written July 23/08
As I sit here drinking my second cup of coffee, moderately aware of the pain in my back, the likely broken rib and low grade headache resulting from a crash a little over a week ago, I find myself browsing the web page of a long standing athlete hero of mine, Clara Hughes. I read about how precious her days off are, the importance of finding something to occupy the brain for a little while, something that you can pour your focus into that is unrelated to your sport, to the demands of day-to-day training and competition. I find this refreshing as I believe this to be imperative to recovery, to longevity and success in ones sport (or life for that matter) – it isn’t balance per se, just enough of a breather to allow the morale to stay high, the focus sharp.
I start to browse through the pictures on Clara’s site; a cycling image catches my eye. I zoom in and realize that I am dead centre in one of the photos, I believe from the crit at the Tour de Montreal. I can’t help but to smile. This has made my day at a time when I need a little boost. Sometimes after a block of racing the enthusiasm wanes, the body hurts and the morale becomes flat. Thank you Clara, albeit through a completely inadvertent action, you have lifted my spirits.
The thought I take away is this: we never know how our words, our actions, will impact those around us, those far from us. We never know who we will impact, or exactly how. But we do, and we will impact others. We do so continuously. So now the challenge is to make the decisions in our own lives, our own actions and words to put our best foot forward, then tread gently even when we'd rather stomp.
I had considered it a great honour to get to compete against Clara at Montreal. I took the opportunity to introduce myself to her and we had a great conversation; I had always heard that she was super approachable and personable – she is true to her reputation and certainly a refreshing face to sport.
Thanks for reading.
Moriah
Life is short. We have the ability to choose every detail. Choose well. Enjoy the process. Enjoy the ride.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Random Cycling Pictures from the past 6 Weeks or so....
Tour de Grande Montreal with the National Team - thanks Anne & Leigh for your mentorship, Jenny and Betina for making me laugh and Luc, Andrew and Sophie for taking such good care of us!
At last, I got my picture with Jeannie the legend Longo - wikipedia her, its worth it! (taken at Mt Hood stage race in Oregon mid May) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannie_Longo Also in the picture is friend and fellow racer Allison Beall of Washington.
The Chinese Team Giant's spare bike at the Tour du PEI - 9 zip-ties will hold a carbon tube together won't it??
Me racing crits the way they should be - off the front! The last stage of PEI...
JT and I in front of Anne of Green Gables - this summer marks the 100th anniversary! How cool is that!! PEI rocks!
Our PEI team looking all pro, amazing what black & white can do for a bunch of bike racers!
JT and I after stage 2 of PEI where I failed to take over the top Canadian Jersey and would put myself in a position of chasing it for the remainder of the week. Excellent job JT for earning it in stage 1. We will be back next year!!
At the Nationals RR I enjoyed a call up based on my last years bronze medal performance; this year my success came in leading out my teams -mates JT and Steph where Steph was able to capture bronze in the U23 competition.Note the super HAWT pink Oakley Radars!!
My new super fast stealth suit which even matches my TT bike & helmet - the National Championships TT was OK this year with my only major mistake being that I went off course, resulting in my going the same distance, but having to slow considerably to get back on course through backed up traffic. I posted the 10th best time.
A shot from the National Championships RR, beautiful weather prevailed in Beauce Quebec.
Here JT and I, clad in the blues of the Giant/ Team Whistler kit, are surrounded by the Quebecois Mafia in the Nationals RR.
Suffer-face extraordinaire at the Giro di Burnaby where I am racing for Giant/Team Whistler and sporting an old helmet (red) after cracking mine in a couple of spots in an unfortunate crash earlier in the week.... Thanks Giant/Team Whistler for warmly welcoming me onto the team.Thanks for looking!
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Saturday May 31st ~ the 11th edition of the Montreal Women’s Cycling World Cup
In the North American women’s cycling scene the Montreal World Cup is a pretty big deal, it’s the highest calibre race on the continent, the only World Cup held in North America. And this year it is the final selection day for Canada, and I believe some of the other countries as well, to determine who will go to Beijing this August.
