BC Cyclo-Cross Provincials Elite Men

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rZ7lLiKV1I">

That's Wassup

In the beautiful Okanagan, on the sunny summer days I tend to head down to the beach in my ballin' '94 Nissan Sentra, which has custom painted rims a la me, I roll down to where all the ladies do their tanning and I do cool guy front wheel drive burnouts all day long baby. That's how I get all my dates, but anyway this is what my tires look like after the summer is over. I think its the fanny pack that makes the "ladies" attracted to me. You know what I'm saying?

Christmas Tree Hunting/ Creek Skating

Went out with our good family friends the Harrison's on Saturday to do our annual Christmas tree hunt. Explored new territory today, while the parents did the hard work us "kids" went down to the creek and were skating on it, fully frozen at -15! Heck Yes

Snow!

Finally we have winter like conditions out here in the Okanagan! Super stoked on it, time for snowshoeing, XC skiing and sledding of course. Just outside stacking wood and shoveling the driveway, finally it feels worth it to be doing that when there's snow on the ground, I've been stacking wood for over a month now and there hasn't been any snow and I've been asking myself why am I doing this when it's not white out? Now I got my reason!

Heading into town to do a "guys" Christmas shop. Ladies that means I know what I want, I go to the store, buy it and leave, simple as that. No screwing around and thinking maybe they will like this better, or this just isn't for him/her. This is what we call a guys shop, in, out and home in time to watch UFC.

Sunset

Beautiful.

Cycling BC Video

Check it out, Pretty sweet video put together by Cycling BC.


https://www.cyclingbc.net/awards

Blue Groue Mountain

What a 10/10 hike today in the beautiful Okanagan with my bud Owen. Blue skies and sun were only to be seen. Rolled off for a sub-4 hour hike above Bear Creek park on Westside Rd. Climbed up to where the repeater station was. Couple river crossings, one of which Owen almost took a bath in, just quickly cleaned up to his knee's and he was set to roll again. We explored some uncharted territory for us. Our new plan is to hike somewhere new every time we go this winter.

Rally Racing- Big White

Volunteered at the Big White rally event yesterday. Got to do some ride alongs during the ice cross. Got pretty sideways and even a 360 down! Sitting "female dog" to my friend Anthony Evans. He's driving the right hand drive pretty dandy.

Rocky Mountain Sweeps CX Provincials

Today Alison Sydor and myself were able to take the wins in elite men and women, to take the provincial crowns. Our Rocky Mountain Solo CX Team Bikes ran smooth like butter today! Pretty stoked on that, never won an elite provincial championship before.

The day started out at 5 am in old Guthrie log home in Peachland BC. My brother, father and myself got in the ballin' mini-van and were Vancouver bound. It happend to rain the whole way to Vancouver, but once we hit Langley it stopped. I was excited because the night before I prayed for a muddy muddy race but not rain. That dream came true, and it came along with the best cx course I've ever raced, along with the best organized race of the season. Big shout out to Kevin Calhoun for cooking up and memorable Provincial Cyclo-cross weekend.

Today I decided to do an actual warm up unlike the last few races. I rode a couple laps. Next thing I did was eat one of my Dr Vie Sports bars, the GO bar to be specific and man did it make me go! Then I dedicated myself to 30 min on the trainer. Which really paid off. I was called up first which was nice, because I've been in like the 3rd row for every cross race this year. Apparently it was in order of registration and I didn't register until the morning off. Wicked. Then of course I had miss clipping into my pedal like 3 times in a row at the start, but then I sprinted right back to the front and had more speed than anyone and was able to just float through a mud bog section and then jumped up the 3 set of stairs which opened up a considerable gap, and from that point on I just put my head down and thought about getting a whopper in Chiliwack on the way home. I made a few mistakes throughout the race, like trying to ride the run-ups. So once the gap shrunk I was hit it dam hard for two laps to open it up again, and then I had a buffer to play with incase some problems occurred. Which in the last two laps my gears were dying out me and slowly stopping the nice crisp shifts and turned to ugly jumping shifts, had to be careful. Didn't want to snap a chain. So I played it safe and rode the last couple laps as smooth as possible. Came through the hands high and 5 pounds of mud on my body. Today was not the day for a cool down. So I just stayed in my dirty shamois for another half hour until the awards were done. Which I won a wicked Lezyne pump, $125 bones, provincial champ jersey, gold medal, a pound of beans and best of all a gallon of beer. And since I'm of age...they still gave me the beer. And of course I won't drink it because I will give it to my dad..





Photos: John Irvine





Photos: Bicycle Radio

Awesome Friday in prep for CX Provincials.

