Tim Heemskerk

This past Wednesday Canada celebrated Canada Day, July 1st. Part of the celebrations in Edmonton is the Canada Day criterium race down town Edmonton. It is a well attended race for racers, and spectators coming out to watch the racing. The race is in points race format with points every 4 laps on the line, 5-3-2-1 point up for grabs. 3 years ago I was able to win the race by lapping the field in attendance of my parents who came out and watched the race and festivities. Last year I helped Marc win the race and I finished 2nd so it is definitely a race that suits me and suits a MTB racer. Big part is riding smart, positioning well and having the snap for a spring every 4 laps on this hilly course. Something you learn over the years of racing. It is my 19th race season, so lots of experience doing something like this. I won the race almost taking the maximum amount of points possible. One points sprint I did not participate in, since I was loading up for the last 7 laps of the race, the finale. In that finale we got away with 5 riders and during the last lap I accelerated and managed to cross the finish line first. Also a good race done by Justin Middleton after a little mid season break being in the mix a few times for the points. After the race awards and next a good night spend @ Da Capo spending all my prize money on pizza, gelato and beer in good company, @ 11pm fireworks, good stuff for 20 minutes in duration, a little sad too, once you know what else can be done with the money spend on a fireworks like that. Well I was happy I had another good criterium race, first one for me of this season, criterium races seem to suit me very well, something I have grown up with back in Holland probably racing like 20 of them per race season and being twice the duration, 2 hrs vs. 1 hr over here. I am not sure what my next race is going to be, we'll take it as things come, I love to ride my bike every day anyways.

This week was a tough one since I was not sure if I was going to race or not after the peaking period of Canada Cups the past period. First I was planning on doing the road race this Sunday but full entry was charged ($85), so I decided to head down with the boys to Bragg Creek and Canmore for the weekend and get some epic MTB riding and racing in the Rocky Mountains. We left Saturday morning and on our way we witnessed a nasty accident where a lady run a STOP sign and hit the car right in front of us @ full speed, the car in front of us was going about 80 km/ hr and the lady most likely too. We stopped, got out and in a short time there were a lot of people present to help. Peter called 911 but the line was busy (!). I managed to get the grill of the car from the road and some other stuff to prevent other cars passing cutting up their tires. We continued our trip to Bragg Creek and seemed I forgot the quick release from my back wheel on the curb of our building in Edmonton! With the new Trek you have to take out the QR to take out the wheel and somehow was left behind in Edmonton. I talked to some people there that were owning a TREK and could save my epic pre- ride BUT they were not willing to do so. I offered to get it back to them the next day...must have been my accent or something since they probably did not trust me or something. I was able to get one in Canmore. When I called Rebound Cycle in Canmore I had Ryan Draper on the phone who asked me: "Is this Tim Heemskerk?!?!" Wow....I feel a little famous in Canmore now...small cycling world it is really. The QR worked so I went out for a pre- ride in Canmore which is awesome as well. Unfortunately it was a long day for me so I did one lap on the Iron Lung course which I won a few weeks ago. The descends were most sketchy than a few weeks ago....seems there was a running race on the course! We had a good night at family Knights place in Canmore (3rd time in 4 weeks). Next day race day....1040am start...WHAT!? That early!? OK. I needed coffee so we headed out to my favourite coffee place Communitea in Canmore but it was 830 am and they were still closed, so we had to look for something else and headed to a different coffee place and almost got hit by a guy trying to run a red light..BAD DRIVERS! Back to the race. We had to do 3 big laps and 1 prologue lap which we took easy. On the first big lap and got away on the long climb and had a nice gap on Roddi in 2nd when my contact came out, I slammed my brakes and luckily it was sitting on the inside of my sun glasses. Take your time and make sure it gets in properly is what I thought so I tried and was not easy in the wind. I managed to do so and continued and by the time I was down the descend Roddi closed the gap and we were heading into lap #2, with Blenner sitting in 3rd position. In lap 2 and 3 I opened up a nice gap and the legs were feeling really good up the climbs, down the descends I rode safely. Nice race, thanks Deadgoat CC, all volunteers, road marshals, and good workout. Awards, cheque of $60 (ABA Rules?? w/ entry fee of $50), well I had a good time, nothing I can do about that, and heading back home. Near Bragg Creek we here a BOINK in the car and it seemed that a driver behind us hit Peters bike on the bike rack, no damage done and more prove of bad car drivers in Alberta..crazy! I drove Highway 2 and we made it home safely!! Debby found my QR outside the building..NICE! I also finally saw the movie FUBAR this weekend, Peter showed it to us in Canmore. Not sure what to think of it...well it teaches you NOT to dive in shallow water and to fight CANCER which are good life lessons!! So lots happened for sure and I might have forgotten a thing or 2, we all gained a few more life experiences!

