After racing in North Carolina at the Winston-Salem Classic with TWENTY16 (successfully scoring first UCI points of the season on the road), I headed to Colorado Springs to train.  The first days were low-intensity on the bike, but the training didn't finish at the end of the ride...

Hotel Laundry Room

I have a special sense called Gym-Radar.  I developed it while I was in highschool.  It means I can sense where the nearest gym is in the area.  I'm kind of kidding, but kind of not. I found a gym hours after arriving at the hotel I'm living at in Los Angeles (during the Canadian National Team's track camp).
I ride my bike there every morning.  But it was pouring today...so I readjusted my strategy.  I took over the hotel laundry room.  Perfect!  There was a even a table to use with my Travel Roller so I could get right into some hard-to-reach spots that I can't get at easily on the floor.  When I needed a mirror, I looked at my reflection in the vending machine

Morning myofascial release in the hotel laundry room.

Good thing nobody had to do their laundry this morning.

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!

Ladies Night : Cycle Néron

Merci à toutes celles qui sont venues à la soirée "Ladies Night" chez Cycle Néron à Boucherville hier soir (10, avril 2013)  Ca m'a fait plaisir de partager un peu sur ce que je fais comme cycliste professionnelle au sein de l'équipe NOW and Novartis for MS, ainsi que quelques conseils indéspensables que j'ai appris au fil des dernières années qui m'ont aidé à être une meilleure cycliste. 

Je vous souhaite une superbe saison, et au plaisir de vous voir sur la route cet été (avec mon Specialized S-Works Amira, bien sûr!).

Travel Roller

CLICK THE PHOTO ABOVE, CHECK THE TRAVEL ROLLER OUT!

Lex Albrecht : Proud owner of the coolest stretching (or myofascial release system) in the world. 

Seriously (and I was above) my hips and IT bands are notoriously tight.  I kind of left it up to our team soigneurs to keep me nimble.  But 30min massages after races wasn't enough.  My physio told me I needed to start being a little more proactive and taking care of them on my own. 

Keeping my hips and IT bands flexible is going to increase my range of motion and make my pedal stroke stronger and more efficent.  The Travel Roller is coming EVERYWHERE with me this season.

Oh. Yeah.

If you want to hook yourself up with one of these puppies, check out the Travel Roller website by clicking their logo in the righthand column of this page.  LET'S ROLL!

Check them out by clicking on the link below: