Toguri Training

Here’s an early report from the race: Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mtn) attacked with about 2km to go and crossed the line solo for his first win!!! Atta boy Max!!

Robert Ralph (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss) switched from the Cat 3 peloton to the Cat 1/Master A peloton and came 6th!! Apparently they originally awarded him 5th until Czeslaw pointed out he was left out of the money and had come 3rd. This took the torn envelope from Robert’s clenched hands and gave it to someone else! That’s cruel but at least Robert did well and has something to build on.

Finally, Robert says that he was in a break with a lap and a half to go and Jean-François Houpert (Synergy) chased him down!!! Good work JF!! The youngster has to learn to live with the fact that the old boys are chasing him like zombies and ripping envelopes from his hands. All you have to do is check out Max. He’s got that envelope squirreled away before I can make a move to shake his hand!! That’s a Cat 1 sprint and stash!

More later once the details come in.

TT DOMINATES THE PODIUM AT PONT ROUGE!!
1st Place, Master E: Judith Hayes
1st Place, Senior 3: Robert Ralph
1st Place, Master B: Scott Toguri McFarlane
2nd Place, Cat 1: Max Joly Smith
2nd Place, Master A: Patrick Russell

Shaun McCarthy (Garneau) grabs the sky while Max Joly Smith (right, Rocky Mtn) edges out Jean-Michel Lachance (Navito) for the second step on the podium. Joly Smith: “I’m sooo fast you can barely see me; but my eyes travel with me at the same speed–so I can stare at myself all day while sprinting!” ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

The Cat 1 chubby podium: 1. Shaun McCarthy (Garneau); 2. Max "on the wrong step" Joly Smith (Rocky Mtn); 3. Jean-Michel Lachance (Navito); 4: Pierre-Etienne Boivin (Team Spirit); 5. Pierre Boilard (Team Spirit). "I came SECOND, not third. I'm not going to hold your hand until they check the photo!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Senior 3 Podium (L-R): 3. Maxime Le Pluart (Québec Métro); 1. Robert Ralph (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); 2. Carol Migneault (Gaspésien). "In your Facebook!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Maitre A Podium: 1. François Michel Deschamps (Quilicot); 2. Patrick Russell (Synergy); 3. Michel Henri (Iris); 4. Richard Martin (Ind); 5. Dom Picard (Cabosse D'Or). "Ok, François Michel's legs are huge, but you're staring at my tattoos." ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Maitre B Podium: 1. Scott Toguri McFarlane (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); 2. François Nuckle (Espoirs de Laval); 3. Michel Turcotte (Espoirs de Laval); 4. Jose Jorge (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); 5. Eric Genest (Québec Métro). "Sometimes, the guy with the most hair wins!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Maitre D Podium: 1. John Phillipson; 2. Herb Nebbs; 3. Jean-Claude Leclerc. "Woohoo! Herb and I know how to celebrate on the podium!! We're already drunk, and we're going to take all our winnings and go to a garage sale to buy more stuff just so we can hear our loved ones complain!!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Ok, I had to throw in the photo of the VCOM boys. They’ve been laughing while winning races since their rims were made out of wood. Congratulations John and Herb!!
MORE PHOTOS WHEN AVAILABLE

Last week Pat took over the Orange Jersey at the Robert Brisson series for obtaining the most points amongst Masters racers!

©2010 Michelle L. Wesley

William Blackburn has been chosen to represent Quebec at the Tour de Beauce! 2010 will be the 25th anniversary of the Tour de Beauce and this year it has attracted teams such as Amore Vita, Fly V Australia, Heraklio-Murcia with Francesco Mancebo, Team Type 1, United Health, Bahati Foundation, BMC and Garmin 23. Canadian teams include Planet Energy, Garneau-Club Chaussures, Spirit–CIBC Wood Gundy, the Quebec Team and a selection of National team members.

The Tour starts on June 15th, so checked back for results.

William on the front of the break in Charlevoix ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

The inaugural GP Cycliste Vaudreuil Soulanges took place on a sunburning Sunday on the sometimes sketchy roads of Hudson. Racers rolled around an 18.1 km circuit, which included the short climb up Cameron, a tester familiar to many local cyclists, especially those of the Beaconsfield Cycling Club. In an interesting move, the organizers made the race longer than normal for this time of year, with the Cat 1 peloton traveling 144 km to the finish.

As a coach, devising race plans was more tricky for this race than usual. I felt that the Cameron climb would challenge some riders, but would not be a decisive feature of the race, in and of itself. For most, it was going to be the duration of the race that would start to make the climb up Cameron–and a second climb a few kms later–have an impact. Splits could then start happening anywhere. For most of my racers, therefore, I suggested they approach the GP as a race of attrition. The goal was to make the key selections through positioning, and the breaks through smart racing–especially early on and during the last 2-3 laps.

