Day 2 Seeding/Practice Photos - MSA National Champs

Day 2 in Mont Sainte Anne saw the track get rougher and drier. The sun was out in full force with no clouds in the sky. Again, George and Cam were up on course taking photos for the teams seeding and practice runs.

Best start of a race - A Roller Coaster!

Dean

Ben on his way up for seeding

Ben on his way down

Dale

Mantle

Ja'mie

Dobie

Tomorrow is race day. Practice from 9-10am and racing starts at 10:30am.

Day 1 Practice Photos - MSA National Champs

Day 1 of practice at the Mont Sainte-Anne National Championships was a wild one. Lots of bike parts were destroyed and lives were nearly taken. George Porteous and Cam Porteous (out because of a broken collarbone) were up on course all-day taking photos. Below are some team photos:

Dobie

Dale

Ben

Faubert

Dobie

Not Dunbar!

Check in tomorrow for more updates!

UBC TriDu Olympic Triathlon: Complete!

In early September, a good friend of mine and I were sitting on the grass knoll outside the Student Union Building of UBC discussing the idea of doing an Olympic Triathlon - a 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run. We had both completed the Gran Fondo Whistler and we were ready for another challenge. A couple months later, we shook hands on it and we both were committed to completing the UBC TriDu Triathlon on March 11th.

As soon and I signed up, I became entirely motivated to train for the event. I spent most of my time in the pool to ensure that I could complete at least 1500m. By the time that I finished training, I had my swim time down to ~25 minutes. I left my bike training to be covered by all the mountain biking that I do. Especially as the weather was terrible to train on a road bike. As for running, I have a 7.4 km loop around my house and I tried to run as often as possible.

March 11th came awfully quick but I felt prepared. The first stage was the swim which I now had a lot of experience with. I came out of the pool feeling good. Next, I ran over to the bike transition station, laced up my clip shoes and saddled up for a 40km ride along SW Marine Dr. Finally, I came back to the transition station, threw my bike shoes off and laced up my runners. I took my first step and the legs were hurting. I felt like a new born calf trying to learn how to walk! I ran it off, got into a good running zone and before I knew it, I was running past the finish line. I was stoked as I ran up to the finish line and saw that I was about to beat my goal of a sub 3hr time. I finished with a time of 2hr and 51 minutes! Good enough for 81st out of 191. Not bad for the first time.

1500m swim: complete

40km bike: complete

10km: complete

It's time for a personal pitcher at the bar!

New Steed!

On Sunday afternoon at 2:46pm, I strolled into the shop with one thing on my mind - a new DH rig for the 2012 season. I had been humming and hawing for long enough and needed to decide on steed. Robby was busy doing some major modification to the shop but was nice enough to help me out. The new shelves, new counter-tops and new paint got put on hold and we ironed out a build. I decided to go with the Specialized Demo I and swap out some parts. Off came the stock forks, rear spring, drivetrain and brakes. On went a Boxxer World Cup fork, Ti-spring, Avid Code brakes and Sram X-0 drivetrain. I have been a proud customer of the Fox 40's for the last 2.5 years but I decided to try out the Boxxers. Also, I'm giving the 10-speed fad a go. I am a little skeptical but hopefully it all works out.

I got off class early today which gave me the chance to build her up. Check it out!!!



* Dang, I forgot to spin my stanchions to get the BoXXer to line up. I told you that I'm a BoXXer noob.

Killing it - the Re-up

After Benny posted that photo from the Oak Street Dirt Jumps, it inspired me to look through the archives and find some old school footage. This gem is from one of our first days ever riding Whistler. Prepare for head-banging, casing and good times!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuYzjNNAfXs&context=C3915ed6ADOEgsToPDskIonuBsNLmefYJjb__q5bCn

Road Riding???

Well... I signed up for RBC Gran Fondo Whistler. A 120km bike ride from Vancouver to Whistler. Why??? Well, I trained for and planned to do the BMO Half Marathon back in early May but Ben, Cam and I went to California so I missed it. Then I was offered an entry for the Fondo from my work so I thought it would suffice. I want to be the best at exercise! Better start training...

On Thursday, Benny gave me a call and brought up the idea to ride to the Lions Bay cliff jumps and back. It has been on the Summer to-do list since May. Robby Venables has been nice enough to lend me his Devinci Monocoque Carbon road bike which made it a lot easier. Ben on the other hand, was on his Dad's MOUNTAIN BIKE, the Brodie Spark.

The ride to Lions Bay was awesome along Marine Drive and then onto the old Sea-t0-Sky Hwy. I led most of the way and broke the wind for Ben. He was right there with me on all of the hills. He has so much grit and desire to be on the top step of the Senior Men's podium! That was all he was thinking about as he cranked up those hills.

We made it to Lions Bay, jumped off the cliffs into the ocean and then we were on our way back. 79km/80km were successful until Ben's quadriceps seized on the hill at 16th and Blenheim. He walked it off and we made our way home...

No photos...

-Dobie

P.S. Group road rides happen every Wednesday @ 6pm leaving from Dunbar Cycles. All abilities welcome. Call the shop and ask for Tony (or T-bone) for more info.

My experience at the Pro GRT in Port Angeles

After a big party to wrap up the UBC school year on Thursday night, Ben, Ross, David and I jumped in the truck and headed down to Port Angeles for the first race of the season. I was fairly intimidated in the beginning as I was racing Pro against a bunch of factory riders like Danny Hart, Andrew Neethling and Duncan Riffle. Also, most people had been training on the course since Thursday and I only got to practice Saturday and race Sunday. I didn't quite know how I would contend so it was hard to set a goal for myself...

Saturday: The Pro category didn't have practice until noon so Ross and myself got the chance to walk the course and discuss lines. Then we geared up and punched out about 5-6 laps. In the evening I had my seeding run. I took it fairly conservative and didn't pedal much as I was very tired from riding all day. I was happy as I hit all my lines and I wasn't exhausted at the bottom.

Sunday morning began with a unnecessary 6am wake up call from Ross Roseingrave. He started barking orders to ensure that we checked out of our hotel, ate, went to Safeway and got changed well before practice started. I got 1 practice run in and then it was time to chill out in the pits until my race run at 3:09pm (the worst part of racing). While I was waiting around, a much anticipated storm rolled in and soaked the coarse. Things were about to get interesting...

My plan for my race run was to do everything that I did in my seeding run except pedal all the transition sections. I decided to be a bit cautious because of the conditions. My run went pretty well except for a few bobbles but I couldn't expect to be perfect in the wet. I ended up improving from my seeding run by 13 spots to 56th (out of 91). I was satisfied considering it was an international event with some pretty tough competition.

Cheers,

Aaron