Done Deal

In all of of my travels I've taken notice of some things here and there. One of the most important being that the price of a haircut is a direct sign of the cost of living in that area. In the good 'ol Maritimes I wouldn't expect to pay much more than $10 for a haircut. In crappy parts of Ontario, the going rate for a decent haircut is about $15, which still isn't bad.

Here in Vancouver where the average home price is about $800 000, I couldn't find a place to cut my hair for under $20, the average being about 5buck more than that. Yeesh. This isn't good for a poor amateur cyclist.

When looking for a down and dirty haircut in random parts of the world, I've noticed a couple things. One, if your looking for cheap, stay away from anything with french in the title. 'Madame Clinique's Salon' is going to be crazy expensive, so you might as well not even check the price. On the opposite end. 'Jimmy Joe's Family Barber and Home Brew' is going to get the job done.

Its a lot like buying a cup of coffee. If your in it for cheap, avoid Le France Cafe....and stick to Jumping Jack's Coffee Shop...or the Ultramar. Ultramar is about the least France you can get, and the coffee prices reflect that.

Everything has its place mind you. The $30 haircut is cool, but it looks the same in 2 days as if Scott cut my hair in exchange for doing his laundry. Same with coffee. You don't want to spend $6 on a cup of coffee on a road trip if you know your going to have 5 more in 6 hours. Its saves money for caffeine tablets as well.



It snowed again today. In the words of Andrew Brown..."Dude, Honestly." I did my intervals in the garage on rollers. What the hell, its May.

Waiting

(Harris Roubaix from a few weeks back)

Sorry for the lack of posts. The uncomplicated world I try to set up around myself sometimes takes up a lot of time.

Race number 13 of the year was this weekend. The Race to the Ridge in Maple Ridge BC. I went into it with a lot of hopes of doing really, really well, but things didn't pan out as I had hoped.

One of the beauties of road racing is the tactics and the different aspects of the race. Racing a road and stage race is like a well played game of chess in a lot of respects. Sometimes the strongest riders don't always win, and the race often comes down to the rider who played the best hand at the right time, and had the legs to back it up. Unlike mountain bike racing, where the strongest guy usually powers to victory, road racing is taking its time teaching me all these aspects. Its something that cant be taught really, just learned through experience. I'm realizing that I have some time to go before I learn to conserve my energy for when it really counts.

The road race went decent for me. There was an insane climb in the middle of the lap that was about 700m long and went into grades of 20%. From there it leveled off for a couple hundred meters and went up again. We had to do it 8 times, which left some burn. The second climb wasn't as steep, but it was a killer because your legs are toast. As expected a break with a couple Red Truck Racing guys went. I took note of the riders numbers I needed to watch and figured if these guys went. Then go like shit with them.

After a couple break aways and some useless energy lost, I saw the eventual winning break go. I launched out of the pack to try and go with it, but the pack was on me like white on rice. A lap or so later I went again on the climb to try to bridge up but only got about a 20 second gap before the pack took me in again. Bah! I thought as I knew the break was gone.

Over the race the climbs took it out of the guys and other than the 4 man breakaway, the pack was whittled down to about 15 guys(of 50). I gave it my best in the Sprint, but finished 16th...1 place out of the points.


The TT was the next day. I slapped on my ram-jam TT setup made of Cinelli TT bars from 1997 and gave it all I had. Surprisingly I pulled out a 14th place(of 50ish) which was decent. The call of a TT bike is tempting.


(me, on the far..blurry left)

Crit went horrible. 30 minutes before the start it rained causing the 6-turn course to be pretty tricky. On one corner in particular there was a walkway made of some weird pebbles-joined-with-glue material, which had a puddle directly before it.

