Summer Heat

I can see the seasons end looming over head. It is August, but by this time of year people seem more content with riding for fun, and having a couple more beers after a hard ride. I hear all the maritime boys are coming home soon, and it will be good to see everyone who I've raced with since I was a wee-tot.

Today I have to see if I can salvage my old job at Smooth Cycle. Repairs tend to tone down this time of year and with a large staff all ready, this fella might be on the lookout for a not so fun/cool job again. We'll see what happens.

I got home on Friday at midnight and on Sunday morning I was off again to NB for the Hillsborough mountain bike race. Its an old school ride and I can remember doing the race when I was 13. The course has changed a bit, but still proved to be tough, as it was super slick. It was a good ride as I managed to take the lead off the first climb and hold it until the end. I eventually managed to tackle the win with a 9 minute win margin, which is a good feeling coming right off the plane. The only other islander, Brucie Bruce took third in his category, despite ripping apart a drivetrain the process. Good stuff, that's single speed material!

During the race however, I could feel how tired my body was. Whether it be from too much, riding, too long of rides, not enough sleep or just plain-jane a long travelling day, I was tired. I think I'm going to take this weekend off from racing, and just rip about on the SS for a change.

"The Flying Scotsman" the movie is playing in the local Indie theater in Charlottetown, and the lady friend and I were there for the first showing. Its a movie about Grame Obree, a guy who broke the hour record many a time, only to have the title taken from him repeatedly by the WCF(UCI). For a cycling movie it was great! It was entertaining, and even the lady friend enjoyed it. I found that while the story is great and they did a great job at the movie, there is so much to the story that I found they left some out. I guess it would be hard to show every detail as it is a long story. They also didn't really show just how much training is involved to even attempt the hour record. Obree is known for his obsessive and insane training methods, but they seemed to leave that out. From a cyclists point of view, that's a huge gap.

Otherwise, its a solid movie and I'll probably go see it again. It bridges the gap between the cyclist and the non-cyclist, so it can be entertaining to both. Hah, I also noticed some product placement from companies and cycling components that didn't exist in 1994. Gotta stay on your toes.