Slightly Better.

So Yesterday was the short track and it was long! Almost 30 minutes of hammering around one of the best and yet one of the toughest short track course I have raced on. After what had happened to me yesterday I was seriously contemplating if I should be racing or not? I decided to giver a go and see what happens. I did a long 2.5hr warm up on the road before hand and that seemed to loosen things up a bit. I wasn't to worried that what had happened to me yesterday was going to happen again today. History of this has shown me that I am fine the next day (after a solid 12hr sleep!). I quite enjoyed the road riding around Mount Morris Wisconsin and would come back again anytime!

I had a poor call up (surprise) and had to battle from behind. I passed as many racers as I really could have and finished 13th. I was pacing the leaders for most of the race so that was reassuring that I had some gas in the tank again. I felt about 1000 times better than yesterday and was happy that I was able to pass about 40 or so riders in such a short span of time.

Today we (adam, taylor and myself) had the honour of getting a behind the scenes tour of the Trek Factory here in Waterloo WI. It was seriously unreal how amazing that place is!!! I am not to sure how much I am allowed to say but it can be summed up in pretty much one word...... AMAZING!!.

Anyways we are hitting the road home tomorrow morning at first light and have a solid 13hr drive ahead of us.... yay.

Not Good.

I had a not so good day today here in Wisconsin. I am not sure what is going with my body so I am keeping the details out. All I want to say that I am very optimistic that it is not as bad as it could be and all I need to do is figure out what is causing this. Anyways I am trying to decide if I should be racing tomorrow and what may be the outcome if I do.....hmmmm.......

Good Samaritan!

I was out for a very solid MTB ride on some of my good old favorite trails on Friday. 15 minutes in I had a bumpy shift and herd the all to familiar sound and feel of my chain breaking.... Yay what a great way to start the day! I checked my handlebar for the spot that I usually tape my powerlink to and it wasn't there! Yay again! I was planning on cleaning my bike post ride so you can only imagine what my drivetrain was looking like.... Yikes! Just before I was about to go to town on the grease fest and fiddle a link in, two riders came over the hill from where I was standing. "Are you alright"? they asked. "Nope, I just blew my chain apart" I replied. Then they offered a powerlink for me to have! I already forget their names (insert poor memory with names). I have often helped cyclists on the road or trails that needed a spare tube, co2, or even just a extra hand to fix something. Never have I ever really needed a hand with anything over the years riding until Friday afternoon. I am very glad that I was able to finish my MTB ride on a gorgeous day and it goes to show that what goes around, comes around.

Trek Toronto Canada Cup #3 Hardwood Hills Ont.

Last weekend was the Trek Toronto Canada Cup held at Hardwood Hills just north of Barrie. On Saturday we (my teammates and myself) had a "come ride with the team" day and we had a fantastic turnout! It was really motivating to ride with the next wave of up and coming cyclists! We did a little "meet and greet" in between the two ride times and signed a few pro cards and team posters. It is always a good feeling when you see little talented cyclists looking up to you and aspiring to one day be racing competitively.

The weather on the weekend was hot, dry and extremely dusty. We had a full men's field chomping on the bit to go giver for the third weekend in a row. I had a decent start and hit the first singletrack somewhere in the top ten. Hardwood is a hard place to race if you are not from Ontario and it is very easy to blow up really fast. I tried to make sure that I paced myself well and hoped that I would be able to maintain my momentum and keep my average speed up. I got in a train with two of my other team members (Adam and Peter) and we hammered together for almost 4 laps! Each of us taking solid pulls on the front. Near the end of the 4th lap Adam and Peter were attacking hard and I wasn't able to up the pace with them. I was racing at a consistent pace and couldn't up the pace to join them. I rode the last lap with the boys just in sight and did the last lap in no-man's land. I ended up finishing in 7th place with a Mechanical free race. The last two weekends I had some bad luck and my goal for today was to have a clean race with nothing going wrong and I did. I didn't have the snap in my legs that I had last weekend but still it was a solid ride. Everyone else on the team had very good days out, Adam 4th, Peter 5th and Mical 2nd.

A BIG THANKS TO TREK TORONTO FOR A GREAT WEEKEND!