The course is roughly 1/3 up, 1/3 down and 1/3 flat, climbing Mont-Royal 11 times, each circuit lasting 10.06 kms. It’s a climber’s course; only true heavy hitters will be atop the podium at the end of the day.
I am here with the national team, the first time I have ever been the baby of the NT at an event. I’m excited to race with some of the more senior girls, although given the course and the level of the field I know that I’m unlikely to be able to contribute much other than possibly a wheel in the early stages of the race. The energy of the team is good, and considering all that is at stake there is a calmness I admittedly did not expect.
I arrived early with 3 full days to relax in Montreal and adjust to the time change. Many of the teams stay in the dorms at the University which is quite convenient as it is right on the course and although its not fancy, we each have our own rooms which is ideal given individual preferences for sleep and wake patters as well as tidiness.
Friday morning on our pre-ride of the course I was pleasantly surprised with how well my legs and bike felt. I hadn’t been expecting such a big difference in the way my bike would feel with new race wheels (Friday was literally my first ride on my new carbon deep dish Spinergy’s)… I think that sometimes when the bike feels really good the legs respond by feeling just that little bit better too. I was happy to feel a little spark back in the legs as I’ve had a disconcertingly long flat stretch. After a team dinner at a great Italian restaurant in the “Little Italy” district of Montreal and a brief meeting about the next day’s race everyone turned in for zzz’s.
Saturday morning we woke to a frighteningly loud air-horn noise, almost alarming enough to make a person wonder whether they should be hiding under their bed rather going to look out the window! I later learned that the use of this horn is customary here to remind people to move their parked cars off the road when a special event is going to occur, prior to them towing – nice gesture I guess.
Looking out my 11th story window the air was grey with rain, streams running down the streets, standing water pooling where it could. These are the kind of days where you either choose to enjoy the rain, or let it empty your mental fuel tank. If you’re scared, tired or sick its harder to convince yourself that racing in the rain is fun – and it can really shoot your day.
view from dorms and relaxing & elevating my legs while drinking my pre-race coffee
.JPG)
Getting a good position at the start I jammed myself into the middle of the pack as we started up Mont-Royal. Although I’m by no means a “climber”, climbing can be fun if you’re in the right mind-space. There are different levels of it: the cruisy, easy pace which comes sometimes early in long races before the tactics begin or in lower level races; the on-top-of-the-gear feel of a moderate paced climb, where it hurts just a little, but you don’t really notice the pain, or where you are being sucked along up a climb in the middle of the peleton, particularly when you enter the climb with momentum; and then there’s the kind that hurts. Sometimes it hurts intolerably. And sometimes you’re somehow able to get through that intolerance, to a point where you don’t really feel anymore, where your vision is narrowed and your ears ring, where your legs are able to do their job without apparent connection to the brain. There are also times where you want to stand out of your saddle, but your legs won’t let you. Times where it doesn’t seem like you’re going particularly quickly but your legs burn so badly they feel as though they may explode... or snap into bits. Times where it feels like your quads are lead and your bike a 100-pound object that you’re trying to roll up hill. Today things feel OK. As the pace slows on the climb the peleton gets wide; immersed in the middle, the distinctive smell of capsicum (in leg balm used on cold wet days), the sounds of the rain water spiting off tires, of others breathing, some heavily, some quite laboured, of spectators cheering, the taste of the spray water and grit of sand when I touch my teeth together, all distract me from the ascent itself. Sheltered from the wind I move with the flows of traffic through the peleton. Before I know it the first lap is over, then the 2nd, and 3rd…. with each pass I get closer to my goal of making it 6 laps; I know this doesn’t sound like much but the first time I did this race, 2 years ago, and on my very first project with the NT, I only made 3 laps. There are riders who I have a great deal of respect for who have ultimately ridden successfully at the international level who claim it has taken them years of racing this race before they were able to finish successfully, one year lasting 4 laps, the next 5 and so on. As the laps wear on the peleton shrinks and I yo-yo off the back at the top of the climb and chase back on the descent, sometimes with others, sometimes without. Going into the 5th climb with the peleton I remember the story of making it another lap or two each year and begin to think that I may actually make it through this race.
