The Val di Sole experience

Back in Ottawa. Great trip overall, fun times and needed experience if I hope to represent Canada at world later this year. Here's how she played out for me.

After chilly temperatures and brief thunder showers the week previous, it got real sweaty, steamy hot come race day. The course was mostly unchanged from the previous years I've raced here, same general direction just a few added rocks and one new multi-line section. If anything they managed to push in more climbing, 180 meters per lap, in less space. Basically just up or down and no recovery.

Called up 43rd and came through the start loop in 35th, which is decent considering my starting abilities, especially this time of year (basically early season for me still). Had some work to do make my way into into my soft placing goal of top 20/25 ish, but I was able to keep the gas on, push through some traffic early in the first lap and make my way up the standings. I was told before the start that with the challenging course and hellish temperatures, 34 degrees apparently, guys were burning themselves out in previous races; it was going to be important to keep a controlled easy pace early and work into the race, and that's just what I thought I was doing. As one Mike Woods would say, I felt good! I found myself in the top 25 on the third lap and decided to just sit on the next guy I caught, rest a lap before driving it out. However, when I caught that guy and found he was going unbearably slow, I just said screw it and pushed on. The heat lords had different plans for me though, and things tumbled downhill from there.

We had just met Steve and Jo the day before while trying to find somebody to feed us during the race; they are the parents of a young downhiller on the Dirt-Norco squad. Jo did an unreal job, like she should quit her day job and make a go at the XC feed zone game. However, as I didn't know it was going to be hotter than molten steel that day, we didn't coordinate any water for the dumping on my dome. I dumped my jersey in the river before starting and it was dessert dry by the second lap. My body could never contain the amount of sweaty water needed to keep me cool and I over heated quickly. Despite riding within myself for the first 3 laps, I received a hard back-hand fire slap across the face on the forth and my lap times tumbled. I fought the idea of dropping out by telling myself to stop being a puss. Somewhat angry and negative self talk but hey, I kept going and damage controlled enough to only lose 10 spots in the 2nd half of the race.

33 for me, not my best WC result and well off what I came for. But for a brief time I was crushing it and that showed me that I'm on track and ready for nationals in one months time.

Last lap (I think) in Vermiglio - credit Adam Morka

Simplon pass

                                 

Zurich airport outdoor lounge

Do as the Italians do?

Raced last weekend in Vermiglio; Italy Cups are a little bit different than Canada Cups, little bit. Slightly different style of doing things in every category and not starting on the front row because, with all do respect, this "national level" event will probably be faster than the U23 World Cup this coming weekend. My race went a little less than medium and I think I just needed to stop being a puss; actually commit to riding fast and within myself rather than holding back for.... nothing, really. I had way to much left in the last 2 km and I don't know what I was saving it for. 

Now to the theme of this post. Having a careerer in wine tasting is a real thing, its called being a sommelier. These sommeliers, to the best of my ignorant knowledge, just travel around seeking out and tasting several different wines, from several different regions, in the hope to ever refine their wine experience and pallet. The best (World Championships?) can get jobs at expensive wine snobbery joints in order to pair wines with food and all that good stuff. 

But how hard can this wine thing be? Andrew The Esperance and I become sommeliers for 20 minutes during this experiment in hope to find out. Basically we strode down to local grocery and acquired three different wines in three different price ranges, then blind taste tested them to see if taste correlated to price. I know just enough about this to know some different types of red wines and, for the sake of this experiment, I aimed to get three bottles of the same type. However, either because of the language barrier or inadequate Italian labelling, I could only manage to make sure the three subjects said "vino rosso".

Wine #1: Tavernello (in a box) a.k.a. Dog Wine - 1.49 euro or maybe $5 in an LCBO

     

 Basically the grapes are crushed under the sullied feet of slaughter house cows. Then the juice is collected from the sewer run-off, fermented under the hot Italian sun for a month before being boxed in cardboard. 

We both agreed that this tastes and smells fowl. Andrew was able to determine which glass contained the Dog Wine from smell alone. We poured the leftover down the drain...

P.S. there is a white wine here for 1.09 euro!

Wine #2: Mastri Vernacoli - 5.45 euro and maybe $10 in an LCBO

This is something closer to what I might buy at home. It's red... not sure what else I can say.

Wine #3: Mori Vecio - whopping 8.95 euro or maybe $20 in an LCBO counting inflation and stuff

Simply exquisite! I've walked around in the LCBO Vintages section and it's not outrageous, but is the most expensive bottle they have in stock. I didn't want to buy it, but for the consumer advice I'm offering here, it's worth it.

I'm not really sure on how good wine is made, but I'll take a stab at this one. The grapes are probably peeled and de-seeded by hand. The yeast is matured from a young age and games are held to select the best for fermentation. The wine is definitely stored in mahogany barrels for years upon years just waiting for you.

