The people have spoken

Prepare yourself for a little eye candy . . . . nudies it is!

Lenny

Rode SMH for about 2.5 hours this afternoon with Lenny. He put me to shame on a couple technical climbs. If there were awards for Most Improved Player, Lenny would get it! I don't know anyone who was able to learn to ride technical stuff so naturally and so quickly. It must be the toast, peanut butter and tomato sandwiches he eats.

Clip of Lenny riding Decent.

The price Leonard had pay for riding so well today were a few mechanicals . . .

- hard to pedal with a bent chain.

The Trooper

Rode out in SMH this afternoon with Gilles. He hasn't been on his mtn bike much lately and twas only his second ride out in Kanata Lakes this year. He got more bounced around than a . . . .What a trooper he was. I'd stop and wait and I'd hear him whistling away or "dummm deeee dummm booooty biggggy bop bop". He bit it hard once towards the end of the ride, went down like a bag of hammers, the kind of crash that leaves a mark - a big one! He got up, brushed himself off and back on the bike . . . . bee bopping away. What a trooper!

If that was me, I'd had been crying like a little girl.

*This was a great opportunity to add on the blog a Maiden picture. Thanks Gilles.

Boot in the nuts

Just got my fat arse off the couch. Nothing crushes my sense of well-being like not being able to ride my bike.

Woke up just in time to miss Mark's phone call this morning, rushed to get up up and phoned him back in my best, "I've been up for hours" voice. I didn't want to seem groggy, that I over-slept and was lacking any kind of gungho-ness for an early Sunday morning ride. I was actually looking forward to a long road ride.

My troublesome knee had other plans. Met up with Mark near a usually busy Baseline Ave. and started to head out of town. I really knew within the first fifteen minutes of leaving the house that my knee (even after having another bike fit) was no better. I ended up bailing on Mark, leaving him to do the 120km ride to his folks cottage alone. I'm such a wimp. But it hurt, it hurts now.

Ibprophin and ice don't seem to be helping. My only idea of what is going on is a repetitive motion injury that could have conceivably happened during the 24 hr race. Two last attempts at a fix are a "J" brace that I am hopefully going to be able to sport this afternoon riding the 29'er out in KL or another brace that Mary suggested.

Got to get this issue resolved quick - too much riding to be had!
Cheers.

How many more jokers will there be?

One joker is Rasmussen, one is Vino . . . . who will the other two be? I'm sure the Tour is full of them.

This is my last rant on the circus the tour has turned into. Was reading over on Cycling News an interview with Cadel Evans (a former mtn biker by the way) who was talking about being beaten by cheats, the scandals, etc. I've heard this type of thing before from other riders - wasn't Rasmussen just in a press conference the other day preaching the same sort of stuff. I like Evans . . . . I hope what he's saying is true. But with all the bull shit surrounding the tour the past couple years, you got to take everything you here with a grain of salt.

Another Doping Fiend

Rasmussen booted from Rabobank and the tour.

click the picture for the story

Shexy

So far, it looks like some people want to see me naked.
I may have to give my huge, exceptionally large reader base what they want.
Here's a little taste . . . .


. . . . there's still time to change your vote!

Ideal Bikes

I love going into bike shops. If I had a choice of things to do, perusing through a bike shop would be right up there. I've been in enough shops to know the good ones and the not so good ones. Doesn't matter if it's a great shop or not, I can usually entertain myself in a shop for quite some time - either talking with staff or checking out something cool.

While out east the past few weeks I had an opportunity to go into a few shops. One was Ideal Bikes in Halifax.It's a bit different than your regular shop as it offers a selection of reconditioned bicycles at affordable prices. Spoke to Dave, the owner, and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Next time you're in Halifax, stop in to say "Hello" and have a look around.
Cheers.

Another . . . .

Another . . . . DOPE (clicky clicky)

A few

A few photos from our trip. Sorry, only a couple cycling related - bad knee, bad knee . . . . sit, stay, go away, bad knee.

On the way to the hospital after smashing my shin on a rock while chasing sea life along the shore. Can't really tell from the photo, but it was almost the size of a baseball.

The only shot I took while riding. That's Whale Cove. Yep, there were lots of whales to be seen. My longest day was (only) just under 100 km - Whycocomagh to Margaree Harbour via the Margaree Valley. Windy days of riding.

Tanya, just leaving our cabin from Margaree Harbour to Pleasant Bay on the Cape Breton leg of her across Canada trip. Rainy, foggy, crappy day. Don't know how she got up everyday to ride? And I bet everyday she had a smile on her face.

Sunsets.

Lobster.

Pilot Whales.

Chrissie.

Jackie Boy.

Tug Boats.

Back

Just back in town tonight - beat tired from driving from New Brunswick today. Halifax before that. PEI before that. Looking forward to some travel-free days. Didn't race yesterday. Right decision for me. Haven't been on the bike for one week. Knee is still sore and swollen. Will be seeing Mary this week for a bike fit.

Glad to see my team won a stage in the TDF.

