Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Penticton Bike Fest CX race
Yet again the Okanagan pulled out a wicked day, 23 degrees and sun. Not a cloud in the sky. So pretty much it was hot, dry and dusty, yet pretty tacky. Started at the back, they sent the slowest to the front and fastest to the back. Good way to keep it fun! Although I was out there to go as hard as I could for as long as I could. So for about 62 minutes it was no fun for me. Just pain and suffering. Learned what it was like again, got a pedal in the ankle, brake in the thigh, almost crashed on the barriers X2. Lucky everything worked out and went as planned. Think I was able to ride harder than expected, happy after all the riding I did this week. Big THANKS to Brian Burke and all the other volunteers who helped make this day happen. I think the turnout from double from last year, which is a HUGE leap in 1 year. Also thanks for Cliff Bar and Oakley for helping out, they made for some wicked draw prizes.
I'm just enjoying my morning coffee before todays Penticton Bike Fest Poker MTB XC race. Should be fun, thinking I am going to need to learn how to play poker in the next hour. And apparently there is supposed to be some famous girl coming out today, her name is Catherine Pendral?? Apparently she has like won World Cups and stuff?? Anyway hoping she doesn't beat me..Maybe she will be faster on the bike, but I will learn great poker skills, and poker skills is what matters today...
Anyway here are some pictures from Yesterday, as they explain a lot more than words:
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Last day of Summer/CX time
Firstly, My awesome boss at www.bikebarn.ca Mr Will Pratt gave me the day off so I can prepare for our local CX race like it's the world championships.. That means 11 hrs of sleep, nice coffee a morning spin and proper ride time on the course pre-race time. As today will be CX race #1 on the calender, you have to be ready, I even have a spare bike..
On Tuesday after work I went out and enjoyed a nice mountain bike ride on my Rocky Mountain Altitude. I can't say enough good things about this bike, climbs as good as my Element and descends like a big bike. Anyway it was the last official day of summer, and the Okanagan held its own with 22 degrees and sun. With rain a couple days before the trails were absolutely mint, some of the best I've seen all year. I rode a new trail that day, you must loose 1,000 ft of elevation in like 2 minutes. But it goes straight down a mountain and has a sick little trail cut in the side. One point it is if your about to go straight off the mtn and there is a massive berm that takes you back alongside the hill, if you mess that off your going off a cliff kinda thing..So here are some pictures so you can really understand how sweet it was:
On Tuesday after work I went out and enjoyed a nice mountain bike ride on my Rocky Mountain Altitude. I can't say enough good things about this bike, climbs as good as my Element and descends like a big bike. Anyway it was the last official day of summer, and the Okanagan held its own with 22 degrees and sun. With rain a couple days before the trails were absolutely mint, some of the best I've seen all year. I rode a new trail that day, you must loose 1,000 ft of elevation in like 2 minutes. But it goes straight down a mountain and has a sick little trail cut in the side. One point it is if your about to go straight off the mtn and there is a massive berm that takes you back alongside the hill, if you mess that off your going off a cliff kinda thing..So here are some pictures so you can really understand how sweet it was:
Monday, September 20, 2010
Stepping up in life
I have officially made my biggest investment so far in my 19 years last Wednesday. Bought myself a new whip. She runs well, is clean and purrs like a kitty cat. You will be able to tell which one is the old one, and which is the new one. If you can't, the new one is white, with sick spray painted rims.
I also received my uber oh so sweet Rocky Mountain CX team bicycle last week. Just built it up Friday. Oh boy she is a beauty. Can't wait to get out and race it. Super light and stiff, can't beat that combo.
