It’s round one of the cyclocross races. I would have to say all in all I was pretty happy to be back in the swing of things…having a nice schedule…work, ride, sleep…repeat. I started my new job working at a bike shopping wrenching bikes. So my life right now pretty much consists of bicycles. Anyways back to the racing. I started the trip off with my drive to Hamilton; I ended up staying the night in Hamilton on Thursday. A few of us went out for some sushi that night at “Joya Sushi,” it was damn tasty!!! Friday we officially kicked off road trip #1… I call it the Neil, Tara and Kyle show, pretty much the next few months I will be with them. We had a nice easy drive to Davisburg, Michigan, where we would be racing and sleeping. The three of us would be staying in host housing, if you’re not to sure what that is, pretty much people let u stay in there house for free (in a nut shell). The family we were staying with was amazing; they had a two and half year old son named Trevor who was absolutely hilarious. The little guy could speak both Spanish and English fluently and on the side he was learning French. He will be getting mad ladies when he grows up!!!

So Saturday was my first UCI race, let the fun begin…I had a long wait for the actual start of my race because I arrived at the venue around 9 am to watch and help out for Tara and Neil’s race. My race did not start till 3pm…lots of sitting! Tara had a sweet race…easily and I mean easily walking away from the field to capture the gold medal. Neil’s race was a little more interesting. We kind of switched roles, Coach was racing, and racer was yelling…only encouraging things…Neil had a cool race fighting off 3rd, 4th and 5th to take 2nd place. He was clearly a better bike handler then most of the racers. Then my race came…I was nervous…did not know what to expect. All I knew is I needed to ride hard…so that’s what I did, they blew the whistle, I put my head down and drove the pedals around. For my first race I was happy to cross the line in 15th place overall, while doing that I captured 3rd in the Under 23 category…not to shabby. No complaints here!

Day 2, once again Tara won, Neil battle it out and got second. Both were fun races to watch. It’s always fun to see people push the envelope…you can pin point when they push there limits. My race was going to be harder for me in my mind only because now I had goals and one of them was to beat this kid named tucker. He beat me by 5seconds the day before; I was out for some blood! When they said go I didn’t look back I danced all over the pedals fighting for every position… I ended up getting in to a sweet 5 man train… we hauled around the course. As the last lap approached I ran out of steam my stomach began to cramp, I was done. I crossed the line in 17th, not bad! Soon after the race finished I realized I had won the under 23, yeah I couldn’t believe it but it did happen.

The weekend came to an end with Tara getting the double win, Neil getting double silver and with me capturing a 3rd and 1st. lets just say it was a good drive home!!!

Life’s a Garden DIG it!

ups and downs

Well the weekend has come and gone. I would say it was a successful one but it had its far share of disappointment.

I will start with Saturday, it started off a little ruff around the edges, had a horrible sleep, lets just say I woke up and I boarded the bitter bus. Things seem to turn my way once I arrived at the race course. I had a great talk with my coach, well overdue! I rolled out on the course for a few laps. The course had a sweet single track climb off the start, flattened out for the middle portion and at the end had a grueling climb up the ski hill face. It for sure was going to be a fun day at the office. Other then that the day continued on as usual: Clean bike, pick tires to race on, relax and eat. Let’s just say pesto chicken pasta rocks!

Sunday, let the fun begin. As the sun crested the trees and the fog slowly lifted off the dew covered ground I awoke…hahahha whom am I kidding the sun was well in the sky when I got up. It was race day, it was time to rock. I had a killer breakfast a big old bowl of fruit and a stack of pancakes, it was yummmmyyyy!!!! Pretty much this race was supposed to be my introduction back to racing, I couldn’t’ just think of it as my first race back, it was the Ontario Championships. I had to giver, even if my best finish was last place; I just wanted to empty the tank and giver 110%. I had perfect morning, good sleep, a good pre race meal and an amazing warm up. It was time to start! I lined up, joking and laughing with some of my friends that were in the pit. I told Ian .M. a road racer out for some fun in the sun at a MTN bike race, that if he could lead the race to the top of the first climb I would give him a 6 pack of beer. Let’s just say he lost, he went down swinging! I had an all right start, sitting top 10 going in to the first climb. As I reached the top I found myself sitting around 8th about 45seconds off a group of 3. No knee problems, good power, I felt like a million bucks. I started my second lap with Mark hot on my wheel, which is nice he’s super fast and pushes nice pace. We started talking; he told me he was suffering from some bad stomach cramps. I was disappointed because last year we found ourselves in the same position, and had some good results. We pushed and pushed on the second lap but as we started up the ski hill climb I noticed mark started to fall off me wheel, and I knew he was a stronger rider, so something was defiantly going on! I just danced on the pedals for the rest of the lap, I had good sensations. That’s when things turned to the worst. I took my second last bottle, turned down away from the feed zone and whammy Mr. Wasp hit me with his best shot. The wasp got behind my glasses and had a field day with my eye brow and eye lid. My race was done faster then you could say wasp. I was super pissed, not a single nice thing came out of my mouth. I was angry but it could have been a blessing in disguise, who knows. Then my day turned from bad to good, I had a visit from Breya a friend who I haven’t seen for pretty much a year. We caught up and carried on with our day. As the day came to an end I was just happy to be back on my bike!

Today’s Blog is brought to you by the letter K….for KARMA!!!

Let the journey BEGIN

Sooooo, I started this blog due to the reason of pure boredom, naw I’m just kidding. Over the next few months I will be traveling around North America racing my bike! Hopefully I will bring you stories of victory, but with that comes stories of defeat (I am hoping for a lack of that). Whatever the future holds it shall be an exciting adventure.
Over the past few months I have been injured and unable to race my bike. It has been the longest few months of my life. At first I was cursing everything, I think it was due to the fact I could never get a clean crisp answer from any of my doctors about what was wrong with my knee. Then Came Alvin Brown, A man that knows more about the body then I know about bikes. Let’s just say he worked his magic and got me back to 100%... not only physically but mentally! I jump up on the pony for my first race this coming weekend (September 17, 2006). It will give me a good idea on the time and energy I will have to put in to get me where I want to be.
Other then that good morning, good afternoon and good night!!!