New Year Old Tricks

Yeah...back at it again. Punishing the trainer, while watching 2006 Ronde, like it was a paying gig. I'm quite certain, that this kind of activities, are best kept in the basement, out of sight of normal pick-up driving sweat pant wearing meat and potatoes type who live next door to me. I've even gone skiing twice as many times as last winter so I'm getting to the point were I can actually start skiing.

Or maybe I just think that I'm doing something. Dicking around couple of days a week hardly counts as training. I should put in solid 5 day training weeks pretty much every week, but the winter funk is also getting closer and that means that 2 days a week would be a good week. The girth of my well fed body suggests that more would be better. Maybe I do need the noodling-around-flailing-my-legs-for-hours-on-end type of training just to keep me away from the fridge. This would be all good and well, but this sort of rides here in the prairies would be close to DIY lobotomy due to somewhat featureless landscape.

Anyhow, I got two training sessions in this weekend because our Saturday night plan fell through and I did not have a hangover on Sunday. When you get a chance to go out once every frickin 6 months without the guaranteed 7 AM wake-up, missed training session would be a small price to pay for an angry hangover.

I'm using GC now that I'm cool member of the Apple cult, but below is my Saturday's ride. Sunday's ride looks like a copy of this, but I managed to spend bit more time on the trainer.


The reason for a slow start was my plan to try to put in a solid 60 min interval, but I chickened out after 15 minutes.

Ambiance Verzekerd!

Well ambiance verzekerd indeed. I saw this commercial of an awesome CD collection of Superprestige (presumably belgian CX scene in general) hits during Superprestige coverage and was forced to check this one out. This collection is too good, I mean, a truly versatile collection of quality music. Somehow this reminds me of walking down the streets of El Arenal in Mallorca past all this German watering holes. You only need to add copious amounts of alcohol and this music collection will hit like million volts. This one is a must have christmas gift for all cross lovers!

You can listen to samples of each track right here.

You can thank me for sharing this with you by sending me single malt scotch beverages or alternatively Belgian beer.

Nordic Cross Pre-game

Anyone interested in Nordic Cross Pre-Gaming at Elmwood Park c/w bonfire and beverages on my back yard? I have stuff to burn!

Minnesota Cyclocross Championships Report

So I ended up heading to Twin Cities (a.k.a. IKEA) for the memorial day long weekend with my team. There were others heading out to US for the weekend and Pembina border crossing had probably 300 cars lined up to cross the border once we got there. We chose to pull a U-turn and use the Lancaster border crossing and after my usual 3rd degree by the friendly TSA official, we headed towards the MPLS-St. Paul. Our hotel was tactically located by the MOA and IKEA and we spent the Friday running around shopping. On Friday evening we went to pick-up the numbers at the Angry Catfish Bicycle + Coffee Of course we were early and were kindly advised to grab our dinner at the awesome neighborhood pub called Buster's on 28th. I highly recommend to visit both places during your next visit in Minneapolis. Buster's has some 34 different kinds of beer on tap and bottled stuff on top of that...nuf said?

Saturday morning dawned with a decent snow storm. Here in Winnipeg that would count as a nice summer day. I think it was good 10-15 cm of wet snow . I had a hearty breakfast at the International Pancake House or IHOP. This was truly a breakfast of champions. Had to run back to Columbia store at MOA to get some more winter clothing and those guys seemed to be happy to see us suckers knocking on their door at 10 AM.

This was probably my first race since...I don't know...2005, that I actually got to the race well in time. It did not look too good because it was just a muddy singletrack snaking through the snow. There were guys warming-up on trainers, prepping their pit wheels and bikes and so on. No one was impressed by my awesome black shiny carbon wheels. I felt almost as awkward as in -98 or -01 when I headed to way too deep waters to race.

So it was time. It was time to head to the start and it was to be call-up. I tried to do some jumping and look like I knew what I was about to get myself into. The fast guys got called up first, and I got called-up as the 34th rider. I think I was in 5th row. The commissaire didn't waste any time and blew the whistle to send us off...And WTF! guys are running straight from the gun? OK...shoulder my bike and switch to gallop through the snow. Madness ensues and at the end of that I find myself on maybe 20th spot. After the start, it was riding nicely in line because there were no spots to pass. The leaders got away on the first lap and the race was pretty much over for the guys who missed the top-5 by the end of the lap 1. After that it was a good ride taking things easy and enjoying the winter weather. I ended up finishing at 15th spot and I guess that was OK. It was all good though. I'll come back next year.

We hit the IKEA after the race and loaded our truck with particle board. The next morning I woke up with the nasty flu and I still had to drive 600km back home. The return across the border was much easier that there was no line-up on 59 crossing.

I think I'll do Minnesota Cyclocross Championships next year ass well.

Minnesota CX Champs on Kare11

See...I'm not the only nut job out there!

The weather looks like a bike race

Picture says more than 1000 words. It's still 4 hours...so 10 cm until the start.



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Minnesota 'cross Championships

Throat getting sore, feeling bit tired and even feverish...there must be a race tomorrow. Final preparation at Mall of America and other retail settings went according to plan though.

Weather forecast is calling for snow and high of 36 F. Should be good times. Now to filling my tummy with greasy food and beer. This place Buster's on 28th is a pretty cool neighborhood pub. 28 different brews on tap and good greasy food. Kwak on tap is more of a sign for me...




To chase this one, you might consider this...




Täältä tähän.

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