The first time I heard of this race was 2 years ago back when I was 14 at the southwest regional camp in Lubbock Texas. Tour De L'Abitibi is the largest and only UCI jr stage race in the western hemisphere. The race takes place in the small town of Val d'Or in Quebec Canada. In order to get to race you must be on a team that gets invited and have a racing age of 17-18.
Getting to and from this race has got to be one of the most difficult accomplishments I have conquered. I left Pearland and flew to Tulsa where I met up with teammate Alex Battles-Wood and was then picked up by the team director Tim Redus before we headed on the 3 day drive to the Great White North. Once we got to Detroit we met up with the rest of the team which composed up Will Rader, Cody Tapley, Alex Parks, as well as our mechanic Mike Wooderd and Soigneur James Karthauser.
After a very long drive from Detroit to Val d'Or we finally made it to where we would be racing for the next week.
Stage 1
The first stage in the Tour de L'Abitibi was going to be my first taste of what racing against some of the top Jrs in North America would be like. In the first 200m of the first race there was a major pile up directly in front of me causing me to have to dismount my bike and jump of the pile of bikes and bodies. I was able to quickly rejoin to main group after a few minutes of chasing with a few other guys that got caught behind the the crash with me. Once I caught onto the group again it was time to start moving to the front of the 156 person peloton and prepare for the rest of the day's stage. As the stage progressed I found that I was able to move up to the front of the field relatively easy since we had full rolling enclosure. The only hard thing was that I was having some trouble staying up at the front as was cycling through from the front to the middle of the pack for the rest of the day. After a very fast run in to the city circuits I was at the back end of the pack and quickly found my self surrounded by dropping riders. I did my best to sprint around the opening holes but I couldn't get around all of them and I found myself solo in no mans land just about thirty seconds off the back of the dwindling main group. I went into TT mode to try to catch the rear end of the group that I was never able to catch. I finished about 1 minute behind the group. Not the best way to start a stage race.
Stage 2
The start of stage 2 was a lot smoother off of the line as there was no crashes in the first two minutes of the race. I started to move up as soon as I could but the race was still in town and it was on some really narrow roads we were riding on. That was when there was a major wreck directly in front of me and I had no where to go but into it. As I ran into the pile up I was locking up both my brakes and my rear wheel was fishtailing around the right side of me. As I hit the group I flipped over the right side of my bike and landed on my side and side of my helmet. The worst of the wreck was when I was sliding on my back when some large rider ran into my bike and he flipped over and landed on my legs pushing them enough to hyperextend my back causing excruciating pains. And before I could get up a second rider rode into the side of my face tearing up my sunglasses and somehow knocking my contact lenses out of my eyes. Once I stopped sliding across the ground like a rag doll I stood up as fast as I could to find my bike and begin chasing back onto the group. But by back felt terribly wrong and I couldn't stand up straight. The race doctor saw this and made me lay down to make sure I didn't break anything. After laying on the ground for 30-45 seconds she let me up and said I could get in the ambulance if I wanted to but I said no and got on my bike and started chasing. By this time however the caravan and the field were way out of sight and I still had about 60 mile / 95 k left to the line. After I cleared my mind and got focused on the chase I relized how bad a shape I was in on my solo chase, my back was in unbearable pain, my helmet was shattered, half my face hurt from where I was ran over, there was a crack in my fork, my left shifter blade was cracked strait through, I was bleeding out my left knee, all my water bottles fell out, and the worst of it all was that I had no way to see the road up ahead of me since I somehow lost my contacts in the crash with another 2.5 hours of racing to do. While I was mindlessly chasing I caught 2 more riders. Out of this group I was the strongest and was taking massive pulls for 5 minutes at a time to try to keep the pace as fast as possible. The other riders including one of my teammate Booey where taking shorter pulls since they didn't want to slow the speed down and he said he wasn't feeling well. This continued till it was about 40k from the line where I couldn't even hold the pace I was pulling at earlier for even a minute. Shortly after this point I hit the wall when all my emotions, pain from the wreck and fatigue from chasing so hard with no sign of the group started combining leaving me feeling the worst I've ever felt on the bike. After barely able to hold onto the wheels of my group I was able to make it to the circuit where I was quickly dropped by my Teammate on the climb on the circuit. I finished the race cold, sore, bleeding, blind, and crestfallen, and in extreme pain. And over 30 mins behind the stage winner.
Later that night after being checked my the doctors I received the worst possible news. I missed the time cut by a mere 90 seconds. After hearing this I couldn't believe it. I never felt so torn apart. The only good news I heard was that Booey, who was with me after the crash and was in my small group of chasers made the time cut by only 8 seconds. One of the narrowest margins ever at this race.
Stage 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
For the rest of the week up at the race I was pretty much team support and got to see how the racing was from a mangers point of view and see the stress of the caravan first hand. Something that seemed as stressful as the racing itself.
Well I would like to give a special thanks to all the people that made this experiance possible for me. I would like to thank my team Will, Alex B, Alex P, Cody and Booey. As well as my team Director Tim Redus, Mechanic Mike Woodered, and Soigneur James Karthauser. I would like to thank my sponsors Hotel San Jose, Juwi solar, Reed and Scardino,Austin Subaru, As well as Metro Volkswagen, The Pearland Cycling Club and the Pearland Racing Team. I also want to thank my coach David Wenger of Durata Training for preparing me for this race. And most of all I want to thank Mom and Dad for all there love and support.
