Dream day at CX Nationals

“What a f**ked up sport you crazy people participate in. But man is it cool and energizing to watch!! It gave me chills.”  

That’s how my uncle, who has never seen a bike race before, described the event. And I feel like it sums up the weekend perfectly. 

This year, Cross Nationals were held in Sherbrooke, QC which is about a 2h drive from where I live. That meant that my family was there along with a couple of good friends, to watch the race and cheer. On race day, the conditions were cold and wet so it made the already hard course even more exciting. The atmosphere at the race was electric. It was cool to see so many people conquering the rain and cold to come out and cheer.  

Here is a little recap of how it went. 

On Friday, we went to check out the course and it was already a little bit muddy. When we woke up in the morning of the race, there was snow on the ground and the thermometer read around 0C. It promised to be an exciting day. We had breakfast, prepared our stuff and headed to the venue early so I could check out the course a few times before the start. Here’s a detailed and quick recap of how it unfolded… 

• Meet up with parents at venue. Build tent. 
• Tiny warm up on rollers. 1st pre-ride
• David washes bike.  
• Try to stay warm in car. Listen to Beyonce. David wrenches bike.
• Pre-ride with Ruby West. We exchange advice. I wash out a couple of times. We laugh. “Better crash now than later” 
• It’s muddy and hard. Freaking awesome. 
• Eat about a million Clif Bloks.
• Get changed in my dad’s heated car. "Sorry environment" (I turned on the car for a few minutes to stay warm). 
• David washes bike again.
• David puts embrocation on my legs (I know, what a guy.) 
• I touch my legs. 
• Put on eye contacts. 

Wait a minute…. Put embrocation on and THEN put eye contacts? 

• AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! OUCH F*&?(?E+&?E*##U*&&*??%9869!!!!!! 
• My eyes burn and cry for 5 minutes. 
• Listen to Beyonce until my eyes stop crying and finish dressing up for race. 
• Warm up on rollers under tent with Ruby West while watching Peter Disera rip appart the U23 men’s field.
• “6 inches, she walked in the club like no body’s business…” Beyonce is getting me pumped for the race. 
• Roll to the start line. 
• Mical Dyck gets the hole shot. 
• She slides a tiny bit. I see opening and get in front of her and Christel. 
• Get tiny gap. Slide out in off camber. “It’s slippery”. 
• Run.
• Sandra chases me. “Oh merde! Stay calm.” 
• Gap increases. “Don’t mess it up Magh. Focus” 
• Basically, the whole race goes like this: Run. Ride hard when I can. Go slow when it’s slippery. Run again. Slide out, “iiihhhhhhhh" save it. Slide out on other side “oooohhhhhh", save it ”phew”. Crash. "good thing I practiced jumping on bike on both sides”. Grind through mud.  "Screw it, let’s just run for a little bit." Etc…. 
• See the finish line. “WTF” 
• ARRRRGGGGHHHAHAHDGSDGSFUDSFKSDGFUDSF!!!! CAN’T BELIVE IT. Throw my hands up. Smile, yell, cry for 2 seconds. 
• Hug family, Dave and friends. Mommy is crying. Feels amazing to embrace and celebrate with my family. 
• Not too sure of my emotions.
• I’m National Champion. Feels so good. 
• Kind of flabbergasted for a few hours. 

1 hour later, my really good friend and training partner Jeremy Martin won the men’s title. And for the second time that day (3rd time if we count the embro-in-the-eye situation), I cried and lost my sh*t. 

The best part about the whole weekend was being able to share this moment with people I love. The fact that my friend Jeremy won the men’s title made the day that much sweeter. Both of us, as well as our coach David, were overwhelmed by the love and support we received. It was pretty amazing and very touching to see how people were genuinely happy for us. That evening, we went out with pretty much everyone who raced that day, and celebrating with friends (opponents in the race, but friends outside the tape) reminded me one of the reasons why I love the sport so much; there is an immensely strong camaraderie between people! Our family also joined us and everyone had a good time.

