Mt. Washington BC Cup DH

Yet another weekend on the road. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it - especially when it involves bicycle riding!!

Iz & I took off after work this past Friday to catch a ferry over to the Island for the second to last BC Cup DH race of the season. We got in to our to be home away from home for two nights, Deer Lodge, about 11p and turned it so as to be rested for practice Saturday.

We got up on good time and had our cup of Joe. I put together some yummy egg-bagel-sandwhiches for us for breakfast, and the nit was off to the lifts for some laps on the track.

This past winter Mt. Washington saw a record amount of snow, and thought that's awesome in the winter, it impacted the summer. They only opened their bike park a few weeks ago, with only a couple of trails. thankfully by the time this weekend started the weather had cooperated, and all but a few trails were still closed.

The race course was pretty new this year due to one of the aforementioned closed trails being what was normally the race course. It had been about 6 years since I'd ridden Mt. Washington, so it didn't really matter to me. It would have felt pretty new still to me!

The course went down "MHT" to "Lower Monster Mile" to "Monster Hawk Connector" to "4 Cross", which meant "pedal" to "technical" to "pedal" to "jumps", which translates ultimately to FUN!

We did 4 laps of training, as Iz was still resting her thumb/hand from Kicking Horse the previous (See: 'Whirlwind Week') weekend.

We hung out with about a dozen fellow racers, which was super fun, that night. Still managed to get to bed on good time after watching a classic movie, Speed on VHS! It was pretty funny, this place had a closet full of VHS films.



Sunday, SUNDAY, Sunday!! RACE DAY! Iz & I did another nearly top-to-bottom practice lap in the morning, along with an easy run on a blue track to keep loose, before our race runs in the afternoon.

I was first, and ripped down clean which made me super happy. Participating in this series of DH races on a 'freeride' bike has been challenging. I know I cannot go as fast as guys on real DH rigs, but am happy when I get down clean. That is all I'm looking to do, since I'm 32 and and have no aspirations to become a pro! I often finish mid-pack, and this weekend was no different. The cool thing this time was though that there were 5 riders in my category and I came second! My first podium of the season!



Iz had her run about an hour after mine, which was nice, as it allowed me to run up the hill and catch her in the jumps section. She's been pretty consistent this year (when she stays on her bike) and is currently tied for second in her category! See: http://t.co/716xaVQ for up to date standings.

She did well once again this race, and found herself also on the podium!



Here's another view of the awards area that is a bit better lit.



Where will we go this weekend?

UPDATE: some sick videos recently posted on pinkbike.com from this weekend can be found here: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/BC-Cup-Provincial-Championships-2011-Videos.html

Fromme: New Trails, and New Old Trails

Tonight I was invited to go for a lap with my good old pal Andrew.

SMILE!


Yeah, he didn't know I took that photo.

Anyway, we were a pack of 6 - a nice size group of varying abilities from ex-National XC champion Bruce to the bike shop owner to the girlfriend of one of the other guys. That said, nobody held anyone back, and the pace was sweet.

We climbed up past the 6th switchback and headed down a super old school trail I'd never even heard of and hesitate to name on here as I don't know that anyone else would enjoy it.


Well I did, it was super fun! Starting out with a nice log climb and continuing with some classic drops, and rock faces, this trail had it all. Ultimately spitting us out into the bottom of "Seventh" which took us back to the rode.

See between points 4 and 5 where that happened here: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/sjNGIqIBpsA (yesterday I used MapMyRide, today trying endomondo as suggested by some pals)

Pedalling back up a bit more and it was down "Executioner" which now has many nicknames as it's a completely new trail after the entrance. I'd say for the best! Wow, super loamie - a must ride for anyone out here ASAP!

"Executioner" dumps you into "Dreamweaver" which is another super fun pumpfest of an XC trail.

All in all, another super fun ride, and a good workout too!!

XC Ride on Eagle

My good buddy Steve has been riding in the TriCities area for something like 20 years....there abouts anyway.... and knows the trail system like the back of his hand.

