Belgium racing

A lot has happened since the last time I gave an update.

The biggest thing being my move to Belgium. I took the train from Utrecht into Brugge, Belgium on Dec 20. From there I was picked up and driven to our base in Hertsberge. I’m staying at the US Cycling Center with 6 other Canadians including new JetFuel rider Derrick St John, Cyclissmo’s Nathan Chown and Canadian women’s cyclocross champ Wendy Simms. The setup we have here is 10x better than Holland in terms of support for the races. Each day we pack up our huge van and head to the races. We have three of your very stereotypical old Belgium guys for support. It’s amazing how much less stress there is with them taking care of the little things such as bike maintenance and checking the anti-doping lists each day. After each race we always come home to dinner on the table made by the cycling center’s “mom”. Overall it’s been a great experience here so far. Now for the races. So far we’ve done four races over the last 7 days.



The first was the Schledecross race in Antwerp on the 21st. Pretty neat course. There was a fair bit of sand and a lot of frozen, icy corners as it was -5. Bad luck for me as I was involved in a big pileup right off the start and ended up flatting. That ended the race pretty quick but it was still good to be out there riding the course and experiencing different types of course.



On the 22nd we headed north to Huisbergen, Holland. Again the course was frozen and even more technical than the day before. It was pretty much a mountain bike course zigzagging through the forest with many steep climbs and descents. One of the features of the course was a very rough cow pasture. As the ground was frozen the hoof prints from the cows left mini craters over about a 15second stretch of time. These were magnified as you hit them after coming flying down a very steep decent. You were basically riding the rim the entire way across and praying you didn’t flat our break a wheel. There were definitely some broken wheels after that. Overall I had a pretty decent race finishing just ahead of fellow Canadian Shaun Adamson.



The 23rd saw us back to pretty much where I was staying in Holland in Zeddam. The same course used for the World Championships a few years back. This was by far my best race as everything seemed to come together. It was a really neat course which featured a massive 100 stair run-up and tricky road decent leading into it. About 70 riders started and I ended up in 48th beating two of the American U23 national team riders which was a real plus for me.



Christmas Eve was a pretty low key day spent resting here at the center. Christmas day saw us pack up and head to Hofstade to pre-ride the World Cup course. It was a really cool course with tons of sand. Lot of fun to ride but bitter sweet for me as I thought I wouldn’t be racing do to some costly bills from the CCA ($135 late reg fee and $135 for a national team skinsuit).



Boxing Day we all packed up and left for the World Cup. I brought my bike and gear to be able to get some riding in to keep fit for the coming races. Once we got to the race I was surprised to hear my name was on the start list. We went and checked it out and sure enough it was true and there was no fine. Not only was there no fine but I actually got money to race and I would have been fined if I hadn’t raced. Thanks again to the CCA for their second World Cup mix-up. I found the other Canadian and was able to borrow a long sleeve national team jersey for him so I was set to race. The race went pretty poorly for me though as 10min of warming up and an emotional roller coaster before the race didn’t help much. I ended up riding the race with the other Canadian Shaun Adamson and one of the American team riders before we got lapped by an absolutely flying Neils Albert. It was kind of disappointing as the Americans I was riding with in Zeddam finished mid 30’s and on the same lap as Neils. I then got the experience of joining in with the 20,000 fans to cheer on the women and men’s races and eat some frites.



On the 27th we decided to race the Sylvester Cross in Torhout. This was only about 15km from us so we all decided to ride to the race with our bags brought over by car. Our bags made it but we all got pretty lost and had to admit defeat and head home. So no race but a good ride at least.



I’ll update soon on the last few races here. We’ll be racing the Azencross on the 28th and Nordezecross on the 29th. That’ll be it for me as I need to get back to Amsterdam to get my flight but the others will also be racing the Superprestige on the 30th.


Kevin

Read more ...

Merry Christmas

Winter has arrived, well actualy....not really. Its Christmas morning, im sitting at my laptop enjoying a Latte half dressed in my kit prepairing to be the only figure in red and white to zip thru south Surrey / White Rock this morning.


With the Burnaby Six Day on the horizen the major focus of most of my training has been prepairing for it. It was worked out well training along new team mate Cam MacKinnon who's prepairing for the World Cup in LA mid January. In the six day its self there is only 4 days of racing for the sprinters to accumulate points towards the omnium. The Invtitational Keirin (witch means its the same heat run differant ways for points) Chariot Racing, Keirin, Match Sprints. Some fill in events talked about have been a team sprint and a flying Kilo madison open to anyone. Should be a great time.

On the endurance side Killer madison pairing of Dave Byer and Danielle Defrancessi are un able to attend due to somone being at a wedding in Hawaii. This years line up looks like a serious field!

