Spring 8 hrs

Fastest Black Fly of the day!

Representing!

SUMMER 8HRS

The Blackflys returned to the Summer 8hrs after a 2 year absence and came back with 2 top 10's including a 3rd Place!
The weather was perfect summer racing conditions and the course was very dry and dusty (name of the game this year) and as Hardwood always is, technical with lots of roots & rocks and twisty singletrack. 
Unfortunately, this caused a bunch of endo's including 2 by Hurricane Dean and a rather hard one by Mario.  Heal up, lads!
Young Justin entered his 2nd career race, this time choosing the running bike and runriding his way to a brand new Nerf football.  He climbed the 1st half all by himself and then coasted down to the finish.  Way to go, bud!

Cheers for a great time, guys!

My domestique

Sometimes you gotta get those K's in anyway you can and with anyone who's available.  And yes, Justin IS playing the harmonica!    

Past P-A Pictures Please

I found these pics on Paris-Ancaster's Facebook Page. From last years race.

Kathleen pushing along.

Look at the little guy!  Giv'r!

Winter Training Tips

Tip #1 - Ride on the indoor trainer.

Tip#2 - Bundle up and just get outside.

Tip#3 - Sit in a hot tub.

Lake to Lake

Niagara. M-U-D-D-Y. Ya, that's what you get when it rains for 3 days leading up to a mountain bike race. Don't get me wrong, it was tons of fun out there - slipping and sliding, jumping through puddles, getting covered head to toe with wet, unknown mucky dirt. Tony even described the conditions as "icy". Not too far from the truth.

For our efforts we were all rewarded with a dip in the lake, a huge plate of BBQ goodness, a nap in the park and for some, a podium appearance. Not bad. Not bad at all.


Six very muddy and very happy finishers!


The Drewman with his derailleur-less ride.


Happy Father's Day!


2nd Place - 2 years in a row!

P2A Cont'd

Here are a couple more photos of the deceivingly nice-looking day. I was uncomfortable enough just spectating and taking pictures. Great Job guys! The two spectators staying warm in the wagon agree (they're just wondering where their buddy Justin is hiding.)

Roster update

We added a few more guys to the team this spring. Ian will be joining us for a few MTB events this year and Jody will be with us at the Icebreaker tomorrow. Welcome aboard gentlemen!

Now this fellow on the right was tough to negotiate with. He had some pretty specific requests in his contract - warm milk in his bottles, extra-extra-extra small jersey, matching bib, lots of nap time - you get the idea. But I think we'll keep him.

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!

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!

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!