Le Tour de l'Abitibi - Coupe des Nations

I've just returned home after racing in the 41st Tour de l'Abitibi, a 7 stage, 6 day UCI junior tour located in Val-d'Or, Quebec, Canada. This race is also the only UCI Nations Cup race in North America. I raced for the Florida Velo Junior Development team, a 6 man composite team made for this race. There were teams from across the world, including the U.S., Canada, Denmark, Austria, New Zealand, Japan and Thailand totaling 128 racers. There were five road stages ending with circuits around the town, one time trial out of a mine, and one circuit race around Val-d'Or. Here is a day by day recap of le tour.

Day 1

We traveled by car from Kentucky with five of the six man team: Ty Magner, Will Willis, Aubrey Moore, Luke Harville and myself. It was pretty exciting for me once we crossed the border from Ontario into Quebec as I studied French and was looking forward to speaking it for the first time in real life. After many hours in the car on roads in Canada where there was little to no habitation, we arrived in Val-d'Or, Quebec, which is a little town based around a gold mine. All the teams stayed in the local high school, one classroom per team. There were 9 thin foam beds on the floor, some tables and that was pretty much it.

Day 2

Our team went out for an easy spin around town to loosen up after being in a car for many hours. Later in the day we had the team presentations in downtown. Many people came out to see all of the teams presented on the stage before the crowd. (Pic below)

Day 3 - Stage 1

It was time for the first race, a 94,6 km road race from Preissac to Val-d'Or. We rode the bus to the start town of the stage. We arrived early and sat around before getting in our kits to race. After lining up, the mayor gave a short speech, then shot the gun and we were off. I tried to hold a good position and not be involved in any crashes that might occur as it was the very first day. We had full lane closure with the whole road to us which is pretty nice, as well as the caravan following behind for support. There were some KOM's early in the race, then it was flat all the way to the circuits in town. On the way to the finish, we would pass through other towns where there would be either time bonus sprints or mayor sprints. Mayor sprints are only for money, usually $250 each. It was very important to have a good position when entering town because it was hard to move up in the circuits. We did three, 3,3 km circuits with one hill right after the finish line, then downhill on the backstretch. I didn't have the best position in the pack entering town, but finished with the field.

Day 4 - Stage 2

We headed out for another road race, this one being 116,4 km from a town to Val-d'Or. Early on in the race there was a one lane, gravel section. A 15 man break formed including Ty Magner of our team which was good through this section. After hovering just in front of the field for a while and not getting caught, they finally pulled away and gained a couple of minutes on the field. The stage ended with the same three 3,3 km laps around town with an amazing spectator turnout. Ty finished 4th on the stage which is a great result. After getting back to the school I started to get a sore throat and became even more sick on day 5.

Day 5 - Stage 3 & 4

This was a double day of racing with a very decisive 14,5 time trial in the morning and a short out and back road race in the afternoon. The time trial has to be the most interesting and most different race I have ever done. We went in waves to the race based on our GC position. I was in the third to last wave to go, which meant I got to sleep a little later in the morning , which was nice. We arrived at the start at la cite de l'or, a mine. We watched the previous wave come out and it was time to load up into a large, loud truck to take us 500 meters underground and 1 k distance. It was steep, wet, dark and cold. We arrived after what seemed to be a long ride to the bottom. We were then taken into a holding room to each get only 5 minutes warm up on an old stationary trainer. After getting the exact 5 minutes, not one second more as the staff were timing us, I headed out into the cold of the mine again to go get another 5 minutes on my time trial bike which was taken down the night before. I did the best warmup I could in a short period of time and then I was off to the start. I remained seated as the ground was slippery and on the track the truck travels so I wasn't on any grease. It was a steep climb around 17%. I kept looking up the road so I wouldn't miss any turns in the dark as there were some lights, but not all were working. It was good to get to the exit of the mine and the body then had to adjust from being in sub 50 degree temperatures underground to the mid to high 70's outside. There was a bad wind the entire time once clearing the housing area where many people were sitting on the driveways cheering everyone on. I lost a bit of time in the mine as I didn't know what to expect and dropped in the overall. We had a couple of hours before leaving for Stage 4 in Malartic for the short, 52,2 km road race on an out and back course that was dead flat and dead straight. This was also the first time it rained on us and when it rains in northern Canada, it gets pretty cold. Everything stayed together as the USA team wanted because they had the overall lead. There were sketchy moments on the wet road in such a large group, but I finished safely in the pack. After the race everyone ate at a local hockey rink that provided food for the tour. We then loaded up on the buses to head back to town . It turned out that we were the only American team on board and would ride back with the Denmark and Austria teams. I did learn how to say a couple of greetings in Danish.