All in all, I am super happy and proud that I achieved that big goal (and dream) of mine. But I think the emotion I feel the most is gratefulness. That win was a team win in so many ways. If I could, I’d split that jersey and share it with the amazing support crew that surrounds me.

The Clif Pro team and all our sponsors, my teammates who have been helping me, advising me, mentoring me and supporting me for the last 3 years, my family, my friends, my boyfriend and coach David who are by my side every single day, Beyonce for the pre-race good vibes and so many other people. I’ve had a lot of disappointments, but you guys were always by my side and helped me to keep my head up, keep working hard & well and keep believing, and it all worked out this weekend. Somehow, all the disappointments and hard work make that success taste just a little better. THANK YOU. 

Winning Nationals is something I have been dreaming of for a long time. It will be an honour to wear the maple leaf for the next year.  

Thank you again to all who made it possible. 

I'm off to wash the bikes with David now. As awesome as it is, at the end of the day, it's only a bike race and life must go on!  :) 

Cheers. Oh, and CXFever. 

Maghalie

**Note: The bullet point style of writing is an idea I borrowed from my friend Dani Mariea. Make sure you check her blog if you want to laugh! 
 

Me, Ruby and Beyonce under PowerwattsNord tent. 

Start. Tongue out, guns out. Is that the saying? Photo: Jean-Frédéric Grandmont

"just keep moving" Photo: Jean-Frédéric Grandmont

"Focus and don't mess up". Photo: Jean-Frédéric Grandmont 

Photo from: Pasquale Stalteri

I love these guys. So proud of them. Best day ever. 

Rej is happy. Thank you dad (mom was also happy, but she was crying so she isn't on the pic). 

Stole that pic from Pedal magazine. I think Pasquale Stalteri took it. Thank you Uncle Dan and tante Suzanne. xx

Cincy CX

Last weekend was the Continental Championships in Cincinnati. It is always one of my favorite weekend of racing, because the courses are super fun and everyone shows up. It was really great to spend time with the team again and to see everyone at the race. It had been a while since I had not been racing to one of these big events, so it felt really good to be back and feel the good vibe of 'cross races. 

Here's a quick description of how the weekend went. I tried to give as much details as possible with the least words I could.

Format of blog post was inspired by my friend Dani Mariea. Pictures are from Luke Batten, Waldek or Katerina. 

 

Friday

Wake up at 4h AM and David drives me to the airport. Eat overnight oatmeal in the Air Canada lounge and High 5 myself for preparing a breakfast! On the plane to Chicago: read, eat, sleep, land. Get on the plane to Cincinnati: Meet and chat with a nun (interesting lifestyle!), read, sleep, land. 

Meet Waldek at the airport and arrive to the venue. Build up bikes while grooving to Myron's jam at the Clif Bar tent. Pre-ride at Devou Park. Hang out sesh on the course with the Ten Speed Heroes. So fun, can't sop smiling. Quick shower. Go to restaurant for Waldek's birthday. He orders appetizers (yes, he had calamaris). We order rest of meal. All the strangers at the restaurant want to sign his Bday card. Quick stop at Whole Foods for tomorrow's lunch. Bed.

Saturday

Me and Hannah have breakfast in the hotel. They have waffles, I am happy. Pack bags. Go to race site. Eat sandwich and pin numbers on. Pre-ride by myself. Hannah races at 12h50. She races really well and finishes 3rd. Everyone is happy- woot woot! Pre-ride with Katerina: Conclusions - 1. She is smart. 2. No more pre-rides, it is HOT! So grateful for Katerina's help. Studying of Junior and U23 men's race start.

Chris preps bikes. 18.5 psi. Drink slushy water at the start to cool myself down (Thank you Katka!). Based on early races and beginning of season studies, I purposely choose to stage behind Courtenay McFadden...