1. Svein Tuft (Symmetrics) / Zach Bell (Symmetrics)
2. Colby Pearce (Slipstream Sports) / Mike Friedman (Slipstream Sports)
3. Kirk O'Bee (Healthnet) / Kenny Williams (Cody Racing)
4. Christian Meier (Symmetrics) / Cody O'Reilly (Successful Living)
5. Brad Huff (Slipstream Sports) / Brian Crosby (Major League Cycling)
6. Dave McCook (ProMan Cycling) / Roman Kilun (ProMan Cycling)
7. Kevin Suhr (Cody Racing) / Ryan Luttrell (Cody Racing)
8. Cody Campbell (Symmetrics) / Mark MacDonald (BiciSport)
9. Daniel Holloway (US National) / Iggy Silva (US National)
10. Max Vives (Calyon Litespeed) / Charlie Vives (Calyon Litespeed)
11. Will Goodfellow (Calyon Litespeed/Martin Swiss) / Mike Norton (Calyon Litespeed/Martin Swiss)

December 31's we will ring out the year on the track, January first we will ring in the new year on the track! Daily reports as it happens!

Read more ...

Rainy Season

Well the rainy season has hit Northern Europe. I didn’t need to be told that twice. It has literally not stopped raining since...


Well the rainy season has hit Northern Europe. I didn’t need to be told that twice. It has literally not stopped raining since I got back from Denmark. This isn’t your light rain either. I’m talking full on downpour. My motivation to train was high after getting back from Denmark. This got me through the first few days of rain but after that it just sucked. I just had to keep reminding myself that everyone in Canada was digging themselves out of three feet of snow. Although hearing Zach was riding in sunny 30degree weather in Florida didn’t help much. O well, I guess this is what cyclocross is supposed to be all about. As Belgian champ Bart Wellens put it “This is why I became a cyclo-cross rider: for the rain, the coldness and the mud. For Tom Boonen this is too much, but not for a real cyclo-cross rider."

Along with the ever present rain the winds have also really picked up. My 4hr rides consist of riding an hour out, turning around and spending the next three hours trying to get home. No exaggeration. I grind away in my 42/25 on dead flat roads. The wind makes up for the lack of climbing here. Despite the weather I still managed to pull off a solid 21hr training week. Getting in some really good road and cross rides.

On Saturday I raced a national level race here in Holland. I wasn’t really overly excited about the course. It was a short and very technical loop. Most of the time was spent zigzagging through forest and shooting up and down steep muddy climbs. However, I did have my new Challenge Grifo tubulars so I was looking forward to seeing how they worked in the mud. They were incredible. I couldn’t believe how much better they worked than my Vittoria’s. The race itself went quite good for me. The training from this past week really paid off and I felt better than I’ve felt in a long time on the bike. I was able to crack the top 20, taking 19th. That was good enough to give me my first Euro paycheck. 16euros…sweet.

Sunday I was supposed to race the Superprestige in Veghel. I was really stoked to race after Saturday. Unfortunately my ride to the race decided he didn’t want to race 3hrs before the start. Needless to say I was pretty pissed off. O well, what are you going to do? Quick change of plans and I went out for a cross ride through the forest hitting some pretty cool sand sections along the way. Got home and decided to go blow my prize money in downtown Utrecht. Really cool city. Turns out a coffee was about all I could afford but I was still able to put in some quality window shopping hours.

This week will be another hard week of training. I’ve got two more national level races here in Holland next weekend before I head to Belgium for Christmas. Hopefully I can pad the bank account a bit more here in Holland before I mix it up with the big boys on Dec 26th, at the next World Cup in Hofstade.

Kevin

Read more ...

Recovery Week

More from Kevin in Northern Europe...

After 2 intense weeks of training I got a chance to take a break and explore Europe. A friend of mine is on an exchange program in Aarhus, Denmark so I packed up my bike and took advantage of the downtime to visit. After a very long and awkward train ride (because of the bike) I made it to Aarhus. It is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. The city has a very unique feel. There are really strong Danish roots in everything from building design to the attitude of the people.

I found out shortly before I came that Aarhus was home to Danish cyclocross champ Joachim Parbo. I thought it was kind of a strange place to live for a cyclocross rider but I quickly found out why. Denmark is one of the best places I have ever ridden. The variation in terrain is perfect for cyclocross. If it were only located closer to the heart of the cyclocross scene it would definitely be the place to be. Every aspect of a cyclocross race from sand, stairs, trails, roads, hills is compacted into a very small area. Not to mention the bike lanes which make getting through the city very easy.

There are two things which have really stuck in my mind as the highlights from the week. 1) The polar bear swim (I’ll never again complain about racing/training in cold weather) and 2) The football (soccer for those in North America) match. It was a game between two lower ranking teams but the fan support and energy far outdoes anything I’ve seen before.

I’m back in Holland now and serious training has begun again. There’s about 2.5 weeks until the Christmas races and a likely move to Belgium so I’ve still got time to sharpen my skills before then.

Kevin Hazzard

Read more ...