Was out with some good buddies last night in Penticton BC watching a Junior hockey game. Three of us wore wife beaters and wrote on them in a sharpie, I think we were the only three guys in the 3000 person arena cheering for the out of town team. We were right behind the bench and cheering pretty hard. At half time the kiss cam came on and they went to all the couples and then the camera came on us, and my one friend went to pretend to kiss the other, and the stadium went crazy, then they just had a good boys hug! As I was sitting beside laughing my behind off. We were scared when we left that we might all get jumped when heading out to ours cars, lucky my two friends and 200 lbs. Not that I'm a small cyclist or anything...Tonight is round two, game happening in our home town, we will be the only three guys cheering again for the out of town team. Should make for another interesting night. Then up early tomorrow morning and heading down to Vancouver for Cyclo-Cross Provincials.

Giddy Up!

18 lbs hardtail mtb!

Just got my beautiful Rocky Mountain Vertex Team RSL down to a lovely and satisfying 18 lbs today. She is 100% race dependable, full xtr drivetrain and wheels, Race Face cockpit, Fi'zi:k saddle, and Maxxis tires. I could jump this bike and it would hold up. Can't wait to race this lightweight machine from heaven.

Escape Velocity GP of Burnaby

Took the "W" down in vancity today at another one of those cyclo-cross gatherings. Finally a muddy one. Hit the front end hard in a mud hole and almost endo'd off the bike, and heard a big crack and by bars slipped forward and of course the first thing I thought was my handle bar broke, so I was trying to ride with all my weight on the back of the bike, gave up on that in about 5 minutes and just said the hell with it, break another handle bar and it might be some sort of record for one season. Tried to not get off my bike today, because every time I ran my heals would rub on the inside of my leg, which eventually led to bleeding. Shows how useless a biker like me is at running. Suffered pretty hard today, haven't done anything in a week and the extra pounds gained didn't help either, but I made it through and the handle bar thing just turned out I was being paranoid about nothing.


Photo: Carelle B. Dunn

Post Cyclo-Cross Nationals Video Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8keq8azrJjc">

Vanier Park Cyclo-Cross

Europe World Cups 2009

De-Bike Build

What a way to end the Seaon!

Well the long and successful season had just finished off. Now I can rest up, get a job and eat some fatty food!

Edmonton was a top-notch weekend in my books. With the temperatures hitting -5 to -8 with wind chill on race days, snowy course and technical features made this a perfect course for my liking. Coming off the mtb scene, I've been trying to rest a lot and get over the season worth of fatigue before heading into Edmonton, which meant more days off each week then days on the bike. Which turned out perfect, I just needed to "try" and maintain form but be well rested. Came into the race on Saturday hoping for the win, I knew I had some good legs still and just had to play it smart. Got the holeshot and then going into the first s turn I was going way to fast and slid sideways into the tape and stakes, which lost me the front, so I had to chance for a minute to get back up to Daivd Larson and Simon Lambert-Lemay. Once I got up there I went to the front and drove it, and was making sure that the rest of the field would not catch us three. The other guys didn't seem to want to work too much, and I didn't want to get caught so I rode the front for a couple laps, and just tried to be really smooth and conserve enough energy for when one of the two attacked. Larson finally fell a couple seconds back so I looked and Simon and said "We got him, lets go!" So I attacked and we got a bigger gap and then Simon went down on one of the snow covered icy corners. So I attacked again and just put my head down and rode my own race from there to the finish. There was a group of 3 chasing me but I was able to stay on my bike the whole time, and made sure I wasn't making mistakes, and the three of them were having a bit of trouble I guess in the corners, chasing hard and ice is a tough one to mix together. Once I got a comfortable 30 sec ish gap I just tried to maintain and make no mistakes that would cost me the race. I was able to roll down the straight away for year #2 in Edmonton with the hands in the air and that National Champ title in my hands. Rocky Mountain had a wicked day out there taking Elite Women with Alison Sydor, Elite men with Geoff Kabush, and U23 men with myself!

Sunday's UCI Jim Horner cyclo-cross race was interesting, making the transistion from Junior to Espoir for Saturday, then for Sunday I am now offcially and Elite racer. I was now up against Mr Geoff Kabush. I was started 2nd last row of like 6 or 7 I believe, so I made a huge effort on the start to make it into the top 10 before the open course became narrow, that I did was riding within the top 7 I think the first lap and a half, until I went down pretty good, sliding like 15 feet down a hill and dropping the chain on my bike, and twisting my hood that was now pointing sideways and not forward. 3 little groups now passed me, I chased hard through the first one, then went blew apart the 2nd group and took 1 rider with me and didn't make it back into the first chase group I was in. I was now battling for a top-10 finish. Taking everything out of the tank I could. Came through in 9th I think in the end, only about 45 sec behind one of the guys that I was first originally with. Was pretty happy with the comeback and 115 bones I made. It was also snowing enough to cover the tracks of all the riders each lap. Kabush once again was able to take the W along with Sydor, its seems as though with this race, if you win Saturday then your bound to win Sunday.

