Update

Currently as I write this I am sitting in a truck that is pulling our team trailer en-route to the Mount Saint Anne World Cup. We just wrapped up the Subaru US Cup at Mt Morris in Wisconsin. They did a fantastic job and are definitely one of the best event organizers out there! Out team had a solid weekend with a Adam banging the top ten and Peter, Mitch and myself also riding strong against the deep US racing field.

Since the Hardwood Canada Cup I have managed to log a few solid weeks of training trying to get as ready as possible for the upcoming block of races. The skeddy is pretty busy from now until August, starting with Wisconsin last weekend, MSA world cup this weekend, Windham world cup next weekend, Nationals the weekend after and then two more Canada cups after that! All back to back. I am still a bit tired from the training, but with a bunch of time slotted to be on my butt resting, mixed with coffee shop spins I should be rested and ready to go in no time.

Been a few weeks

Sometimes things always don't go as planned. Simple as that. Sometimes they do. What is the difference between things going as you had planned or things going up shits creek? Is it physical (body)? Is it elemental (ex. weather)? Mental? or maybe it is something else?

I think that there is definitely no simple answer to that question. My best conclusion is that in every given situation there is probably something different or even a combination of two or more. If your body doesn't feel right that is going to bugger up your mental. If your mental is out in left field, then your body is going to be watching the birds. Sometimes once you figure out how to best coordinate all of the elements that will effect your result, hopefully it will show or will know it and take note. For me, once I get things firing on all plains, I try to keep them all working in sync. Just some food for thought.

Anyways I had a great weekend at the HUGE Trek Canada Cup at Hardwood Hills. We had a great day of hanging out and riding with Canada's up and coming generation of cyclists on Saturday. It is so cool to see how solid of a job the crew at Hardwood is doing at helping get kids active and engaged in one of the best sports in  the world. They sure can rip!

Sunday was out turn to go and play bike racing. We had 6 laps of a butterfly course, which made it feel more like 12 laps. The day ended great with a 3rd place for me, 5th for Peter, 6th for the young gun Mitch Bailey and after a broken shifter cable Adam managed to still roll in 8th. The men's field was stacked with horsepower (comparable to the 6000hp tractor pullers that I watched friday night at the Brooklin Spring Fair). On the Woman's side we had Cayley Brooks ride to a solid 13th place and trek Subaru rider Emily Batty take the big "W".

All in all it was a great weekend! I am going to guess there were probably 1000 racers and double that in spectators!

A Day In The Life

A short film about the day in the life of a athlete. It was shot, edited and uploaded over a 72hr period using only a basic Canon G12 and imovie. It is Filmed by me, which can make it somewhat more difficult. Lemme know what ya think.

A Day In The Life

Cover Shot!

Check Out my latest cover shot for Get Out There Mag of my Sister Emily Batty riding some trails in 3rox.

You want me to cross that!

Big day in the saddle yesterday exploring the intricate network of logging roads north of Sudbury. The riding was actually fantastic! I had been planning on going into the Ishpatina ridge via the overland route for a few years. The other day I was telling Ryan Atkins about it and he was keen to join me! Sweet! We decided to giver a go early in the season before our lives would be threatened by black flies and Mosquitos. I also had a sneaking suspicion that the water levels may be above the norm for this time of year. Either way it was going to be a good day of training and exploring future route possibilities.

We Drove up Tuesday afternoon and arrived as far as my Matrix would go. We got stopped by a 200m stretch of overflowed river that had the road ahead of us under some serious water. We set camp 24km off the "paved" road (hardly that). We were roughly still 46.5km away from the point at which we were going to be dropping our bikes then only 7 more km's of hiking/running/bushwacking to the summit of Ontario!

We awoke at sun up the next morning with a good frost covering the tent and car. It was a chilly night for May 4th but the sky was clear and the day looked to be great! We hit the trail peddling our bikes at exactly 830am. Anyone that has had to deal with navigating logging roads know what a nightmare it can be. Sometimes your standing on what seems like the most major road you have seen in the last 3hrs and somehow it isn't on the old 50,000 topo map. Other times you expect to find a good road that the map shows and get to that point only to find a scraggly overgrown path.

We managed to trace the original route to the Sturgeon river crossing via 39km of soft muddy logging roads that were definitely not being used anymore. As we neared the point that we so dearly needed to find, we managed to find a beautiful logging highway for us to follow most of the way back to the car! We were not going to have to slog through some of the strangest and weirdest mud that I have ever seen and ridden. It was crazy, you would be riding along on what seemed to be completely dry gravel and then the next thing you knew you and your bike were standing in 18 inches of slop.

We hit the river crossing which was sure to be our achilles heel of the trip at exactly 3hrs after we departed the car. We were met by a large group of ATV'ers that were also hoping on getting across the river that looked about 8ft deep and moving extremely fast. They were locals and seemed to know the area well. Apparently when you don't see the big rock in the middle of the river, you DO NOT CROSS! You will be swept away, as the fellow gent proceeded to ramble off stories of guys who thought they could get across in the past and suffered a ATV loss or two.

After a brief visit with the friendly Quaders we decided to head back to the car via the Stoobe rd route. It ended up being roughly a hour faster via the route home vs the route there.

So all in all we didn't tag the top of the ridge, we got pretty close. We figured after we crossed the Sturgeon river then road for 6.5km dropped the bikes then ran/bushwacked the remaining 7km to the summit we were only 2.5hrs from the top. We hit a major road block (literally) and there was no way we were going to get across the river, it did happen to cross my mind a few times...

Great week, busy week.

I have had 2 solid weeks of long miles with tons of intensity tossed in since I arrive home from Sea Otter. I managed to fight the worst of the weather that April was able to throw at us. It seemed to honestly be raining more then it wasn't. I raced O-Cup #1 at Mansfield tired and fatigued enough that I barely felt like I should start. I ended up having a blast chilling for the first 2.5 laps before I decided that I was going to try and catch the 5 riders infront of me. Then there was the passing.... It was such a fast course and with so many riders given'er out there, the passing seemed to be a bit sketchy... All in all it was a great day out for the Trek Canada Team!

On another note, I am doing some last min packing for a quick jont into the Ishpatina Ridge. It is the highest point in Ontario at 693m above sea level. 2.5hrs (roughly) north of Sudbury we will leave the car as far as we can drive it. Ride as far as we can, ditch the bikes and continue the 14km round trip (bike to bike) distance to the summit. Hopefully the weather holds out and given the early season timeframe navigating through the forest should be decent. I will give a full trip report later this week.

Wish me luck!

Life on the road.

Sea Otter classic wrapped up yesterday and with the perfect temps it ended up being a great weekend of everything that was biking. A big highlight was definitely Emily winning the XC and out sprinting Catherine Pendral. Here is a couple photo's of her crushing.