...all above two wheels...

2011-12-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

Women's SSCXWC12 Start Line

I got an email about a month ago from Shimano's new secretary saying "I've bookmarked your blog...I can't wait to read it" and thought in my head "efff....I guess I should update it." Now is a good time as I am procrastinating packing for our impending ferry and trip to Bend, Oregon for a double header USGP weekend.

The last couple months have flown by with tons of cross racing, getting all of my 2012 orders finished up with the awesome shops I work with, and sales meetings in Denver for Pearl Izumi Fall 2012/2013 Run apparel and shoes - wait a minute - 2013? Has 2012 even gotten here yet? It hasn't, but most of the time I have to ask.

Drew in his super sweet SSCXWC Costume

Some of the highlights for this cross season have been......

Remembrance day 5K Relay - This was a running race. I don't do running races (or haven't since I was in high school avoiding another semester of awkward gym class by running for the Varsity cross country team). Drew and I got suckered into doing this race because our overactive group of friends started trash talking. A 23 min off-road 5k later and I felt like I had suffered through a 2 hour cross race and had stuck knives into my quads.

November 12 Surrey Cross Race - Ok, I'm really just throwing this race in here to show how bad ass we are that we did a running race one day and then a cross race the next day. The weather here was super-cold, super-wet and the course super-slippery....which (besides the super-numb hands) made the day super-fun. After taking the hole shot, realizing I am not fit enough to MAINTAIN the holeshot and drifting into second, then crashing on a slippery off-camber to settle in for 3rd behind Jean Ann Birkenpas and Sandra Walters. One of my better-feeling races of the season!

SSCXWC2011 - Drew didn't win again, but we had an amazing "qualifier" ride through San Francisco (one of my favourite cities!) A rainy day for the race, some amazing meals with our good friends Hannah Ziadeh and Ryan Nestle, and then a beautiful day of site-seeing that included a cable car ride, Coit tower, and a walk through China town and Little Italy. For the racing part, I finished up 7th just ahead of Rachel Lloyd, and just behind some fast pros and local heros....

My Warrior costume for SSCXWC

Since SSCXWC I spent a few days at home in California catching up with my family and eating some amazing Thanksgiving dinners. Afterwards, headed back up to Vancouver to race Provincials....apparently the 3 days of stuffing myself with delicious home-cooked meals was NOT the answer for a good provincial race, however, Drew (who headed home after SSCXWC to work, detox, and starve himself skinny for the race) won the Provincial title. For the record, this means that he won Mountain and Cross Provincials....both firsts for him, and both on a Marin!

At the Coit Tower in San Fran - Thanks Hannah!

Now, after two weeks at home in Victoria, lots of paperwork and work catch-up, we are heading to Bend this weekend for our last weekend of racing this year, and then back home for a slew of Christmas parties....and then off again for Christmas - Never a dull moment around here!

2011-10-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

Since my last post Drew and I have finished off the cross country season with Drew winning Provincial Championships, did the Warrior Dash on my staggette (and then couldn't walk for a while), got married, headed out on an awesome riding mini-moon, and then started in on cross (and booking) season with a trip to Seattle for Starcrossed and then tons of local BC and Island racing (the Island Cup series has been AWESOME this year with up to 191 people coming out!). It has been a busy couple of months where everything that doesn't qualify as absolutely necessary is put on the backburner and the normal necessities (like house cleaning) get put on the warmer to be done in rare moments of unexhausted calm - I'm still waiting for these moments....).

The Marin's we rode out of our ceremony on....

On the cross country racing front, this year wasn't one of the most outwardly successful but because of that I have some good goals and things to focus on for next year. I'm looking forward to trying to enjoy the cross season as much as possible (while suffering my way back into some form of fitness) and then going back to the drawing board this winter for some solid riding and recovering from the year.

Why have a cake when you can have a pinata cake and a sundae bar?

This was a year of learning and planning as both Drew and I started new jobs in January and then planned our perfect wedding day for August (complete with a pinata wedding cake, bikes, Drinko, a photo booth, a sundae bar, and late night pizza!). We are now planning our trip to Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds in San Francisco, US Thanksgiving at home with my parents (first time since graduating highschool 8 years ago, Christmas in California with my family, and then Hawaii (for our real honeymoon) in January.

Noble Nob - near Greenwater, WA

Next year - new bikes, more racing, more travelling, and hopefully some wicked ride tales and better fitness! Drew and I will both be on Marin's new Rift Zone T3 29er - full carbon, full suspension, full big wheel awesomeness and we're kicking around the idea of getting some big bikes considering that the result I was most proud of (as it got me my first magazine mention!) was from the US Nationals SuperD...maybe it is time for us to embrace more than 4 inches of travel!

Check out all the press on the new Marin's :

Mountain Bike/Bicycling Magazine:

Dirt Rag:

Bike Magazine:

Bikeradar.com

Decline Magazine:

Warrior Dash in Whistler

Test of Metal

2011-06-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the Test of Metal, or more fondly called "The Test." Not because it is the hardest course of the year (Nimby 50 takes that one), or the most competitive (easily US Nationals), or the most technical (tie between Nimby 50 and Port Alberni Island Cup) but because it is the most of all of them....kind of like a highschool G.P.A. - it has the highest average. It generally features world cup racers, national team members, local superstars, and relics who race to prove they still have it. It has huge climbs, power sucking false flats, road climbs, and wheezing-inducing singletrack. It has fast, flowy, wipe-the-grin-off-your-face-your-supposed-to-be-racing singletrack, eye-watering fire road descending, and tough, bridge-laden, rocky, hand-pump inducing descents that make you question your overall skill. Jack of all trades, master of none....except suffering.

Anything can happen. It is 3 hours long, you are constantly battling men, women, and children (true story - some of the Squamish kids are amazing!). There are plenty of opportunities for crashing, mechanical-ing, cramping, or just generally blowing up. The first year I raced it in 3:14, which has remained my personal best - the next year (when the course was supposedly faster - I had a good, but not great day on the bike). This year, I wanted to hit sub 3:10 (well, actually I wanted to hit 3:00, but that was a little overzealous). This year I went 3:20...here is the story:

In warmup - felt ill, legs felt like logs attached to an aching lower back. Sweet. Off the line shifted into "make your own pace" and spun up the road climb watching the other women and men with camelbaks and 30 lb bikes ride away from me. Into the gravel path and fell into a good fire road rhythm. Legs started to come around, into the first real section of trail around Alice Lake and things started looking up, my technical legs came around, the sun started to break through the clouds, and I was feeling good. Through the first major descent (lined with tons of people) and the cheers of "right on girl," "yeah lady!" started getting me excited. Through the feedzone with more cheers and a compliment for my M-frame copycat neon glasses, and my excitement rose further.

Onto 9 mile. It is a climb, which isn't actually 9 miles, but feels longer. It is a long, slow, and fairly boring fire road climb. I went back into "make your own pace" and made sure to stay on top of my eating. No worries as a couple waves of men passed me and my single speeding buddy cranked his way by....well, a couple worries, but I managed to stay on message. Into Lavadome, the last bit of climbing which narrows into loose rock I finally got going. Passed about 10 men (one of the waves from earlier) and headed into Ring Creek Rip a downhill, rough (on a hard tail), doubletrack descent. Four guys passed me, but I passed three of them back after they flatted or crashed and just before the Plunge I hear female breathing (yep, I can tell the difference). So far I'd been in no man's land with people telling me I was anywhere between 4th and 7th place, but Megan Rose, a steady starter who really gets going about 2 hours in, caught me. Knowing she would be faster on the Plunge (the technical descent) with her full suspension and local knowledge, I let her by and watched her ride away.

Into the Plunge I was in survival mode - but rode more and smoother than probably any other year (even with the slight glaze the morning's rain had given to the rocks). Couple little bumps and issues, a good crash from an American guy that had me picking my way around a rock garden on the wrong line, and out of the blue heard Sandra Walters voice behind me. I had position, but didn't want to hold her up, and made plans to let her by in the feed zone. Through the feed zone, however, she wasn't right on my wheel and I decided to attack and see how long I could stay in front of her. I surged into Crumpet Woods knowing I would only be able to beat her if I got a gap in the single track (her racing knowledge would outsmart me on the road). I got a good gap and started passing guy after guy. All of a sudden I come up behind Cathy Zeglinski being trailed by another guy. Guy won't get out of the way, my pace slows, and finally guy bobbles and trail widens to give me my one opportunity to sprint past both the guy and Cathy. I kept it up until coming up upon another guy who isn't so keen to let me by, but after I explain that I need to go as fast as possible because I am trying to work on my gap, he finally starts going until he bobbles and crashes just before we hit the road.

With Cathy on my tail I knew I didn't want her close enough to draft so I sprinted ahead. My lead was pretty good until Sandra surged back up and we went into the last section of doubletrack path together. I knew I had to be in front when making the left hand turn into the finishing straight, so when the trail widened and straightened I surged in front of Sandra and started the sprint (fairly far out). Made the left in front and sprinted across the line barely in front to finish up in 7th place.

I still don't know what happened in Crumpet Woods, whether it was a second wind, the bike (perfect for that kind of terrain!) or just the last bit of fitness kicking in - but those 30 minutes were the most fun I've had in a race.

Now...well, now I am sitting in the Seattle airport, wishing the Starbucks line would go below 10 people (it has been 15-20 people long for the last hour) waiting for my flight to San Francisco for Marin meetings. After 3 days in my favourite city Elladee and I will head to Vail, Colorado for Shimano and Pearl Izumi meetings for 7 days. I'm a little sad that I don't get to race again until early July....but once I get back I'll (hopefully!) be guest riding a couple stages of BCBR and then heading to Sun Valley, ID for US Nationals! But for now...it is time to suck it up, get in line, and hook up the caffeine IV drip.

2011-06-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

I pride myself on being a proficient technical rider in the grand scheme of female racers - there are girls who go bigger, go faster, are smoother - but generally I don't suck and am rarely the last one down a descent. I have my weak points - long rock faces, loose, marble laden shoots that make even the best brakes useless, and generally I like at least one, preferably two wheels on the ground. I have my strengths too - tough, working, rolling singletrack that challenges the "spin it to win it" riders and curvy, flowing, eye-watering descents. Proficient I am, gnarly I am not.

This weekend was gnarly.

Day 1: North Shore Bikefest Ryder's Eyewear Prologue - 1.5 minutes of fast double-track to 8 minutes of f'ing hard, slick, singletrack climbing, followed by 30 seconds of rocky descending, and another 2.5 minutes of rolling doubletrack. In the pre ride I thought I'd forgotten how to climb singletrack until the last of 5 pre-ride climbs, then my skill started to come back. In the race, I sprinted to get some momentum, and then calmed the body down and realized that the less I worried about speed, the faster I went (not very intuitive, but productive!). I won the day with a 1:10 to spare over Megan Rose - I was pleasantly surprised (read : completely shocked).

Day 2: North Shore Bikefest Return of the Ripper - I don't actually know how to describe this course - doubletrack, to the slippery technical climb from the prologue, to flat, rooty, slippery, muddy single-ish track, to fast flat doubletrack, to road, to a fun technical descent, to doubletrack, to rolling, to more technical descending, to the classic bridal path climb, down Severed D (a gnarly cold-sweat inducing trail that would require a DH bike anywhere else in the world, but on the Shore is considered an XC trail, to more trail, back to some of the original double track - it must be just about over....right? to a double track climb that looks like a wall (really, I have to go up this?) to open doubletrack that paralleled a road, and then into the trees to the finish line....but wait, just for good measure, back up the the singletrack climb from the prologue (seriously? I have to race up this a 3rd time in under 24 hours?). Back onto the last stretch of double track and across the finish line.

Going into the Ripper I was nervous. Years ago I spent a summer commuting to the North Shore on weekends and riding Mt Seymour every chance I got. That was my first summer owning a proper mountain bike - a chromolly Cove Handjob that I thought was the coolest thing ever (at 27 lbs for an XC hardtail, the lightest thing it was not). Since then I've returned to ride (not race) the North Shore every couple years - and each time it is like going home to your mom's house - everything is the same, except different. You open up a cupboard (or set up for a steep, rocky drop) and the bowls are where the coffee mugs used to be to find that they have been moved to the next cupboard. I did, however, manage to stay on my bike in the XC to finish up 2nd after a long day.

After a quick visit with friends over brunch in downtown Van on Sunday we hopped onto the ferry and into the work week. I headed up to the Comox Valley for 3 days and got in two awesome rides - one on lower trails near the Pipeline and one "shuttle" (the boys shuttled, I did intervals up the road) up Forbidden Plateau where I had my best ride of the year - the perfect day where everything clicked and (even though the boy's suspension outmeasured mine by at least 3 inches in the front and 6 inches in the rear) I held on for dear life and kept up on the downhills....not bad for an xc weenie.

Next up, Test of Metal - one of my favourite races of the year and then off to Novato, CA for Marin meetings and then Vail, Colorado for Shimano meetings to finish off the month!

Fitness Quiz, Mental Quiz

2011-05-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend was not low key, it did not include any house chores, was not restful, and did not include any relaxing nights at home. It had moments of greatness and moments of defeat, miles of wicked singletrack and brutal fire roads, and countless breathtaking views. It also included eating a lot of gels.

In March I asked Drew to sign us up for Nimby 50. We did the race last year, I suffered, was happy to have done it, but didn't have any plans to go back. What changed between May and March could be chalked up to a temporary relapse in memory, a general excitement about racing, the plans to compete for overall in the Hell of a Series, or just wanting a good race under my belt 3 weeks before Test of Metal. Enter in the Island Cup Series schedule with Drew at the top of the points chase, and we realized we had booked ourselves for an epic race Saturday and grueling, working singletrack day on Sunday.

Nimby 50, Pemberton, BC: Probably one of the most impressive climbs I've ever seen - 101 switchbacks heading up a mountainside, which took me about 1:10 to complete - that's right - over an hour of climbing on singletrack, with no rest. Felt ok throughout the climb, faded at the top, tried to go with Squamish resident Megan Rose when she attacked but couldn't do it. Enter "Keep wheels on cart" mode. Try to stay upright on the bike throughout the descent and subsequent climbs, fail at this goal a couple times to put some chainring dents and bruises into my leg, and finish up 5th in my category, 6th overall female, and 82nd out of 275 racers. At the end of the day I was happy to finish in 3:06 with 3115 calories burned, but again found myself questioning the race as a stop next year (although....in my head I am already working on the rationalization to do it again....this race may just become my nemesis race that I can't live with, but can't live without).

After the race the party started with a beer garden, amazing burgers, good visits with our Vancouver counterparts, and awards. We missed Papa John - the one man groove band who started up at the end of awards - so that we could make the ferry back to the island. (Hopefully next year we get to stay for the epic party that follows the epic day!) All this took place in one of the most beautiful places I've been - green fields leading into stunning snow-capped mountains.

Beautiful drive home, stopped for some of the saltiest, greasiest pizza ever in Whistler (I'm pretty sure if heaven has a taste it tastes like that!), and onto the 9pm ferry to Victoria. Home at 11:30pm, into bed, alarm set for 7:30am.

Hammerfest XC, Parksville, BC: This race has conflicted with same day events for the last couple years, so it has been a while since we've made it here. We weren't going to miss it this year. 9km course with almost 1,000 feet of climbing per lap, friendly-grade fire road climb to hostile-steep technical climb, to fun, fast, flowy singletrack, to hard, working singletrack to the lap/finish area. Off the line I wasn't overly optimistic about how I would feel throughout the day - I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck, climbing up to the startline I hung out in my granny ring. Off the line and up the first climb legs responded (great surprise!) and by the top of the climb I started thinking it might be an awesome day, the descent and rolling singletrack at the bottom confirmed this, and just when my wrists and arms started screaming I was back onto the fire road for a "recovery" climb - two more laps with a perma-grin and I finished up (with legs, back, and knee screaming and complaining) the most fun race I've had yet this year. Thanks to Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club and Arrowsmith Bikes for an awesome race course and race!

Drew had an awesome day in Pemberton for 4th at the Nimby 50 and we both brought home the wins on Sunday at Hammerfest. We stuck around for Drew's Podium, but had to jet to get back to Victoria to test our brain-function (mine was low) at Fort Cafe for "Bike Quiz Night" with a group of friends. Our team ended up 3rd in the trivia contest, we caught up with some great people, ate a lot of food, and then headed home KO'd from the weekend (and now back to work to recover!)

Next weekend is the North Shore Bike Fest and (if I can convince Drew to race) the Port Alberni Island Cup Marathon!

2011-05-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

So the bike isn't BRAND new to me anymore...but I've been promising photos - so here they are. Last weekend was Drew and I's last weekend home together until the end of July (seriously!) and so we did something we haven't done a lot of this year....we rode together. Just the two of us and our mountain bikes out for a great 3.5 hour ride. We had the perfect day, covered some beautiful terrain and amazing trails, and reminded ourselves of why we live on the island and spend hours every year on the ferry - it just doesn't get much better than this....

This weekend we head off on our first ferry adventure of the year (in our brand new Ford Escape!) to Pemberton for the Nimby 50 - a race that kicked my arse last year, and will probably repeat that this year, home for Saturday night, and then up to Parksville for Hammerfest XC on Sunday - just because one XC race in a weekend wasn't hard enough on the bodies!

2011-05-15T09:31:00.001-07:00

2011 has been shaping up to be a busy year - racing (a little, not a lot), planning the wedding, running up and down the island for work, keeping up with all the sweet 2012 stuff being announced/about to be announced, gardening, house maintaining, and trying to get some downtime at the SAME time as Drew. So yeah, those are all my excuses for being lost on the blogging vortex. For a quick recap -

Campbell River Island Cup - Over a month ago, this race marked my first race back from my knee injury. The knee held out, the race was super-fun, but the race fitness was largely lacking...came in 2nd to Karen Trueman (who has kicked it up a notch and is riding/racing so well!). Super fun course (on a cold day) but ended up with a group of people hanging out around a campfire after some beautiful single track - definitely not a bad day to spend the day! (Thanks to Dan at Outdoor Addictions for putting on an awesome race!)

Portland Trip - 3 days with 3 amazing women in my family! My sister, aunt, grandmother, and I (with appearances by my brother-in-law) had an amazing few days eating, exploring, and sharing stories throughout Portland. My grandmother grew up there and learning more about the history of the city and her story of the city was a fantastic history lesson!

Snow to Surf - Going into the weekend I didn't have a team, but Drew had been asked to represent some friends of ours on the road bike....I figured I'd go along for the Forbidden Plateau ride the day before, but (while packing) I got a call that a team from Vancouver needed a mountain biker. "Sign me up" was my response and the weekend got way more exciting! We had an awesome 3.5 hour ride at Forbidden Plateau on Saturday and then I had a good (not great) race on Sunday. ....still working out the kinks in the race legs! My team finished up 34th overall (a huge improvement over 65th last year!) But the fun really started in the beer garden...which moved to the Griffon Pub, and then home to the Milley household where comfy couches awaited us by 9:30pm - yeah, we party hard around here.

Port Alberni Island Cup - Hard course, best weather and trail conditions in years, tired legs, and an awesome crew of bearded guys to help me push through the suffering equaled an awesome (but epic) day on the bike. Rode some sections that generally scare me and inspire me to hike a bike, and finished the race with trembling arms and tired (still not race-day ready) legs but with a big smile on my face. For extra punishment and fun I followed it up Monday with a 5 hour epic around Forbidden Plateau....my body is still trying to figure out what happened!

That pretty much catches things up to this weekend....we spent Saturday cleaning house (I know...so glamorous) and Sunday it rained cats and dogs. We did, however, get new kit for our Condo Group team...

Off the bike and onto a sub 2,000 Calorie diet

2011-03-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

I love eating. It may actually be the root cause of why I love cycling - when my calorie counter ticks away 2,000 calories or more burned on a single ride, it means that I get to eat 2,000 more calories than a normal person of my weight. It does not mean (unfortunately!) that those calories can come from chocolate, ice cream, trips to the bakery, and chocolate covered jujubes (all personal vices). But it does mean that when Drew goes back for post-ride seconds or thirds, I can join in the festivities.

I've also been very very fortunate, beyond some sciatic nerve pain in power-requiring race courses, a bit of hip jamming, and a couple painful road crashes, I have spent relatively little time convalescing from injury or sickness. So I'll preface all this with an explanation - I do know how lucky I've been.

This blog post originally had a long explanation of what happened, what I'd been doing since, and a general tone of melancholy. I'm pretty sure that never helped (or interested!) anyone, so instead I'll just mention that I've been going crazy off the bike due to a painful niggling in my knee that isn't serious, but enough to limit my ability to ride and subsequently limiting my caloric intake to that of a normal human.

I missed racing the first race of the year at the Hartland Dump in Victoria. The one hometown mountain bike race of the year and I am on the sidelines. I did offer to volunteer and showed up ready to work, but the guys of the Trek Store Victoria did a great job handling things on their own and it became more of a social hour than anything.

Drew did race, and suffered. With his new job he's been spending lots of mornings, days, and evenings off the bike and away from home. Beer league hockey has been the staple on his training plan and apparently that wasn't enough to minimize the pain from 4 laps of the dump. To quote directly, "I just got bored of hurting that much." He finished the day in 4th behind two full-time athletes and another talented weekend warrior. The turnout for a cold and windy day was good with about 60-70 racers and a decent number of supporters. Next stop on the island cup circuit will be the Powell River XC on March 20th - a preview of the BC Bike race course!

In other news, shortly after my knee started whining we got a huge (for Victoria) dump of snow....apparently the groundhog lied to us. Photos appear above, around, and below.

And in other other news, my race bike is on its way and I'll have it next week - woot woot! After having a mental battle with myself, I finally decided to go with the CXR 29er, once built it will be 22 pounds of carbon beauty! It will be perfect for US XC Nationals in Sun Valley, Idaho and for the Test of Metal in Squamish, BC. It will take me a week or two to gather all the parts together, but once there I will post photos! (Teaser snow photos of the demo bike we have above!)

Back to Basics

2011-02-17T16:29:00.000-08:00

Our Very Confused Flowers...yes, still February!

I hate winter (as clearly expressed in my previous post) but I love winter training, being home, having a social life, sleeping in my own bed, and getting stuff done around the house.

The last month has found me on longer rides than any previous winter, with a flexible schedule that has given me the ability to work in the mornings, ride in the afternoons, and then do office work in the evenings. It is amazing!

Top of the climb at Hornby

Some of the highlights have been a few beautiful days, a trip to Hornby (photos below!), and lots of rides with Catherine Vipond. With the exception of a couple rough days, the winter riding has been great with sun, low doses (or douses) of rain, and no snow since early January...and it didn't stick around long enough to count.

Riding back to the ferry at Sunset

Other than that, Drew and I got our hands on the Marin CXR 29er - 21 pounds of 29 inch carbon speed...almost makes me think twice about deciding on a full suspension (that may change once I get a good ride in on the new Rift Zone though!)

Waiting for the boat home...

The view from the top of Hornby Ridge Trail

Seattle "Normal People" weekend

2011-01-31T22:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is good for us to pretend like we are normal, like it isn't REQUIRED for us to have a bike on anywhere we go. This week we headed down to Seattle to watch my studly little (big) sister's basketball game. Sage is 18 and playing for the Washington State University (WSU) women's basketball team. She is super impressive, a ton of fun, and I taught her everything she knows (well, maybe not EVERYTHING).

Saturday we caught the 7am ferry (gross!) and headed down to Seattle, a quick stop at the outlet mall started me panicking as I found a "wedding" dress I thought I liked (I've already ordered one in Victoria). But I showed it to Drew and he was unenthused, panic subsides and we head on into the city.

Drew still hadn't made it into Seattle for his tattoo for winning Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds 2010 (or 2009 for that matter) so we headed into Chinatown for his appointment. While Drew was in pain, I explored the area with my oldest sister and her husband. It was a great day to be in Chinatown as the Lunar New Year parade was making its rounds with dragons, fire crackers, and drums.

The evening held a restaurant crawl and dinner with our star for the weekend. Rolled into bed exhausted and stuffed to the gills. The next morning held belgian waffles, coffee, and a beautiful walk through the Pike Street Market.

Finally game time, we dressed up in sweet duds that my sister Cara made for us and headed to the game to be super-supporters for Sage. Sage played great, but the team lost - they'll have another chance to get University of Washington (u-Dub) at home on February 26th.

Quick drive home, and back to work...although Drew has a sweet week up in Whistler planned with work.