With each lap the cracks and pot-holes (Quebec pavement is notorious for being tremendously cracked from the freezing and thawing with seldom repair) in the road seem to get deeper…. to the point where it strikes me that it feels more like a pogo-stick race than a bike race!
Ultimately I do finish, albeit with a small group several minutes behind the first to cross the line. I am satisfied with my day. I rode to the best of my ability on the day, had fun and survived a race of attrition for a 44th placing - only around 1/3 of the 150-some starters made it through without abandoning or finishing outside the time cut.
At the front of the race Judith Arndt (HighRoad, Ger) and Fabiana Luperini (Menikini, Ita) finished in that order 30 seconds in front of a small group of chasers containing 3 Canadians. Leigh Hobson (CDN NT) convincingly won the sprint, Anne Samplonius (CDN NT) took 6th and Errine Willock (Webcor Builders, Can) 7th. It was a tremendous day for Canada with 3 in the top 7! And personally for Leigh, the ride of a lifetime, as this performance gives her an automatic spot on the CDN team at Beijing!!
A good day of bike racing! And now its time to rest up as we have only one day off before the Tour du Grande Montreal, a 5-stage, 4-day UCI stage race begins.
Thanks for reading,
Moriah
The course is roughly 1/3 up, 1/3 down and 1/3 flat, climbing Mont-Royal 11 times, each circuit lasting 10.06 kms. It’s a climber’s course; only true heavy hitters will be atop the podium at the end of the day.
I am here with the national team, the first time I have ever been the baby of the NT at an event. I’m excited to race with some of the more senior girls, although given the course and the level of the field I know that I’m unlikely to be able to contribute much other than possibly a wheel in the early stages of the race. The energy of the team is good, and considering all that is at stake there is a calmness I admittedly did not expect.
I arrived early with 3 full days to relax in Montreal and adjust to the time change. Many of the teams stay in the dorms at the University which is quite convenient as it is right on the course and although its not fancy, we each have our own rooms which is ideal given individual preferences for sleep and wake patters as well as tidiness.
Friday morning on our pre-ride of the course I was pleasantly surprised with how well my legs and bike felt. I hadn’t been expecting such a big difference in the way my bike would feel with new race wheels (Friday was literally my first ride on my new carbon deep dish Spinergy’s)… I think that sometimes when the bike feels really good the legs respond by feeling just that little bit better too. I was happy to feel a little spark back in the legs as I’ve had a disconcertingly long flat stretch. After a team dinner at a great Italian restaurant in the “Little Italy” district of Montreal and a brief meeting about the next day’s race everyone turned in for zzz’s.
Saturday morning we woke to a frighteningly loud air-horn noise, almost alarming enough to make a person wonder whether they should be hiding under their bed rather going to look out the window! I later learned that the use of this horn is customary here to remind people to move their parked cars off the road when a special event is going to occur, prior to them towing – nice gesture I guess.
Looking out my 11th story window the air was grey with rain, streams running down the streets, standing water pooling where it could. These are the kind of days where you either choose to enjoy the rain, or let it empty your mental fuel tank. If you’re scared, tired or sick its harder to convince yourself that racing in the rain is fun – and it can really shoot your day.
