Recovery at the Green Mountain Stage Race

Québec Road Cycling Championships 2013

In 2010 I was the Criterium and Team Time Trial Champion of Québec.  In 2012 I was the Road Cycling Champion of Québec.  After training in Lac St. Jean, the Laurentides, New England, and at home in Montréal, I felt ready to try for a new title in 2013: Individual Time Trial Champion.

THE TIME TRIAL :

Photo: Robert Wilson.  Added with permission

The course was 22km along the coast of the St. Lawrence river near Rivière du Loup, QC.  It's so far east that the St. Lawrence actually smells like the ocean.  It's gorgeous too.  With a tail wind, the flat course was so fast I didn't appreciate the beauty of anything further than several meters from my Specialized S-Works SHIV though.  I tried to stay focused on my pacing, and go hard enough to keep the speed up, without emptying the tank too early and 'exploding' before the end. 

I'm proud to be the new Champion of Québec in Time Trialing, it's an honour to stand atop the podium with such strong girls!

Motel Recovery 101: After the road race, I recovered with a good Travel Roller session (I'd almost left my Travel Roller behind in Montréal!), microwaved a steak, drank a Rumble, and enjoyed the scenery at the waterfront.

Travel Roller, Rumble, and a to-be-microwaved steak!

Rivière du Loup port

ROAD RACE - alone with 5.5km to go

The road race the next day was different.  A time trial is an indvidual effort, all about pacing, position and approach.  There's quite a bit more strategy involved in road racing.  As the solo athlete from NOW and Novartis for MS, and the defender of the Championship title, I knew I would have to be savy.  I pre-drove the course in my beast-of-a-car to make sure I knew what to expect.

I told Audrey Lemieux, the race's announcer, that I would try to escape the peloton later in the race.  I followed some moves and tried my chance at creating a break earlier on but I didn't like how things played out.  In the final km of the first lap, I found the place where I wanted to attack the next time around: a long, slightly uphill grind with rough pavement, where the winds seemed to shift unexpectedly.

The race dynamics were perfect when we approaced that area a second time and I slipped from the pack 5.5km before the finish line, and pounded on my Time pedals.   I crossed an overpass, and still nobody was on my wheel. As I approached a roundabout, a car came onto the course. Talk about DANGEROUS!  The  commissaire tried to stop the car much too late, and suddenly were blocking my entry into the roundabout. I screamed at both of them to stay where they were as I sped through.  I didn't want to lose my gap, and I didn't want to get in my second accident with a car in the same week.

#doored in #montreal today on my @iamspecialized #shiv. Weird riding home like this... #couldhavebeenworse pic.twitter.com/cAmVguscle
— Lex Albrecht (@Lex_Albrecht) August 21, 2013

I ignored the pain in my legs in the final km, especially up the last kicker where I promised myself I would drill it as hard as I could.  I was convinced after cresting that hill, my lead would hold and I would be safe.  I get a little loopy sometimes when I go really hard though; I became a bit paranoid that the girls would come back on me.  I looked behind a zillion times, and threw in some last efforts.  The gap was there.  Everything was fine.  I sat up.  I put my arms in the air in the final metres.  Crossing the finish line and I brought back another victory for NOW and Novartis for MS, successfully defending my title.

On the podium with my Nuheat bottle, and my fresh Champion of Québec jersey

What a weekend!

Volume, Technique, Intensity, Recovery.

Since my last big racing block with NOW and Novartis for MS out West (B.C. Canada, and Bend, OR)  I'm happy to be home in Montréal for a few weeks to focus on hitting some good training days HARD.  I'll be training at the PowerWatts Studio in Montréal, all over the province of Québec, and even in New England, USA.

VOLUME
I spent a weekend on the Véloroute des Bleuets in Lac-St. Jean for some volume riding.  Steady pace, long rides.  The bike route goes around the Lake, covering over 200km with perfect pavement and the scenery is excellent.  Here are a few articles on my visit in the local papers:
En amour avec la région - Roby St. Gélais (Journal de Québec)

Lex Albrecht s'entraîne chez nous - Serge Tremblay (L'étoile du Lac)
I took the time to stop and pick blueberries after my final ride in Lac St. Jean, a fruit that the area is famous for.  I had a tough time deciding what I was going to do with them.  I ended up creating...these:


TECHNIQUE
Kindgom Trails in East Burke, VT is my absolute favorite mountain bike destination.  I took my 29" double suspension trail machine and hammered through the trees for 5 hours.  Pure bliss!  What a great way to work on bike handling skills.

INTENSITY
Le Parc de la Mauricie the ultimate place to ride in Québec, in my opinion.  I drilled through the Parc with the highest intensity I've ever held before (confirmed by my Quarq Powermeter) with a great training partner and friend.  YEOWCH.

