Send your bike to Africa

Please donate your old bike(s) to Bicycles For Humanity this weekend. If you don't have one to donate, cash donations are very welcome (to help pay for the shipping container carrying all the bikes collected).

I am also looking for a few volunteers to help prep bikes on Monday, June 1, 2009 at 6pm - please e-mail me for more info.

Cheers.

1st & 4th

The Vegan Vagabond takes first place this past weekend at the Opus Spring Epic 8 Hr race at Mansfield in the women's solo division with 11 laps, beating her closest competitor in the last five minutes.

The original big ring takes 4th in the single speed division, narrowly missing third place.

Kingdom Long Weekend

A group of us headed to Kingdom, Vermont for a long weekend of mountain biking. Despite some last minute cancellations, ten of us, plus two kids, made the trip. Now for those of you who read this blog regularly, you will know that there has been at least half a dozen or so posts on trips to Kingdom. And you also know that Kingdom has probably the finest mtb trail network in the North East. Therefore, I tell you about some new developments this year:

The Good

The riding is still fantastic with some great well-maintained single-track! Kudos to the Trail association for their amazing work.

Sidewinder - everyone's favourite trail has a couple of new lines. If you find yourself behind a slower rider, you a have passing options.

Beer and pizza at the Trout River Brewery!!

The Bad

Pines and Widow Maker are both closed because of some logging operations. The will be reopened at some point, likely with some changes!

The Ugly

Old Webbs - one of my favourite trails, a fast, flowing single track between tall pines - has been totally ruined by the same logging operation mentioned above. About 50 per cent of the trees, if not more, have been cut down and there is a wide logging track going through it.

The Final Word

Despite those little annoyances, Kingdom is still a fantastic place to ride and we had a blast! Here are some pics:

Pierre and Susie

The BC Bike Race twins - Kari & Bill

Smiley Andrea ripping down Rim

K & B auditioning for the Cirque du Soleil

Saturday night at the Trout... noone made a scene...

Me, Joel & Pierre - as you can tell, it was cold...

Even colder on Monday! 40 F, that's about 4 celcius!

Awesome weekend with a great group of people! Can't wait to go again, I got my season's pass!!

Marathon Photos

Vegan Vagabond takes first in her division - yes, there were more women.
Tanya scored a Giro helmet and some loot to boot.

Big Ring takes first in his division of freaks and misfits (single speed) - there was one other ss'er who started the marathon race, but I don't think he finished.
I scored a Sigma cycling computer (which I am going to put on Chrissie's new bike) and a kiss from Bigfoot.

Race Day Success!

Copied from my blog...


Good morning, its godawful early for a holiday but I couldn't sleep any longer because I was starving. So I thought I'd tell ya about my race.

Saturday at noon we headed to Craig's inlaws. The house was full of family and I just sat back, relaxed and took it all in. It was really nice to see how happy Craig and Christine are as new parents. And it was freakin adorable watching Elsa sneeze. Babies sneezing = cutest thing ever?

After dinner we made our way to Matt's. I made myself comfortable on the couch, pretty happy as I was double-fisted with Molly his hilarious dog cuddled on my left and Oakley the cat on my right. I also had the pleasure of Molly's company in my bed for the night.

Next morning we headed to the race. It was so cold. +5 and there was an arctic wind that would gust every now and then, chilling us all to the bone. Unfortunately the race started about half an hour late making our warm-ups completely useless.

One of the most embarrassing things ever happened to me on the start line. I can't bring myself to recount it on the blog but just know that it had Craig and I doubled over laughing and every now and then I'd chuckle when I thought about it during the race. I don't know how these type of things always happen to me but they do.

Finally the race starts and we're off into the single track right away. I had planted myself near the front of the start line so I had no trouble with traffic in there. I was the first girl in. After the single track we made our way onto some double track and that's when Sara passed me. She was definitely one of the girls I was keeping an eye on because her and I were very close at Crank the Shield last fall. I tried to keep her in sight but to no avail.

Another notable part about this section is I passed poor Big Ring spinning out on his single speed. Gear selection was very difficult for single speeders because there was lots of dead flat sections but later there was tons of steep climbs.

Soon after that I met up with Tom from Shorthills Cycling Club in St. Catherine's. He passed me and I grabbed his wheel. I decided to ask if he minded and he said no problem. For the next ten minutes or so he kept looking back to see if I was still on and waited when I fell off a bit. So nice!! Thanks Tom. I wish I could have returned the favour but he eventually had to pull away when I couldn't hold the pace.

