The Big Dawg!

After about a year of racing on the track I was already surrounded by a good crowed of racers who like me were new and budding as well as older guys who were pro racers many years ago. And allthough they dont have the speed they used to they were still far smarter racers, sprint or endurance. At this point I had already been working with my mentor Gordie Singleton and was well on my way to being a proper sprinter with his training on and off the bike, and race skill work with Rob Good. What I also had was the critique and help of many of the older guys.

In the fall/winter of what I guess you could say was going into my second year on the boards I met Julian Shea. He'd recognized me from McPhail's Cycle where I worked and we ended up hanging out at the track at Saturday night racing. Julian moved to Canada from Romania and now has a family. When he was younger he was also a track sprinter. I love hearing the stories he has. Not many people can say they watched arguably two of the biggest humans on earth race head to head, Lutz Heslich and Micheal Huebner- Both of East Germany. In early spring of 2008 I had my first really nasty crash on the track. Coming from downhill I'm no stranger to crashing but this one was nothing like hitting a tree. He was there watching, with his son Julian as I rolled a tire off and slammed into turn 2 with my hip and then when I eventually got up was kind enough to offer any help in getting home that night. After that crash I took dam near a month off the bike to try and recover from the massive bruising, large amount of skin loss and some fractures. My first race back was Ontario Champs and with no real training.....joy. Its at that race I learnt a very valuable lesson from Julian about racing.

You have to be the bigger dog. It doesnt always matter if you're the fastest or not on the start line. What matters is that your the meaner dog. You have to show the other bastard that you're there not only to beat him, but to rip him apart. Be the dog. Every round of sprint I won my way thru and each ride in the Keirin he would remind me of that on the start line. And all that ontop of giving me some good tactical ideas. All simple, but effecive.

Anyways, a month ago Julian sent me some pictures from when he was racing in Romania. They are pretty cool! I thought I would share them here for everyone to see that sprinters are still sprinters but how far the bikes have come.

Be the Dog Julian!

The photos are from Dynamo Bucharest Velodrome in Romania. If you look in some of the pics you'll see some of the tradmark East German uniforms.