2003-2010 Evan's life Transformation

Gr 7




Gr 8




Gr 9




Gr 11




Gr 12




Post High School

Summer

So its be a long time since a good update, so here we go in short form:

-Edmonton Canada Cup was the best race of the year.

-Was tired all week heading into Nationals.

-Nationals was the worst race of my life, first ever DNF. Couldn't ride up the hills on the last lap.

-Went river tressel jumping, with Andrew L'Esperance and Cody Canning.

-Then went river surfing, hung a rope from the tressel and floated down to it on a surf board, grabbed on and turned around and stand up and carve the shite out of the river. Or like me, you could grab the rope and try too hard and have it snap and wip you in the arm.

-Did a local toonie race, set new record (biggest accomplishment of the year..sad I know.

- Did a local crit, did a masters ride (sit in, and come to the front with 1 lap to go for the sprint) little did I know a break went away and I was so tucked in I didn't know. So when we came to the last lap I sprinted and thought my teammate and I had won, so I put my hands up for a funny retard solute, and it turned out I got 6th, and thought I was 2nd. I felt like a beauty there..

-Went to a wicked Miss Penticton bikini contest and got a picture with some of the girls.

-Did a late night cruiser ride and a 2 am McDonalds food run, only to find out my dad's work had 100 ft flames on the roof and flying fire balls coming out the front door.

-Went downhilling at Silver Star with xc shoes, pedals, no armour, full face and Oakley Radars. Good thing the dh'ers couldn't drop me, otherwise that would have been embarrasing. Maybe skinsuit next time..??

-And tons of work

That is what my life now consists of.

River swimming a la Canmore avec fast flowing river!

Wow, It's been a while. Guess I've gotten carried away with the work life. Just taking some time right now and enjoying the summer, hopefully won't loose too much fitness. Definitely need some down time after a roller coaster half assed season. Guess the lingering effect on mono is almost as bad as directly having mono. Will do a better post soon. My most exciting story lately is thinking my teamate and I got 1-2 in the local crit and I put my hands up as a joke to be funny, by in fact there was a break up the road and we got 5th and 6th. Emmbarassing I know.

And here is Mr 'Berta (aka Cody Canning ) ladies and gentlemen:



Notice the stuffed crotch????.....

'Berta trip 2010

Thought it might be a good day, as 19 has been my favourite number since my soccer/rugby days.




Reppin' the good old compression socks! I find they make me look cool too.




Finally into the rockies after driving down some lame straight roads.




Little bit of dinner.

Edmonton Recap

Well that was my best race to date this year by far. Had a not so good start position, wasn't able to make up any places off the bat, only like 200 meters until the single track, and you know what happens there. The first 10 guys ride off and everyone else gets bottle necked. I was fortunate enough to be able to do a mid-summer cyclo-cross practice session. With a little dismount, some running and then a mount. Followed by a stupid hard effort to try and get onto the next group. I spent the first lap feeling like "I still had mono and wondering why I was continuing to race" but then by the start of the 2nd lap I caught the espoir group which had like 4 espoirs. So then I was like "ok, now its going alright" Kept trucking with them guys, pulled through because I didn't want to seem like the d-bag that just sits on the back. Then I hit the front through the technical section and rode a tad bit harder and opened a gap. So from there I tried putting on the jets and continued on my solo pursuit of my first good race of the year. Little worried because there were 4 or 5 guys working together behind me in a group, who knows if they were rolling together smoothly or playing it tactical, So I just put the head down and rode smooth and hard. I was feeling super stoked on the day, I was riding in 12th for the majority of the race, 2nd espoir. Then at around 1:45-1:50 just when I was starting the last lap I could feel the legs take a downturn and the cramps feeling like they were on there way. So on the first climb of the last lap I was automatically riding two gears easier, so it was time for damage control. I was able to only get passed by 2 guys on the last lap, one being an espoir so rolled in for 14th overall and 3rd espoir. Made some $$ too! Woot woot! Pretty stoked on that, as it was a long race and nationals should be about 20 min or so shorter. Perfect.

Helped out with the Western National Team ID Camp yesterday. Had BC, AB, and Sask athletes out. Dan Proulx, national team mtb coach, gave a good talk and we headed out on the trail for some basic and fun skills stuff. Back for some pizza and a final chat. Then took an easy afternoon.

Made the drive to Canmore this morning. Just taking a super lax day here, lots of pool and lots of interwebing. Checking out the course tomorrow, will post some photos later on.