Then we hit more single track and I eventually caught up to both Tom and Sara again. Unfortunately Tom was having shifting issues. This was one of my most favourite sections. Think Kingdom trails meet Chelsea. So fun. There was a kind of a natural half pipe section where we swooped back and forth through the bowl. I think because I was so excited about that part and finally warmed up, I passed Sara on the double track climb coming out of that section. I was feeling strong.

The middle part of the race was awesome. Lots of singletrack and lots of climbs. Most of the climbs were switch backs or steep single track so this was good for me. That's my kind of climbing. This went on for a couple of hours. Big Ring passed me at some point in here. I kept the gas pedal floored during this whole section as I was sure Sara was going to catch me at any moment. I was breathing heavily the entire time. Hard work.

I took a few risks during the race with my fuel. I ended up getting lucky and it worked out but I was very close to cramping for the second half of the race because I didn't fill up at all the feed stations. At what I thought was the last feed, I filled my bottle and heard there was 12km left. I thought it was a flat, double track section so I figured it would be short. However, this was the longest 12km ever for me. It was a mixed bag of single and double track and climbing and flats. I was on the edge of cramping and because it re-traced the start loop, every thing was familiar and I kept thinking it had to be the finish line. Very hard on my head.

Anyway at 3km left I came upon another feed station (wtf?). As bizarre as that was, I forced myself stop and fill up because my leg was actually cramping at that point. That saved me and I finished strong to the end, ~55km and ~4 hours after I began.

I was pretty shattered after the race but happy to hear I came first overall for the women! Turns out Sara had a flat and was bonking so she ended up rolling in about 10 minutes(?)after me.

Craig ended up the 1st single speeder and Matt came 3rd. Great job guys!!

We stayed for the awards and I was amazed that I won money (basically my entry fee!) and a really nice helmet. Unfortunately its a size small and will never fit my big melon. Anyone want to buy a yellow Giro helmet? ;)

Craig and I drove home, both of us completely wiped out. I must have ate about 3 meals worth of food on the way home. Speaking of that, its been at least half an hour since I've eaten...

Moab Day 3

Well, I was feeling pretty out of it but the violent stomach illness has been over for 24 hours so I'm riding.

I figure I drank 500ml of water in the last 24 hours living in the desert, what could go wrong.

The boys were tired from yesterday so we started pretty small and rode a trail called Sovereign.
Fun desert riding, some of it fairly technical, especially if you are moving quickly.

Crazy rock jumbles

Calvin just before we got hit by a mini-dust devil, good fun.

You can see forever in the dessert.

Our condo this year was gorgeous, a lot nicer than any of our houses. It was right in town so we could walk to the services and the views were great:

Poison Spider Mesa on one
side of the condo.

Slickrock area straight out the front door.

And to top it all off, the town sanctioned dirt jumps were 100 feet from our front door. Just in case you had any energy left at the end of the day you could hit a few jumps or race the BMX track. Best location ever.

Moab Day 2

Well actually it was more like night # 1. Started out watching UFC at Bub's, the worst sports bar I have ever been in. I spent the rest of the night keeping my roommate awake as I vomited and dry heaved. Good times.

Safe to say I didn't ride on day #2, though by all accounts it was a good ride at Tabagauche Trails.

To end the day we packed up and did the 1.5 hour drive to Moab.

Maob Day 1

Well it actually wasn't, Maob, we flew into Denver and drove to Fruita Colorado on our way to Maob. We were very nearly snowed in Denver! Can you believe it, 20 degrees in Ottawa and the highway is closed in Denver

Can you believe this shit?

ET is not happy.....

Thankfully Beezer found the solution

The real solution!

After a bit of a rough drive (it got faster when I took over) we finally made our way to Fruita Colorado. Home of the Fat Tire Festival. With a festival like that, how can you go wrong? Fruita/Garnd Junction has a number of area to ride so we choose Kokopelli Trails. We did Moore Fun and Mary's Trail, a nice combination with technical single track and great views!

Yup, its a terrible place to visit

Nasty, tricky corner, one of many you wouldn't want to miss, turns out to be a bit of a theme on this trip


Just a random shot of what the single track looks like, it's a little dry.

Day one started out looking pretty bad but perseverance and some cautious driving paid off in spades. A great start but I had no idea what was coming during night number 1 (foreshadowing?).

Lakes and Locks

We were up in Kingston on the weekend visiting some friends. I didn't want to miss the good weather on Saturday, so I took the Isaac along.

After having some family time in the morning and lunching on ribs, wings and nachos, I was ready to head for a ride. Our friends live just off Perth Rd, which in on the Rideau Lakes Tour (RLT) route, some of you may be familiar with the road. I got myself organized and headed out on the road with my Ipod for company. Yes, I ride with music when I am alone... Here is a trick for you kids out there, if you can hear your wheels turning with your Ipod on, the volume is Ok, if you can't, its probably too loud.

