How to re-assemble a fax machine.

Have you seen your Tour de Fance today? This is the third year in a row where I'm in the height of Tour time with no TV. Most nights I'm roaming the streets of Cumberland looking for a friendly face who has a tv. In this town, that's few a far between.

Last night Andrew B and I climbed the death hill of Mt. Washingmachine. Its never easy, and for most of the climb it feels like you heart is going to explode. I'll tell ya, there isn't a much better feeling than when your at the top.

Last year, I pulled a dually climbing it twice back to back in one day. A few weeks after that i broke the SS record at the Test. Yesterday I intended to do the same, but by the top, I felt like crap. This left me with an un-nerving feeling as Nationals are only a week away. I realized that I did do 2 balls-to-the-wall races in the past 4 days, so that could explain the poor showing.

I've reached the time of year where I'm pretty much done. No more work needs to be done as Nationals are a week away, and I couldn't gain much fitness from here on out. Its time to put the legs up and work on resting.

With that being said I'm off to Squamish tomorrow to to the legendary GearJammer MTB Marathon. 47 km of BC single track love.

When Bees Attack

Whoooo, lots going on. I really need to update this thing more often. I'm now in Cumberland once again, bumming a room from my buddy Manus who is away, and sharing the house with his lovely wife Mary Anne. Life is busy as I've fallen into the full time work schedule.

As soon as I jumped off the plane Andrew B and I headed to Mission, just outside of Vancouver for BC provincials. I thought I would bring out the secret weapon for the race, which would help me battle the 30 degree heat, and shake some heads at the same time.

The course was bomber. Probably the best BC race I've ever done. Looooooong fire road climb, where I dusted off gears I've only gone in a couple time this year. The then ripped into the most buttery, flowy single track I've ever ridden. Nice.

The race went well, I was running as high as 5th, but mainly stayed in 6th until the last 10 minutes where my back totally cramped on me, and I lost a tonne of time on the last sections of trail. Drew Mac, took opportunity and I came in at 7th in Elite, 2nd in U23. The race was tight as 3rd place was only 2:30 ahead of me. I also realized after I was the only one riding a hardtail in the Elite pack.

Andrew B was on fire, and pulled out a second in Masters. Every time that guy gets down on himself he whips out the big result.

Life is good and I've fallen back into my mountain town lifestyle. I've been working a lot, and riding a bit as I'm fighting off some strep throat at the moment, but today I was able to suffer through it and take 2nd in a road race in Naniamo. Not too shabby when some of the big guns from Victoria on Pro teams showed. Balla.

Nationals in a couple weeks and hopefully I can fend off the sickness long enough to get a good set of legs. I can feel how worn out my body is getting. A tonne of travel, a lot of racing, and a lot of riding. After Nats I'll be looking fore ward to switching to bonfire and drinking mode. Bring on the milkshakes and single speeds.

The Commute

I made it alive. The plane rides werent too bad, but I did mange to spill an entire glass of apple juice onto my crouch 15 minutes into a 4 hour plane ride. luckily I had a lot of time, and enough sun from the window to dry my shorts.



I started working today, after about 15 hours on BC soil. Dan the man haggled me into it when we met at the coffee shop this morning. So, I am now an employee of the DCC once again. Not much to say as the jet leg is killing me, so here are some pics. Tomorrow we head for MISSION!





(Cumberland!)

(Provisions for the next few days)

(Danny Boy)

Fixxie Fun

Today is one of the last days where I can enjoy the beauty of the green isle. Flight is on Tuesday morning(I think) and I can feel the hectic rush approaching. I'd like to think I'm a pro at packing seeing as how I do it so often, but there is always the one thing that you may have forgotten in the back of your mind.



Last night I had a dream that when I left I forgot my entire shaving kit. The key piece being, contact lenses and solution. Anyone who has terrible eyes like me knows that if you don't have contacts, your in a tough spot. No contacts, no seeing, no riding, no working.

Sitting here I just had the realization that I'll be racing the BC provincial championships in a week. Yeesh that's soon. The knowledge of that is kind of creepy seeing how I don't know how the legs will fare up. I've been riding a ton...but not with anyone, so its hard get an idea if your fast or not when you don't have anyone to compare to. We'll see what happens this week.