Day 6 - Stage 5

This stage was a 111,4 km road race with the same three, 3,3 km circuits when we arrived in Val-d'Or. After starting thirty minutes late due to a car crash on the course right out of town, we finally were on our way. The field stayed together and there were some crashes, but luckily I nor anyone on our team were involved. Later in the night I felt the effects of having a cold and racing in the wet, cold weather the day before. I went to see the doctor after getting a fever and feeling pretty bad. I stayed hydrated and got my rest. It was good that the next stage didn't start until late in the day and was in town so we didn't have to travel to the start.

Day 7 - Stage 6

It was time for the circuit, 99,2 km around Val-d'Or on eight, 12,4 km laps. I felt much better with the fever gone after resting all day. The race started out very fast going up the first hill. Many people were attacking, trying to gain time and get time bonus sprints, but the national teams kept the field together. The sprint was won once again by Austria.

Day 8 - Stage 7

The last stage, 110,6 km with nine, 5 km circuits around town. We had 65 km out on the open road and then 45 km on circuits, so it was important like always to enter town with good position. After the 5 km neutral start the race was on in cold, rainy conditions. I entered town in a great position in the front of the group. The circuits were different than what we had been doing in the past road stages. Coming into the last turn on the first lap there was a crash, actually, there was a crash there every lap as it was a fast, almost 180 degree turn with slick crosswalk paint on the road. The circuits were very fast in the pouring rain and I finished 50th on the day. In the evening there was a ceremony for all the awards being presented, including the 3 jersey winners: Andrew Barker (USA) - GC, Marco Haller (Austria, also just got 3rd at the World Championships) - Points, and Anders Newbury - (Baraboo Sharks) Best Young Rider.

Overall ,this was a very cool 6 day stage race. The support in the towns was amazing with huge spectator turnout. The Tour organizers did a great job as well. It's also nice when the cars get pulled off the road by the police for us to come by, beeping their horns to cheer us on, not because they are angry. I didn't finish as well as I wanted to in the GC, finishing 74th out of the 128 riders, primarily based on the TT time. Also, I've heard many stories about the food not being great, and I have to say that it really wasn't that bad. I enjoyed living and racing my bike in a French speaking area. Well ,the 600 km race was over and now began another long car ride back to Florida after dropping some of the team off at the airport to head to nationals.

This was the second year for Florida Velo Junior Development and finished 11th out of 22 teams.

Thanks to Land-Ron Inc. and Mr. Willis, Glory Cycles, David's World Cycle, Retro Cycles and Veloce Speedwear for your support of our team. Also, thanks to the FRCA for supporting junior development in the state of Florida.

Thanks for reading,

Craig Creeden

View Larger Map

UCI 2.1 Tour of the Red River Gorge

Well, this was the first UCI junior stage race in America, so it was pretty cool to be a part of it. The Tour of the Red River Gorge, located in Kentucky, was a four day stage race with five stages. There were 18 teams of six riders for a total of 108 racers. Everyone stayed in the dorms at the University of Kentucky. For each stage we loaded up on buses to be taken to the start of the stage while the team cars brought our equipment and bikes. Stage 1 was a 1.6 k time trial taking only a little over 2 minutes. Then, we had a 99 k road race in the afternoon in the rolling hills. The race started off and I didn't have the best position, but managed to move up through the field and was right near the front for the first KOM. There were attacks and a break of 10 got away. After going through the twisting narrow roads to the wide open four lane highways, we were coming into the final kilometer. I finished 15th in the field so 25 on the stage. We came back to the dorms, showered, and headed on the long walk over to the cafeteria to eat dinner. The next day was a 22,7 k time trial on a rolling/flat course. Then came stage four, the queen stage going over four main climbs totaling 4,000 ft of climbing over 113,5 k. The race started with a climb followed by a big descent, where there was one crash I came a little too close to, however, didn't go down. Then we had a climb that went up to a very dark, narrow tunnel. It was very important to have a good position going through it as I figured out last year. I was not in the best position and part of the field came to a quick stop in the middle of the pitch dark, wet tunnel. Once out, it was a little chase to get back with the front pack. Then a little bit later with a diminished field, while going around a left sweeping turn, a crash happened about 5 guys in front of me. I had nowhere to go other than to slow as much as possible and flip right over. Luckily, I landed soft in the grass in a ditch and hopped up fast to try to catch back on to the group. It was a very hard chase back on as this part of the course was not very suitable for the caravan. We got a paceline going with 10 of us and finally got on at the base of the steepest climb. This was a hard climb,and I hung on for a bit, but didn't have the energy left to make it over with them, so I finished a little bit behind. Finally was the last stage, stage 5, which was a criterium in downtown Lexington. This course had six turns with a long and wide backstretch. It was a very fast pace the entire time. I ended up 65th in GC, a little disappointed that the crash happened at an unfortunate time where I lost time for the GC, but that's bike racing. Our team, Florida Velo Junior Development, finished 7th in the overall team competition. Now I had to pack up to head to Val-d'Or, Quebec, Canada to compete in the other UCI junior stage race in North America, le Tour de l'Abitibi. Thanks to Land-Ron Inc., Glory Cycles, David's World Cycle, Retro Cycles and Veloce Speedwear for your support of our team. Also, thanks to the FRCA for supporting junior development in the state of Florida.