I headed North on Perth rd towards Westport, there was a nice tail wind blowing, riding over 35kmh was effortless, in fact there were sections where I could hold over 40kmh for more than 2kms at a time. I knew I would have to pay for that freebie on the way back. The traffic was very light and the pavement very smooth for the most part (nothing like the Cantley/Wakefield loop full of holes). For those of you who have done the RLT, you know the Perth rd section is very picturesque, lots of beautiful scenery but some strange sights too. Like the "hillbilly" trailer home which looks like a wrecking yard, I would have taken a picture but they were out on in the front yard BBQ possum, I think. There is also another house with five 1980 something Camaros on the front lawn and other unique sights, like this house...

Looks even more strange in real life... what's with the watch-tower?

And, as I said, there are some beautiful views of the Rideau Lakes, too many of them to name.

One of the many lakes you come across

I made it to my pit stop point in Newboro in just over an hour and stopped for a snack. Not bad, 40kms in 1hr7mins - thanks to a great tail wind!

Crossing the Rideau Canal at Newboro

My mid-ride snack...

Cinnamon bun with delicious cream cheese icing, mmm.....

If you were paying attention, I had veered East. My plan was to go south west instead of having to face the headwind dead-on. I headed towards hwy 15, headed south for 4kms then went south-west through Chaffey's locks (as you know the Rideau Canal goes from Ottawa to Kingston, there are a lot of locks along the way) .

From Chaffey's locks, I connected to Opinicon road which would eventually spit me back out onto Perth Rd. Opinicon Rd is a secondary road; it is paved but not with very smooth asphalt (think of Perth rd as hockey ice and Opinicon, curling ice - you got to be Canadian to understand this!) but the Isaac's carbon frame absorbs the bumps very nicely. Nevertheless, there were no serious ruts nor potholes on Opinicon. It is a very twisty turny road, with lots of short climbs and downhills. I had some stiff cross winds to contend with which slowed things down quite a bit but that section was actually a lot of fun! I would sometimes sprint up the hills just to mix things up a bit. I'd love to ride that road again on a calm day. I met this dude in the middle of the road on a downhill...

Mr. Porcupine made me hit the brakes hard on a downhill...

I love tractors, so I had to stop and take this pic - vintage Ford and a Massey
(Can you tell which is which without enlarging the photo?)

It was nice to ride something different from the usual routes we tend to do and the roads in the Kingston and Rideau Lakes area are so much nices than what we have here.

My total distance was 84 kms according to my computer, google maps says 80kms, close enough I guess. The second half of the trip took me almost twice as long as the first although I did lolgygag a bit chasing animals and tractors. But the biggest factor was the wind. Total ride time was 3 hours. Here is a map of my ride route.

Tired Oily Socks

Thank you Sock Guy for the lovely socks.

Thanks Van and the fine folks at Pro Gold for all the lube. Lube for a lifetime.

And big thanks to Kenda for sending some tires and such our way.

The Lenny Show

Friday turned out to indeed be a perfect day to ride. On the way out to Kanata Lakes we figured out that Lenny was the same age as Charlotte's father, a fact that brought out the paternal instinct in Lenny so he put on a riding clinic for his young protege. Fifteen minutes in he demonstrated some trail-building know-how, showing the proper method to pack down protruding rocks by using the "elbow slam" technique:



After that incident he put on a show of some of the more traditional skills of technical riding, which Charlotte soaked up like a sponge:



We were out for a little more than two hours and were better people for it. Charlotte's going to do some racing in this her second season of mountain biking but some pesky Bar Exams in June might eat into her ride time a bit.



The trails are in very good shape. Hope to see you all out there soon.

An overdue welcome to the 2009 Mountain Biking Season

Time to ditch work.

Friday 24 April 2009. The plan is for me and Lenny and the HFT to hit the trails for the first time this season. I am totally stoked.

Anyone feeling confident about their bike handling skills? Apparently there are still levels to aspire to. There may be people out there better than you.

Sunday Sun Day!!

As the title says Sunday was a bright sunny day which means everything else gets put on hold because it's business time. You know what I mean... Bike Riding Business Time!!!

Here we are at the beginning of the ride just waiting for Gilles to arrive. Big Ring is saying "Lenny, don't I look schexy? Did I mention I was on the podium earlier this season? Check out my pecs... Oh I do look fabulous! No..!?? You're right Lenny, I look better than fabulous!! No wonder I like riding with you... I could stand here all day and wave at the cars as they go by. They're all honking at me, I'm so schexy! Hey, is that Gilles?"