Speaking of work - Marin bikes has a sweet little cache of videos up online:

Team DH on the silverscreen
and
Preview of Ride Guide TV Episode with Marin

Winter Training

2011-01-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

Just to clear it up for everyone, I hate winter: the vitamin D deficiency makes me grumpy, I feel smothered and trapped by rain gear, my circulatory system goes on strike and forgets my fingers and toes, and I'm never warm. The sad thing? I also live in the warmest part of Canada...and so really, can't complain.

This winter has actually been more enjoyable, with my new job I have actually been able to schedule work around training, which means fewer mind (and phalange) numbing night rides with only a small circle of battery-produced sunshine to guide me through winter training. Riding in the daytime also translates to higher temperatures which makes me almost able to convince myself that it isn't winter. Double that with getting back on the mountain and road bikes, and I can actually say that I have been loving the extra hours on the bike, the sweet new trails I have missed out on over the last few months, and the chance to catch up with all of our riding buddies and this is shaping up to be the best winter yet.

On the life-front, so far this year we have changed tenants, had a minor flood in our basement, started to dig out drainage in our backyard (which will, in the future, lead to some beautiful landscaping, but now looks like a war zone), and catching up with socializing with some of our closest friends who put up with our 8 month absence from social life each year.

As far as work goes, Marin has been getting some awesome press. Check out Bike Reviews discussion of the 2011 Marin Quad XC Series (which Drew and I will be showing off during the mountain bike season) and this month's Bike Magazine for a review of Marin's new XM9, there is an awesome review in this year's "Gear Guide" :

That is all for now...I'll keep updating over the next few months! Hope everyone likes the new blog layout!

2011-01-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Props to Hannah Ziadeh Photography

(for getting a good photo of BOTH of us!)

2010 brought on a lot. Racing (always busy), buying a home, getting engaged (not that I had to do much there besides say "Yes," and new jobs for both Drew and I. 2011 is looking like a big year as well as we both start our new jobs, plan a wedding, go through with the wedding, all on top of the standard racing season.

The end of 2010 was busy, since my last update a lot of races happened, some highlights and lowlights would be:

Props to Kurt Knock Photography

Provincial Championships: Came 4th with a pretty strong race. Battled it out with Kelly Jones but screwed up the final 180 degree corner and got my bars entangled with hers in the sprint with mine behind hers. Kelly deserved that extra spot, she rode well and came on strong at the end of the season.

Portland USGP: came unready to race. Was shown it isn't a good idea to show up to the big leagues unfit and not ready.

US Nationals: Went to reg, got plate 55, thought that was pretty sweet for no UCI points, got called up 109th out of 111 girls - pressure off, now just get as far up in the pack as possible. "The race starts now" Drew said, and we were off. I made it up to 47th, rode around with 42nd to 47th and decided on the last lap (at the back of the pack) to run the last thick, slow mud leading into the stairs and passed my whole group to finish up in 42nd, not bad considering my start.

Provincial Championships

2010 I got better at winning out of a group, 2011 I need to work on being higher up in the field at bigger races and always show up to races ready to go.

After US Nationals I headed home to California for Christmas, a standard week of catching up with all of my sisters and family. After overstuffing myself Christmas day, Drew flew into my home town (with a single-terminal airport) to drive back up with me to ring in the new year with our friends in Victoria.

The new job started January 1st and it has been a bit of a change, things are just starting to get busy as everyone in the bike industry wakes up from the holidays and starts getting ready for the new season. I'm looking forward to all the new challenges, experiences, and people that I will have the opportunity to work with!

This one just never gets old...

Drew going for his 3rd Single Speed World Championship!

I would like to extend my deepest thanks to some of my biggest supporters this year: Kurt at Everti Bicycles helped me out with bikes for mountain bike and cross season. Both were beautiful race machines that handled like a dream and gave me the confidence to improve my technique throughout the year. Gerry at Straight Up Cycles was a huge help this season with tune-ups, time off, and moral support. I have loved every moment of working with him and will miss working at the shop. Drew, well, he is pretty great. I can be high strung (or I could say, my default setting is high strung) and he is always supportive - whether it is a quick fix on the start line or rainy day motivation. Thank you to all three of these guys, not sure I could have made it through 2010 without you!

I promise to have more updates soon, once I make some race schedule decisions! Now, however, we need to decide on a menu for the big day (and I need to do some dress shopping...)!

2010-11-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

My laptop lost itself behind my truck seat and our desktop is embarrassingly slow. On top of all that the weeks have been flying by and our couches and bedroom have lost shape under piles of laundry, race prizes, costumes and towels.

Last weekend we headed south of the border to Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds. Drew was the 2 time defending champion and turned it into the 3 time. No big deal. I ended up somewhere in the top 10, but in the confusion of Nacho Libre's, bunnies, and Flash Gordons I really don't know where I was. Tanya Berg came down with us and we rode around together getting air off the BMX style jumps and trying to get out of my cleat (which mysteriously loosened off...)

Drew didn't have long to enjoy his win....this week we were pinned getting ready for the double header Cross on the Rock in Victoria. Drew was course engineer both days and race director on Sunday. I have to say, he puts together some pretty impressive courses and brings together some great people!

Day 1 - Gorge Esquimalt park: Closest thing to Euro cross as BC gets (with maybe the exception of New Brighton Park in Vancouver), fast straightaways, duck-poop filled sand, stairs, technical corners, and slick grass. I had a good start off the line, ducked in between Dawn Berg Anderson and Tanya Berg. After a good slip around a nasty corner I ended up with Kelly Jones. I led in 2nd (Tanya had a nasty crash a bit after mine) with Kelly in 3rd until legs and back decided to give out and I cracked in the last lap of the race. Kelly put in a strong attack and beat me to the line. In the men's race Drew, Tyler, and Rob got away from the group. Tyler and Drew attacked in the last lap and pulled away from Rob. Drew wore a good suffer face throughout the race but wasn't able to suffer his way in front of Tyler and took second with Rob in third.

Day 2 - Layritz Park Crosstume Classic: Painful is really the only way to explain this course: soft straightaway, turn, soft straightaway, turn, straightaway, climb, straightaway, descent, soft corner, soft corner, crossed eyes. Off the start my foot wouldn't attach to the pedal so I went into the first section at the back of the pack. A little bit of anger goes a long way and I scratched my way back to third place through a seagull (Katie Duncan Rabien), a bunny (Tanya Berg), Lady Gaga, and a few other character to settle in far behind Dawn Anderson and Mical Dyck and Kelly Jones breathing down my neck. With 3 laps to go I felt the legs start to falter (apparently a full day of racing and race duties followed by 8am set up and more volunteering does not make for nice feeling legs) I slowed it down a bit, sat up for a lap, and then attacked the last 2 laps to keep Kelly far enough behind me to beat her to the line for a second day in third position.

All in all the weekend was a success, a possible record turnout for the races, some amazing costumes, tired legs, and beautiful weather! Next weekend Drew heads to Toronto for Canadian National Championships and I get to stay at home and try to find our couch.

Special note of thanks to Kurt Knock for all the fantastic photos from the most recent races, Kurt is new to the world of professional photography, but between his race shots and the engagement photos he took of Drew and I, his skill and craft is evident. Check out Kurt's website for more race and engagement photos.

News, News, and Racing

2010-10-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

So, its been awhile. A long while considering that we are still in the midst of cross season, the races keep happening, and there should be great stories and blog posts to go along with them. There are. Every race I have done this season has reminded me how much work I have done and how much more I have to do.

Racing (and blogging), has had to take a bit of a back seat....I got a new job. Though in the works for a bit, what was supposed to start in January started at the end of September. Come January, I'll be the full-time rep for Shimano/Marin Bikes/Evoc/Nutcase helmets working for Elladee Brown (one of the most exciting parts of my new job!). For right now, I am somewhere in a vaccuum of managing Straight Up Cycles, moonlighting as a sales rep, moonlighting as a pro bike racer and still trying to get some sleep every once in a while.

One of the coolest parts of my new job is that I get to meet a TON of new bike-friendly (read: bike-obsessed) people, check out a huge array of shops, and travel up and down our beautiful island. This week's trip was up to Nanaimo/Parksville/Port Alberni where I learned that almost EVERY SINGLE SHOP has been supporting the Cross on the Rock Series with attendance! Woot Woot! No wonder the numbers keep growing!

So, back to the racing - since Starcrossed I have raced 2 Cross on the Rocks races and spent a weekend on the Oregon coast with my family. How did the Cross on the Rocks #1 and 2 go?

Cross on the Rock #1: Cumberland Coal Cross - Sweet course that included a pump track, bmx track, sand, awkward barriers, and technical grassy corners. Got tromped by Mical Dyck and Dawn Berg to come in third with Stacy Hutton, Andrea Bunnin, Kristenn Magnusson and child-star Amanda Wakeling breathing down my neck. So fun - I love cyclocross.

Cross on the Rock #2: Nanaimo Kona Kup - I stopped doing hill repeats at the end of mountain bike season, so the 2 extended on-bike climbs (one with a road section....WTF? What happened to flat courses) made my legs scream in pain and my eyes cross. Add in a long flight of stairs (I can't count high enough to give you an accurate number), TWO sand pits, and roller coaster descents and this race was a horribly, painfully, fantastic. Finished in second behind Dawn Berg while Mical and Wendy raced against the men. Did I mention - I love cyclocross!?!

Next Up: Cross on the Rock #3: Everti Bikes Crosstoberfext - there will be beer and bratwurst, enough said.

starcrossed...crossed eyes...rad racing

2010-09-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend marked the first UCI races of the cross season: Starcrossed, Seattle and Rad Racing's NACT race. These races are star-studded, fast, painful, and fun (if you lean towards the masochistic side of things).

Starcrossed is under the lights and is one of the best race atmospheres north of Portland, crowds of people stuff themselves around the velodrome and into the beer garden to heckle, cheer, drink, and be merry. After some travel delays we rolled in mid-day sweating in our jeans and t-shirts. Quick sandwich and some bike maintenance and it was time for Drew to race the single speed race. Not sure if it was the lack of moustache bars, the missing golden speedo, or the tire rubbing on his frame, but he finished somewhere around 7th. After some more bike maintenance, squeezing into my skinsuit, and getting my numbers pinned on (really, you need me to wear 4 number plates?) It was time to warm up....just in time for the skies to open up. Sweet. So much for my file treads.

At the start line we sat for a few extra minutes after call-up waiting for the course to be cleared (yep, still raining) and then we were off...straight into a huge puddle. Off the line I had a great start, but then rode through a wall of water and my glasses might as well have been beer-goggles - blurry shapes, questionable depth perception, and a nervous set of eyes. I quickly dropped into the back of the pack searching for a way to get rid of the glasses...do I toss them?(nope, still have to pay for those suckers!) I finally got them off my eyes and lodged into my helmet and then rapidly realized that I was not anywhere close to my top-10 goal.

Onto the attack and I caught and passed a few girls and settled in with 2 others. Without the glasses my technical skills got better each lap, but my speed/power on the straightaways was definitely lacking. After battling it out with Linda Sone from Planet Bike, I out-sprinted her for 19th place. A little further back than I was hoping, but the battle between Linda and I was one of the best (and most fun!) race experiences I've had in a while!

Out of chamois and into the crowds to watch the men's race. Drew had an amazing start and was riding in the top 20 before giving up the ghost with a tight back and heading to the beer gardens for a beer with me. After the men's race we loaded up the car, headed to the hotel to check in and then went in search for food (please note, 11pm is NOT an ideal time for high-quality cuisine in Redmond, Washington!) We finally found a Red Robin and enjoyed food that didn't quite meet up to the photos on the menu.

The next morning we all slept in (with the exception of our travel buddy Nick who had to get up for the Cat 4 race) and then enjoyed a continental breakfast complete with eggs and waffles (mmm...waffles!). Back to the car and down to the race site, slightly less motivated than the night before. After an inefficient registration, bike maintenance, course ride, bike maintenance, bathroom break, and then a panicked number-pinning I rolled up to the start line with almost no warm up.

Off the line I was top 15 and followed Wendy Simms around the first corner. Road the first lap with Wendy Williams but fell off the pace on the straight-aways (which there were many!). Proceeded to ride in no-woman's-land for a while until getting caught (again on the straight-away) by a couple more girls. My sand-skills and cornering kept me ahead until the last lap when one of the girls attacked to outsprint me for 15th, leaving me just out of cash and UCI points.

Not a bad weekend, but not a great one. On the plus side, my bike is amazing, my technical skills are good, and my weaknesses are trainable. On the down side, my weakness requires time and work (time which I am a bit short on, and work which is a bit painful!).

This week has been mostly focussed on recovering and work, but this weekend holds the Cumberland cross race...lots of soft-terrained allyways to work on my straightaway speed! (Plus a good visit with the Island Cup crew!).

Cross Season is here!

2010-09-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Cross season is here and yesterday marked the first race of the year at Fort Langley's Alder Acres farm. Historically, this course is a bit of a mountain bike course with a rough fire road that has the potential to eat skinny cross tires, a good run up, and then singletrack leading back into the main area. This year, the road was a bit smoother, the single track a bit more groomed, and the run up just as painful as ever.

I went into this weekend with the simple goal of getting a cross race under my belt before heading to Starcrossed in Seattle in a couple weeks. I had no idea how my legs and lungs would react to the anaerobic workout after almost a month of getting back into running, little to no riding, and a lot of great food and wine. I also just got my sweet new Everti Ti-Fighter built up but only had 3 rides on it.

Off the start line Kelly Jones surged ahead to take the hole shot around the first corner, I made sure to get on her wheel, almost blew the second 90 degree corner (thanks to my Ti-Fighter for its super smooth ride I was able to recover), and then somewhere along the straight stretch I managed to take over the lead. I led going over the barriers (first barriers of the year...and at speed!) and into the run up. My recent running habit helped me out as I headed up the run-up at a comfortable pace that gained a few seconds on the other girls. I had a bit of space through the singletrack, but back onto the fire road and Stacey Hutton bridged up to me. We rode together for a lap, worked together on the third lap, but the rest of the race we danced a routine that went - me with a lead up the run up and through the trees, Stacey with a bridge-up on the straight stretch.

Going into the last lap my brain started working - legs felt good, lungs were functioning properly, now, how to win a race? I made sure I was in front heading over the barriers and into the run up, attacked on the run, kept it smooth through the descent, and the gave everything I had through the trees and onto the fire road to take my first BC Cup Cross win of the season...not a bad day considering the race was supposed to be an "experience" race.

Overall the race felt great (after suffering at 8,200 ft elevation in Colorado, suffering at sea level just isn't the same) and the bike was amazing! I would have liked my tubular wheels to run a lower tire pressure, but my RS80 clincher training wheels felt great and the ti cross bike (over my carbon bike last year) dampened the rough sections and rode like a dream. Island girl Amanda Wakeling (child super-star and Canadian Junior National XC Mountain bike Champion) came 3rd and onto the podium in her first Open Women's race.

Next weekend we'll actually be at home...woot woot!....then we are off to Seattle for the Star Crossed/Rad Racing NACT double header for the first UCI races of the season. Time to get to gluing the tubulars!

Whistler Bribe...

2010-08-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

After the Mount Washington BC Cup last weekend I was done with mountain bike racing (for the year). I was ready to pack in the fat tires and swap out the brakes for cantilevers and the bars for drop. Drew suckered me in to heading up to Whistler to finish up the BC Cup series at the Ken Quon Memorial ride with promises of a delicious dinner out, shopping in Whistler Village, and a night at the Fairmont Whistler - yep, I am that easy, throw a little swank-i-ness at me and I'll follow along in true girlish fashion.

We caught an early boat Saturday morning and headed straight up to Whistler. Pre rode the fast, hammerful, swoopy course: a good amount of packed double track with a healthy dose of singletrack and a painful bridge-laden climb and was smiling all afternoon, almost looking forward to the race. To the hotel to check in, beautiful room with a view of the Blackcomb side of the mountain. Quick shower and some solid trash tv (ever wonder who the Most Amazing Bad Boy of Hollywood is? The Bio channel claims Colin Farrell over Tommy Lee, Drew disagrees). Off to the village we set for some Connect 4 at the pub (I was the unofficial champion), window shopping and an amazing dinner with friends at our favourite Whistler restaurant - Elements.

So, by now you are all wondering when we will get to the race report...I don't want to disappoint with a brief, unimpressive blog post...but the race went. Off the start I got swallowed by a sea of masters level men, after being cut off and almost wheel chopped a few times I was convinced I would have a heart attack before even raising my heart rate level. Headed into the singletrack just behind a couple junior boys and a long line of Master's men with Karen Trueman and Catherine Short just in sight. After a few jogs in and out of trail and into a walking line of racers (cross skills to the rescue!) I settled in to a good pace with a couple of the junior kids and chased down Catherine Short to sneak into 4th place with Catherine just behind me.

Up the climb I felt a familiar tightness in my back. My back has a history of tightening itself into knots and pinching my cyatic nerve to the point of leg numbness, this year has been almost pain-free with a stronger core, more stretching, and concentrating on spinning more and grinding less. I led Katherine into the last singletrack section before the lap point, but couldn't keep a fast enough pace and let my back recover, so I pulled over to let her fly. I made my way down the descent, through the lap point and feed zone, and about 1/3 of the way through the second lap but then lost all ambition. The switch was turned off....I couldn't stand the thought of two more climbs up the bridges on Pinocchio's Furniture or the havoc the climb would wreak on my back and didn't have the desire to chase. I managed to zig and zag on and off of the course and hit all the fun single track sections, with a few non-race sections for good measure, and headed to the feed zone. I arrived just in time to watch Drew go through in 4th place.

Drew finished in 4th, me a DNF, but 3rd overall in the BC Cup Series. Jean Ann McKirdy won the series with Katherine Short finishing up in 2nd overall.

While I would have liked to finish up the year with the BC Cup Overall win, I am proud to say that I have met all of my goals for the 2010 mountain bike season: Podium finish at a Canada Cup event, top 20 (almost top 15) at a US Nationals event, and a peak performance at a selected event (Edmonton Canada Cup). It has been a year with a lot of off-bike successes and excitement: becoming home owners, getting engaged to Drew, and making it through another year of managing Straight Up Cycles.

Now (after a brief 3 night stay at home) Drew and I will head back to Whistler to work for Shimano at Crankworx. The rest of the month is still up in the air, but will be sure to involve some good wine, good friends, DEFINITELY good food, and hopefully some good riding and surfing!

2010-08-05T22:22:00.000-07:00

There really isn't an excuse for over a month's worth of racing and not blogging...Sure we've been busy travelling from here to Granby, Co. to Squamish, to Mission and then back again to work. Yes, we've finally started discussing when and where we'll be tying the not (no we haven't actually made any decisions). And yes, after a season of racing and being oh-so-tired with 1 day completely off of everything - training, travelling, work - in the last 3 months the desire to blog away about our adventures is pretty low....but over 45 days with nary a word? No excuses...

So where have I been?

Test of Metal: Fast field, good race with good legs, but poor bike performance - to much air pressure, too much cable stretch, too late to the finish line to stand on the podium, and not even fast enough to beat my previous year's time.

BC Cup Series: Since I won it last year, I decided to use the BC Cup series as training races rather than a central focus...though I am leading the series with an attendance award, once the points get shaken down, I'll be down the list a bit in the BC talent pool. I've had some great races and some rough races, but the series is still strong with tough courses and talented girls.

Edmonton Canada Cup: I almost didn't go, tuckered out legs the weekend before had me doubting that I could pull out a podium performance (my goal for the year). After a good pep-talk from Drew and a couple good rides to get the legs going I headed off the start line at Edmonton to ride a strong and consistent race to finish up in 5th....just in the last spot of the podium, and the first non-pro, time-card punching girl - not bad for questionable legs.

US Nationals - Granby, CO: Race start at 8,200 feet elevation, climb to 9,000 feet, do that 5 times in 38 degree celcius temperatures on rough, fresh cut singletrack, with no rear brake. At an hour in I was in the top 15, but fading fast. By the end of hour two and lap 4 my legs were done in and I had severe tunnel vision to finish up in 25th. Elevation is an ugly ugly thing... Next day came the short track, 20 minutes plus 2 laps equalled 10 minutes of participation by yours truly before the leader was within lapping distance. Katie Compton went on to lap everyone but the second and third place girls to take the win. I finished up 16th overall to meet my second goal of the year - top 20 at US Nationals.

Now, for the rest of the summer I am on rest, recovery, and re-excitement before going into cross season. This weekend I'll head to Whistler (with a swanky room at the Fairmont) for BC Cup finals then back to Whistler next week to work Crankworx with Shimano. The rest of the month is up in the air with possible Tofino trips, a possible trip up to See Jane Jump at Mt. Washington, and (maybe!) a weekend actually IN Victoria!

Cross Season: Not to look too far ahead...but this year's cross season is looking good. Starcrossed, seattle, Cross Vegas?!?, Toronto UCI, Fort Collins USGP, Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships, Portland USGP, and US Nationals all as possibilities or definites. All this on my new Everti Ti-Fighter...the frame is sexy silky ti, and the components will probably be Shimano Dura Ace with a dash of Pro Components....pictures soon!

Island Cup Champion!

2010-06-16T22:13:00.000-07:00

Surfing the web last night I found the final stats on the Island Cup Series Overall placings...with my name on top! Every year, Drew and I head to most of the XC Island Cup races (because they are amazing training, super fun, no-ferries or days-off-work requiring, and because most of our friends are there and race bikes too (yep, we are generally pretty cool).

The Island Cup series was where I started racing (though technically my first race was a BC Cup at the Panorama Ski Resort I fell in love with racing on the island when I met Wendy Simms for the first time in Nanaimo...she is/was so cool in her pro kit, on her pro bike with her big smile and perfect hair). It is the series I look forward to every year, the races that kick my butt and send me on my way pumped to keep training. They are generally the first time I taste blood in a year (less from competition, more from effort) and the best way to hone my winter-sleepy technical skills.

All that said, however, I've never won the series. One year I was wimpy and dropped out of too many races, another year we missed the double-points, mandatory finals and other girls showed up, and the rest of the years I was just too damn slow. So, although I don't expect any big companies to call me up and beg to send me a bike to test or components to beat on....in my little world of grinding climbs, tough singletrack, and early-season-I-don't-want-to-get-out-of-the-car-in-this-rain-weather it is an accomplishment I'm pumped to have on my resume.

The real heroes of this blog post, however, are all the race directors and volunteers that plan the courses, maintain the trails, get up at 6am the morning of the race to flag the course, don't get to race in their own events, and generally put up with racers who don't know, or have forgotten what a pain organizing events can be! So THANK YOU to everyone who has volunteered, helped out, supported (financially or emotionally) the Island Cup XC series!

Cardiac Classic

2010-06-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

This morning I was on the phone with my mom and mentioned that I raced this weekend, she said "oh yeah, it was Cardiac Arrest this weekend, how did that go?" I chattered on with my race report, not even noticing the slip up on the race title. As soon as I hung up the phone and reviewed our conversation, I had to smile at the apt mistake my mom had made. It quite nicely summed up the weeekend: though I didn't have the 5 of the 6 telling signs of ACTUAL cardiac arrest - stoppage of the heart, collapse, loss of conciousness, loss of breathing, or absent pulse - I did have feelings of weekness, extreme sweating, shortness of breath, and fatigue that can often precede a cardiac arrest.
The course is a brutal start along rolling fire road that (all too quickly) becomes a steep multi-use walking path that requires the lowest gear you can find on your bike and a lot of heavy breathing. Off the start Sandra Walters, Jean Ann McKirdy, and Katherine Short jumped in front with myself in 4th. After settling into a good pace I caught Katherine on the first climb, caught glimpses of Jean Ann along the first climb, but lost sight completely by the top. Down the descent with the masters men (one almost taking me out as he was running backwards on the course, another almost taking me out when he couldn't decide which line to take and whether or not to pass an unclipped rider).
The downhill is super fun, flowy technical that empties out onto another fire road climb, which ducks into more singletrack and then leads you back to the original, steep, walking path climb. Heading down on the 2nd lap I got held up by a junior rider who was having mechanical issues but wasn't ready to get passed by a girl. Katherine caught up to me while I was waiting for my buddy in front to sort himself out or let me by, tailed me until I was able to let her by, and then killed it on the remaining portion of the descent to pop out of the trees a couple bike lengths in front of me.
Up the fire road climb I focussed on maintaining the gap but resting as much as possible, but once we were back on the climb I started pedalling with everything I had (helping me along was the fact that my chain wouldn't stay in my 34 or 30 on the back, so I was having to climb in a much harder gear than the previous laps).Down the descent I ran scared, down the fire road that we entered into the course I ran petrified (pedalling harder and faster each time I thought I heard any rustling behind me) to finish up just in front of Katherine who was definitely catching up to me throughout the final descent and fire road sections to finish up the race in 3rd behind Jean Ann in 1st and Sandra in 2nd. My 3rd was enough to keep me the series leader's plate for the next BC Cup!

