Another trip done, another place traveled, another good race and some even better memories! We had a great group of people, amazing mechanics and coach. We arrived not this past Thursday but the one before in the evening and drove for a couple hours from Mexico City out to Puebla. I went into this trip expecting the worst of the worst and it turned out pretty good. With nine riders in a ten by twenty-five room sleeping in bunk beds we all got pretty close while talking about feelings and stuff. We were able to pre-ride the course for two days and we were the lucky winners of the contest of which country would get left behind on the venue and have to wait a couple hours for the bus to come back. I had a mishap and dropped a coffee mug on the floor and shards flew into both of feet. It looked like Jaws had just taken place 2012 Mexico style. Found out on the drive that it was convenient to have a garbage dump on the side of the road into a creek.. With chicken and rice in our system and on our plates for three days straight I am sure we had some energy in reserves, but with being at altitude we were burning lots of our beloved variety of food off. Race morning came and it looked like the "weathers plan of rain" was out and the sun was in. After we spent the morning trying to find a somewhat empty toilet because of the lack of running water. Once that was accomplished one, two, three and even four times for some people we jumped on the bus out to the venue. The crazy driver of course was driving that morning and he hit a few of the speed bumps a little to fast and I think ruined the suspension a little, after that was achieved the engine started to slowly stop working, after ten minutes of going up a mountain in 1st gear at 6.66 k/ph we made it to the venue only to have the bus break down on spot and start smoking. Just as we arrived our U23 Canadian women were racing with Andreanne Pichette and Laura Bietola both racing in the top five. After the chamois were put on the warm ups began at our 8,000 ft race venue. A good warm up took place as well as some pre-race get soaked with ice water. Enough UCI points for third call up. There were five Canadians on the seven person front line. I took the wholeshot and led into the first descent and up into the first climb. I wanted to stay out of trouble and then ride my own race as being smart that day would lead to a good result because of the unusually high venue and the heat. I faded back to 8th on the first climb and then started working forward again to finish up in fifth. I had teammate Evan Mcneely just up ahead and first year U23 and ridiculously fast climber Howard Grotts from the US chasing me which meant there was no time to mistakes all the way to the end. Nice work to Russel Finsterwald for taking the W and Kerry Werner for 3rd.
Post race there was a cool down the US guys excluding Mcneely and Finsterwald as they had to pee in cups for anti-doping. I think the award for longest ever going before peeing in the cup goes to the one and only Evan Mcneely. While he was drinking water and thinking of waterfalls I found a Mexican guy on a bike that was making Tacos so I pounded back some of those, de-chamois'd, cleaned my no no place as you don't want to get infections, especially in Mexico City area. Packed up gear, got a Mexican jersey, started hurting with gut rot and suffered with the big climb up the buses with all the gear. Arriving back at the hotel we rush washed our bikes, showered, ate, packed, ate, packed bikes, ate, thought we were taking a 7 pm bus to town, waited more, then ate the dinner at our accomodation, waited more, took the bus to Mexico City, slept for five hours, checked in at the airport like a ninja, flew back the best place on earth Peachland!
Thanks to the Canadian Cycling Association, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, The Bike Barn, Mom and Dad and everyone else who has been apart of my life/training the last few months.
Pictures below, be aware if you are scared of blood, spandex and awesomeness!
Once again I am off on another trip, this time somewhere unusual for a bike. Really excited to be heading off to Mexico for the weekend. But I will be missing my Gramma's Easter dinner which I am already craving..
Well it's that time of year again where heading off to local airport gets more frequent and I don't have to bundle up with riding clothes and look like the michelin man. I can also get my summer car set up rolling with coilovers and sticky tires. It also means that riding not road bike bikes is getting better as the snow is slowly dissapearing, although it doesn't seem that way in the picture below as the ski hills are probably at their best right now.
I've been back home for a month now and experienced every kind of weather possible, luckily its getting warmer but the winds are picking up so riding around at 11 k/ph seems to be the norm these days. A couple weeks back I suffered it out on the bike in the conditions below, once your soaked 3 min into your ride it can't get much worse.
These spring days in the Okanagan are just so neat, I hope that everyone else is getting out and enjoying how neat it is instead of just me and my bike.
I also received a super gift from www.bikes.com the other day. All I have to say is their bike are sick of course thanks to our awesome sponsors Shimano, Maxxis, Easton, Fi'zi:k Planet Foods, Honey Stinger and many more.
Got out for a couple little mountain bike rides before I am off to Pueblo, Mexico for the Pan American mountain bike championships. This is where I started riding mountain bikes and where my passion for cycling all started on these trails with my dad.
In other news my neighbor, Mark Jennings-Bates, and his paramotor partner just finished a World Record paramotor flight around Australia as a part of the Flight4Life which is helping support his and his wife's amazing charity the www.rally4life.org Check out the link for more info!
