was supporting, but everyone took for granted that I was there because of my interest in cycling and not out of marital duty. How refreshing.

 

Vuelta Stats

# of stages I saw: 4

# of starts: 2

# of mountains: 1

# of finishes: 1

# of hats I acquired: 6

# of autographs from cyclists: 47

 

Categories: Andorra, Spain | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

La Vuelta a España stage 15

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Kathryn

Today’s Vuelta stage is the longest of all at 225 kilometers and travels through 4 categorized climbs.

 

Igor Anton of Euskaltel was the first rider to sign on this morning.

 

Graeme Brown gave an interview.

 

Juan Antonio Flecha.

 

Evgueni Petrov was my first Saxo autograph of the day. He seemed really excited when I asked him to sign for me which I always appreciate.

 

Johan Vansummeren and Alex Rasmussen passed each other between the buses and podium.

 

After years of being forced to write thank you notes as a kid, it’s now an ingrained habit. I had made a card for the Garmin riders and staff thanking them for making the Vuelta so much fun and when I gave it to Tyler Farrar, he was happily surprised to receive it. I suppose teams don’t get too many thank you cards.

 

Alex Howes.

 

It’s great to get autographs from the big names (Fabian Cancellara still eludes me!) but I often prefer meeting the rest of the peloton. Fabricio Ferrari, who won the combativity award for his work in the stage 12 breakaway, was delighted when I called his name on his way to the sign on and was more than happy to give me his autograph. Guys like Amets Txurruka and David Arroyo has been around forever, so it was cool to finally meet them, especially since their entire team didn’t seem to notice me at the stage 13 sign on! I met Maxim Iglinskiy at Eneco Tour and again at the Vuelta this morning and both times he looked giddy when I asked for his autograph. When Adam Hansen signed for me, I told him I’d seen him at all 3 Grand Tours this year. He was impressed but his streak of starting in the last 7 consecutive Grand Tours is far more impressive!

 

As predicted, with just a few minutes until sign on closed, a surge of riders showed up. Moments like this are really hectic which can make it difficult to get autographs but none of the riders seemed remotely concerned about the time and I was able to get several more signatures!

 

The special jerseys all waited until the last moment to sign on and once they were done, I said good morning to my friend who is a chef at Saxo while Chris Sørensen finished his final preparations.

 

I made my way to the start as riders did the same. Recognizing guys like Gregory Rast, Oliver Zaugg, and Winner Anacona among others, I wished them all luck on the race’s queen stage.

 

When Gilbert rode by, I said, “Allez, Philippe!” He turned around and recognized me from 3 different races in 5 different countries in the past few months and said, “Hey! How are you?” The answer, obviously was, “GREAT!” It’s hard to be anything else when such an accomplished and in demand cyclist like Gilbert greets you like an old friend!

 

I told Tony Martin they wouldn’t start without him which made him laugh.

 

Daniele Ratto was still beaming from yesterday’s well deserved victory and enjoying his King of the Mountains jersey. The Cannondale mechanics must have been up late last night to repaint his bike to match, but I don’t know how they got him polka dot arm warmers so fast!

 

The tail end of the peloton mingled and double checked their equipment as they waited for the start.

 

I headed towards the front, pausing to cheer one more time for my favorite riders, including Tyler Farrar who must be one of the happiest guys in the peloton.

 

Rafael Valls and Alejandro Valverde.

 

Caleb Fairly of Garmin and Orica’s Simon Clarke and Mitch Docker.

 

Johan Vansummeren, Alex Howes, and Tyler Farrar. See what I meant about Tyler? The man is always smiling.

 

The stage got underway. Usually the special jerseys ride at the front to start the day off, but for whatever reason that wasn’t the case today.

 

A Saxo rider making friends with Ratto.

 

Edvald Boasson Hagen at center and Vincenzo Nibali far right.

 

With the team cars and buses cleared out of the parking lot sign on area, everyone made their way home.

 

In the past, I’ve collected autographs on Canadian flags or a shirt, but today I used a poster advertising the 2 Andorran stages. When I stopped for a tea after yesterday’s mountain stage, I noticed the poster in the window and asked if I could buy it. The woman said she had too many of the posters already as her daughter was one of the main people who coordinates events in Andorra so gave it to me for free!

 

Today I got 19 autographs from #13 Carlos Betancur, #23 Johannes Fröhliger, #35 Maxim Iglinskiy, #49 Robert Wagner, #59 Danilo Wyss, #61 David Areoyo, #64 Fabricio Ferrari, #68 Amets Txurruka, #104 Alexandre Geniez, #143 Adam Hansen, #161 Tony Martin, #174 Baden Cooke, #176 Leigh Howard, #186 Robert Kišerlovski, #188 Gregory Rast, #193 Dario Cataldo, #203 Michael Morkov, #204 Evgueni Petrov, and #209 Oliver Zaugg.

 

In just 2 days I got autographs from over a quarter of the surviving peloton!

 

Categories: Andorra, Spain | Tags: , | Comments Off on La Vuelta a España stage 15