Euro Trip Picture Update

Dear Diary,

May 20, 2012

La Bresse, France.

Over the past weeks my travels have gone something like this; Kelowna-Prague CZE-Nove Mesto na Morave-Prague-Heidelburg GER-La Bresse FRA-Frankfurt-Quebec City. Played some tourist while travelling through some of Europe's prized cities and landscape. The sights may have been so much for some people I would imagine their heads may have exploded. I would highly recommend checking out Prague if your ever within reach, obviously not actually within reach as you would already be there.

Race report from the Nove Mesto na Morave World Cup has already been updated and possibly even a few blog posts back already. Today is May 20, the weekend of the 4^th round UCI cross country mountain bike World Cup in La Bresse, France. It was a pretty fantastic weekend for Canada. But lets go back to post Czech World Cup and update until today!

After the Czech World Cup I was pretty mangled having not had a great race and still pushing as hard I could, which wasn't very fast by way in case you didn't see my 48^th place finish. I had some higher ambitions than to come into the race and feel tired and slow. You know it's going to be a hard day when your standing up going balls deep and just going backwards the first 45 seconds. I was not happy with the result but got over it quick by my delicious post race meal of steak. Next day was some cheering for our fellow Canadians out there. I would say for everyone it was overall a good weekend for Canada with 3 women in the top 10 for elite women, top 20 for U23 women, 2 men in the top 20 for elite men, and Mcneely top 30 tying for best Canadian U23 Europe result since 2008!

Next up on our journey to France we drove into Prague and spent a couple hours walking the old town and bridges. Those sights will stick with me for as long as I'm around. The main goal of going through Prague was to find a Starbucks for our Team coach, as he has a Starbucks addiction. Also enjoyed a nice lunch with fellow riders Evan Mcneely and Max Plaxton on a boat on the river! Next up was a fabulous afternoon of driving through Czech and into Germany. We arrived late night in Heidelburg at the Holiday Inn. Only it was so much better than a North American Holiday Inn! With dove soap, gummy bears and a mini fridge upon arrival we knew it was a high class. Although it did suck leaving Czech as you could eat like a kind with 3 side dishes and a main course for about $11.50..Now we were back in classic exchanging large amounts of money for small meals Europe. I do have to say that since the local white asparagus was in season it did somewhat make me feel better about paying $25.00 for a salad. Quick sleep, early morning exploration ride. We used the force(a term used from something called “Starwars”, I don't really know what it means but it sounds legit!..) and only got lost six times. But we did find another beautiful town, another old bridge as well as cobbled roads and old churches. Back to the upper class feeling Holiday Inn for some stomach filling with what would have to be the biggest bestest most awesome breakfast spread I have ever seen. Bread, pastries, salmon, fruit, sausages, 4 types of eggs, fresh squeezed do it your self orange juice, granola, oatmeal, potatoes and so much more. I would keep rambling but I don't want to make you all salivate..It was back in the vans for some more “talking about feelings and stuff” food consumption, music listening, iphone, ipod, ipad gaming and making fun of our other team staff singing to music in the other vehicle. Once we crossed into France a grocery stop was in order, but not without a 20 min side road idiotic road design flaw detour to access the market that was 100 m off the highway.. It was then a sick mountain drive up into the snow and minus temperatures to reach the location of the what is now this past weekends World Cup in La Bresse, France. As the week went on temperatures rose and we rode more. It was cool to have another old school type course with a long climb and long descent which was technical enough to open big gaps as well as the climb being long and steep and technical enough to open even larger gaps. As the race approached there was some added pressure with Canada's Andreanne Pichette taking 11^th in the U23 women's race. After having a bad race last weekend I was now further back in staging which meant the first 5 minutes of the race was even more crucial. Right from the gun I knew I had the legs for a decent ride. I avoided some crashes and took some risks and came out of the start loop top 30 and ride into 22^nd by the 2^nd lap. I was having an ON day as normally a course with long steep climbs doesn't usually play to my strengths. But hey maybe now I am turning into someone who can climb especially when I'm on. I was descending well enough to make up all the time lost of the climbs and or jump across to the groups ahead of me. It felt like the descent was long enough that I could actually recover and of course have some fun making some air time and giving the crowds something to cheer for. Faded slightly in the last lap to finish 28^th in a sprint and bike toss with American fast boy Howard Grotts. My best Euro U23 World Cup/World Champ result to date. It was also nice to finish and be so empty that I could hardly hang onto my bike. As my whole body was shaking. I was able to perk up by dinner time for our seven pizza eating session. France is just great for always having Pizza ovens and cooking in them is unreal compared the eating out during trips. And then today was another day of cheering on our Canuk teammates on course! The women's race is always exciting as Canada is #1 ranked in the world!! Today was the most nervous I've ever been while not being in actually in a bike race. The womens race came down to the last minute and the men's was almost the same. Crashes, flats, mechanical's etc plagued some riders today. But oh boy did it make for some exciting action! Mrs. Catharine Pendral took 4^th in the womens and Max Plaxton had an amazing ride finishing 9^th after a 33^rd start position! During the races I calmed my nerves by drinking a grande coffee, eating a sub sandwich, a chocolate croissant, another sandwich, a pizza and a delicious chocolate pastry. Had to make up for the lack of calories yesterday, I did fortunately bonk after the race yesterday on the ride home..

