CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

At this point in the year, seeing how my summer was going I was trying to build my fitness for the cyclocross season, I was looking towards the races for fitness and experience.

The road race provincials was the next race on the schedule, I was excited and a little eager to see how I would fare against the other juniors. The course was a hilly course, no real technical sections. I was nervous at the start hoping to be able to hold on. My legs felt great and the race was going smoothly I was able to keep up to the attacks and stay within the group. Unfortunately for me I apparently missed a small break of two going up the road, one of them being a junior. For the rest of the race it was everybody looking at each other not wanting to do any work. Then came my own down fall, for a moment I zoned out and was pedaling mindlessly. The next thing I know theres a break in the group and I was caught in the back group. I responded immediately, but it was too late as the front group had just crested the hill and the break was pushing a solid pace down the hill. There was no way for me to catch up to them on the descent; next thing I know Im in no mans land. I look back and there was a small group of three riders behind me trying to bridge up to the front group as well. The next 20min was the most painful TT ever, the front group was dangling in front of us, taunting us the whole way. We caught the group less than a km to go. At this point I could care less about results, I knew I had no sprint left in my leg, so I decided to jump... 300m from the line. As expected everyone jumped as well, in for a long painful sprint to the line. After the fact looking back at the race I was definitely a little disappointed, I felt as though if I hadnt missed the break, I would have been able to put down at least a half decent sprint with how my legs felt that day. Theres always next year Id guess. On a side note, why the hell do the ABA hand out provincial champion jerseys to every single category for roadies but not mountain bike or cross!?

I dont have a picture from the race but, heres a picture from a Fat Tire Tuesday.

Alright so speaking about mountain bike provincial championships, that was my next race. I was looking forward to this race; this was an awesome race last year. The course was awesome, especially with all of the mud pits making the double track sections almost the hardest. I was really looking at this race for an indication for my fitness for the next two races coming up. The course was pretty much exactly the same as last year which I didnt mind since it was already a fun course, with a nice balance between climbing and descending. With Alberta and its small junior racing community it was all familiar faces at the start line, so we decided that we were going to have a neutral start, no sprinting off the line, nothing aggressive. At first it was great; going into the race without warming up this neutral start was nice on my legs. The plan all fell apart when the category that started behind us caught up to us that was when the race really started. I overall felt better than a few weeks ago, but looking at my times to some of the other riders I could tell I wasnt where I wanted to be. Overall it was a clean race for me as I took the victory.

The next day was the marathon provincial championships, and I would be riding with the open men for this race. From past experiences with marathon races, I didnt have a real good track record. With marathon races, it was usually ended up with me either bonking really hard, or my hands giving up on me before anything, or a combination of both. I tried to pace myself as much as possible, but on the first lap with all of the people around me it was hard to try and keep my own pace, and by the second lap I was paying for the pace I had set earlier. In the end I finished in 8th place which I was satisfied about, but the biggest thing I got out of this race was how amazing the trails out in Bragg creek are. This marathon course took us much further away from the regular XC course and holy crap! I never knew Bragg creek had so many flow trails, or trails in general! Definitely would love to come out to just ride some time.