Back in the car Drew (who finished up 5th in his race) and I recounted the race and headed for the ferry with a sweet medal from one of the race sponsors, a car full of Ikea furniture to finish off the house, and the general feeling of accomplishment that seems to come over us whenever we finish a painful race.Yesterday we successfully BUILT the Ikea furniture (a tall glass of wine and 2 big bottles of beer later and our table top is actually level!) and today started planning for our weekend in Squamish for the Test of Metal (probably my favourite race of the year!). Thanks to Tara Baker and Marie Devantier for all the photos!

The tale of the Nimby Dog...

2010-05-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed to the mainland for 2 cross country races. Actually, a marathon XC race and then a BC Cup cross country. The marathon race was the Nimby Fifty in Pemberton, BC. The course promised a trail with (literally) 101 switchbacks in a singletrack climb, tough descents, and a beer and music filled after party. The XC race was the Surrey Junkyard Dog - a mostly singletrack, fairly flat, fast twisty cross country course.

The Nimby Fifty:

After a fairly stressful and comical day - new house, dryer broke, dyer ordered, dryer picked up, round hole-square peg situation....our new dryer literally wouldn't fit into our laundry room (actually, our old dryer had been dry-walled into the room, so it was difficult and required dis-assembly to be removed) - we made the 4 o'clock ferry. Ferry time is usually relaxing time, but after we headed BACK to Future Shop with our too big dryer and picked out a midget dryer that will actually fit into the room, we had to squeeze as many minutes at work as possible and didn't get bike maintenance done.

We spent the ferry ride changing tires, adjusting hubs, cleaning bikes from the Nanaimo race, and then re-packing the car so that our bikes were inside for the drive. Off the ferry and onto deciding where to get dinner (for the record, I am TERRIBLE at picking out places to eat, but a little picky on where we eat...so overall, very helpful in this situation). Called up our good friends in North Van on a whim and ended up eating and visiting at Burgoo on Lonsdale - amazing food, reasonably priced, and great company!

Onto Squamish for the night and then an early morning drive (after coffee and breaky) to Pemberton in the rain...not boding well for the overall enjoyment of a potentially 3+ hour bike race. Register, chat with the racing buddies that came out of the woodwork for this new race, get dressed in everything I brought with me (still raining+no rainjacket = super pumped Joele) pretend to warm up with about 5 minutes on the bike, decide that I am just getting wet, and find more people to chat with and more "bike maintenance" to do instead of warming up.

The course was epic. The climb was crazy (literally, first climb was over 1 hour long), the descents were heinous...hairy....spine tingling....wrist achingly steep and slippery, and took me just under 3 hours, with about 2.5 hours of climbing and 30 minutes of descending (a little weighty on the climbing time). I'm not sure fun is part of this description...but an experience it was (during the descents all I could think about was "what doesn't kill/injure me, just makes me a better rider....right??) The bonus was that I spent the climb around two super fit, talented riders that climbed like demons and made me long for more travel on the descents....and they were females! Brandi Heisterman (who finished up just behind me in 5th) was super supportive in the final hour of the race and awesome post-race with her enthusiasm!

After awards, a burger and a few pints for Drew, we headed back down to Vancouver for the night. One thing about a new race in a new venue, BC is gorgeous. The drive from Pemberton to North Van ranges from stunning mountain views to lakeside drives, to beautiful ocean and island views. It sucks here.

BC Cup #3: SOURCE Junkyard Dog XC:

The course is almost a hybrid of a cyclocross course and a cross country course (a CX-XC if you will?) There is almost no elevation change, the loops are fairly short at 20-25min/lap, but suspension definitely improves the overall enjoyment of the course. It is 95% fast, flowy, twisty, rooty, stunt-addled singletrack. It is fun, but definitely a different course. It is also smack dab in the middle of Surrey - it is rare that we race cross country within 5 minutes of a Starbucks. I think there were at least 3 Starbucks within a 5km radius of the course.

The trail network is located in a huge recreation facility that includes (based on my quick 5 minute post race spin..and is definitely not limited to) a hockey arena, multiple softball/baseball diamonds, multiple soccer fields, trails for hiking, trails for biking, a skate park, a bmx track, a pool....and I'm sure the list goes on. It is pretty cool to have a venue that covers that many sports!

The race started fast with a sprint for the singletrack. Catherine Short charged ahead with a group of Juniors and disappeared...her Wheaties did their job! Ann Yew and I rode together for the first lap and into the 2nd until I took a fall on a slippery bridge....she put about 30 seconds into me as I got my chain back into place and (after the Nimby 50 the day before) just didn't have the snap to reel her back in. I finished up 3rd, happy with my effort, but wishing that I had actually had the opportunity to ride with Ann for longer. Drew and I restocked our tire selection in the draw prizes, and made a brief podium appearance (only 9 guys this week meant that the men's prizing only went 3 deep, so Drew missed his podium by 1 spot to end up in fourth after having to refill his tire in the last couple laps of the race.

It was then home for me, but off to work for Drew and I spent a relaxing hour and a half in the $10 quiet lounge on the ferry....not a necessity, but so worth it this weekend! Next weekend we are contemplating the North Shore Bike Fest, but after the double header this weekend, we'll have to see how high motivation is - apparently the newly built trails for the race are awesome though!

The day You decide to do it is your lucky day. - Japanese Proverb

2010-05-26T15:36:00.001-07:00

I found this quote on the Canadian National Triathlon Centre's blogspot. It hit home....every once in a while I forget why I do all of this. It isn't a serious condition, I don't get down on myself, or racing, but the immediate memory and knowledge of why I get on a bike 6 days a week slowly slips away...the way a rainy day slowly slides up your jeans until you are wet up to your knees and unbearably cold.

With the excitement (and added chores) of the house, racing lost it's spot in the focus line, but training hadn't (don't even ask me to explain that one!). Without the focus of racing though, the training becomes meaningless. The hill climbs are just hill climbs, rather than focussed efforts.

Sunday was the Nanaimo BC Cup, though I was excited to sleep in my own bed and avoid taking the ferry, when Sunday morning came I just wasn't ready to race. The sleep wouldn't leave my eyes and the pre-race excitement wasn't bubbling. Arriving at the race, my excitement wasn't helped by my lonely name on the pre-registered list....really....I'm the ONLY pro-elite woman?

Luckily, in the end, I was joined by Wendy Simms and Glenowyn Carlson. Off the line I tried to match Wendy's speed, but once we hit the steep section of the climb, my 29 inch wheels became a burden and my legs begged for a 36t cog on the top of my cassette. With the RPM of a tractor, I slowly made my way up the climb, losing touch with Wendy and then losing visual contact.

As soon as we hit singletrack I knew she would be gone. The descent was fast, rutted from the previous day's DH race, and technical. It started with a swooping drop (where in lap #1 Drew came in with too much speed and blew his tire off the rim), followed by twisty, rooty, log encumbered fast trail that finally (with a big "whew" of relief for not crashing each lap) it dropped out onto a brief fire road and into the best part of the lap....fast, flowy, flattish singletrack that inspired momentum and a huge smile! Into a brief climb, and back onto the fire road for another heinous climb.

I rode by myself for lap 2, 3, and 4 (HATING climb number 4...my legs were questioning my ability to actually make it up the final, steepest grade). The big drops of rain throughout laps 2 and 3 made the course slippery and challenged my full slick rear tire on its ability to stay on-course. I finished up in 2nd. Definitely a solid day of training, but a little lacking on the competitive edge. This weekend we head up to Pemberton for the new Nimby Fifty marathon race and then to Surrey on Sunday for the Junkyard Dog BC Cup XC - should be a great weekend of singletrack! (and a great weekend to get my brain focussed on RACING!) This will be my lucky day!

Everti's Duncan Island Cup

2010-05-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Drew cresting the climb to claim his beer prime!

Saturday evening, while assembling an Ikea Dresser that came in about 200 pieces:
Drew: Are you pumped to race tomorrow?
Me: meh
Drew: That's not a very good attitude...you should be more excited!
Me: Well, it is hard to get excited when you never know if there will be many girls to race against. It is only so fun to try to race against guys.

Apparently someone heard me....the racing gods?...because the girls came out! On the start line in the Expert field I lined up with Melanie McQuaid (3 time XTerra World Champion) and Wendy Simms (Multiple time Canadian Nat'l Cross Champion), along with a well-weighted list of local girls.
The start of the race headed up a gross, steep, loose fire road, teased me with a turn onto singletrack that led into a long climb that alternated between singletrack and doubletrack paths. At the top of the climb the trail headed down a steepish, loose-ish grade that threatened (when approached with too much speed) to toss you off the trail in a two wheel drift (proved by some of the earlier wheel tracks!) and then onto rolling fresh-cut trail. The singletrack descent was tight, twisty, working singletrack that demanded attention to maintain any speed...and was rough enough to discourage seated pedaling.

Cresting the top of the climb...smiling because I know it is all down hill from here!

The first descent was a bit of a shocker after trying to keep Mel in sight on the climb, once I got out of the fresh cut, I spun out my legs on the short fire road, caught sight of Wendy behind me, and ducked into the last section of the descent, fun and fast and swoopy (with a bit of dry dust to test my slick tires!) this section made me smile from ear to ear. Wendy, with her super-human skill, caught up to me and her smooth lines were deafeningly silent and I let her go by, in the hopes that I could wheel-suck and learn a thing or two.

Around the lap point and back up the climb, I spent the next 2 laps around various guys, trying to make sure that I held my place and kept my pace nice and steady. Each descent got smoother and faster and by the end of the race I felt like I had re-mastered riding real trail...(it is time to spend a few more hours a week on the mountain bike instead of just the road bike!)

Drew sporting the new Dyna-Sys gear from Shimano and drinking his prime prize

I finished up the race in 3rd place, 1st local-level girl, and happy with my race performance overall...Drew finished up in 1st and won the hill-climb prime for a 6-pack of beer! We headed home to some yardwork and a night at the movies to see Ironman 2 - so much fun, and highly recommended! Next weekend we'll head up-island to Nanaimo for BC Cup #2, woot woot for NOT having to take a ferry!

This would have felt good over the rougher fresh-cut!

In other news, Everti has announced their dual-suspension prototype for 2011...Mike Pollack has had the honor of testing it out...and so far, all I've heard have been rave reviews! As built, the bike weighs 26 lbs and is full ti front and rear!

Sunshine Coast BC Cup #1

2010-05-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

April was probably one of the biggest month’s of my life....which is what I’ll use to explain my (almost) complete lack of blogging. Between heading down to Sea Otter to race, getting engaged, celebrating my birthday, and moving into our newly purchased house, things have been falling by the wayside – blogging, riding, laundry...I’m sure there are other things too!

This past weekend marked my return to “real life.” We headed to the Sunshine Coast for the first BC Cup of the year. This race is not easy to get to for us – it involves taking a ferry to Vancouver and then another ferry north to Gibsons. In the past, this has been an easy race to overlook because of travel costs and time (the two ferries total about 2.5 hours of on-boat-action each way, but the waits in between add another 2-3 hours each way, with 2 hours of driving....it starts to add up!) but after racing there last year, the trails are so much fun, the area so beautiful, and the turnout (generally) so high, that it is not a race to be missed!

On race day we headed to the race sight a couple hours early. We ended up with a primo parking spot near the registration and awards area (things are looking good!) and started getting ready to warm up. My original plan was to head out for a loop of the course, but after dawdling a bit, I didn’t want to miss the start and decided to warm up on the fire road and some easy-access trail.

The start of the race was anaerobic ugliness. Jean Ann McKirdy, Ann Yew, and Katherine Short all sprinted up the fire road climb. Realizing that I couldn’t match their pace, I focussed on keeping them in sight but not blowing myself up. After an extended fire road section the course takes an ugly left hand turn into a jeep trail that is soft, steep, and painful. Through this section I kept the girls in sight, picked off Katherine, passed a handful of men that had started 3 minutes in front of us, and was feeling (definitely not peppy and race ready after 3 weeks of limited riding) fit enough and fresh.

The rest of the race I rode around by myself; Jean Ann and Ann were elusive and I never even caught sight of their jerseys through the trees. The course was beautiful though and the Master’s Men (who were in the start wave 3 minutes ahead of us) gave me carrots to chase and people to race against.

The course is arguably one of the best BC courses: hard climbs, fast, swoopy singletrack with technical roots and bridges, creek crossings, and probably 95% trail – a huge diversion from Sea Otter which was 95% road or jeep track!

By the end of the race I started getting time gaps of 30 seconds to Ann (after previous gaps of 2 minutes). I was reeling her in, but with only a descent and a fire-road hammer, I didn’t think I could catch her. I rolled in for 3^rd place less than a minute behind her and 7 behind Jean Ann (who is about to head east for the Canada Cups and is hoping to qualify for World Championships) but 12 minutes faster than my course time last year (on the exact same course, in the same type of conditions).

I’d like to claim all the credit for the speed improvement, but I think I have to divvy it up between myself, Drew for all his help with coaching, and Kurt Knock from Everti....the 29R performed flawlessly and didn’t make me miss (even for a second!) my full suspension Gary Fisher. I wasn’t sure before...but after this race, I think I may be a 29R race convert. Though I still love the full suspension 26” wheeled Fisher (especially with my new Magura Durin Fork!) the 29R just rides like a dream, climbs like a demon, and weighs like a feather (and is so much easier to clean than a full suspension!).

Tomorrow we are headed up to Duncan for the Duncan Island Cup XC…so nice to be on the Island this weekend!

Home at last....

2010-04-21T20:56:00.001-07:00

This year's speedy steed

So, as a warning, I wrote this post just after we got home from Sea Otter, since then, the excitement of being engaged, buying a house, working full time, and my birthday has gotten in the way of me attaching photos and posting it. Yesterday was the annual Snow to Surf race from the top of Mount Washington to Comox. As always, it was a (albeit wet and chilly) fast, fun, and (though we were supposed to be a recreation/fun team) competitive. Our mixed team raced to 2nd place in the mixed division and 17th overall...enough to keep us in the delicious chocolate medals from Hot Chocolates, my favourite part of the weekend!

We are back from Sea Otter, I'm feeling productive, so I get myself settled to blog away...and realize that I still haven't posted the entry from the Cumberland XC. Wow, where have I been? So a quick catch up, since things have been happening since the beginning of April:

Cumberland XC - awesome race, awesome course, awesome legs for lap 1 and 2 (shaky and done-in lap 3). Wendy Simms came out for her first post-baby race and won...but she was nice and let me ride with her for 2 laps before my legs gave out and she demonstrated her world-class ability and rode away from me like I was standing still.

Drive South - Drew and I headed down a week ago Tuesday so that we could stop and say "hello" to both of my parents before making our way down to Monterey and Sea Otter. On the way down we stopped in Grants Pass on a whim and a Google search to try out the local trails....they were awesome! Really well maintained, fast with steep up and downhills....it was the closest thing I've felt to riding on Hornby Island. The wild flowers were in full bloom and it shorts, jersey, arm, and leg warmer weather.Grants Pass Trails

Home - Gotta love the family, went for a good ride in the sun, checked out my step-dad's latest project, ate some delicious home cooking by both my mom and dad, and had my fix of Ramone's coffee and cornmeal-blackberry scones...not good for the race weight, but great for the euphoria factor!

17 Mile Drive...just before the ask

Monterey - after spending the day driving we ate Chipotle (one of Drew's motives for coming down to race) and headed out on a spin around 17 mile drive. The road winds around beautiful coastline homes and the Pebble Beach Golf course. Just before the sun dived into the ocean we ducked down onto the rocks just above the beach. Drew headed down to the sand:

joele: Drew what are you doing?

drew: lookin' for rocks.

joele: what?? (follows Drew to the sand) What kind of rocks are you looking for?

drew: this kind (pulls out an engagement ring)

joele: REALLY???

The Races - I headed down knowing they would be a shocker and my expectations were met. The short track started on a slight downhill into a barely ride-able corner. Chaos ensued and I jumped off my bike and cyclocrossed around a cluster of girls. Into a fast uphill that made my mouth taste like blood, into a fast descent, up and through the start/finish line, and back out for more 5 minute laps of pain. I got pulled with 2 laps to go and watched the top women fly around the track.

Short Track Descent

The cross country race started with a sprint, but settled into a fast road peloton around the Laguna Seca raceway. Headed out to the "trails" (read dirt highways) down a tattered four cross course, and then back into the raceway. Four times around that trying to use my non-existant road tactical skills left me in 26th place. Not as high up as I would have liked (I was aiming for top 20) but not bad for a course that didn't suit and a good (not great) leg day.

Post Race Smiles

Back in the car to sit in traffic for 3 hours before getting to San Jose (normally a 1.5 hour drive). Drove until we couldn't see straight, quick sleep in Ukiah at les Holiday Inn Express and then back in the car..."hello" to mom on her lunch break, and then we powered through until we got to Eugene for a sleep-over with my cousin. After a huge hugs from him (he thinks Drew is pretty cool) we had an awesome dinner out of the Market of Choice deli, some wine, and another quick sleep. By Tuesday at 2pm we were on the Port Angeles ferry heading home...thank goodness!

You would think that we would take a night off and relax at home...not so. Late lunch with Drew's mom at Rebar, Yoga at 7:15, and then drinks and dessert with two of our favourite people to celebrate our engagement....not a bad way to be welcomed home!

2010-04-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Our Blustery Afternoon

So, I have recently discovered that I suck at blogging regularly when busy, lazy, or tired, and that I actually managed to get all the way through March without a blog entry. So here is a quick one, another promise to post photos of my bikes for this year, and the latest and greatest of my adventures.

But, today being Good Friday, I've had the day off of work and have been playing catch-up for all the stuff I've been meaning to do....updating this (though without photos) is one of them. (The blustery weather that has us inside watching "Where the Wild Things Are" doesn't hurt either!)

The first two island cups have happened. I put off writing blog posts for both of them waiting to find photos of the race...the time for race reports have passed and I still don't have photos from them (but Regan Pringle has a great gallery HERE and HERE)...so now, I guess the best way to put it is this: The island cup series is one of the best gems of the island. The courses are hard, the people are awesome, and the competition this year has been amazing! Mical Dyck, Catherine Pendrel, Sandra Walters, Mel McQuaid, and Catherine Vipond have all made it out to at least one of the two races so far, so there have been girls to show me how it is all really done.

In other news, Drew and I bought a house. As of April 30 we'll be actual homeowners with a real bike area, a living room that doesn't have 9 bikes in it, and a spare bedroom. Our house won't have much for furniture to start off with...but at least that will make the move easier!

Other than that, I'm still getting used to my 29R from Everti, but every ride makes me smile and with the Fox F80 on it it is fast climbing and descending. Now it will need a bit more touch of XTR to lighten it up (from its current 21.5 lbs) for the climbs in Monterey at Sea Otter and it will be ready to go!

In nerdy bike world, glimpses and hints of Shimano's new XTR group keep coming to light on blogs and forums. I am hearing lots of 10 speed references, some electronic references, and I can't wait to get a glimpse of some of the race bikes in Sea Otter that will surely have some of the new bling.

Other than all of the above, training has been going swimmingly (although Monday's ride left me almost swimming after torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightning, and then sideways rain over the course of 4 hours of Malahat and Shawnigan Lake). I am getting really excited for battling it out with the hardest race course of the year (Cumberland Island Cup) and then heading down to California for (hopefully!) some sunny weather, a quick family visit, and racing!

Ending Winter...Watching Sisters...Taking time

2010-03-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

the view from our room

Winter seems to be coming to an abrupt end around here, assuming that the sunny, 10 degree Celcius days actually count as winter. With the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, people seem to be waking up from their winter hibernation. Summer bikes are coming into the shop, summer clothing orders are going in, and I am in the back and forth of whether I can take fenders off yet or not....(because, damn Murphy, as soon as they come off we will get torrential rain!)

off the beaten path of the Wild Pacific Coast Trail

Also coming to an end is my 2 short months off from racing. Next weekend marks the first race of the year at Victoria's Island Cup. I still have another month of sticking close to home as the first trip Drew and I will take off the island will be to the Sea Otter Classic (which will be one of the biggest races I will do this year).

One of the light houses in the "ships graveyard" of Vancouver Islands Coastline

To enjoy one of our final race-free weekends of the year (wow...am I really saying that all ready?) Drew and I headed up to Ucluelet for tide-pooling, hiking, and an overnight get-away with amazing food and a gorgeous ocean front room! It was beautiful! Saturday we headed out to the Wild Pacific Trail, a crushed gravel trail that winds around parts of Ucluelet's beautiful, rocky coastline. We cut off-trail to the beach (where there were tsunami warnings from the earthquake in Chile) to check out the tide pool creatures. I introduced Drew to his first hermit crab and starfish, and checked out the bright red sea anemone's that I had never seen before, pretty nice way to spend a Saturday!

Chesterman's Beach, Tofino

After our hike we had dinner, watched some Olympics, got some sleeep, to wake up and head out to Tofino for more beach time and then a quick dash to one of Tofino's pubs to watch the last 2 minutes of the Olympic hockey game and then the ensuing overtime. Drew was edgy and high-stress as the game went along and we were both relieved by Canada's goal...to end the game in sudden death.

Mount Arrowsmith on our drive home

Speaking of nail biting games....while I'm not racing, it has been the perfect season to keep track of my little sister Sage's basketball career. For those of you not in the know, she signed her letter of intent to play for Washington State University in Pullman in 2010/2011 season and is just finishing up her last year of high school basketball. She got the tall genes in the family, stands over 6' and is a phenomenal player. Her team is currently in the NCS (North Coast Sections) playoffs and won their semifinal game last night by a nail-biting 2 points. From the sounds of the local paper's write-up, Sage was a focus for the defense, but her team stepped up to the opportunity to create plays and points throughout the game.

So now, I have successfully updated my blog...and should head to work (where the shop blog is also in desperate need of updating!) Before next weekend I'll be reviewing/discussing my new race bike for the year- Everti's 29R and my new road bike/winter bike, another Everti.

The "Off" Season

2010-02-22T16:36:00.000-08:00

So...I can officially say that I am no better, actually WORSE at regularly blogging when it is the "off season." But here we go, the last month and a half in a (hopefully) short read:

First off...I don't know who termed it the "off" season; I feel busier now than I did during the race season. After my short break in December and the beginning of January it has felt great to get back into the groove of training. Victoria has had an amazing winter with beautiful days, clear roads, and amazing trail conditions. I've had six weeks of building on the bike and still wake up excited to head out on the days ride.

Second...to make all the riding easier...I've had new bikes to demo, test, set up for keeps, but most of all enjoy! The biggest change has been upgrading my winter bike, I went from my 1980's steel Pinarello to a 21st century full-ti Everti road bike. It is amazing. Tracks like a dream, smooths every bump in the road, and has a liveliness that no carbon frame could mimic. The other big change has been an Everti 29R hardtail--although I'm still getting used to big wheels and no suspension, at 21.5 lbs it climbs like a demon and descends better than any 26" hardtail I've ridden. I'm looking forward to racing it at some of the faster, wide-open events like Test of Metal and Sea Otter!

One of the best parts about the "off" season is actually getting a chance to see and ride with Drew and I's close friends. I've been heading out on some amazing mountain bike rides with our closest friends, riding with my favourite boss Gerry, and skipping around to various Saturday group rides.

I'll post photos and discuss more the three new bikes I've been testing out in the last month and a half in my next post (which is sooner than a month away!). Hope everyone else has been having a great winter!

Back from Hiatus in California

2010-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

December saw us head down to Portland one weekend for the USGP's, Bend the next weekend for U.S. Nationals, and then down to California for me to see my family for Christmas. Drew joined me after Christmas and we got a chance to spend time with friends in San Francisco where we made sure to see all the main tourist sights - windiest street in the world, Ghiradelli Square, Crissy Field, Union Square, Fisherman's wharf, and a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge into the Marin Headlands. Not a bad way to spend a weekend...

