I haven't written much lately, because unlike most people on Facebook, like a wise man, when I don't have much to say, I stay silent. It doesn't mean I haven't been active. Contrary, it's been one most active racing season in years. Here's a quick recap for those of you how thought I had slowed down this year!

I kicked it off with the Clarence-Rockland classic appropriately on the same day as Paris-Roubaix. Three hours of  racing on rough roads not something you do everyday. 

I often get asked questions like "how much faster will these wheels make me go", or "how much time will I save on my 40km of an Olympic distance tri with that funky aero helmet".

Well there is plenty of data on the net - some is good (usually when it doesn't come from a manufacturer), and  some is just marketing. There is also lots of "word of mouth" data in all shapes and colors.

This year I'm not racing as much and along that line, not racing as fast. But one race that can't be missed is La Coupe des Ameriques in Sutton on the first weekend of July. This is the North American Masters road championship. It gives us pro racer wannabees the feeling that we are pros. A stage race, with 4 events in 3 days. Intense. The best way to do this is to rent a condo with your teammates and breath in and out cycling for 72 hours without worrying about anything else.

In most bike races, when you get a flat it means trouble. For most of us, we don't race on a team with domestics that can come back and get us to bring us back into the pack. At the amateur level, even if you do have teammates they may not even know you have a flat.

Then worse, the vehicle "de depannage" may not even allow you to draft, so you have to time- trial you way back to the pack. In many cases, that means the end of your race. And to make things worse, some spoon may decide to attack while you're changing your wheel.

On Wednesday this week I thought I'd try out the local masters criterium series in the Montreal area. For the past years it was held in an industrial area but this year it has been moved to a public park on a 760 meter path! Typically the attendance of this weekly race was 100+ racers in the past. I just couldn't imagine 100 people doing a criterium on a 760 meter path.

The Granby time trial has been on the Quebec road cycling circuit for as long as I can remember. It is a popular event? Everything is relative. Many mass start road races, running races, triathlons certainly have greater participation. But with participation at more than 240 cyclists on a day with lousy weather, that's pretty good.

It has been snowing all day in Montreal today. Quite a contrast from last Saturday where in Ste-Martine was held the first road race on the Quebec circuit.

I've been practicing yoga for a few years, and during asana's (the poses) one aspect is to challenge oneself while respecting ones limitations. The starting point is always the point you are at. So with a little more than 500 miles in my legs, better than in the past couple years, I setup myself for a challenge.

Things that relate to human nature seem to be set in stone. We seem to always need to take a stance, on one side or the other no matter what the issue is. As cyclists we love to be on the road and have to share the road with pedestrian, cars, buses, trucks, even animals like squirrels, dogs, cows, pigs, chickens (I've seen a lot of those on the road in Cuba).

I have been bike racing for almost 10 years now and I have had a hard time figuring out what is a bicycle is.

My first real road bike - I had bought a 55cm Marinoni bike at a pawn shop, put the shortest stem I could find, replaced the campy seatpost so I could bring the seat as close as I could to the top tupe (I now ride a 50cm frame). I soon figured out the bike was way too big for me, so I got a 50cm Argon 18 aluminum frame, and transfered the vintage campy components, including the 7 speed downtube shifters.

I wasn't always a fitness freak, and usually during the winter I'm building up some chunky reserves like if I was going to have to survive for weeks with just water.

So my first mission to "get back in shape" when I hit the big three O, was to stop taking the subway, and bike 6km to work and 6km back every day. For more than 5 years, I hadn't even considered riding my bike to work, as that was too demanding.

This weekend, my girlfriend with the hair clipper in her hands, reminded me that it has been more than one month since the Provincial time trial. I can only put that off for so long.
 

Ok, so I didn't get kidnapped before the Mont-Tremblant Duathlon on June 6th. A few minutes before the start, I was still oscillating between yay and nay. I had strapped my right ankle and the pain on my inner shine bone persisted. So I loosened up the bandage and it felt better. Ok, I'll do the race and see what happens.
 

