Cali

First I am going to apologize for not posting sooner, so sorry about that. Pretty much since I landed here in California I have been riding and going and seeing the sites.

The Flight

I began the journey with Ken (friend of the family) giving me a voucher to try out the lounge at the airport. Now this is a VIP lounge so I thought I suited it very well. They had free beer, free wine, free anything and everything. It was a good start to the trip! Now on the flight was a lot different. 45min in to the air a guy had some medical problems. At first site the flight attendant thought he was having a heart attack, but he ended up being diabetic and had some complications. Now for the rest of the 4hrs there was crowd of people around this guy helping him. I for sure thought the plane was going to land…but nope we kept trucking to LA.

Day 1

I built my bike did a nice easy 1 hour ride and chilled. I needed the rest from the long day of travel. The roads in the area are pretty nice, really rollllllyyyyyy!

Day 2

I woke up and did a 1hr 30min ride around the town, trying to find the good loops, which I did! Then it was shower change and off to San Diego. We went to a few cool places, tried out local food and enjoyed the sites. We went to the Ocean, looked along many beaches. After we finished up with beaches Amanda took us to an outlet mall right on the Mexico border. First time I saw it, I was pretty pumped. Then home, then eating, then bed!

Day 3

Once again I woke up early to get my ride in, ended up doing a 2hr 30min ride around Lake Skinner. Nice loop, but a local told me the roads on the other side of town are better! Then Amanda, Morgan, Natalie and I went to the OC. Hahhaha oh man just like I pictured it. Nice cars, nice houses and mean people, just kidding the people were nice. We checked out a few malls in the OC, the girls shopped, I watched. Amanda brought us to this gated community where people like Teemu Selanne live, yeah massive homes. Lastly we went out for dinner a sushi restaurant, very classy.

Day 4

Woke up early to get my ride in, 1hr 30mins, home shower eat gone. Finally we were heading to my beach. If you haven’t taken a guess yet, then it’s called muscle beach. The funniest place ever, words can’t describe it. Every weirdo in LA hangs out there! From there we went to Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and then Hollywood. In fact I stood right around where the Oscars were. I got my pictures of the big gold men…it was a cool scene, lots of security.

Day 5

Laguna Beach, Newport and Huntington Beach. A day of coast lines, So many beaches so little time. The way to describe them is ski resorts with out the snow and ski, all surfers and surf shops. I have a tonnneee of pictures I will put up soon as I get them on my computer to show you how nice the beaches are.

That has been my activities since I got here. Now for some quality biking hours!

Cheers

back in the sadddddleeee

I took a break from riding and from writing once I got home. I needed the time to just chill and relax. I felt that there was no need to post anything. Now that I have had my time off and tried to get the body back to 100% I am off for training in California and Tucson. My plan is to build my base up in the nice warm weather of the south!

So stay tuned for a regular updated Blog starting on Tuesday. I fly in to California at 1045pm. You may not know this…but its kind of big deal!

One thing I have been enjoying while home is the snow; I have been trying to regularly snowshoe and ski. With this global warming you never know how long we will have snow for… thanks Al Gore.

Partayyyyy

I have been home for less then a week and in that time I have done absolutely nothing. I have been logging a lot of sitting time! A part from that I have been also organizing a surprise Rock Star Party for Matty D. I had a bunch of help from The Fitzy squad, Moma Duke Douglas and many others. The party went great, Matt was totally surprised! It was nice to come home and relax and have an amazing party! Here is just a taste of what happened… I don’t think everyone could handle the whole thing!

The Begining of the night...

Kelly and I attempting the Titanic...she let go!

Put your hands up in the air, put your hands up!...missing from picture Ian Manning

Look Mom no hands! tricky dicky dutch playing games

steam roller....great girl/guy ratio, must be someones birthday!

Birthday Boi rocking out!

Birthday boi trying to show me how to dance...TRYING
The last ones standing...not bad not bad! well sitting

Morning after...only a few Casualties!

The BIG deal

World Freakin Championships….wholllyy molly…that sums up what I felt before, during and after the day! My day couldn’t of gone any better, I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeee when things click. I owe it to a lot of people that helped my day go smooth… I will start with my teammates…always pumped and ready to rock! Greg for telling me NO PAIN 3 times in the morning in a 30min span! Neil and Andy keeping the team area organized and making sure riders were looked after. Lastly Dave our mechanic, he kept the bike going! Now the race was super intense, the most spectators I have ever seen. The most important fans being my Mom and Sonja! You could hear there motherly cheers on every step that I took on the stairs. My race prep seemed to run smooth, great warm up, hit the trainer for 45mins. I did a few intervals and couple leg speed jumps. You had to sign in 15mins to 30mins before the start so I rolled over did that and then just chilled and rode the start section. I had a pretty good call up, 31st. When the gun sounded I put my head down and braced for elbow rubbing. A lot of pushing went on so you had to really hold your line. The first few laps went great I was sitting in 45th and I was in a group with 6 guys. I took a deadly spill half way threw. I decided to run in to a fence with my hand, lets just say the fence won! It stunned me for a second but it made me loose contact with the group. I ended up catching one of them that fell off the pace and beat him to the line. I placed 50th, not bad for my first World Championships. Along with myself and the other Team Canada guys, I think we all had great days, except Aaron, he got in a fight with a fence and yes the fence won! For the rest of the day I packed my bike, chilled and enjoyed many deserved cold beers.

Some of you might be curious, but Yes I did watch Rocky 4 the night before my race. The best underdog story of our time. NO PAIN

Tara, Mike and Greg raced the next day, they all had sweet rides. I do have to say that Team Canada, yeah we are kind of a big deal!!!

I am home now for 2 weeks, time to do a little snowboarding and relax!!!

Thanks guys for a great 5 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check out the photos on Canadian Cyclist
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/