Also if your an Okanagan resident I think if would be great to spread the world and help the support Kelowna General Hospital's 6th annual Bike 'n Braai. Click on the link for more info: Bike 'N Braai Link
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Well it's definitely not 30 degrees and sunny back here in the Okanagan. It's back to some snow and lighting u our wood stove in the morning to heat up the house, warming up my car and wearing winter like clothes. My skin hasn't seen or felt the wind since I'v been back here and riding. For some reason though I love riding this time of year for some reason. Doing some big rides on the weekend and being covered in mud after, or riding when its 4 degrees out, 70 k/ph hours and sleet coming down at an angle and pelting you in the face. I seem to turn into a softy after riding down south in February so coming home seems wakes me up a little.
Today was cold, windy and snowy. But I thought "Hey this time of year is pretty neat, so I'll respect it by riding" First tracks on the fresh pow and was it fun descending the single track. Need to GoPro this up soon.
Feeling like my home right now could either be a small dark room in Tucson, a plane, a hotel in Austin or other planes. In the last 8 day I've travelled from Tucson to Kelowna to Tucson to Austin to Park City and soon to be Kelowna again. Gone four or four on no bike charges. And I'm on my way to Star Alliance Elite status.
Last weekend was the first big bike race for us mountain bike bike riders. I would say from a country stand point it went well with Canada going 1,2,4 in Elite men and 1st in Elite women. I think we counted like 17 Canadians racing, which was great to see. It was crazy fast with Olympic selection coming up here in the next few months. For myself it went pretty well. Couldn't have done it without the awesome support from the National team, coach Dan and Mechanic/life teacher Scott Kelly. For the project lots of spots were turned down and it ended up being the trio of Evan squared and Haley Smith. It seems like every project I go, they get better. With a late Thursday arrival we all had to build our brand new never been ridden bikes, as well as go on our first MTB rides of the year. I had a very interesting couple weeks going into he race with having my race bike stolen from Tucson. Luckily I am
sponsored by Rocky Mountain Bicycles and they were able to send me down a pretty much identical bike, it was a size smaller but thats easy to correct. It was too bad US Customs decided to put a 6 day clearance delay in it with it to arrive only 15 hours before I left to Austin, TX for the race. I also flew home 7 days before Austin for 40 hours to see my biggest supporter and fan, my grandad, who lost his battle to Cancer last Thursday. I know his wish would have been for me to race and kick as much ass as possible. It was a tough weekend but you have to respect the wishes of your elders. Race day came and it had felt like the first races as all the usual little routines were a little off or not there. I was lucky to have a second line call up and was able to squeak right into the top 8 off the start and through the first lap, which I paid for a little later on but totally worth it! I had a good solid clean race. It wasn't bad but wasn't as good as it could have been. I had to learn how to hurt again for a long period of time. Finished up 18th and 3rd U23. Not too shabby at all. Definitely a course for the Element RSL! After a cool down with Adam Craig about discussing how jumping rental cars over the bumps near the course would be sick I started eating food and drinking water as the hot temperatures and as a western Canadian would say the slight humidness wore me out. On the car ride back I got Mcneely to open my can of sardines out to window to drain the juice and sure enough he dumped the can too early and the juice was blown with the wind into his face. After a group complain about a now no sardine eating un the car we made it back to or near Austin to clean up before we went out for breakfast fr dinner with milkshakes with the Canadian clan or Dan Proulx, Scott Kelly, Cody Canning, Felix Wilberg, Raphael Gagne, Kris Sneddon, Haley Smith, Evan Mcneely and myself. Peanut butter chocolate chips milkshakes are recommended.
Sunday was our Austin City limits ride where we started at Lance Armstrongs Mellow Johnnys bike shop for a coffee and the watched some rowing along the river, raced around the football stadium at the university and of course made a Strava segment. Duhh. The. It burrito time, packing time, the. Back to dinner for some burgers. We also were right across the street from a 15 man 1 women brawl. The girl was taking it to them as the boys didn't want to hit her! Lucky. Then some evening bike packing. Left the beautiful city of Astin Monday to head back to
Park City where the snow was sorta flowing. I also think I pulled a muscle petty bad in my back from racing around the university for our strava segment, as I can hardly put on my own shoes.
I also did some ghetto coffee brewing this AM.