I wrote a post before Christmas with a full race report of Cross Nationals. I then proceeded to ditch my computer and hang out with my family for 2 weeks -- long walks on the beach, our weekend in San Francisco, college women's basket ball game, and lots of food!

Now I am faced with boring everyone with details of a race that happened over a month ago, or just saying--I finished 44th, had an ok race, learned more than I have in any other race, and can't wait to go back next year with (hopefully!) more UCI points and with (guaranteed!) more experience.

As for the new year, the old year, and everything in between, I would like express my gratitude to the Island Racing Club and it's sponsors for all of the support I received this year! This was my most successful race year to date and I hope to continue that trend in the 2010 season. For my other supporters, thanks to Gary Fisher for their help with my speedy mountain bike, Shimano for their help with components and awesome weekends away, and finally, to Gerry at work for all of the last-minute tune-ups, time off, and moral support throughout the year.

Portland USGP's

2009-12-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

It is freezing out, and I'm sniffling with a nose as red as rudolf's--the weekend before American Cross Nationals! It started Friday morning with a sore throat, by the time we boarded the ferry it had moved into my sinuses, and on the drive down to Portland my head was pounding and my sinuses were threatening to explode from all the pressure. No point in staying home to be miserable though....especially when it was actually supposed to be DRY and SUNNY in Portland!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed down for a quick pre-ride of the course. Saw some of the huge Victoria crew that had headed down for the weekend--broken bikes and mud galore forecasted a traditional Portland race--despite the lack of rain. Rode the course, it was slimy mud on top of frozen ground--like trying to walk on wet ice, and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and get ready for my 1:45pm start.

By the time I got back down to the race course riders were coming off their races with still-launderable jerseys and rideable bikes. The wind had picked up, fog had backed off, and it became a clean course, hard packed and FAST with the odd exception.

The start was a long sketchy drag race with a long road stretch to get everyone up to full speed, into a boggy section, a crash up front allowed me to run past quite a few girls after a slow start, back onto the road and I was by myself in no-man's-land between two groups of girls. I rode with Megan Farris for a bit, but with 3 laps to go started to fade to cross the line in 25th, not an amazing result, but I did have fun on the course...though my race was lackluster.

Day two I opted to relax rather than head out for a morning pre-ride. Got dressed a bit early, warmed up, then headed out for a lap of the course. The wind overnight had dried the boggy bits into a rock-hard with deep ruts from wheels the day before. I had a better start along the drag strip and went into the grass right behind Kelli Emmett.

Settled into a group with a bunch of girls I didn't recognize. Was having tons of fun railing corners and hammering in some of the long straightaways and moved up into 16th. The legs were feeling great, and then my rear tubular started losing air. With 2 laps to go I thought I would be ok, but then, around a fast swooping corner, slid 5 feet, kept it upright, but had to ride carefully around corners to keep my tire on and myself upright. Rode in for 23rd place, up from the day before, but I would have loved a result that reflected the race I had.

Now it is time to make a decision about nationals...to go or not to go. Hopefully my cold will hurry up and disappear so that Drew and I can head to Bend on Friday!

Provincial Championships

2009-11-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

The BC Season is officially over. No more Island Cups, no more BC Cups. Only two weekends left of racing in this season then a 3 month break before mountain bike season starts again--and that all sounds great to me...Contrary to Sunday's post, Saturday's race (BC Cup Finals) WAS exciting for Drew and he took an early lead in the race and kept extending it (until a few good crashed in the last lap brought the fear of approaching competitors) to claim the win for the day. Absent Tyler Trace won the series overall.

Provincial Finals, after the tape has been taken down

Sunday's race was in North Vancouver. It was a technical course with some solid mud sections, technical, slippery turns, and fast straight-aways. At the start, Alison, Jean Ann, and I battled for the hole-shot with Alison taking it into the first corner. Jean Ann grabbed onto her wheel, but I got bogged down in the mud and a small gap formed. Behind me Stacey Hutton and Sandra Walters were right on my wheel ready for me to make a mistake. I did on the backside of the course first lap where I put a knee down and struggled to get back up. Sandra jumped in front and took the lead of our group.

Women's Provincial Podium

Sandra and I battled with Stacey barely a wheel away until Sandra attacked decisively and left Stacey and I to battle it out the rest of the race. After attacking and getting in front of me for half a lap Stacey slipped on an ugly corner and got caught up in the course tape. It was enough to get me a solid gap and I kept on the gas to cross the finish line in 4th, with Stacey in 5th--Props to Stacey who just got into cross this year and has been racing with the master's women!

Men's Provincial Podium

In the men's race, Evan Guthrie took a decisive lead. Craig Richey ended up in second, Dan McDonald in third, and Drew in fourth after 2 flats (luckily we had spare wheels!). Because we raced at the same time as the men, I don't have a more specific race report than that...

Over the barriers at Shawnigan Lake School

But...as promised here are photos. They aren't all from this weekend (the two podium shots are, but the race shots are courtesy Regan Pringle and are from Island Cup Finals at Shawnigan Lake School).

Now...I have ANOTHER day completely off...so I should get going and do some scavaging for groceries, some cleaning, and some book reading!

Cross on the Rocks Finals: Shawnigan Lake

2009-11-23T15:27:00.000-08:00

So, I wrote this last Monday (as in, almost a week ago) but then it sat in my "drafts box" waiting for me to affix photos...It is now the next Sunday, another race over, and there are no photos affixed...go figure. So, I am releasing this, with a quick note that yesterday's BC Cup finals were not overly exciting, although Jean Ann is super strong, the Master's women have all gotten so much faster though the year....and I didn't feel like racing. It is the morning before Provincial Championships and I am making sure that I am ready to race today. I am also putting this out there with the promise that THERE WILL BE PHOTOS THIS WEEK!

So....remember this is from Monday, and read on about the AWESOME island cup from last weekend!

Today, after a weekend of almost-but-not rain, the sky has finally opened up into a dull pattering of rain. Not overly disappointing since it is my day off...completely. No rides, no work, no races. So....what do I do when I have a day completely to myself? Well, (I won't keep you in suspense any longer...) I cleaned my bike, bought new runners, built a book shelf for our suite, rearranged the living room to accomodate the shelf, swept, did dishes, scrubbed my stove...and yes, I know how jealous you all are! Now I'll give you a quick weekend race report and fold some laundry---oh the excitement!

This weekend Drew and I drove up to Shawnigan Lake School for the final (and my first!) Island Cup series race. First off....Shawnigan Lake School (SLS) does not suck, is not ugly, and does not have lackluster grounds. It is a beautiful and phenomenal spot for a cross course. The drive took us about 35 minutes and didn't include a ferry--probably the closest race I have done this year!

The call up for the start line included tons of local island girls, new to the island Mical Dyck, and Alison Sydor. It is pretty exciting to be living in an area that--at local level races--the caliber of women riders is so high. Off the start was a nice long fire road that took a left turn into a stretch of soggy, muddy, off-camber grass that was questionable each lap--sometimes rideable, sometimes barely runable--depending on the lines from people in front of you and your ability to see straight. From there the course ducked into a super-fast-rocks-hidden-in-puddles-to-eat-your-wheels descent that ended in a super-fun, swoopy singletrack section of forest. Back out into the open and onto a quick fire road descent before ducking into some trees for a quick whoop-de-whoop and then into the open for a long stair run up. After the stairs was a quick flat section before climbing back up almost to the start/finish area before turning off for another section of the climb through the trees. After the climb the torture didn't stop as the course turned onto flat, soggy, rough fields before descending back down, over some barriers, through the finish area and back out onto the course.

Alison took an early lead and I jumped onto Mical's wheel to see how long I could hold on. It turned out not very long as they dumped me heading into the first descent. Alison held a strong lead throughout the race until double or triple flatting (not sure exactly what all went down...) to give Mical the lead. I caught sight of Alison in the last 300 meters of the race, but was way too far back to get more than a glimpse of her fancy National Champion Maxxis skinsuit.

My real competition throughout the race was Barry Rempel--one of the master's men. After catching up to him (the master's men had a 1 minute head start) we rode together for the rest of the race...I would pass him on the climbs, he would dump me on the descents. The last lap had me gasping and giggling as we came into the stair runup together. I ran as fast as I could (he had an obvious advantage with his much longer legs) and we reached the top together, but I won the front position (or Barrie was a gentleman....) and headed up the final climbs ahead of him to just barely beat him to the line.

After clean up and draw prizes we headed back home for dinner and a movie and then hockey for Drew. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon....

Next weekend we are off to Vancouver for BC Cup Finals and Provincial Championships. Weekend after we'll be down in Portland for the USGP's and then (finally!) down to Bend, Oregon for American Nationals--the biggest and last race of my 2009 season!

Blog? What Blog?

2009-11-12T21:02:00.000-08:00

For anyone wondering....blogs apparently don't write themselves, laundry doesn't wash, dry, and fold itself, and my house hasn't figured out how to sweep, mop, do dishes and dust either. Boo urns.

I was riding the other day cursing all of these things and wishing that I was not an elite cyclist but a pro cyclist....those mythical, speedy beings that get paid to ride their bikes, go to races, and train...but then I went to work, had twenty-some-million things to do and wondered how I could give up these days that seem to flash before my eyes in endless "wish lists" of things I would like to get done.

But I'm pretty sure you didn't check this blog for my post-interval-mid-glass-of-wine ramblings...

First off: Cross-quitlam and Pumpkin Cross. Two more BC Cups, two seconds for me, firsts for Jean Ann, and the loss of Kelly Jones to a shoulder injury from a crash on day 1. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep for Cross-quitlam (apparently legs don't warm themselves up either) and just couldn't hammer with Jean Ann. Pumpkin Cross, everyone was in costumes, I wasn't (three weekends of racing in costumes was a bit daunting for me), and the costume gods came out to haunt me with sand and gravel packing in my shoes. Not clipping in meant that not only did I have to try to hammer with Jean Ann (no easy task) but that I had to catch back up every time I got off the bike (an even harder task). The weekend turned out Ok but not fantastic.

NISCCOTU: Nutcase Inter Continental Singlespeed Cyclocross Championship of the UNIVERSE. Drew and I kept things even by running the same gear (38-17t) and winning our respective gender categories. While Drew slayed, I battled it out with Kristin Magnussen "within hair pulling distance" the entire race. Awesome race with fire works, fire pits, costumes, and the 1km run to start the race off--no, the run was not my favourite part...I was almost DFL...dead....freakin'....last.

SSCXWC09: Just to keep with all of the acronyms--Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships 2009. Drew headed back down to defend his title (which he did quite successfully!) I headed down to try to keep things even in the household (which I did not do as successfully). Drew in his golden speedo and superman costume braved the Portland mud, was victorious through the Thunderdome, and skipped the Stripper bus shortcut (what a good boy!) to defend his title and win a Tony Pereira handmade, custom frame. I braved the mud, managed to slide unscathed through the Thunderdome, DIDN'T come in DFL in the run this time 'round, took advantage of the Stripper Bus shortcut (yes...real female strippers, in a bus...not necessarily a shortcut for the guys who got distracted), to sprint (relative term, we were both spinning out our gears) to the line against Megan Faris. My cousin claimed I won the sprint, which ended up being for 2nd place as Kari Studley took the golden bikini. Results post me in 5th place...but the poor score keepers were not having an easy time in the semi-dark, very muddy, costumed conditions.

That pretty much brings everyone up to speed...we got back to the rock on Monday from Portland to a disastrous house, muddy bikes, and clothes that needed a hosing before heading to the washing machines. Tuesday was a crash course at work for "how-to-wing-it-when-the-shop-is-busy-and-your-brain-has-stopped-working" which went marginally well. Wednesday came a glorious day off. Drew and I made the difficult decision to stay home from the remembrance day ride and put in a solid day of training and house cleaning before he headed off to Vancouver for work.

And now....I am sitting on 1/3 of a chair (Eric the cat has claimed 2/3 of it) with my glass of wine looking forward to my last weekend at home without racing before my last push of the season: Cross on the Rock Finals, BC Cup Finals, Provincial Championships, Portland USGP's, and then (finally) USA Nationals in Bend. After that it will be 2 1/2 glorious weeks at home with family cookin', basketball games, and no formal training in sight! (Though I think we all know I'll be on the bike while at home!)

NISCCOTU Podium 1-4-11th places

Drew looking rather dazzling....

Kristenn Magnussen within "Hair Pulling Distance"The Runup at SSCXWC09--This was about my view....

Toronto UCI Races

2009-10-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Women's start on day 1

Just as a quick update, Drew and I are currently in Toronto after finishing up two days of UCI level races (for the family reading....International Cycling Union races...so races ranked on the world stage).

Saturday's race took place on the side of the ski hill (and I said in August that I wouldn't have to climb anymore hills!) the women did 5 laps, the men did 8ish laps (I'll be honest, I am lazy and we can't remember exactly how many laps he did). The day was painful, but successful with me coming in 9th and Drew coming in in 12th. The course was characterized by the tough climb, a fast descent, and lots of 180 degree turns.
Over the barriers...day 1

Sunday's race was a bit more traditional on rolling terrain with tons of swooping off camber corners and a couple short hard climbs. The day was pretty good with me finishing off in 10th spot and Drew in 18th.

I will (depending on the recurring status of my laziness--and exhaustion) post a more complete race update (or maybe just photos...which I hear are worth a thousand words but mean far less work for my fingers and brain!).
Saturday's course on the side of the ski hill...

Hope everyone's weekends were fantastic! We fly home tomorrow at 4:30 in the afternoon. Although Drew's family has been fantastic to stay with, I am pretty excited for my own bed!

Lucky number 2....painful number 3

2009-10-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

So...Monday night I stayed up late working away at my little blog here, but decided to wait to post until I could get some photos together to keep things colourful...and then I shut down my computer for the night and headed to some much needed rest after 2 days of hard racing. Apparently the autosave didn't work....so my multi-page blog is lost somewhere in the void of the internet. Being digital I can't say our cat Eric ate it, or that it got dropped in the mud that often pools in our apartment's entryway at this time of year...no, I just tried to mix post-race-fatigue with thinking--which doesn't seem to work out.

So, because now I am feeling lazy I am going to assume (because it is convenient for me at the moment) that most people care about are the colourful photos and maybe a quick race update and don't mind if I skip the verbose race re-cap.

Saturday: Up early for the 7am ferry, headed to New Brighton Beach Park in Vancouver, BC. Beautiful day, amazing course with two sand sections, barriers, lots of off cambers, and just the right amount of straightaways designed for all-out-legs-screaming-with-oxygen-deprivation speed. At the startline were Jean Ann McKirdy--one of the best female technical riders off-road arguably in Canada, Sarah Stewart--who spent her summer doing national team projects in Europe, Kelly Jones--who only races cross and is very good at it, and myself. Although it was a small field, these girls are all amazing competition to race against (I mentally prepared myself for coming in 4th).

Off the line Jean Anne determined the pace, my legs were (shockingly!) able to match it and I settled in around her wheel. Over the barriers the four of us kept together and close with me drifting back behind Sarah Stewart, into the sand pit and through the next technical off-camber bit. I felt strong for the first half of the lap with my lines being quick and efficient, but felt like I was struggling in the sections post-sandpit.

Onto the paved road that passed by the lap point/finish line I was able to bridge up to Jean Anne and hold onto her wheel. The rest of the race passed with Jean Anne, Kelly, and myself taking turns leading and attacking. With three laps to go I thought I had lost Jean Anne and Kelly as my legs were screaming and my head pounding, but on the road I was able to bridge back up to the girls and stick on their wheels. I was dangling as we entered the road heading into the last lap but recovered enough to attack at the lap point and head out into the final lap in front.

Through the barriers I heard a shoe slip on a pedal so I stood up and hammered. Around the off-camber corners I focussed on being fast and smooth knowing that winning the race depended on gaining as much time in the first half of the lap. I got 2/3 of the way through the sand pit and then had to start running, got back on and hammered the straightaway as fast as I could, up the off-camber hill, through more off camber climbs, through the second sand pit and into the final grass before the stretch of road that led to the finish line. Drew was yelling "you've got it, you've got it!" at this point, not taking his word for it, I stood up to finish off the last bit of the course to my first Provincial-level win.

Sunday: No early riser here...at 8am I finally had to drag myself out of bed and to the coffee shop to try to open up my eyelids and calm the panicked exhaustion I was feeling. Rode to the course from where we stayed with Drew to get in a bit of a warm up. The race was at Vanier park, which (for the second day in a row) was right on the water. The course was largely long straight aways followed by multiple 180 degree turns, barriers, or a stair run up. Definitely a course for the strong-legged. (My shaky morning legs were not going to be much help here....) On the startline were the same four of us as Saturday with the addition of Alison Sydor--she has her own Wikipedia page...it does a great job of listing her many accomplishments!

Off the line was fast...I don't remember what happened, but Alison headed into the first corner first followed by Jean Anne, Sarah Stewart, myself and then Kelly Jones. Jean Anne and Alison gapped Sarah and I right away, I tried to battle with Sarah, but she hammered away from me. I rode the rest of the race in 4th in no-man's-land before Kelly caught me in the second to last lap. The B men's leader lapped us with 100m to go and we didn't realize until after crossing the finish line that our race was over, so I finished up in 4th for the day.

All around the weekend went great, this weekend Drew is heading to Edmonton for Canadian Nationals before we both head to Toronto next weekend for the North American Cyclocross Trophy races.

Photo and Updates

2009-09-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Photo is from Starcrossed compliments of Barry Rempel.

For a mid-week update, Drew put on an underground race last night that was super fun. Some awesome twisty trail sections and some fast grassy corners. My legs felt like they had been run through a cheese grator...so I hung out in the back and enjoyed the terrain. Hopefully today I'll be able to get right back at it!

Starcrossed and Rad Racing

2009-09-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

So....let us do some math: fit joele - training + good food in Montreal - a lot of sleep + 1 week of cramming for a race = a highly painful weekend of cyclocross racing.

I could probably stop there. No need to explain further...but that might have disappointed you after waiting for this page to load. So here is the in depth report:

Starcrossed: Wicked race near Seattle that is held every year under the lights. Definitely not a bad way to go. Hundreds of spectators cheering you on, a rowdy beer garden, and some rain mid-race just to keep things interesting.

I got a great warm up in which included a couple laps of the mostly grass, little bit of road, some logs, and some barriers. Off the line I felt strong, but apparently so did all the girls that started in front of me (day of registration means dead last for start-line call up) so I passed the ones I could and settled into a group of about 4 of us. Around a corner and one girl rolled her tubular causing the girl behind her to crash into her....thread the needle and I barely miss getting caught up in their curfuffle. Around the next corner I attack a girl to the left, but just as my bars are passing her bars she decides to break her line and shift left...bars entangle, I pray mine come out on top and suddenly she disappears. Whew, lucky so far.

Fast forward a couple more painful laps (my eyes were cross-eyed and there was a light that constantly kept exploding in my head), a Vanderkitten girl attacks me, I stick onto her wheel until the last half-lap and attack, get in front and hammer as hard as I can to stay in front to finish up in 16th place. It isn't even in sight of the podium, but it is 6 places higher than the Portland USGP's last December, so I'll take it (and use it for motivation for training!).

The rain started pouring just as I headed back to the car, a quick jacket-grab, and then to the start-line to collect all my boys' jackets. I had a great time cheering for Drew, Tyler (who ripped it up to finish in 10th!), Craig, and the Skinner brothers while trying to stay dry. Drew was riding really strong in the top 20 until he tore his rear derailleur hanger completely off the bike--what luck!

After a couple beer with the rest of the crew from Victoria and a quick car pack up, Tyler, Drew and I headed for the hotel. I promptly collapsed in a heap of exhaustion while the guys headed to Denny's for a late night snack. Next morning we got to wake up to a leisurely breakfast and pack-up before heading South to Lakewood's Steilacom Park for the Rad Racing NACT (North American Cyclocross Trophy) Race.

Steilacom Park boasts the longest run-up I've ever seen. The UCI maximum runup length is 80 meters and this guy comes pretty close, not only that, it is steep. The run up is followed by a sketchy fast downhill, a fire road climb (I thought mountain bike season was over!), another sketchy descent, some fun fast corners through some worn paths, and then a hammer session through a windy field before heading back through the start/finish, over some barriers, and back out towards the run-up.

At the start line I felt great, the bees were buzzing, the birds were chirping, my bike looked like a rocket ready to take off, a gun went off....wait...that means go! Apparently when my brain stops thinking about racing my feet shut down too, I missed my pedals and went from my sweet start position of 9th to almost last in the opening straight. Over the barriers I started to catch people, up the run up I passed a handful of girls, and then maintained the rest of the lap until I got to the windy field. Apparently my legs don't like that type of effort so I just watched girls ride away. Sweet. Back around to the run up and I could catch most of them and hold them off, but I did end up losing a couple spots to finish up 15th overall, a better day than the day before, and now I have even more motivation to go back and train....but ugh, that felt awful!

Overall, the weekend actually went fairly well. I am not far off of what I expected based on my recent lack of preparation (otherwise called "resting") and I have some time to regroup and start seriously training in the next couple weeks. Probably the most exciting part of the weekend came AFTER the racing was done--when our car headed back over the border it also marked my acceptance of Canadian Permanent Residency, which is a huge relief (and the product of hours of paperwork!)

Drew and I are now home, and this time long enough to settle in, see some friends, clean the house, and hang out with Eric the cat before our next races in Vancouver the first weekend of October. He just completed building the SpeedVagen that he won at Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds last year...it is beautiful! Photos to come!

Starcrossed after Montreal

2009-09-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

I woke up early this morning and there is laundry to be folded, so I figured this would be a perfect time to write up an update on the upcoming weekend and last week's show.

This weekend Drew, Tyler Trace, and I are all heading down to Seattle for a weekend of racing starting with Starcrossed. Starcrossed takes place in the dark (women's race at 7pm, men's race at 8pm). It is the first major North American UCI race of the year and has some fast names. The next day follows with Rad Racing's North American Cyclocross Trophy which historically has had a daunting run-up. We'll see what happens this year!

As for the past week, Montreal was a ton of fun. The booth looked great with quite a few pro-tour bikes, a Naked bike from Sam Whittingham, Geoff Kabush's bike, and Thomas Vanderham's bike.

Last year's unveiling of Dura Ace 7900 and Di2 (the electronic Dura Ace) would have been tough to beat, so the booth went back to basics. The latest and greatest was the introduction of Ultegra 6700, now with most of the features of Dura ace 7900 but without the pricetag. The group looks clean and feels great (there were a couple bikes set up for test riding). Other notable new items in the Shimano booth included some sweet looking, 1800 gram UST wheels that retail for around $650CAD, several new pairs of shoes, and a new road spd/sport touring pedal called the A600--lighter than XTR this pedal is Ultegra worthy but mountain bike shoe compatible.

I think my procrastinating window is dwindling down....so I'll leave you with one last photo of my pearly whites.

The Romance is Gone....

2009-09-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

All summer at the 45minutes of suffering mark in mountain bike races, the ones that have really hurt, a brief flicker has come into my head “if it was cross season I would be done suffering.” Well, cross season is here!

Two weekends ago marked the first BC Cup cross race in Fort Langley (yes, this post is a little late...). This is one of the few race courses I haven’t ridden, so I was a little nervous, but mostly excited to start the season off with a new race course. The course is located amidst farm land and starts on an all-out fire road with a 90 degree turn onto another all out fire road, 90 degree turn, another fire road into a muddy bridge, a rough tire-eating broken cinder block section of fire road, through a set of barriers, some twisty muddy corners, and up a 45 second run-up, through some twisty singletrack, down a loose fire road, into a roller-coaster tree section, up a sharp climb and back through the lap/finish area.

The B men went off in front of us. A minute later with the Masters women lined up in front of us, we started. A quick start, heading over the barriers Alison Sydor was in first, Jean Anne McKirdy second, Sarah Stewart third, Kelly Jones fourth, and myself in fifth. Up the run up I attacked and passed Kelly, tried to pass Sarah, but settled into fourth.

With a crash in front, Sarah, Kelly, and I were separated from Jean Anne and Alison who weren’t seen again. Sarah, Kelly, and I rode together for another lap until up the next run up I tried, unsuccessfully to attack Sarah. In an all out sprint up the run up Sarah and I gapped Kelly and continued on.