• She delivers and gets the hole shot = opening for me to move up from second row. Think to myself: "Nice work Courtenay!"
• Someone crashes. Tiny chaos... "Just relax and go around". 
• Katie is at the front... "Better get going, this is going to stick. Georgia would definitely go." 
• Opening to pass 3 girls before off camber: Take advantage of it. Bridge to Katie.  
• On Katie's wheel: "Hmm, she's fast." 
• After 3 laps... "It's really hot and I don't feel good at all. Want to stay 2nd, don't want to end up at hospital again". 
• Figure out a strategy in my mind. Confirm it with Katerina on the side of the course: "Stay calm, ride technically well, keep momentum, stop "pushing too hard". 
• Slip on a corner, Crystal passes me, I end up 3rd. PanAm Champs podium - cool. 
• Fun race, happy/grateful to be back racing and happy to share it with my teammates! 

Podium. We got chamy cream! Give my flowers to Waldek. Cool down for me. Team is tearing up the tents. Call David to share excitement. Cheer the guys race. Jérémy has a mechanical (Crap!) but he is riding so well and even bunny hops the barriers. So proud of him! Leave the venue and stop to a "very fancy asian restaurant". Katerina and I take a picture under a gigantic horse statue...We are at P.F Changs. Waldek orders appetizers. HE has calamaris. Waiter is horrible: Hannah almost dies and he blows Waldek's surprise birthday cake. Go to new hotel. Laundry. Waldek is awesome and gives me a massage. ZZZZzzzzzzzzz 

Sunday

Wake up and Katka is still sleeping. Try to be quiet, get downstairs to eat breakfast. Team goes to breakfast. Can't resist, I eat 1 pumpkin pancake. Pack bags, quick stretch, go to Kings Park. Pre-ride with Hannah and Katka. Pre-ride again with Hannah, Katka and Waldek. It's hot. Hang out in my sports bra and bag of ice on my head...Not classy, but it's hot. Pre-ride again. Chill out, prepare, mess around, wait for 3:20 O'Clock. Warm up. IT'S HOT...I stress out about the heat, talk about my worries to Waldek. We put iced water bottles on my bikes. I stop panicking. 

• Good start. Make front group selection. 
• Someone messes up on the little steep hill. I'm behind Katka. We all mess up on that lil steep hill. 
  • Spectator yells: "YOUR TEAMMATE DID THAT TO YOU". I laugh. 
  • First 2 girls get a gap after the steep hill. Not laughing anymore. 
  • Katka + Katie go away. Not able to bridge back.
  • Trying to be tactically smart for the rest of the race. 
  • Ellen Noble ends up beating me on that same little steep hill. 
  • Katerina wins! Wooo!! 
  • I finish 4th. Oh well. Lost podium, still happy! 

Post race stories with the Ten Speed Heroes. Cool down with Hannah and Katka. Call David to share excitement. Pack bikes, watch men's race. Drive to hotel. Go to Mexican restaurant. Have a sip of Margarita, already feel drunk. No more margarita. Katka gets massage, I hang out with her and Waldek. Can't sleep, too excited. 

Monday: 

Wake up at 5AM and fly home. Share excitement & good meal with Dave and family! 

Conclusions of the weekend: What a fun weekend that was! Excited for Nationals this weekend. I love my teammates. I love the 'cross scene. I love my family. CX Fever is so high. 

Pizza on the BBQ

David and I have been travelling in the van for the past few weeks. We travelled from one race to the next with the occasional stop at a hotel or a friend's house to settle down, re-arrange the van, wash our clothes, etc. 

It has been pretty fun to visit some of the places we had heard so much about, but that we never had time to visit. We got to train with different people and ride some new roads and trails. Our little adventure also allowed us to visit some friends we hadn't seen since I started racing more seriously and that was great. 

At first, I wasn't sure how I would react to that kind of living, but the training has been going really well and it has been incredibly energizing to spend so much time outside and share some quality time with the people we love but don't get to see very often. 

One thing we have been doing a lot during our time on the road was tasting the deliciousness that each region had to offer. Of course, that led to many picnics and a lot of cooking on our new portable BBQ (thanks to Jérémy and Maëlle for the gift!)!