view from dorms and relaxing & elevating my legs while drinking my pre-race coffee
.JPG)
Getting a good position at the start I jammed myself into the middle of the pack as we started up Mont-Royal. Although I’m by no means a “climber”, climbing can be fun if you’re in the right mind-space. There are different levels of it: the cruisy, easy pace which comes sometimes early in long races before the tactics begin or in lower level races; the on-top-of-the-gear feel of a moderate paced climb, where it hurts just a little, but you don’t really notice the pain, or where you are being sucked along up a climb in the middle of the peleton, particularly when you enter the climb with momentum; and then there’s the kind that hurts. Sometimes it hurts intolerably. And sometimes you’re somehow able to get through that intolerance, to a point where you don’t really feel anymore, where your vision is narrowed and your ears ring, where your legs are able to do their job without apparent connection to the brain. There are also times where you want to stand out of your saddle, but your legs won’t let you. Times where it doesn’t seem like you’re going particularly quickly but your legs burn so badly they feel as though they may explode... or snap into bits. Times where it feels like your quads are lead and your bike a 100-pound object that you’re trying to roll up hill. Today things feel OK. As the pace slows on the climb the peleton gets wide; immersed in the middle, the distinctive smell of capsicum (in leg balm used on cold wet days), the sounds of the rain water spiting off tires, of others breathing, some heavily, some quite laboured, of spectators cheering, the taste of the spray water and grit of sand when I touch my teeth together, all distract me from the ascent itself. Sheltered from the wind I move with the flows of traffic through the peleton. Before I know it the first lap is over, then the 2nd, and 3rd…. with each pass I get closer to my goal of making it 6 laps; I know this doesn’t sound like much but the first time I did this race, 2 years ago, and on my very first project with the NT, I only made 3 laps. There are riders who I have a great deal of respect for who have ultimately ridden successfully at the international level who claim it has taken them years of racing this race before they were able to finish successfully, one year lasting 4 laps, the next 5 and so on. As the laps wear on the peleton shrinks and I yo-yo off the back at the top of the climb and chase back on the descent, sometimes with others, sometimes without. Going into the 5th climb with the peleton I remember the story of making it another lap or two each year and begin to think that I may actually make it through this race.
With each lap the cracks and pot-holes (Quebec pavement is notorious for being tremendously cracked from the freezing and thawing with seldom repair) in the road seem to get deeper…. to the point where it strikes me that it feels more like a pogo-stick race than a bike race!
Ultimately I do finish, albeit with a small group several minutes behind the first to cross the line. I am satisfied with my day. I rode to the best of my ability on the day, had fun and survived a race of attrition for a 44th placing - only around 1/3 of the 150-some starters made it through without abandoning or finishing outside the time cut.
At the front of the race Judith Arndt (HighRoad, Ger) and Fabiana Luperini (Menikini, Ita) finished in that order 30 seconds in front of a small group of chasers containing 3 Canadians. Leigh Hobson (CDN NT) convincingly won the sprint, Anne Samplonius (CDN NT) took 6th and Errine Willock (Webcor Builders, Can) 7th. It was a tremendous day for Canada with 3 in the top 7! And personally for Leigh, the ride of a lifetime, as this performance gives her an automatic spot on the CDN team at Beijing!!
A good day of bike racing! And now its time to rest up as we have only one day off before the Tour du Grande Montreal, a 5-stage, 4-day UCI stage race begins.
Thanks for reading,
Moriah
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Late April in Belgium & Luxemburg
Another outdated blog entry... the finale to my 9-week stint in Europe which was marked with an opportunity to race in the national team jersey.... in Belgium and Luxemburg.
April 24th – leaving one of the sunniest days yet in Limoux I set out to fly from Caarcassonne to Bruxelles via RyanAir, an experience in itself. Like cattle to a trough, my fellow passengers crowded the exit to the tarmac in anticipation of the unassigned seating free-for-all that was promised once inside the plane - this all well over an hour before boarding was to commence. I was admittedly a little taken off guard when a half-pint grey haired old woman began elbowing her way into line in front of me! After an uneventful flight we lowered through the clouds and into a grey rainy Belgian evening. Slopping through puddles on the tarmac and breathing in rain-cleaned crisp air I felt at home… France is sweet, but Belgium is truly the heart of the early race season, rain and all!
Michel the soignieur, complete with a little hand-drawn paper sign that read “MORIAH CANADA”, greeted me at the airport – in my shabby French we were able to communicate the necessities and have some broken conversation. As we were pulling away from the airport Michel stopped the van abruptly, backed up and made quick conversation with a fellow who was standing with his thumb out. Culturally, I am accustomed to not ever consider offering a stranger on the side of the road a ride, but based on what I could make out of the brief conversation between the two and appearance, it seemed OK. All in the adventure! Or so I told myself.
By the time we arrived at the house it was getting dark – the team has been staying in a rented house in a tiny town about an hour and a half from Bruxelles. Some of the girls had already gone back to Canada or the US as I was coming in for the last weekend of the project. Remaining were Felicia, Alex, Errine and Betina. We would race both Saturday (in Luxemburg) and Sunday (in Belgium), but Felicia would fly back to the US before Sunday’s race start and Joelle will join us in her place.
team house & pics from the morning ride
Friday morning – after a leisurely morning of coffee and bike assembly we ventured out on a portion of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (pro men’s race which would occur on Sunday) course which passed right in front of our house. There was positively nothing flat about the roads branching from our little town; but with the sun out and the roads dry I was pretty stoked for my first ride in Belgium! The architecture and
scenery notably different than southern France – I quite liked the clean-organic appearance and tidiness of it.
