July 24, 2009 (Hidalgo, Mexico) – Team Canada arrived in Mexico City on the 19th and 21st of August to acclimatize to the altitude of 2240 meters. Day 2 of being at high altitude still had us feeling sleepy, but we made it out for an hour ride on a race car track and an hour and a half on the track in the evening.

The team was surprised at how fast we could ride in the thin air and averaged 35 km/hr on our easy ride. The sprinters, Lawrence Leroux (QUE) and Joseph Veloce (ON) did 100 meter efforts while the endurance riders of Stephen Meyer (BC), David Boily (QUE), and Daniele Defrancechi (ON) did 1500 meter efforts, feeling the altitude 500 meters in. 

At dinner the rest of the Canadian Track Riders arrived as well as the roadies making a strong team presence that occupied 3 big tables in the cafeteria. It was a good team dinner spent laughing about luggage that was lost on the plane, and how the riders feel like they are all breathing in paper bags up in the thin air.

July 22nd, 2009 – As for our training today, we all did an hour ride in the morning, and napped in the afternoon (Standard practice over here). Then in the afternoon we went to the track, did a proper warm up, and did a few flying 2k’s . Our fastest was our second effort, it was a flying 2.5k with 5 guys (2 pulls each) was 2:36.9. And it was still only at 80-90% effort since we didn’t drop anyone. It was pretty easy to tell the truth. I ran a 96″ and it was more than enough. Mark MacDonald (AB) and Stevie were good with 96″ too. Matt Potma (BC) and Jean-Micheal Lachance (QUE) rode 98″. Matt sat the last effort out, as he was hurting from the altitude. All of our throats felt funny after the first two efforts, so we slowed down the 3rd one, 1k @ only 16sec laps, and practiced exchanges. (Half lap pulls). Our finish was also bang on, so things are looking good. Moral is good, and everyone is getting along.

July 23rd, 2009 – Today we had our track session in the morning, so we got to the track 30min before our session started and took our time getting ready. Our warm up was excellent, and we had 3 standing 500’s to do for our training today. We thought it might be difficult because we’d need the whole track and need to find some helpers to hold us doing our starts… Well, the security guards were nice enough to help out and give us some holds, and the other countries were happy sitting on the floor watching.  

#1 – I was the starter, so it was my job to make sure we got off FAST, but didn’t drop the guys with a slower start… I gave it a very hard start hoping to hit a 20.0 opening lap, but the team fell apart… ok, time to talk it over, where can I go faster, where do I need to take a bit off… 

#2 – This one I gave it full gas for 40m to get in front of everyone, then I accelerated a bit slower, and it showed in the time. But, everyone got on perfect! When I went up for the exchange, everyone was 5cm from the wheel ahead of them. We looked like we’ve done this 1000 times. Now can we do it a bit faster?

#3 – In this start I gave it full gas for 60m then started accelerating like in #2. It showed in the times. And the best part, the team stuck together! In two days we’ll do this again and see if we can go 20.5. That might be as fast as we want to go…

Today was a good day for the Sprinters! Joe went 10.44 for the 200m, and Stephan Cosette (QUE) went 10.8, then 10.5 in a 99″ gear. Joe was riding 100″ gear. Lawence went 10.6. All super fast times!!!

Racing begins on the 26th and we’re ready to gear up!

Daniele Defranceschi