 The Results: 

Both Andrews and I rankings the on general "goodness" of each wine were right on track with the subsequent taste. So yes, the more expensive wines actually are better.... and on that bomb shell.

Italy for the Privledged

Post BSP I tried to fit in some miles before packing the suitcase again, this time bound for Italy. I'll let Andrew The Esperance talk about the last 48 hours --> HERE <-- since, after some editing by me (seriously), he did a pretty nice job of summing it up. Read it before continuing pretty-please!

However, I would like to make a statement about trains: European trains rack a few points higher, on a logarithmic scale, in filthiness than any Greyhound bus in North America (If you've never been on a Greyhound your doing good). To put it simply, trains are where different pandemic viruses come to breed more resilient, life-threatening diseases bent on mass worldwide destruction.

Now that I got that off my shoulders, I'd like to talk about the overall experience of planning and executing this trip. The only travelling I've done outside of North America, for racing, has been with the national team and oh boy do they know how to pull these things off! It turns out that, while desperately trying not to, I've been taking those trips for granted the entire time. Exhibit A: I've been to Val di Sole, Italy twice before and until now I hadn't really even known where in Italy we were; straight up couldn't point it out on a map and I'm a little embarrassed to say it! Basically an enormous spoiled prick! Since with the national team projects, your just given you a time-frame to land at the destination airport, and then a car magically shows up and takes you to the hotel. I've never really had to know anything about the country in question, it's all been handed to me on a platinum platter. But through planning this trip (trains, planes, accommodations, costs, locations, time-frames, registration) I know so much more about Europe and Italy and in general more about how the world works. I think I've gotten more out of this trip than any other and will now appreciate the opportunity's to travel with the national team that much more than ever before. Now I know that may seem weird (I mean I've been to Europe how many times?) but trust me, if you've been on a national team project you know how easy it is to affix the blinders, hold onto the rope and get towed along. You've also probably never hauled two 50 lbs bags around train stations for 11 hours after sitting on a plane for 8, that will open your eyes. Good thing Andrew The Esperance kept the positivity high, because I was broken.

Well, we've come this far to race an Italy cup mountain bike race in Vermiglio the week before the world cup. The course is different, nothing you would find in Canada, as is has no real single-track and no real "feature" for spectators. However, it is real hard and has a real fast descent. This descent isn't hard per say, you could roll it slow and safe... but nobody's going to be going slow and safe and when you lose control it will be a long, painful slide down on your head. The field is also STACKED, with current Olympic bronze medallist, other top 15 Olympic riders and the winner of the first world cup this year. UCI points will be a tough grab no doubt! But I'm feeling fit, and I've honestly never felt more technically confident on a mountain bike than on my Norco this year.

Baie Saint Paul

Sorry for the late update. Our current internet provider has decided our loyalty is certainly not important them. But this blog post is not about the poor quality of service ARCANAC has provided us over the past month. Although cheap and featuring unlimited download, you definitely get what you pay for with little customer service or support.

So, we hung out in Tremblant for a few days before heading to Norcos top-secret, haunted farm house in Baie Saint Paul (BSP). After Andrew Watson updated us on the current weather forecast in Barrie, he regretted to inform us that the ocean was about to fall from the sky over BSP. The week was spent pitting weather providers against each other in high stakes gambling, building arcs and healthy doses of Blue Mountain State and East Bound and Down. Fortunately the skys parted and glistening sun poured down on race day.

I started the race off smoothly in 5^th position, promptly edging out any would-be passers into the nearest tree. A selection of four people; Ettinger, Caron, Guthrie and myself; established before the end of the first lap, of six, and Ettinger wasted no time in boosting off the front early in the second. Guthrie also put in a fast decent leaving me to play teammate behind Caron in 3^rd position. To clarify: there is no drafting in mountain biking (exceptions!), although it can be argued that leading is more draining then following, so in playing teammate here I simply stuck on Carons wheel and waited for a chance to go without bringing Caron back up to monsieur Guthrie. I already knew at this point that I was feeling exceptionally awesome, but bit my tongue until Caron and Guthrie started to tire. Mid 4^th lap, I pounced with the might of a lioness taking down 6 gazelles at once. Ettinger had already distanced himself by a fair margin at this point, but I smelled his fear. With hyper-boosters on 1000% I was able to bring him back to within 20 seconds with a lap to go, but couldn’t seal the deal. In fact, he tapped into some reserves and laid another 10 seconds on top. Guthrie rolled in for 4^th, the Andrews were 11^th and 12^th with flat tires. I also had the pleasure of peeing beet-red into a cup while a grown man watched me, joyous.

Now I've exhausted my time in this coffee shop. My time is up.

P.S. Italy cups are outrageously hard to register for! I haven't sent a fax in my life and never thought I would have to. Heading out for a Euro Trip next week for the world cup in Italy.