All for now, Gossip Girl.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Had a solid weekend of travel back to Canada from down here in Tucson. I have an amazing Grandad back home who is fighting cancer right now and it's been a couple months since I've seen him and my family so it was about time to head home, clear the head and get re-energized even if it was for only 40 hours. Heard some more awesome grandad stories, saw my parents and brother, ate some good food, rode bikes inside and got a speeding ticket. Almost froze my special place too, after going from 30 degrees in Tucson to -16 Monday morning.. I definitely left with some more motivation as sometimes as an athlete you catch yourself sometimes going "this is hurts too much" but you never know whats hurts until something like cancer shows up in your body or in someone close to you. I now have no excuses for ever "not hurting enough" in a bike race or anything I attempt to do. Which may include a eating competition one of these days, but it can't exceed my 2500 calorie daily caloric intake. I raced for my grandad last season, but I now dedicate any and all of my future success in life to him, as he had been like a second father to me. Guiding me down so many different and amazing roads, and of course telling me what not to do, or how to get a sugar momma. As you will all see this season on my bikes "I ride for George Fenton". As it is the least I can do for one of the MOST important people in my life.
Well it's like hot and sunny out. Off to Sedona this weekend for some not road bike biking.
Friday, February 17, 2012
A week of bicycling in the desert has been completed, all kinds of weather came with that. Tuesday I decided that 13C was worth shorts and a jersey to ride in, as it felt warm coming from a cold mountain town..Then it started hailing so I put on my arm warmers and small gloves. While it started to slowly get colder I thought pff whatever weather you can't touch me. Then it started raining and I got soaked, then I got cold, then I started shivering, then I had to ride 1 hr in the pissing raining home. But not without it getting down to 5C and my hands and arms getting numb enough that I didn't know if I was holding my bars or not. So kept looking to make sure when I went over the bumps my hands wouldn't come off the bars and make me fall. I couldn't brake and standing was out of the question as I couldn't lean on my arms. But don't worry I tried to look like a hardman in front of the Tucson population by putting on my tough face..Lucky I didn't flat because I couldn't have even been able to make a call let along change it. Once I arrived home I was lucky my roommates Andreane Lanthier Nadeau and Antoine Caron were home to take off my shoes helmet and jersey. I took the rest off after 10 min of warming up in the shower. Junior movie or hardman Canadian move..I like to say hardman but I didn't sound like one in the shower when my hands were thawing!
Without the luxury of having my MTB it meant riding road bike bikes all week. Our dear Nova Scotian pal has arrived and decided he would ride on the road with his touring bike and non knobby tires.
Our coffee supply is on an all time low and scary level right now. Which means were gonna have to piano over to a coffee shop to get some stock today. May even swing by the University for some 'sight seeing' as some would say.
On tap tomorrow is 6:30 am riding for some shoot out action then off to the 24hr of Old Pueblo to do some spectating and liquid calorie consumption. Our Canadian boy Kris Sneddon is racing I here, so we might have to shot gun some beer in his honor so we can really cheer for him.
There's some talk going around about a possible Sedona trip next weekend..haha how neat is that, isn't that neat?
This will be year 3 in Tucson. And so far the3 trip has not dissapointed! Each year I have had some interesting stories. Year 1 I had Mono and didn't know until I got home, and I also had nose bleeds everyday which turned me to riding with tampons in my nose to keep the bleeding at ease. Year 2 I thought about giving the cheap cyclist hostel stay a try, but that led to a drunk heroin addict pissing and throwing up all over the room..he also rolled in it. And now year 3 I had my MTB stolen from the garage on the second night. Atleast I can say I can say I will remember this trip. I must also take it as a compliment that there were eight bikes in the garage and my MTB was the only one taken. Either the person was a moron and couldn't ride two bikes away(any smart thief in my mind would take as much as possible..) or he was just some dude that needed transport and couldn't take a $50 bike, he needed like a $7,000 one. There was also some gold coloured stuff in the garage that wasn't taken either..I think if they are going to steal would take the gold stuff just because it's gold. So if your in Tucson and see a certain dude riding a bike with dirty jean shorts and no shirt its most likely not his bike so please contact local authorites (which is myself, taking matter into my own hands!).
On another note the roadie bike riding has been good, so hot yesterday I almost couldn't finish the ride! And today I think I found the road with the worlds most potholes and/or bumps. Great way to kick on the bicycling season on the special place.
I can't believe I just saw this neat video the other day, but tee dang you must give'r a go! Neato :
PS I would recommend watching all the episodes, they only get better!!
House set-up = BOOM sick!
Planning on conquering these 2 breasts
Ready? 3,2,1 Coffee!
Bunking with my Frenchman pal Antoine Caron, As Scott Kelly would say we talking about feelings and stuff
And today was another summiting of a 10,000 footer. There was some waist deep snow up there, but once you pick a spot to go there is not turning back. We had the fresh tracks and some of the boys ski touring up top were pretty surprised hikers made it that far. Wanted them to drop into the big bowl and see some real skiing but aparently there was avalanche risk..next time I`m taking my crazy carpet so I show those kind of people up.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Well for first time I haven't spend the whole winter on snowshoes, Wednesday was my first one of the year. And since I'm only here in Park City for one more week I think it's time to soak in everything that I have't done. Which means one more 10,000 ft peak, actually snowboard on the hill as there is kinda of snow now, go to Olympic Park and do some skeleton, build a sled track with a 6" high booter and 6" gap to landing, rent a surly pugly and shuttle so I descend 2,000 + ft, go tubing on the gnarly local track, not get chased by another moose. Lot's on the agenda and probably won't have time for much but I will make 1-2 days beyond epic.