Pulling the plug

My knee is in bad shape. Can't explain it - haven't injured it, haven't changed the set up on the bike . . . nothing. I can't seem to ride for more than 25-30 minutes without it starting to really hurt. I've been icing immediately after a ride, taking ibprophin and stretching. It's swollen at night and in the morning, grinding and sore.
I`ve decided to skip the 8Hr race at Gore. In fact, I`m staying off the bike completely until I get back to Ottawa and have this checked out. I`ve got five or six more races this season that I want to be competitive for.

Update

Hey hey . . . . it's been a while. A few things of interest have happened . . . .

• completely mangelled my leg after I slipped while climbing on a rock at the beach - managed to crush the veins (I have varicous veins - yuck!) on the shin on my left leg. Got a wicked picture of it that I will up load once back home! Picture a baseball size lump ontop of you shin.
• Met up with Tanya on the island and she stayed the night at our cottage that we were renting. Rain and lack of rain gear kept me from riding with her to Pleasant Bay yesterday (I'm a whimp, what can I say). She's almost done her cross Canada Trip - you can check out her adventures here.
• Haven't been getting in many long days on the bike. Ever since Solstice, my left knee (especially on the road bike) has been giving me a lot of trouble - about 45 minutes into a ride and it starts to get very painful under the front to the knee cap. I have to ice the knee immediately after and cannot usually ride the next day. Haven't changed the set up on the bike, so I don't know what's going on. May have to go see Mary at Bike2Body for bike fit when I get back home.
• Had an awesome time trial type ride yesterday along the coast from Whale Cove (seen pilot whales almost every day since we've been here) up into Cheticamp and back - beautiful. Sudden changes of weather made it interesting - one mimute sunny and clear, no wind, then next (literally!) it was foggy, thick like pea soup - crazy, but very cool to ride in!
• Got the 8 Hrs at Gore next weekend. I'm "iffy" about doing this race. Will decide at the last minute I guess - it was never in the long term plans to do it and I was going to do it for fun, so we'll see.
• Off to PEI for a few days on Tuesday. Chrissie has never been there, so it will be fun to show her around. Will be taking the bike with me, of course, so will be cool to get a ride or two in - never have cycled in PEI before.

That's it for now. More to come later in the week from Halifax.
Cheers.

Holiday Road

Team "Me"

Just waiting for an invite to training camp. I mean, hey, if they can use my name, at least invite me out for a spin.

Jerseys would have looked much better with my picture on it. Don't you think??

Worked

The device worked. Had one minor adjustment to make at the start of the ride, but then it worked just fine.
Cheers.

Drop No More

Riding a 1x9 you don't have a front derailleur to help guide the chain. I found out yesterday that without something to keep the chain from falling off to the inside that you'll have to stop from time to time (especially while riding on the rough stuff) to put the chain back on.

However, Thom at Tall Trees, rigged up a device on his 1x9 which works great. Dropped by the shop today and he wrangled one up for me as well. Will put it through a test tonight while riding some technical stuff out in SMH.

A little refreshed

Today was just what I needed, a fun ride with no training goals. What a hoot! Spent the first half of the ride going as slow as we could. Made a game up - go so slow as to cause the riders behind you to dab (put a foot down). Once you dabbed you had to go to the end of the line. Sounds silly, but it was just what I needed. Lots of laughter and general goofiness. Thanks guys.

The fastest bunch of slow riders out in SMH today: (left to right) Peter, Steve, Scott and Peter.

Burnt

I've only been on the bike once since Solstice. Was supposed to do a long 2oo km ride with Rick on Saturday, but it ended quickly for me. Got into the park and decided that I had enough. The body, legs and mind were not recovered from the race. Maybe I waited too long to get a recovery ride in. Like Rick said to me, "You dried up like an old leather shoe." How true . . . . a shoe.

Heading out to SMH this morning to hook up with a few of the guys which will hopefully turn out to be a nice easy cruise - just what I need. I've been finding it hard to get motivated to do anything this past week. Part of it is the build up of the race and the high that comes with it, then it's over . . . . .
The other thing is school has ended and I'm on vacation. It didn't end that well for our staff either, with a high profile abuse case in the media about one my students - tragic to say the least. Thought that I was a little "battle hardened" after some of the stuff I've experienced teaching these past ten years . . . alas, it wiped me out.
Time for a ride.

Two More Races

I've added two more races to my schedule this season:

• Gore Fest - 8 Hr Mtn Bike Race in Gore, Nova Scotia
• Paul's Dirty Enduro in the Ganaraska Forest, near Peterborough

Gore Fest is a family oriented mnt bike festival, should be laid back. My main goal is to have fun at this as I will be on vacation at the time. Joey and his daughter, Alexandra will be doing this too (as a father/daughter tag team). They did it last year and placed 2nd in the mixed division. Not bad at all considering his daughter is around 11 years old!

Paul's Dirty Enduro is a 100 k'er. Not sure yet of my goal for that one. It's later in the season, so will play it by ear. It's right after the J & J Cycle 8 Hr Race, so I may feel burnt out by then and might just do it for fun. We'll see.