Chrono Gatineau 2013

The competition was strong at the UCI 1.1 event.  Riders from around the world (Canada, USA, Ireland, Poland, Germany...) were on the start list. As my NOW and Novartis for MS teammates are preparing for their USA National Pro-Championships south of the boarder, I was especially honoured to receive a Wild Card Entry from the Chrono Gatineau race organization.  That way, I could race without my entire team being registered.

The race didn't quite go as planned.  But despite the mediocre situation that I found myself in on race day, it is definitely true that to finish in the top 10 at such a prestigeous event with an impressively strong field is something to be proud of, and the opportunity to race "at home" in Québec again was a treat.

Coming in to a turn... (Photo credit W. Saunders.  Thanks for the shot!)

Thanks again to the fans for coming out to cheer us on and participating in the activities associated with the event. Thanks as well to the Cycling Canada Cyclisme staff for their excellent support.

My next race: another UCI event in Philadelphia, the first weekend in June.  This time with NOW and Novartis for MS.

Check out this video:

GP Cycliste Gatineau 2013

I raced the 4th edition of the UCI 1.1 Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau with the Canadian National Cycling Team.  Our roster was cut a little short with one athlete injured, and another one with a last minute race calendar modification that had her racing overseas.

Denise Kelly, Candice Vermuelen, Véronique Labonté, Kinley Gibson, Véronique Fortin, Lex Albrecht

I raced with:
Véronique Fortin (2011 Canadian Road Cycling Champion)
Véronique Labonté (my teammate from 2011)
Kinley Gibson (a second year junior, super strong track racer, and great hotel roommate)
Candice Vermuelen (track specialist who went on to win a race the next day in Niagra Falls. What an athlete).

The 12 lap race (122 km) started out at a slower pace than in previous years.  A few riders attempted to throw some attacks, but all attempts of creating a break were smouldered.  At one point Claudia Haussler (TIBCO) attacked on an uphill and I jumped on her wheel, thinking it might be a move that could stay away for awhile at least.  The two of us were reeled back within a kilometer.  But by the 6th lap, Steph Roorda (Specialized-GSD Gestion) attacked and escaped from the peloton.  I waited until a nice little kicker came up in the course and gunned it.  I got away from the pack and rode until I caught up with Steph just before the feedzone.  We worked together to stay away for another 3 laps.  Suddenly I heard ..."Lex.  LEX!"  Music to my ears.  I glanced behind me and it was my teammate Véro Fortin bridging up to us.

The three of us worked hard in hopes of staying away until the end.  Our team director, Denise Kelly drove up alongside us and handed me a delicious Coke.  I hate Coke.  Except in the middle of a race.  Then it's DARN good.  But with just 1 lap left to go, TIBCO and Optum managed to reel us in. This was was perfect for them; Both had a team full of sprinters and great leadout riders.  It was also probably to their advantage to have the most teammates together up there to drill the pace and set up the win for their final sprinter before the finish line.  In the end, Shelly Olds from TIBCO took home the victory.

So, hey, we knew we had little chance to win out of a bunch sprint.  However, we did a decent job of making our plan of a break work.  I wanted the Maple Leaf on the first step of the podium, regardless of who was wearing it.  "Close, but no cigar" (the big, fat, stinky kind- why not?) is a lot more satisfying than sitting around in the peloton and not risking anything.

I think we would have needed an additional rider from another strong team there with us in that break...but that's not what they wanted.  Bike racing is all about pedalling hard and lots of strategy.

ONE thing that I have to mention about the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau is that the spectators are awesome.  I heard my name yelled out so many times around the course! And, I was thrilled to see the plethora of people who came to watch the show.   

This is probably the coolest thing that I saw all day though (it definitey added a few extra watts to my pedal stroke in the breakaway, each time I rode past!):

Thanks W. Saunders for getting a photo of this sign for me, and thanks to the girls who made it! WOW! :)

CHECK OUT SOME GREAT PHOTOS OF THE GP GATINEAU FROM CANADIAN CYCLING MAGAZINE BY CLICKING HERE!

Lex Albrecht looks ahead to the Grand Prix Cycliste Gatineau

I spoke with Matthew Pioro from Canadian Cycling Magazine about the upcoming UCI races in Gatineau, Québec (May 17 - 20).  They're two of the biggest international calibre womens' cycling events in Canada.