I hung on to Sarah for as long as I could, but I didn’t recover quickly enough from the run up and Sarah powered through all the flat sections to gap me. About this time I glanced down at my clock to see that only 15 minutes had gone by—all this suffering and still 30 minutes left? I rode the rest of the race in no-mans-land to maintain my fourth place position finishing the race as wrecked as if I’d raced a cross country race.

Drew finished up in 4th as well after a slow start, a frustrating battle through the masters men field, a bridge up to the lead group that included Tyler Trace, Craig Richey, and Kevin Noiles. Tyler and Craig gapped Kevin and Drew to sprint it out a lap early because of the mistaken commissaires but came around in the final lap in the same order to finish up with Tyler in first, Craig second, Kevin third, and Drew fourth.

Monday morning I headed off to Montreal for the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada’s Trade show--it was a week working with Shimano and checking out the latest and greatest for 2010...but more on that later.

Never a Dull Moment!

2009-09-04T13:02:00.001-07:00

I don't sit still for long...probably never have--but this week and weekend are taking the cake! Last weekend we actually got a chance to spend some time at home, a night out with Drew's hockey team on Friday led to a long workday Saturday, a dinner-time picnic at the beach and then a night of relaxing before an awesome cross-ride on Sunday with the Sunday mountain bike crew. After the cross ride I got a couple hours of down-time that included a nap with Eric the cat and then an awesome dinner with Drew's mom at Il Terrazo.

This week at the shop has been busy with everyone hauling out their cross bikes and getting to work setting them up (check out www.straightupcycles.ca for my cross-gear blog!). Requests for skills clinics have been crazy and Drew and I are planning on putting one on from the shop probably on Tuesday the 15th--we'll confirm closer to the date! This week Drew put on a private skills clinic with a few of our close friends so that we wouldn't embarass ourselves at this weekend's BC Cup in Langley, I forgot how hard it is to dismount, run barriers, and then re-mount. Talk about needing to work on my overall athleticism! Can you say bull in a china shop?

Now this weekend...socializing tonight (because we never have enough time for all of our people!) more riding and work tomorrow, a night of packing and race prep, and then off to Fort Langley bright and early for the first BC Cup Cross race of the year on Sunday.

Monday (Labour day!) is looking like it will come fast and be jam packed with the post-race sleepies, hopefully a ride, and then final prep for my 2pm flight to Montreal for 6 days! I'll be working in the Shimano booth for the Canadian Bicycle trade show again this year. Last year it was 4 amazing but exhausting days of set-up, product knowledge training, and then customer product run-throughs. I'm pretty sure I came home with almost no voice.

I'll try to post race results and updates on the week next week...but no promises! For anyone who will be heading to the shop...be nice to Gerry while I am away!

BC Cup Finals at Sunpeaks

2009-08-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

After a whirlwind week of 5 workdays we headed to Sunpeaks Resort just past Kamloops, BC for the BC Cup finals. After missing 2 ferries and getting a late start we got in to the resort about 10:30pm after a beautiful drive over the Coquihalla highway. Saturday, morning of the race Drew and I headed out for a coffee run, race registration, and breakfast. After running errands and getting the sleep out of my eyes I headed out for a pre-ride of the course. The course was a bit of a shocker, tough, steep climbs, rough descents, and then more climbs.

For the race start they started the Pro Elite Women behind the Pro Men and Junior Men. Up the climb Sandra Walters sprinted to stay onto the back of the men’s field. I bridged up a third of the way up the first climb and tried to hold on to Sandra’s wheel until the climb got steeper and she pedalled up and away. I dialled it back a bit and steadily turned over my pedals over the climb and into the first section of singletrack. After a dusty schute the course dropped into singletrack via a rooty line or a bridge that led to a skinny. Down the singletrack and back into more climbing, down a bit more singletrack, back up another climb, and down a big fire road descent back through the village area, a single track climb and a final singletrack descent.

I rode the race with no sign of Sandra in front or Christine behind me. The rest of the race was a mental battle as my legs suffered up the climbs, my lungs threatened to wheeze, and my single track skills were rough and bordering on comical. The last lap of the race everything came together a bit and I savoured my last 27 minutes of cross-country racing for the year.

This cross country season has been a huge stepping-stone for me. I finished up 1st Overall in the BC Cup Series, won the BC Provincial Championship title, and got 3rd at the Test of Metal. I have a lot of work ahead of me for next cross country season including more hours on the bike, work on my technical speed, and improvement in my suffering ability (apparently you can ALWAYS suffer more....).

For now, however, I am looking forward to cross season. This cross season Drew and I are planning on travelling a bit more with trips to Seattle for Starcrossed and Rad Racing’s USGP, Edmonton for Canadian Nationals and Jim Horner UCI, Toronto for UCI races, Portland so Drew can defend his Single Speed Cyclo Cross World Championship title and then again for the Portland USGP’s, and then a final race weekend in Bend, Oregon for U.S. National Cross Championships.

Drew has been presently surprised with his season as he has used the mountain bike season to prepare for cross. He has consistently improved throughout the season to finish up 2nd overall in the BC Cup Series (and 2nd in the final race of the BC Cup).

Drew and I would both like to thank Gary Fisher for their help this season and the sponsors of Island Racing Club: Robert W. Cameron, La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, and BB Physio.

Crank Worx...work...and now Sunpeaks!

2009-08-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

The last couple weeks have been crazy. A weekend at home spent working, catching up with friends, dinners out, riding bikes, and cleaning house! Another coupl'a days at work and Drew and I were off to Crankworx for the second weekend of the mountain bike festival (aka Mountain bikes Disneyland).

Crankworx is something everyone remotely interested in cycling should experience; it is big, glittery, guilty, and horribly fun. Every night is a different party (though we managed the keep the crazy nights to a healthy minimum), every day is a different event--from downhill racing to cheese-rolling to the Slopestyle main event. There are all the Whistler trails to ride, tons of vendors to show their wares, and endless things to do.

I worked for the weekend at the Shimano booth. This year's booth incorporated mountain and road components, with the hit of the event being Shimano's electric Dura Ace Di2 road component group. We had a great crew including Dave Narona, Larry Zimich, Kelly Sherbinin and Darren Butler from Endless Biking, and the Shimano crew that included Greg Hammond and Elladee Brown.

We headed home on the Sunday 10pm after watching the Slopestyle Saturday night from the top of the Kona tent and then putting in another work day on Sunday. Back to work Monday and now we are headed off this afternoon for BC Cup Series finals at Sunpeaks Resort. This is the last mountain bike race of the year on a course I have never raced....looking forward to a great final race weekend of the season!

Mt. Washington: Six down and one to go....

2009-08-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

This last weekend marked race 6 of the 7 BC Cup races in the 2009 Series. It was a bit of a loaded weekend for me: last weekend's crash was still fresh in my mind, the week leading up to the race had a serious lack of mountain bike riding, I was tired and feeling flat from multiple 30+ degree days with a lack of lake-time, and the pressure is mounting for me to actually win a BC Cup race.

The race was up in Mount Washington Alpine Resort, which is on the island...which meant NO FERRIES!! Friday we headed up to pre-ride the course, which was the driest I've ever seen, then headed to some friend's house for an amazing dinner and a night's sleep on the farm. Saturday we woke up to clear skies and after a quick breakfast, headed up to the resort for our early 10am start (a bit of a relief after reviewing the expected heat for the day!).

Off the start line Katherine Short tore off and up the first ski-run climb (literally...straight up a ski run!) with Jean Anne McKirdy responding behind her. After my legs had been lulled to sleep at the line waiting for the start, I wasn't ready or able to respond. I kept my pace nice, steady, and comfortable up the climb to pass Katherine just before the singletrack. Into the singletrack I bobbled and pulled aside to let Katherine (still on her bike) past. Back onto the bike and up the steep, ugly second section of ski-run where I was able to catch back up to Katherine and pass her before heading into the rolling singletrack that followed.

My legs were working fine, but my normal technical confidence was definitely lacking; rather than speed, I was forced to focus on riding a clean, steady race. I stayed within myself on the descents, kept it just-above-comfortable in the working sections, and just-a-bit-more-uncomfortable on the steep climbs. I kept my second place position for the rest of the race without seeing anyone until the 3rd (and last!) lap when Katherine rounded a corner 10 seconds behind me at the half-lap point (with about 15 minutes to go). I attacked on a rolling section of fire road and headed up the climb at much-worse-than-comfortable pace to head into the singletrack. With one of the senior guys behind me I focussed on riding smooth through the downhill and steadily hammering the climb through the feed zone.

After the feedzone, the lap descended down a fire road and then climbed up a loose double track, across a road, and then up a technical singletrack and into rolling, rocky, rooty singletrack and into the finishing straight. I put myself into a very ugly place on the uphills and subsequently bobbled on an uphill rock face. I couldn't get back on my bike (a theme from last week's crash??) and had to take a deep breath and force myself to calm down. Onto the bike, across the rock mesa, down the rocked road and into the finishing straight only 1 minute ahead of Katherine to finish up in 2nd. Drew kept the household balanced with a 2nd place only 2 seconds behind Tom Skinner!

Next, I'm looking forward to a weekend off at home, Crankworx in Whistler (with Shimano) and then a final BC Cup at Sunpeaks Resort in Kamloops, BC-a resurrected course for the series, but a new course for me!

The rest of the 3 day weekend Drew and I spent playing tour-guide with one of my best friends from high school, Hannah. We spent a beautiful day hiking, swimming, and climbing in the Sooke Potholes (above), then headed to Sombrio for a late-afternoon hike on the beach. Sunday night we headed downtown for food from Ferris's Bar and Grill and sat across the harbour listening to Symphony Splash followed by a fireworks display....not a bad way to spend a weekend!

Ouch x 2

2009-07-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed to Whistler for a new BC Cup race held in the Olympic Cross Country ski park that was developed for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The venue is beautiful set back about 10km from the main highway and has great terrain to build cross country mountain bike trails.

The trails and roads have just been built and so the roads were loose with unsettled gravel and the trails are a collection of loamy, dusty, and disintegrating segments. The organizers put tons of effort into the trails, unfortunately, with the lack of rain we have had this year, it isn't a great year to build trails--generally new trails need to be cut, ridden on, rained on, ridden on, rained on, and then dried before they completely set up. Riding on too new of a trail can destroy hours of labour by trail builders.

At the start of the race I headed up the relatively steep climb in last, my legs just weren't responding well. By the top of the climb I had gotten myself into third and just before the first section of singletrack I sprinted into second and headed through the first section of trails. I rode the rest of the first lap and most of the second lap in second until I tried a new line to enter into a singletrack section and both wheels slid out, Karen Trueman passed me and left me chasing until just before the third lap where I headed back into second.

I started to fade halfway through the third lap and Linda Robichaud launched an attack on a fire road section, I let her go, but then put out a solid effort up a short climb to pass her heading into a longer climb. In the last 5 minutes of the race I got a gap of about 30 seconds on Linda, but in the finishing straight got confused and headed out for another lap. Realizing my mistake too late, I ran up an embankment to cross the finish line still in front of Linda. However, after a bit of debate, I was disqualified for "exiting and re-entering the course in different locations."

This weekend we headed to Mission, BC to race the Bear Mountain XC. With a busy week at work, I couldn't head over until late Friday night, so I missed my opportunity to pre-ride. I was a little worried as Bear Mountain is one of the most technical XC courses I have ever ridden with lots of rough singletrack that can be fast or treacherous depending on your fatigue level.

At the start line I realized that I was the only Elite woman to show, which meant, to get the BC Cup points and the 1st place prize money, all I had to do was finish. To keep the race interesting I decided to try to stick with the top Senior Expert men. The climb at Bear Mountain is about 15 minutes long and relatively steep, when it finally rounded over into doubletrack my legs were burning and I was ready to head downhill for a while.

The first singletrack section is fairly wide, high speed, and straight, but with big slippery rocks and loose gravel. Down this section I suddenly decided to practice my trials riding and did a bit of a hop, perpindicular to the trail, a tripod with my right leg, and then a headfirst dive followed by a somersault and my bike flying through the air. I stood up right away, got my bike out of the trail and then stared at it, trying to figure out exactly how to get back on....the course marshall looked like he expected me to start cussing or crying, but kept mostly quiet except to make sure I was ok. I finally figured out how to get back on my bike and gingerly picked my way down the rest of the loose sections.

My bike was mostly fine except for my gears which were relegated to my largest cog in the back. Everything else skipped and I was too nervous that I would end up with no gears if I tried to adjust anything. The rest of the first lap and the second lap were without any major issues, but on the third downhill, completely exhausted (the race ran 30 min over the "ideal" length) I had the worst asthma attack I've probably ever had. Too stubborn to take my inhaler, I pushed through to the finish unimpressed with my riding, my lungs, and the lack of competition.

Drew had a strong finish in 3rd and we headed back to the island for a Sunday of recovering! This weekend we stay on the island with a BC Cup on Mount Washington.

My Summer Vacation....

2009-07-14T22:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend Drew and I actually stayed in Victoria--the entire weekend! On top of being home and able to sleep in my own bed and relax, Gerry gave me the bonus of a free Saturday off! After a quick jaunt with one of the local group rides and a spin home, I headed to the farmer's market with Drew's mum to do some jewelry research and people watch, and then spent the rest of the day book shopping downtown--my "to read" drawer has become empty after the last couple months of travelling!

Sunday saw us get up and head out on a solid mountain bike ride with a few of the peeps from our winter Sunday ride: Gerry, Tony Zarsadias, Derek, Drew and I. A good little toodle around the classic Victoria mountain bike haunts, and homeward bound to enjoy an afternoon at home, some mop shopping that left us starving and unexcited to clean, and dinner and a movie with Tony Z and Erinne Willock.

Definitely not a bad way to spend the second of 2 weekends at home! And that concludes my summer vacation! (not really, I will have another 2 weekends off of racing in August...one in Whistler working Crankworx with Shimano and one--hopefully!--at home!)

Drew and I are off to Whistler this weekend for the 4th BC cup. It is a totally new course that was built this year--I can't wait to check out a new race course! But first...the rest of the work week!

2009-07-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

After the last couple months of almost constant racing and travelling I am now in my second week at home in Victoria. With the exception of the rain we've had the last couple days, it actually feels like summer. Long days of sun with weekend adventures. Last Sunday we headed to Hornby Island for the day. Hornby is off the coast of Denman island which is off the coast of Vancouver Island about 2 hours North of Victoria. It was a long day as we left Victoria at 6:45am and didn't get home until 11:30pm, but the riding and the weather was perfect.

Hornby is covered in pristine trails that are all-rider-level friendly and fast. The climb is about 15 minutes long and leads to a huge choice of trails. We did 3 laps of the area, road down to the car, lunched, and then headed back up for another 3 laps and descended down the ridge of the island to end up back at the ferry terminal.

Not a bad way to spend the weekend...got home, rested up a day, then headed out for another great ride in Victoria around Partridge hills, 1600 feet of climbing in less than 17km! A great change from the highspeed descents of Hornby, Partridge Hills has beautiful flow but is slower and more technical.

Tuesday was an exploratory ride with Gerry out in Langford--always looking for new terrain! Tonight holds some "training" with an interval session and then it is the weekend! Not sure what the plan is...but I think a weekend actually IN Victoria is called for...

White Rabbits and Cardiac Arrest...er....Classic!

2009-06-29T21:26:00.000-07:00

This Sunday marked the last race in a string of 7 consecutive race weekends. It was also Provincial Championships, held this year by West Coast Racing at Burnaby Mountain. Last year, this course stood out because of its long, steep climb up a walking path. This year, the organizers spiced the climb up by sending racers up a less long, steep-er section of singletrack (I’m pretty sure nobody sane would normally use it as an up!). There was ample reward at the end of the climb, however, as the course ducked into a fast, burmed, rooty, twisty, switchbacking singletrack descent. It is a descent that favours a good rider, demands full attention, and reminds you if you are a little over-tired.

I’ve been a little nervous all week about climbing out of the hole I dug last week at the Test of Metal, so at the start I watched Anne Yew and Nic Leary (new Zealand's XTerra Nat'l Champ) climb away from me. I kept it nice and steady up the fire road and focussed on making it as far as possible up the singletrack section (not even the pro men could clean the entire climb) before getting off my bike. I passed Anne and had Nic in my sights up the rest of the climb and down the descent. Up the mid-lap fire road I watched Nic stand up and hammer away. I kept up my steady (read: anti-explosive) pace to keep the gap consistently less than 100 meters.

Throughout the rolling singletrack climb just after the lap point, I started gaining on Nic and started the fire road just behind her. She again stood up and climbed away on the climb, but through the steep single track climb she dabbed sooner and more often which allowed me to pass her just at the top. I descended with her less than 50 meters behind me. At the bottom of the mid-lap fire road she attacked up the road. The gap stayed at about 75 meters for the rest of the race.

Up the climbs and down the descents she was always the fleeting white rabbit just around the next corner, but I was never able to close the gap, which stayed the same up until the finishing line. A bit of a disappointing day, as I maybe should have gone when she attacked; but overall a solid ride on a coupl’a tired legs. At the podium ceremony, I received the Provincial Championship jersey, as Nic’s race licence is out of province. So, although I didn’t win the race, I did get to claim the title and keep the series leaders jersey.

In the men’s race, Drew took the hole-shot up the first singletrack climb, led through the first lap until Matt Green took over for the next 2 laps followed by Tom Skinner until Mark Leishman (Nic Leary's team mate) took the lead near the feedzone/lap point area and charged to the finish. Men’s and Women’s Top 5 final results follow:

Elite Women's:

1. Nic Leary 1:38:46

2. Joele Guynup 1:39:35

3. Ann Yew 1:42:37

4. Linda Robichaud 1:51:58

5. Annie Gornall 1:53:03

Elite Men's:

1. Mark Leishman 1:43:13

2. Thomas Skinner 1:43:47

3. Matthew Green 1:43:56

4. Tyler Allison 1:44:24

5. Drew Mackenzie 1:46:35

A hard course, a great day of racing, and a great event! West Coast Racing did an awesome job of organizing with a fun course, post race bbq, and great drawprizes from the race sponsors. The weather turned out perfect for racing with a pre-race shower for dust control and not-too-hot sunshine during and after the race—I even got to work on getting rid of the farmer’s tan!

Next up, a mid-week day off for Canada Day, two weekends of solid Vancouver Island and then back into three weeks of the BC Cup at Whistler, Bear Mountain, and then Mt Washington!

Two Testy Weekends...Edmonton Canada Cup and the Test of Metal

2009-06-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago marked the highest-ranked race I will do throughout the 2009 mountain bike season--the Edmonton Canada Cup. The Canada Cup Series, as it sounds, is Canada's national mountain bike circuit that feeds riders into the US Cup Series and, ultimately, the World Cup Series.

The course in Edmonton was amazing: in the middle of the city, mostly singletrack, no extended climbs, and fast fast fast! At the start of the race I was a little nervous, my warmup hadn't been amazing, the pre ride had been a little stressful (leaving me with a broken rear wheel...solved by borrowing a wheel from Chris Check at Pedalhead), and it was my biggest xc race of the year. Off the line I had a great start took the hole-shot but got behind Emily Batty and Mical Dyck through the first singletrack. Had an awesome 1st lap in 4th place, a decent 2nd lap, and then a shocker of a third lap that sent me into 6th place. My 4th lap I rode as steadily and safely as possible to finish up in 6th place. Not amazing, but I was pumped on my solid race start!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, eating, and heading to the post-race party put on by the organizers....not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

A quick week at work and week of training and it was off again last weekend to the Test of Metal. The Test has almost a cult following....every January 1st registration goes up and the race sells out within 4 hours to its 800 participants. Luckily they keep Pro/Elite registration open until race day, so there wasn't 6 months of commitment for me!

The race is a 67km point to point race, it has over 2000 vertical feet of climbing and has 3 major sections: the first includes a steady road climb that leads into a fast, loose, double-track descent followed by a bit more false flat/fire road climbing and into some beautifully burmed, flowy singletrack, through the feedzone and onto section two. Section two includes Nine Mile, a climb that has a section named "Bonk Hill" that leads into an even steeper section, into a final rocky section, then into "Ring Creek Rip" which is fast (60km-70km/hour) doubletrack that leads to The Plunge-the most technical section of the course, and back through the feed zone and onto the final section. Section three has a relatively short climb into singletrack heaven that leads into a switch back climb and into fast, flowing, undulating singletrack that can be fast or

frustrating...depending on your fatigue level, then into a walking path and into the finish line!

The start is something special, the Canadian national anthem is sung to over 800 racers sitting in the starting area (above). At the end the pro/elites lead out the field as if it was a parade down the highway and through a neighbourhood to start the first paved climb. At the base of the climb there were a few surges. Being nervous about the length I settled into a just-above-comfortable pace and put my head down, catching onto groups to draft when helpful, but mostly focussing on maintaining a steady pace. Once onto the false flat I picked up the pace and tried to move up from group to group (an interesting experience as a girl....note to self, guys do not like to be passed by girls--being "bloused" is not a good thing!). Into the singletrack that put a huge grin on my face, up a bit of a climb, and into the final swooping singletrack lined with tons of people

cheering and yelling (lots of "hey! those are girls!"). Melanie Vaughn and I rode together through this section and up into the feed zone.

The feed zone is crazy, hundreds of feeders and onlookers crowd into the sides of a logging road, there is tons of yelling, cheering, and ruckus and the whole scene is an awesome motivator! I surged up the fire road and onto Nine Mile. The first section, Bonk Hill, was hard to get a rhythm going, so I slowed down, found my happy place, and focussed on getting to the top. I breathed a sigh of relief as I headed through a flat section at the top of Bonk Hill, and got ready for the next climb. Head down, rhythm found and I motored up that section, catching and passing some of the guys that had passed me down below. By the top I was starting to catch glimpses of Ann Yew. Up the Lava Flow rocky double track climb and just at the top I finally caught and passed

Ann. Down Ring Creek Rip, which left me with the weakest arms and hands. Unfortunately, the Rip dumps into the Plunge. Everything on the Plunge is rideable....just not with two quivering Jell-O arms and arthritic-feeling hands. I got some good running in, Ann passed me through a section, and disappeared down the singletrack.

I managed to hold it together through the Plunge--no crashes, no cramps, and good recovery for the legs and came back through the feedzone. My feed--Nicole Hart--yelled "she's 45 seconds ahead!" By the top of the feedzone my body had come around (well, as much as it will after about 47km of racing) and I pushed on to the singletrack. At the beginning of the singletrack I found Ann, unfortunately cramping (although I didn't realize this till the finish), and headed into the singletrack ahead of her. Knowing that Ann is a good technical rider, I was scared throughout the entire "Crumpet Woods" section of the race. After a few kilometers, though, I started recognizing trails...I'd been here before! I attacked as hard as I could moving from pack to pack, and flying through the singletrack. I don't remember ever riding this fast in a race. Crumpet woods is a fairly buff, but twisty riding area with a singletrack climb followed by beautiful undulating trails. There are token rocks and roots thrown in to make sure that you are focussing, but for the most

the trail is just fast and fun.

Out of Crumpet Woods the course heads onto walking paths--hard pack with a thin loose layer. These never fail to creep me out, especially with the slick tire I had chosen for the day, but I put my head down and focussed on keeping everything smooth. From there the race goes into a road section and back into a walking trail for the last kilometer before finishing up in the expo area. I was by myself at the finish--not a bad thing, my sprint would have been questionable--and had nothing left by the time they were ripping off my name plate.

I didn't realize until the finish that I had come in 3rd overall. Focussing on my rhythm on the first climb, I didn't actually know how many women were ahead of me. The Test is also a race where anything can happen--Sandra Walters had a great start, to be taken out by a guy in the singletrack, cramps abound for riders, flats happen, and there are more mental challenges than I'd like to think about. It was a great day for me, I felt like I raced smart and safely--staying within myself in order to surge at the end. This in addition to Edmonton's Canada Cup, have been a great way to go into Provincial Championships this weekend, a two week break, and then 3 steady weeks of BC Cups.

Kamloops BC Cup Photos

2009-06-09T15:19:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple photos from last weekend....Above: although it isn't me...this is the perfect example of the Kamloops terrain!
Below: BC Cup Series Leader Jersey...now the pressure is on to hold on to it!

BC Cup #1 & Island Cup #4

2009-05-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend marked the first weekend back at racing after some false starts to the season in March and April with the early season Island Cups.