RECOVERY
You can't go hard if you're not well recovered from the last hard workout.  I purchased the Indie Coffee Passport in Montréal this summer for my coffeshop rides.  It's the perfect way to see the city, discover new coffee shops, and a fun way to create a destination for a recovery ride.  Somtimes...I go to two in a row.  Want to know my favorites?  I usually share on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Lex_Albrecht

World Championships

I'm proud to be one of 10 Canadian cyclists selected by Cycling Canada to be eligible to represent Canada at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Toscana, Italy.  Cycling Canada's final selection will be made the second week of September, 2013, just over two weeks before the event.

Representing Canada at the World Championships is one the most important targets on my calendar each season.  Following a short break, I'll be working on building up my fitness following the expertise of my coach (from PowerWatts Premier Studio in Montréal) as the Championship date approaches.

Thanks to my team: NOW and Novartis for MS, and our sponsors including Specialized, NOW Bars, Ford, CytoSport, TIME Pedals, Champion Systems, SRAM, as well as Nuheat Industries, Global Relay's Bridge the Gap Fund and PowerWatts.   
Find out more about each one by clicking on their logo on the righthand side of this website.

Substituting Herring with PB&J

It's no secret that I love seafood.  One of my favorite and most affordable types is herring.  Herring.  Not heron, like the bird.  Not red herring like the literary term.

Pickled herring is my favorite.  Smoked herring from a can is also up high on my list , mainly for convenience reasons.  If I ever see the day that Nordsee (a German seafood fast-food chain) comes to North America, I'll start believing in the tooth fairy, unicorns, and every other sort of beautiful magic that I've ever second-guessed in my life.

Lex Albrecht at Nordsee with a pickled herring sandwich, in Munich, Germany

Years ago, after eating smoked herring a little too close to race-time on a hot day and ralphing it up all over my frame and waterbottle, I made myself a new rule: No herring before racing or training.  Post ride food only.  "Discipline makes things easier...you've got to organize your life" as goes a good hip-hop song from my childhood.

So I eat different food before and during races.  My newest and greatest find is this: Peanut Butter and Jelly NOW A3 Bar.

I fueled my most recent racing block at B.C. Superweek and Cascade Cycling Classic with these bars.  I ate them before, during and after the races.  I've never come across a bar that is substantial enough, yet easy enough to swallow and digest to suit these three circumstances.

There are a zillion and a half bars out there, and this is my latest discovery.  You've got to find the food that works for you when you train and race, and I've found a great match for myself with the A3 bar.

I have yet to find them in Canada, but they're available online and in the USA.  I'm going to be placing a big order to make sure I have enough to last me here at home!

En réponse à la crise à Lac-Mégantic

En réponse à la crise à Lac-Mégantic, Cyclisme Canada a implanté un fonds de secours d'urgence pour contribuer à la reconstruction du centre-ville qui a été l'hôte de nos championnats canadiens lors des deux dernières années.

Greg Mathieu, chef de la direction de Cyclisme Canada, a déclaré : ¨Cyclisme Canada contribuera et égalera au premier 5000 $ de don en provenance de la communauté cycliste ¨. La somme de 3000 $ a été récoltée à ce jour par la communauté cycliste.

Accueillant de nombreux événements importants, la région de Lac-Mégantic a toujours été un ami des courses de vélo.

Étant présentement en course dans la région de Vancouver dans le cadre de ¨BC Superweek ¨ je vais remettre la totalité de ma bourse récoltée à l’épreuve d’UBC Grand Prix à cette cause. C’est très important pour moi de contribuer à ma façon à cette tragédie.

Pour voir comment vous pouvez faire un don via Cyclisme Canada, cliquez ICI.

Strong Start to B.C. Superweek

There's nothing much that can compare to the feeling of throwing your hands up after a hard earned victory.  Thanks to my teammates and sponsors. Photo credit: Oran Kelly

The first of 8 events at B.C. Superweek, which is amongst Canada's most important cycling events was the MK Tour de Delta Criterium.

A two person breakaway (including my NOW and Novartis for MS teammate Devon Gorrey) was formed after a strong early portion of the race.  I followed a rider (Denise Ramsden, OPTUM) who jumped out of peloton and bridged up to the break.  Out of the 4 rider breakaway, I was able to test my legs for prime sprints, successfully winning two out of two attempts.

At one point when the break was threatened to be swallowed back into the chasing peloton, I attacked, and my three breakaway companions followed. That effort made the break survive, but it is truly thanks to Devon who rode the front like a diesel engine for the final laps that I could save my matches and be the freshest rider for the final sprint.  I was more than happy to be able to deliver the goods and bring back the victory for NOW and Novartis for MS, especially after such a strong team effort.

Robin Farina and Olivia Dillon were 1st and 2nd in the second stage of the Tour de Delta in the Ladner criterium, and Robin returned to the podium at the ultimate stage, in 3rd place.  Congratulations to Elle Anderson (Vanderkitten) for winning the general classification of the Tour de Delta.

Lex Albrecht in the Tour de Delta leader's jersey after the stage 1 victory.