On the second lap I went down. I've now been introduced to road rash for the first time of the year and its on 5 different spots of my right side. I thought I broke my elbow as it was SUPER pain, and it was mighty cut up. I walked over to the Paramedic and she looked at my elbow and instantly said "Your bone is poking out!" in my head I was like oh no the seasons over........When she pulled off my ripped arm warmer she discovered the protrusion was some rocks/pebbles that have worked their way into my arm warmer, and the white she saw was road rash that hadn't filled with blood yet. Either way I was done for the day.

The race went on and the crashes continued. 5-6 crashes happened in the first 3 or 4 laps, and I watched people go down continually from the paramedic station. Even the course markers were like 'What the hell" as guys would go around corners at like 10km/h and still slide out. Only about 20 guys finished.


Anyway, I'm a little stiff but going strong. I'm going to give the elbow a couple days, and think about my plans for the next few weeks. Props go out to my boy Scott who WILL beat you in a sprint and Zack the Newf for being fast as shit.

Viva le Burritos!

Double Up

There is always an adaptation when going from working at bike shops in the East, to the West. I find I am an expert at "making things work" a little bit longer than they should. Being primarily a mechanic on the East coast I've learned that if I can make that old Alivio derailleur work for another year, than do it damn it....make it live!

The difference is that while working on the West Coast, the rule is just to replace it. Ive observed this and because I go back and forth from side to side so often, the differences have actually gotten me in trouble a couple times.

The Alivio derailleur for example costs X dollars. No matter where you are in Canada, it will cost the same(very reasonable by the way.) The difference is that people on the East(for the most part, in my experience) view bikes as fun holiday toys, that are ridden mainly in the summer, just for fun, along the beach or to the coffee shop, things of this nature. As soon as the fall hits, Bam its in the shed or garage for a few months. Because of this I cant blame them for not wanting to spend $30-$40 bucks extra on a part they should have, but don't need.

On the West coast, people view bikes as a legitimate source of transportation. You can easily ride the same bike 12 months of the year. All on bike paths and bike routes, its no big deal to commute 4 days a week. Because of this, $30-$40 bones is a pretty reasonable expense.
The other side of things is that people on the West tend to make about 3 times that of the Easterners(everything is proportional) but when you have a $40 derailleur and you make $5-$10 an hour less than Mr./Mrs Westerner, its not as appealing of an upgrade.

The extreme of this I saw working with Danny MacQueen. Danny lives in Cuba for 7 months of the year. Of course, people are still using bike parts from the 50's there. He said the best mechanics hes ever met live in Cuba. You would have to be a great mechanic to make bike parts work for that long. One time when I was younger, I threw out an old stem of a customers who was upgrading to a much better one. It was rusted to shit, so I just threw it out. Danny picked it up out of the garbage and gave me the 3-5 words that makes you re-think your life, in typical Danny style.

Matt Hadley, anyone who knows Matt Hadley knows he can make a plastic bag last about 3 years before it is too worn out to be used for anything else. Its true! I've since changed my ways and tried to re-use these damn things, and I find I am never out of quality plastic bags. Its amazing just how many uses you have for these things.

Anyway, just odd things I've noticed that don't really have a solid point. Happy Earth Day.

Punch Drunk Love

I mentioned in a couple posts back that waking up to rain is not a good feeling. Well, I think waking up to snow is even worse. Vancouver got a healthy dose of the white stuff on the weekend, just in time for our mini-team training camp.

"All systems go" said the email, and I bundled up in all my cycling clothes to push on for our first ride of the camp.

As the day went on, slowly but shurley the snow melted Vancouver style and we continued to ride. We scoped out the courses for the upcomming stage race next weekend and I discovered a few good roads that I plan on exploring throughout the week. I rolled in home with a modest 145km in the legs, which isn't huge, but the 2000m elevation gain definitely added some spice.

Day 2 wasn't as intense, and we spent more time on the road course for the race. With 20%grades(according to the Garmin) it was good to see the climb before having it thrown at you in the race. We explored RedNeck country in Mission BC, and again, I think I found some more good roads. Scott and I rolled in home with a decent 130km in the legs, but again a good 2000m elevation gain throughout the ride.