Luckily I had my Dr Vie Sports bars to keep me fueled in those conditions, needed lots of energy to battle the below 0 temperatures.

My last season in Junior was great, had a wicked time and couldn't have asked for a better year, other than maybe not breaking my handlebar at the World Championships...haha. Anyway bon voyage Junior, Elite and Espoir here I come!







Photos, Thanks to Rob Jones at CanadianCyclist.com

Edmonton Update

Arrived in Ol' Edmonton yesterday. Flew high class with the BC Lions. Was sandwiched in between two lineman, good thing I'm a skinny cyclist and not a body builder, otherwise we would have been getting pretty comfy! Took a shuttle to my hotel, which is $79 a night, comes with a fridge, microwave, two couches, two beds, and a ton of movie channels, it also comes with a free breakfast. What a deal eh? Oh did I forget to mention that there is snow on the ground here. Well yes, anyway it is freezing and snowy. I got caught in a mini blizzard yesterday while riding the course. Which is awesome in the snow, all the loose corners and steep climbs. Going to be a wicked course if it sticks like this, or if it really warms up and then its very muddy. Either way I will enjoy it, I just hope it's not freezing cold and blue skies, because thats just not enjoyable, it will make me want to be back in the Okanagan in the nice weather. Anyway, just hanging out this morning, hopefully get a couple laps in today with Kabush or Sydor, get the course nice and dialed for tomorrow. Feeling super good these past few days. Really ready to tear some legs off!

BC Cup CX

Just got back from a back-to-back BC Cup Cyclo-Cross weekend down in Vancouver. Saturday was located in New Brighton Park. Rolled off the start and went to the front, lead the first lap and was soon with a group of guys, consisting of Tyler Trace, Kevin Noiles, Rob Britton, Craig Ritchey, Drew Mackenzie and Kevin Kalhoun. We all rode together for the most of the race. I was able to ride the sandpit section at the 30 min mark and everyone else ran so I attacked when I got out of the pit and got a like a 10 sec gap or so and rolled with that for a bit, went through another sand pit which has a barrier at the end of it, that was about 18 inches high, the lap before I tried to ride it behind Noiles and hit my chain ring and ben it, so this lap I was convinced I could ride it. So I tired it and when I pulled the front tire up my front end sank into the sand and when straight into the concrete. I recovered quickly and started riding only to figure out that I got a flat. I rode as far as I could until I was on the rim, then ran all the way to the pits and put my new wheel on, which was a road tire, so that meant a lot of front tire drifting. I rolled in half a lap behind and tired as heck after doing a TT effort by myself for 25 minutes, followed with the 5 min run. T Trace took the win in a sprint, Craig put his hands up too early and he pinched him at the line. Tough break.

Sunday was located in Vanier Park, right down in the "Heart of Vancouver". Great located followed with great weather. Had a good warm up, Legs didn't even feel like I raced yesterday. Which is always a good sign. Went off hard again and took the "holeshot". T Trace followed close behind and we slowly just opened the gap on the field. Craig Ritchey was out in no mans land behind doing his own TT effort, as T Trace and myself were working together well upfront. Duking it out. We rode together until the 55 min mark I believe. I was really starting to hurt at this point, he was taking way harder pulls. So I knew the last few minutes were really going to hurt. So next lap he attacked me into the headwind and blew it to pieces. He quickly opened a good size gap and was able to roll in and take his 3rd straight BC Cup "W". I had a safe enough size gap behind to cruise in, I could tell once he attacked me my speed just fell in half. It was a great race out there, everything went well and I now have good confidence heading into next weekend for National Championships.

Podium sparkling apple juice!



Regained my speed quick, tried to make it not look like I crashed good and kept rolling, only then to get find out I got a flat.



Definitely an akward crash, tried to hop a barrier out of the sand, not smart!

Cyclo-Cross 2009 begins

Just getting ready for BC Cup #2 & 3 of Cyclo-Cross this weekend down in V-city. Just packed the Toyota Corolla, which gets 53 miles to gallon by the way...Ha! the "rice-rocket" is packed and ready to zoom on down to the coast.