Tour of the Red River Gorge & le Tour de l'Abitibi Reports Coming

USA Cycling Southeast Regional Development Camp 2009

This year I went back for my third time to the southeast camp in Greenville, SC. We stayed in the dorms at Furman University, just south of the Blue Ridge Mountains with 35 juniors and 11 coaches for the week. This camp is designed to do power testing on the riders so USA Cycling can ID talented riders that can come up through the pipeline. Below is a day by day review of what we did.

Sunday
I arrived at Furman University after lunch to check in and move into my dorm room. There were only 10 out of the 36 of us that were returning from last year, so there were a good amount of new people there. However, there were many good friends that I’ve gotten to know over the past couple of years that were still there. We went for a 2 hour easy social ride in the afternoon to spin the legs. Later we had our first classroom lecture to introduce everyone and set out the schedule for the week.

Monday
We were awaken by Rusty, who is a pro and ride leader, with his famous cowbell at 6:30 am and we headed to breakfast. After that, we left at 9:00 for the power profile test out on Caesar’s Head, a mountain just north of Greenville. There was a short TT of about a mile and a longer TT around 2.7 miles up the mountain. After completing these, we rode to the top of the mountain to eat box lunches. Then it was time to “chill out” on the descent. We got back to campus at 4:00, showered up and then off to dinner at 5:00. After dinner it was time to head to lecture where we talked about things from nutrition, anti-doping, race tactics, racing in Europe and more.

Tuesday
After breakfast we did an easy 2 hour skills and drills ride as we were doing the local Greenville Tuesday night Worlds. In the afternoon we left for about an hour ride to the Donaldson Center race. This isn’t exactly a race, it’s more like an Erroll World’s. However, there were about 180 riders total for the A’s and B’s. Also, there was police support for a ride, how cool is that? I raced the A’s for 43 miles on a 7 mile loop around an old airport. There were many really good racers present, including a former Jittery Joe’s rider (now Myogenesis), Rich Hincapie and more. There even was a Team Columbia-High Road support car present. This was a very aggressive race with many attacks and constantly fast. I was in many moves, however none managed to stick. One did have a good makeup, including Thad (Myogenesis) that eventually broke away on his own to win. However, the field strung out and pulled us back. I finished in the field for the sprint. This was a very exciting race/ride and I’d like to do it again someday. We rode about an hour back to campus, had a late dinner and went to bed.

Wednesday
Now it was time for an easy day. We did an easy skills and drills ride in the morning and afternoon with a lecture and field games at night. Field games consisted of the following activities; the cardboard slide; which involved riding in a field over a piece of cardboard and locking your back wheel on it and sliding, fishtailing down the hill. We also did some bumping and wheel kissing. My favorite has to be “knockdown” or last man standing. We rode in a circle and bumped or cut other people off and track stood to make them put their foot on the ground so they’re out. Then as there are fewer and fewer people, the circle gets smaller. I managed to win one round with my special strategy.

Thursday
We went out for the longest ride of the week, about 85 miles and did four relatively flat time trial repeats that were 1.5 miles each. Then we ate lunch and climbed up the Watershed to the bakery in Saluda, NC. We rode back to campus in the rain when I flatted, but it was changed fast thanks to the mechanic Herman. During all rides we had two ride support vehicles for water and mechanic support. We had the last lecture where my dad, who has been an assistant coach, gave out water bottles, t-shirts, Chipotle cards and signed Hincapie posters.

