We're nearing The End of the World...

.....Cross I should say.   With all these silly exam type things at school I'd almost forgotten there was still one cross race left.  I haven't been riding much due to excessive exercising of the brain (pfff engineering), but all those cross videos I've been watching should be able to count as something, shouldn't it?

Only 4 more days till freedom!

Its stuff like this that gets me so excited to go out and ride some bikes :)

A Great Southern Party

This past weekend anyone who was has a brain headed south to my new favorite small town, Altona. For the past 6 years they have put on a great festival of biking, local sausages, and cross!  Yet again the fine folks at ABES did not disappoint. Enjoying their play structure in the morning (I can be 5 again thank you very much), race mid-afternoon, heckles all day, and a lovely post - race social.

This course always promises to be fun with so many different elements to a cross race. Lots of technical turns, sandpit, mud pit, hills, and straightaways. Perfect. The race was fast from the get go....thanks alot Oliver, still trying to get in front of you. Got a great face ful of mud. Came third overall , just inching out young Kurt in a great sprint.
                                     

Mud full of face.

What I love about cross racing is that it gives me the chance to cheer on all my friends, and heckle the other ones.n On this fine day Luc decided to show up, so  I finally had the chance to yell "Sandbager" all day. Good on ya sandbaging the open race Lukey. The A race was exciting with the some of our only beer handups were by the taken by the two leaders. Hell ya! Following the A race was the social which as alwasy promised included lots of beer, chips, and good times.

Wilma

Ollie and Jake announcing.

This race always makes it to the top of my list of favorite races.

This is how its done in the toba.

Na.




or maybe the demon rooster?

All things fall.

Beer. Cross. NIGHT RIDING. hoodies. bon fires.
oh ya and school.
I love fall.
I can't believe there are only 3 cross racez left.

After my terrible math exam last night I dragged Ari out to Birds Hill for the first time since I've come back from the Best Coast, and for my first night ride of the year (with lights I should say....one interesting trip down Sagar). With my new fancy ass light, we could see no problem, enough to take DARING new lines....hahah.  Which is quite contrary to our previous night rides, where we're guided by the stars and the moon.

Ari's awesome lights.

Na.

My favorite kitten

Hope everyones enjoying the lovely fall weather and beautiful colors.

Dark Cross!!

After such a long wait....the race I'd been waiting for was here. Time for racing at night on a speedway.  Lots of work went in to putting this event on so Thanks to everyone at FGBC, RRR, sponsors and friends That helped out! I'd say it was a success.

So I headed out to the speedway early on Saturday to help set up for the big day. Set up some tikis, supervised some beer drinking, and just enjoyed the day in general.  This year the course was a little bit different, with much more straightaways, a really sick flyover, and some other stuff.

A couple of highlights from the race:

• First time on the cross bike this year (i missed you so much Surly bebe <3>
• My fans are awesome. 
• Blinded by Camera Flash each Grandstand Run, hoping that my feet would land on each step.
• My fans are ROWDY.
• 1st Woman, 2nd OVERALL!! (i'm so stoked, maybe I'll drink less beer this season)
• Serious calf cramps.
• Great party!!

Really you all just had to be there to get the jyst of it. Words hardly do Dark Cross justice.

Banana

5 bikes, 5 days

Mind blown. What an amazing weekend of riding bikes. My words can't even begin to describe.

or maybe that photo does.

Friday : Specalized Safire
Saturday: Trek Remedy
Sunday: my road bike (boo..would have been cooler to be another mtn bike)
Monday: Trek Session 9.9 (FULL 2013 SAINT...holy shit)
Tuesday: Trek Elite 9.9 SSL (or the baby bike as i like to call it)

Friday was nothing special, just a rip on the Shore with Christine and Grant, except for the part where we "biked" Bitches Brew. Since it was Grant's birthday we headed over to the Black Bear for some post race grub.  What happened after was awesome though..Grant's car is this wicked old mercedes, and we locked all of the bikes into the car. Total bummer cause I was racing an enduro in Squamish the next morning.  Luckily Tahn Tahns was gracious enough to lend me her Trek Remedy, which in turn was a better bike than the Safire.