Without further ado, here's what has been one of our favorite things to do on the BBQ. It has also been a personal favorite as a night-before-the-race meal in the past month. The recipe and the technique come from the genius mind of my friend Georgia, but I couldn't help myself from sharing with you guys, because it is amazing....Pizza on the BBQ!! 

pizza on the BBQ

Ingredients (for about 2-3 small pizzas)
For the dough:
- 1 cup luke warm water
- Half a pack of instant rise yeast
- 1 tbsp spoon honey
- 1 tbsp of olive oil (This is optional but it will help to "brown" the crust in the cooking process)

• Combine water, honey and oil in a bowl an sprinkle yeast on top. Let it sit until it becomes foamy. 

- 1.5 Cup flour (Probably a little bit more, but start with that and adjust if needed)
- 1 tsp salt

1. In another (and bigger) bowl, mix the flour and salt. 
2. Once the wet mixture is ready, pour it over the flour mixture.
3. Knead the dough with your hands for a good 5 minutes. You will probably need to add a little bit of flour, but just add it a little bit at the time. It is normal if the dough is sticky, but if it is so sticky you can't manipulate it, add a bit of flour.

  ** The texture of the dough will become more consistent as you knead it more. By kneading it, you'll be creating gluten in the dough, which will give it more structure and will allow for a "fluffier" dough once cooked. 

4. Cover the dough with a cloth or foil paper and let it rise for as long as you want (at least about an hour. **It's awesome if you do it overnight, but sometimes, we all like deciding to make pizza at the last minute, and it will work too!) 

5. When the dough has doubled in size: sprinkle some flour on the counter, grab a handful of dough and roll it on the counter to form a small pizza. You can use your hands or a rolling pin. Add flour if needed.  

6. Pre-heat the BBQ to 400-500 degrees.

7. Coat the BACK side of a cookie sheet with flour. Put the rolled out dough on it. The cookie sheet will serve as your peel to transfer the pizza on the BBQ. 

8. When the grill is hot, transfer your dough on the grill. You can either use your hands and forearms to manipulate the dough or you can just slide it off the cookie sheet on to the grill in a fast motion. Either way, commit to your move!! :) 

9. Cook one side of the dough. 

Cook only the bottom of the dough. (Close the lid)

Take it out of the BBQ and flip it over.

10. When the first side is cooked, take it off the grill with a spatula. Flip it over and put it on any type of plate. Place your toppings on the cooked side of the dough. 

Put your toppings on the COOKED side of the pizza

Put it back on the grill

11. Place the pizza (with toppings on it) back on the grill for a few minutes! The timing is not important, but just wait long enough for the cheese to melt and for the crust to toast a little bit more. 

Put it back on the grill to cook the other side

Enjoy with your favorite folks!

**Tips: Prepare your toppings ahead of time and set them on the table. Then, everytime a dough is ready to be "topped" it's quick and easy. It's also a fun way to have your guests be creative and involved in dinner preparation by letting them prepare their own pizza! 

Voila!! You now have a recipe to make delicious pizza anywhere - even in camping! 

Bon appetit! 

Exploring my hometown

I came back home last Monday after being gone for a little over 5 months. Back to the land of French speaking and Maple Syrup! I have to admit, even though I was really excited to see my family and friends here in Quebec, I was a little worried I would quickly get bored with my training.

Actually, David and I even thought of staying in Colorado, camping out of our Sprinter (camper van) for a month. However, the idea quickly went away, because as much fun as it sounded to keep travelling and discovering new places, I thought it would be really awesome if I didn't suck all summer. I want to perform in the races I'll enter and being home would allow me to rest and recover much better between the training sessions. So, we came back home. 

Where I live, in St-Jerome (in the region of the Laurentians, about 30 min North of Montreal), is a great place. There is a 200+Km dirt bike path that passes right in my backyard and there are a couple of very fun trail networks pretty close to home (which you can get to, or connect, from the bike path). But somehow, I was still a little worried about where I would be doing all my intervals and whether or not I would get bored of riding the same thing all summer long.