BC Cup #1 was the Rat Race on the Sunshine Coast. The Sunshine Coast is beautiful--lush green forests set against a rolling coastline with small towns that seem to slowly fade into forest. From our island, it took 2 ferry rides and a total of 2.5 hours of driving to get to Sechelt where we were staying with the Short family. We left work at 4pm to arrive at 11pm ready for bed. The next morning we woke up, headed to the race course (we bummed rides all weekend....so getting to/from venues was a bit of a crap shoot...luckily, thanks to Jeff and Heather and Eric and Peter and Smoky and....all of our stuff, bikes, and persons got everywhere necessary...and all in one piece!).

No pre-ride possible, I headed out on a bit of the course to warm up, the trails were fresh with a solid climb, some mud, a creek crossing, and a start that headed up a fire road. I realized, during a long staging process, that this was the first BC Cup of the year....and with the starting "go" we headed off on the beginning of the BC XC season. The start was not as blistering as I expected and Melanie Vaughn, myself, and Stacey Spencer headed into the double-track climb together. A wrong line choice had me off my bike and running--thank you cyclo cross dismount/remounting practice!--and then I slowly settled into the climb.

Melanie took the lead at the top of the climb and I grabbed onto her wheel for the descent. It was fast, flowy, and relatively smooth with a few narrow bridges over creeks and logs to keep things interesting. The descent was so fast that it went by too quickly and I was back to climbing, losing Melanie's wheel as she climbed away. Through the feed zone part way up the climb--had some awesome supporters reminding me to SMILE! and then back to the climb, another short descent and then back to the loop point. Finished up 3rd, relatively happy about that...but there is definitely some work to be done!

The course was hard with a lot of climbing, but, because it was mostly single-track, even the climb was fun and challenging. The descent served as a great reminder of just how fast you can go on a mountain bike (I would have loved to watch the pro-men's field!). The race was tons of fun, and very well organized...but the post-race fun was short lived as we hopped back onto the first and then second ferry to make it home that same night.

The next morning came way too quickly...waking up I was not prepared to head back out on another XC race...but up to Duncan we headed for the Cobble Hill XC race. Tara and Mike Pollack put on an awesome event that burnt my already toasted legs and had me stretching it out on climbs and just enjoying the beautiful descents that (after this weekend I've officially decided) never last long enough! Another, albeit painful, third: two XC races in two days...I'm pretty sure that is a form of masochism!

Heading North....

2009-05-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

We had a few days between Paradise Royale and the Mackenzie river of noteworthy but not blog worthy riding, one was a pre-ride of a course we opted not to race, the other was a short ride through a section of the beautiful but poorly timed/planned (on our part) North Umpqua River Trail.

Our last day of riding was a spontaneous trip out to the McKenzie River Trail 1.5 hours east of Eugene, Oregon (where we were staying with my fantastic cousin John). The trail is 27 miles long and (similar to the North Umpqua Trail) was built by the BLM as a multi-use trail. We started out halfway up the trail to climb up the more technical section. The trail started on river-level buff singletrack that wound around and through a beautiful mossy forest for several kilometres before starting a gradual climb.

The climb brought us into a lava field that had been overgrown by moss. The lava field was technical but the lava rocks were grippy making the climb challenging but completely rideable. The climb topped out at a lookout over a brilliant blue pool surrounded by bright green moss.

From the pool lookout I took the lead--the further into the trail we got the harder I pushed...the momentum made the twists and turns around trees and into burms smooth and rhythmic. The trail may have been developed for hikers...but it is beautiful to ride on.

A patch of snow here and there turned into snow piles that blocked the trail and forced us to hike. We hiked until we realized it wasn't going to disappear and then started to descend back towards the car. The only disappointment for the ride was that we weren't able to make it to the waterfall...so when the decision came to head to the hotsprings and back towards Eugene or north to the waterfall and around the scenic route to Portland we opted for the latter (see photo below!).

We arrived in Portland, showered and relaxed...then headed to an amazing dinner at The Melting Pot. The next morning we got up (still full from dinner!) and headed out with coffees on a walk around the city to rustle up some hunger before heading to (we were told) THE spot for breakfast in Portland--Mother's. Once we found Mother's we discovered that they are closed on Mondays....so we kept walking and discovered Bijou Cafe. A woman outside told us that the food was delicious--and organic! (Dawn and Tanya I thought of you!) The breakfast was amazing! All the ingredients were local, organic, and the combinations were amazing...definitely a keeper for pre-USGP meals next winter!

After breakfast it was time to head back to the hotel, pick up the car, and head to Drew's tattoo appointment for winning Single Speed Cylocross World Championships. The appointment was at Atomic Art Tattoo Studio with Roll Hardy. Roll is an amazing artist...we got a chance to glimpse some of his paintings he has done in between anecdotes of working in the tattoo industry.

An hour later and we were on our way home, hoping for light traffic through Seattle and the border so that we could jump on the ferry....we made the 9pm boat and finally settled into our own bed after a pretty amazing 5 day adventure! To view all the photos from our trip click HERE and HERE and HERE!

The Long Road Home...

2009-05-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

My use of the word "home" here is a bit controversial, as "home" will always be California, even as Victoria becomes more and more "home." After a wonderful visit in my California home with family and a few friends, Drew flew in, had quick meet and greet dinners with each side of the family and we headed on our adventure. The next few posts are from days over a week ago...but I am just starting to get caught up from all the excitement!

The first day of the adventure was actually in SoHum (Southern Humboldt) just east of Shelter Cove. The trail was a loop aptly named "Paradise Royale" as it is perched upon a remote peak in the King Mountain Range. We read about this trail in Bike magazine's "Trail" issue and decided that we had to ride it. We drove until we thought we were lost, along stunning but heinous roads that would switchback on themselves so much it was dizzying.

We rode the trail from the Tolkan Campground. It started with a smooth and flowy descent for few kilometres, crossed a stream, through a meadow, and then started climbing. The climb was long, but with good rhythm: steep with rolling rests. The kind of climb that makes you want to hammer because the more momentum you have the faster and easier it is...except that you earn every kilometre of momentum. At the top we hoped for a lookout, there wasn't one, but through the trees along the highest points of the trail were glimpses of a sea of green forests stretching miles and miles in every direction. The descent was fast, with loose gravel, smooth trails, and lots of off camber bits. The best part was actually climbing a rolling section just before getting back to the Tolkan campground, it was tighter and twistier with less loose gravel and more reward for smooth, skilled cornering.

The trail was beautiful, but the drive home was stunning--lungs tighteningly beautiful, actually. Before I go further, Humboldt is not your normal area to grow up in. It takes 1.5 hours to get to a major highway to take you to a major city. The area has banned Walmart from opening, one city has a ban on fast food restaurants, there are beaches with cows (the kind that moo!) on them, not condos, and the redwood trees dwarf even the largest houses. Growing up here removed "remote" even further outside of society. The drive home was my idea of remote...where you have to worry about having enough gas in your car because there is no such thing as a "truck stop."

The route we took home follows the Lost Coast, the entire way is a two lane road that climbs to the edges of the King Range and then descends down onto the most achingly beautiful stretch of beach imaginable. To the left of the road (heading north) are beautiful dunes inhabited only by cows, to the right are rolling hills that open up into fields that run into barbed wire fences and an occasional tamed farm house yard. The road is mostly straight with brief jags around rock outcroppings that interrupt the smooth hills.

We paused at Cape Mendocino (above) before starting our ascent (nicknamed "the wall" to people who have ridden the Tour of the Unknown Coast) back up and over the hills and into Ferndale where we hooked back up with highway 101 to head back to my mom's house for a huge and delicious dinner of homecooked enchiladas with home-made cream puffs for dessert (for the record, my mom has a cult following for her meals...I'm pretty sure you can taste all of the attention and care she puts into every dish she makes).

The Road to the Crik

2009-04-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

If you leave from the coast and head East on highway 299, about a 45 minute drive is a small town called Willow Creek (the boys from here pronounce it Willow Crik). To get there on 299 you end up going up and over 2 summits: Lord Ellis then Berry Summit. Usually, in the summer, as soon as you pass Lord Ellis you descend into beautiful sunshine, as the mountains have blocked the coastal fog. Willow Creek is on the banks of the Trinity River and is a favourite in the summer for river floating and rafting. It was the destination for my road ride of the week...

The morning was foggy. In Humboldt the fog is different, like a million tiny little raindrops that cloud your vision, thicken your sweat, and settle into your clothing, your skin, your muscles, and then your bones. Last night I had a dream that my legs had been replaced with logs. The logs were stiff and didn't bend. The ride starts with a climb--up and up a winding road with no end in sight, but hope that around every corner will be the summit. I had to check my legs to make sure the dream hadn't come true...and then check again. At the top of the first summit there is no view point...no feeling of being on top of the world...a quick picture and then I start the first descent, it is cold, fast, and narrow, but it feels so good to let my legs spin. The descent is long, but not long enough, the second summit is more of the same, but the top should have a "top of the world viewpoint." At the bottom the clouds and fog are above me, it is drier here, but as I climb I move through the cloud cover, the clouds cling and my clothing sags with the weight of it. The top of the climb is socked in with fog: fuzzy, cold, and blinding. I start the descent into Willow Creek, glad I am on the last leg. Once the descent is over I head through town and continue on a rolling winding road. The road surfaces are so nice here, fast and smooth. All along the side of the road are waterfalls and brilliant, dense greenery. The entire way the road winds over and beside rivers and canyons. The drivers were much better than I expected, most giving me a wide breadth and slowing as they passed.

I make it safely and comfortably to my dad's cabin in just under 3 hours, a beautiful ride (although a little wet and sloppy) and a solid workout! (For those in Victoria, it would be like 3 Malahats linked together!). I am now looking forward to a road ride today and some killer mountain bike rides at Paradise Royale and in Roseburg, Oregon this weekend with Drew (assuming he makes it through dinners with the parents!).

Home in Humboldt

2009-04-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

There is no race report to write, no wondrous riding tales...quite yet. Friday I headed down towards California, it took a couple days and an hour of wrong turns in Eugene, OR before finally getting home. The 48 hours since arriving have been a blur of family, eating, and family--with a trip to the tidepools thrown in for good measure. My new Orbea Opal has sat almost untouched except for the quick spin I headed out on Saturday when I first got here. (More about the bike later....but it is beautiful, and so nice!)Now, it is just before 6am, the other out of town family members (below is a photo of 6 of the 7 sisters!) are starting to trickle away, and I am slowly able to decipher the river, dunes and ocean outside my mom's house as the sun comes up on the other side of the house.

Today I'll get out on the bike for a 45 mile climb up and into Willow Creek, then a 10 minute flat ground spin to my dad's summer cabin. I've been looking forward to this ride, I've driven this road so many times growing up and can't wait to see it from a bike, the view is always so different.It is beautiful here. No matter where I go, I've never seen anywhere quite like Humboldt. The forests are unkempt, the beaches stretch on for miles without clouds of tourists. Yesterday, riding around with my dad I realized that things grow here: parked tractors and trailers quickly become trellis for climbing vines, tall grass rushes to cover the immodesty of such a large industrial machine; above-ground waterlines become hard to follow through the thick low lying grass, guarded by sharp thistles.

There is no way to actually end this post. It is impossible to capture everything that this place has to offer with words. I could ramble with descriptions of everything I see. So I'll leave it here, with the photo from the window where I sit.

Snow to Surf Report

2009-04-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the lead-up to a race or event is more exciting than the actual event (everyone has a New Year's Eve story that goes something like that....). After my post last week I was worried that I would jinx the weekend, build it up to be so much more....

I didn't. I had actually forgotten how much fun it is to look forward to the next day's event with a team of 8 other girls. Drew and I drove up in the afternoon on Saturday, pre rode the trail section of the race course, then headed to the Conard's house for dinner with the teams. First off, the mountain bike section of the course is 6.5km of road followed by 2km of double track next to a pipeline--a brutally painful false flat, followed by 7.5km of pure heavenly singletrack. Fast, swoopy, rolling, with roots and logs....with a little momentum you feel like you are floating up, over, and across the terrain. In the pre-ride I plastered a huge grin on my face and gave'r.

The Conard's house is this wonderful quirky cottage in the woods. It is open and breezy and homey. I've been there twice now, but it is a welcoming home as soon as you walk in the door. Barb and Willy Conard are amazing people and are not hesitant to make all 18 of us as comfortable as possible. For dinner, Toscano's supplied an amazing pasta dinner. The night before was filled with catching up (some of the team Drew and I only see once a year) and planning. Getting everyone to and from their respective legs with their necessary equipment is a bit of a challenge and team leaders Josh Henderson and Danielle Conard usually get the task of figuring out the logistics.

The next morning came bright and early with a huge continental team breakfast and last-minute preparations. The race started at 9:40 with the downhill skiier and continued on through the xc skiier, and two downhill runners before it got to the mountainbike leg. Drew got called up 3rd (meaning his team was in 3rd place overall) and I got called up several minutes later. Natasha had killed it during her run and I was the first girl to get called up--including mixed teams. I headed out with a couple guys just barely in sight with the goal to catch them by the end. Stayed nice and steady on the road...suffered through the pipeline...and then was homefree with the same grin as the night before as I headed into the singletrack. I caught both of the guys halfway through the singletrack and moved our team up 2 overall spots and maintained our 1st place in the open women's. Our kayaker, Andrea, shoved off and had a strong paddle across the lake despite the choppy water and winds to hand off to Tanya Berg. Tanya had an awesome ride and handed off to our canoers. By this time the wind was even stronger and the ocean was rough and choppy. Danielle and Mel are beautiful to watch in a boat, but their racing canoe was not happy about the waves coming over the top. The girls toughed out several swims and shore-dumps, turning down the coast guard boats offer of rescue to finish the race, securing a 2nd place.

From there, of course, we all headed to the beer gardens (see above and below footage) to wait for the rest of the teams and awards. Post-awards Barb and Willy invited us back to their place to watch the hockey game where we also re-lived the days adventure over beer and chips.

Drew and I got to watch the sky brighten up this morning through (speaking for myself) hazy eyes on our way home to Victoria. What a great month--last weekend's long weekend, Snow to surf, and next week's trip to California for more great riding and family!

Its pretty rough up here.....

Oh the Excitement!

2009-04-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a great weekend of riding and relaxing....with even a chance to play minigolf! (Refer to above photo)...It feels like a great way to lead into this weekend's race (Refer below) and next weekend's vacation (stay tuned for more details!).

As a cyclist, with the exception of road and high level athletes, it is rare that you get to attend team events. After year's of playing basketball with other girls, I really enjoyed the rarity, at first. Flashback to last April of last year and that all changed....

Snow to Surf is a multi-sport race that occurs in the Courtney/Comox area of Vancouver Island and features a trek from Mt Washington Alpine Resort to the beaches of Comox. Each team has 9 members and each member has a separate task (with the exceptions of the canoers who paddle in pairs). A downhill skiier starts the race off with a sprint in snowboots to their skis before heading down the hill, they pass of to a cross-country skiier, who passes off to a downhill runner who passes off to another downhill runner, to a mountain biker (that's me!), to a kayaker, to a road cyclist, to the pair of paddlers.

Last year was my first year racing and all winter I've been looking forward to this year (and hoping for the invite!) to defend our team's first place. Beyond the race being fun, our women's team is lucky enough to have an awesome sponsor in PINK TRUCK ONSITE (the boy's team is sponsored by ISLAND TANKS). Barb and Willy Conard (of the respective companies) clear out their house and feed 18 athletes for the weekend...along with the infinitely complicated task of keeping the rides and race day organized. Both of our teams got a great little write up in the Comox Valley Record. (Barb and Willy also entrusted us with our danderiffic, but tiger of

a housecat Eric...We love Eric, but don't plan on bringing any other animals home with us this year!)

My leg of the race is relatively short--a 30-45min time trial that starts out on road, but then goes into some great twisty, swoopy, and fun singletrack! The best part though, is the pre-race dinner and the post-race pints in the beer garden with the rest of the team!

When you forget how much it can hurt...

2009-04-12T21:50:00.000-07:00

It has been exactly a week since Drew and I were driving back from Cumberland and I started thinking about whether or not to write a race report. I'm opting to, now that I've had a week to think about it, because we just had a wet, sloppy, muddy ride up at Mount Tzouhalem in Duncan and I remembered how much fun it can be to just ride.

Going from a non-athlete to training is sometimes a challenge. The old-self sometimes wants to bubble up, go out to a huge dinner and sit on a couch for the day, week, month. Sometimes 2-day old legs in a rest week feel so stale that I feel like I could just let them turn into croutons.

Last week I rested all week, doing a bit of riding here or there, leading up to the Cumberland Island Cup XC. This course is my favourite nemisis. Every year it kicks my ass, but every year I finish it feeling exhausted, sore, but accomplished. This year at the start line I was looking forward to that feeling. I felt not-great, but relatively speedy throughout the first lap until I dropped my chain on the fire road descent, stopped, tensed up, and continued on. Heading up the fire road climb into the first section of singletrack on the second lap the steady whisper of an ache in my lower back intensified into a vibrating bass, and by the entrance to Short and Curly had become deafening, distracting, and was sucking any power to get up the tight, technical, rooty trails that make Cumberland such a painstakingly amazing area to ride. By then I was done, pulled the plug and headed out to watch the end of the race. No beautiful sense of sore accomplishment--only soreness as we headed home.

Last year I quit one race, the Port Alberni Island Cup. After that race Drew told me to never quit a race. To push through. I thought about that a lot. I now hate quitting a race, hate the hollow feeling where relief, excitement, and accomplishment should fill at the end of a race day.

All week I've been fighting sore and tired legs and back--but with some great rides out to east Sooke, around the waterfront, and finally, today, up to Mt. Tzouhalem. Riding with good people and friends I remembered how much I love to ride, to challenge myself, and how much I can't wait to get back on the bike at the next race. Tomorrow is a day of intervals....but how sweet the suffering will be!

A New Best Friend and a New Season!

2009-03-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

You know the friend that is always there? The one who's moves you can forsee? The one you would drop everything for? I found that this weekend on the twisty, tough course in Port Alberni. I hadn't been able to get a feeling for my new bike, I would start to feel steady on it, then it would send me for a loop...until this weekend:

This weekend kicked off the Island Cup Series this race series is a gem here on the island. The organizers up and down the island put together 10 cross-country/marathon races that go from March to September. The people that show up range from high-profile pros like Wendy Simms to the hard-core guys on fully rigid single speeds. There aren't podiums until the finals, just lots of draw prizes and maybe a few beer here and there. It isn't a race series for the weak at heart or fire-road loving, the courses are rough, technical, with big climbs and tough descents. The expert women race the same number of laps as the men, which means the races can be up to 2.5 hours long--it is by far the best way to kick off the race season!

The race was in Port Alberni, about 3 hours north west of Victoria. We headed up early in the morning and hit a deep snowstorm in Nanaimo. Drew's car wasn't happy about the snow on the road, and I wasn't looking forward to racing in a snowstorm. We opted to drive to the turnoff just in case the snow subsided. Less than 20km later we were on clear roads under a blue sky--typical Vancouver Island!

Last year's Port Alberni race was rainy, cold, and MUDDY! The course has a just-steeper-than-false-flat climb that has a steep push at the end that heads straight into a technical downhill section with a skinny rock ledge, some steep slippery rock ruts, and steep loose dirt/mud sections. From there it gets fast and flowy with burmed corners, twisty root sections to the bottom where the single track dumps into a quick mud-puddled fire road. After dodging the mud puddles the course throws you back into more awesome single track with bridges, mud, and steep popper climbs, logs, and roots until you get another rest on the last piece of fire road before the final flat push to the end with more of the above singletrack.

I've been feeling great in training, but definitely didn't feel ready to race. I approached the start (which went immediately into a steep road climb to thin the crowds before the singletrack) with a bit of hesitation. I haven't done intervals or intensity since cross season, so I opted for a slow start with just enough effort to get me into the single track ahead of the crowds. Once into the singletrack with my legs burning from the effort I settled into a rhythm with the guys around me to the top of the climb where I fumbled and had to remind myself not to get to rushed. Down the descent I went, with some ungraceful dabbing and (admittedly) some running--commitment practice is needed! I had forgotten about the few moments of fast and flowy singletrack and almost whooped with excitement when I got to it--the trailbuilders that I was cursing moments before became my new heroes!

By the time I got to the flat section--which is best described as a BMX pump track littered with rocks, roots, mud, and the occasional short climb--my arms were burning. The key to the last half of the lap is to maintain momentum. The faster you can go, the easier the terrain is as you can float over some of the roughness. My arms continued to burn and scream at me for my dislike of upper-body gym workouts....and then I got a stick stuck between my fork and front wheel--I stared at it and tried to mentally will the thing out of my fork before it lodged iteself in my wheel and broke spokes..to no avail. Instead, I almost crashed into a small stump off to the side of the trail--time to pay attention to the trail. The stick finally dropped away from my bike as I headed up to the first lap point. More of the same for the second lap, except that I got caught by Kristenn Magnussen halfway through the lap. We rode together for the remainder of the lap and into the final lap. I knew she was making time on the descent, so I hammered up the climb and into the descent trying to get as far ahead as possible. I entered the descent, rode what I was confident about, then tossed away my pride and just ran the sections of the descent I had been having trouble with all day.

I spent the last 30 minutes of the race willing myself on, cracked, just below completely bonking, and rode past the finish till someone yelled to let me know I was finished....whew! Hardest race of the season! But overall I felt great! It was a great way to start! Now it is back to the drawing board for a month until the next Island Cup in Cumberland on April 5th.

New Year, New Race Seasons, New Bikes...

2009-01-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

Victoria from the top of Mt Quimper

Now that I've settled back into a normal routine of work, training, and catching up with non-cycling friends I am sitting back at my computer to start off my first blog post of the year. There are no current race reports to write, no season wrap up. This part of the year is about looking forward, thinking ahead, and creating expectations.

After Drew and I went away for Christmas (2 weeks off the bike with 100% inactivity and a lot of travel) I was slow getting back on my bike. Two jam-packed seasons left me feeling motivated...until it got to be time to slide back into the Lycra, then all of a sudden the motivation would disappear. Now, towards the end of January, I am finally back onto my winter training program and it feels great!

This season I am looking forward to focussing my season on a couple major races, for both the Cross Country and CX seasons I'll be heading to U.S. Nationals, which I haven't competed in before. During the Cross Country season I'll be heading to at least one Canada Cup and then, of course, filling in with the BC Cup series, Test of Metal, and the local Island Cup Series. For CX I'll be doing a similar schedule but with trips to Pacific-Northwest UCI races instead of Canada Cups.

I am back on Gary Fisher for the Cross Country season, but am heading towards a full suspension from their Fisher HiFi XC lineup. I'll be on the SuperCaliber frame but dressing it up with a full Shimano XTR kit...Drew has estimated a 23lb full suspension bike. The 4 inches of front and rear travel will ride like a dream on this super-efficient platform (I'll be sure to write more info on it after the first couple rides).

But getting back to the riding...it feels great to get back on the bike and just ride. No intervals, no racing headspace...just some amazing singletrack, some good friends, and time to focus on just turning the cranks over one revolution at a time--I love winter training!

The "Off" Season

2008-12-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

The last week has been busy with preparing for our "North American Adventure" over Christmas, we'll be spending 6 days in California with my family, a few days in Guelph, Ontario with Drew's family and then New Year's Eve in Ottawa.

The snow in Victoria made us both realize that maybe it was time for a solid break from training and has forced us off our bikes and into the pubs....well, Christmas cheer is what is forcing us...enticing us...into the pubs. It has been a great week of catching up with friends, Christmas shopping, and enjoying some relaxing evenings at home. I've been catching up at work all week and have finally put up some Christmas specials at Straight Up Cycles, but I am already starting to feel stir-crazy after just 1 weekend at home, and am really looking forward to our trip!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters this year. The Island Racing Club has been a great team to ride for--thank you guys for all of your support this year! All the people at Shimano Canada have been amazing to work with, and were phenomenal during the cross season in keeping my cross bike up and running! Thanks to Scott Lawrence and Gary Fisher bikes for their help this year in getting us on sweet mountain bikes! Finally, thanks to Gerry Huizinga and Straight Up Cycles for continuous bike maintenance, support, and (for me) the flexible work schedule that allowed me to race this year!