In the afternoon we packed up the vans and car and drove to Luxemburg where we checked into the race hotel, ate the pre-race dinner provided by the hotel, had pre-race rubs and chill time before turning in early. I also received my new national team jersey which sports the L2RCP logo – without the funding from this group the spring national team project would not have been possible. With very few riders competing in Europe at the international level over the past two years, Canada had fallen considerably in the UCI rankings. As the number of starters a country is able to enter in the Olympic road race is based on the country’s UCI standings, we ended up entering the last stretch of point accumulation window in a sorry state. Fortunately the CCA has been able to bring on investors, and this spring the Canadian women have been able to score the necessary points to bring Canada back up into the top 16 nations, thereby ensuring the maximum of three spots in Beijing, and a maximal opportunity to medal.
In European fashion race start times were 1:30pm both days. Saturday morning was brilliantly sunny with promises of being the warmest race day yet of my season. The morning was spent eating a buffet style breakfast at the hotel – bread, cornflakes, museli, yoghurt, apple sauce, fresh fruit, tea and coffee…. and croissants for the staff. After a plentiful breakfast, team meeting and sitting on the curb in the parking of a neighbouring McDonalds restaurant to poach a few minutes of free wireless, it was time to eat again. It actually gets tiring how much eating goes along with bike racing. European bike-race custom seems to be an early pre-race lunch of plain pasta. When I say plain, I’m not kidding. Monstrous vats of squishy white over done spaghetti noodles, jugs of olive oil, white baguettes, and if you’re luck a little grated parmesan. I don’t normally eat a lot of white flour, in fact I do my best to actively avoid it… but in Europe its next to impossible…. the survival strategy I adopted was to cover all the white food in a blanket of black pepper, at least that way I could pretend that everything I was eating had some colour.
Back to the racing - its always a little harder to write about races that you are not satisfied with… so I will keep the words brief and post a few pictures instead. UCI racing in Europe is definitely hard, the courses are difficult and the girls are tough! I did learn some things, so all was not lost.
pics of getting ready to race, racing, buildings, etc... looks like i didn't get the memo about wearing the new shorts in our team presentation shot, oops!
later,
Moriah
April 24th – leaving one of the sunniest days yet in Limoux I set out to fly from Caarcassonne to Bruxelles via RyanAir, an experience in itself. Like cattle to a trough, my fellow passengers crowded the exit to the tarmac in anticipation of the unassigned seating free-for-all that was promised once inside the plane - this all well over an hour before boarding was to commence. I was admittedly a little taken off guard when a half-pint grey haired old woman began elbowing her way into line in front of me! After an uneventful flight we lowered through the clouds and into a grey rainy Belgian evening. Slopping through puddles on the tarmac and breathing in rain-cleaned crisp air I felt at home… France is sweet, but Belgium is truly the heart of the early race season, rain and all!
Michel the soignieur, complete with a little hand-drawn paper sign that read “MORIAH CANADA”, greeted me at the airport – in my shabby French we were able to communicate the necessities and have some broken conversation. As we were pulling away from the airport Michel stopped the van abruptly, backed up and made quick conversation with a fellow who was standing with his thumb out. Culturally, I am accustomed to not ever consider offering a stranger on the side of the road a ride, but based on what I could make out of the brief conversation between the two and appearance, it seemed OK. All in the adventure! Or so I told myself.