It was when we rolled into the driveway that we discovered we were locked out of the house. Some scurrying up the side of the house to the patio yielded locked doors, but trapped Scott 15feet off the ground until help arrived. Good thing we had our trusty chocolate milk all ready in hand from the 711. Anyone who says keeping down 1 litre of chocolate milk isn't possible, hasn't talked to 2 hungry cyclists.

Sara got home about 30 minutes later and we were on our way to warm showers away from the friggin' 8 degree temps.

Hello April Snowstorm

What I'm going to do next after this bike racing thing, has been on my mind a lot lately. Obviously the body cant earn a living going hard for the rest of my life. Whether I hang up the racing bike at 21 or 51 is the question.

I picked up the new Outside Magazine today at the drugstore on the way home from work. It is the issue with the "50 coolest jobs." I thought it might give me some insight into something cool. While flipping through the pages there were tonnes of jobs like....Eco-brewery engineer, and airline pilot in the Rockies, and chef in an adventure capital sports resort...stuff like that. My parents instilled a belief in me that I could do whatever I want. Its either their greatest accomplishment in teaching me about this life, or my greatest downfall for believing it. Either way, I'll give it a go.

It was then I got to thinking....if Pro bike racer in here, this mag is full of shit. Really, when you think about it why the hell would any logical person want to be a Pro bike racer? Your job is basically putting your body through pain everyday, usually in terrible weather. A pro cyclist doesn't really have a break in 10 months of the year, and in all of the sporting world, it would have to be one of the top 10 worst paid professional sports. Being a bike racer, whether its paid or not, is a yearly life commitment. Its not a job, its a way of life. With that being said, for some reason its so appealing. Ahh to be young.

With my current career path. The next step most people would take would be to open up a bike shop of my own, or to get into ownership of one somehow. Its funny because the more bike shops I work in, the less I want to own or make a career out of working at one. 10 years of hanging out at them is enough for me I think.

I went to the BCIT open house last week and roamed around a bit. While walking around and dodging all the 14 year olds fresh out of high school, I looked through the tables and exhibits. Its funny because the mechanical engineering table was by far the most interesting. One guy made a digital weight scale, and the chip in it was about the size of 2 paper clips. Instantly my mind was like..Wattage Meter.....

It seems the bike industry has prepped me for a life in another mechanical world. Luke once told me that every basic mechanical principal, is used on a bicycle. From sculpture, to paint, to mechanics, down to the simple lever and pulley system, its all there.

Cloudy Days

Since Roubaix the legs have been heavy. Ride Ride Ride rest. The weather has been god-awful, and 4 hours in the rain isn't fun. I underestimate how much food I need in 8degree temps.

I made home-made energy bars, which are basically just a lot of peanut butter and honey mashed into a blob with whatever I can find thrown in. They taste killer(surprisingly) but I think cause me horrible stomach pains during rides. New methods need to be refined.

Not much to report on this front. Damn, why cant I find PITTED dates?

NRG LOVE

In 2005 I had about enough of the racing scene and I needed a change in my life. I thought of the one thing in life that I really wanted to do. I thought about it for a month or so, and decided that I would like to move to a small BC town and do nothing but ride my bike.

A couple months later I was on a plane to the small town of Cumberland, where I rode for a couple days the year before, and scoped out the town. I took a suitcase and 3 bikes, and had a reservation at a hostel. When I got there it was terrible weather, but I was in heaven.

When I say small town I mean one street. Nothing but the hostel a couple bakeries, a coffee shop and a bike shop. I was staying at the Riding Fool Hostel where I ended up living for about 8 months. Living in a hostel for 8 months isn't easy, but I started working there, and ended up running the place for the month of August.

If anyone has ever lived in a small town they know there isn't much to do. I kind of embraced this as I just rode my single speed. Cumberland has some of the best trails in North America. You can ride for days and not ride the same trail twice. So all I did was ride. When I wasn't working I rode. After riding I drank with my bros(ended up drinking a lot actually) and this was my life. It pretty much revolved around these things.