The long dirt bike path 

Here's the thing: In the Laurentians, there are no long climbs. Don't get me wrong, there are A LOT of climbs; just no sustained climbs where you can do intervals on. And that bothered me...I was really starting to wonder how I would make it happen. How did I do it in the past? Also, with no big mountains close to home, and no long trail descents, how would I keep working on my downhill skills?

Well, it turns out that I was only seeing it the wrong way. This week has been amazing. Probably my best week of training in a while. To keep things exciting, David and I did what we never do at home, but always do when we visit a new place; we looked at the map. It sounds ridiculously obvious, but for some reason, I rarely take time to look at the map when I'm home.

3 hours on the road? Go there. 2 hours? That loop. 5 hours? Lets connect a few loops...etc. I know the places, so I never bothered checking the map.

But lately, I received a new Garmin Edge 1000 from the team, so I decided to take advantage of it and use it to its full potential. David and I sat down and spent quite a bit of time exploring the map and building some amazing rides that we put in the Garmin.  

So, after all these years, I think I've finally figured out what you need to truly enjoy and appreciate riding in the majestic region of the Laurentians, QC. 

• A map: Look for the smallest roads.
• A cyclocross bike: The roads are broken, but with 32mm tires and 45 psi, it is smooth as butter. Plus, it will allows you to explore dirt roads and some small trails. 
• A mountain bike: We have really cool trails. 
• A pair of CxFever socks: It always helps to add spice to your ride.

We did a couple of 5+ hours rides on the CX bike exploring the "backcountry" of our hometown. We found some amazing roads, a lot of them on dirt or gravel, swerving through thousands of different lakes and rivers. We had to cross some small creeks, shoulder the bikes a few times and connect from a road to another by using some shady trails, but it was awesome. Hundreds of kilometers of places I had never seen before, right there in my backyard! No long climbs, but countless fun steep little hills. 

One of the many rivers

Between those long rides, we hit our favorite trails and smashed some great training rides in there. I had forgotten how much fun the trails are here! No tremendously long downhills, but fast, twisty, rocky, full of roots and steep singletracks. Plus, they built some new trails, so we get to discover new stuff. And there is actually a new long and fast downhill!! 

In the end, I'm pretty damn excited to be home! I feel like I have so much to explore again. It was so refreshing to train here and discover new routes that it made me realize how lucky I am to be living here. All I want to do now is to invite my friends to bring them on some rides and show them what we have here. 

We might not have big mountains or huge mountain pass roads, but we have many forests with fun trails in them and an infinite amount a beautiful freshwater bodies surrounded by dirt roads that are just waiting to be discovered. And I'm excited to start discovering more of them. 

Cool ball of catepillar I saw on a ride.

That time I never came back from a ride because I lost 75000 calories..?

Riding in the trails last fall after the first snow

It's pretty here in the fall

Following the pimento!

Pancake Training Camp

Have you ever tried that Whole Foods pancake and waffle mix? It's been my main source of fuel for last week's training. 

Crack an egg, smash a banana (optional, but better), add 2/3 cup of milk, 1 cup of the pancake mix, mix it all up and cook it in the pan. Bam! That's it.  

Basically, it's a recipe for happiness. Add some fruits on the side and maybe drizzle a little bit of maple syrup or spread some peanut butter on it for an extra kick and your all set and ready to attack the day's training in full force. 

That's pretty much how all of our days started last week. We downed our 2 pancakes, found some routes we wanted to explore, got dressed and hopped on the bikes. In Prescott, we rented a cabin at the top of Spruce Mountain, which is a 4 miles steep and rugged dirt road that access some sweet trails and great views. There were maybe a total of 20 cabins along the way to the top of the mountain, but we never saw or heard anyone. The cabin was solar powered, had gas appliances, running water coming from a well, no cell phone service and a kick ass working wifi. In my books, that's what I call a perfect setup - it was ideal to train hard during the day and come back to the cabin to rest and relax. Travelling can be hard and tiring sometimes, but when you have the right set up for yourself, I find it highly motivating to get away for a few days and it makes it easy for me to crank out some big training and take good care of myself. Everyone has its own preference about that, but I know it works well for me. 

