Tonight on Radio Canada the show Enquête will interview Geneviève Jeanson, former Olympian and professional cyclist on the doping scandals that plagued her shortened career.

Rumours in the local cycling world is that she will tell all tonight, confirming that not only was she doped, but that she was romantically involved with her coach, and that he abused her throughout their relationship.

Which, isn’t really news if you were involved in the Quebec cycling world during those years.

Nevertheless, should make for a very interesting hour.

The ‘high’light of my long weekend was a day spent up in the trees at one of the arbraska adventure parks. We went to the one in Rigaud about 45 minutes from Montreal. For those who don’t know about these parks, they’re basically forests rigged with obstacle courses suspended up to 50 feet off the ground. After a 10 minute initiation on how to use your carabiners and pulley, you’re ready to go swinging through the forest. Courses vary in difficulty and get progressively higher. For those who chicken out, there are escape ladders on some platforms. I had a great time flying over the tops of trees on the zip lines and it’s an amazing rush once you get over that moment of stepping off the platform. It’s a great way to connect with nature while testing your limits and I definitely hugged a few trees this weekend. Anybody in mildly good shape from kids to adults can take part. Although I felt really safe with my helmet and harness on, my only beef was that there didn’t seem to be enough guides around. It’s basically up to you to be careful about keeping yourself hooked securely to the cables with your carabiners at all times. Other than that, I ‘highly’ recommend this sport of treetop trekking.

I’ve been racing bikes now for over ten years. I like to think that I have a pretty good understanding of the racing scene here in Quebec. Two weekends ago, I attended a track race at the velodrome in Bromont, Quebec. At your average track race, we’ll usually attract 30-40 racers.

When I pulled up to the track, the parking lot was PACKED with cars. Outside there was a huge BBQ being prepared and people and bikes all over.

“They can’t possibly be here to race”, I thought.

Ben non! They were going to ride Le Mondial Cyclotour Some 250 bike riders riding through the Eastern Townships.

Man, I was jealous. We’d kill for a turn out like that in any of our races. I took a quick little tour around the parking lot in between my races and whoa, the bikes these people ride! Full carbon everything that costs in excess of $4000! There’s very few of us guys who race who would dare race on something that expensive. Wheels alone on some of these bikes were $2500+.

But Cyclosport in Quebec is very popular. More and more baby boomers are choosing biking over golf. A recent article in La Presse discussed how “business rides” are being formed whereby business people ride together and share business cards.. This was the kind of thing that was exclusive to golf only.

There are many, many clubs in Montreal the Montreal area whereby riders of all skills and levels get together on a weekly basis to ride.

One of the biggest events of the year is quickly approaching and I heard they will attract something like 800+ cyclists.

As André’s post mentionned, one of the highlights of this weekend’s F1 GP was Kubica’s crash. But really the whole weekend was amazing!

On Thursday I enjoyed the Open Pits day at the track. It’s an amazing chance to see mechanics work on the cars and get ready for the weekend. It’s also possible to see some of the drivers, for example we spotted Heidfeld, Sato, Albers and Sutil! On Friday it was the Free Practice day with two sessions. On Saturday the qualifications were exciting! Hamilton getting the pole made lots of fans happy. On Sunday the race! Full of excitement! Crashes, Safety Cars outing (the fourth of which was booed by the crowd in the grandstands), Black Flags for two drivers, etc. Really entertaining race.

F1 with Montreal city view, photo by Christelle.

Apart from the action on the track there was also lots of other activities! The Budweiser area with a concert stage and “babes”, the Honda World area where Asimo the robot came out to say hello…

Also I salute the work of everyone who make the race possible… For example the doctors who were amazing with Kubica, the police cadets working on the Cosmos bridge for the safety of the pedestrians, and so on.

See you all next year!

This Saturday marks the start of the Women’s Cycling World cup stop in Montreal.

The race on Saturday, which takes place on Mount Royal, along Camilien Houde, attracts thousands of spectators along the route. The race consists of 11 brutal laps of 10km. Each lap requires that the women climb Camilien Houde where it often hits a 13% grade.

The pack consists of professional female racers from all over the world.

If you go to watch, the race is essentially one of attrition. The leaders will generally stay near the front and lap after lap the pack will reduce in size as riders get dropped.

Then with 3 or so laps, attacks often occur. Those will be the riders who don’t fancy themselves in a uphill sprint. If the pack stays together by the end, expect the sprint to start just after the lookout.

On Wednesday at the corner of Dante and St-Laurent in Little Italy, these same women will race a 50km criterium. Criteriums or crits as they are normally called are much more spectator friendly.
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Cet après-midi, sur la rue Sainte-Catherine, j’ai quelqu’un conduire du côté droit de son véhicule. Alors que l’auto passait devant moi, je regardais très attentivement avec peur que j’aie des problèmes de vision, mais les autres conducteurs étaient bel et bien à gauche de leur voiture.

Montréal va bientôt devenir Londres… avec plus de soleil.

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Everyone is talking about the 40th anniversary of the opening of Habitat 67, which is known around the world. Just behind it in the St-Lawrence river, there is something that I imagine has been there somewhat longer. That’s the Montreal Wave. It also seems to be attracting attention around the world since I heard an interview on CBC with someone who moved to Montreal just for the surfing.

tornwordo wrote about it last year on this blog. Corran Addison has just written to me on this and mentions that there is a very large and developing scene here in Montreal. If you’d like to see some of the surfing action, here’s the link Corran sent me.

With this fantastic weather upon us, time to switch gears from moaning and complaining about the snow and to take advantage of every minute spring and summer offers.

For the most part, all the city’s bike paths are open. Not all the posts are up protecting the paths (I’m thinking of Rachel near St-Laurent) Not all the paths are clear.. lots of dust and dirt but you can ride them without much fuss.

For those who have started training outside, Camilien Houde still has quite a bit of run off from the unmelted snow. There’s lots of dirt and water and you need to be careful when coming down as it’s quite slippery. I suspect that by Monday most of this will be taken care of. There still seems to be quite a bit of snow off the road causing this run off though..

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is wide open and lots of people have started training on it. All the run off there should be gone.

The first bike race of the year is this weekend in Pont Rouge.

It’s a race open to all from Pee-Wee to Masters. If you’ve never raced it, it’s a false flat out, a very slight climb at the half way mark and a false flat all the way back.. That’s one lap.

If you have any amateur sporting events you’d like publicized, please drop me a line and I would be more then willing to post it weekly.

Now get out there and enjoy this weather.

Ouch. That hurt.

Those two penalties by Begin and Koivu really stung.

Those are the kinds of penalties you take early in the season and they cost you the match and well, it’s not the end of the world.

But to take those two penalites at the end of the 2nd and at the start of the 3rd on the final game of the year which decides if your team
makes the playoffs ?

Ouch. That hurts.
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