Monday, July 30, 2007

Liver and onions is unreal!

OK, so its been a while, I was on sick leave. As soon as I landed in Rio I was starting to get congested and I was thinking it was allergies or something like that. But it was the start of the big nasty. When I got back home to BC I was really bad, 06/07 Oilers bad. I was in bed for like 4 days in a row, I had to miss a nationals that I think suited my mud skills and now I am starting to ride again. I rode yesterday and felt OK so its all good. Yesterday was the Kayak pre nationals at Tamihi and Kurt took me out on the river before the race and I swam, I did try a roll but it was not happening so it was swimming time, and everyone was watching it I was the man! did you know that Roddi made the velonews "hot" list in dec 2002? So to clear up my sinus's I am taking warm salty water in a bottle and spraying it up my nose it goes up one side and into the sinus and then out the other side and it feels so good. so here are some photos from Brazil.
Pete working hard and in the background Paraguay guy drinking yarba
Line up for food
Team Canada chowing down.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

When it Rains it Pours

I raced today, kind of. So not my most wicked day ever. I woke up and the left side of my head that was all pluged up was still there and I was snorting green and hacking green but the thing is I felt fine. then we rode the 3km to the course and I got hit by a car, not my falt but I was not hurt, the car kind of side swiped me and I had to unclip and made this sweet save. then I raced for like 10min and flatted on the first Down hill then Put my spare tube in and CO2ed it up and it went flat right away. then I rode my flat to the tech and by that time my race was done. I am really pissed but it happens I just hope this is it for the bad luck. Matt and I are going to hit the beach tomorrow. then I fly home. I now know why my mom drinks so much yarba mate. She was born in Paraguay and there was a Mtb team from Paraguay and the coach was just pounding the yarba. I think tonight we are going to a churascura to eat some meat. I cant wait to get home.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Brazil

So I made it here all good. matt and I rode the course today and its good. It did piss rain all day yesterday. today the course was a little muddy, but it will be bone dry and fast by tomorrow. I feel good but I think I might be alergic to somthing down here cause the left side of my face feels like poo. all stuffed up and runny nose and eye, but just on the left side, whats up? we race tomorrow at noon 30. its hot here to like 27c. later

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

BC Champs

So since Quebec I have just been on eastern time. going to bed early and waking up early, it works out well cause I can watch the tour live while I consume my coffee beverage. and Brazil is like 3 or 4hrs ahead as well. This past weekend I raced the BC provincials at Red mountain in Mission. it was a new course that has never been raced before new climb and real new single track that was so fun and hard. I won the race, Neal Kindree was second and Stef Widmer was 3rd. I felt good real solid on the climb and my single track skills were on fire cause that's where I burned Neal on the first lap, then I just rode steady hard laps. After the race a bunch of us hit up Mission springs for burgers. a very good day. I was going to race padden on the Sunday but since I leave for Brazil today I don't think it would have been a good idea. It would have been fun to race padden but I am not in a body bag for my 20hr travel and that will be a good thing. Padden lake was the first Mt bike race I did in 1997, 10years oh Boy. year 10 right mike? I better win some races! I think I will have Internet in Brazil. This is the "roof rack" we had in Quebec, we drove 12hrs with that on the roof!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Swimmer!

Home sweet home, sort of. I am just living at my parents for the next couple days before I go to Brazil. Marsh Cooper is living in my room at Chilliwack right now anyways and I think its best if I just stay on the road and race every weekend for the time being. But I had to go home to do some Bank stuff and pay some bills. The best part is there were no bills in the mail. So sweet. Then while I was home Connor and Jon Allan phoned me up and we did a Kayak run down the river. I somehow convinced marsh to come as well. Now the water is still really high and Marsh was so scared, he has done some kayaking before when he was 10. well that was like 10 years ago. We got into the river and its all good then we were going down stream for like 5min then we got to the hardest part of the river and marsh flipped over right before it and “swam” down the hardest part. The look on his face was priceless and he held on to Jon's boat with one arm and his boat with the other. Connor got his paddle and I got his shoe. Unreal day! it was so good to be out in the real mountains having some adventures. BC is wicked, oh I love you BC. The weather is so hot too, going in the river on a hot day is so good. Then sleeping in a basement is unreal. You just got to be cool. My kayaking is very solid right now, I just feel so good in the boat. I am going to run tamihi next time I go. When I was in Chilliwack I didn't find my photo cable, I am going to have to figure something out to post some photos on this thing. And Nikki if you read this I think the tent in the garage is dry now, you could maybe pack it up? thanks Later

Monday, July 02, 2007

St-Felicien World cup.

The travel – 3hr drive from MSA. I dove in the Andrew Watson van on Monday. No problems.

The Accommodation – This is the real story of the trip. We rented a house with 3 bedrooms. When we got there it was some family's house and they just put up a tent trailer in the driveway and just slept in the trailer. They were fully in the house chilling the whole time and cooking cakes and doing as they please. I slept in a 10year old girls room, I kind of felt like Michel Jackson. We got half the fridge and 1 shelf in the pantry. They had a bald cat and it was so ugly. I was stying there with Marty and Watson. We complained a bit and got some money off but it was still not wicked.

The Venue – It was a small ski hill in the middle of nowhere and there was a 10km gravel road to get there. It looked real bad but then we rode the course......
The Course - Unreal! The best course I have ever done, no joke. 6.4km per lap. Little bike park, uphill climbing in the woods with roots, technical down hill single track, some fast berms, it was a real mans course.

The race – I started out in 50th place and my goal for the race was to make sure I had gas in the tank to have a fast last half and not die out, but at the same time not to get all bottle necked in the single track at the start. I made it out of the start loop in like 45ish then just went hard but not to hard and I finished strong and very tired in 21st. The weather was rain/sun/cloud/22c/13c, kind of like BC in the spring, I was loving it. I couldn't believe the amount of people that came out to watch, for a small little town they did a great job of supporting the race. I raced well but I think I can still go faster cant wait for Brazil and Nationals.

The Now – I am in a Montreal airport hotel and I fly home to Vancouver tomorrow. I am going to do BC Provincials in Mission next weekend then I am off for Brazil on the 10th for the pan am games, I hope. Right now there is some crazy stuff going on in Rio and I hope the race will happen. We will see. I will post some photos of this last trip when I find my camera cable, you got to see this cat, I am having nightmares with this thing. Cant wait to go home. later