(written by Anthony of HC Alpine)
The alarm bells all rang simultaneously. One by one the clients at a small Inn in Yoho National Park began to wake up. It wasn’t the usual campers or hikers getting up for their daily trek, but four professional cyclists from different teams all over the world. What did they have in common? A love for the sport of cycling.
Fenton Chancey of HC Alpine, along with best mate Damon Maze from Canuck Racing, had sent out a few invitations to some solid mid division climbers to join them in a mountain/altitude training camp in the Canadian Rockies - located in Yoho National Park, British Columbia. It was quite a strong group. Kazuaki Karashima of Godzilla, a 32 year old veteran of the sport with a knack for long steep climbs had readily accepted the invitation, having spent most of his racing career in the French Alps. Luckily for him the small buffet was serving his favorite pre-ride meal of buttered croissant and hot chocolate, something he has grown very accustomed to. Kazuaki ate quickly and began his stretches, before most of the other boys had even arrived at the breakfast table.
One of these riders was Samuel Estradas of Redop. Once touted as a promising Portuguese climber, Estradas has done well in the lower divisions but management is unsure of his future potential. The name Estradas literally means Roads, and he hit the roads at a young age around his hometown, Monchique, in the Algarve (south of Portugal). This is the place he first began to work on his climbing ability. The beach is only located about 10km from his house; when not cycling Samuel could be found playing volleyball on the beach with the foreign girls.
The two Canucks, Chancey and Maze, were born in Toronto and spent most of their childhood there until cycling had become a very serious prospect for their future careers. It was then that both families moved to Whistler, British Columbia to give the boys a better chance at | | making it big. There is only one meal to have before a big ride in Canada, and that is bacon and eggs with toast or pancakes and a healthy dose of maple syrup! “A 2500 calorie meal would be burned on the first ascent,” joked Maze.
Once breakfast was finished the boys headed out. It was a crisp morning, Autumn was only a few weeks away and Kazuaki groaned about his right knee, which could easily determine what the weather was going to be like that afternoon. Rain was the forecast so they all decided on an 80k route with 3 stiff climbs. Chancey, quite the talker, took the role of British Columbia tour guide, ” The Rockies are different from the Alps. It’s more rugged here, and spacious. In the Alps you could make a descent and immediately begin another climb of a completely different mountain. The Mountains here are more split apart and there are definitely less turns on descents. A rider with more guts and less turning technique could easily hit 100-130km/h for quite long stretches. Wildlife here is also in abundance due to the lack of human interaction - compared to Europe anyway. You can go hours without seeing anybody, but run into several goats, cougars, or even bears!” Estradas immediately hoped that his uphill sprint was greater than at least one of his other training partners - so he wouldn’t have to outsprint the bear, just one of the other riders.
The ride was hard, but they went at a steady pace. No team car followed them this time, as this was a ride to enjoy the weather and the scenery. There would be lots of racing to come as the OCM season was just over half way through. They completed the route in about 3 hours, stopping only briefly for a quick power-gel snack.
At the end of the ride, personal phone numbers were exchanged as well as firm handshakes; Karashima was headed to a spa down in Vancouver, while Estradas was flying back home for a few days on the beach before his next big race. This was the first of their training rides, and definitely not the last.
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