Tomorrow is another day of morning bicycle exploration in the mountains followed by a drive to Frankfurt so we can stop to eat some road side meat from vendors. It is then right over to Quebec City where I will be staying with my Rocky Mountain teammate Jeremy Martin before the second round of the Canada Cup series in Baie-St-Paul, Quebec.

Picture update soon when I get some highspeed internet!!

Salut.

Had a little post race pizza eating session last night. 7 pizzas later and Evan Mcneely and I were back to normal after a hard world cup round here in La Bresse, France. I had my best Under 23 world cup finish to date with a 28th. I was riding as high as 22nd with a lap to go but faded slightly on the final climb.

Bigger race report to come. Only Internet in town is at the cafe.

World Cup #3 Race Report

Currently had a blog off with the Evan Mcneely, and since he is using the blogger app I assume I will win no matter what. As last night he spent hours writing a heart felt update and his new not so special "Ipad" wasn't able to connect to enough wifi to update it.

Well I have to say the course in Nove Mesto na Morave is one of my favorite race courses now. With 4.5 km filled with roots, rocks, jumps, drops, berms and a heinous amount of climbing in between the downhills your constantly thinking "This is fun, except for feeling while climbing.."

First off shout out to my roommate Evan "Shoes" Mcneely for a solid 29th.


I started in 42nd, of the 118 riders, which in my books was pretty solid. But after loosing a bunch of spots in the start loop due to the non-responsive stump like feeling legs I was in for a tough race. Battling it out, shredding the downhill and trying to rest up for the climbs worked out alright but not as I had hoped. I made up positions but not enough to satisfy my hunger for a better finish. The course was constantly up and down which meant even minimal recovery was tough to find.  I had a full on battle with some Belgium dude who was climbing, like a "cougar" would when chasing her prey at the bar, but descended about as a slow as the average 104 year old person walks. One time he decided try and yell at me for passing him while he was off his bike, while racing a on bike bike race, and I was riding past him. His Belgium accent with an attempt of some possible English came out something like "ayyyaachzzayy" with a super serious unsafe arm throwing hand gesture. From then on it it was really on. It was now my mission to beat him no matter what. I ended up passing him on a uphill just before the finish and never looked back. There were lots of riders coming and going through the race whether it be me passing or me getting passed or other riders passing me or me passing other riders..Hopefully you get the gist of it. That passing and getting passed turned into a 48th for me.

I will post a video of the lap soon here, which will show full details of how unreal the course is. Also racing with the many Czech fans that were out made things a little better, getting cheers through the jumps and downhills made me feel a little better. Luckily no one was cheering on the uphills..that usually just means I'm riding really really slow and they feeling bad.