And here is Gilles as we were about to head out for a spin dans La Belle Provence de QUÉBEC. He's looking great in that Big Ring jersey!


It was a great day to be out on the bike. We rode from Champlain Bridge up through Chelsea to Wakefield, Cantley and then back to the bridge on our way home. We hit some snow in the park but it's almost gone. It felt really weird to be back up there and not on skis. I've never felt like that before. I guess that's because I skied a lot more this year then I did last year and last year was my first year of xc skiing. Here is some of that snow that we had to walk through...


And here is a shot of Gilles going around the snow. Notice how the gear whore is wearing his knee warmer. He told me later it's a KNEE warmer Lenny, not a 'knee and thigh' warmer. I still have so much to learn!


I thought they were supposed to be worn like this! ( Notice that I was at least wearing the same socks as Gilles was). They're the Abominable Snowman version from our great sponsor Sock Guy; an appropriate choice given the snow hike!


All in all it was a great day for a ride. The sun felt amazing and it was a day that was full of the promise of a great riding season to come - YAY! Thanks to Craig, Zamboni and Gilles for the tour. I ended up with about 105 km but felt like I could have kept going. I'm glad I didn't though as I was starving when I got home and what better way to end a ride then a great big plate of food.? Well I got home and had to cook for myself, can you imagine!?! Here's an image of my wife just lounging around while I was out working on the bike! Crazy... Oh well, I got her in the kitchen shortly after this. ;-)

Patent Pending

Check out my soon-to-be-patented "side mounted" baby seat, test-ridden on Tuesday morning:



The optional tray attachment makes feeding your infant a breeze during your commute to work. I am so going to make millions on this!

My two new babies

I love this one the best!

Elsa - she spits up on me.

Fisticuff - it makes me spit up.

Superhero comes to the rescue!!!

Saturday was shaping up like it was going to be a nice day for a change! Check out the bright sunlight! It was cold and damp all week so this was a very nice change! Notice the superhero in this shot, he wears that jersey for a reson!



There was a fairly strong breeze but we had a good sized group to share the workload. Mike J (of Joe Mamma fame) joined us today for the ride. He's riding solo at SS this year so he's putting on the miles. Today would be a good ride for him as he was planning around 120km door to door, I was looking at a little over 100.

We took the bike path along the river to get to Gilles' place. This is where we met up with the rest of the group. Check out the kit on these pretenders! From left to right are Mike, Me, Gilles, Spidey and Tanya... Guess what, we all wave at roadies in their full kit!!!



We started out heading South. This was great because there was a North wind so this meant it was fast and warm while we were heading in this direction. We were taking turns pulling as we headed out but it really didn't matter because there was no real draft effect due to the strong tailwind. Everything was going well and then all of a sudden CHAOS! There was some last second pointing and jockeying and by the time I noticed anything I was riding through this!



FRACK!!! I didn't see it until it was too late, I was in it! I have no idea how I got that close to the edge of the road but no big deal... pick up the water bottles and go right? NOT! As I rode back to get my water bottles I heard a what I thought was a broken spoke. Hmm, must have hit pretty hard. As it turned out only one of my bottles survived, the other one was torn apart. Oh well, who needs fluids anyway!?! As I took a closer look I realize that my tire is rubbing on the frame. I made sure the wheel was seated properly etc. but no luck... my ride was over.

I tried calling my wife for a ride but no answer at all 3 numbers. Oh-oh, now what? After a couple more phone calls Spidey's wife and the next generation of super-hero are on their way. All I have to do is wait for a while and snag a ride home - SWEET! I had ridden 45km from home and was probably about 30km if I walked, not good!

Here's a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Anita and Finn for taking good care of me! They saved me from 30km of walking with crocodile tears in my eyes! Oh woes me!!!! For the rest of you mortals who have never seen a real life superhero before this is what they look like when they are wearing their human disguise so cute!



And as for the bike, well my hoop is hooped! It's hard to see but there is a nasty flat spot right by the 'C' in RACE. Turns out the spokes are all fine, one is just a little longer then it needs to be now.



In honor of the greatest superhero of them all, here are some lyrics for you!

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can.
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies.
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong? Listen bud—
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread?
Take a look overhead.
Hey there! There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of the night,
At the scene of the crime,
Like a streak of light,
He arrives just in time!

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
Wealth and fame, he's ignored—
Action is his reward.
To him,
Life is a great big bang-up—
Wherever there's a hang-up,
You'll find the Spiderman!