I also received my uber oh so sweet Rocky Mountain CX team bicycle last week. Just built it up Friday. Oh boy she is a beauty. Can't wait to get out and race it. Super light and stiff, can't beat that combo.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Whistler Grand Fondo
Well I have accomplished my first road event of the season. Although I thought for the last month that our "Powered by Chocolate Milk" team was going to be racing it, in the Giro catagory. And there was $6,000 in prize money for the top 3. So I have been doing long road rides with hour to hour and half long climbs for the past 3 weeks. But once I got to Vancouver on Friday I learned that we were "riding" or should I say participating in the event. So here goes the day:
-4:30 am wake up
-Massive amount of coffee and bagels
-Chamois up with our brown and blue kit, non-bib shorts by the way
-Riding to the start at 5:20 am
-Stand in the corral from 5:45 am to 7 am
-Went to the bathroom a billion times
-Met some nice fast folks with aero bars
-Started in about 500th out of 5,000
-Road like retards through 500 ppl to get to the front in about 2 blocks
-Saw that Global TV had a camera man filming our race on a motor bike up front. So our whole team went to the front and attacked across the Lions Gate bridge, like jit bags
-Rode like camera whores for the 20 minutes, getting attention for our Chocolate Milk sponsors
-Got in every little break there was until our teammate rode off the front at 50 km, and was going solo
-Made a bridge attempt with the one and only Jacob Schwingboth. Good thing were both uber fit right now
-Started to face at 80 km because of the 2 gels, 2 waters bottles we only had
-Jake and I decided to slam our Red Bulls and see what happend
-I got dropped on the next climb, although we did just average over 400 watts everytime we were on the front for the last 45 min.
-Dropped back to the group, saw we were missing two teammates.
-We were going for the best team, so I helped push our coach Richard Wooles up the climbs for the next 15 km. Wrecked my legs like never before
-Saw Tim Sherstobitoff drive by in the van with our teammate passed out in the drivers seat with his mouth open
-Jacob finally finished his solo bridge attempt and joined the big chase group
-Then at 5 km to go, Jake and I cracked so hard we could barley ride,people started flying past us
-I have never cracked so hard in my life, I saw rainbows and almost couldn't stay awake on the bike, on a good note, before I cracked I was averaging 299 watts for 115 km..yes!
-Our coach was then pushing us to the line, thank god we made it, I was scared I was going to just ride into a ditch and curl up into a ball and just start hibernating
-Our teammate Owen Harrison soloed in from the 50 km mark to take the W.
-Finished, Had only ate 3 gels, and two bottles for 130 km. So I started eating dad's cookies and I wasn't event getting half the cookie down it was just falling out of the my mouth
-Had burger #1 of the day at 10:30 am, yes all the above had just happend by 10:30 am
-Changed into normal clothes
-Went to our hotel room and everyone napped
-Went out for an early dinner, buger #2 was had there with a wobly pop. Our waitress was gorgeous too
-Went back to our hotel again and laid there. Decided to go to the clubs
-Left the clubs 30 mins later, got a ton of junk food and went and watched TV in our hotel room with Boris Martin. By this point I was already up for 19 hrs.
That is what our 2010 Whistler Grand Fondo looked like. Glad now I didn't do the actual race.
-4:30 am wake up
-Massive amount of coffee and bagels
-Chamois up with our brown and blue kit, non-bib shorts by the way
-Riding to the start at 5:20 am
-Stand in the corral from 5:45 am to 7 am
-Went to the bathroom a billion times
-Met some nice fast folks with aero bars
-Started in about 500th out of 5,000
-Road like retards through 500 ppl to get to the front in about 2 blocks
-Saw that Global TV had a camera man filming our race on a motor bike up front. So our whole team went to the front and attacked across the Lions Gate bridge, like jit bags
-Rode like camera whores for the 20 minutes, getting attention for our Chocolate Milk sponsors
-Got in every little break there was until our teammate rode off the front at 50 km, and was going solo
-Made a bridge attempt with the one and only Jacob Schwingboth. Good thing were both uber fit right now
-Started to face at 80 km because of the 2 gels, 2 waters bottles we only had
-Jake and I decided to slam our Red Bulls and see what happend
-I got dropped on the next climb, although we did just average over 400 watts everytime we were on the front for the last 45 min.
-Dropped back to the group, saw we were missing two teammates.
-We were going for the best team, so I helped push our coach Richard Wooles up the climbs for the next 15 km. Wrecked my legs like never before
-Saw Tim Sherstobitoff drive by in the van with our teammate passed out in the drivers seat with his mouth open
-Jacob finally finished his solo bridge attempt and joined the big chase group
-Then at 5 km to go, Jake and I cracked so hard we could barley ride,people started flying past us
-I have never cracked so hard in my life, I saw rainbows and almost couldn't stay awake on the bike, on a good note, before I cracked I was averaging 299 watts for 115 km..yes!
