Merry Christmas!

Definitely enjoyed the last couple weeks, had some solid training days along with some monster days of eating home baking. Tried to limit myself with the eating of the baking. But that fell through long before christmas began. Christmas morning I had a coffee and 6 cinnamon buns...yah I know.


I also got this weird beer from my mom, yet to try it though.


Anyway there's been some fun snowshoes and some not so fun riding the trainer days. Today I was able to get in a solid snowshoe with some of my favourite training buddies from town. Had to get one in as I work 7 out of the next 8 days. So instead of explain how awesome it was, how the deep the snow was and how beautiful the views were. Here's some pictures:





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Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card

Winter Training

Finally winter is here, I can't tell you how excited that makes me! I've had enough of this -20 and no snow, makes anything outside impossible. But on the weekend it decided to snow 20 cm overnight and then get to +7 the next day so the snow can melt. On my way to work Sunday morning I got stuck in our driveway which is flat by the way. It took a few back and forths to rock out and then I had to try and back 100 ft out to the road, and got stuck in the middle. I did make it in time for work though! It was fun rippin up to the ski hill with 25 cm of fresh pow. I felt like a snow plow in my car the whole way.

This is what our road looked like, you can see the bottom of car was just dragging through the snow, now coming up is our 1 km 12% hill. Makes for a fun time in the winter, but in the case more snow the better because it just worked like a brake.

Monday was a great day for a snowshoe with my pal Aart. We headed up an old forest service road that hadn't been plowed, except for the few 4X4's that had driven through. So I had my car pinned as we started our ascent up this road. Other than the fact that the bottom of my car again was pounding through the snow, everything went smooth me make it pretty dam far, but when the came to about 13% we started to get slower and slower until we stopped and did a e-brake reverse U turn and found a spot on the side of the road.


Off snowshoeing we went, walked into a quiet little lake and was contemplating walking across, but the +7 helped to opt not to.

On we carried up and over the mtns, luckily having our garmins, because we wouldn't have ended up right at my car at the end. Oh and just before we arrived back at my car we ran into some cougar tracks, and no not the cougar your thinking of, the real kind. So this encouraged us to speed snowshoe back just a tad bit.



And here's a little clip of the unplowed forest service rd:

So.....some bastard cut me off yesterday morning on the way to work. Made the choice to swerve and try to avoid the median. But I just clipped it. In case you didn't know, never hit a median going 100 k/ph. It doesn't sound and or feel good, your car is all over the place after, because of the two rims with flat spots and the front blow out. Plus when your in morning traffic it makes for some dandy car dodging to get to the side. And that was my Thursday morning.

2010 BC Cup CX Finals

Mid-Hike Excitement!

Here's a video from the Big White Rally on Saturday.




I was volunteering at the Snow X stage, so that is where all the footage is from. I was up there bright and early doing car inspection to make sure all the regulars had proper equipment to get their car sideways on the snow. There were about 35 entries and BC, Alberta and even Washington state. These guys had from 9-4 to rip the under 2 minute course and vie for the fastest time in their catagories. 4wd studded, 4wd non-studded, 2wd studded and finally 2wd no-studded. Other than a quick 30 min break for the legit rally pros to come through for the stage it was game on all day. Brandon Semenuk just got his rally license last week and made the trip from Squamish to race cars. He came through and had the fastest time at the snow X. Rad.

I contemplated putting my civic in for some fun "legal" drifting, but I was super busy helping out all day. Finally I man'd up and went out for the last timed run of the day, came out with 3rd fastest times in 2wd non-studded. Stoked out that considering I had no test run, drove when the track was at its iciest, and I was just trying to drift the course. Next year I think its game for the W in that, low tire pressure, no drifting and more runs! Here's half of my run:

CX Provincials, 2010 over and out.

So 201 is officially done and over with. I can close the book and say that my last race of the year was the one I made myself hurt the most in. Its been like a year since I remember pushing to that limit where falling off my bike seems like the easy thing to do.

