Nik Vogler

After a final whirlwind week in Victoria, I am here in the East and am happy to say that I am getting settled into the calendar that the team has set up for us. Two days after my arrival into Montreal, our press conference was held at the SPECIALIZED facility in Montreal. This little event included all of our sponsors and served as our official introduction to the cycling world. Here is a small taste of SPECIALIZED/MAZDA/SGC

A SAMPLE OF WHAT WE'RE CURRENTLY RIDING

"THE DIRECTORS" Marc-Wayne Addison, Michael Des Ilets,Gerard Penarroya and Frederic Perman

ALL THE LADIES OF THE TEAM + OUR MASSAGE THERAPIST

THE TEAM PRESENTATION

THE TEAM + SPONSORS

CARS, BIKES AND GIRLS

From Left to Right the girls and directors of the team: Alizee Brien, Anne-Marie Morin, Allison Beveridge, Me, Marc-Wayne Addison, Gerard Penarroya, Virginie Gauthier, Veronique Drapeau, (our massage therapist Veronique McCrae) Karlee Gendron.

Well Walla Walla had a great ending. I ended up 5th in the final road race which was a positive indicator to me since it means I’ve finally figured out how to finish. Once the weekend was done I ended up 8th in the final GC it was a 46 sec gap which wasn’t too bad.

I’m just in Vancouver now and am about to head out for a short ride. I’ll be back in Victoria later on tonight and will be racing tomorrow at one of the local races there.

xoxo

More on the PCC website

Good Morning

I can’t say that I have ever finished in the top ten in a TT ever! I’m pretty happy about that Ha ha ha… The final stage of the Tour of Walla Walla is today with the Kellogg Hollow Road Race. So I guess we’ll see what happens. On a side note, the downtown of Walla Walla is a ridiculously cute little place, a few quaint little eateries scattered here and there and quite enjoyable if you actually have a few moments to take in the sights.

Omg for the first time in my very short cycling career I was not hanging off the back of the crit NOR was I finishing at the very end. I’m actually pretty excited with my 13th place finish ha ha ha. Its the small things …

Oh man! its been a mad whirlwind of activity. Racing, training and my brain is on overload with preparations for moving to the East in just a week and a half of so.

I am currently racing the Tour of Walla Walla. And am I ever happy to say its the first time my legs have seen the sun all year. What a nice change to race in the warmth! I left Victoria on Thursday and caught a ride down here to Walla Walla with some friends that I raced with last year on the Westwood team. We arrived with just enough time yesterday to suit up and get our bike race on *lol. A nice gentle way to ease into the weekend. I managed to pull off a second place finish in an uphill sprint which was a nice surprise…So far today I’ve raced a crit and am now waiting for a tt start. Now, I’m definitely no crit racer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to say I’m quite happy with how things panned out for me this morning there was no dangling off the back today

Its Wednesday today and I’m finally beginning to feel recovered from this past weekend. And since I like to burn the candle at both ends with a blow torch, i managed to sandwich two back to back races into my weekend along with work! I headed over to Vancouver on Friday after work and joined some of the ladies from my first cycling team (Westwood) for dinner at The Reef (the plantain chips are killer!) On Saturday I lined up for an 86k race out in Mission that was part of the Spring Series. The weather was typical for Spring Series; RAIN, a lot of rain. It was a good, challenging day which was exacerbated by the rain and cold. I ended up racing with the B men and was really happy to cross the line and finish as several people had dropped out. A quick trip back on the Ferry and home in time to stuff my cycling shoes with newspaper in order to catch the local VCL race here on the island.

Needless to say it was a very fast weekend .

I’m headed back to Vancouver tomorrow afternoon for some family time and racing.

xoxo

N

5 days of hard riding and a total of 25 hours. I am sitting in bed and resting my legs today On Saturday we did roughly 120km and spent 6.5 hours in the saddle. It was a fantastic day of riding, the weather was perfectly sunny as we rode out from Victoria through the Highlands, and up to Shawnigan Lake. We stopped for a quick coffee and then split into two groups. I swear I nearly lost my breakfast during the pace line efforts in attempt to catch the group that started ahead of us. We did one lap around Shawnigan Lake and climbed out and up Goldstream Heights which is a second climb that is decently long climb with a few steep sections. Suffice it to say that once I arrived at home I could not get off the couch! lol.

For our final day of camp we did two TT’s. Whatever was left in the gas tank was spent on the first tt because by the time I got to Land’s End (out by the Ferry Terminal) there was absolutely nothing left in my legs. In fact I think I probably could have gone faster if I had picked up my bike and carried it . At the end of today’s ride, those of us that have done all the camps agreed that this was by far the hardest of them all. Personally speaking, I leave this camp feeling absolutely exhausted but I am very happy with my level of fitness and am very excited to begin racing with my new team Specialized/Mazda/SGC

XOXO

N

Another epic day for the books!

5 hours and some really quality climbs…My already high metabolism appears to be going through the roof.

xoxo

N

A group of 7 of us gathered this morning at ten under the glorious blue sky and sunshine, what a treat. Normally we begin these camps with two TTt’s but today, due to the frosty patches that were still under the shade we headed up towards Land’s End. After completing a large loop which eventually found us back in the downtown section of Victoria, we head down along the waterfront. A pretty strong head wind along the water today but the color of the ocean was something else! Hard to get this kind of riding anywhere else in Canada. At about the half way point through our ride, we did some steady climbing efforts at threshold and by the time I rolled back in the door at home it was a five hour day. A great way to start a camp!

More tomorrow

xoxo

N

Tomorrow is the first day of the last training camp that I will participate in, in preparation for the upcoming season. The PCC training camps are excellent preparation and I’m excited as the weather promises to be great for the remainder of the week.

xoxo

N

PS- if you have not taken a look at my previous post, TAKE A LOOK!!!