Today was a fun filled day watching the elite men and women. Always feel very fortunate to be able to cheer on our Canadian riders in person, on the course. Awesome rides by them today, Max Plaxton with a solid 14th for the men and Catharine Pendral with a 6th for the women.

Just finished consuming my last Czech dinner for the very appealing price $8.00 CAN. It's unbelievable how much food you get for so cheap here. I think my full on super upper class meal of lamb the other day was the first to make it over 10 bucks.. Our hotel also has the continental breakfast, not american style with a muffin and orange juice, but with eggs, granola, coffee, pastries, buns, meat and cheese. Which means the possibility of us sneaking out sandwiches for lunch is pretty high.

Off to Prague for some touristy sight seeing tomorrow with the main goal of locating a starbucks for Coach Dan. There could be some awesome photos up for that or there could be none if I'm having way too good of a time.

Check out more of Rob Jones Photo's

Here is a full video recap of the elite men's race. Click this Link.

Photo by: Rob Jones @ www.canadiancyclist.com

Over and out,

Gossip Girl

Ahoj. Jsme na kanadské cyklistické asociace projektu se nyní usadil do našehoubytování v blízkosti hřiště v Novém Městě na Moravě.  Sorry I've already started speaking the natural tongue here..Already forgetting I'm english. Anyway we've settled into our accommodation just outside the town on Nove Mesto Na Morave where the course is located. After two nights of fantastic sleeps, buffet style breakfasts and confusing rides on the course I think we at Team Canada are all feeling pretty comfortable. Only two bikes were lost in air transit, luckily staff bikes were in full loaner use. The course is pretty awesome I must say. Constant up, downs, rights, lefts, ups, downs, roots and jumps plaster the wooded area making for a very fast, technical and spectator friendly course. In 2011 I think there was 20,000 spectators..that's a little nerve-racking coming from the town of Peachland that has 5,000 people.. We've also ridden some of the nice quiet local roads to and from the course, which is 14.583 km to be exact.   After some thorough laps and video reconn with the one and only Evan Mcneely its now to spend some hours on the internet lurking hard and hardly working to rest up the body and legs for Saturday's showdown in the Under-23 field. 

Here's a few, well a lot more than a few, photos below to give you the idea of what the area of like. Small towns, narrow roads, beautiful fields, little shops is all you need to enjoy a nice little week in Czech republic for a bike race. 

More reports coming post race..

Another new video today! There are going to be tons popping up over the next two months on this trip. I am currently sipping a nice fresh brewed coffee and interneting a little bit before I off to the airport. 

This video is from Knox Mtn in Kelowna. It's from way back in mid March but I've had some problems uploading it. So here we going finally. PS Watch it in 720p HD!

It's already been a month since I was down in the Pueblo, Mexico with the Canadian Cycling Association for the Pan American mountain bike championships. It was a fantastic trip, another good set of memories for the memory closet, some good bike racing and awesome new race prep ideas for future..I was also lucky enough to drop a coffee cup two days before the race on the floor, which exploded into both my feet and caused some Jaws like bleeding. We were able to spend a couple days scouting the course and getting ready for the battle that was about to happen up at 8,000 ft in the sun where I don't think there is any ozone left. It was also a selection race for the six of us Under-23 riders for the Czech Republic and France World Cups in May. I was fortunate enough to have a pretty solid race and make the cut along with Evan Mcneely. It was a weird race with so many different factors affecting everyone's races. I wouldn't say I had the best race but with having been at altitude all winter in Park City, Utah, topping up altitude two weeks before at a ski resort and racing smart lead to a 5th place at my first Pan Ams.  

I have just finished making the video edit, one month later, from our two days of pre-riding. Tomorrow I am now off to Europe and on the road for two month's to travel to 7 races in 8 weekends, only to come home for some R&R for a few days. Then its time for Axel's GrandFondo then straight to Canmore for the last Canada Cup.

I'll be leaving the Okanagan just as it's getting nice out. This morning is 100% bluebird day out there after a  pretty crappy two weeks of mixed weather conditions. I've probably ridden in my rain cape more in the last two weeks than the last two years, lucky me!