This past Saturday the Canmore Canada Cup was held, and the start field was going to be top notch for a Canada Cup. This was the period I worked for and the Edmonton CC (3rd) showed fitness was good for another close finish which happened with a 4th place in Canmore behind Kabush, Zandstra and Watson. I had a sprint finish with Matt Hadley for 4th place. My start was horrible since I was unable to click into my road pedals and ended up in the back of the field, once clicked in I hammered towards the front and had a few good moves past people and regained 3rd position midway the first climb. Watson came by just before the first descent and I was sitting well in 4th, just behind Kabush for the long descent. I was following the lines well and halfway the descent we were off the front with 4 people, nice, that until we had a few steeper, more loose sections and I was riding too safe on those sections loosing a few meters every time we hit such a section. Passing through start and finish I was by myself in 4th position only 20 seconds down to the lead group of 3. Unfortunately I was unable to close that completely on the 2nd long climb and was unable to follow the lines set out by the 3 riders in front of me which meant I was going to loose more terrain on the next descent. Matt Hadley and Batty got me in that 2nd descent and from there I dediced to ride my own race and try and go for 4th position. A few more people got back on and in the last lap Matt and me were going to sprint for 4th place. I had the better sprint and finished 4th, you know it! Yeah climbing went well but touching brakes in the descents meant loosing time for this Dutchie. My technical riding was pretty good, and I started clearing stuff well by the 4th lap, but it always takes me a few laps to start taking more speed on the technical sections and daring to take more risks. I am always a very safe rider in that way maybe because I did not grow up racing MTB and did not grow up with the mountains, so I take it :) It was another great weekend in Canmore and I am going to miss racing in Canmore a lot. Last year I was so fortunate to have a no chain feeling and was on top form while racing the Canmore CC resulting in winning this Canada Cup, and the Iron Lung Alberta Cup has always treated me very well too: Canmore is a place to my heart. We spend the weekend in great company with the Hardcore boys and family Knight, and 4 dogs!! Great people, all down- to- earth, good laughs, awesome views, good conversations, great support, good coffee stops @ Communitea with the boys, and for me a place to get relaxed and focused for the races to come, since it is nice and quite, a huge factor to my "successes" in Canmore the past few years. Thanks family Knight for having me and my family! Here's some pictures from another weekend and another great experience in my life!!

Check out the write up after the interview for the Edmonton Journal:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Hopes+hold+water/1695012/story.html

and here's a picture made by Dave Roberts (Hardcore Bikes):

Today the Canada Cup in hometown Edmonton. A race I prepared for the past period. It was only my 3rd MTB race of the season so I was not sure what my level was going to be against Canada's best. First back to yesterday when I discovered a bearing broke in my linkage and my rear triangle had a lot of play, so I decided to be at the race course early and had the Trek factory mechanic look at it. Dex was able to get the bike fixed, thanks Dex and Clayton, you guys saved me today!! The start went well and I was able to move from seconds row into the lead right from the gun. As a "local rider" I do know most of these trails and that off course helps quite a bit. During the first lap we had like 6 guys in front and I kept driving the pace for almost the entire lap. In lap #2 Matt Hadley and me were a bit off the front from Eric Batty and Fillion and the gap was about the same all the time. In lap #3 the gap got a little bigger and things looked like Matt and me were going to battle for the win. On lap #4 disaster for me...I lost my bottle right after I got a new one, that meant a complete lap without a bottle in 28 degrees Celcius...no good, as my legs started to notice that half way into this lap. Matt was driving it and I had to let a little gap go to not start cramping my quads. By the end of this lap Andrew Watson impressively came from the back and passed me, he was going and looking very strong, and I knew he was going hard to beat if he kept riding that pace. I settled for 3rd, grapped my bottle w/ Cola and felt my legs coming back to me with more power. I kept the pace steady and prevented cramping and finished 3rd....I take that result considering. That 4th lap when I got dehydrated I was really luck too since I had 2 close encounters with trees, one on my left shoulder and one on my right shoulder and they are really scraped up, that's riding on the edge while being a little dehydrated. Congrats to Andrew and Matt for a strong race and good job Mike, Evan and Kirk for putting on a great event, hopefully an event that will return to Champion City on an annual basis. Hopefully some nice pictures coming soon. Check out www.pedalmag.com or www.canadiancyclist.ca for full results and pictures!

Also thanks to United Cycle, event and personal sponsor!!

This weekend we raced the Alberta Cup in Canmore called Iron Lung. It is a technical loop with steep descending and lots of single track and a steep climb called Georgetown which is also part of the Canada Cup course. The Alberta Cup has less climbing compared to the CC but is more technical riding and more single track riding. We stayed @ family Knights place, a beautiful place to be, relaxing, and good times as usual with the elite racers from Hardcore and Peter's dad Brian Knight, thanks for having me again! I was a little under the weather after traveling with Lukasz (and a tiring training week) who was under the weather as well, seems to be going around. The weather did not look to good with cold temperatures and flurries at times, but the course was pretty dry. Over 150 racers showed up for the day and the Elite field was the biggest I have seen in an Alberta Cup. I got a gap on Roddi, Bunnin and Andrew on lap #1, after climbing Georgetown, and won the race over 5 laps just under 2 hrs of racing with Roddi in 2nd and TTP- member and upcoming man Andrew Thomas in 3rd. Thanks Marc Bailey for willing to feed us, next time Deb will be there and she will take care of you again, just like the Perogy race when she was feeding 9 United Cycle racers(!!!!). The colder temperatures and flurries on lap 3 made my legs feel like rocks but fortunately the flurries stopped accompanied with that more leg power. Next meeting Edmonton CC followed by the Canmore CC.