O-Cup #1 Mansfield Ont.

The Ontario Cup Mountain Bike circuit is never short on some guys with some serious horsepower on the start line. Today the field included, but definitely was not limited to, my two teammates A.Morka and P.Glassford ( who are both riding super strong this season), Raph Gagne( Quebec's top Mountain biker and one fast dude), Cam Jette ( who also is riding really strong this season), then you have other strong men like M. Garrigan or Ryan Atkins who both could be a serious threat at the front.

The course was one of the best I have ever raced at Mansfield, it was fast and had great flow. The weather looked like rain but nobody actually got wet... We (Trek Canada) controlled the race right from the start with Adam taking a good pull on the first lap, weaning our group down to 7 racers. On the 2nd and 3rd lap I did the work at the front, trying to keep a good pace and our speed high. On the 4th lap Peter went to the front and like the tempo monster he is put in a very solid effort. Just after the longer climb starting the 5th lap I went back to the front and put in a bit of an attach with only Raphael staying with me. We jammed hard and had many people to pass. On one of the last pieces of singletrack I has a little washout from a sandy corner and Raph snuck by me. I Knew that in the last 1.5km of the course that If I was going to win, I needed to be infront. I chased super hard but Raph was attaching me with full force! Coming into the last bit on the course is where it is won here, Raph was out front and I tried to get back, but I was pretty gassed. I Finished 2nd only a few seconds behind him, with Peter taking 3rd not far back from me. Cam had a solid day finishing 4th and Adam rolling in 5th (note: on the drive home from sea otter, adam got food poisoning from an apparent fast food chain with a "Jared" spokesperson). So all in all it was a good day out for sure, not quite the World Cup that was in England, but still a pretty fun day of racing!

Well That's a Wrap...

It's Sunday night, 9pm here in Monterey California. I am at the Sea Otter Classic and the cross country was today. Temps were good and the course fun. I had a decent start hitting the first singletrack section in the top 15 ish. There was ton's of passing on this course and I wasn't to worried about moving up through the race. There were only two rock sections on the course (hardly even that) and somehow I managed to flat on the second lap in the first of two mini rock piles. I did a quick fix, through a tube in and got going again. Pinned it for another lap and about halfway through the 3rd lap I managed to flat again! This time it was out in the middle of a double track section! Nothing even around to blame! Fixed the flat yet again, this time only slightly slower than the first tire fix. I got back riding and as I came out to go onto my fourth lap I decided that I was way to far back to make up anytime and get back into the race. I did the "go or no go" and I chose "no go". I went out and did a few hrs on some nice roads instead. Anyways hopefully since I had two flats today that will make up for any other flats that I would maybe of gotten later in the season(fingers crossed). There is really no point dwelling on something that is mostly out of my control, all I can do is look forward to what's coming next. On that note it is still always a bit frustrating knowing that I am fit and that I would of probably done well today.
Next up? A 3am rise n' shine to hit the San Fran airport for my 745am flight back home.

Sea Otter Classic

We (Mical, Peter, Fred and I) are at the Sea Otter Classic. We arrived here Thursday afternoon and are staying at a very cool local Ranch. Laguna Seca is literally in plain sight of our guest house. The weather really couldn't get any better (20 degrees and sunny). The XC course is much different then it has been in the past, it is basically a short lap of around 5km and really doesn't leave very far from the Pit area. Which is good because it makes it way more spectator friendly and exciting for the thousands of fans that are out here to watch us battle it out. The expo area is as BIG and complete as I think I have ever seen it, with a bunch of really cool products coming down the pipe. We are racing the short track at 3:15pm Saturday (tomorrow) and the XC at 2:00pm on Sunday. The start list is a impressive one with many of the top racers from around the globe here to compete.

Home Sweet Home..... Sort of.

In Brooklin, have been for a week now. It does feel pretty good to be back in Canada where I can't stream online tv, where I have to pay double the price of gas but I get to play "roll up the rim". The weather the first week was pretty good, I must of brought some nice Sunshine back with me from Cali. I did 15hrs of Mountain Biking on my sick Trek 8500 in the first 4 days that I was home! It is such a fun bike to ride. I (we, peter and matt) left Fontana sunday night and made it to the bright city of Vegas that night. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were same old cross country driving, Boring and uneventful. I made it back to Brooklin late Wed night. I slept forever thursday, still made ti out for a 4hr mtb ride on my local trails, which were surprisingly dry. I went up to Collingwood for a couple days and did a few more BIG rides up and down the Escarpment. Fast forward to tues, which was 5hrs 15min in the pouring rain... yay so much for the nice weather. Yesterday (wednesday) it was the same as tuesday only slightly cooler and I decided I was going to maybe give the rollers a whirl. 3hrs on them was good and bad and I had 90 min of tempo prescribed for the day, which once I got going felt pretty good. Doing anything on the rollers is hard, you have nowhere to hide, no stop signs, no down hills, no coasting or even hills to jam up. It is just sit and pedal... I am headed back down to the Sea Otter next Wed and I am super excited that the organizer has finally changed the pro course to a more spectator friendly venue.

Anyways here is a few images from my suffer fest on the rollers..