Thus, I like riding with him! He shows me good routes, and gets me pedalling in areas I've not explored.

Tonight was no different as Terry and I got out with Steve he took us up on a lap of Eagle Mountain. I couldn't even tell you the trail names, but here's the "MapMyRide" track and info - click!!

Was a nice treat to hit up these super sweet trails right in our backyard. A 2 hour XC ride that starts higher than it ends is also pretty awesome! The climb up, as you can see, was about 2.5km long, while the remaining 17km was essentially downhill. LOVED IT!

Sadly, I forgot to use my camera on this ride. next time!

A Whirlwind Week

Iz and I took a little vacation starting Saturday, July 30th.

We started off with a sailing and mountain biking trip with our friends Amber & Cris. It was their wedding gift to us. It was very enjoyable overall, but I don't think Iz is ever going to be a sailor! We headed over the Saturday morning to Deep Bay (click for map, between Nanaimo and Campbell River) where they picked us up in the boat. We ended up sleeping on the boat in Deep Bay that night, though the original plan was to sail to Hornby Island (click for map), because it was stormy outside the bay. The winds died down over night, and that caused issues with the anchor - we ended up bumping into a dock near where we'd anchored twice in the night! No damage thankfully, but it woke Cris & I up, and we went top ship to fix it up.

The Sunday we sailed to the island, and used the zodiac (no motor) to make two trips over with our bikes to the beach. That was a pretty funny process! We rode our bikes, and then had to do the same trip on the zodiac back in the evening. Worked out well, and was super fun.

The Monday we had a LONG day of sailing all the way back to Campbell River - nearly 11 hours! We got to see their new home and puppy, so that was nice. Turned in for the night, and then Cris drove us back to Deep Bay Tuesday. We took advantage of being where we were to ride our bikes on some other fun trails there in Cumberland.

Click for More Photos


Next up was our trip to the interior for some riding and racing, it was a blast! Phil (the brother in law) drove us in his truck which was super, and made it so much easier than trying to pack everything in to our car - I don't think we could have fit everything actually!

We first went to Sun Peaks resort Wednesday, Aug. 3 and rode their bike park Thursday. Had an AMAZING camp site not 10 minutes from the resort. It was/is what is called (Iz will correct me if I'm wrong) a Forrest Service Road Recreation Site. Very remote, very small, very beautiful.

Click for More Photos

We camped there again after riding Thursday night (washed up in the lake) and then drove to Golden Friday. The race organizer was kind enough to allow us to set up our tent in the yard of this 'palace' that he had been 'given' by the resort for himself, his family, and a bunch of other folks that were working for the race.

Most of those folks were professionals that Phil & I knew from magazines and movies from our younger days! Was very cool to hang out with them inside the house (race organizer offered us access to the home too - we really just slept in the tent) for the time we were there. I would say that we may have even started some friendships with a few of them, pretty cool!

The riding at Kicking Horse resort in Golden was super fun. The race track was good, had it's tough sections, but overall fun. Sadly Iz had a crash on the Saturday in her last practice run, and hurt her thumb. She iced it up though, and still raced Sunday. I'm so happy she did, even with taking her time, as she then was able to 'conquer the fears' of where she crashed, and also is now still eligible for the overall in her category - if she'd not finished, she'd not then be able to complete 5 out of 6 races!

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29937947@N07/sets/72157627274236469/ (not many really of the racing etc. in our stream, but loads here: http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Western-Open-Alberta-BC-Cup-Recap-2011.html) and a little video: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/211446/

SHAW was there too: http://sexley.pinkbike.com/channel/Western-Open-2010-SHAW/

We drove home after the race on Sunday; Phil was a trooper and did the whole 7+ hours himself! I napped early on in the trip expecting him to want to sub out, but I ended up just riding along shotgun keeping him awake for the last part.

Monday was a nice day to relax and get things back in order and do some errands before it was back to work yesterday.