I was also fortunate enough to be able to take part as a medal bearer in the Rick Hansen 25th anniversary tour. What a cool experience that was, as well as inspiring hearing all the stories of the participants.

                                                
It sucks that I'll be leaving while I'm half done working on my car with a new project. With my car being known for it's seized bolts in the rear lower control arms that means cutting grinding and new bolts for a fresh set up. But I don't have the time for that before I head overseas. So that means I have the front coilovers in and stock struts in the rear making for an awkward ride at the moment, should be a killer setup when I'm done. Also thanks to bicycle friend of mine we made a trade with some bike clothes for some super sticky tires! Go cart civic here we go!

Vertex 29'er jump testing

 Today was definitely the rain ride of 2012. Going from two days of 25C on the weekend to 10 degrees and absolute torrential rains(for the Okanagan). There was actually some flooding around these parts too.. Found some new single track descents today that unreal and will now be incorporated into my weekly dose of SICK single track.

Officially heading on the road for some biking racing on May 7th for two months. It goes something like this: Fly to Prague, Czech Republic for World Cup#3, Over to La Bresse, France for WC#4, Fly to Quebec City for Canada Cup#2 in Baie St Paul, Fly to Toronto for CC#3, travel back to northern Quebec to St Felicien for Nationals, back down to Mt Saint Anne, Quebec for WC#5, then down to Windham, New York for World Cup#6 and then finally flying home in time for Axel's Grand Fondo then to Canmore, Alberta for CC#4. Wow that is like 9 races in 10 weekends. Either I will get super fast or be walking my bike by that last race..It will then be time for some beach action, BBQ's, single track and sun.

Loving my Rocky Mountain Vertex 990 RSL 29'er  Having more fun every ride I do! I have to say I've tried a few 29'ers, just in parking lots of such, and they never felt good. I could hardly even wheelie! But since I've jumped on the Rocky my whole perspective has changed. First off I can wheelie like never before, the bike feels like a 26 but with the 29'er advantages. So pretty much you need to try one of these or you'll be out there not riding as fast as you could! Getting super pumped to debut this race rig at the World Cups.

I could talk more about nothing but I'll leave that for the desperate times..Time to go eat my chocolate chip pancakes, nothing like breakfast for dinner.

 Favorite road ride on earth. Kelowna-Glenmore-Carrs Landing-

Predator Ridge-Kelowna

Long climb from out from Okanagan Lake.

Onto the fun part.

 Fueling for today's ride but kept hearing this is my mind

"Nothing tastes as good as feeling skinny".

Little Turkey that's making an appearance in my part of the woods.

Today I made a Turkey gobble for me. Success? Heck yes!

Ski2Sea 2012

2012 Ski2Sea is a wrap and another year of great success for our Bike Barn team! We had a fantastic squad put together for the race, with myself, Aart Van Kooy and Jeff Symonds are all Bike Barn employees. We all joke about how serious the race is somewhat jokingly but you have to have a pretty serious team to take the W in this event that has been around since the early 80's. I hear old stories from my father that start with "back in the old days when ski2sea first started". Back then for the road TT they wore sweat pants and no helmets, nowadays the top guys like our roadie had a 10,000 bike, skin suit and an aero helmet...Or myself on the MTB downhill leg that is all on the road wearing an aero helmet, skin suit, 29'er bike, road chain rings, road cassette, booties etc..you get that point that we much geek out for what I can our local "World Championship" It seems like more people would know you in town if you won Ski2Sea over a World Cup mountain bike race..Olympics step in just above Ski2Sea. 

Results: Ski2Sea Results 2012

Jeff Symonds video report is up and ultra motivating for anyone who has not done the race or I should say awesome family event to attend! Here's the video: 2012 Ski2Sea race recap video

Here is the newspaper report: Click this link It explains our close by not so close chance of possibly but not really possibly losing the race for a crazy reason..

Already excited for next years event, fingers crossed it won't overlap with a big race like a World Cup or anything..

Pan Am Mountain Bike Championships 2012

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!

Pan American Mountain Bike Championships - Pueblo, Mexico.

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

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.

BBQ Central

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.