Friday
Many people weren’t doing the spin around campus so I just packed my bags in the morning before leaving for the North Carolina State Road Race in Salisbury.

Saturday & Sunday
I raced the North Carolina State Road Race on Saturday in Jr. 15-18 and Sunday in Cat. 3. Saturday I worked with and for some friends of mine that are from NC to try and help them win their state title. Sunday I raced cat. 3 where I finished in the field after trying many times to break away.

This was my last year attending camp and it has to be one of my favorite ones, getting in around 300 miles on the bike. Thanks to everyone that worked hard to put it on and help assist: Richard Dunn, John Kelly, Michael Jordan, Rusty, Travis, Leslie, Matt, Ken, Herman, GW, Bob and Keith.

Next, I will be attending the two UCI Junior stage races in North America: the Tour of the Red River Gorge in Kentucky and le Tour de l’Abitibi in Canada. I will be racing for the Florida Velo Devo Team which consists of two, six man teams from the southeast U.S. Red River takes place July 13-17, and l’Abitibi is July 20-26.

Click here for pictures.

Thanks for reading,
Craig Creeden

Georgia Training

I have just finished a good week of training in the mountains in north Georgia. Before riding in the mountains, I raced the last stage of the Tour of Atlanta (Cat. 3). The road race was 65 miles and was in rolling hills with a good uphill finish. A big break of 12 riders got away on the first of 3, 22 mile laps. I was not able to get in it and finished 2nd in the field sprint (climb) for 14th.

Tuesday

We arived in Dahlonega, GA after the race Monday with a group of 10. Tuesday was just an easy ride to spin out the legs after racing the day before. We rode from the hotel through the town square and into some rolling hills. The weather was a little rainy the first few days we were there, but was better the rest of the week.

Wednesday

If you know the six gap area, we did the lower loop which included Neel's, Wolf Pen and Woody's Gap. I rode every climb hard and enjoyed the pain very much and really enjoy the descending.

Thursday

Now it was to the upper loop which includes Jacks, Unicoi and Hog

Pen Gaps. Jacks is the climb that leads up to Brasstown Bald

(which I did Saturday). However, I did not do Btown on this ride. I have to say that Hog Pen is one of my favorite climbs. It is a little over 7 miles, with grades no less than 12% the entire way.

It even gets up to 18% at times. I rode this one as hard as I could and it gave me one good workout. It was a really fast descent down the other side and it just had to start raining on the descent, but it was still fun.

Friday

In the morning we headed out to climb the long side of Woody's Gap and then did 3 repeats on the short side of Woody's. Later in the day we went for an easy spin on some rolling hills.

Saturday

This was the longest day of riding - Neels, Wolf Pen, Woody's, Neels,

Jacks and then finished on top of Brasstown. We rode the lower loop, climbing hard on every mountain and then had lunch at the base of Neels. Rode over Neels and then went on to climb Jacks and Btown hard. I gave it my all and climbed Jacks at a good pace, got a bottle passed to me at the bottom of Btown and then broke my personal record of climbing Btown. Btown is my other favorite climb; Hog Pen being the other. It is just over 2 miles and is by far the steepest, getting up to 28% at times, however, it was mostly in the 15-25% range.

I really enjoyed this trip totaling 286 miles of riding. Thanks to Mr. Gerber, Mrs. Blanchard and my dad for providing support. I am looking forward to when I can go back. Next, I will be heading to Greenville, SC this weekend for the USA Cycling Southeast Regional Development Camp at Furman University.

Until then,

Craig Creeden

"Attack and make other people suffer" - Jens Voigt

View all

Get your own

Heading to GA, done with HS

I know that it has been a while since I last wrote, but since then a lot has happened with many races throughout Florida and a couple in South Carolina. Some of the races I'm most proud of how I raced are the Dade City Crit. (8th), Winter Haven Crit. (4th), Patriots Trail RR in SC (5th) and the Miami Vista View Park Circuit (6th). I have just finished high school and will be attending graduation June 5th. Until then, I will be going up to the mountains in north Georgia. I went up there during Spring Break and really enjoyed it and I can't wait to go back. I will try to update more often during the summer as I will be doing many races in and out of state. Thanks for reading.
Craig
(Click on the pictures to make them bigger. They are of the sprint in the Winter Haven Crit. and the Miami Vista View Park Circuit)
"Attack and make other people suffer."

In ASV colors!