The Squeezer 2005

September 25, 2005. St. Catherines. Now this is a bike race! Not only is there over 1000 people to share the experience with, but there is wine and food waiting for you at the finish! The Niagara Grape & Wine Festival has it's last day in the same park as the Squeezer and you can sample lots of local flavours while reminiscing about the race you just completed. Lobster sandwiches anyone?

24hrs Hot August Nights 2005

August 20-21, 2005. Albion Hills. Our first team event. I remember being a little nervous before the start, especially for the upcoming night laps. I also didn't think it was gonna be as tough as it was. And nothing but respect to the solo riders. Craziness! It was also a good wake-up call that when you do the events we do, it's most important to have fun riding and to enjoy the camp life. In the end we battled through the pain and ended up finishing a very kick ass 10th of 46 teams.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Sierra & her dad.
2. Post race: (l-r) Derrick, Dean, Mike, Marty & Stitt.
3. Mike on our 1st lap.
4. Marty in the forest.
   
5. Timing chip hand off between Marty & Dean.
6. Mike getting some help from Julie, our team physio.
7. Our mechanic Drew.
8. Evan, the Champ of the kids race!
9. Brenda enjoying camp life with Stitt, Derrick & Mike.
   

Lake to Lake 2005

June 19, 2005. Niagara. Ryan, Julie, Brenda and I decided to stay in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake the night before so we wouldn't have to leave from Toronto in the early hours of a Sunday morning. I think Derrick and his family stayed in the Falls that night, too. Here we are walking through the town, probably making our way back to the hotel. The next day we met up with Mike, Dean, Drew and Derrick at the start line in Port Colborne and raced to another finish on the beach in Port Dalhousie.

Some more mismatched jerseys!

Paris-Ancaster 2005

April 17, 2005. "You guys should try Paris-Ancaster this year. It's a cool race and it'll be fun." Mike said. I don't remember him telling us about the 60km length and the grueling uphill finish that makes some people throw up. But he was right, it was fun.




It looks like Drew is supervising all the pre-race preparations. Did anyone bring a pump? Thanks Drew. Hey Drew, can you look at my brakes? Thanks Drew.























Look at us smiling in our mismatched jerseys.

The Icebreaker 2005

April 10, 2005. Uxbridge. Yup, we started on snow and ice. I guess that's why they call it The Icebreaker. I haven't been back to this classic since but I mean to. A pretty cool race through the trails of Durham and Glen Major to kick start the Ontario MTB season. I remember seeing my first cyclocross bike at this event and thinking "are these idiots actually riding road bikes?" Now that I think about it, riding CX would work pretty well on this course since it's not too techy and there are some long stretches on the gravel roads. Hmmm. Now that I have my own cross bike...




It was a fun day and even though it was early in the season, the temps got up to around 20C. I imagine most of us were completely overdressed. Hurricane Dean even stormed in for a post race visit.