In hindsight, I don’t think it was so bad, but not at all where I think I should be. At least I didn’t hit any potholes! However, I did manage to ride straight into the ditch…

I had come off the group just over the top of Middlebury Gap (which was quite steep and hard) and I was chasing back on the descent; there was a sweeping left hand corner that I came into really hot and tried to check my speed. It was a little too late for that and my wheels didn’t want to turn, so I straightened it out, jammed on the brakes, and headed for the ditch, where I went over the bars. No damage, get back up, pin it. Or not. I was not comfortable and my front wheel and braking were not helping…

All the while, my SRM had begun to fail and I almost wanted to stop and fix the sensor. I figured the battery was dying… but just unfortunate, especially on a day like that! Suffice to say, Sunday night was spent scouring the interweb for how to change the battery yourself…

App gap was not as hard as I had anticipated. But I guess I wasn’t trying to follow any wheels…

Matteo was working it in the break, so at least the whole house wasn’t a disaster!

One more crit today and then it’s cyclocross tomorrow!!! Can’t wait to build my bikes!!!

::SAdamson

The race started alright. The descent after the KOM was FAST!! The rest of course was fairly rolling. After the first KOM a big group got away and it was just PINNED for most of that lap.

The second lap was more tolerable and I found myself sitting on a bit of a split with a few strong guys over the KOM. I didn’t do anything, but figured if the gap grew, it was going to be a good place to be.

The last time up the KOM was pretty hard with some of the strong guys going off the front. I guess they bridged up to the break. Then the pace eased up quite a bit. I think I hit 4 potholes on that last lap. I hit a few in succession and I flatted my rear wheel. The change was relatively fast, but I had trouble getting back on. I got pretty close over one roller, but the gap just got bigger from there. So I just rolled it in. Dang!

I guess tomorrow is still another day.

::SAdamson

But getting back to the race…

Yup, definitely started too hard. Does anyone ever really learn how to pace a time trial perfectly?!?

I was finding it hard to ride steady, but it really was that first 1:30 that was the end of me. I felt ok over the top of the climb and knew I could back off just a bit on the slight downhill. I thought I was killing it when I went through 1k to go and could see 500m, but that last “little” push is LONG!!!

I don’t think I’m unhappy, but I’m certainly not ecstatic either… however, tomorrow is another day!

::SAdamson

I like cooking food, I like eating food, I like talking about food, I like thinking about food. When I say food, I include coffee, beer, and wine. Things with good flavour. Things that are interesting. Yup, I like them all.

I read an interesting interview with Anthony Bourdain. A lot of the conversation revolved around foodies and current food culture in [North] America. There were definitely some interesting comments, but this one really stuck out to me:

For an Italian person in Italy, food — and, more significantly, wine — are both part of a healthy, larger picture. You don’t see many Italians getting embarrassingly drunk at meals. They drink with every meal, but you never see them staggering, drooling, stupid drunk or binge drinking. Because it’s just no big deal! To them, great food, great ingredients are just a birthright. It’s just part of your life, and an important one. But just a part. It’s not the focus of everything. Chef’s know this; I think some of the chefs’ biggest fans don’t.

I really appreciate that thought and you can truly expand it into other areas of life. But I’m also a little on the fence, because when something is too everyday, too mundane, it can become really easy to take for granted. It’s a fine line between what I would call performing and being comfortable. If you are just truly doing what you are doing and it is excellent, then that is good. But if you are putting on a show, not being yourself, stressing, etc. then I would say that is not good.

Wow, I really strayed for a bit there, but it is an important point.

In sum, just enjoy the things that each day brings. Be content. Don’t glorify things. Don’t make things what they aren’t. Just enjoy them.

::SAdamson

Time flies when you’re having fun…

I can’t believe that it is now less than one week before I leave Ottawa. I really do remember my first day here; Vicki picked me up at the airport, I saw my wicked Scott Addict R3 in the garage, went to the NRC crit, picked up Marc, and settled into my new room. I remember the first week I had here; training, meeting so many new people, seeing all kinds of new stuff, it was great!

I really am going to miss all the great people that I’ve met, even the people that I’ve only seen a handful of times. I’m going to miss all the Scott Boys and all the support that is there. Thanks Vince for everything. I’m going to miss riding with The Cyclery team to the NRC crits, talking to everyone there. I’m certainly going to miss Marc and Vicki, who have opened up their home to me and have helped me grow so much as a person and as a cyclist. And of course I’m going to miss all those little things that I don’t realize I will right now. I might even miss Murphy…

I have learned a lot in these last 4 months. I always knew it, but now I know it; if you really want to a bike racer and really learn how to race your bike, you have to get out of the small pond and push your limits! I have had great mentors while I’ve been here, especially Marc, who has made me think and question and wonder and has just pushed me to be better! Thanks!

All that being said, I am really looking forward to the next phase; to living with Adam, to racing cyclocross in New England, to racing with the best in Canada, and to racing in the heartland of the veldijden!!! Who knows what adventures I will have, what I will learn, and where I will end up, but I know it’s going to be great!!!

Of course, none of this would be possible without any of my amazing sponsors: My mom and dad, Vince at The Cyclery, Scott bikes, Rudy Project, and the S.Club supporters. And to all my cyclocross sponsors: Cycle-Smart, Van Dessel, Challenge, and Easton. I can’t wait to ride everything!!!

::SAdamson

Check out my updated calendar… Things are pretty much set while I’m in Boston. But I was digging through all the Belgian calendars and found all kinds of B races as well as the A races. That makes for up to 4 races to choose from on any given day; I don’t think I’ll decide until I get there and figure things out. But I am very excited!