Well, winter has finally arrived which means skiing, hiking, snowshoeing and all the fun stuff. I was even lucky enough to go sledding with the neighbors kids yesterday. Felt right at home building a start ramp, luge track with a jump and massive berm at the bottom. The ratio of work to sledding wasn't perfect but the track is now perfect.
I only have a week and half left in this amazing place so there are a few adventures I need to make happen. With two big mountains to climb with big bowls there is a change that my snowshoes with act like skis if I lean on the back and point down the hill, it would be sweet if a mini avalanche started because then I would feel like Vin Diesel in XXX. It been a great time in a new place this winter, as everything was different, even riding the rollers looking at a different wall was nice.
I was also able to experience SunDance. Lots of the experience came from traffic and grocery shopping, I did learn that people high up in the World of SunDance liked filling their shopping cart with boxes of cereal, super cheap beer and cookies. They also added rice milk or almond milk I believe because it just was in the gluten free aisle and if your important you have to be "gluten free" and make sure people know it! Although I don't think they realized the 6-pack of bakery cookies(that were 300 cal a piece) were not gluten free along with the boxes of Captain Crunch, Honey Nut Cheerios and Kashi GoLean.. It was better when you were at Whole Foods, but just because there is chocolate, cookies and candy at Whole Foods doesn't mean it makes it good for you.. I was fortunate enough to take in more movies in theater's in one week than I took in in all of 2011. I would recommend when Liberal Arts and Robot and Frank come into theater's to check them out!
Next Friday is the FIS freestyle ski Word Cup at Deer Valley in Park City. I am definitely going to swing by and check out the aerial's, I may even learn a few tricks to try and master my back flip on the dirt-jump bike.
On Feb 10 I`ll be heading down to Tucson for year 3 of bicycle riding in the sunny desert. I will be staying some of my favourite french people, I`m going to have to go back 5 years to Gr 11 and try and remember that language that I technically got my second language in. From there it's off to Mellow Johnny's for MTB race #1 of the season, It's not actually at, as Mr Kabush would put it, one nuts ranch as they have changed venues..dang.
Yesterday I was out running and came across what I would call a small cow moose compared to the one's near my house in Peachland..I got nice and close for a picture and it kinda of trotted my way for a few steps and then took off. But it wasn't getting away that easy. I have heard of people getting chased by the moose here but I didn't fully believe it as when I see animals back home I usually taunt them a little. So I turned the IPhone on video and started running towards it and one I got within about 10 ft it turned and started chasing me..It didn't totally occur to me to that before I started chasing it that it was bigger, faster and scarier than me..I tried this herding method back in November and it just ran away, so today I was going for it 100% In my mind a herding success would have been touching it and running away nicely with no problems. But this one turned back as I didn't pre-plan very well with being in a open field, 1 ft of snow and a ways into a good day of working out. This video explains all, but I did nearly trip and get trampled, please ignor my scaredness noises it was only human to be scared shitless while getting chased by a 700 lbs animal that has four legs to run on versus my two. It's actually a shame CX season is over because I felt that was the fastest I've run in years, and the first time my HR was hit 200 in months!
On another note there is all these new "Sh*t __ Say" videos coming out on YouTube..Oh Canada Eh!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Well SunDance is now in full swing here in Park City. In case you know Is kind of sweet. My grocery shopping is now happening everyday..as I like to watch the important people buy food. The #1 pick seems to be a 30 pack of bud light, honey but Cheerios, and chips. The people need to come bu our place an try out some real food! I would have to figure out a way to be not creepy, different, pretend I don't know who they are and suggest a food eating session. But in a way that's sounds a lot better and not as retarded as I just put it.
It's snowing here too and it's seems that since winter is only just arriving no one remembers how to drive. For example; don't go into a corner with 5 inches of fresh snow faster than posted speeds and slam on your brakes thinking your car will automatically turn and maybe stop for you just because it's AWD. Don't tail gate people on a steep hill and slam on your brakes when you think the guy in front of you is going to "maybe" brake. Don't drive 15 mph in the fast lane, people get agitated and pass you and then crash themselves. Don't start to actually drive conducive to road conditions after you've driven through them and now are on dry roads. Stop sucking at driving and carry on. That is my see, think, laugh, enjoy, get agitated and write down story for the day. Byeeee
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Little update from this past week. I watched girls in tight clothes do some cool tricks, went bicycle riding on some snow to see a sweet reservoir and the today I made a tasty lunch. Yum yum yum.
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