Sharke Coaching

The biggest day but with only one race it’s pretty easy to manage. We just have people standing in feedzones alllllll day. In Belgium this race still pulls the biggest crowds. The roads were packed all week for every race but this race was especially crazy in terms of fans. I’ll never forget driving past .ev the last lap on the Winjpers climb. I got to spend the day learning from the best - sitting shotgun with at the wheel with . Thanks for the frites handup from the feedzone . Meanwhile Canada’s best classics guys got the job done protecting to eventually finish 17th. A good preview towards his top10 at a week later.

Our sole U23 parisella represented so well on a course where team work made a huge difference. He positioned himself well and hid from the wind appropriately. For us, as staff, it doesn’t really matter how many people are racing. We still need people in the feedzones, a car with spares and a mechanic, people at the start and finish to take care of them. So, like, every other race we made a plan and supported Raf as best we could.

The Elite Women’s race was something different altogether. We had a legitimate shot at a good placing with and . Even with a small team of 3 we had full on classics superstars of Alison and Leah with Karo who always performs well in long hard championship style races. With a super tough course, hard racing and good positioning from our trio represented well for our small team. Alison sprinted to 6th while Karo finished the final race in her professional career in 31st. Big day for our staff with supporting many starts, finishes, feedzones on a few different race laps and transition sections while doing airport drops for the juniors. We all earned our glass of belgian beer at dinner.

Best day at the world championships! All emotions are at MAX. Nerves, excitement, disappointment. Zany tactics and crashes punctuate a race with the future champions of the sport racing to be noticed. No one knows how anyone will do when the riders in the peloton are a total unknown to each other. I got to drive for the Junior Men’s race and see the boys giving their all representing their country. 🇨🇦

The biggest days for staff are the TT days. With the course recon, pre race nutrition and all athletes doing their own thing on different timelines it makes for lots happening for the staff. The day went super well. No one missed their start, everyone got an adequate warm up and everyone knew the course coming down the ramp. I feel I did my job (smiley face emoji). We had some good rides on the flat, fast course. Could have used some more corners and climbs though…

World championships were crazy this year. Time trial was out on the coast and the RR was over in Leuven. The TT riders showed up a little earlier to do the course recons and get settled in. The RR riders showed up a little later and went directly to the RR hotel. Lots of good staff to handle all the riders and different schedules really helped. Surround yourself with good people and everything is easy.

The U23 women left the team base to go to Hautes-de-France to race La Choralis Fourmies Féminine UCI 1.2. Pretty awesome to watch the team come together over the time at the camp to ride as a unit at the race. Some hard, classics style racing with moves continuously going up the road with some strong teams was a perfect environment to work on racecraft and play bikes.

Having the U19 men, U19 Women and U23 women all under one roof at with all the associated staff led to an incredible atmosphere. All these young athletes learning how to exist as bike racers and people in Europe supported by incredible and experienced staff.

There’s always a bit of a comedown after a big event. I know this and was expecting it after the Olympics. Best way to get through it is a few days on the beach unplugged and unconnected. After being confined to only the hotel and the follow car for the whole time in Tokyo it was pretty nice to walk around outside and lay on the beach. Lots of adventures left in the season, this little vacation was needed to recharge and reset.

We had to be out of the country 48hrs after our last event as per the rules. So after the TT we packed everything up, returned vehicles, had a couple of beers and the next day we were on our way home. Just like that. No fanfare, no closing ceremonies, no spectating other events. Just finish racing and out. Our quarantine period expired so we were able to sneak out for one real Japanese meal before getting on the bus to the airport. Oh, it was also the longest birthday of my life as I traveled from Tokyo to Dubai to Barcelona to Girona. Thanks to everyone who made it a fun airport and plane birthday!

Just a couple of old buds hanging out at a bike race again. Just happens to be the Olympics.

Day eight. More training. Road bikes, TT bikes both bikes, everything. One nice thing about only being able to train on the official race routes is that we are getting to know them really well. Things are getting more set up every day. More flags, more banners, more mascots, etc. Pretty soon the training days will end and we'll start the racing. We're ready!

Day seven. One full week in. Canadian national team training all over the shop. Les Boyz arrive and ride. Supporting riders means parking in some cool spots. Old buds ride together and Mike and I switch positions for a bit.
Now every rider and all the staff are here and we can get to it.