-Our coach was then pushing us to the line, thank god we made it, I was scared I was going to just ride into a ditch and curl up into a ball and just start hibernating
-Our teammate Owen Harrison soloed in from the 50 km mark to take the W.
-Finished, Had only ate 3 gels, and two bottles for 130 km. So I started eating dad's cookies and I wasn't event getting half the cookie down it was just falling out of the my mouth
-Had burger #1 of the day at 10:30 am, yes all the above had just happend by 10:30 am
-Changed into normal clothes
-Went to our hotel room and everyone napped
-Went out for an early dinner, buger #2 was had there with a wobly pop. Our waitress was gorgeous too
-Went back to our hotel again and laid there. Decided to go to the clubs
-Left the clubs 30 mins later, got a ton of junk food and went and watched TV in our hotel room with Boris Martin. By this point I was already up for 19 hrs.
That is what our 2010 Whistler Grand Fondo looked like. Glad now I didn't do the actual race.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Life
So, where to begin. Life lately has been a handful. The last two weeks I worked 93 hours for the Ironman crazy. And that is when I started training again. So with working and training combined I am pretty wrecked. I wish I had a video camera with me for the Ironman week, as there was stuff I heard and saw that I will never experience again, just a crazy yet super fun and interesting time. Oh the first picture below there, is myself in the 2011 Louis Garneau catalogue. When I was in Tucson this winter for the national team camp we did a photo shoot and I guess they picked my shot, sweet I know...
This upcoming weekend I will be racing the Vancouver-Whistler Grand Fondo event for "Team Chocolate Milk". Should be a super rad time. The team is Richard Wooles, Jeff Ain, Owen Harrsion, Jacob Schwingboth, Boris Martin and myself. We'll be spending the night in Whistler, so we'll have to try and fit in with the Whistler kids..hahA NOT!
And by the way HUGE congrats to Lauren Rosser for taking for Junior womens downhill World Title. She's from BC too. And congrats to Steve Smith of BC for taking the silver in Mens DH!
Yesterday I did the Salmon Arm-Sicamous traverse. I've been hearing about it for a couple months now about it being the best trail in the valley to check out. So of course a free weekend came and I jumped on it. It wasn't as sweet as people had described it as, over 5 hrs we probably did 2.5 hrs of fireroad. Which isn't my favourite thing in the world...but there was a pretty sick descent to end, which was about a 10 min one, and we have it on helmet cam, I will hopefully get that up on here soon and you will be able to see me do a super duper superman stomach slide after I tried to rail a corner. We then spent 20 km mountain bike road riding back. So it was a long day in the saddle, the best part was that I felt alright by the end, good thing heading into this grand fondo. Here is the Garmin File:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47781208
This upcoming weekend I will be racing the Vancouver-Whistler Grand Fondo event for "Team Chocolate Milk". Should be a super rad time. The team is Richard Wooles, Jeff Ain, Owen Harrsion, Jacob Schwingboth, Boris Martin and myself. We'll be spending the night in Whistler, so we'll have to try and fit in with the Whistler kids..hahA NOT!
And by the way HUGE congrats to Lauren Rosser for taking for Junior womens downhill World Title. She's from BC too. And congrats to Steve Smith of BC for taking the silver in Mens DH!
Yesterday I did the Salmon Arm-Sicamous traverse. I've been hearing about it for a couple months now about it being the best trail in the valley to check out. So of course a free weekend came and I jumped on it. It wasn't as sweet as people had described it as, over 5 hrs we probably did 2.5 hrs of fireroad. Which isn't my favourite thing in the world...but there was a pretty sick descent to end, which was about a 10 min one, and we have it on helmet cam, I will hopefully get that up on here soon and you will be able to see me do a super duper superman stomach slide after I tried to rail a corner. We then spent 20 km mountain bike road riding back. So it was a long day in the saddle, the best part was that I felt alright by the end, good thing heading into this grand fondo. Here is the Garmin File:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/47781208
Sunday, September 5, 2010
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