Hello Wolrd!

Hey there sports fans - yes, i'm still alive!

So, first up, guess who has a new, cool aero helmet?

From 07-04-15 - Bu...

Anyone know of cool vegan stickers i can put over the Bell logo? It's about 11cm wide. I'm prolly gonna peel the red decals off as well. ;)

Also, my cross frame arrived, here it is with the fork - TOO COOL!!

From 07-04-15 - Bu...

Perfect match with the OA kit, eh?!!

I'm looking forward to building this thing up.. Will race it in the fall, then add fenders and ride as my winter bike after. I'm planning on more Campy Chorus, and since i'll likely be doing a ton of hill repeats on this thing, i'm going to get a disc front brake (canti rear). That way i won't wear through rims or go through a pair of brake pads every two weeks from all the wet descents.

As for the world of riding...i did a couple more TT's, and have been pretty unhappy. I got down to 26'31 the day after my Pursuit PB, but then floundered back up to 27'18 the following week. I can really only suspect that i was fatigued...so now i'm resting more carefully. Not sure when i'll do the TT next..i'm pretty focused on my Pursuit and track training for the next month. I've laid out my training plan, and will stick to it as much as i can.

Haven't ridden a whole lot that's worth mentioning otherwise, track has been rained out several times..

Sat, Jun 30th had the Sidney Twilight crit - i dropped in for the hell of it. It actually went quite well, i started relatively close to the front, but need to make sure i'm AT the front from now on. No more mistakes.

After a while, i ended up in a chase group with three others, and we were pretty well matched, and held a nice steady pace. The course was great, didn't have to brake in any corners, and we held out speed well. Unfortunately, Steve Baird (see video below) was also there, and demolished the field, with 7 of 46 starters finishing. We lasted about 20mins. My buddy Mike Elkink came in second, in the pack sprint - woohoo!

Sunday i managed to get myself out of bed at 5am and headed down to the ferry to ride Hurricane Ridge! Album of pics here.

It's a great climb, tho spending 1hr 15mins at 65rpm really killed my legs! It's sort of a race, tho i didn't really truck it, just keeping a steady pace. Fastest guy was around 54mins. I also slowed-up big time after thinking i should eat. I was under the impression it was a 1.5hr climb.. I was actually about 15mins from the top when i decided 'gee, i should eat!' and cramped up trying to stuff some food in my face.

Note to self: don't eat on the way up next time!

From 07-07-01 - Hu...

There we are at the top - proof! 5,000 feet of elevation.

From there, we went back down (25mins descent!) and did a fantastic 80km loop of Sequin, very nice terrain. Wonderful day, thanks for the great ride Joe, Kim, Scott, Paul, Jamie, Doug and...older dude who's name i've forgotten! (It's funny, you can't really see, but in that pic i'm wearing one leg warmer, and a knee warmer on the other side..haha)

Coming up is Trackfest #2 this weekend - woohoo! I'm not in great condition for this, back to a 'build' phase, but i'll truck on anyway. My buddy Jeremy (veganpotter) is going to be visiting as well, so i'm back in action as a Vegan Cycling Destination. =)

I'll sign off with a few neat links i've come across:

• If your bike is stolen: http://www.theystolemybike.com/
• Latest Joe Friel newsletter: http://www.ultrafit.com/newsletter/july07.html
• Flying Scottsman Preview Video: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472268/trailers-screenplay-E32435-10-2
• Steve Baird goes up the Ob: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JpjGLM3GqTE

That last video is insane... For those who are curious, that's the 'Observatory' climb - yes the one i do repeatedly in the winter, tho not nearly so quickly! Enjoy the climb. =)

Steve does the climb in 5'03 or so..breaking the previous record by about 30 seconds, incredible! On top of it, i just got an email from him - he did the Sidney TT in 22'51 tonite - WITHOUT a proper TT bike. Holy crap. He's coming out next Monday for a Pursuit - this will be awesome.