Check out what we discussed, and find out how to follow the race LIVE here! 

(http://cyclingmagazine.ca/2013/05/sections/news/lex-albrecht-looks-ahead-to-the-grand-prix-cycliste-gatineau/)

Rouler sous la pluie, pas de problème.

C'est très rare qu'il ne fait pas beau.  Ma théorie est la suivante: si on n'a pas mal à cause du météo, il fait beau.  Ensuite vient la théorie assez populaire (et assez vraie, à mon avis!) : il n'y a pas de mauvaise température, juste des mauvais vêtements.  On me dit que c'est une proverbe Suédoise...

Dernièrement j'ai fait une course par étape (Joe Martin Stage Race, à Fayetteville, Arkansas) où il a pleut à tous les jours quasiment.  Le lendemain de la course Grand Prix Granby, je suis allée au Parc de la Mauricie, ma place préférée pour rouler au Québec.  Il faisait froid, et il pleuvait.  Selon moi, au Parc, il fait toujours beau. J'avais choisi la même stratégie que j'ai pris à Fayetteville pour éviter de gêler, et de me garantir une belle ride:

La Vaséline qui a sauvé ma course à : Joe Martin Stage Race.  Format régulier!

LA VASÉLINE.  Au dépanneur YOGI à Grand Mère, (juste avant l'entrée du Parc de la Mauricie) j'ai été assez chanceuse de trouver de la Vaséline.  Un tout petit, mini, bébé pot pour $3.  C'est le format de Vaséline le plus cher, le moins économique au monde, mais tellement, tellement pratique.  J'ai mis une méga couche épaisse sur mes jambes (par dessus une couche de crème chauffante) avant de partir.  Ca crée une bonne barrière entre la peau, et la pluie et le vent, et c'est pas mal plus comfortable que les jambières.

Je récupère avec une patate sucrée avant de me laver les jambes à la fin de ma ride sous la pluie!

Avec autant de Vaséline sur les jambes, je dois avouer qu'après 4 heures sous la pluie en vélo, il reste un peu de travail à faire pour enlever non seulement ce qu'on s'est mis au départ, mais aussi tout ce qu'on a ramassé sur les pistons pendant la ride.  Mais ça vaut tellement la peine...!

Grand Prix Granby 2013

Le matin avant le Grand Prix de Granby, avec mon espresso et mon Specialized SHIV.  Toute belle journée commence avec un bon espresso (ou deux...) n'est ce pas?

Je ne prends pas pour acquis le support que j'ai de mon équipe NOW and Novartis for MS, mais une journée de contre-la-montre en solo m'a rappellé de comment je suis chanceuse d'avoir une aussi belle groupe de personnes qui travaille avec moi et mes co-équipières pendant nos compétitions.

Habituellement nous avons 2 méchanos, et 2 soigneurs avec nous, ainsi que notre directeur d'équipe pour nous aider.  Nous n'avons qu'à penesr à faire notre course, et à rien d'autre.

Habituellement, ça n'aurait pas été moi qui aurait monté mon vélo, qui aurait changé le pédalier S-WORKS pour installer mon pédalier Quarq/SRAM Red et qui aurait fait des ajustements de dérailleur.

Cependant, ça fait du bien de se rappeller qu'on est capable d'accomplir ce qu'il faut faire toute seule.  Avec mon petit coffre d'outils et une carte de crédit, je me sens quasi-invincible ;).  Je n'ai pas réussi à préparer mon Specialized S-WORKS Shiv aussi bien que Erik, (mon méchano habituel de Reno, Nevada, É-U) mais ce que j'ai fait a quand même fait la job.

Ils annonçaient de la pluie pour Granby, mais ce n'est que les maîtres hommes qui sont partis en fin de journée qui ont dû le subir!  Pour mon rechauffement, et pour la course des femmes, il faisait super beau. 

Il ventait fort sur le parcours, tellement que j'ai vu quelques-unes de mes adversaires se faire pousser de la voie droite à la voie gauche.  Je pense que ma course à Gila (Silver City, Nouveau Mexique) où les rafales sont très fortes, m'a bien préparé pour GP Granby 2013!

La première page de résultats du Grand Prix Granby, 2013.  Ma moyenne était 44.04km/h sur 19km.