When your riding a single speed for about 20 hours a week, you tend to get fast. After a couple months of just plane-jane riding I started to pick up the pace. I went to Cumberland not intending on racing at all, but I ended up racing more that year than I had ever before. Mostly I entered Vancouver Island Cups, but eventually some bigger racers entered the palette as well.



One being the Test of Metal, the largest continual MTB race in North America. It frequently gets upwards of 800-900 participants. Since my good friend Melissa Dekker was heading over I decided to go, not really knowing anything about the race. I entered a mountain bike mecca. I could remember being so nervous before the start and thinking "WTF have I gotten myself into. 70km on a rigid SS, I'm going to have a rough day."

The race started and I found myself toward the back being over spun on the SS since it was on pavement. I entered the woods after about 20 minutes probably a couple hundred people back in the pack. Slowly I just worked and worked and worked myself up to the front. The Test is very frustrating on a SS. There is a mixture of trails and ATV/Gravel road so a lot of the time you find yourself over spun. This is horribly frustrating as I worked my nads off in the trails then would get passed by everyone who I just passed when the course opened up.

Despite being overspun for most of the race, I started the 9 mile climb and thought "Holy Crap that's steep" On a Single Speed you cant do anything but pedal. So I did. I pushed as hard as I could. Interestingly enough I started passing a lot of people. Not just jowblows but full on Rocky Mtn Semi Pro riders and the like. It was here while I was bleeding from my eyes, spinning about 40rpm and crying that I noticed someone watching me. I didn't think much of it and kept breaking my knees.(ended up being an NRG west coast rep)

I finished the race, being the first SS guy, which was pretty cool. I can remember being very frustrated by the race. The fact that it could have been so much faster if I wasn't over spun. Food for thought another year I summed it up to.

A couple days passed and I can remember making the oatmeal in the hostel kitchen. Manus came upstairs(the hostel and the bike shop were connected). He said Mike from NRG was on the phone and wanted to chat with me. We spoke and he said they saw me riding at the Test and wanted to help me out. I never felt more PRO before or since.

Within a day or so I had enough Cliff shots to kill a horse. A whole wack of Surly chainrings and goodies, and about 4 SETS of Maxxis tires with the promise of more if I needed them. The Maxxis Tires were the big thing for me. Anyone who rides half often knows tires are crazy expensive and tend to not last very long. The Schwalbe's I was riding during the Test Of Metal had Duct Tap lining the inside of the sidewalls as thy had blown out about a month before. No Joke. Needless to say I was very happy.



It turns out I had a better Test of Metal than expected. I broke the longstanding SS record at that race. My time ended up being 3.02, braking the old one by about 2 minutes. Its one of those things I didn't really understand at the time.

Over the past couple years the boys at NRG and I have remained close. Even though I continually get further from their market( ie being a dirty SS guy to a full on road guy) they are still willing to help me out. Even this year, I don't know where I'll be, but they still have helped me out with the necessities of Cliff Shots, Maxxis Tires and couple other goodies from Surly and NRG products. All I can do try to spread the NRG love for 'em. Thanks for all the help the past few years guys!

http://www.nrgenterprises.com/

Le Roubaix

I woke up this morning in a sleepy haze, wondering why the hell Sara(Scott's wife) was taking a shower so early. Then, I realized it was pissing rain outside, which wasn't fore casted. Seeing as how today was the day for Harris Roubaix, I felt my heart beat a little bit faster.

The Cad 3/4's had it the worst. Not only did they start early in the AM, but they had rain for most of the race. By the time the 1,2's hit the course, it was pretty rutted, but for the most part it was sunny and warm hovering around 10degrees. I saw a framilier face in Zack Garland fresh off the plane from Halifax(originally from Newf). It was good to hear stories drunken womanizing maritime style.