This past weekend was the final weekend of CX racing in BC. It was the BC Cup Finals Saturday and Provincial Champs Sunday. Made the early morning drive Saturday, to arrive in South Surrey to a wicked course. Not many fast sections and not many climbs, Which suited my non-fit skills at this point in the season. There was minor bits of snow, a very frozen ground with some peanut butter on top. Which made for some super slick riding out there. I was running well below 30 PSI on clinchers....safe? No. Anyway in warm up I felt like a piece of crap, which was expected as I had been sick for the previous 2 weeks and still in antibiotics. So that explained the 190 HR on my easy pre-race lap. Got the start line all nervous, since my last race was Nationals and that was just out right horrible riding. So I was hoping this might be better. As I had 1 good week of training and 2 weeks of well, childs play. Got the holeshot, then went around the 2nd corner and went down good. Had some of my white ass hanging out my shorts, as they were pulled right now. Got back on the bike and chased watching each of the top 5 guys, except Schooler, take a turn visiting the course in different ways. Caught on for half a lap and realized that getting the holeshot was my 1 bullet for the day, didn't have the 20 round clip today. After my spill I kept riding towards the sides of the course and finally figured out my handlebar was little off, plus my shifting was getting funky while going through the sand pits so I switched bikes, to my winter training bike with different length cranks and apparently a different position. No excuses here, as I was way dropped well before. Once I got going again I knew it was not the day and it felt wrong going that hard, so I pulled the pin. That was DNF #2 in my career, with #1 being MTB Nationals. Not stoked on ever having that beside my name, but it felt like the right thing to do. So I washed up and watch Tyler Trace roll through the field late in the race and get a fair size gap in a short time to take the W, along with the BC Cup overall. After the race we were all huddled around hoping that our tickets were the winning ones for the case of beer, And the winner was of course the man who doesn't drink. Go figure.

Saturday night was time to take pressure off my self, I've been putting a ton on this fall, as I was wanted to finish the season with atleast a race or two where I felt good and that was sort of successful. Up to this point I had one CX race back in early Oct. So today was yet another dissapointment. I just kept thinking if I have a good race then the mono is gone. So I went out and had a nice burger and beer that night with my dad.

Sunday morning was slow and leisurely. Got the chamois on and it was game time. Went to the race ready to throw down some fun racing for the last time this year. Rode a couple laps of the course and knew it was going to be great at speed( Big thanks to Kevin Calhoun, who put on the once again the best cx race of 2010) With some overnight rain and cold temperatures it meant for a great day to race. Started slow to keeps thing in check, a group of 5 of us established pretty quickly. With everyone taking blows. I always like to keep the pressure on through the tight twisty stuff, where I can put the mtbiker skills to use and relax. Andrew Pinfold, Tyler Trace, Aaron Schooler, Kevin Noiles, Drew Mackenzie and myself were rolling around together like 16 girls that were BFF's. Then the attacks came we all were on our own. Just like high school girls are best friends at break and then by lunch they are all calling each other bad names...Anyway surges kept happening, and some good attacks were thrown down and it was only a TTrace, Schooler, Pinfold and myself left. Then two laps later TTrace attacked and it was him and I left. Pretty interesting day for me, I was able to put myself deep deep into that long forgotten paincave and just hold on with showing as little fatigue as possible. We rode together well for a couple laps, then each took a couple attacks, I made the mistake of trying to attack while outfront and just torched myself a too much then we hit the open I moved over and BOOM he threw it down hard, I was almost on his wheel then we hit some technical sections I was finished. The gap was opened and I tried for a lap to shut it down, but it was a no go. Big congrats to Tyler Trace for taking the W two days in a row, and he even went back to Vic in between races for a moustaché party. What a champ. Hungout with all the boys during awards, all talk shitting as the French would say. Finally a good race again, Felt like a worthwhile weekend in the end. Happy to finish the season, and really happy to finish it while feeling happy, because it you weren't feeling happy then it would be hard to think 2010 was happy. So being happy is key going into the winter. Too many happy's?

Winter 2011 is here!

So excited to say that there is now on the ground here, the high for today is going to be -7 I believe. Stoked its time for winter stuff, don't get me wrong I love my bike, but the winter has just so much to offer, like driving for example. I love the winter because its finally interesting again, you have to pay attention, plus you get to watch some people drive 40 k/ph on the highway when the roads are dry! Once again I got sick last week, nowadays though I am sick so much that its actually a surprise when I am well...

Had my first "pull-car-out-of-ditch" incident the other for this season. Pretty much had to re-model the ditch so the car could drive out, filled it all in and chopped it all apart so it kind of looked like a mini highway. We weren't able to drive it out though. (little car, sideways, ditch you know the drill) So had to get our rusted out 4X4 out there with the tow ropes to pull her out. Mission accomplished, did I mention this was at 11 pm? Anyway had some fun times earlier in the day helping my brother get up our 1 km, 1 lane, twisty, 12 % road to our house. First ever drive in the winter is hard, but first drive in the winter on our road is like impossible. So to guide him up. This is another reason why winter is fun, you never get to help people drive in the summer, I take that back. There definitely are some terrible terrible drivers out there.