I manged to skip out on my last day at work early at Smooth Cycle thanks to Robert Wicky, and used that time to sneak in a solid fixxie ride. There is no escaping the fixxie. Its like a roller coaster, all you do is pedal, and your along for the ride. The past few days have been super nice on PEI and it was good to re-connect with the old training routs that I haven't seen in years.



Which brings me to the secret death plan of 2007. The reason I booked my flight home for the 27th was so hopefully I can ride in the tip to tip/biking for breakfast challenge. Its a 300km-ish ride from one end of the island to the other. I'd like to attempt the long haul on the fixxie. We'll see how the legs like the 46x14

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What flavor today?

Cha ever think that your life revolves around cycling too much. I realized that without this cycling business I wouldn't have much to do. I ride a bike to work, which is at a bike shop, where I talk about, and fix bikes all day long. Even at lunch, everything I consume is thought out about how it will make me faster riding a bike. After lunch, work and talk about bikes some more.

When the work day is done, then I ride my bike home, and have a bite to eat before hopping on a different bike to go for a different type of ride. Mountain bike ride, road ride, fixxie ride, single speed ride. Which flavor do you want today.

After I get home from my ride, I call up the little lady and talk about what I did all day, then go on bike websites to see whats going on in the cycling world. I sometimes wonder when I'll burn out from all this cycling stuff. I guess winter is a good time to take a step back from the cycling world when there is 3 feet of snow outside. Winter has a way of stroking the fires a little bit. Man, I need a life

The Hobo Sock Special

I booked my plane tickets last night heading in Cumberland direction. Its funny because I'm still living out of bags I haven't unpacked from the last trip to Quebec.

I can remember when I was young and on the road with Matt Hadley, I was always amazed at how chill he was about travelling. That guy would find one way to where-ever, not having anywhere to stay, not having a way home, not much money and no set plan. It drove me crazy, he just had confidence it would work out somehow. Now, after this past year I've adopted the same mindset. I don't have a solid place to stay, only $200 bones in the bank, and no job waiting for me. I guess there is no point in stressing over it, those things will work themselves out and are part of the adventure. Honestly, I'm thinking I will end up camping most of the time in someones yard. My secret plan is to buy everything I need at Wal-Mart, then return it after a month of use before I leave for PEI again. I've heard of worse things happening.

Last night after I booked my tickets I was rushing around, looking for food to eat as I was going on a ride that i was already late for. I was grabbing all my stuff and freaking out and making things hard for myself. I had a sudden realization like that guy in the movie Office Space. Suddenly I realized I was the most stressed out 20 year old I know. I took a step back and though about the past few weeks and realized that they were solid stress. Between working, riding, future plans, and life in general I was being a major jackass.

So, I thought, fuck the ride, I'm not going to make it and it was only a recovery ride anyway. No big deal. I took off the chamois, and all my stuff. Sat down at the table and made a killer dinner. Then I went for a solid fixxie ride downtown. Enough to make it a sweet mind clear/recovery ride. The mood is good!

At the end of the 'ol spin, I met some buds at the pub and had a beer on the deck and shot the shit while the sun went down. It was the most chill time I've had in weeks and wiped the slate clean in preparation for the hectic weeks ahead. Solid.

Shake and Bake Brother

With funds tight, and BC looming overhead I decided to skip the bigger Upper Clements MTB race in favor of the Summerside MuckRaker. 8 hours of driving versus 1. The race was well organized and the course designers did a great job having about 60% singleltrack per lap, which was pretty solid. The problem however is that Summerside is a deadly flat place, so of course the MTB race was deadly flat as well. Not a hill to be seen all day.

The race went well, not a tonne of people, but that's how it goes. I think CPEI mainly uses this event to build funds for the annual Red Mud Mountain Mayhem, which has been going on for about 15 years and is always a great race. Either way, I busted out a fresh can of Bag Balm for some slippery slidey action and managed to pull away with the win.

Eric, of course, didn't want to pay, or buy a licence, so he waited in the woods until the pack passed then took off with them. He pulled out a solid 5 laps, managed to wreck his knee, and also beat a 12 year old girl. All aboard the trusty Fence Buster. Good Job.

Much fun was had by most and we ended up at DQ afterword, which is always rockin.

Today's ride was a very solid 2 and a half of climbing and the legs are definatley feeling it. PEI is beauty right now and I'm sure once the plane wheels hit BC I'll be missing the salty PEI air again. No Matter, it seems the BC schedule drops off after July, which is when the Martime season just starts to become interesting.