The race went fine. I tried hard as hell to make/get in a break away, and after the race I counted 3 breaks I was in. None lasted more than 5-10 minutes, and varied from 3-4 guys to 6-7 guys. I really thought the bigger one would stick as it was in the last 30 km, and there were guys from pretty much every team in it. Last years Roubaix was won in a break as well, but Mr Sven Tuft was absent this year.

So it came to a sprint which I was at the back for. I think I finished same time as the main field. There was a ton of people there today, so I'm hoping a ton of pictures will show up over the next little bit. Oddly enough the race only ended up being 92km(including warm up). I thought it was at least 100km, in which case I would have got my ass up to the front to get a higher placing. Oh well. Elevation gain was only 100m, which is about the same as a crappy mini-golf course. But then again, the gravel was pretty knarly. Average speed was still a decent 42km/h.

I met the final members of the team today. They are trickling in from all over, and it was good to see some friendlies. This weekend marked my 10th race so far this year, and I'm looking foreward to the training camp with the team next weekend in prep for the "Race to the Ridge." 150km days, with 20km+ climbs. Yee haw.

(Post race meal, $2.99 Perogies and free after-party wine!)

"A Process, Not a State of Being"

The older I get the more I realize that you cant really be happy with everything in your life. Its made up of compromises of happiness, and you constantly have to be moving things around and striving for different things and goals to be happy. Happiness isn't a goal to be obtained and lived once your there, but its something you constantly have to work toward, this process I've come to believe is happiness.

Happiness is like being in a big peleton. If your not constantly moving up through the pack, then you'll find yourself off the back.

My life has thrown me some things here and there the past few days to mix things up. Some good, some bad, but for the most part(even though I'm having enough bad luck to kill 14 cats) I think I'm doing okay. Enough Philosophy, for that check out Pat's Blog.

I mapped out a route yesterday in my area to find a solid good ride. I stuck to the map, and I found a killer loop with some great views and roads. Some of the loop Incorporated the Harris Roubaix course which is this weekend. Its pretty much the same as last year I think. Harris Roubaix is one of those races where you cant really go into it with too much of a plan. Flats are always a threat, and not to mention the odd crash here and there. Its really a race where you have to just keep on givin'er and hope for the best.

On the topic of bad luck. Coach Luc prescribed some intensity intervals yesterday. So while on my ride home I decided to do them around the neighborhood. With grades like 12-14% and twisty roads(picture San Fransisco) they are decent training roads.

So I'm riding hard and everything is fine. On the last interval I go around a corner(steep corner remember) my head is down and I'm going as hard as I can(95%) and BAM!!!!!! Right into a parked car.

"Holy shit, what the hell was that" I think. When I get up from the ground I realize I just hit a car. I look at the car. Car is fine, I'm all messed up. At first I think I broke my jaw as I cant move it and it super tight. "Whoa" I better get home(only 5 minute ride) so I'm riding....all loosy goosey and I see big splatters of blood dripping everywhere.

"What the hell" I think to myself and I check my nose, check my ears and face and cant find where its coming from. I realize my chin is cut. No big deal and I keep pedalling home.

When I get home I check my bike. I only ripped my bar tape, and bent the brake lever in, which is no big deal, wheels and fork seem fine.

I go upstairs to take a look at myself. My jaw is messed up. I cant bite or move it and my chin has a bigger gash than I thought. Hmmm I take a shower, and clean it out a bit, and my jaw slowly starts to get better. I cooked some rice for dinner as it was pretty easy to swallow.

Ten rolls around and Scotty get home. He says I should probably get some stitches, so off we go to the hospital. The nurse takes all my stats and I wait for about a half hour.

So finally I get in the operating table. A late 20's cute doctor walks in. uh-oh I think. This is trouble for a lonely cyclist. We start to chat, and I tell her my embarrassing as hell story and she laughs. Finally she pokes me with the numbing needle, which wasn't too bad.