We spent 5 days training in Prescott and exploring the amazing trails that the National Forest has to offer. We got to ride on the new Whiskey Off-Road course (which is awesome), smash some good training on the road with Chloe and tackle a few of our old favorite trails. It was really fun to hang out with Chloe and TJ and get to know them a little bit more as well as discover their local playground. I wish I could've stayed longer to explore the countless paved and dirt roads and to have some more adventure rides on the amazing trails and climbs of the area... There are a few long rides I was looking at online that I absolutely want to adventure on. So I guess I'll have to come back! 

Orbea bikes soaking up the sun and the view at the top of Spruce Mountain after a big ride in Prescott

I love the desert and cactus, but I have to admit that trees are pretty amazing too.

I got the opportunity to follow US National champ Chloe Woodruff on some hard intervals on the road - it was awesome! She also showed me around some of her local trails. Thanks for the tour Chloe :) 

After a few days, we switched from big mountains and trees to gigantic red rocks and tacky red sand as we drove up to Sedona for the weekend. Sedona is another gem of trail network in Arizona; there is something for everyone out there. The only thing about Sedona is that the scenery is so incredibly beautiful that it can be quite hard not to look up and take in the beauty...However, I'd highly recommend looking at the trail, because it would be a bummer to fall off a cliff or to not fully enjoy what the singletracks have to offer. Again, that's another place where I will have to go back. I found that even if we were sometimes going over the same trail, I could always challenge myself to do it faster or find a new line to make it more challenging or just simply more fun. We got to do 2 long rides (Oak Creek sector and Dry Creek sector) and one shorter but oh-so-fun ride with Chloe, TJ, Catharine, Keith, Ryan and Dave. Just starting to explore the area of the slick and red rocks paradise got me hungry and excited for more. 

We finished our week with the Beti Bike Bash race at McDowell mountain in Phoenix. The race was at 8AM, so in order to save some time and belly pain, I opted for oatmeal instead of the pancakes. It was the second time I got to race there this winter and once again, it proved to be great. Extremely fast and flowy singletracks with punchy climbs and a few false-flat head wind sections to smash your legs...exactly what I needed to finish the week on a high note! The event was really well run and the energy around it was good and contagious. I took the win and got out of there feeling happy, strong and a little tired. But it definitely made me excited for some more racing, which luckily will happen fast enough as I'm heading to Fontana, Bonelli and Sea Otter in the coming weeks. 

I had no idea that this drop was coming in as I did not pre-ride the course and the 2nd lap was different than the first one! Nice surprise though :) Photo by Kenny Wehn  

Arizona has so much to offer for riding, as much on the road bike as on the mountain bike and I'm glad I got to explore it a little bit more. Two years ago, I rented an RV with friends and we visited Prescott, Sedona and Phoenix to train on our mountain bikes. We had a great time doing that trip, but this time around my abilities allowed me to enjoy the trails a lot more, yet I could still challenge myself as much as I had done back then - just on a different level. I would not have had the guts nor the ability to ride with Catharine or Chloe back then. This week, though I truly enjoyed the opportunity and I think we all benefited from challenging each other. It's fun to see the progress that was made in those two years, mentally, physically as well as technically. 

Next time, I'll probably add Flagstaff and Bisbee to the list of places to discover; I heard they are well worth a visit! Right now, though, I am back in Tucson and back to my traditional breakfasts. Pancakes are delicious, but if they become to regular, though they'll taste as good, they might become slightly less exciting. Now that I think about it, I see breakfast pretty much like I see my training environment; changing it up from time to time keeps things exciting and refreshing!  

It was great to diversify our training scenery last week, but now, I'm happy to be back home as I rest up and prepare for the upcoming 3 weeks of racing on the road in California - Should be a good time! 

Dave and I doing our best impression of Dumb and Dumber... We seemed quite content after the Beti Bike Bash race and a good week of training. (I swear we didn't know Kenny Wehn was taking our picture haha)