The final step before I head to bed is to get the hair trimmer and go buzz off the beard I have been growing for the past two weeks. And turn it into the most red neck lookin' stache and burns known to mankind. I also have Just for Men hair die to seal the deal if it doesn't appeal enough to me! Guthrie Out.

My new baby, Rocky Mountain Solo CX Team Issue.



She Worked! Had to finish in style, Geoff Kabush's "wanker" finish.



Been cooking up some wicked breakfast's the last week!



Also been brewing up some mean lunches!

The Evan Guthrie Special

Mountain Bike World Championships 2009 Canberra, Australia

Video Links

Here are some links to some video interviews I have done over the past couple seasons:

2009 MTB World Cup Finals:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Crp3DEf1gg">

2009 MTB XC Junior World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAFWX-c3AiM">

2009 MTB Relay World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fa-vk8MI9k

2008 MTB XC Junior World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNf4zhwdCw&feature=related

2008 MTB Relay World Championships:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OckIXJ5fDQ0">

Check it out!

Rocky Mountain Bicycles just updates their 2010 website, pretty rad!

http://www.bikes.com/main+en+00_100+home.html?zone=1">

Schladming World Cup

So my 5th place today was unexpected. I wasn't feeling too hot all week leading into this race, and this morning and I was doing some starts and I was just loosing it, well thats what it felt like any way. I was just thinking its the last race of the season, just go for it, and leave it all on the course. So off the bat I missed my pedal and had to really give it a good kick to get back up to the leaders before the climb. I was front line with the Junior World Champ and vice World Champ. So I was happy to be sitting up there with those guys. Then we hit the climb and I fell back a bit, but was still able to hang in the top 10 by the time we hit the first descent. I just put my hammer down and slowly picked off guy by guy. I think heading into the final lap I was 6th. I caught up with Ricardo Paulo Reis Marinheiro (Por) and Matthias Stirnemann (Sui). These guys were 1st and 3rd last weekend. So I was happy to be riding with them, once I caught them they attacked on a climb and gapped me. So I just kept it steady and high for the rest of the lap and was able to reel in Marinheiro and then gap him on the main climb which was making me think "is this right?". But I was going 110% there. Rolled into the finish 5th place and 57 sec off the podium. I was very happy with this race because we had 15ish more riders and the reigning world champ was there. So I was just going to go for it and hope to finish as high as possible. Just heading out to watch the mens race! Hopefully Kabush can reel in a podium ride!

Schladming, Austria what!

Been chillin' out here in Schladming Austria since Monday night. Took the trains all the way from Aigle Switzerland. Almost 13 hours of ridin' the rails. Pretty fun day, a lot better than driving because you can get up and walk around hang out with different people and so on. So far we are staying the best hotel I've ever been too. Its a sport hotel and has bowling, darts, shooting and squash. We also get a FREE continental breakfast, which helps us budgeting cyclists! We also make sandwich's in the morning with breakfast for dinner for lunch. Then we get dinner at the hotel for around 10 euros. Rode the course the last couple days. Way too mellow of a course for my liking, they seemed to cut grass in fields, put us on 20% long climbs, everywhere, and then we ride along hiking paths with roots and rocks that are spray painted so that we don't hit them, but last time I checked thats why we race mountain bikes. To get muddy, fall, struggle on the roots and rocks and say wow, that was hard. But being a Canadian I guess I have a different taste of "mountain" biking in my mouth. Trying the make the best of it though. When will I be in Austria in the mountains again hanging out with some rad people racing my bike. Seeing as though this is the last mtb race of the season I am going to be it all on the line and gamble it all, not play is "smart and safe" but play it "fast and dangerous" and maybe I crack after 30 min on the climbs and finish 30th, maybe I don't crack and win. Hoping for a good one to finish the junior years off at a world cup with a medal.

Switzerland

Just got some internet up in the mountains here at our hotel in Switzerland. Had a few long travel days in the last week. Made the trip from Down Under back to Canada. Home for 42 hours then I back off to Europe. Where I am with the National team for the remaining two World Cups here in Champery, Switzerland and then off to Schladmig, Austria. Super nice weather right now, way better than Australia. We took the train from Zurich and went all the way down south in Switzerland to a mtn. called Champery. Went out for a ride last night, hard to do an easy ride considering everything here is either straight up for a vertical drop down. Found a bike park and decided to hit some doubles and some drops, work on the xc skills. Just heading up to the mtn for a pre-ride. Will do a bigger update tomorrow after the race. Give full details and some photos.