Now I just have to figure out the logistics for the Green Mountain Stage Race and how to get more cross stuff from Edmonton and how to get some stuff from here back home.

In the interest of ease and my growing Visa bill, I’m trying to sell my TT bike now…

Trek Equinox TTX 55cm Medium frameset, Zipp disc, Zipp 808 front wheel, 3T Mistral aerobar, Dura-ace shifters, Ultegra derailleurs, Cane Creek brakes. Used 10-15 times this year, good condition. $3500 or $2000 without wheels.

::SAdamson

If you want to support the S.Club and help me live my dreams and reach my goals, you can donate here. Every little bit counts!

::SAdamson

I go up to the desk and she flips through my passport, “this is damaged.” I told her I washed it and it had worked before, so I figured it was still all good… but, “you’ll need to fill out a new form and get a whole new passport.” Lovely.

I had to get my parents to mail me my birth certificate, so I waited for that and when it came late on Monday, I was out the door on Tuesday to catch the 95 again. At least this I knew exactly where I was going and didn’t have to make a pit-stop for my photos. But when I got to the counter this time, he said I needed to fill out a damaged passport form. Thanks for telling me that the last time!

But I did have a really nice agent who told me where I needed to go to get this new form signed and he processed my application and told me just to drop off the form later. So, one thing done.

Things always seem farther away when you don’t actually know where you’re going. I managed to find my way to the address he directed me, and realized I made my way to city hall. Well, that’s kind of cool. But it cost $37 to get this guy to sign this piece of paper… oh boy!

I then dropped off the form and got back on the 95 and headed home… yes, adventures in Ottawa…

But let’s get to what you really want to know… “Why do you need a new passport, Shaun?”

This is why!

Yup, I’m going to Belgium for real! And I am also very, very poor now! Livin’ the dream!!!

::SAdamson

I was going to write something about the cookies I made with my leftover cream cheese from the burgers, and then I was going to write about the pizza I cooked for the De Veers, and then I was going to write (jokingly) about how I almost forgot to pin my numbers on last week in Vaudreilles because it had been so long since I raced. But I didn’t have the energy nor did I actually feel like I had much interesting to say. I don’t particularly like writing and just telling you about what I did each day, I want to write when there is actually something interesting, something that I might actually want to read myself if I were you.

But this weekend was the Classique Montreal-Quebec. I was a little anxious with the distance and the stories. But I knew I could handle it. There were a lot of logistics to figure out (Thanks Marc!) and a lot of support needed (Thanks Vince, Nick, Shane, and Amy! You guys are all awesome!).

I was pretty anxious and excited at the start (what else is new?!?), but once we got rolling I felt a lot better.

The beginning wasn’t too bad. It was especially good when Marc got in the break at about 30km. It started ramping up at about km 70 or so and we were trying to sit on any Garneau or bikereg guys who went. Nothing stuck.

We went through the neutralized section, across the dam, and I HURT on the climb right after. I got gapped, but was with a bunch of other guys. We were rolling, but then I saw Derrick and some other Garneaus not really pulling, so I wasn’t trying so hard. Then they were trying to attack. Eventually we got onto a big open highway with a headwind and 3 of them were pull HARD. I sat on and let them pull through. I also had all my teammates in the group ahead, so I didn’t have to work. They eventually brought the group back.

Marc’s break got brought back and then we had Mike in a big move, so we were just watching again. I was marking the big guys trying to go at that point. Mike’s break got brought back at about 200km (it went from 3:00 to 0:45 really, really fast, and that’s when things started to get hard). I covered as much as I could from Donnacona (the beginning of the finale) and I was HURTING, but making it through. I maybe tried to do a little too much. I put in one hard dig at about 10km to go, but I couldn’t hold a gap, then on the final climb (which was harder than I was expecting) I got gapped pretty good. I rolled through with a small group and finished with them behind the 2 main groups.

I’m pretty happy. It was hard. I learned some things. It wasn’t the best result, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. I told myself I was either going to get in a move in that finale or I was going to die trying. I really wanted the former, but I guess I’ll take latter…

Until next time…

::SAdamson

“That, my boy, is a peanut butter cream cheese burger!”

“Oh. Wait, did you say peanut butter cream cheese burger?!?”

“Why yes I did. And it’s delicious!”

Ok, so I stole the idea from the menu at The Works, but I still made the burgers. I did some digging and found a peanut butter burger recipe that was a simple burger recipe just with some peanut butter. I knew that it would act as a binding agent, as would the cream cheese. And I maybe got a little overzealous with the peanut butter. But I opted to follow Cooks Illustrated‘s Well-Done Hamburgers on a Gas Grill recipe that has given me much success in the past, and just build on that.

I took one of the buns, tore it into bits and put in a bowl with a little bit of milk. I let that sit, while I began preparing the other ingredients and then mashed it up with a fork. It was maybe a little much bread, but that’s ok.

To that, I added about 400g ground beef, a couple tablespoons of barbecue sauce, one chopped garlic clove, salt and pepper. Then I added 2 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter and 1 of cream cheese. I proceeded to mix it up and shape into burgers. It was a little sticky, but it worked. I put them in the fridge for a little bit, turned the barbecue on and cooked them for about 10 minutes, flipping once, and topped with old cheddar cheese for the last minute.

To preserve the flavour, I simply put the burger on a bun with some lettuce. Delicious!

::SAdamson