Hot August Nights 2011

I'll write nothing about this year's Chico Racing Hot August Nights 24 Hr Race other than this:  I had fun, I was slow, I ate chips, I was abnormally tired from a long two weeks of night shift, and I won a water bottle by pushing over a child.

Worked all night Thursday, got home at 7:30 AM, hit the hay for four hours, then Richard picked me up to drive five hours to the race.

Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C".

The only shot of the entire race course.  I've always wanted to stop and take a photo of this overlook, so I did - but on my pre-lap so that I wouldn't lose precious seconds in completing an average lap time for a non-professional, late 30's, over weight, recreational mountain biker.  Time is of the essence.

Curvy Butt looked a little worse for wear.

Declan's first 24 Hr race and he smoked the kids field.  His old man hopped him up on EPO, freezies and marshmallows right before the big event.

What a champ!

Camp life.

Gohardlongman in the morning eating some Chico-McMuffins.

For the love of Gwad!  Rick has a bladder the size of a walnut - we stopped every 30 minutes on the way home so that he could take a whiz on the side of the highway.

My apologies for my seven other teammates who I did not manage to snap a photo of - laziness, lack of motivation and my dislike for you kept me shooting more.  That is all. 

Hot August Nights and We Du Team

24 Hrs of Hot August Nights is just around the corner and I'll be heading down to Bolton, ON after a looooong fugging week of crazy night shifts. I've been burnt to a crisp tired all week. What better way to relax than going to a 24 hour race. I must am stupid.

I'd like to draw your attention to a very cool program and an even cooler story that goes along with it...

My friend Cat runs Trips For Kids here in Ottawa. I donate used cycling parts and pieces when I can to help out. I got a lovely e-mail the other day from Cat keeping me up-to-date on the progress of the program and a group of boys a long way from home:

Here are the name of the boys and where they came from all just one year ago.
They particpated in the Eastern Ontario High School Race in May and did very well.
They asked to go to the 24 hour races my Alex told them about.
I asked Chico if they would waive the race fees and they said yes.

Today I am packing, it will take 3 days to pack and cook for 11 of us, these boys, my two kids and Myself and Mario.

You can imagine 11 sleep bags, 11 camp mats, 11 bikes, 11 helmets, 11 place settings, 9 meals for 11 people, 3 sleeping tents, 2 dinning tents.

The boys have trained once a week since early June and have had two night rides.
They will be a all male team under 100 years of age.

Jordan- Kisangani, Republic Of Congo
D'Jemcy Pierre- Haiti
Yvan- Senegal, Africa
Yannick-Senegal, Africa
Walker-Haiti
Ben Leo- Haiti
Esdras- Cameroun, Africa

Those bike jerseys look vaguely familiar.  Who knew two fast little guys would fill them out so well.

Chico Racing will waive fees for the 24 hour Hot August Nights event for "We du Team"

Remember the "new-to-Canada" youths that joined the mountain biking team coached by Cat Weaver at their school, Franco Ouest, who participate in the High school race last month. All of them completed the course well under the expected times for beginner racers, and since then they have been riding once a week with Trips for Kids Ottawa.

Cat Weaver TFKO program director, who has taken 5 youth teams to 24 hour races over the past 3 years, wondered if Chico Racing would waive the race fees for these boys.

Immediately, Adam Ruppel president at Chico Racing replied “Yes, we will waive their race fee, what better way to encourage these boys in the sport".

The race fee for a team of 5 is over $ 600.00, what a generous gift! Thank you Chico Racing!!!

The five young people who will participate in the event came to Ottawa from Haiti, Mozambique, and Burundi in August 2010.

Funds still need to be raised for a rental vehicle, gas and food for these boys, but Cat is committed to getting them trained and ready to race at Albion Hills August 24/25th 2011!

Check out the Trips For Kids blog for more info on the team and how they do at HAN.

Roads Less Traveled in Cape Breton

Whenever I go home to Cape Breton I always take a bike and ride parts of the Cabot Trail.  If you've never been or ridden the trail, you should really go.  

But, I've done it lots and this time back home I decided to ride something different.  So, I brought along some fat knobby tires and my CX bike and sought out the roads less traveled - old Cape Breton farm and logging roads. 

Piper Glen Rd Soutwest Margaree

Steep dirt road climbs and descents

Mabou Coal Mines Rd

Mabou Coal Mines Rd with overlook of ocean.

Old farm/logging roads on the map but hard to find in person.

That road above turned into a riverbed which I ended up walking for 1.5 km to get me to another logging/farm road.

Met some friends in the highlands.

Some clear cutting of some spruce stands due to beetle infestations near Sight Point.

Inverness Beach in the background.

One of my rides ended at Inverness Beach - chilly windy day, no one swimming - I jumped in to wash off the mud and dirt and help the legs recover.

Cape Breton back roads look very much like Quebec roads.

Three tubes were sacrificed to the back roads.

Stupid Busy

New workshop at the original big ring world headquarters is a mess and in disarray.  A move, four days later a two day drive to the east coast, family vacation, two drive back to world headquarters, and unpacking from vacation and move.  Stupid busy.  Updates to follow with photos of some rides while back home in Cape Breton.