This year has been a great year for Drew and I. We've travelled 26 weekends out of the 52 this year for racing. Drew had a solid mountain bike season and then, during cyclo-cross season, went on to win several BC Cups and Single Speed World Championships. I finished 3rd overall in the Mountain Bike BC Cup Series, tied for 2nd overall in the Cyclo-Cross BC Cup Series, and finished 3rd at Provincial Championships (compared to 7th overall in the series last year and 9th at Provincials).

So, thanks again to all of our supporters for helping us to have such a successful season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Portland USGP's

2008-12-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend we headed back down to Portland for the final two U.S. Gran Prix races at Portland's International Raceway. The venue was the same as the SSCXWCs, but was in a completely different part of the park. The races were back-to back Saturday and Sunday on similar courses.

SATURDAY: We woke up to beautiful sunny skies and headed down to the venue to pre-ride the course and check out the early morning races. The course was 2/3 on grassy/leafy parkland and 1/3 through a motocross track that was muddy despite the beautiful weather. The grassy section had some tricky corners, dips, and short climbs pitted against fast all-out straight aways. The motocross section took a tour of a "rhythm" course, up and around what looked like a starting ramp, and into a muddy straightaway that sucked momentum and plunged you into a huge puddle right at the end. The mud was drying out and was thick making ruts that would grab your wheel. The muddy sections were unreliable and a bit tricky.

At the race start I was close to last called up, since this was only my second UCI race of the year (Jim Horner being the first). Off the line I had a slow start and watched the girls in front jockey for position. The women broke up pretty quickly and, besides the women in the top 10, most girls were off on their own after the first lap. I rode a really clean race and felt pretty good in the beginning sitting around 18th, but faded in the end to come in 22nd. I felt ok about the race, but it wasn't my strongest race of the year by any means--I definitely need a bit more aggressiveness on the line and around corners.

SUNDAY: Sunday we woke up to cloudy, rain-threatening skies. I had mixed feelings about this. I hate doing muddy laundry...but I love muddy races. The muddier the race the more technical and challenging it is. Based on the course from the day before, I knew any rain would loosen up the course and actually make it more predictable and faster. Come on rain! We headed down to the track to check out the course changes. The changes were minimal, but looked great: instead of a straightaway on pavement in the first section of the lap, there was a short pavement section that went into boggy mud and then up a very short, very steep run-up; through the mud the line was changed in a couple sections so that, if you rode it right, you were able to maintain momentum throughout the mud. The grassy section had no changes in it.

The rain started just as I was getting dressed, and it poured. I shortened my warm-up so that I didn't end up to wet and cold. At the start of the race I was pretty excited--it was the last race of the year, and I still felt fit--off the line I had a bit better start and moved up through the girls into around 15th, higher than I was at any time the day before. I kept my position and gapped a few girls through the run up and the muddy sections and headed into the grassy section in a pretty happy place, riding well and feeling pretty strong. Halfway through the grassy section I went through a dip, around a tree and into the left-hand line from the day before and lost traction in both wheels through a rutted mud puddle that hadn't been there the day before. I slid down the hill and into the tape hitting my helmet on one of the 2x4 wood pieces that made up the fencing support, I got back up and onto my bike after losing about 4 spots and tried to catch back on. The pace was pretty established, however, and I ended up riding by myself for the remainder of the race to finish up in 19th, better than the day before, but with a massive lump on my forehead and another broken helmet.

This weekend I learned a lot about my equipment: I need to be less scared of running low pressure...Jamie Emery and Brad Collins convinced me to lower pressure and my Dura Ace wheels and Tufo Cubus tires performed flawlessly. I always scoffed at 2nd bikes, but in muddy races like Sunday's, my drivetrain was screaming for a pressure washer for the last 3 laps (out of the 5 that we did). And, finally, whoever started spreading the rumour that Shimano pedals get clogged with mud must have been crazy (or didn't Pam his shoes), I didn't have a problem all weekend clipping into my XTR pedals, and I know they are durable enough to withstand the pressure washing!

The unfortunate thing about these races is that I didn't get to see what happened in the front of the race, or watch the top women go through technical sections, but for full results, report from the front of the field, and photos check out Canadian Cyclist, Velonews, and CX Magazine.

The weekend was a good weekend, racing these two races were great experience that left me with a lot of enthusiasm and momentum to train and prepare for next year! The perfect way to finish up the race season! I was also happy to finish the season off feeling tired from all the racing, but still fit and ready to race...rather than spent and ready for time off.

Updated SSCXWC08 Results and Provincial Championships

2008-11-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

Before I get into the dirt (bad pun intended and acknowledged) of this weekend, check out the updated Single Speed Worlds results, after they found my missing lap, I ended up 4th in Sunday's race behind Sue Butler (current champion), Wendy Williams (previous champion), and Megan Farris.

This weekend found us in Surrey on Saturday for BC Cup Finals and Burnaby on Sunday for BC Provincial Championships.

Surrey's race was put on by SORCE bike club and was a backwards version of the previous Surrey bike park course. Although the course was well marked, I didn't seem to have the same flow as the first course...but the race was great all the same! The women's fields have been getting smaller and smaller each weekend, so this weekend we left the startline with 4 girls. Jean Anne McKirdy took a decisive lead within the first 1/2 lap and stayed gone throughout the race. Melanie Vaughn and I battled back and forth throughout the race. Melanie rode a very clean race and passed me during errors, and I would chase back on during the two climbing sections.

The course started on an uphill paved road, took a right into a succession of gravel, grass, muddy corner, grass, gravel and then around through some sketchy loose gravel, into grass and barriers, around more muddy grassy corners, down last races run-up, then up a sometimes-rideable climb. From there we headed around more corners, up a gravel climb, ducked into the trees for open fast singletrack, across the road with wheel-eating curbs (for those of us not so skilled at bunny hopping), up an off-camber ride/run section, through more tight turns and slippery sections, down a walking path and then around a 180 degree turn that dumped us back to the starting area.

The race was well organized and a lot of fun, a great warm-up for Sunday!

Sunday's race, BC Provincial Championships, was put on by Escape Velocity in Burnaby's Foreshore park. The park is located in an industrial area on the river and created a cross course that was a relatively flat course with a mix of smooth singletrack, fast walking trails, rough grass sections, two rideable sand pits, and one running sand pit. Within the terrain the course designers embedded lots of turns and terrain changes in the middle of these turns. The course forced you to get off the bike 4 times a lap and constantly turn your brain from fast-twitch reactions to slow-technical skill.

This season we haven't had as many double header weekends as last year, so I wasn't sure how my legs would take the double-duty. Off the line they were slow to react and I stayed in the back of the 6 person group to warm up a bit. When Dawn Anderson and Jean Ann McKirdy surged I moved up in the group to sit behind Melanie Vaughn, hoping that we would jump in behind them. Dawn and Jean Ann surged ahead and stayed together battling it out for the rest of the race while Melanie and I pulled away from the rest of the girls. Melanie gapped me and settled into a pace that kept her consistently in view. In the 3rd lap I tried to catch back on, caught on to her, but couldn't pull ahead. I sagged back a bit in order to take my own lines through the corners until the final lap. I spent the first half of the final lap closing the gap between Melanie and I, finally passing her on a straight stretch of walking path. This allowed me to go into the final barrier in front, leading into a straight stretch, and then into the sand pit. Coming out of the sand pit I focussed on clipping into my pedals (which I'd been struggling with all day--I need more practice with clipless pedals apparently!) and sprinting as hard as I could to the line to come in in 3rd place.

Sunday's race was by far the hardest race of my season, my legs never felt great, but never felt terrible either...waffling in between lactic screaming and promises of strength. One of my biggest weaknesses all year has been in the tactics of racing and Sunday's race was one of my best tactical races--hang on, know when you need to get in front, and use all the will power possible to get there.

This weekend we are home and next weekend we are off to Portland for my last two races of the year--the USGP's!

Shiny, Pretty Things!

2008-11-20T08:28:00.001-08:00

In my last blog I alluded to the new stuff Shimano hooked me up with last week. Previously my bike had a mix of 105, Ultegra, and Ultegra SL and some Chris King wheels--It was basically a bombproof bike. The durability of everything on it was wicked, but not necessarily the lightest.

Just before leaving for SSCXWC08 I got a box with new M300 Mountain bike shoes which are custom fit so no break-in time! I was able to wrangle Gerry into fitting them for me before the weekend and wore them for the first time at the SSCXWC qualifying event--no blisters!

The most exciting part of the box, however, almost made me skip SSCXWC--a full Dura Ace 7800 group with WH-7850-C24-TU wheels--In English: a 2008 Dura Ace group with low-profile tubular carbon rims!

I had to wait until after SSCXWC to build up my bike with gears, but as soon as we got home (and after our Remembrance Day mountain bike ride up to the Cairn on Mount Prevost) I tore the World Champion away from rebuilding his bike and setting up mine. My bike dropped close to 1.5 pounds with the switch, and gained a huge amount in performance!

105 Shifters are great because they are double and triple compatible, so it makes them very adaptive--key when you maybe don't know exactly how you'll be using the bike in the future. So if you want to go from a double chainring to a triple all you have to change are the crank and the front derailleur--which is way more affordable than having to change the shifters as well. For a race machine though, the Dura Ace shifters are ultra-smooth, light, and take away a few extra clicks. The group is designed (like all Shimano products) to work the best when used together, so having the complete drivetrain makes the bike shift and ride like a dream.

Onto my favourite part...the wheels. Drew taught me early on in our relationship that wheels are close to the most important part of the bike--they determine how much/how little/what type of feedback comes off of the road (or cross course!) and are one of the easiest ways to save noticeable (rotational) weight. These wheels are a cross-rider's dream come true! Out of the saddle sprinting they are stiff and responsive, they weigh in (with Tufo Cubus 32 tires and D/A skewers) at 2290 grams (1250g w/o tires and skewers), and they are built to be durable and strong.

Getting more techy with them, they employ proprietary Shimano carbon construction--Shimano does a brilliant job with their XTR rear derailleur in making super light, super tough carbon cages and for the new Dura Ace 7900 group they take their carbon skills honed from years of application in fishing technology and apply it throughout the group for one of the most aesthetically pleasing, lightweight, durable, and functionally gorgeous groups ever. Period. Back to the wheels though, the rims are 28 and 24mm sections to cut through air, and mud, like a dream, and the hubs sport wider flanges for stiffness and strenth. The rear hub has a titanium freehub body that engages faster than the older hub models for better power transfer (it is also lightweight, but more durable than aluminum bodies against cogs digging into the body). Beyond that, the hubs use Shimano's bearing technology which have been proven throughout their component lineup and make their hubs and bottom brackets some of the most reliable in the industry.

Basically, what this all boils down to is an amazing 17.5lb race machine! (Thanks to the team at Shimano Canada) I am looking forward to racing it this weekend in the BC Cup finals back at the South Surrey Bike Park, and BC Provincial Championships on Sunday in Coquitlam.

Racing, and more Racing!

2008-11-17T18:36:00.000-08:00

I have, admittedly, been terrible at posting this month...I think I did this towards the end of mountain bike season as well--the racing and working fatigue tackles me and drags me away from the computer (and oh, the bike maintenance!). The last few weeks have been filled by bike makeovers from geared to single speed, then back to geared....but on some fancy new components from Shimano!

First off, the Surrey Bike Park BC Cup. This race was put on by Team Peninsula Cycles. The venue was relatively small, but they did an awesome job using all the space they could to make a twisty, off camber, technical race course with some of the best "flow" of the season--they even inadvertently added in flying softballs that were landing on the course from the adjoining bear league! This race was my best race of the year, I felt great from the whistle and rode a really technically sound race. Melanie Vaugn and I chased Kelly Jones for most of the race until finally I tried to bridge to Kelly. I didn't make it, but felt great about the ride! Drew battled it out with Kevin Calhoun until the final lap when he rode in for the win!

We booted it back to the ferry and home and, taking advantage of the workstands at Straight Up Cycles we transformed our bikes into Single Speeds to practice for Single Speed World Championships at the Fletcher's Farm Island Cup on Sunday (the next day). Drew decked his bike out with moustache bars and I kept mine traditional with drop bars and Shimano R600 brake levers.

The next day's race was held just outside of Parksville at a farm. The course is technical with a gross, peanut-buttery mud field, a mud hole that threatens to swallow your front wheel on every lap, and a creek crossing that, in years past, has been above BB height. Luckily this year the field was mostly rideable (but the switchback in it was slow and painful), the creek was just a trickle, and the sinkhole kept its hands off of my front wheel (though others were less lucky). Off the gun we ran up the field on the course, zigging and zagging....a Le Mans start--cyclists are typically not the prettiest runners out there. When I got to my bike, the fun began, I spun out anywhere that was flat or mild descent, and any climbs or mud (i.e. the whole course) were a grunt. The real fun was in the technical where I forced myself to ride obstacles faster than normal knowing that momentum was going to be my only friend in the game. Midway through the race, with a mud-covered face, I informed Drew how much I was suffering...but loving every minute of it. By the end of the race I came 4th against all the geared girls, but had a blast and learned a bit about my technical skill. Drew, per his usual, showed me up as he single-speeded his way to the finish in first place, comfortably in front of the rest of the geared guys.

I spent the rest of the week trying to recover my blown legs and back, and then on Friday we headed down to Portland for SSCXWC08. Saturday morning we rolled out of bed, got breakfast, and headed to the Chris King factory to meet for the time-trial qualifier for the race on Sunday--it was pouring rain! Once there we checked in, figured out our start times, and got ready to go. As we were riding to the ultra-secret TT course Drew and I started recognizing where we were...we had ridden there last March on our vacation in Portland. The course was a hill climb followed by a technical mountain bike-ish descent. The starts were 15 seconds apart, off my start I concentrated on the girl in front of me and reeled her in, over the 15 minute time trial I caught around 8 girls, some on the climb, some on the descent, and felt great...although the legs were burning! According to the results, I finished the time trial in 3rd behind Sue Butler and Emily VanMeter, but several race reports had me finishing up in 2nd, either one was a great way to start the weekend! Drew finished off the TT in 2nd to Kevin Hulick and Tyler Trace finished up in 14th.

That night we headed to the Vanilla Bicycles workshop, which is as tasteful as the bikes, simple, understated, but inviting. Walking around checking out all the well-spec'd bikes, Drew mentioned several times "I want one of these." After Vanilla we headed out on the town and ended up having a bowling competition at The Grand Central Lanes where they have great food and servers for every lane. Not a family-friendly venue, but great fun. Drew and Nick showed their skills while Tyler and I battled it out for 3rd place. Nick and Drew tied by the end of the night, with me settling into 3rd (seems to be a pattern). A bowl-off between Nick and Drew will be soon to come! (USGP's?)

The next day we lazed around and then headed to the race. It started off with a (I'm ripping this comparison off from someone else's blog...but it really is appropriate) Braveheart starting line of people 70 wide and 3 deep. The women were supposed to start 30 seconds after the men, but at the gun everyone went. After 50 feet it went from football-field wide to freight-elevator narrow and quickly (for those of us mid-pack) became a parade of sorts. I used my lack of height and sobriety to stealthily pick my way through the pack, over the barriers, onto my bike...then through the foam wall....yes, foam wall....we blew through that every lap hoping that there was no downed riders or small children on the other side. After a corner and a brief straight-away we were headed up a run-up with a triple barriers (I would hate these by the end) and, at the top, the Yakima windmill with 4 blades. The crowd controlled the blades and you had to time your run through the windmill perfectly or risk getting hit. Into a slippery off-camber corner, a straight-away, more mud, more off camber, and back to the beginning. The course was very different from anything we see in BC, but really fun and fast. My gearing was a little on the light side and I was spinning out all over the place, but was riding the muddy, off camber sections well. I rode just behind Sue Butler and Wendy Williams for the first 2 laps, but lost them on one of the straight-aways. I didn't get passed by another girl, but battled it out with a few different guys, some better at technical elements, some more fit/bigger gears. The results had me listed as 19th, but next to some girls I lapped...so I am guessing that in the confusion of people at the race, one of my laps got missed--but the race was all for fun!

After finishing I found out that Drew won--which means he gets his tattoo, the golden speedo, and a SpeedVagen frame from Vanilla. He gave a brief interview and geography lesson when he informed people that Canada "is a small republic above the U.S." and then retreated to congrats from the guys he was racing around.

I've posted pictures on my Facebook, but here is a link to one of the better collections from the weekend:

http://pdxcross.com/2008/11/11/sscxwc08-sunday-photo-slideshow/

Photo Albums

2008-10-29T21:50:00.001-07:00

I added some photo albums to my facebook account: CROSS COUNTRY race photos, CYCLOCROSS race photos, and photos from SUMMER (because we tried to do a few things besides just race).

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their fall!

Pumpkin Cross in Maple Ridge

2008-10-28T21:14:00.001-07:00

This weekend we headed to lovely Maple Ridge for yet another BC Cup. The event was run by Local Ride bike shop who puts on well organized, fun events. The course was more of a short mountain bike course with a climb, a sketchy gravel downhill, a highspeed wood chip descent, a double barrier, a slippery, muddy descent, some off-camber corners, a single barrier, and some slippery corners into the start finish area. A good course for testing the bike handling skills, but painful if you aren't in tip top shape (and probably painful even if you are).

I pre rode a lap about 30 minutes before the start and gave myself two puncture flats (always a good way to warm up!!) Got them fixed in time to get rid of my extra clothes and head to the start/finish area. The boys got let out in front of us (per the usual) with Drew and Tyler hanging out in the back of the pack. They eventually worked their way up the pack, Drew used his technical skills and ability to suffer to pull away from the pack as Kevin Noiles, Kevin Calhoun, and Tyler Trace chased. The men finished up with Drew in First, Kevin Calhoun in Second, and Tyler in Third.

Our field this week was smaller than it has been, but the girls key in the BC Cup overall points race were there, currently Kelly Jones is in 1st, I am in 2nd, Melanie Vaughn is in 3rd, and Christy Love is in 4th. Added to those girls was Dawn Berg who has been doing really well on the island and claimed a Top 5 at Nationals and a Top 3 at the UCI race the next day and Sandra Walter who was heading out on her first cross race of the year after racing the World Cup XC races all summer.

Off the line I hung out in the back trying to warm my legs up and not shock the system too much, Dawn and Kelly attacked with Melanie and I following 1/3 of the way through the first lap, Dawn gapped us and I tried to stay on Kelly's wheel until the runup where she literally ran away from me. Melanie and I stayed together for most of the race with one or the other of us leading and attacking throughout the race until, just before heading out onto our last lap, Melanie slipped in one of the greasy off-camber corners, I attacked over the barrier and rode the last lap scared--Melanie tends to have a good late-race kick. I got within 10 seconds of Kelly, but couldn't close down the gap any further before we got to the finish line. The women's race finished as follows:

1. Dawn Berg (Oak Bay Bikes/Everti) 0:38:31
2. Kelly Jones aka Harley Quinn (Sugoi) 0:39:26
3. Joele Guynup (Island Racing Club p/b RW Cameron) 0:39:35
4. Melanie Vaughan (Steed Cycles) 0:39:45
5. Sandra Walter (Local Ride Racing) 0:41:39
6. Christy Love (West Coast Racing/Mighty Riders) 0:42:41

Vanier Park BC Cup and Drew's Birthday

2008-10-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

This week has been busy starting with the West Coast Racing Vanier Park BC Cup CX race. This course is an oddly challenging course--it doesn't have a big climb, it isn't the most technical or the most demanding aerobically....it is average of all of the following, the kicker being the lack of recovery anywhere in the course.

Off the line I watched everyone go, and realized it was going to be a bit of an ugly race. I felt flat after resting all week the week before and didn't have a great start. I revved up a bit in the first lap and was fighting with Melanie Vaugn throughout the second lap as Kelly Jones rode away from all of us.

Halfway through the third lap I lost my rear wheel in a loose corner and Melanie attacked, although I tried to respond I didn't have it and I settled into 3rd place where I rode comfortably for the last few laps to finish up 3rd but maintain my BC Cup overall in 2nd place by 1 point.

As for the men's race...Drew Mackenzie, Tyler Trace and Kevin Noiles started out strong, and then there were two with Drew and Tyler in the lead. Somewhere in the race Tyler got tangled up in the course tape and crashed over his bars, but recovered quickly enough to get himself back into 1st place to take the men's race with Drew in 2nd and Kevin in 3rd.

This week found us celebrating Drew's birthday with a dinner on Monday, a surprise party on Tuesday, a Wednesday-night cross race, and a Thursday dinner at the Willock/Zarsadias household where I had my first encounter with a Wii...I am hooked--and Drew and I have been complaining since then about our sore "Wii Muscles."

We are back at it tomorrow though with "Pumpkin Cross" organized by Local Ride Bike Store in Maple Ridge.

Cross Nats and Jim Horner UCI Race

2008-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed to Edmonton for Nationals (for Drew) and the Jim Horner UCI cross race. We flew in way too early on Friday and spent the day building bikes, whining about the cold (everyone who lives east of Vancouver can laugh at me here), and checking out the park the two races were being held at--which was 5 minutes away from our accomodations at the all-inclusive Achuff House (thanks Andy!).

Edmonton (for those Americans following this) is actually a really neat city with a huge amount of parks. If you work/live downtown or in town you can ride to single track, mountain bike worthy trails in an inner-city park in about 10 minutes and ride for a solid 2-2 1/2 hours. Banff and Canmore are within a couple hours drive, and the sky (at least while we were there) always seemed to be sparkling blue. The downside to Edmonton, though, is that it is cold in the winter, and not all that warm in the fall (although the temperature was relatively moderate and hovered between -2 degrees to 10 degrees Celcius while we were there).

Friday we got actual course practice on the largely flat course with lots of twists and turns in grass, a run-up for the women (most men were riding it), and some fast swooping off camber turns. Just before leaving Victoria I got a new Pro CX fork which dropped 1/2 a pound off of my bike, so I spent Friday getting used to it. Having a carbon steer-tube means that it isn't quite as stiff as my beefy aluminum steer-tube, but the fork had very little chatter, dampened vibration like a dream, and all around felt great--and awesome upgrade to my very stiff, full aluminum Empella Bonfire SL frame.

Saturday, after a bit of a pre-ride, I settled in to watch Drew and Tyler Trace race. Drew had a bit of a slow start, and sat towards the back of the race until the 4th lap when he attacked and passed 10 people in one lap and kept hunting wheels down until he ended up 9th at the finish, finishing up about 20 seconds behind Craig Richey and Kris Sneddon. Tyler was in the top 5 for the first 3 laps of the race, but eventually drifted back to finish 6th.

Heading into the race Sunday I was wishing I wasn't fresh-legged and had gotten to race the course at full-speed the day before, but had a great start and worked to stay in a group with Mical Dycke, Kelly Jones, Loni Klettl, Melanie Vaughn, and Jaymie McGowan. After a bit of a pile-up on the second climb (which featured two low-lying logs that were hoppable, but gave some people troubles) I was fighting for 6th position until Loni, Nical, and Kelly attacked and gapped me in the corners in the field (guess what I'll be working on next week!). I settled into 8th with Melanie right on my wheel, but crashed just before the run-up and lost a spot. Jaymie hammered up to ride just behind me for the rest of the race to keep me on my toes until the finish where we sprinted for 9th place--my second sprint and second successful sprint-finish in a cross race! (the last being star-crossed last year). I finished up 9th, which was pretty exciting since this was my first UCI level cross race--up until now I have solely done BC Cups at the Elite level. This means I have UCI points for the call-ups at the USGP's in Portland in December!

At the front of our race, Wendy Simms rode away from the group with Pepper Harlton and Dawn Berg rounding out the podium. It was a good day for BC women as 6 out of the top 10 were from BC and 4 of 6 from Vancouver Island!

The men's race started out fast with Geoff Kabush, Mike Garrigan, and Tim Heemskirk (fresh legs) pushing the pace. Their laps were exciting to watch as they flew through the fields and hopped the barriers, finishing up with Geoff in first, Tim in second, and Derrick St. John in third.

Full coverage, results, and photos are available on canadiancyclist.com. Thanks to Andy Achuff for accomodations, and to Dave Roberts for the above photos!

BTAC + Cyclocross 101

2008-10-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

Its been a month since I last updated everyone, the last month has been busy. The weekend after provincials I headed to Montreal for the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada's Trade Show--like any trade show, vendors in the bike industry show up, display their wares, and shop owners descend to check out the 2009 product. I got a chance to work for Shimano Canada in their booth doing product demonstrations for the new wheels, shoes, and component groupsets. Some of the highlights in our booth were the new Di2 Electronic Dura Ace, the new Saint Grouppo, and the Naked Bicycles bike that was built specifically to display the internally geared Alfine Group.

