Monday, August 31, 2009

Worlds Relay

Just doing the final prep before our Canadian Team gets ready for the Relay at World Championships this afternoon. Raphael Gagne will start us out followed by Geoff Kabush, myself and none other than Catherine Pendral to finsih us off. We have a good fast team, were confident we can podium and maybe even take the big W. Were heading out in just over an hour. Getting the butterflies going right now, this is a big one. Really excited for it. Geoff, Raph and myself will all rollin' our Rocky Mountain Vertex Team RSL's. Which are ballin' out of control by the way. They are all preped and ready to rock it down under here in Canberra, Australia. I'll try and update later if I have some time after the race.

Cyclingdirt.org should be playing the relay live if you want to check it out along with maybe freecaster.tv





Friday, August 28, 2009

Evan Gross Truie’s Diary

Entry #1 August 26th 2009

Dear Diary,

Today was another fun day to add to the list of the fun August days I’ve had so far. I had all my laundry washed after my return from the Canada Games on Monday. Since the Games I have been debating about trying to loose from weight, I’m not happy with the 161 figure I make the mirror look at, so I decided to just have some lettuce for breakfast…..Heck No! I’m kidding, I went out for a massive brunch with my Grandad and pounded back 3 cups of coffee before my meal even arrived then had one more with my sausage, egg, potato and pancake plate load of heaven. Almost felt like giving birth to an alien after that…Quoted by Chandler Bing from Friends season 5 episode 14 I believe, that’s just off the top of my head though.

Then I made the trip home to the Guthrie ranch located in the boonies of Peachland BC. Bet you don’t even know where that is! Looked at my suitcase and my pile of clothes and thought I can leave that until later. I quickly got in my sham and headed out for one last spin on the mtb before I leave “Down Under” tonight. My baby, the Rocky Mountain Vertex Team RSL rode like usual, an angel floating through the clouds of heaven. Got back and cleaned the bike, apparently I cant have any dirt on my bike or the security people at the Sydney Airport will make me wash it there. So that meant scrubbing down those Maxxis tires for a little while, well long while. Still had red clay on them from the Canada Games XC race in PEI. I let that dry and then headed inside to check facebook, yes I have facebook it’s a great connection to talk to people around the world…Im not that freaky about it, just needed to answer a few of the many emails I get from the “ladies”.

Then came packing my suitcase I looked at the clock beforehand and only had 15 min before I had to leave to the airport. So that meant pack everything else up, eat, shower, and make myself look pretty for the flight so I could try and get bumped to first class. Got all that done is 14.5 min then I was out the door and cruising to my flight in the parent’s minivan. You have to cruise in style through the Okanagan otherwise its not even worth driving the minivan, which is a Ford Freestar with a 4.2 L engine…by the way.

Got lined up to check in and I had a cool lady I dealt with, she waived the bike fee and didn’t charge me the extra 100 bones for my other bag being 15 lbs overweight. What a girl! But she wasn’t able to get me into first class, so right after that I took off the collared shirt and pants and put on my rad short shorts, tee and compression socks, which doesn’t make me look like an idiot at all. Off to the land down under now!

I have now arrived and I will give an update later, just heading out into a ride in the rain and I can also see my breath...lamesauce.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Canada Games a Wrap

Just finishing up our last day in PEI. Flying out tonight at 7 pm. Packing up after a trip and heading home is always the hardest. Just throwing stuff in our bags and hoping they close so we can get home and get a good nights sleep in our own bed.

BC had a pretty good week, with two golds and two silvers in cycling. The last two days in the Road Race and the Crit the guys rode their hearts out, and we rode well, Quebec just had the manpower and could do whatever they wanted. We were close to winning the last two races, but its always hard to make things pan out the way you want them too. But we did what we could and walked away feeling alright about the preformance's we had put in.

