ZM Turkey Cross

October 12, 2008. Toronto. This is a great event for us who live in the city because we can simply ride our bikes to the race. No waking up at 6am and driving across the province. Instead it's at Cedarvale Park and is fast becoming the most popular cross event on the circuit. This time I wasn't able to duplicate my top-10 from last year because I got a flat on my last lap. But I did finish. It's always a fine line picking tire pressure in CX races and I probably had a little less than I should have. Lesson learned. Denis and JohnL were also there jumping on and off their bikes in this crazy sport. Here's some more photos : Marty, JohnL, Denis, Marty, JohnL, Denis, Marty, Denis, and JohnL.

The Squeezer 2008

September 28, 2008. St. Catherines. We weren't planning on attending the Squeezer this year because we were expecting our baby around this time. Instead, Justin raced into the world 3 weeks early so we were able to drive down as a family and participate in the festivities. I must say it's very cool to have your child waiting for you at the finish line (even though he was sleeping!). Most of us were there and after a few flat tires and broken chains (Tony & Cam), we arrived at the finish line to have some well deserved snacks and drinks. Oh devil!

 

I see a Black Fly!

24 Hours Hot August Nights 2008

Clockwise from top left:

1. Denis
2. John L.
3. Dean
4. Muller
5. Jon
6. Tony
7. Marty
8. Pete

August 23-24, 2008. Albion Hills. First, sorry guys about the blurry images, we're working on that. So, we had another successful 24 hours spent racing the trails of Albion. This year we missed Mr. Stitt who was out with an injury, but he'll hopefully be back racing with us in 2009. As a sub for the squad we had JohnL. and not only did he smoke the course but kept all our bikes working great. As a whole, we had 9 riders doing laps until Sunday morning when our faithful ringer Denis came in and helped finish off the event. We improved for the second year in a row by coming in 11th out of the 75 teams. Dare I say top 10 next year? For more pictures, click here.

Lake to Lake 2008

June 15, 2008. Niagara. We're back! I don't think I've mentioned that they always run this event on Father's Day. How appropriate. It was pretty cool this year being the defending champs and all but we weren't quite able to repeat our awesome performance from 2007. Second place was still very good, though. It proves we're a force to be reckoned with in future L2L's, that's for sure. We also had an honourary Black Fly in our group in Laura who had a fantastic race and came within seconds of winning the overall women's title. Once again, nice work out there guys!

Ride for Heart

June 1, 2008. Toronto. Only once a year do cyclists in this city get a chance to ride on the most flowing, widest, and smoothest bike path in the city - the Don Valley Parkway. And of course it's for an amazing cause, being heart and stroke research. Last year Brenda and I took to the highway and this year me and Stitt rode on the DVP. I consider this ride to be one of the highlights of the season and I can't wait to introduce it to as many people as possible in the years to come.

Spring 8hr at Mansfield 2008

May 24, 2008. Mansfield. This has become one of our favorites. Mansfield is a really fun place to ride, with some great trails and tough hills and it's not 24hrs long! Even though we weren't able to duplicate our podium from last year we were challenging for it all day and eventually finished in 4th - only 47 seconds out of 3rd and just 1:14 out of 2nd - and that was spread out over 8+ hours. Awesome effort!

Paris-Ancaster 2008

April 20, 2008. Another version of Ontario's Paris-Roubaix had our numbers reduced due to a (planned) explosion of babies. A lot of tired mommy's and daddy's couldn't make the trip this time but will definitely be back in the years to come. You guys missed out because they didn't include the hill this year... just kidding, it wouldn't be the same without that damn hill. For those of us who went we couldn't have asked for a nicer, spring day.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Marty climbing the hill.
2. Dean climbing the hill.
3. Thomas climbing the hill.
4. Enjoying a well earned meal.
5. A visit from the neighborhood Muller's at the start.
   
6. Denis & Marty.
7. Back in Toronto with their dirty bikes.
   

Spinning in Coffee Time