Late July Update

It's July 20th. I was just about to type an update but my wifey parked the truck on the street...some other date...

Superweek

So the juniors are going strong down in Wisconsin/Illinois. Jess is leading the Cat. 3 points while Chris and Blake are up there as well. This is good news because provincials should be a tough race with these guys getting the Superweek boost right before the grand Manitoba Road Provincials. Karlee is kicking butt even bigger time taking a win, leading the amateur ranking and doing really well in sprints. Oh yeah...she's only 19. I think cycling may be the stronger sport for her.

Le Tour de France Deux Mille Dix

I need to stop doing this. I mean typing almost entire post and then leaving it for couple of weeks. I typed the stuff below on July 1 (I think) and now it doesn't feel right to finish it.

I really want to get that serious post about differences between NA and European cycling and differences in training philosophy. Not a pro level insight, but stuff that I think are different.

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See I'm fluent in french. I just need to switch gears from watching football to watching cycling...I like watching football just as much as I like watching the Tour, so not that much but I can't miss these either. However I've been enjoying the World Cup much more than ever before and hopefully the Tour will be more than waiting to see if someone has a bad day or not. I wanna see some fireworks!

So the Tour starts on Saturday. I was really hoping to be there in R'dam to watch the prologue and see the cross wind blow the peloton in pieces on first stage. I only lived in Rotterdam for couple of months, but it is probably one of the coolest places on earth and it will be insane this weekend and has a special place in my heart. After all the strange chain of events, that lead into me suffering from temporary loss of mental sanity and that in turn got me to decide to move to Canadian prairies, started in Rotterdam. So in short I really wanted to stop over in Holland on my way to Finland this summer. However my job keeps me here in the hinterlands of road cycling for one more month, where I'm dependent on the crumbs that Bob Roll is kind enough to share with the lower beings such as myself. I will take it though and ask for more. In this case more would be the $15 versus app for your iPhone. You can watch the race on your iPhone...like p0nr for bike geeks. Just a word of caution though, this might seriously hinder your input at work and I take no responsibility if you get yourself fired staring at the 4" screen. Check it out on Versus website

Here at my end I had a rough rough ride today. I was planning to go for my training ride early in the morning but diaper changing, booking flights, phoning family back in old country etc. delayed my start and I got out at around 2PM. I planned on doing 5 x 5' at around 112-117% FTP and ride for less than 2 hours. I should have known better when I saw the temperature being 31-32 C heading out. The first 5' went fine, the second not so smoothly and during the third one, I hit the wall. OK I might have overcooked a bit on the first one, but still, I had to stop to rest. Haven't even almost puked for long time on training rides but this time was rough...holy mother... So time to scoot home avoiding any sudden accelerations and medicating my weakness with liquid gold.

Now I have my aim set at a two stage race in Finland on August 14-15. The race is basically on my dad's cabin backyard so can't really let that one go. I just need to find new legs and lungs to keep up with the animals who apparently push some frickin' 400 W at threshold. Oh well...I'll tool around and get my legs ripped off by them. Or actually I may not be strong enough to even suffer long enough to really suffer in that race.