So early Saturday morning I raced up to Squamish with a bike I had never ridden before. This weekends race was different than any other that I've done thus far this season. The event was: Hot on Your Heels Classic. A women's only enduro (and for you non mountain folk an enduro is a downhill race with several different timed stages), my first "downhill" oriented race. There were so many women on gnarly bikes standing around in the parking lot it was just so RAD. All of the volunteers were men (mandatory lack of clothing as well). Along the route there were a couple of "aid" stations.
The first one was pretty legit with watermelon and bananas. The second was gummie bears and palm bay. The trails : Angry Midget, Fools Gold, Hoods in the Woods, all really great (but lets be serious everything in Squamish in so amazing)  Unfourtunatly I couldn't attented the post race party, but I'm sure that was quite rowdy.  An amazing event put on by SORCA. I ended up 5th (for the 2 downhill timed sections) after crashing a couple of times...so me.

Sunday: road ride....borrrrrring.

Monday, Mario, Cam, Christine, and I all headed up to Whistler to shred the park.  This would be my first time ever on a downhill bike (after three years of living in the mountains it is a superme fail that it took so long).  So i rented.  Going into renting I thought for sure it would be some shitty shit shit. But no I showed up to the park early (no way was I not riding on this day) to my surprise they have one of the pimpest bikes i could dream of: Trek Session 9.9 carbon. Topped of with 2013 saint.
Now how does one of these bikes end up in a rental fleet? I don't know. Don't question it.

Whistler Bike park: SO. MUCH. FUCKING. FUN. if you can go. GOOOOOO GOD DAMMIT.  At first it was hard. There's so many jumps and before Monday I had been afraid to get any air, but on a bike with 8 inches of travel its not so scary.  We rode so many trails and hit so much gnar.  And it was so simple..the bike made everything easy.  Nearing the end of the day my forearms were getting so sensitive that even the slightest bump (from the tiniest rock or stupid brake bumps) would give me so much pain.  I had to end the day. Fortunately for me it just started to thunder, closing the lifts, and effectively ending the day.
On my way back home I made a small pit stop to hang out with Fraser and Grant. I expirenced my first shuttle run (ish..i was the driver) Just driving the truck on the sketchiest road was fun enough since I could no longer bike on this day.

Tuesday I made full 360 degree circle back to my baby bike.  After just being touched up by Rob Mulder again (such a great guy..Roberts Composites) I got the bebe on the road trails again. I rode with Tahnee for the first time, we just did a couple lap of Frommage bobsled.  It felt so good to be on my bike, especially the bebe bike.  Almost anyone who sees me ride it on the shore is completely astonished.  What really made this ride though was a thunderstorm.  It was bright and loud, and raining just enough and since we were in the forest I wasn't too worried about getting struck. The experience felt so surreal.


I know..your all jealous.
Anna Banana.

Mid summer wrap

Photo Cred: Christine Lynch. Shore Crushing Everyday.

A quick recap of what I've been up to the past couple of months!

Nimby50 - 110 Switchbacks up. 4th place down. Most delicious/nutritious race food. Coming back next year.

Work work work.

Westside Classic - deceptively steep. lots of chasing.

Nationals - hot. dusty. flat repair.  tough.

Breakfast Quebec Patio Style

Work work work.

Bear Mtn - ranniest, funniest, dirtiest race of the year thus far! I also came this close to racing a downhill race. Soon my friends...soon.

Axell Mercxx Pentiction Gran Fondo - super hot. fast. (160 km sub 5 hours!) Womens team win! cherries! More fondos are in my future

Work.

Gastown Gran Prix (spectactor) - Holy people (3500 in a 2 km radius). Big names. Fast pace. Team mates totally rocked! Great to have such a big race (biggest prize purse for a crit in NA)

Gearjammer - Wicked course. Love for Squamish solidified. Started out rainy. Ended sunny. Bad start. Strong finish.


Next weekend I think I'll head up to Whistler (maybe do some car camping) and definatly hit the trails and the park!

After that I head into August for a full month of racing. Including Crankworx, BC Provincals, and then back home just in time to make Laddies Loppet!

