October 16, 2010 (Toronto, Ontario) – We caught up with Derrick St. John (Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault), his better half Natasha Elliott (Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault), and Alberta import, Aaron Schooler (Team H&R Block) for their impressions on Day 1 of the Elite races, the venue and their performances today… full results here.

Derrick St. John (Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault)

Congrats on your second place finish – how are you feeling?
DSJ: I’m feeling ok…the Sens [Ottawa Senators] just tied it up, so I’m actually even better!

Tell us about your race – we heard you had a couple of crashes.
DSJ: Yeah, had to deal with a little bit of adversity today. I had a good start, but I slid out on the off camber, then I had to fight back to 2nd, that took a few bullets. Then coming around a corner, some volunteers were trying to fix the course tape that had been broken, but the wind picked it up and flung it straight in my gears. So I took my b bike that had file treads and a tad too much pressure in the front tire and I ate a tuft of grass before the sand pit. I was going so hard to pull back the time I lost I was seeing purple and unclipped a pedal on the uphill climb. Somehow I regained my composure, stopped being my own worst enemy and started to ride well after all of that.

What are your thoughts on the course and the event itself?
DSJ: Great course, lots of steep hard climbs, lots of power sections, cool sand pit. I always like coming to Toronto, it’s not home but it’s one of the closest races to home, so it’s nice. It’s too bad that it falls on the same weekend as the CX World Cup and that it’s not in the NACT series any more. I think it’s hard for the American riders on the East coast to justify the trip here, or even the guys from Western Canada. There are a few riders from the West here but it’s a long way to go for them.

The venue here in Toronto has massive potential, great hotels only five minutes away, the proximity to the airport, being a major hub, easy to find cheap flights from different destinations. They should try and get the North American Championships here! I thought there was talk of having that, but I don’t know, sometimes I just make stuff up.

What’s your strategy for tomorrow’s race?
DSJ: Strategy…same as today…strategy is not the problem, it’s the execution of the strategy…haha. I would actually be happy if tomorrow I can race so hard I forget my name and I have trouble walking Monday morning, that would be nice. That would give me the feeling that we did some good cross riding. That’s what I love about this time of year, when you put yourself in that place, you drive home without any regrets – there’s no doubt that you raced your bike to the max.

After the Toronto CX what’s on tap…?
DSJ: Sushi and Sapporo…we have reservations at 6pm. But race wise…USGP, Nationals, and the highlight of our year is the Ride with Rendall Hammer and Anvil race, November 13-14th at the Nepean Equestrian Park – wicked courses, good times, awesome prize money and for sure some Shawarma Palace after. We’ve been looking forward to this race all year, come out and support it, I know Glen wants it to eventually be a UCI race, heck the money is actually better than UCI races, check it out at www.ridewithrendall.com.

Natasha Elliott (Garneau-Club Chaussures-Ogilvy Renault)

You won here last year – tell us about your race today.
NE: The race was great. New course design, lots of climbing, uphill barriers, and sand. I raced okay, definitely not my A game and maybe not aggressive enough. I was content to ride 3rd wheel and wasn’t really putting in the efforts at the right spot leaving me to ride not as technically well on other stuff. All in all, as many times as I fell off the group I was able to find a way to get back on and I was happy with that. My tactics just weren’t very good while I was in the group.

Both years the women’s field was small – was it a tougher group this year…?
NE: I think the race competition compared to other years, but maybe slightly less women. It’s hard to say as it was a different course and although there was no ski hill, I think there was more climbing if you added it all up together which made the field split apart pretty fast.

Did the race unfold as you planned?
NE: Definitely not, 2nd is probably the worst feeling in any race. It’s my first 2nd of the year, and the win was right there. I made a lot of errors and didn’t ride how I feel I can ride technically. I tried a few moves, but the spots I chose were not optimal.

It’s good though, Derrick and I usually discuss our races a bit at dinner. We tell each other what we saw, the good, the bad and sometimes the ugly. We learn from our mistakes, take a little criticism and move on to improve upon it the next day.

What’s your strategy to land on the top step on Sunday?
NE: Well that’s a secret. If I told you all my tactics then I might not win. I am wearing my Louis Garneau compression socks right now though and that’s part one of the recovery.

What’s your schedule like for the CX season ahead – is Europe in your plans again…?
NE: So like Derrick said, USGP Kentucky, Nationals, RWR races in Ottawa (Hammer and Anvil), South Hampton, and maybe some New England Verge races or USGP Portland. After that we’ll see what’s left in the budget and how the legs are feeling. I’m trying not to have a disaster like last year and get sick mid-way through the season. I’m also trying to build my fitness as the season goes this year as I didn’t have a lot of training or racing in my legs pre-season. So if everything goes as planned there will definitely be a trip to Europe in December or January. Even though some parts of going to Europe were really challenging, I definitely missed it last season when I was too ill to go.

Aaron Schooler (Team H&R Block)

Congrats on your third place finish today.
AS: Thanks!

Is this your first race out East this year ?
AS: Yup! Trying to keep it minimal this year as the main focus has shifted to the road now with H&R BLOCK. It’s about time I start to make a career out of this. Did Starcrossed, Vegas, then some local racing to recover from the travel. The travel gets big again in November after Nats with Ft. Collins, New York, then Portland before taking some good time off.

How were the course and conditions today and how does the Toronto CX compare to events out west ?
AS: Course was pretty fun today, it flowed quite well but had lots of really steep pitches that you had to hammer up and couldn’t just flow through easy, made for a slug fest really. Things are quite similar between Alberta and TO, this course always adds in some good climbing though. I was hoping for more barriers today as promised, but I guess it didn’t pan out. It really gets different when you head to Vancouver. They like the MTBer type features. I lost my first race this year because I couldn’t bunny hop a feature, but I rectified that over the last couple weeks.

Tell us how today’s race unfolded…
AS: I managed to get the hole shot (or part of it anyways) which is quite rare for me. I kept an ok pace for the first lap until Davide [Frattini] passed me leading into the sand pit. I ended up fumbling at the end of the pit which gave him about three seconds, and the rest was history. I never saw him after that until the finish line. Derrik had some issues today after deciding to make out with the Caution tape and then crashed pretty hard on a corner before the sand pit. We were kinda back and forth before he eventually put the afterburners on in the last lap.

What changes if any will you make for round 2 on Sunday?
AS: No regrets I say, and today I kept it pretty clean with minimal fumbles. I’ll try and let some other guys set pace for the first lap maybe. We’ll see what the course looks like. If there’s less flat straight sections then you’ll see me try a Geoff Kabush and go out hard early.

What’s the CX scene like in Alberta ?
AS: The AB scene is really coming along well. We’ve had a bit of a change of pace in the last couple years with lots of the fast guys moving on to other things, so it’s really the time for new faces to shine strong. Katy Curtis had a phenomenal race today with her first UCI win and you can give lots of credit to Pepper [Harlton] for that. I know they have been working pretty close with things in the last while. It was cool to see the Alberta tag team operation work out in the end. I’ve been trying to spread some knowledge along to some of the young guys in Edmonton as I’m starting to hit new heights with my fitness.

Thanks for your time and all the best this season.
AS: Any time!