Victoria is a pretty stellar place to come back to too regroup. Last Wednesday night was a local VCL (Victoria Cycling League) road race out in Latoria. It was hard as we road around a 2.5 km loop 18 or 20 times with numerous attacks by the roadies. By the last lap the pack of 25 had dwindled down to 7 of us, two of them being Red Truck Riders, Tyler Trace and Adam De vos, who I figured I likely wouldn’t beat in a sprint. So I attacked with half a lap to go and held it till about 70 ft from the finish line when the rest of the pack caught up. Close but not quite, another solid training ride none the less. 
Saturday was a hammerfest with Plaxton up on his trails. Sunday I woke up feeling like a train hit me, partly wrecked from riding with Plaxton and partly some sort of lingering sickness. Being sick at home is lame so I packed up a tent and drove up the west coast to Sombrio beach and set up camp for a couple days. Lazing around by the ocean and having beach fires is a much nicer option then feeling sub par at home and having your brain sucked dry by the tv or surfing the net. Mid afternoon I had a nap on a rock ledge just above the crashing waves. I woke up when a bit of splash hit my face from a large wave crashing below. The tied was coming in. I layed there watching as another larger wave crashed below and got me a little wetter, and then a layed there even longer as I saw a really large wave coming to shore. I was thinking “danm that looks really big, it looks like it might hit me.” And then I was drenched. My peaceful day was lifted upside down and shaken around for a while but it was nothing a fresh change of clothes couldnt fix. It was another West coast lesson for a boy from the mountains.
Wednesday evening was another VCL, this time out at Newton Heights. The course there is the devil. A wall of a climb and then a quick decent around the quite road to hit the wall again, times this by 18. I don’t think there is any better training then to hammer this with a large group of excited men in tights. Looking at it as a training race I went hard from the gun and 
established the winning break with Adam De vos. Unfortunetaly my mind is stronger the my legs right now and I blew up after 3 laps and then was on damage control the rest of the race as I drifted back to the pack and fought to stay in there. Adam was riding really well and deserved the win. I’ve felt weird lately and am not sure if there is a lingering bug in the system or what is going on but things are not firing at full steam right now as every hill seems to be a battle.
This year is starting out interesting as its the first time in 4 years I havn’t heald my fitness all winter. Taking 3 months off to work up in the oil patchs of Alberta provided a much needed mental relief from the bike. Some fitness was lost for sure but after a stellar 3 months of base miles feb-april and the start of some intensity training these past few weeks I am confident things will be online soon. Putting in a huge base is a test of patience as it takes alot longer to hit your peak but once you get going there seems to be no limit to where you end up. With the big goals, 3 and 4 months away it is shaping up to be a really good year.
Enough blabber, time to ride!