In the Cat 1 race, Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mountain) and William Blackburn (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss) were able to make the first selection, a group of 15-20 riders that rode off the front early in the race leaving many big names behind–including all members of the SPIDERTECH squad.

William Blackburn driving the first selection ©2010 May Studios

Cooperation is usually difficult to establish in such large groups, and as the laps ticked by splits started to happen–often initiated by members of the Garneau squad.

"Coline! This hurts!" ©2010 May's Studio

As the chasers softened in the gaps, the Garneau team laid down a heavy-handed spanking. In the end, Derrick St-John and Shaun McCarthy would cross the line 1-2, with teammates Hugo Houle and Jean-Sebastien Perron coasting in a minute later. Reigning National Champ, Aaron Fillion, finished after Perron in 5th, while the debris of the shattered break would be rejoined by other groups, forming a larger peloton of 40 tired riders. Blackburn finished 18th, and Joly Smith came 21st.

Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mountain) coasting across the line ©2010 May's Studio

I thought they raced well because they put themselves in the right position to take the next step. They’re getting close.

In the Senior 3 race, two riders rode away on the final lap, with Scott Loong (McGill) powering away from Jean-Roch Marion in the sprint. Toguri Training’s Robert Ralph (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss) attacked with 8-9 km to go, and came in solo for 3rd.

Ralph crossing the line. "Look: I can try to look cool while taking care of a cramp at the same time!" ©2010 May's Studio

Here’s Robert collecting the hardware and moola:

"Everything is red and white because it is good to be tidy on the podium" ©2010 May's Studio

And just to add to the Robert Ralph show… Here’s a video of Robert on the podium shot by Monika Kin Gagnon… He’s the guy on the right WITHOUT his belly button showing. What’s with these Senior 3 guys?!

In the Women’s Maitre E race, Vanessa Cheong (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss) hung in there to the bitter end, and finished 4th.

On the far right: Vanessa Cheong (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss) ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

In the Maitre A race, Patrick Russell (Synergy) was the only survivor of a team exodus partway through the race, and finished a respectable 14th.

Far right: Patrick Russell (Synergy) ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

And finally, in the Maitre B race, David Albert (PowerWatts) attacked halfway into the race, and was later joined by Eric Provost (Trek-Curaprox). Eric is rapidly racing into shape and seemed to do whatever he wanted on the Cameron climb and, well, anywhere else on the course. Albert thanked Provost for the tow by offering an uncontested sprint.

Albert says thanks to Provost ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

A tired and timid bunch let Daniel Grenier (CIBC) walk away with about 10 km to go for third, and after much “encouragement” from teammate Jose Jorge, and a long pull by another loudmouth teammate, David Landry, I did what Jose told me to do and attacked with 2 km to go. I held off the pack for fourth and Jose finished 6th.

"Now I'm going to have to listen to Jose and David take all the credit for this!" ©2010 May's Studio

The GP Cycliste Vaudreuil Soulanges was a well-organized event. It seemed strongly supported by Hudson, and you felt as if you were racing within a community. Finally,  I thought the longer distances made it worthy of being part of the super prestige series in the future.

“Master A Tough” in St-Raymond

When you drive to a race in the rain, you can feel the added nervousness in the car. As you approach the race site and turn the radio down, people speak in shorter sentences. They laugh a bit too hard at any jokes, as their eyes scout any visible portions of the course. Then there’s a standard set of complaints, or negative comments, as they step out of the car and into puddles: “This is going to suck!” etc.

Getting caught in the rain is usually ok, but starting in the pouring rain… The worst case is getting soaked at the start line of a crit while listening to instructions as you notice all the traces of gasoline and oil glimmering on the first corner. I’ve done a few crits like that. You just try to stay on the front while listening to the crashes behind you.

Some guys, however, LOVE the rain. They love it when it’s cold and wet, and they love getting all Paris Roubaix.

The gritty, soft-spoken Sean Kelly making everyone's legs scream at Paris Roubaix

Here’s Toguri Training’s Rod Matheson (Synergy) and JF Houpert (Synergy) soaking up the fun at St Raymond:

Rod: "Sigh, my booties are holding 2lbs of water." JF: "Doh! I forgot my booties, but it's ok. My feet are numb." ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Ok, they’re not as gritty as Sean Kelly, and they’re not riding over cobbles, but they are racing in the rain with droopy arm warmers. That’s “Master A Tough”!

