South Carolina

Even though cycling for many is considered a summer sport, a racers season starts much earlier. It is extremely important to do base miles, from which the rest of your seasons training are based of off. Think of it as building a house; first you must build the foundation, then you can worry about the walls and roof. Due to the cold nature of doing base, many opt. for riding indoors, however one can only ride for so long on rollers or a trainer in one's basement. There comes a point where you just need to get outside! When you reach this point of near desperation for warmer temps, and sunny sky's, many racers flock South to places such as Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, to name a few. This year, I was lucky enough to head to South Carolina with Team Ontario for 10 days of fun in the sun. We where located just South of the boarder of North and South Carolina, tucked into a narrow valley, which meant either climbing or descending as soon as you rolled out of camp. As long as you have some hours already, lots of climbing during your base hours does wonders for your performance, especially when trying to build your VO2. Some major climbs we did included Ceasers Head, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Becky Mountain, and over the Easter Continental Divide. Over the 10 days I enjoyed riding just under 35 hours with both new and old friends, and was able to get to know some of my team mates better.

The season is shaping up to be a good one!



Blue Ridge Parkway



150km Ride on Last Day



Top of the Blue Ridge Parkway



Money Makes the Wheels Go Round

Riding a bike can be an expensive endeavour. Racing your bike is even more, however racing your bike all Internationally, now that blows a big hole in the bank. So as I continue to move forward and progress through the cycling ranks, money, quite literally always my wheels to go round.

So for 2011, I am very please to be working again with Southland Insurance who are generously providing me with personal financial support that will allow me to further my training racing performance. Please check out the Southland Insurance website by clicking on the link on this post, or on the Southland logo on the side bar of my blog.

Thanks Southland!

Cheers,

Ben

Just a few pics of the new bike. Doing some fine tuning on it before I head South. 4 more days....

                

New Whip

Being a serious snob when it comes to bikes, I'm am please to report that my new team bike, a Giant TCR Advanced Sl 3 is a keeper. Sweet lookin' and fast, I can't wait to get some serious miles on this rig.

More to come.

South Carolina in 11 days!