Going to be home tomorrow night and then leaving again on Wednesday to OZ for MTB World Champs. But getting really excited because Rocky Mountain just sent me off my brand new special cross frame. Should be back home when I get there. Super stoked on that, supposed to also be getting the new superlight RaceFace Next cranks for Worlds, going to be fast and light!

Give more of an update when I get back home and have actual internet!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Canada Games

Been out here in Summerside PEI since Friday. Been riding, resting and eating. Had the opening ceremonies yesterday. Took all day long and was dang stinkin hot in that building. But it was all worthwhile, super cool to be at a ceremony like that.

Rode some mountain push bikes today. Practiced for a couple hours and got the course dialed. Changed some tires and changed some gears, but found the perfect set up. Resting right now and getting ready for race day tomorrow. Going to be fast and hard. Hungry for a medal...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Vancouver to PEI

Started off the Canada Games trip yesterday with the first leg bringing Owen Harrison and myself down to Vancouver. Where we fly out with Team BC tomorrow night. We are staying at Cody Campbells house down here in Surrey. Yesterday we stopped at the Cycling BC office and dropped off our mtb bikes. We got to Cody's just in time to head to the track with him. This is the once a year tradition I try to carry on. Hitting the track was fun. Rode for an hour and bit on the rental bikes. Some of the guys were doing a motor pace session, little to sketchy for me, so I just rode the sissy line around the veledrome until I got bored. We got back to Codys with a mega lasagna brewing in the oven. Munched some of that then watched some TV then hit the sack.

Today Mr. Tim Sherstobitoff met us and we did a couple hour ride into Fort Langley. Stopped at a cool little coffee shop and got ourselves a hot beverage along with pastry. We got home from a little cooler ride than we expected, with Codys mom not disappointing for awesome meal #2, a bean soup being brewed in the crock pot.

Just sitting on the couch with the boys trying to do a "drug education" course online, than is taking hours to load. Hopefully we can get it done in the next 5 hours before we have to leave for our Red Eye flight to PEI.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Last Days at home before Canada Games

Been on some R&R time the last week, fitting in some solid training rides as well. Finishing up work before I head off to PEI on Wednesday with BC. Finally get to sit around during the day and maybe find a free day to sleep in now. I have been standing monday-friday, of the weeks that Im home, working my arse off like a child slave here in Kelowna. We also work in a little barn with a medal roof, 110 degree heat maybe?

Just had a phone interview with the local paper here tonight, giving them all a little update of what been happening in the busy life lately.

Off to packing two bikes, 6 wheels and a trainer in two little boxess....mhmm

Monday, August 3, 2009

Bromont World Cup

It was just another great day for Canada, with Geoff Kabush winning elite men, Catherine Pendral getting 3rd in elite women, Kristina Laforge winning junior women, Emily Batty winning womens U23 and myself able to take the junior men. It all came together like a perfect wish this weekend for most of us Canadian riders. It was perfect conditions to go with a perfectly sculpted Canadian style course.

For the junior men race I was able to take the lead into the climb after a bad start from missing my pedal. I was trying to start really hard here for practice going into worlds. It worked out perfectly, because after missing the pedal I had to go even harder to get to the front. It was long climb, probably 7-8 min. By the top I opended a little gap and just carried it through the lap and slowly increased it by finish. It was just another great day on the bike, I was feeling like a million bucks on the climbs, technical and descents. On the first lap I was doing a super ill line that teamate Tyler Allison and myself picked out, and I bent my deraillear hanger. So luckily I left my granny ring for these races because I had to use it on the climb seeing though I only had the bottom half of my cassette to use on the super steep climbs. I pushed myself right to the end, because knowing that at Worlds I am going to have five guys within 30 sec infront and behind me, which means chase until you cant pedal your bike anymore. I did just that and was able to almost double my gap on the last lap and come in with the hands high and a huge smile on my face. I was feeling at home on this course, even though its the complete opposite of what I ride, but I think that is what makes me love this east coast riding so much.

Just packing the bike and heading into Montreal with the gang, then fly home tomorrow, but only home for 10 days before the next races, Canada Games!