Curious on looker

{collective thought bubbles}
"where's the third placer?"
Oh, that would be us.
This photo, I believe, are our first ranked race (3rd in 8 hrs Mansfield). Clearly, we are anticipating being called on the podium. Arms being crossed to keep our excitement under control and all.
I think, this day was a pivotal moment for our team...silver and gold came right after.

What It's All About

I came across this picture from the summer of 2007. Ryan and Chris came down to Paris for a day of riding (and drinkin' apparently) I just thought it showed what riding is really all about for us - spending time with people we enjoy, our "family". I believe this was a trip to the famous Hydrocut! Thankfully, I remembered my gear that time (not just my bike), right Chris?

Ryan

A "Century" of Memories.

Finally, I have recovered my old hard-drive (after 2 years)! It's been collecting dust (much like my bike at this point in the season), and I've not been able to get any old pics from it. Not any more! I managed to clean up the drive, get some old bike pics, and escape unharmed throughout the entire process.

For me, this is cause for celebration and good reason to contribute my first entry to our wicked-ass blog (keep it up Mart!)

One of my favourite pics is the one above of Tonic, Mart, and myself following the completion of my (and Tonys) first century. It was an awesome trip from Port Dalhousie to Niagara Falls with a return trip along the Welland Canal. Truly epic! A great day of riding and proof for myself that over 4 hours of saddle time is a hell of a lot of fun!

Happy New Year everyone and I'll be sure to post more pics as I search through them.

Cheers.

Stitt

ZM Turkey Cross

October 14, 2007. Toronto. I saw why this is the fastest growing discipline of cycling in North America. The races are only 45 minutes long, they're usually local, it's a nice mix of your road and off-road skills and there are some crazy fans out there. Very cool sport. The only thing I was worried about was tripping over a barrier and falling flat on my face - which luckily didn't happen. In our race, Denis got another podium (3rd) and I grabbed 10th. Btw, Denis became the Southern Ontario Master 3 champ that year. He introduced me to John L. (5th) and I just had to ask him if he wanted to join the coolest cycling team ever. How could he say no to that.

The Squeezer 2007

September 30, 2007. Niagara. It's getting a bit tricky remembering these events and I seem to recall the weather calling for rain, but in the end the day ended up being ideal for a bike race. Cam had a extra long race when he put in 2 more kms by making a wrong turn. In Cam's defense, some of these long bike races can get a bit confusing if there's no one in front to follow. I've done it too. After the race you can see us enjoying our samples of wine and the local cuisine. Yummy.

Muller's Birthday

September 1, 2007. We made our way down to Ryan's to wish him a Happy Birthday and help Sandy surprise him with a shiny new road bike. That night, we also went looking for the feared Paris grizzly bear, armed only with our flashlights and liquid courage. At least I think that was the same party. The next day Ryan and I tested out his new wheels and he rode with me out of town before I continued back to Toronto. 130kms later.

24hrs Hot August Nights 2007

August 25-26, 2007. Albion Hills. It's safe to say by this time we're getting pretty good at these events - not only in terms of our results but also with the set-up and the organization. Most of us are experienced campers so that definitely helps. The past three 24hrs we've done it's rained at some point of the weekend. Remember the rain storm on the Friday night when Fox & Muller were trying to keep that tent up? Customer service, can I help you? I only caught the mayhem between the lightning strikes. During the race it didn't rain too much and once again we were as tough as nails out there. Tony dealt with a broken chain at the start of his lap (watch you're language in the transition area, young man!) and also crashed bad enough that Dean had to take him to the hospital. In the end, the Tonic was alright and we improved from last year by 4 spots, finishing 12th out of 89 teams. Awesome!

Toronto Island Triathlon

August 18, 2007. Toronto Islands. I've always wanted to try a tri. So has Julie. I love swimming and cycling (obviously) and Jules loves the running and swimming. Make sense, right?
To prepare I went for a few jogs with Brenda, and Julie went swimming and rode her bike. And we rented wetsuits. Have you ever tried to put one of those on? If you ever thought cycling shorts are tight...
So before the race we find out they have canceled the swim because Lake Ontario was too cold (isn't that what the wetsuits were for?) and turned the event into a duathlon (run,bike,run). Kind of a bummer for me because I was actually looking forward to the swim the most but we got through it and it was a pretty interesting experience. Our results were: Julie finished 11th of 25 and I came in 6th of 26. Not bad, eh?

Road riding in Niagara

July 16, 2007. Niagara. Did you know that most professional MTB'ers spend most of their training time on their road bikes? So Stitt, Tony and Marty drove down to St.Catherines and decided to take advantage of the area's extensive network of paved bike paths and cycling-friendly roads. We went over to Niagara-on-the-Lake and then down the Parkway to the Falls. I'll tell ya, it's pretty awesome cycling into Niagara Falls (not literally!) and seeing the sights so if you ever get the chance, you should give it a try. From there we rode across to the Welland Canal where we took the underground tunnel. That was cool. After that we rode beside the Canal along the path back to the car. 109kms later.

Summer 8hrs at Hardwood

July 21, 2007. Hardwood Hills. What a busy summer! That's because the babies haven't arrived yet. We headed up to Hardwood for this 8hr event and like usual it was a beautiful day for racing. Our team for this one was Dean, Jon, Denis, Tony, Fox and Marty and we started off in 3rd and after the teams 5th lap, Foxy and his rental bike put us into second place - where we stayed til the awards. Our 3rd team podium in a row!

Lake to Lake 2007

June 17, 2007. Niagara. It was a great day for MTB racing. The weather was hot, but not that humid, and the course was fast and dry. The corporate team was made up of Dean, Stitt, Tony, Fox and Marty and we ended up winning that category by placing 1st out of 19 teams! The prize was being able to keep a beautiful trophy for the following year. And the funny thing was we didn't even know we had won until some time after. A nice surprise, for sure. Our other riders also kicked butt by either having a very strong ride (Denis, Drew & Muller), finishing after a nasty crash (Sandy), or fixing a flat tire (Brenda). I know you've read this before, but an awesome job by all!
Brenda's bike on the top of the pile.

Spring 8hr at Mansfield 2007

May 26, 2007. Mansfield. Our first taste of success! The lads (Dean, Stitt, Fox, Tony, Muller & Marty) started in 3rd, stayed in 3rd, and finished in 3rd. And trust me, there was way more than 3 teams! Remember kicking that soccer ball around in the middle of the night? Too funny. Brenda and the Angry Angels also got a podium place, even after dealing with a bike mechanical, which turned into a bike swap and then the pedals didn't match the cleats, so they had to change shoes. Whew!

Paris-Ancaster 2007

April 22, 2007. We had a great turnout for this one. 5 of us did the 60km and 6 of us did the 30km. The weather was awesome and the course was fairly dry because at this time of year you never know what conditions you're gonna get. It wasn't too bad until we came to the course's 2 infamous "mudslides" near the end. Anyone who's done P-A knows what I'm talking about. In the end I had another sickly post-race feeling but I recovered and overall, it was a good day - make that a great day. It was also my birthday. Thanks for the cake guys!

Epic 8hr Mansfield