After about 10 minutes she comes back and asks me if its numb yet. I quickly reply 'That's what she said." Oh yeah, I'm on tonight. She pulls out the needles. Anyone who knows me know that this is a big thing for me, and I start to get a little freaky, so she puts a operating cover over my eyes so I cant see.

During this I'm wondering why she asked me to take my pants off for chin stitches, but kept my t-shirt on. I don't really think about it, but then I realize why. I'm in for a whole lot of fun (This may or may not have happened)

So, she stitches me up, and I'm ready to roll. I have to go back for X-rays if my jaw doesn't get any better. I think it will be fine. She tells me not to shave for a could days, which gives me a perfect excuse to start working on the mustache. The Burt Reynolds/Rambo look is almost complete.

Oregon

The team and I arrived home last night from our first big Stage Race of the year. Some things went well, other not so well. It was the Willamette Race in Eugene Oregon. I've never been to Oregon before, but after this trip I can definitely see myself living there. It is a rainy sort of place, seeing as how the only non-downpour day was an 8minute TT, but other than that the roads are quiet, in great shape, and go for miles on beautiful rolling farmland.

(New team helemts and glasses came in, still waiting on clothing though)

Stage 1 Prologue:

Being an 6km prologue, I couldn't muster up the energy to spend over an hour switching over my bars, so similar to last week I just rolled in with Ksyriums and the cycle as is. After 8 minutes of pain, I rolled in 44th of 76th, which isn't bad, only a minute down from the winner who being a Pro team, has the full meal deal TT set up.

Stage 2: 75km with 2 mountain passes.

This was a busy stage as there were breaks going from the gun, and the pack didn't really seem to know what to do with itself. Again, the weather was bad as it down poured for most of the race. I managed to have a pretty good day when I got into a chase group that broke off from the main pack. At first there were about 10-12 of us(including Chris Sheppard, fresh off his suspension for EPO), but that got wittled down into 4 riders, myself, Dave from the Red Truck Racing team, a Giant rider and some other guy.

We rode hard up the last 30km, and worked pretty well together. It was a mountaintop finish so most of it was big ring climbing which was super fast. The break got up to 50 seconds, but then the Aussies DRILLED it and we got caught in the last km. I was pretty heartbroken to tell you the truth as 50 seconds would have put me super high in the GC. I ended up 18th on that stage after the pack caught us, but only 13 seconds down.

Stage 3: The Crit

This was one of the most technical crits I've ever seen. 1 hour of intensity. 3 manhole covers, lots of paint on the road(makes it super slippery) and a 180degree turn on the 10-12ft wide road. Oh yeah, throw in a downpour during the race as well.

I'll be the first to tell you I'm god awful at crits, and this one was no exception. I held on with the big Yankee Crit riders as long as I could, but couldn't last the full way. I ended up loosing 2 minutes. Which put me 29th in the GC, but still only about 3 minutes down.

(Some of the stages were held at some of Eugene's many Wineries)

Stage 4:

I was very excited for this day. It was my kind of stage, my kind of climbs, and long.

I'm not going to talk about stage 4. It was a mixture of horrible horrible luck and very stupid moves on my part, so stupid it boarders retardation. I DNF'd the day, kicking myself out of the GC. I still rode the 140km of the day, by myself in the rain/hail and over 2 mountain passes, but the whole time I was shaking my head in disbelief.

Our accommodations couldn't be beat. Brett called the race organizer who gave us the number of Paul and Jenny Banister. an older couple from England originally. They both have a Huge passion for cycling and Paul use to race a lot back in the day. Hes a journalist and you'll see his name in mags like Velenews, Maxim UK & Aus, People, and a number of other Euro mags. You couldn't pay for the hospitality they gave us. Every night we were treated to unbelievable meals and we usually stayed up until 9-10 just chatting and drinking too much wine.

Paul also use to race/work with Phil Liggett, they showed me they're wedding photo, and there was Phil, all of about 30 years old.

