Altona, The Jewel of The South, But Not Too South

It's like being a kid in a candy shop, on Christmas, with Mickey Mouse. Altona Southern Cross is just a big kid version for old dudes who like to inflict discomfort on themselves. OK, there are bunch of young lads who appear to have good time inflicting discomfort on old dudes as well.

It's always a spectacle in Altona and this year was no different. 233 racers and the prize ceremony at the curling club equals good times. The attitude towards sports seems to be completely different from Winnipeg and the town actually welcomes bike races and racers. In some places, actually engaging in sporting activities is considered a good thing, and in others it's more about watching others perform sporting activities.

Anyway, the racing was good, as always. Didn't really feel too too awesome, which has been the theme lately, but managed to hang in there and didn't lose too much to Chris "the wunderkind" Prendergast. Some snow would have helped the old legs, but no luck this time. Dave C was up there for a while, but got gapped in the sand I guess. The young guys are quite fast, which is good for the sport.

Altona also has its own version of Roubaix velodrome showers. But the recovery nutrition is very familiar, maybe too familiar...

First Snow, Beach Cross

+30 last weekend and +5 with snow on the ground this weekend. Such is October in Manitoba. Cross races also changed from dry powdery conditions to mud. As little that I like watering the race courses, I don't actually mind when mother nature decides that it's time to race in snow, rain or mud.

Most of the regulars were there and previous races had "prepared" the course for A start. I didn't feel too awesome before the start so I wanted to start easy. That plan soon failed and I ended up starting bit too hard. I ended up yo-yoing for the first 30 min or so before I had figured out the course and recovered a bit again. Found myself in second spot towards the end and then Dan Morwood had some mechanical trouble and I took the lead with two to go. So for the last two laps I had to keep an eye on charging Don, but managed to hold the gap.

It was a nice race and especially the run up kicks butt.

Now Something Completely Different

OK...This is quite different with a strong red neck tone. But what are you supposed to do when, as a young lad, you get dragged into dark wilderness, in pissing rain. All you have to eat are cheapest barbeque sausages (if you're lucky they're actually barbequed) and all you have to drink is Keltainen Jaffa. The co-convictees are extremely hammered older men who have escaped their blue collar occupations for the weekend. You're almost certain of your untimely death, you're freezing and a healthy snot is hanging off your nose. Then you start to hear the distant...ba..baaa....baaap....babababarrr.....baaaaaa.brrrraaaa.... and you're not quite certain what it is. Then it gets louder and the passed out guy in a patio chair next to you comes back to life, but you can't quite understand what language he is speaking. Then it starts to get louder...BAAARGH!! BAM BAM.....BAAAA..BAAAA..BAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH...BA...BA...BA...BAAAA....Then it gets fricking massive noise, filling the entire forest with roar and exhaust backfire noise. Then you see the car appear around the corner and your ears feel like bleeding and the car looks like it will take off onto its course on the orbit any second. This keeps going for the next 10 minutes until it's time to start the trek back towards the Opel Kadett that is parked at least 50 km away and you know that you won't be able to make it back alive. It sucked so bad, but you had asked and begged and begged some more to go so you suck it up and do the hike in you're wet rubber boots. You don't know it at that time, but you're scarred for life and there is no known cure for the condition...you will probably remember this the day you die.

Don't believe me? Well see for yourself. You don't see any crashes in this video, because "these guys have massive balls of cast iron that keep the center of gravity so low that these cars cannot be flipped".

Agent Smith in the black helicopter took down the first video, but luckily the geeks are awake. I feel quite a redneck right now....

 

CX Season in Full Swing

The Dark Cross update is still in the works, so I'll just fast forward to this weekend and race #3.

If first two races were new additions to MB calendar, today's Mennocross (www.mennocross.ca) is more of a classic. Venue is familiar Mennonite University and this year the course was much dryer than ever before. The Dark Side race course crew had brewed up a nasty leg breaker with a new stair run up on the bunker and of course the Flyover. They also ordered a +27 day for this race, which was not cool in any way. I had to wear the brand new sausage suit, so the fat was definitely crying under the late September sun. The race itself started fastish thanks to yours truly, trying to establish a lead group and help Cricket get there without burning too many matches. Then I basically blew a gasket and dropped to 8-10 spot for a lap or two and was thinking about calling it a day. I started recovering though and clawing my way back towards the lead. At the end I lost the 3rd spot by two bike lengths. I had no intentions of going that hard pre-race, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Cricket made it look easy and even crashed once on his way to top podium spot, probably for show.

Good times let me tell you!

Dark Cross 2012

It's been some time since the last time, but it's like riding a bike...right?

Dark Cross took place tonight. It was bleeping awesome, even if I sucked balls big time. Thank you for all those in attendance and let's one up this one next year.

I'll come up with something better soon.

1974 Honda CB 360

Getting old (slow). Need all the help I can find...

Tour of White(s)hell

Today's program, checking out the vacant lots. First was a shorter loop of just 8 km this morning, but I kept my eyes open and spotted the lot 1 that is for sale. This afternoon there is a bit longer cruise to see some bit more remote property along the 307 highway.

The road ride was less productive as there was only swampland as far as I can see. It was a nice friendly cruise for 85 km and much better training than sitting on my couch geeking bike gear and pro races.

Suitable reward for the days effort was a Michelob Ultra semi-beer because Lance would drink that if he would drink beer-like beverages. I did get some tasty stuff in form of Oso Negro coffee from BC as a souvenir from good friends. I think it's actually just coffee...seriously.