Dream Come True

I have raced six full seasons now and I finally got to do the race I had always heard about. Since my beginnings on the bike I had always heard amazing things about the level of competition as well as the awesome experience that came along with the Tour de Le Abitibi. The world renowned 17-18 Junior race is held in Northern Quebec every summer and features National Teams from all over the world as well as a few Regional Teams from the US.

The selection process started months in advance; the first criterion was whether or not a rider was attending a regional camp. Historically there were only a few camps that sent teams, but with the new process a rider could attend any camp and if selected would race on regional team from a different area. I was invited to join Tim Redus and his Texas based team for the week long race.

Now to the exciting part, the actual race; all of the racers and team support leave out of the school in Val D’Or for the week of racing. Each team got a classroom and foam mattresses to sleep on. This is easily one of the coolest things any cyclist could imagine, a school full of hundreds of cyclists! As far as the racing went it was also unlike any other. Our pack of over one hundred and twenty riders would take off from a variety of nearby towns and race back to Val D’Or, averaging 40+ kph for three to four hours, for six stages.

2009 was a fantastic year, a year during which I got to experience something that I will never forget. I hope to go back and race again at Abitibi and will hopefully improve upon my top ten results and climb up to that top step of the podium.