The pond on Ladies Only. Cleaned it for the first time the other day. Score!

Giant Jenga Party.

Oh ya and I lost an eye.

Lisa's prosthetics final.

Jk.
Keep the rubber side rolling,
Na.

Reverting back to "normal"

Again its been a hectic couple of weeks.  Since coming back from Victoria, I had decided that I had become poor enough and now needed some cash inflow, and less outflow (or should I say less free time). So going back to what I know best I applied at a bike shop (yay!).  The shop's called Obsession: Bikes, a really awesome shop just a short walk out of the Lonsdale Quay in North Van.  I'm a mechanic! Ya you read that right.  Keeps me busy and out of trouble ;)
This past weekend was the first official Trek Red Truck Mtb crew race, the Orecrusher.  Continuing with the trend of all of the racing I've done out here (and will do), it was extremely gruelling.  Strangely enough this race wasn't littered with vertical which is what made it harder (ha as if I just said that).  Ann rocked the podium with a third place, and Quinn with a first in Junior, and fourth over all (such a power house).
Middle of the week I headed up to Mt. Fromme for another Shore ride, this one being better than the last, and now my favorite place to ride on the Shore.  Theres an old logging road right in the middle which makes it much easier to access all of the trails.  The trails are much steeper as well, so I enjoyed it a lot more.  I can hardly justify through words how amazing the shore trails are. You'll  just have to come and enjoy it yourself.

Tour of BC

Wow. I now actually have a second to catch my breath from this past weeks excitement.  It started out like any other normal week with my typical Monday rest day (ie. catching up on SNL, Game of Thrones, Girls, and receiving kitteh snuggles).  On tuesday I finally made it over to Cypress mountain, where Ann and I hammered out some hill repeats (yaaaay!)

Wednesday marked the beginning of a Women's Weekend that I had been invited to by Alison Sydor.  The riding was good but completely littered with rain, which turned my toes purple both days.  The women I met were more amazing, and just completely stoked to go out to Pentiction for a women's weekend of good food, wine, and riding!  Tamara has completely inspired me by coming from rough Venezuela, being a paediatric rehab doctor, and also a hardcore ultra-marathon runner!  She just has such a passion to do what she loves.  I was sad to leave on Friday evening since everyone at the camp was so interesting and had so many stories to share, but the Sunshine Coaster was early the next morning and Sandra and I had both wanted to attend.

Oh man, the coaster.  What a tough but fun event.  Sandra and I got back from the camp with enough time for me to make myself eggs for dinner and pack, but since a ferry is required to get to Gibsons, I had to get up bright and early....thus missing breakfast....boo. What a bad choice.  I can't particularly say I had a great race because I did totally feel undernourished and there were many low points, which just made the race that much harder!  However I did have lots of fun, the trails out on the Sunshine Coast are amazing and I will be going back for more riding!  Plus a huge shout out to Red Truck Beer for sponsoring the race (and the team),  where I scored an awesome post race recovery (and totally needed) lager.

I came home after the race feeling completely destroyed, and just to dig the hole deeper, I had decided to head out to Victoria to go riding with my awesome friend Parker Bloom.  Parker was a total champ and probably rode at least 300 km this weekend, half of that coming up to Swartz Bay to pick me up and drop me off at the ferry. The weather did a complete 180 from what it was like in Pentiction to being 18 and sunny both days, ie my tan is coming along nicely.  

We did two rides.  The first being on Prospector Rd, a roller coaster of a route with many punchy short climbs.  The second was a little bit longer (and thankfully slower) out to Sooke to a rad little coffee shop called the Stick in the Mud.  Btw, I'm not 100% on the coffee train. I never thought this day would come.  By the time I got to the ferry on Monday I was done for and totally bonked, which made the overpriced ferry food ten time better.  

All in all a tremendous week of riding of which I can hardly put into words, and even less photos.

Banana

Victoria Bound

Kitteh Snuggles <3

Gross.

 Victoria and beyond

Summers Officially Here! 

 The boys

For Jay

 Big Piggies

Best Birthday Weekend Ever. Ever.