 
Shortly I'm going to write a recap of an exciting duathlon on the Quebec Cup circuit, but today there's been lots of noise on various email lists about a decision to restrict access (or speed) to the only great training circuit for Montreal road cyclists.
 
I may have the numbers wrong, but I read that after 27 accidents on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal's racing track previously used on the F1 circuit), the bureaucrats managing the facility decided they want to keep road cyclists who want a safe place to train away from the track..
 

Last weekend I was relaxing with my girlfriend on the south shore of the Fleuve St-Laurent at a cottage just across Baie St-Paul, where the Charlevoix stage race on the Quebec circuit took place. I feel like my body is falling apart in pieces like American cars in Cuba.
 

We'll on April 19, was the Montreal Scotiabank half marathon. This was my third year doing the event, last year, being my personal best at 1:20. Over the winter, I was not very consistent in my running, so I knew my form wasn't at it's best.

Things slow down in the winter when you live in climate with sub-zero temperatures. So this blog was frozen just like the lakes around here. But now the rivers and lakes have thawed, and brave cyclists have been on the road for a few weeks. And in a few weeks, there will even be brave triathletes swimming in frigid open water.

It's fall, at least in the northern hemisphere, and most of you are probably taking it easy this time of year. Time to recharge, and if you've been busy racing this summer, it feels great to take some time off.

I'm not going to write about cycling, running, swimming or anything you were expecting to read on my blog. I'm going to write about something we don't stop to think about.

Last Monday morning, I was commuting to work, like millions of others across our planet. We do it, because we enjoy it, and do our share to reduce the suffering our planet is experiencing from CO2 emissions.

A common question among cyclists is, "what is the ideal cadence?". No one really has? a clear answer. Some literature I have seem from an efficiency point of view (lowest oxygen consumption for highest power) indicates a cadence between 65-70 revolutions per minute. That may be true in a lab, but on the road it seems that higher cadences will help delay muscle fatigue. Most cyclists will spin between 80 to 110 rpm. You have strong cyclists that are on the low side and others on the high side. On short hills, most cyclists usually lower their cadence.

There is a french expression, "sauver les meubles" which translates to "save the furniture from the burning house", or "save what can be saved". That sums up quite nicely my race at the Canadian Duathlon Championships last Saturday in Montreal.

Most duathlons I had done recently were sprint distances (5km run, 20km bike, 2.5km bike), but this was an Olympic distance (10,40, 5). I new the field was going to be strong, and Benoit Simard who won in St-Sauveur, was at the start line.

A few weeks ago I decided to replace my old HED Standard Disc. I bought that disc second hand 3 years ago, and it still was in good shape, but I thought it was time to get a lighter disc and maybe move to clinchers.

A quick look at ZIPP discs turned my head away, as my budget was under 1000$. After a few days of searching a few models came up, RENN, Blackwell, X-Lab. Contacted a few vendors online with a few questions, and found that most online shops have terrible customer service.

Last Saturday I was in St-Sauveur, Quebec for the cyclist's duathlon. A 3km run - 33 km bike - 3km run. This is a great introduction to duathlons for any cyclist that can run 3 kilometers straight.

That's what I did 2 years ago when I did my first duathlon. No one new who I was and they were all surprised to see me ride away on the bike.

It is not the first time luck is on my side and I take first by a fraction of a second. At the Coupes des Ameriques stage race in 2004, my lead was less than 1 second. Last Saturday was the Quebec provincial (state) time-trial championship, on a flat 21.5km out-and-back course. I finished in 28:56 (44.6km/h) just half a second in front of my teammate, Carl Dessurault.

It won't be long, the racing season will be over and it will be time to reflect on what worked and what did not worked. One thing I learned that you just can't "swing it", are the high intensity intervals above your anaerobic threshold. In most criteriums and road races I did this year, I just didn't have the top end speed to instigate or bridge to winning breakaways. Looking back, that was to be expected as I really did not focus on that type of training.