80's Dream

Its funny how rain has the ability to stop motivation dead in its tracks. The lure of getting soaking wet and cold all by-myself tonight just doesn't appeal, and I think I might take the night off.

Tonight is the second installment of cycling videos stolen from J Stretch. Last night was the classic American Flyers, and tonight Breaking Away. Man, I suddenly have a hankerin for some Specialized bikes and MacDonald's.

Check your Horrorscope

Not a lot of blog updates but tonnes going on. Its hard to get the 'ol blog action going when you work full time and ride 20 hours a week. Yeesh.

After a nice rest, a good week of Tour Du PEI action and a few days spent solid in bed from sickness I feel I'm back to full form. Riding has been great, and I'm taking advantage of all the bikes in my stable.

BC is looming overhead again, but I honest to god don't think I can afford to go out there. Nationals is in my BC hometown, but the only way I could get out would be to take on huge debt on top of what I'm all ready trying to pay off. I would love to stay around the Maritimes and just race the local scene as it seems there are a few interesting events going on. Races like the 8 Hours of Gore and a few Epics. I would love to bring out the SS to see how these legs fare up to the Maritimes contingent. Its one of those things where if I did decide to stay on PEI, and didn't make the trip out West, I would always wonder how I would have fared up at Nats. I feel I'm in the best shape of my life right now, and I've done well at the Mt. Washington course before, so it keeps tugging at my mind.

So many possibilities.

On the other hand. My good buddy D-rack is heading to Holland today for some Jr. roadie racing. That kid will turn some heads for sure. Keep putting to pedals down big fella.

Speaking of good buddies. My former BC landlord Andrew Brown has been ripping the Vancouver Island Cup scene. He pulled out a second place at the last VI-Cup and managed to pull second overall in the series. The East Infection Spreads. We just peak later in the season.

With that said I'm off for some coffee, and hopefully a good 3 hour MTB haul later today.

Thats Balla

I'm in a good mood. Loving it. Seems like life is coming together again after a few weeks of un-certainty. Just got back from a solid 4 hour road ride with that Derrek kid, who put the boots to me, 2700 calories doesn't lie. Yesterdays Rigid Riders youth ride was super fun, and mixed with a bit of pain train riding out to the trail added some spice. Watch out for some fast kids coming out of PEI in the next few years folks. Balla



The Tour of PEI is in town, its neat to see Olympic caliber riders walking through town and then going to see a World Cup race on your hometown streets. Its a good scene that's going on now. The past few days the boys at Smooth Cycle have been putting in the time watching and helping out the race. We acted as Mavic Wheel support on the Confederation Bridge during the time trail which was a very neato burrito experience. Once in a lifetime folks.





On top of all this, I just got a pair of Oakley Racing Jackets......the sunglasses I've wanted since I was 12. Balla.

Flat as a Pancake

Being bed ridden for 3 days doest help the frequent posts on the 'ol blog. The flu has/had taken me over last week and I'm afraid the most interesting thing I was doing was reading and re-reading old Dirt Rag mags that happened to be in the bathroom, mixed with intervals of stone cold sleep.

Death seems to have loosened its grasp enough to get me out of the house, and I'm on my way back to health. I even went for the inaugural ride on the new machine yesterday evening. She rides like a pearl and doesn't talk back. Butter yeah.



2 road races this weekend in 2 different parts of the Maritimes....but which one? The week is young and hopefully it will play out.

Some of us have been putting in the time at the Tour De PEI, more pics on that later on. Deadly.

Ya'll come back now ya hear!

All this week I could tell I was tired. Internally tired. All the travel, all the racing and all the riding has caught up to me. Sleeping in different beds for months called for a week of downtime of just hanging out with my buds who I haven't seen in awhile. Despite a solid hangover from last night I feel great.

I started working at Smooth Cycle again last week and so far its been going great. Repairs have been going out and I'm loving the wrench in my hand again. That place is set up well so the mechanics (if they want to) can shut all the customers off, ignore the phone, and just wrench, and not worry about anything but wrenching. I love it.