I flew home on Tuesday September 9th, raced the first local Wednesday underground cross, and then headed to Vancouver on Saturday for the first BC Cup where I finished up 5th after an epic battle with Melanie Vaughn. Drew double-flatted, walked half a lap, and then road through the field one lap down for a great workout, but a frustrating day. On Sunday we headed back to Nanaimo to race the first Island Cup at Beban Park. The Island Cup CX Series is an awesome series of races put on on Vancouver Island. They are headed up by Norm Thibault who does a great job rallying up local clubs up and down the island to put on races. I finished up 4th in the day after some tired legs and some smoother barrier work.

A weekend off from racing kept us in Victoria where Drew was race organizer for the Times Colonist Cycling Festival, I was responsible for registration for the weekend which kept both of us busy, with high blood pressure, and relief at the end of the weekend. The weekend went relatively weekend and thus far has gotten great reviews!

Last weekend the BC Cup in Vancouver was cancelled so we actually got to spend the weekend in Victoria. Drew set up a practice course and we spent Sunday racing with the Wednesday night crew.

This weekend we headed to New Brighton Park in Vancouver where Wedgewood Cycling put on one of the best courses of the year with tough off-camber corners, a sand pit, and awkward barriers. Off the line I tried to stay on Sarah Stewart and Kelly Jones' wheels, but lost them mid-way through the second lap. The rest of the race I sat in no-man's land 3rd but raced a solid race and finished up in a strong 3rd place, my best CX BC Cup to date! Drew finished up in 3rd place so the whole household was on the podium. There were lots of photographers on course so I hope to get some of the photos up soon!

Thats the crash course on the last month...we are off to Edmonton this weekend and I'll be sure to post a race report on the UCI race on Sunday!

3rd Overall in the BC Cup

2008-09-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was the BC Provincial Championships at Mt. Washington. The course is always fun because we don't have to take a ferry, but challenging because of its steep climbs and slippery, muddy, rooty singletrack that doesn't relent.

When we headed out on our pre-ride on Saturday it was raining (no big surprise there...it has rained almost every time I have raced at Mt. Washington!) The course was similar to years past, but the climb had been slightly changed to avoid a really muddy section. Overall it was in ok shape, muddy in some sections, but the climb and open areas were pretty tacky.

When we got up to the mountain on Sunday the sun was out, but the breeze made it really cold! (The breeze was also helping to dry out anything in the open). At the start of the race Dawn Berg led out up the climb, with Melanie McQuaid, Kristin Johnson, Melanie Vaugn, myself, and Linda Robichaud about 3 seconds back. By the top of the climb Melanie McQuaid had passed Dawn, Kristin was still in 3rd, and I had passed Melanie Vaugn who was followed by Linda.

The course was tight and twisty in a lot of areas and I didn't see any of the other girls for a while, I was trying to ride my own race, not really knowing where my fitness was after a busy month off. Overall I was feeling really good, not riding my best technically, but was riding steadily on the climbs and flat singletrack. Coming into the feedzone on the 3rd lap I came off a small bridge to find a mishap had occurred with my bike. It wasn't fixable, so I was forced to withdraw from the race.

Not finishing meant that I didn't place for the Provincial Championship race, but it didn't affect my overall standing. After 2 races had been dropped in the points race I ended up 3rd overall provincially. Not bad for 2nd year pro-elite and 4th year riding a bike period.

I feel great about this season, I rode really consistently, finished out the season strong, and improved both my fitness and my technical ability. I can't wait for January when I will start training again for cross-country, but for now I am really looking forward to Cyclocross to hone some high end fitness and to have fun in the shorter races!

As for Drew's Provincial Championship race, he had been feeling great the week leading into the race, was racing well and even with 3 mechanicals including a broken pedal (thanks chris!) finished up 3rd, about 20 seconds behind 2nd place Colin Kerr. Congrats to Craig Richey who had a strong race and finished in 1st almost 7 minutes in front of Colin.

Pro/Elite Women's Results:
1. Melanie McQuaid 1:49:08
2. Dawn Berg 1:57:32
3. Kristin Johnson 2:01:42
4. Linda Robichaud 2:09:03
DNF Melanie Vaugn
DNF Joele Guynup

Pro/Elite Men's Results
1. Craig Richey 2:20:45
2. Colin Kerr 2:27:38
3. Drew Mackenzie 2:28:01
4. Dwayne Kress 2:30:55
5. Seth Wells 2:37:33
6. Carsten Ivany 2:40:17
7. Kevin Calhoun 2:40:56
DNF Greg Day
DNS Thomas Skinner

Back to the Drawing Board

2008-08-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Drew and I have had 2 weekends off of racing and back home together. Normal sleep schedules are just starting to kick in, and we have gotten some awesome weekend rides in. Our first weekend off we took Gerry from Straight Up Cycles and Grant to ride an awesome secret trail in Vic called "John and Thor's Trail" that takes about 4 hours round trip at a slightly less than hammer pace. Last weekend we were off to Parksville where we rode in the Hammerfest area. Awesome trails, but I had definitely forgotten the problem with the area: You either go up, or you go down....which makes for an awesome, but tough day. These two weekends, combined with some good mid-week riding, has reminded me how much fun it is to train!

This weekend I am heading to Crankworx in Whistler, BC to help out in the Shimano Canada expo booth. After the show up there is over Drew is coming to meet me in Whistler so that we can spend a couple days exploring the trails there....more solid riding!

Hope everyone's August is going well!

Bear Mountain XC

2008-07-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I raced out at Bear Mountain in Mission, BC. The courses there are known for a big climb and rough, technical, really fun descents. Every year it is one of the hardest but most enjoyable courses of the year, this year was no disappointment!

Dawn and I travelled over Friday afternoon and started our journey from the ferries to Mission right in Vancouver rush hour traffic...always a good time. After waiting in line for the tunnel for an hour with no gas, getting lost a couple times, and realizing how much we LOVE the island, we finally arrived and checked in. Last year's lap count was 3 for the elite women, this year they raised it to 4, cut out a large section of singletrack climbing, and changed the downhill to include a relatively newly cut trail.

Once we got up the climb and into the singletrack I started to get excited about the race, the course was really technical with a couple steep rock faces, a sketchy, rough section of roots and drops, and a lot of hard work to be smooth.

On race day our start was at 1pm, the sky was clear but it wasn't too warm (still appreciated after Kamloops). When the gun went off Dawn took the lead, I followed with Melanie Vaughn, Linda Robichaud, and K.J. Sadler. Melanie and I rode together on the climb and through the first bit of technical singletrack, but just before the feedzone on a flat, soft section she took the second place spot. Heading up the climb again on my 2nd and 3rd laps my legs felt pretty flat and the descents were no place to try to recover. Going into the feedzone on the 3rd lap Linda caught and passed me, so I grabbed on her wheel and held on through the last bit of singletrack before the climb started again. Linda is a great technical rider, so I knew to beat her I would have to beat her on the climb (which had been beating me all day), I gave that final climb everything I had, redlining it to the top and got into singletrack ahead of her. The rest of the lap I was running scared, pushing all the descents and dropped my lap time from the 2 previous laps. I finished up in 3rd with Linda about 2 minutes behind me, to stand on the podium for the first time at a BC Cup this year. Definitely not my prettiest race, but a great learning experience!

Congrats to Dawn and Melanie for 1st and 2nd places! Thanks to Chris for the feed and pre-race tech support!

Now I get a month off of racing! I'll spend the month recovering, then training and fine-tuning for the last BC Cup/Provincial Championships up at Mount Washington on August 30th. After that we'll start Cyclocross season in Mid September! This has been a great Cross Country race season, and I can't wait to see what happens in the cyclocross season!

Elite Women
1 Dawn Berg (OBB/Everti) 2:16:37
2 Melanie Vaughan (Steed Cycles) 2:24:47
3 Joele Guynup (Island Racing Club p/b Robert C) 2:29:32
4 Linda Robichaud (Team Whistler) 2:31:07
5 K.J. Sadler (Active Life Multisport Team) 2:41:36

Moving on up...literally!

2008-07-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

This week I headed to Burnaby with Drew and Dawn Berg for West Coast Racing's "Cardiac Classic" on Burnaby mountain. This is a new race and course for the BC Cup Series, and quite a new challenge! The course sent racers out on a long climb from the new skills park up to the SFU campus. The climb was long, steady, and steep, steep, steep. It was a great climb to settle into a rhythm and go. The climb was followed by a walking path that went across the top of the climb to connect into singletrack and was a great opportunity to recover before heading into some of the best singletrack of the year! The descent was fast, rough, and suited for 4-5" travel bikes. The burmed corners were super-smooth and there were lots of bridges and logs to keep your head working--definitely not recovery singletrack! From the descent we moved into an open area for passing, more singletrack, a short climb through the feedzone--THANKS to our feed Harrison!!--and then into a rolling singletrack that was filled with roots, logs, and bridges that set you up perfectly for corners. From there racers popped up about 1/3 of the way up the first climb and set out to finish up their laps, then take the somewhat sketchy fire road back to the finish.

The race started nice and steady because everyone was ready for the big climb to shake things out. Going into the 90 degree corner off the start I was last in the women's field, up the first section of fire road I attacked a couple girls and started catching up to Melanie Vaughn. At the beginning of the climb repeated in subsequent laps I passed Melanie and continued spinning up the hill. Dawn Berg, Kristin Johnston, and Joanna Harrington were just out of sight ahead of me.

Going into the singletrack I felt great after the climb and tried to push it as much as possible. I caught up to David Huntley, a fellow islander, and followed him down the descent. In the next open section Melanie attacked up a short climb and went into the next bit of singletrack ahead of me, up the next climb towards the feed zone I attacked and went through the feedzone and into the singletrack ahead of Melanie.

The next two laps I road with a few guys, battling it out and felt great about my climbing and descending. Each lap my smiles on the descents got bigger the better I knew the trail...not too bad considering the climb that came before each descent! Heading down the fire road towards the finish line I got pretty nervous. The fire road is somewhere that you have to let it all out, or lose a lot of time. I lost a lot of time and Melanie caught up to me mid-singletrack, about 300 meters from the end, I stayed on her wheel until the last corner where she came out with more speed and sprinted to the end, I tried to sprint up to her, but didn't have the time or the speed, so I finished the race in 4th--consistent with my BC Cup races this season. Needless to say, I'll be working on fire roads this winter! Ahead of Melanie came Joanna in 1st and Dawn in 2nd.

Post-race, racers got to enjoy a BBQ supplied by the race sponsors and organizers and tons of draw prizes. This was one of the best organized races, with supportive and enthusiastic course marshals, a great course design, great prizes, and a great atmosphere. It definitely lived up to the expectations established by West Coast Racing in their organization of the Vanier Park BC Cup cross race last fall--Thanks again to the organizers for their hard work and a great race!

Next week I am off to Mission for Provincial Championships at Bear Mountain--Another great course! After a weekend of heat, a weekend of altitude, this last weekend of steep climbs, I can't wait to race at another great venue!

2008-07-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the "Ziggy Gnarly" Canada Cup in Canmore, Alberta. We flew in to Calgary Thursday night and headed to the Stampede to check out the early edition before heading to Canmore Friday morning.

The course in Canmore is hard but amazing with wicked descents and steep climbs. This is by far one of my favourite race courses in the year because of how technical the riding. The singletrack is riddled with roots, rocks, stumps, and that is all before the "Coal Chute" which is a relatively steep, very loose section with black dirt that involves skill at "surfing" on the bike. The climbs are all under 8 minutes, but each lap has 400m of climbing, so they are relatively short, but steep.

Everything felt great for the pre-ride, technical skills were all in sync, the climbs (besides being a bit out of breath at the end) weren't too painful, and the course was in great shape!

On race day the temperature was somewhere around 20 degrees. The whistle went off and the race was led out by Jean Anne McKirdy and Melanie McQuaid. The first climb felt ok, and the descent felt really good, but as soon as I hit the second climb my legs had nothing left. I spent the next 2 laps going as fast and pushing as hard as I could on the descents but then suffering up the climbs with flat, unresponsive legs to finish up in 12th.

Though my legs didn't want to work, I focussed on descending as fast and as smoothly as I could and improved my course time by 10 minutes-not too bad for a year's worth of training. I finished the race happy to have finished, and ready for next week's BC Cup at Burnaby Mountain to see how my legs feel after another week of recovery from Kamloops and a solid ride at Canmore.

Below are the results for the women's and men's fields in the race. Congrats to Mical for winning the race for a second year in a row and improving her time by 3 minutes!

Elite Women - 24.9km
1. Mical Dyck (AB) Terrascape/Trek 1:36:57
2. Melanie Mcquaid (BC) Natures Path-BMC at 2:00
3. Jean Ann McKirdy (BC) Rocky Mountain Bikes 2:53
4. Joanna Harrington (BC) Fineline Ride Shop, Whistler 6:13
5. Catherine Vipond (ON) Norco Evolution Team 7:00
6. Danelle Kabush (AB) Luna Women's Mountain Bike Team 8:34
7. Marie-Claude Surprenant (QC) ÉQUIPE DU QUÉBEC / Sportif Bromont 16:19
8. Andrea Bunnin (SK) Spoke'n Sport/ Kona 17:07
9. Pepper Harlton (AB) Juventus 17:45
10. Lisa Morgan (NZl) PNP Cycling Club 19:41
11. Mandy Dreyer (ON) Freewheel Cycle 21:35
12. Joele Guynup (BC) Island Racing Club 22:25
13. Erica Musyj (SK) BCW 24:19
14. Krystyn Ong (AB) Juventus 25:05
15. Margie Smith (AB) wilson mountain sports 27:22

Elite Men - 33.2km
1. Tim Heemskerk (AB) United Cycle Team. 1:48:23
2. Martin Lazarski (BC) Rocky Mountain K Capital Source at 0:45
3. Stefan Widmer (BC) Rocky Mountain/K-Capitol Source 1:45
4. Raphael Gagne (QC) Rocky Mountain 2:07
5. Matthew Hadley (NB) XPREZO 4:23
6. Julien Fillion (QC) Équipe du Québec / Fillion-VM 4:37
7. Craig Richey (BC) Oak Bay Bikes 5:21
8. Colin Kerr (BC) dtfferent bikes 6:14
9. Francis Morin (QC) Specialized/ Team Quebec 8:07
10. Steve Gaffney (AB) Independant 9:07
11. Daniel Sessford (YK) Blue Competition Cycles 9:41
12. Matt Green (BC) Rocky Mountain - K Capital Source 10:34
13. Mark Fenner (AB) SCUM 12:15
14. Andre Sutton (AB) Hardcore Cycling Club 12:42
15. John Gray (NZL) Rotorua MTB 12:50
16. Andrew Thomas (SK) Team Sask / ERTC 13:40
17. Brian Bain (AB) Cyclemeisters/Bowcycle 14:04
18. Cody Canning (AB) ERTC/Revolution Cycle 14:30
19. Cameron Jette (ON) TEAM TREK STORE 16:00
20. Dallas Morris (AB) Team H&R Block 16:17
21. Manuel Fehlmann (BC) Balance Point Racing Team 17:08
22. Kyle Douglas (ON) 3 Rox Racing 17:56
23. Thomas Skinner (BC) Rocky Mountain - K Capital Source 18:26
24. Ryan Atkins (ON) Ironwood Racing 18:35
25. Simon Tremblay (BC) Giant, Summit Cycles 19:20
26. Aroussen Laflamme (QC) Webcor-Alto-Velo-Kona Endurance 21:01
27. Cory Zetterstrom (SK) BCW 22:55
28. Cameron McKnight (AB) ERTC - Revolution Cycle 26:09
29. Shawn Bunnin (AB) Bicisport 26:19
30. Mike Bidniak (AB) Team Alberta 29:38
DNF . Michael Mitchnick (ON) Team Trek Store
DNF . Frederic Bussieres (QC) Xprezo/ Aviawest
DNF . Duncan Gavin (BC) Different Bikes
DNF . Drew Mackenzie (BC) IRC p/b Cameron Law
DNF . Brad Tilby (BC) Star and Garter Wheelers

Race the Ranch Canada Cup

2008-07-03T08:41:00.001-07:00

I am writing this in the few minutes before work the day we fly out for the Canmore Canada Cup. It was a quick June, and promising to be a quick July as the weekends and races tick by. Last weekend we headed out to Kamloops for the "Race the Ranch" Canada Cup. The laps were short (about 5km), flat, wide open, on a mix of double and singletrack.

On the preride three things stuck out in my head, there was no following, the dust was so bad that if you got close to people lungs and eyes would burn from all the dust. Then technically the dust, in some places it was 6 inches to a foot deep making ruts hard to see and the steep short climbs a bit trickier. Finally (and probably the most important) the heat. Our pre-ride didn't start until 7:30pm the night before the race and the heat was still suffocating.

On race day the temperatures started climbing above Victoria's moderate 20-25C by 9am. By 1pm, during the warmup, the temperature had peaked at 40C (104F). With a wide open course that required pedalling everywhere, there was no avoiding the sun. The start of the race was relatively slow, but picked up on the first plateau. I was sitting in 4th feeling pretty comfortable, until we hit a dusty spot and I lost the trail and both wheels sending me sliding across the trail. By the time I got myself and my bike up and running the field had passed me. I worked to catch back on but tried to remember to keep things steady, I picked off four girls over the next three laps. By the end of my fourth lap the heat had gotten to me and I wasn't moving very quickly, every lap I had been going through the feedzone twice, getting three bottles per feed--bottles to dump in the feedzone, bottles to drink, and bottles to dump during the lap. Just before the commissaire table at the finish line Catherine Vipond (who rode great in the heat!) came around and saved me from a final lap.

Overall I ended up 6th in a race that felt like a feat to finish as some of the elite men put themselves in the hospital and DNF's were high. The results for the women are as follows:

1. Catherine Vipond (ON) Norco-Evolution 1:51:18
2. Jean Ann McKirdy (BC) Rocky Mountain Bikes 1:59:56
3. Andrea Bunnin (SK) Team Saskatchewan 2:10:07
4. Stacey Spencer (BC) Different Bikes 2:12:37
5. Christy Love (BC) West Coast Racing/Ambleside CC 2:16:48
6. Joele Guynup (USA) Island Racing Club/Straight Up -1 lap
7. Lisa Morgan (NZl) New Zealand -2 laps
8. Julie Melanson (BC) Balance Point Racing -2 laps
9. Mandy Dreyer (ON) Ind -3laps
DNF. K.J. Sadler (BC) Ind
DNF. Melanie Vaughan (BC) Steed Cycles
DNF. Joanna Harrington (Aus) Fineline Bike Shop, Whistler
DNF. Susan Stephens (ON) Team Whistler
DNF. Jennifer Tabbernor (BC) Ind

This weekend we are heading to Canmore for our second (and last) Canada Cup of the year. Last year this was one of my favourite courses with hard climbs and awesome singletrack. After two days of re-hydration and relative rest, and a day of hill climbs under my belt, I am feeling pretty excited for this race!

One adventure after another...

2008-06-08T19:44:00.001-07:00

This weekend we headed to Surry for the second BC Cup of the season, the Junkyard Dog XC. After running into some transportation issues en route, Dawn Berg and I decided to ride the 30k to the hotel Friday night and then pre-ride the course in the morning before the race. What should have been a 1.5 hour spin turned into 3 hours of trying to find our hotel and riding to the wrong side of Surrey with our race gear on our backs...fun stuff!

Once I finally got to see the course on Saturday I got pretty excited about the race, the course was relatively flat with some short climbs, several tricky wet bridges, logs, rough technical sections, and buff, twisty singletrack. With the exception of a major hill, the race had a great mix of everything!

To start the race off the Pro-Elite Men and Women headed out 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the categories on the 6km road loop to spread everyone out before the singletrack. The race started off with everyone clipping in and heading off at a steady pace out onto the road, no messy mass start this week! The steady pace continued until 2km before the singletrack when the men started surging forward, the women did everything they could to hang on, but some got weeded out when the group went around a sharp corner and through some doubletrack. Dawn Berg, Stacey Spencer, and I held on, but as soon as we took a sharp 180 degree turn into a one person chute and then back onto the road I lost hold of the group. They entered the singletrack ahead of me by 30 seconds with the next group of women following Dawn and Stacey by about a minute.

Once we got into the singletrack and trees the technical skills started rearranging the racing pattern. It was hard to pass in many sections and a group of about 50 Elite Women and Masters men got held up trying to pass. Once we were on the loose it was full on pushing to maintain our positions without holding anyone else up and continued like that through the race. It was a great test of technical and aerobic skill as there was little time for recovery on the course.

I felt surprisingly good after our surprise 3 hour workout the day before, but didn't have the acceleration or focus I was hoping for. I felt great technically and am feeling better on the hardtail every race. My shoulder (still sore from the crash in Merritt) got a little sore towards the end of the race, but is definitely recovering well and should be ready to go for the Test of Metal next weekend. After two BC Cups it looks like it should be an exciting series on the Men's and Women's sides!

As the race shook itself out, the top 5 Elite Women and men went as follows:
Elite Women:
1. Dawn Berg
2. Melanie Vaughn
3. Christy Love
4. Joele Guynup
5. Linda Robichaud

Elite Men:
1. Ryan Taylor
2. Dwayne Kress
3. Drew Mackenzie
4. Kevin Calhoun
5. Tom Skinner

Strengths and Weaknesses

2008-06-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

So I have figured out a weakness: I'm not so hot at keeping up with the blogging (or the training responses). The last 6 months since my initial blog were busy with working full time, training as much as possible, pretending to have a life with my non-cycling friends, spending a few days at home for the holidays in California with the family, and moving into a new place in January.

Currently, the new place is great and we added a cat. Training went well and I am starting to actually feel fit in races (although I am starting to realize that "fitness" is really just the ability to go faster and suffer more). The family is good and I am ready for another visit....although that will have to wait until after XC season. The shop is crazy busy, but I realized how much I like being able to work in a place with great people and try to make sure everybody loves their bikes as much as I love mine.

The race season has already started with a few early-season island cups in Port Alberni, Cumberland, and Parksville. The island cups always dish out tough, technical courses that are good for toughening up after all the winter road miles. These races are tons of fun with varied age groups, abilities, and terrain--definitely a fantastic way to get race training in (and without a ferry ride too!)

I was also on an all girls team for Snow to Surf. Drew raves about his team last year and all the fun they had, so I tried it out. We had a great weekend (thanks to Willie and Barb our sponsors from Pink Truck Onsite) full of food, great team mates, and awesome racing. "Pink Truck Onsite" women's team finished first in the women's category (even after some rudder problems with the kayak) and 22nd overall.

Finally, after all the casual pre-season races it was time for the first BC Cup in Merrit last weekend. Merritt is always a great race that is well organized with a wicked downhill. This year started out a bit rough with a crash off the start line, but I picked myself up and finished 4th overall after over 2.5 hours of grueling singletrack climbs and screaming descents....all the ingredients to an awesome cross-country race!

This weekend we headed up to explore the trails in Campbell River's Snowden Forest by doing the first lap of the Campbell River XC Marathon 50k. The course was awesome with fast groomed singletrack; slow rocky and rooty sections; steep, technical descents; and a casual, supportive organizing team. The race started at 8am (which means Drew and I were still sleepy-eyed from the drive up and post-drive beer from the night before), and also meant that by the time I woke up all the way the first lap was over and we were headed home (we opted for the 25km single loop for a solid workout and an early trip back home).

So, I guess, my recent weaknesses have been coffee to get me through the busy schedule of race season, post race Dairy Queen, and Blogging, while my strengths have been pushing through some tough races, cramming as much fun and excitement into everyday as I can, and working on the aforementioned weaknesses.....watch out, this blogging could become addicting!

2007-11-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

now that i have had a week of rest without a bike and have soaked up enough sun to last me through the rest of the winter, i have decided to start my blog. (from what i hear i am a few years late on this trend, but i'll try to catch up quickly!)

at the moment i am in my last day of a vacation to maui, hawaii with my family. although i've missed my bikes, it has been a great week of running, relaxing, hiking, exploring, and sunning! it was the perfect way to conclude a fun and successful cross country and cyclocross season!

being my last day in maui and with my family before i return to the cold north (that being relative since i base myself in victoria, bc) i am keeping this post short and heading out to the beach, but keep checking as i'll try to post whenever i have news!