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 back. 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.