By the time we arrived at the house it was getting dark – the team has been staying in a rented house in a tiny town about an hour and a half from Bruxelles. Some of the girls had already gone back to Canada or the US as I was coming in for the last weekend of the project. Remaining were Felicia, Alex, Errine and Betina. We would race both Saturday (in Luxemburg) and Sunday (in Belgium), but Felicia would fly back to the US before Sunday’s race start and Joelle will join us in her place.
team house & pics from the morning ride
Friday morning – after a leisurely morning of coffee and bike assembly we ventured out on a portion of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège (pro men’s race which would occur on Sunday) course which passed right in front of our house. There was positively nothing flat about the roads branching from our little town; but with the sun out and the roads dry I was pretty stoked for my first ride in Belgium! The architecture and
scenery notably different than southern France – I quite liked the clean-organic appearance and tidiness of it.
In the afternoon we packed up the vans and car and drove to Luxemburg where we checked into the race hotel, ate the pre-race dinner provided by the hotel, had pre-race rubs and chill time before turning in early. I also received my new national team jersey which sports the L2RCP logo – without the funding from this group the spring national team project would not have been possible. With very few riders competing in Europe at the international level over the past two years, Canada had fallen considerably in the UCI rankings. As the number of starters a country is able to enter in the Olympic road race is based on the country’s UCI standings, we ended up entering the last stretch of point accumulation window in a sorry state. Fortunately the CCA has been able to bring on investors, and this spring the Canadian women have been able to score the necessary points to bring Canada back up into the top 16 nations, thereby ensuring the maximum of three spots in Beijing, and a maximal opportunity to medal.
In European fashion race start times were 1:30pm both days. Saturday morning was brilliantly sunny with promises of being the warmest race day yet of my season. The morning was spent eating a buffet style breakfast at the hotel – bread, cornflakes, museli, yoghurt, apple sauce, fresh fruit, tea and coffee…. and croissants for the staff. After a plentiful breakfast, team meeting and sitting on the curb in the parking of a neighbouring McDonalds restaurant to poach a few minutes of free wireless, it was time to eat again. It actually gets tiring how much eating goes along with bike racing. European bike-race custom seems to be an early pre-race lunch of plain pasta. When I say plain, I’m not kidding. Monstrous vats of squishy white over done spaghetti noodles, jugs of olive oil, white baguettes, and if you’re luck a little grated parmesan. I don’t normally eat a lot of white flour, in fact I do my best to actively avoid it… but in Europe its next to impossible…. the survival strategy I adopted was to cover all the white food in a blanket of black pepper, at least that way I could pretend that everything I was eating had some colour.Back to the racing - its always a little harder to write about races that you are not satisfied with… so I will keep the words brief and post a few pictures instead. UCI racing in Europe is definitely hard, the courses are difficult and the girls are tough! I did learn some things, so all was not lost.
pics of getting ready to race, racing, buildings, etc... looks like i didn't get the memo about wearing the new shorts in our team presentation shot, oops!later,
Moriah
Friday, May 30, 2008
Girona & Barcelona
After two months in France my flat mates, Jasmine and Cam, and I took a little touristy trip down to Girona Spain where we stayed with another kiwi couple, Erica and Grom. Girona is a phenomenal place to ride and its, in a sense, the Hollywood of cycling as many of the pro men have homes there and live in Girona for portions of the year. Although the network of roads in Girona may not be as vast as that in the Limoux area, the road surfaces are definitely smoother, and many even have a centre line! click on images to enlarge
Left: OMG, its a Soldier Boy sighting?! that one's for you Jas!
The autoroute along the coast to Girona...
We took the train into Barcelona for the day; visited the Temple de la Sagrada Familia (which has been under construction since 1882 - and you thought your reno's were taking a long time!!); wondered the streets attempting to get a lesson in architecture; ate an incredibly overpriced Paella for lunch.....
roamed the Las Ramblas ~ outdoor street area closed to cars and filled with booths of touristy things for sale... complete with mobile pet stores!... and performers....
Left: OMG, its a Soldier Boy sighting?! that one's for you Jas!....visited the most incredible market filled with all the things you would expect.. and some you may not!! 
Visited the water front (look closely at the sculpture and gul...ick!), trusted a stranger to take a group shot (left to right: Jas, Cam, me, Erica & Grom).... and even made it back to Girona for tapas (Jas and I on the bridge in Girona.. looking forward to tapas!)
And, last, but certainly not least... before leaving we had the opporunity to visit the Slipstream service core (where they store all their gear). That was a definite highlight!
Until the next batch!
Moriah
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