Eventually, the storm cleared and slick François Doyon (Quilicot-Rackultra) won a comfortable sprint from Dominic Chalifoux (Trek-Curaprox) and several others who had creeped 30 sec up the road from the field.

"Your kung fu is good... " ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

"but not good enough!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Matheson performed a stylish, soaking seated sprint for 16th place, though he could no longer remember where he parked the car.

Matheson, second from the right. ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Luckily Houpert rolled in a few riders back and had a photo of the vehicle in his back pocket. Towel off; change to dry clothes; hop in the car; radio on; drive home.

"I swear we were going to wear our sponsor's kit but it got soaked in the rain!" Senior 3 Podium: L-R...Maxime Labrie (4th); Robert Ralph (2nd, Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); James Piccoli (1st, Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); Vincent Lessard (3rd, Brunet); Nicholas Geoffrion (5th). ©2010 Gene Piccoli

The time trial, it is often said, is “the race of truth.” OK, but the truth of what?

L-R: France Bordeleau (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss); Judith Hayes (Independent); Manon Gobeil (Lapraicycle) ©2010 Nick Van Haeften

The commonplace understanding of “the race of truth” is that time trialing represents your “real” strength, without the aid of drafting and group racing skills. It’s just you against the elements. This approach to time trialing can be extremely stressful, and racers who haven’t done a lot of TTs often become afraid to do them in case they reveal their “real” abilities. The mythology that constructs time trialing as “a revelation” constructs the victor as capable of immense suffering as they ride the threshold of a maximal effort and collapse. This association of TTs with pure suffering further intimidates cyclists from trying them out.

Instead of cowering under the fiery trinity of truth, revelation and pure suffering, I prefer to approach time trialing from an earthly, material perspective. In fact I have a real aversion to coaching regimes organized around the mythologization of PAIN. It is a mistake to narrow all the incredible experiences one can gain from cycling into a single word or slogan. Clients all too easily believe that they must suffer to train properly. Worse, those being trained under banners of pain are then repeated chastised for exceeding their watts or heart rate ranges during endurance rides–even though the whole approach to cycling celebrates pain! So the client gets blamed for overtraining!! Understanding time trialing as a particular kind of cycling scenario helps avoid this narrow, unproductive, and ultimately intimidating approach to the sport.

The importance of your equipment makes it obvious that materiality is an essential aspect of time trialing. TT bikes are faster than beach cruisers. To do well, you must be able to adapt your body to your time trialing machine or materials. Yes, TTs are about managing the materiality of your body to push its limits, but this is true of many scenes in cycling. What makes TTs different is that you race against the clock, as opposed to other riders. In this sense, time trials are symbolic of life. You cannot beat the clock, but you can excel beyond what your body would seemingly offer you on the day. In this sense, exceeding the body’s limits brings for the experience of excellence, which is not limited to suffering or pain. Your body can carve through space during time trials, and often your fastest rides are produced when you are so in the zone you barely feel the pain.

Time trialing is not the race of truth, nor is it a measure of you as a “cyclist”. Time trialing provides the opportunity to experience a specific feeling of excellence, one obtained when you excel beyond what your body would seem to offer at the time of the race. It is a feeling of excellence associated with the body’s race against the clock, and the fantasy that somehow you can get something more out of every day.

Noteworthy performances by Toguri Training Clients at Granby:

Judith Hayes (independent), 1st place, Maitre F. Not bad for her first race! Judith is coached by Michelle Paiement.

Robert Ralph (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss), 2nd place, Senior 3. Robert is affectionately called “Jr” but after this performance…nah, we’ll still call him “Jr”

Michelle Paiement (Stevens), 6th, Senior 1 women. Good work coach!

Vanessa Cheong (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss), 9th, Maitre E. Before the race I sent a list of 12 tips/reminders to clients. Point 9: Don’t miss your start!! I guess Vanessa skipped that point, and was penalized about 6 min. She would have been 4th or 5th!! You have to take what the day offered… still…

If the first race of the Quebec racing season is a jittery twitch-session on the windy farm roads of Ste-Martine, the second race is a short, relatively safe criterium just outside of Montreal, in Brossard. Racers do clockwise laps around a five-corner, 1.8 km course that is shaped like an upside down sock with the toe cut off. The start/finish is on the bottom of the sock, near the heal.

