I'm right now lying down in a Motel in St-Georges de Beauce, Quebec, with my legs ups recovering from the Master's A 114 kilometer road race and yesterdays individual time trial.

This is the end of my SuperWeek - 6 races in 8 days. Last Saturday starting with the Gaston Langlois time trial, a Master's crit in Montreal-Nord on Sunday, on Tuesday the weekly Lachine cat 1-2 crit, a Master's crit in Laval on Wednesday, Friday (yesterday) the National's TT Master A time trial, and finally today, the National's road race.

Now, I can't complain I'm not doing enough intensity and racing!

Yesterday's TT was hard. Not a course custom made for me - I excel at flat courses. An out and back 20 kilometer course, very few flat sections, either hills going up or down. No leg breakers, but steady climbs 3-4%. I finished 5th, 2 places down from last year on the same course, but I'm happy with my effort as I gave it my 100%. Congratulations to Warren Macdonald who was simply stronger than everyone else. In 2006, he finished second behind me, but this year he showed up with a very impressive form, having the best time all categories on the 20km course in 27:49.

I think the only bad decision was to use my rear tri-spoke rather than my disk thinking saving about a pound or so would be an advantage. On the downhill, with my light weight, I think the momentum the disk would have provided would have had a bigger impact than shaving 1-2 pounds. Often during a TT a question arises among racers, if there are hills in the TT should you use a disk or not? If the TT is purely uphill, with grades greater than a few percentage (2-4%), then I think the disk does not have an advantage, so lighter is better. But if the course finishes at the same elevation as the starting point, that means you must come down what you climbed up, so a disk definitely means higher speed on the downhill sections. Even better is if you have a disk that is light, then you have the best of both worlds.

I felt good in the road race today, but wasn't able to get any sustainable break going. I tried twice, with the best attempt lasting about 10km with another rider trying to bridge to the winning break. My teammate Carl Dessurault, again timed his attack properly and was able to almost make it with another racer to the leading break, for a top ten finish.

For the Opus/Powerwatts team, the B sqad had excellent showing. Stephane Lebeau took first in the time-trial, so his is the new Canadian champ in the Master B time-trial. Eric Provost finished third in the time trial and close second in the pack spring in the road race.

For me, the highlight of the week was having my parents cheer me on for all races this week starting from the Lachine crit last Tuesday. Even though most of the time they couldn't see me come around in the pack at high speed, they were just proud to see their son give his best, just like when I was 11 years old playing hockey as a pee-wee.

Thanks mom and dad for your support and everything you have given me,

I love you

Here is Dad with me before the road race:

Here is a picture of Carl holding me while the official measures my saddle position to make sure it is UCI legal.