Mon équipe n'était pas à Granby avec moi, mais je suis fière de ramener une autre victoire pour NOW and Novartis for MS.  Ma prochaine course sera le Grand Prix de Gatineau, avec l'équipe Nationale du Canada.  Ensuite, je ferai le contre-la-montre du Grand Prix de Gatineau sous les couleurs de NOW and Novartis for MS.  Granby était une très belle occasion pour me préparer!

Podium du Grand Prix de Granby. (Photo: Marc-Wayne Addison)

Tour of the Gila 2013

Tour of the Gila: 5 day stage race at altitude in the New Mexico Desert.  It's windy, it's dry, and there's a heck of a lot less oxygen up there than what most riders are used to. 

The thin air makes it a lot harder to recover from every effort.  It also makes it quasi-impossible go hard enough to make my legs hurt.  My breathing goes into the red-zone before it can happen.  As if my body cannot get enough oxygen to the pistons to let them go hard enough to BURN.

I spent a total of a few hours in the K2 Altitude Room at Power Watts several days before leaving Montréal to race Joe Martin (a race at NORMAL altitude!) and Gila. 

Lex Albrecht in the K2 Altitude Room at PowerWatts Premier Stuido in Montréal.

The first day was relatively flat and downhill, until the final 10km where the road shot up.  And up, and up.  The finish line sits at just under 8000ft.  At the bottom of the hill Mara Abbott (Exergy 2016) attacked, and Claudia Haussler (Tibco) followed, only to "blow up" a few minutes later.  In the end, Katie Donovan, the star climber of our team, finished just barely behind 2nd place on the 1st stage of Gila.  Alison Powers finished in 4th.  I was 12th out of the 62 riders that day.

Stage 1 Podium: Katie Donovan in 3rd place.

1	Mara Abbott (Exergy TWENTY16)	3:19:48
2	Kristin McGrath (Exergy TWENTY16)	0:01:58
3	Kathryn Donovan (NOW and Novartis for MS)
4	Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS)	0:02:10
5	Andrea Dvorak (Exergy TWENTY16)	0:02:28
6	Claudia Häusler (Team TIBCO)
7	Anne Perry (DNA Cycling p/b Plan7)	0:03:01
8	Joelle Numainville (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies)	0:03:20
9	Jade Wilcoxson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies)	0:03:32
10	Scotti Wilborne (Leborne Development)	0:03:34
11	Joanne Kiesanowski (Team TIBCO)	0:04:20
12	Lex Albrecht (NOW and Novartis for MS)	0:04:24
13	Janel Holcomb (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies)	0:04:55
14	Rushlee Buchanan (Team TIBCO)	0:05:04
15	Amy Charity (Vanderkitten)	0:05:16

Stage 2 ("Inner Loop") began early in the morning at Fort Bayard.  The peloton split and regrouped several times.  In the end, Katie Donovan, Robin Farina and I were with Alison in the final group.  Robin Farina get into a non-general-classificaiton-threatening break just before the finish.  She just missed the podium, but that was okay.  Our priority was to either gain time on Mara Abbott for Alison Powers, or not lose any.  We didn't lose any, as Mara was in the same group as Katie, Alison and I.  We wouldn't have let her off the front.  Mission kind of accoplished.  (Janel Holcomb of Optum got away early and stayed away SOLO in the end, to win the race.  An impressive ride by Janel!  She blew the field away).

This is the result breakdown:
   (Solo Break: 1)
   (Small Break before the finish: 2-5)
   (Lead group: 6-19)
   (Other riders: 20-61)