If this imagery is confusing, here’s a map

The crit is a relatively cozy affair, except for the third turn. It is off-camber, which means as riders turn right, the slope of the road banks from right to left, forcing their bikes to drift wide. To complicate things further, you drift from a wider road into a more narrow road while turning. For the most part this if fine, but I’ve seen riders “space out”–literally lose their sense of position in space–while drifting. They become sock zombies capable of thick, living-dead violence:

Or they over-correct their steering as the road narrows and create a sock of horrors:

One year, the time trialing PHENOM, Michel Brazeau, attacked into the third corner.

Awesome Time Trialist Michel Brazeau frolicking in Cuba ©2010 Michel Brazeau

Fabio frolicking because he is always frolicking in a composed way. He could TT if he wanted to, but he does not want to TT. He wants to frolick–with you.

Fabio the Miniature Horse frolicking. Also potentially good at shorter TTs

Brazeau attacked into the third corner, but he crashed. Amazingly, he jumped up so fast that he was able to stand in the middle of the road as the peloton whipped around both sides of him and through the corner. I don’t know how he did it, but there was magic at work. Out of my periphery,  he looked like this:

Lucky compression socks with TT shoe covers save the day!

So Brossard is mostly safe, but a little bit dicey. This year the forecast for rain scared many riders away. As it turned out however, the rains stayed away.

One of the most impressive races of the day took place in the women’s field. Two juniors, including the incredible Adriane Provost (Saputo), jumped into the break with four Senior racers led by Audrey Lemieux (Specialized-Mazda).

Audrey Lemieux powering the break. ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

The break maintained a 50-sec gap for most of the race until Lex Albrecht (Cascades) and Veronique Labonté (Nanoblur) started what seemed like a doomed effort to bridge.

"This bridge is taking FOREVER!!" ©2010 Antoine Becotte

Each lap they crawled a second or two closer to the break, but seemed to lack the decisive power to get the job done as the timed race was running down. Attacks in the break, however, slowed the pace during the final laps, and the bridging duo not only closed the gap but won the sprint, with the fast-finishing Albrecht edging Labonté for the top step on the podium. Sarah Coney (Stevens) finished third.

©2010 Antoine Bécotte

As the break slashed across the line, Toguri Training’s Michelle Paiement (Stevens) attacked the field and finished solo, 3 seconds in front of the bunch.

Michelle Paiement launching a last lap attack to finish ahead of the bunch in 7th place. ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Other notable performances by Toguri Training athletes included that by Frederique Fenneteau (Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss), who completed her first ever crit. After doing WAY to much work in and out of corners, Fred finished with the bunch and claimed 3rd overall amongst the Masters.

"Closing all these small gaps is killing my legs" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Max Joly Smith (Rocky Mountain) provided the most impressive ride of the day amongst my clients. An early break of 9 or 10 riders escaped the Cat 1 field. It was comprised of all the usual suspects: Hugo Houle and Jean-Sébastien Perron (Garneau); Kevin Lacombe and Guillaume Boivin (SPIDERTECH); Jean-François Laroche (Régis); Arnaud Papillon (Nativo), etc. Over 2 laps, Max bridged up with William Goodfellow (Bikereg.com) and another rider in tow. In the end, repeated attacks saw Houle and Lacombe slip off the front to finish first and second.

Lacombe, Houle, Goodfellow and Joly Smith. Lacombe: "There are four of us in this photo, but only one person is listening closely to how I want this race to end!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Perron would elude the rest for third, while Laroche outsprinted those left behind for fourth.

Perron listening to his watch/video/phone: "Ok ok, Monsieur Bécotte!! I promise I'll attack after the start/finish!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Max finished just behind Laroche for fifth, or for what we call… a place on the “chubby podium”–that excess area just to the sides of the steps for medal winners:

From L to R: Laroche, Lacombe, Houle, Perron, Joly Smith ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Good work Max. After a fast day of racing, it was time to leave Brossard and put on some compression socks.

Congratulations to all Toguri Training racers for surviving the spills and thrills of Ste Martine! And yes, we had both spills and thrills. In other words, the season has begun! There were, however, a few special rides that should be mentioned…

Congratulations to Fred Fenneteau for winning the first bike race she ever did! On a hot sunny day, Fred rode at the front of the women’s peloton for most of the race and crossed the line first in the Maitre E category. She raced well and she finished well. Not bad for a rider who loves her duck confit and wine!! Now about that yellow helmet…

"Fudge!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

"If they gave me champagne, I wouldn't share a drop!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

Robert Ralph jammed across the line in 6th place (Cat 3), but I have to admit I was more happy that he was constantly in the right spot to get shelter from the wind and to jump into the action.

Robert making Rio Tinto/Martin Swiss proud. ©2010 Rod Matheson

And finally, William Blackburn popped into the break in the Cat 1 race and was away for about 100km. He hung in there until the final set of attacks into the brutal headwind, but still managed to finish ninth.