Riding for me has been picking up again. I took about 2 days off solid. Then started commuting to get the blood flowing. Slowly went on a few MTB rides, and then pulled out a nice long 3 and-a-half hour'er a few days ago on the 'ol MTB. It was tougher than usual when I realized my cliff bar was a year expired and was unfit to eat. So the only sustenance I had was a handful of wine gums and an expired Cliff Shot. No matter, it was one of those rides where you have to check the limiters to see where everything sits.

After my limiter-check, Cory Jay called me late that night saying I was in the Red Cross Relay, or the PEI Olympics as they are known. Cory's MTB'er had hurt his knee so I was in. Keeping in mind my 3 hour-day that day and the fact I would have to get up at 6:30 made me feel as if I had a rough day ahead.

No matter, our team, known as Team Speed couldn't have done much better. We won the overall by 22 minutes, won 4 of the 5 stages, and I managed to win the MTB leg by 6 minutes on a 19 km TT. No to bad.

So with that in mind the fellas and I had a bonfire last night to celebrate, and to cap off my mid-season rest week. Much drink was had, and I feel I've gotten it out of my system to push onto the next mountain bike adventure.

Can I Have the $2 Special?

Time to take some time off, and put up the feet.

Such Great Heights

I entered the Mt. Tremblant Canada Cup with a sense of last redemption. The 2 Canada Cups before it were a wash, and these strings of races looked the same as the others had the years before. No stellar results and ton of bad luck and bad legs. I was looking foreward to the end of it so the crew and I could hit the road. I was missing home, and the slow island life.

I again went into the race very calm and relaxed, as much as you could knowing that you have a world class pain train ahead of you. As usual, I was at the back of the pack. No call up for Ryan, but ended up a little better around 60th spot of 80.

As the gun went I was still calm. I reminded myself to take it easy and I was only going about 80% on the first climb before we went into the woods. Steadily I worked my way up and up. You don't really know how high up you are because it seems there is always 20 riders ahead when you start in the sixties. So for the first lap I worked and worked. Then toward the end of the first I noticed some familiar faces I was racing with....and passing. I kept putting the pedal to the medal and riding the tech zones well and before I knew it I was in the top 20. Even on the climbs I was doing well, against the teeny tiny climbers.

I realized I had the best positioning in any Canada Cup I ever entered but I kept my head down and kept working.

I had to collect myself and keep the nerves cool when the people who said they would feed me that morning before the race didn't bother to show up. Luckily I had put my bottles at the feed zone so I could personally get them. Its a real pain when your doing pace line up a ski-hill in your big ring with a group of the best athletes in Canada and then you have to stop, pull over, and get your own water bottle while everyone just keeps cruising. Lesson learned.

On the race went. I steadily kept working as the heat pounded down and I was pretty much ecstatic going into the 5th lap(of 6). This would be the best Canada Cup race I've ever had, I would be catapulted up in th rankings, and I would be in the money for the day.

I was pretty much in tears when I came around toward the start of the 5th lap when a characteristic Tremblant rock sliced through my tire. I couldn't believe it as I heard the whissssssss and looked down to see the Stans tire sealant piss out of my tire. As I pulled over, grabbed my tube and tightened my Co2 cartridge it went off on a weird angle and I instantly lost about half of the air. I couldn't believe it.

On and on I collected myself, got the tube changed, and rolled on, but because of the lost air I could only put in minimal pressure in the tire so it washed out around most corners. At this point I was back in the 30's/40's and I kept the pace up just to finish the race. Then, because of the low air pressure the tube flatted again, and I was done. I didn't have another tube, or air. So I ran the last 20 minutes of the race. I ended up 57th.

After I was a mixed bag. I was so angry and disappointed I could barely talk. But on the other hand I was so internally excited because I knew I had the legs to be up there with the top guys in Canada. For years I had been looking for a race like that, where I managed to pull it all together. Even though it fell through at the end, it was out of my control, and you have to look at it with "shit happens" viewpoint.

So, I'm back on PEI and for the next week I've decided to get my bearings together and chill out. I haven't unpacked the car yet, or any luggage(luggage from BC still isn't unpacked) so I'm looking to get settled at least for a few weeks, keep putting the miles in and see what the legs are doing after that.