Along with our stay Paul introduced us to Brazin' Bob from Co-Motion cycles. Which is a handbuilt frame company in Eugene(more on that later). The Willamette trip was worth it just to meet such great people.

(Our cat 1,2 contigent for the weekend)

I'm loving the new team. Its set up a lot like the framilier Dalvay By the Sea Team. I get along great with all the guys, and no-one seems to have a big head on their shoulders. Most of the guys have been around the block in the cycling world, and I find I ask them(especially Scott) about 300 questions a day.

(Mr Scott, who is my landlord, half coach, friend, racing buddy, and also a killer rider. He got a top 15 in the GC this weekend. Also a track World Champ. Scott got his first racing licence in '87, so he knows his stuff)

So that's it for last weekend. The legendary Harris Roubaix race is this Sunday(see April posts of last year) and we'll see how that goes. This roadie life is still very new to me. I find I'm getting a little more comfortable in the pack, and figuring it out little by little day by day. As last weekend goes to show, I still have to get my shit together a little bit more.

Race and Rant

Things have been happening. My first Canadian race was last weekend in the form of the Spring Series Stage race in Langly. The road race went well. It was one of those things where I didn't want to giv'er straight out as it was cold and rainy. I just wanted to stay in the pack for the 140km.

Sure enough, first 3.2minutes of the race I saw a break go. I noticed the Kona jersey of Neil Kindree(2x National Champ) a Symmetrics guy, two Red Truck Racing guys and a couple from another team. Seeing this I figured this would be the break of the race so I went outside the pack and pulled an Andrew Brown on the grass and jumped into the newly formed break.

Well this was the race folks. The whole 3.45h it was this group just up front. It eventually got down to about 5-6 guys including myself and we eventually got about 5 minutes on the pack. It was all well and good until the 120km mark where I started to die. Our team didn't have feeders for this race seeing as its a Spring Series race(low key) so I was limited to what I could carry for liquid. Obviously it wasn't enough and the legs started to cramp and die. I rolled in a modest 7th I think. Still ahead of the pack.

Crit went fine. Nothing too much to report. I cant seem to get away from these Health Net guys. Kirk Obee(sp?) has a lady in town, so he was doing some of the races here as well. I think he might be US Crit champ or something because he had some sort of stars and stripes jersey on. Either way he took the win in that race.

The TT went fine as well. I didn't bother slapping on the aero bars but I did dawn the old skin suit from PEI's Canada Games team, which drew some looks. I pulled out a 16th(of 75ish) overall in that event, but a 9th for the people who participated in the full Stage Race.

I feel pretty good about it. Nothing big came from the break in the Road Race, so chalk it up to a good training day. I also saw a couple framilier faces in Heather Lampson, Andrew Brown and a couple guys who I know from the Comox Valley. Nice to shoot the shit with those folks.

A couple things to get off my chest. For one, work is killing me.

Number 2. Port Moody. Unless some sort of magical riding oasis comes my way in the next couple days, I think this place is the WORST place I have ever ridden my bike. So far the only rides I have been able to do have been on freeway-like roads, where most of the time I'm trying not to get hit by cars.

An average ride goes like this.....pedal, pedal, Red Light...wait......pedal pedal....ride though gravel....Red Light...wait....pedal pedal..swerve car.......ride through construction...pedal pedal...yield to car...pedal....CLIMB CLIMB CLIMB 17%......look at new subdivision....pedal pedal...

No joke. Honestly I might as well stay in the garage on the trainer. It really is awful. I've been riding on the sidewalks a lot just to avoid cars. I rode up a 21% sidewalk climb today. Not by choice, simply to get home. Its insane.

Anyway. The team and I are going to a Stage Race in Oregon tomorrow. Its a 4 day/stage event. There is apparently is a strong field, and some interesting climbing stages. Time will tell.

I call everyone while I'm in the States...Its cheaper to call Canada that way. I'm such a complainer.