Now I want to head back next year even stronger and make a good showing next year.
Sent from my iPhone
Getting to and from this race has got to be one of the most difficult accomplishments I have conquered. I left Pearland and flew to Tulsa where I met up with teammate Alex Battles-Wood and was then picked up by the team director Tim Redus before we headed on the 3 day drive to the Great White North. Once we got to Detroit we met up with the rest of the team which composed up Will Rader, Cody Tapley, Alex Parks, as well as our mechanic Mike Wooderd and Soigneur James Karthauser.
After a very long drive from Detroit to Val d'Or we finally made it to where we would be racing for the next week.
Stage 1
The first stage in the Tour de L'Abitibi was going to be my first taste of what racing against some of the top Jrs in North America would be like. In the first 200m of the first race there was a major pile up directly in front of me causing me to have to dismount my bike and jump of the pile of bikes and bodies. I was able to quickly rejoin to main group after a few minutes of chasing with a few other guys that got caught behind the the crash with me. Once I caught onto the group again it was time to start moving to the front of the 156 person peloton and prepare for the rest of the day's stage. As the stage progressed I found that I was able to move up to the front of the field relatively easy since we had full rolling enclosure. The only hard thing was that I was having some trouble staying up at the front as was cycling through from the front to the middle of the pack for the rest of the day. After a very fast run in to the city circuits I was at the back end of the pack and quickly found my self surrounded by dropping riders. I did my best to sprint around the opening holes but I couldn't get around all of them and I found myself solo in no mans land just about thirty seconds off the back of the dwindling main group. I went into TT mode to try to catch the rear end of the group that I was never able to catch. I finished about 1 minute behind the group. Not the best way to start a stage race.
Stage 2
The start of stage 2 was a lot smoother off of the line as there was no crashes in the first two minutes of the race. I started to move up as soon as I could but the race was still in town and it was on some really narrow roads we were riding on. That was when there was a major wreck directly in front of me and I had no where to go but into it. As I ran into the pile up I was locking up both my brakes and my rear wheel was fishtailing around the right side of me. As I hit the group I flipped over the right side of my bike and landed on my side and side of my helmet. The worst of the wreck was when I was sliding on my back when some large rider ran into my bike and he flipped over and landed on my legs pushing them enough to hyperextend my back causing excruciating pains. And before I could get up a second rider rode into the side of my face tearing up my sunglasses and somehow knocking my contact lenses out of my eyes. Once I stopped sliding across the ground like a rag doll I stood up as fast as I could to find my bike and begin chasing back onto the group. But by back felt terribly wrong and I couldn't stand up straight. The race doctor saw this and made me lay down to make sure I didn't break anything. After laying on the ground for 30-45 seconds she let me up and said I could get in the ambulance if I wanted to but I said no and got on my bike and started chasing. By this time however the caravan and the field were way out of sight and I still had about 60 mile / 95 k left to the line. After I cleared my mind and got focused on the chase I relized how bad a shape I was in on my solo chase, my back was in unbearable pain, my helmet was shattered, half my face hurt from where I was ran over, there was a crack in my fork, my left shifter blade was cracked strait through, I was bleeding out my left knee, all my water bottles fell out, and the worst of it all was that I had no way to see the road up ahead of me since I somehow lost my contacts in the crash with another 2.5 hours of racing to do. While I was mindlessly chasing I caught 2 more riders. Out of this group I was the strongest and was taking massive pulls for 5 minutes at a time to try to keep the pace as fast as possible. The other riders including one of my teammate Booey where taking shorter pulls since they didn't want to slow the speed down and he said he wasn't feeling well. This continued till it was about 40k from the line where I couldn't even hold the pace I was pulling at earlier for even a minute. Shortly after this point I hit the wall when all my emotions, pain from the wreck and fatigue from chasing so hard with no sign of the group started combining leaving me feeling the worst I've ever felt on the bike. After barely able to hold onto the wheels of my group I was able to make it to the circuit where I was quickly dropped by my Teammate on the climb on the circuit. I finished the race cold, sore, bleeding, blind, and crestfallen, and in extreme pain. And over 30 mins behind the stage winner.
Later that night after being checked my the doctors I received the worst possible news. I missed the time cut by a mere 90 seconds. After hearing this I couldn't believe it. I never felt so torn apart. The only good news I heard was that Booey, who was with me after the crash and was in my small group of chasers made the time cut by only 8 seconds. One of the narrowest margins ever at this race.
Stage 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
For the rest of the week up at the race I was pretty much team support and got to see how the racing was from a mangers point of view and see the stress of the caravan first hand. Something that seemed as stressful as the racing itself.
Well I would like to give a special thanks to all the people that made this experiance possible for me. I would like to thank my team Will, Alex B, Alex P, Cody and Booey. As well as my team Director Tim Redus, Mechanic Mike Woodered, and Soigneur James Karthauser. I would like to thank my sponsors Hotel San Jose, Juwi solar, Reed and Scardino,Austin Subaru, As well as Metro Volkswagen, The Pearland Cycling Club and the Pearland Racing Team. I also want to thank my coach David Wenger of Durata Training for preparing me for this race. And most of all I want to thank Mom and Dad for all there love and support.
Now I want to head back next year even stronger and make a good showing next year.
Sent from my iPhone