This was my first weekend in Vancouver, and it was very well spent, with just about 8 hours of mountain biking. Saturday Jim drove us up to Pemberton for the Nimby50 pre-ride.  It was a long day with lots of climbing (101 switch backs at least) but also some gnarly descents.  On the way home we stopped at the famous Splitz Burger, for some very well deserved Burgers.  Jim and I were up bright and early again on Sunday, this time to catch the ferry out to Gibsons for the Sunshine Coaster pre-ride.  We were surprised to find Nick and Quinn in the parking lot since we thought they rode the coaster yesterday, but it was good for Jim since he got a bit of a higher paced ride than the day before (where the girls out numbered the boys 4 to 1, when does that ever happen on a mtn bike ride?).  To finish off the weekend, Ann hosted a team bbq where we played some very intense Jenga games.

I used my Dad's GoPro for the first time on Saturday...the results are below.

Goodbye Winnipeg, Heeellllllo Vancouver!

As soon as I got back from California it was back to real life with exam week......wooooo (just soooo much excitement). Exam week was short but painful and I got through with little time to spare to get ready for my adventure to Vancouver.  Highlights of the week include killer rock band night, filming a helmet saftey commercial, Bur Oak Time trial, awesome birthday bon fire, 12 hours to pack up my life, drinks at the Paw with ma gurls, and 2 intense days of driving to Van-city.
Specifically I'm super stoked on the Bur Oak Time trial where I posted a sub 20 minute time, a goal and a new personal best of mine. Woooo!!!
My dad helped me drive out to Vancouver and we were determined to make it out here in 2 days.  We got delayed on the way to Canmore with high speed head winds, and just 10 km out of Golden we were delayed 4 hours by a disgusting truck accident (included pig carcasses, and there was blood everywhere), however we made it here safe and sound.

Aaron with the film dude.

 Jello SHOTS :)

 Stuck forever.

 Rogers Pass

 Seaside Bikeway

Banana

Trek Red Truck Training Camp 2012

Trek Red Truck holds an annual training camp down in Santa Rosa California for both the elite team and the masters riders.  Let me just say it was EPIC. I have never spent so much time on a bike, and done so many kilometers in one week, with just that much elevation.  We averaged 100 km a day, and every morning pre ride Matt would say " 100  km, 3 hrs".

I had come into the camp with literally no knowledge of what we were doing (besides riding bikes), where we were staying, or how we would eat.  Needless to say I wasn't disappointed.  We stayed in the gorgeous house up on the hill in Santa Rosa, rode "100 km, 3 hrs" in the mornings, and hung out by the pool post ride (unfortunately wasn't warm enough to swim in).  And the cherry on top of the cake was Marcia who cooked the most amazing food for 20 of us all week.

Santa Rosa is 2 hours north of the San Fransico airport, and located mostly in wine country.  We were able to make it out to the coast a couple of times, and rolled through the rolling Sonoma Valley all of the other times.  Each ride we did was different from the last, and were all so gorgeous.

The first day we hit the coast, and there were some huge ass waves.  It was so cool and I couldn't stop smiling (I've never been on the west coast before)

The trees were sideways.

Vinery

Duck Ride coffee stop.

So Mark James (owner of Red Truck beer) organizes a ride each year called the duck ride.  Where the masters team rides south, climbs up 12 km, desencdes on this sketcy/AWESOME descent, and then stops in St. Helena for a duck.  After having some delicious duck and lots of wine, theres an even steeper (albeit shorter 8 km) climb back over the mountains back home.  Though it sounds extremly painful (which I'm sure it was), everyone has a great time, and lets be serious it makes for a strange training camp tale.

 Kings Ridge Ride (2, 15 km climbs and Colemans pass (10 km), which is part of this years Tour of California)

 More Coast photos.

 Pine Flats ride was the last day.

All week there was a lot of ping ponging going on in preparation for Janky Cup 2012.  i suck so I was out the first round. The final round was contested by Dustin and Tyle, and Dustin the king came out on top.. not so much of a surprise.

The chef's secret stash of wine.

Bailey McKnight put together a great video of his time at the camp.

Banana