Even Fat Will Bruise...

Even fat will bruise if you bang it hard enough against Canadian shield. Had no idea that I may have hurt myself a bit until Sunday night/Monday morning, because the swollen bruises showed up bit late.

And that was pretty brutal experience on the trails of Falcon Ridge. It was +28 when we rolled out of the city at 9 AM and got to +30 when we got to Falcon Lake. I managed to miss the start by 5-7 minutes and did Top of the World trail as a fun rocky extra on my first lap because I can't really handle myself when there's actually options where to ride. I hammered the first lap pretty hard trying to catch up a little. On the second lap I started to feel the heat, humidity and too fast first lap. After the third lap, I had to visit the lake because I wasn't dealing that well with the heat. I did three more laps with lake pit stops every lap and decided to call it quits after seventh lap and couple of endos.

I went for a good long swim, had a beer, went to Northland Appliance Service dog fest and had a hotdog and some Half Pints...and another swim. This pit stop pulled me out of the hole and I decided to hit the trails again. Dave was kind enough to trash talk me into actually riding bit faster and I gave it a good effort. 24:39 later, and almost one hotdog lighter, I finished the lap and decided not to head out for that one last lap. The last laps, few more km's etc. seem to be asking for an accident. Instead I went for a swim and had couple of beers. Eight laps was less than I planned pre-race, but good enough considering how crappy I felt in the heat. I bet that it must have been +32 in the afternoon and in that heat I start to feel it even on the road let alone slow singletracks. I did finish DFL in 8h solo so there's only one way from here.

The fast guys were fast again, obviously. Dave was hammering consistent 25 min laps for 12 laps quitting early and finishing second to Trevor Allen. Trevor rides with Ergon24 Team and looked like a real rider (Dave looks like a real rider too but insists on riding fully rigid single or double speed that may slow him down a bit). Trevor took the 8h solo men win with 15 laps.

But c'mon...a dogfest with free Half Pints three hours before by time was up! There's only one thing that can happen to me, and that's a miserable failure in biking part of the event.

Tough guys and gals kept on riding after I switched to Kokanee mode. The trails are kind of difficult Keskuspuisto level in daylight and frickin' impossible at night, even if you throw ridiculous amounts of lumens at them. Don of course was out there, because he only does everything that involves suffering like a dog on a bicycle. JP and Alex Man were the two top dogs. Those guys did some 35 minute laps in the dark hours after 14 hours of riding!

I don't know how this would compare to some Finnish event because I've never done Tahko 120 or Finlandia MTB or other events. The singletrack is clearly more technical than what most XC races have but the longest "climb" is just 2 minutes long or so. I think one lap has some 100 meters of elevation gain with maybe three hills and some small bumbs.

Late night activities involved Big Lebowski screening, some bonfire, some beer drinking and harassing people who probably didn't want my company at least at that time. My team was fast asleep once I got to the tent after a hard day of swimming and torturing small animals found from the lake.

It was a good 24h or so at Falcon Lake. I may do this again next year, but can't let this become a habit. Moderation is the key here, but we all know how that works for me.

24/3

I don't know what happened, but I registered to ride 8h on the trails in Falcon Ridge, the same trails that I was less than impressed last year. I'm not stupid enough to do the 24 Hours of Falcon Ridge, but I think 8h will kinda kick my ass more than I'm ready to handle. Well...If you can't win, just go longer.

We'll see how long I can stay on my MTB. On the road that would be an easy ride, but battling Canadian Shield on a MTB may be bit tougher.

Check it out http://www.24hoursoffalconridge.com/

We Have Good Shit And Then We Have That Other Shit

That's right folks. There has been tons of that other shit going down in le Tour. Half (or more?) of the GC contenders are out with broken bones. But more importantly Vino crashed out of the race and may never race another pro race, and this is not a way to end a career. Yesterday he put in a good effort and made GC contender's teams to do some chasing (please do note that no GC contender was involved in pace making activities), but even Vino can't do a 3 meter drop on his road bike. If this wasn't enough, a French TV car took out Hoogerland and Flecha today in an effort that comes close to regular Winnipeg traffic. I wouldn't be surprised, if that car "driver" was some media studentinterntrainee from Winnipeg who couldn't keep his/her road rage under control any longer, because those fookin cyclists were riding side by side. But the car didn't manage to stop the two buggers from finishing the stage. Hoogerland was frickin cut into threads and they just stuffed the pieces in a new jersey and shorts and he hopped back on his bike to finish the stage. That my friends and foes was a brutal sign. I will not link the most X-rated photos here, but since a picture tells more than some words, I must link something here. Nuff said!


And that good shit. It's been really nice summer weather here. Nice summer weather doesn't always mean good training because +32 with high humidity kind of almost kills you out there on the prairies where there's no shadow. Even if I'm not feeling too good off the bike, on the bike stuff seems to go pretty well and this morning the +29 weather didn't even feel too bad so maybe I'm climatizing a bit. Maybe I will actually pull myself together and do a MTB race or two and get into some sort of 'cross shape.

But there was also some really good shit that went down over past couple of weeks or so. Manitoba riders did really well at nationals. Young Chris took gold in junior's criterium and got himself a spot in worlds selection pool c/w camp and Tour d'Abitibi. Don Sawatzky took two silver in masters 50+ road and ITT. Apparently the road performance was really really strong with Don bridging 1:30 gap to ITT winner, but unfortunately had to pay for his junior mistake in the sprint. Don doesn't always drop his chain, but when he does, he prefers to do it in nationals ;) Marian got silver in masters +50 crit and of course Leah Kirchmann won elite women's crit and took silver in U23 women road race. Nettie Neudorf took yet another gold in master women 40+ ITT. Other riders also got really good results.

Young Chris did a solid run at America's Dairy Land leading to nationals with podium and top-10 finishes in Cat 2/3. Apparently he did this on restricted 53x15 gear because he didn't have junior gear (52x14 I think) on his bike.

And now Karlee's winning stuff at BC Superweek Elite women races. Karlee has made huge progress this year and I'm sure she will keep improving as she's just 19 years young and doing her first year in Elite.

I do not know how talent feels like, but I can recognize talent when I see some. Though these young kids have so much talent that even a blind monkey would notice.

And I updated the price of my 2009 Giant TCR Advanced. I'm willing to part ways with the bike for $2,200.00 now. Other option would be $1,900.00 with new SRAM Rival groupo and option of either Reynolds wheels or Fulcrum Racing 7's. 3T aluminum bar and no pedals would drop the price to $1,800.00.