Saturday night after work I had to head to Canadian Tire to get some super awesome glue called Gorilla Glue, going to try and glue my XC skis back together, could save myself $300 bones! Anyway it was the Legendary and annual Beer Mile going on in Penticton tonight, it is a world-wide event. So I decided to swing over there before I hit the trainer, as that can wait. There are official beer mile rules at : http://www.beermile.com/ Quick summary is basically is run 4 laps of a 400 M track and chug a beer before each lap and is you throw up then you have to do a penalty lap. Here are the 1000 best ever preformances: http://www.beermile.com/records/ref_wr Our boy from The Bike Barn and Penticton BC was Jeff Symonds, hot off his 13th place at Ironman 70.3 Worlds he was ready to kill it. His previous record was 6:29 and he bested that and rocked out a sick 5:55 Beer Mile. He just needs to fit beer chugging in his training schedule and he could one of the top in the world for the Beer Mile as well as Half Irons. I was pretty disgusted watching, it didn't help that it was -5 out either. But on a good note Jeff rocked out our 1970's Bike Barn skinsuit, mullet, trucker hat and some wicked flip up/down glasses. Also big shout out to Ian Nelson who finished his beer so quickly that he had a 150 M headstart. Combine his drinking and Jeff run, oh my World Champion Beer Miler right there!

Video from my good old days! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=446pHJNQzDA

Movember/Got Milk? add campaign. Yes, No ..?

Cyclo-Cross Nationals.

Well it was a fun trip, not the result I wanted at all, was hoping . Was hoping to have at least one result this season that I would be able to put on paper. Now all I can put is MONO I guess. I was able to rock out the 'stache this weekend in spirit of Movember.

First awesome thing was 4 of us met at the airport and I asked for 1 van taxi, and the guy was like "no, you will never fit that stuff in" I said excuse me, I am cyclist, you obviously don't know that we are 100% the cheapest and best packers of all athletes out there. Sure enough, 4 bike suitcases, 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons and 5 people fit in the dam mini-van.

Pre-rode the course in some slick conditions, forecast said chance of snow, and oh man was I praying for that. As the course was just plain out perfect Friday. Put all the mud tires on and I was ready to roll, little did I know it dried up over night, blue skies were going to come out for our race and the mud tires were going to be a horrible selection and and make too many sections SLOW.

My race plan was attack hard and see what happend. Got the holeshot, then said see yah later to the top 4 boys. Rolled in for 5th. Huge shout out to Evan McNeely he was rockin' sh*t out there, definitely deserved the W.

For the evening we opted not to go out and get smashed, as I was hoping to have a better day 2. Just went out and met some of the guys at Moxies and had a beer. Ordered in Pizza and hung out.

Day 2 was a lot better, and of course I feel better the day that doesn't matter. But was able to roll with the front group for almost half the race, was riding in No Mans land for a couple laps in 5th spot, then got my bar tangled in the marking tape, cost me a spot, probably would have lost that spot before the end anyway, faded super hard on the last lap to the point where I almost had to get off my bike on on of the hills, good thing everything was established and I didn't lose another spot. Sucked just being off the podium today. But big ups to the espoirs today, 4 were in the top-6.

It was then back to the hotel, bike packing and changing time in the little storage room. Called for a taxi, taxi arrived and they sent a car instead of a van. Then they effed up again and we waited an hour, then our driver was beyond retard, I had to dump the rear seats, he didn't know how to drive either. Took us 15 min to get out of the parking lot because his ticket wouldn't open the gate, and we were getting charged for sitting still and him getting mad. So I got pissed right now, told him to follow another vehicle out so we could squeek under the gate, but he waited too long and the gate closed on the hood but then sprung back open. We then got onto the highway and the bastard said "too much traffic, we take different way" and of course changed lanes without checking and almost got us tee boned. I'm sure he was lost driving in the middle of no where, because he kept getting mad at the Garmin, finally we got to the airport and I had a 40 min until my flight left, and did I mention were at the Toronto Airport? At this point my stress level was pass max. I had just raced a bike, had no shower, not eaten in like 6 hours, But I rushed out into line, got a nice fellow, got my hockey bag through for free because it had "hockey equipment" in it, not a bicycle...Thought about Jeremy Powers Airport Ninja tricks. Was able to get a aisle emergency exit row seat. Made sure I had enough snacks to keep me going, because it was now time for a 4-hr CSI-Miami marathon y'all. And that is my exciting weekend.

Here's the crash of the weekend, awarded to Kyle Douglas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4EU0hFXTK8

Kamloops Cacti 'Cross

Had another wicked weekend in Kamloops. Catharine Pendral put on a CX race, and I must say it was one of the best yet this season, had a full BMX track in it, so I was able to have some "fun". It was Haloween day, so I decided to dress up at Joe Dirt. I had the beard going, saving the moustache for CX Nationals this weekend.

Not to much to update on, Just sitting down here on my day off drinking a nice cup of coffee and watching the rain just pour down. This is day 8 of myself being sick, only ridden twice in the last week, pretty big bummer as Cyclo-Cross Nationals are coming up, but I'll take the rest. Last weekend we had the Catherine Pendral interior CX series #2 race. It was a total mountain bikers course, with a crazy steep run-up and some wicked descents. This was also the day I woke up sick, and I opted just to race and support the local scene, probably should have backed off the gas a bit mid-race. Here's a sweet photo sequence courtesy of Van Pratt:












Photos Courtesy of Van Pratt.