Success in Canada

After China, I returned to California for 2 days for washing clothes and repacking before boarding another flight to Canada for the GP de Gatineaux road race and time trial. 

Training ride in Parc de Gatineau

The next morning we went on a training ride in the Gatineau Park race. The park was super beautiful, with nice smooth roads and great views. The ride was good for testing the legs, which were definitely not liking it. 

View point (+thumb)

The road race the next day was 120km, 12 laps of a 10km circuit. My job was to protect my teammates, chase any dangerous attacks, or let any less dangerous attacks go to calm the peloton before reeling them back in in the later laps of the race. I stayed in front for most of the race doing my job, I even won the first prime, but at 100km my legs decided to stop listening to me. I managed another few last ditch efforts for my teammates, but then had nothing left to even stick with the bunch, so I had to let my teammates take over for the last 15km. I trundled around the course the last lap and a half by myself, catching glimpses of the bunch wherever the course doubled back on itself. All the time I was hoping that my teammates had stayed fresh enough for the finish and that our plan would work out.

Viewpoint from Parc de Gatineau

When I finally made it to the finish line I found my team waiting for me already, screaming and shouting and jumping in the air - our team had worked perfectly to plan with our team controlling the race in the last few km to put Shelley into position to win the sprint! What a great feeling it was to have played part in this success. 

Win for Team TIBCO!

One anti-doping control and a shower later, Team TIBCO spent the evening celebrating with a nice dinner and walk around in the warm summer evening in the buzzing town of Ottawa.

Then we had one day to recover before the TT, which was the same course as the road race, just the other way round. I did the best I could, but my legs were still fried. My teammates were flying though, with Chantal taking 3rd, Claudia 6th and Shelley 7th, while I had to be happy with a smack-bang middle of the field 16th. 

Straight after the race it was the usual procedure of quickly packing the bike and legging it straight to the airport for a flight back to SF.