William leading the break. "I feel like a Belgian champion!" ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

William coasting home with busted legs for 9th. "I admit it. I feel like a soggy Belgian waffle" ©2010 Rod Matheson

We begin with a messy ending…

I want to use the following photos as a hook. They are a series of images pulled from the tumbling airs of Ste Martine by photographer Antoine Becotte. It is the end of a race that has already been decided because outside the frame the winning break has long since crossed the finish line. So here is the question that hangs on this painful hook: what caused the accident?

All images ©2010 Antoine Bécotte

For all the European pros passionately following this blog, the well-organized Ste Martine race takes place on windswept farm roads about 35km to the south-west of Montreal. Racers do laps of a 14 km rectangular course.  Some years it is raining, some years it is freezing, and some years it is hot–but it is always windy. It is as if the wind itself shares in the turbulent excitement of the first official race on the Quebec calendar.

Even before the race began the wind swirled the smell of leg balm and the sound of nervous chatter around the parking lot. Riders fought with it as they tried to pin their race numbers onto their jerseys. They turned to face it as they clipped on their helmets. And they punctuated it as they twisted their cleats into the pedals and rode to the start. This year it would be a tailwind finish and a headwind on the long backstretch.

At the start line it was sunny, so an incredible number of riders were taking part. Because it was the season opener, there were also huge differences in fitness levels, which causes erratic riding in the peloton. There were also riders taking part in the first race of their lives. Differences in experience and bike-handling skills can also be the cause of accidents. Add some swirling winds to the equation and, well…you’ve seen the pictures.

So many causes braid themselves into the twisting body of the accident, and I am yet to mention that at least for one frame someone wasn’t looking where they were going. Sometimes, however, it seems too easy to blame the individual, especially when so many factors come into play during a sprint. Think of how many decisions and dynamic contexts have been put into play for that rider to miss the break, to be in front of some and behind others–even before he falls.

Anyone who has ridden in a peloton when the winds are swirling knows how jittery things can get. Wheels shift everywhere as spaces open and close a bit too rapidly between riders struggling to maintain their position. It’s hard to maintain a sense of the race itself as you get caught up in the spaces just in front of you. The key is to try and keep a sense of the big picture. Know where the wind is coming from and anticipate what the peloton will do as a unit. You will get boxed in. You will be forced to do more work at times than you want to, but that’s part of racing. You just don’t want to be so busy yelling at the guy in front of you that you don’t notice as the break walks away. Lots of riders told me after Ste Martine that they had no idea what had happened. It’s a common experience in racing if you’re absorbed by the little battles.

You can get lost within a small frame of vision when sprinting too. In most local races, teams lack the strength and experience to perform a proper leadout for their sprinter. So during the last kms, you get a small group of the faster riders establishing their presence at the front, and all sorts of battles behind them as other riders try to get into their draft. You also get waves of riders coming up to challenge the apex of the peloton. This is especially true when you’ve got long, tailwind run-ups to the finish line. The challenge is to anticipate and read the wave properly so you don’t get boxed in as it slaps into the side of the apex. If you do it well, you can sometimes beat sprinters who are usually faster than you.

A key skill of racing is thus to be able to read the big picture and commit to it. Whether you’re conscious of it or not, your ability to read the scene will lead you to your place on the road during the sprint at Ste Martine. You might be right. You might be misguided. You might suffer unnecessarily. You might excel. But in the end, visions of the scene will collide, merge, and spill in waves towards the finish line. On the other side of the line? That’s where the stories begin. How about this one:

During the day I watched several brutal crashes at the end of races as various categories crossed the line. I began to wonder how Ste Martine got its name. To be honest, I don’t really have a sense of the whole picture. Saint Martin is the patron saint of France and soldiers, but information about Sainte Martine is more difficult to find, and confusing, but here’s the story: During the rule of the Roman Emperor Alexander, Sainte Martine had her body gradually torn apart for refusing to offer sacrifice to idols in the Temple of Apollo, and then later, the Temple of Diana. Instead she continued to pray to Jesus Christ until her torturers were exhausted. While she prayed, an earthquake damaged the Temple of Apollo, a lion licked her wounds instead of attacking her, and winds blew out the fire upon which she was to be burned. Eventually, she met a cruel end but somehow the name of this saint of commitment and bodily sacrifice has come to mark the site upon which the cycling season officially begins in Quebec. By what route did such a name arrive on our shores? An answer to that question would surely require a sense of the big picture that exceeds my grasp. That’s like asking from where do the winds arise?