1 Janel Holcomb (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 3:29:00 2 Shelley Olds (Team TIBCO) 0:00:48 3 Jade Wilcoxson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:00:49 4 Robin Farina (NOW and Novartis for MS) 0:00:56 5 Joanne Kiesanowski (Team TIBCO) 0:00:59 6 Lauren Hall (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:01:27 7 Claudia Häusler (Team TIBCO) 8 Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) 9 Chantal Blaak (Team TIBCO) 0:01:32 10 Scotti Wilborne (Leborne Development) 11 Rushlee Buchanan (Team TIBCO) 12 Kathryn Donovan (NOW and Novartis for MS) 13 Mara Abbott (Exergy TWENTY16) 14 Amy Charity (Vanderkitten) 15 Andrea Dvorak (Exergy TWENTY16) 16 Lex Albrecht (NOW and Novartis for MS)
The 26km Time Trial was on the 3rd Day.  It was cold and windy.  So cold I wore long fingered gloves and arm warmers.  (I have yet to receive my long sleeved skinsuit. For the moment I wear a borrowed one from my teammate Beth Newell).  I decided to go with a less aero-dynmaic front wheel at the last minute, in hopes that I would have a greater chance of not getting blown off my bike by a huge gust of wind.  In hindsight, I'm not sure if it was necessary. Warming up for the TT on our S-Works Amiras.  We raced on our S-Works SHIVs. I was baffled to find out that only 4 other riders had beaten my time by the end.  Race winner: ALISON POWERS, my teammate!  She gained time over the leader, Mara Abbott.  The race organizers had watermelon for the riders at the end of the race.
Alexis Ryan getting watermelon for her teammates after the Time Trial Delish!  Thanks Alexis, and thanks to the Tour of the Gila race organizers and volunteers
1 Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) 0:39:23.41 2 Janel Holcomb (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:00:10.92 3 Kristin McGrath (Exergy TWENTY16) 0:00:51.05 4 Mara Abbott (Exergy TWENTY16) 0:00:56.01 5 Lex Albrecht (NOW and Novartis for MS) 0:01:07.25 6 Shelley Olds (Team TIBCO) 0:01:24.70 7 Claudia Häusler (Team TIBCO) 0:01:31.09 8 Rushlee Buchanan (Team TIBCO) 0:01:35.69 9 Jade Wilcoxson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:01:44.37 10 Andrea Dvorak (Exergy TWENTY16) 0:01:59.16
The criterium in downtown Silver City was fun, and NOW and Novartis for MS raced a very agressive race.  We had coffee on the same day to celebrate our teammate's birthday (Olivia Dillon) The final day finished with a long climb, and Mara Abbott (Exergy) won all over again.  Katie Donovan and Alison Powers fought the entire climb to bring her back and did a great job.  Alison finished 2nd overall in the 2013 Tour of the Gila thanks to some REALLY spectacular riding and great teamwork from NOW and Novartis for MS. Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) 2nd place overall at the 2013 Tour of the Gila (Mara Abbott- Exergy 2016 in 1st, and Janel Holcomb - Optum in 3rd)  FINAL TOP 10 GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: 1 Mara Abbott (Exergy TWENTY16) 11:44:29 2 Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) 0:01:32 3 Janel Holcomb (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:02:42 4 Claudia Häusler (Team TIBCO) 0:03:03 5 Kristin McGrath (Exergy TWENTY16) 0:04:34 6 Andrea Dvorak (Exergy TWENTY16) 0:06:38 7 Jade Wilcoxson (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) 0:08:01 8 Rushlee Buchanan (Team TIBCO) 0:08:27 9 Lex Albrecht (NOW and Novartis for MS) 0:09:06 10 Kathryn Donovan (NOW and Novartis for MS) My next race: Gatineau Grand Prix in Gatineau, Québec.  I'll be racing with the Canadian National Team for this one!

Joe Martin is Finished, We're Rocking Gila

The Joe Martin Stage Race finished with Alison Powers from NOW and Novartis for MS 2nd place overall, just behind Claudia Haussler of Tibco.  Tibco raced an excellent race... we still wanted that win though.

Alison Powers 2nd and Lex Albrecht 5th overall in the Joe Martin Stage Race (Claudia Haussler from Tibco won)

Right after the conclusion of the final stage, we jumped in the Ford van and C-Max hatchback and started the long drive to Silver City New Mexico for the 5 stage Tour of the Gila.  A tough race at altitude.

We're in the middle of the race, but this morning is an extra special day.  It's my teammate's birthday.  Happy Birthday Olivia Dillon!  We went out for a fun coffeeshop ride this morning before our afternoon criterium.

Coffeeshop ride to flush out the pistons before the stage 4 afternoon criterium.  NOW and Novartis for MS enjoying  downtown Silver City New Mexico.

Two Stages left to go.  Alison Powers (NOW and Novartis for MS) is sitting in 2nd overall behind Mara Abbott of Exergy 2016.  Katie Donovan and I (NOW and Novartis for MS) are rounding out the top 10, but our whole team has our work cut out for us to get Alison to the top step.