That Smug Winter Thing

There is no match in smugness to XC skiing. There's a very specific set of rules to the whole thing and I'm not too sure I meet any of these rules. The HC group of XC skiers, also known as norwads, smells the rule breakers from mils (no spelling error here, mil = 11 km) away and do not hesitate to give stink eyes to pariahs. One major mistake is to drive a vehicle other than Subaru or VW. It is also easier to become a mensa member than a norwad, but a good way to get accepted by the community is to use wooden skis, wear wool shirts, carry a backbag (Fjällräven gets extra points) or actually be a real norwegian.

Anyway, I headed into the norwad nest today for my first ski outing. It turns out that I didn't learn to ski over the summer this year either. It was quite a torture fest like the first time often is.

Hopefully the weather cooperates this winter.

Went out for a quick boot with little hoot too and she had learnt some skiing over the summer.

Someone Turned the Ski Season On

Now where can I find packed trails?

Rooster Ride

Since there was no racing this weekend, and I felt like I can delay my basement re-finishing project by at least another day, we went for a ride on Saturday. It was good times and I managed to show some of the Roosters some routes in the good end of town. There were some new trails, some abandoned plans due to absolutely brutal trails, some rednecks and some gunshots of course. I didn't take any photos because I was, you know, riding my bike for the most time. 

Mrs. Hoot was kind enough to cook some chili for our after ride gathering around a bonfire and that wrapped up a good day. 

Dave mentioned that we should do this more often and maybe without the beers after. That sounds awful lot like training, but I may be talked into silliness like that. Let's see what happens next weekend...

CX Provincials and Other Stuff

You know that the end if nigh when you line up to race CX provincials. Not the best day for me, but my Dark Red Racing brothers and sisters did much better and helped save the day for The Rooster.

Normally I would do OK on the course with plenty of pedaling, but this year, and today especially, that is not the case. To make things worse, I woke up to stomach cramps that at least affected my already fragile race day morale. Old dog can't learn new tricks so I had to start fast, which seemed to work OK after the first lap, but then the reality of me having Sven's arms but my very own legs struck, and I could not answer to the acceleration from Daniel. I had to ease back a bit for 1/2 lap or so and that didn't help. Then it was status quo for the next 20 minutes, Daniel leading so far that I didn't see him any longer, Dan M. chasing, Cricket third and me fourth trailing Cricket a bit and closing in. I had to let Cricket go with 2 to go and take it easy for the rest of the race. Anyways...Daniel did well as did Cricket and Chris and others. Good job!

Now onto my next topic of the day. Group B exhaust sound that is. Just let my slip into my Labatt 50 drinking vest for more appropriate attire for this...

This is artsy fartsy French movie of Ari Vatanen doing Pike's Peak Hill Climb in a Peugeot 205 Group B rally car sometime in golden 80's. Sure there are more powerful cars nowadays, but these 80's monsters with stick shifting and the driver doing it all is bit different.

 

This video is quite cool as well, but still missing something. That something is probably the sould and who's this driver anyway? Does his last name end -nen? I didn't think so so what else does he have what may make him a rally driver?

And the back to topic. Since we have only one race left this season, I was thinking about putting my money where my mouth is and organizing a ra...spirited training ride on November 3rd. Thinking about starting from my place sometime in the afternoon, 2-4 PMish and riding north on the west side of the river and towards BHP. Racin....riding for 3 hours or so and finishing back in the city. Bonfire, BBQ and maybe some beverages for recovery. They're saying the world is coming to an end this year so we may as well ride while waiting for this event.

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....