In the meantime here are some sweet shots from the weekend:

Edmonton

Well howdy there. Finally all nice and settled here in Edmonton, getting ready for the Canada Cup. Rode the course yesterday and I was surprisingly impressed on the course, there are lots of open spots, but the single track makes up for it. And super stoked there isn't a climb long than about 20-30 sec. That should be right up my alley. Watched the tour this morning, stoked for Ryder Hesjedal. Sitting 3rd overall ain't too shabby at all. Anyway just heading out to ride the course again, hoping its not a peanut butter mud fest out there after the crazy tropical rain storm last night! Going to be trying many different tires out today!

Here are some sweet shots my buddy Dawson Newman took:

Rose Valley Dam

Had an incredible ride today, making this a dam sweet Canada Day so far. There is a little dam just up the side of a hill in Westbank, BC. It was a couple cool view points and some rad little descents. Today though I was just about to finish my ride when I saw this new trail that went up the side of the mtn, I was super curious and it was buffed right out so obviously I had to ride it...turned out to unreal, so I kept on truckin' along, getting some even more beautiful views. Had to turn back, so planning on making a sweet ride one of these days on that trail.

Here is the Garmin file from today:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/38857735

Marine Dr

Thursday night in Peachland. Gotta love living in the boonies.




Beautiful view on the way to work this morning.



The Spread.



Cleaning the Father's bicycle.

Test of Metal recap

Every year since I have started racing I always get asked about the Test. And over over I always "nope, never done that one" This year was finally the time to get out to this massively huge event that sell out 800 spots in less then 30 min. Luckily I am no a Pro/Elite and can register whenever. Too bad I raced like a cadet sport and not like a Pro/Elite last weekend. Had a sweet lead up and post race time, it was just the 2:50 min of hurtfullness I endured. So for a quick recap:

Thursday: Borrowed the father Toyota Corolla, put it in 5th gear and cruised to North Van where I was staying with my Rocky Mountain teammate Marty Lazarski and his girlfriend Tara, who is an oh so awesome physio. Had some sweet homemade burgers, Matt Green joined us for dinner and to do some work on Marty race rig.

Friday: Slept in, had coffee, Marty made the best oatmeal ever, which I didn't think was even possible. Then we rode our MTB's on the road, how junior I know, out to Horseshoe Bay on Marine Dr. Got in some vitamin D absorbtion. Had left over burgs for lunch, which were topped off with an egg. Drove to the Rocky Factory. Got a tour by Peter Vallance. Watched some headtube get ripped off a Flatline WC. Got some schwag. Saw something rad that is a secret. Drove into Van and picked up a Ipad case for Tara. Had dinner. Got my favourite chamois picked out. Bedtime.

Saturday: Early wake up. Coffe and breakfast. Surprise visit by Ricky Federeau, who is awesomely cool by the way. We talked about the people who live in Kits, do yoga, wear lululemon, say that they care about the environment and have GLUTEN allergies. It was a hilarious breakfast. Drove to Squampton. Put on my chamois and started to ride the bicycle. Got in a solid 15-20 min warm up...Suffered like no other on the NEUTRAL start of all things. Totally maxed out by the time the race actually got started. Started to let people pass me left and right. Held on the back of a group and prayed for dear life. Got super shelled on 9 mile. Felt like a 7 year old girl that was learning how to ride a bike. Then felt like a 63 year old on the decsent. Started to cramp going the through the feed zone. Rode in for 14th and some 20 odd minutes behind Mr Kabush. My only excuse is I rode the course blind and the Mono thing had let me race super fast up until now this year. Had two smokies, potato salad, mango gelato and a protein bar post race, to not only replenish the calories but to self medicate after my Awesome race!(being sarcastic by the way..) Drove out to watch the windsurfers and had a brew. Dinner at the Brew Pub. Drove back to North Van. 2 min army shower, drove into Van to meet some friends for desert. Back to North Van to sleep.

Sunday: Ate some delicious pancakes. Drove the Corolla back from North Van to the Okanagan in 3:15 min. One stop for pee and gas and a steady 120 kp/h goes along way. Went out for an easy mtb ride with my dad. Then laid on the couch and tried to make myself feel better after and shitass race weekend.

The Test of Metal event was unreal, felt like a race in Europe. The course though I didn't like so much. I could have stayed home and rode fireroads for 2.5 hrs for free.

Test of Metal