Home

Just got back to Peachland mid day yesterday after a long travel day from down under. my mother had a nice meal last night all ready. Ribs, rice, salad and then some brownies. Was feeling darn tired so I hit the sack at 7 pm. And woke up to it pitch black out, so I checked the time and sure enough it was 1 in the morning. Couldnt get back to bed, so Im just killing some time on the computer. Thought I would post a little update. So here we go. I am home for 43 hours or something stupid like that. Just unpacked my gear yesterday, washed it all and today I will repack it. Not taking the trainer or spare wheels this time. No way in hell I will $250 bucks for my overweight bike and suitcase PLUS oversized on my bike. Absolute joke. Anyway today I am meeting with the local paper to do an interview, then I head to bike shop to get a couple things, get a ride done, then get a massage, re-pack the bike and all my gear and hope for a solid night of sleep. Im excited for the next trip, Leaving the day after everyone starts school and Im free. Living the life this year, just need to find a job when I get back so I dont have to live on the streets!

OZ summary:
Had a sweet time down under. Weather wasn't what you hoped for, but everything else made it awesome. We rode lots, found some wicked trails and we ate kangaroo, which was awesome. In the midst of making a "OZ 2009" video of all the clips from the couple week I was there. Got to hang out around the venue and meet some new people, got some free stuff and enjoyed watching everyone else race. Lost the voice a bit from cheering so hard. A world championship is an event you don't forget. Everything is just so neat, something everyone should try and experience. Well need to get back to bed and get a bit more sleeep..

World Championships Cross Country

Tuesday was the Relay World Championships, Canada had entered a really good team and we had a shot at the win. We put it all down on the line and came out 6 sec off winning a World Championship. I was super excited with this, its was hard because we were so close to winning, but the whole team had big smiles on their faces. We quickly had the podium, a press conference and then made our way back to the hotel to get in some good recovery, I had my XC race coming up on Thursday(today). Today was now the Cross Country race. The one I wanted to place a top-10 in. I was started in 13th, our UCI world ranking. I was happy with that start position. After the start I was sitting in the top-10 heading towards the single, which is where the race is decided in the first lap because there is so much traffic. But then I got caught behind a little pile up and was now in the 20's. Which was all right, not ideal for where I wanted to be riding. But then half way through the lap I passed 3 guys on this hairy line and took this big drop and was going way too fast and over shot it and landed up hill and snapped my handle off. I then crashed hard and got up and made the couple minute run to the tech zone, where our wicked Team Canada mechanic had a spare bar waiting and we unscrewed my old bar, took off the grips, along with the brakes and the shifters. We put the new bar on and I was anxious to go so we didn't put my grips back on. Then my number plate was hanging so we had to cut that off. I lost 6 minutes to leader that lap and was now sitting 2nd last in 69th position, so now the chase was in high speed. I was putting everything down on the line, I now had nothing to loose. I was standing up and going as fast as I could every place I could. I was catching guys all over the place, which was giving me even more confidence at the moment. I was feeling 110% today. So now I wanted to race my legs off and see how fast my laps were to the winner. I was making myself think that each guy in front of me was the leader. Which worked well. Came through in 30th in the end, which I was pleased with after everything that had happend. I later checked lap times and my laps were the same as 8th place. So I think if it all went well I could have been in the top 10. Which makes me feel good. Now off to Europe to race the final two World Cups and test out the legs again and hopefully have some good races.

First World Championships medal is unforgettable.

Today was World Championships relay. Where Canada put in a solid effort and came 6 sec off the pace of winning the World Title. Were thrilled with second. But first was so close and in reach. Canada had a strong team entered, with Canadian National Champions lining up, Geoff Kabush, Raphael Gagne, Catherine Pendral and myself. All the "boys" were riding Rocky Mountain bikes, which was pretty darn rad. We all threw together a pretty good race, and we also got stuck in traffic for most of our laps. We can always go back and say this and that, but you can only do one better than a silver. Next year! For myself it was my first World Championships medal, as for Catherine I believe. Geoff and Raphael had aready won the relay back in 2004. So they were our vets. Geoff rolled out the fastest lap of the day even though he had some heavy traffic. Pretty happy with my ride, I felt good and comfortable on the course. Should be ready to rip it up on the XC this Thursday.

Photos courtesy of Rob Jones, CanadianCyclist.com

Silver for Canada in Relay at Worlds

Just won the silver in the Team Relay at Worlds. Pretty stoked on that. Not too often one wins a World Championship medal. Really solid ride by Raphael Gagne, Geoff Kabush and Catherine Pendral. I think we all lost from time in the traffic, but super exciting race, only 6 sec off winning a World Championship. Now comes XC on Thursday..