Gradn DefiWelcome to the Maxmedia team’s blog, a team of 5 ordinary people with a bike addiction that will participate in the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie, a 60 hour cycling marathon of 1,000 km (600 miles) that gathers 1,000 experienced and devoted cyclists in Québec, Canada.

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In order to get in the Défi (Challenge), the team had to register to a drawing lots to compete for one of the 5 new spots available this year. Each year, the event is sold out but for the June 2012 event, the organization opened spots for new teams and Maxmedia was picked out of the 547 teams that registered!
A total of 195 teams of 5 cyclists will cycle through close to 100 communities for the GO foundation that supports hereditary orphan disease research and projects promoting healthy life habits and will be partners with over 900 schools.

Please meet the confessed sports aficionados:

group shot

1. Ugo, 36, works shifts and is the strongest cyclist of the team. He has raced and coached in cycling before and is testing his legs against other riders on the provincial circuit on his (killer) Colnago CX-1, aiming to participate in the Nationals after the Défi.

2. Mélany, 38, works for the Government of Canada, is the mother of two and now a blogger on the PBK site (Hi! That’s me!). I ride a De Vinci CX-3 bomb I affectionately call “mon bébé”.

3. Raymond, mid-50s, is a well-known entrepreneur and has just returned from summiting Aconcagua, the tallest mountain of the Americas. He runs half-marathons on his spare-time…

4. France, 40-something, Captain of the team. She is the co-owner of Maxmedia, an indoor advertising company and a devoted volunteer. She is the ever smiling mom of a teenage girl and a strong climber.

5. Robert, 45, who was 140 pounds overweight in December. He is a professional speaker and he accepted a health challenge from the team. He trains 3 to 5 times a week, has lost over 60 pounds in three months and feels awesome!

Grand DefiOver the next 49 days, I will blog every now and then about topics such as back to back training, top recovery foods, the team’s highs and lows, gear used, the work-training-family balance we are all working so hard to reach, most common training mistakes and cycling in Canada’s capital.

In 50 days, along with my team mates and more than 1000 other cyclists, I will criss-cross the largest province of the second largest country in the world and blog on my “rest time” in our 24-foot long PBK motor home.

Remember, we are ordinary working people with families. No pros here. We are on to an amazing challenge and we hope you’ll follow us to it and help us get through the gruelling training this will require. (Remember, this is Canada. We are training at 4 degrees Celsius right now, hoping that the rain won’t turn to slippery snow. In 50 days, we have to cycle the equivalent of Brussels to Lisbon in less than 3 days, between the 5 of us…).

Please comment, share and add to the blog. If you’ve done this sort of challenge before, we want your tips!

Cheers!

Mélany.



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