Tribute to Whistler Closing Day 2014

Oh yeah!

Shawntoberfest, medical system Sunday

Warmup Tubby Dogs. 

Most of group at Tubby Dog:

Tandem!

Cindy and I weren't the last ones standing. We departed from Ducky's karaoke since it was so close to home, and my eyes were so tried.

So come morning time, they were t just tired, I had pink eye. So I went to Sheldon Chumir. While I waited I installed a chain keeper on my 'cross bike, then just chilled in the waiting room with, among others, a homeless dude whom also rode his bike in, and two young strippers, one of whom had no bra with her outfit and the other whose bra was the outfit.  They almost left their leopard print high heels then came back for them. I mostly read news, got bored with Facebook, and finally got in. I did creep one photo of the wait room's characters.  The waits there are always interesting.  Gives me a positive feeling on life choices along the way.  Staff is always excellent.  The young nurse was happy to be on a day shift not a night shift, the intern was pretty johnny on the spot with his whole routine and demeanor, even the security staff seemed like they were very thoughtful (and they're busy there, every few minutes they're tending to something or helping with someone).

I got my eye stuff from the pharmacy and went home to observe Marvin walking around with one eye half closed and some goop in his eye and nose. So now it's vet time for us.  Went to a weekend emergency one that's open near us.  Again, I was surprised at how young the vet was (shoot, must be a sign of aging).  Marvin was good for the first while, rubbing on legs and being happy.  Eventually he decided poking and prodding wasn't for him, so he got the sedated.  Too bad animals don't have enough cause and effect rationale to understand cooperation.  Unlike my morning experience, we had to pay for this one - and I don't doubt the woman who helped us was happy to make part of her vet school bills or car payment by working Sunday, as the reserved spot right out front had a pretty shiny BMW X5 in it... 

Marvin has some eye drops now for his sore eye and some vet billing time.  You're worth it buddy.  You were so quiet in the car both ways.  We're the guys with the wonky left eyes today!

Thanksgiving - Minnewanka to Forestry Trunk Road

Cindy and I have been eyeing up this ride for a couple of years. There's only certain times of year it works with park closures. This is one of this times. Plus we have fitness and nice weather. We started by dropping a car near our finish, which involved, inadvertently, us going on a progressively muddier and rougher off road trail through the Indian reserve than I planned.  Oops. My mom loves that kind of adventure - nothing beats mud bogging and trespassing in her books. We transferred our gear over and drove back the easier way, and other than a highway incident with my bike, make it to Minnewanka parking lot at 1. So here we set off relatively late in the day, 1 bottle only each after some were lost, to make it back.  We had an iPhone map that was low resolution and one screen covered about 60km, some typed notes from Craig, and about 7 hours of sunlight. Or 7 hours of sun and twilight. Off we went. 

Animals right off the start. They didn't listen to logic when I asked them to move left off the trial, so we had to follow them a while. They seemed pretty placid. 

Happy. But we soon learned the 'cross double header got the best of Cindy's legs and she felt drained today. 

Little bridge to cross. 

Action single track. 

That far lump on the right is one half of the devil's gap where we were headed. 

Beauty fall day.  Bunch of deer up above us at this stop. 

Left and right of the Devil's gap more clearly shown. 

So after Minnewanka and the next small lake, Criag's notes were perfect. It went to scree and rubble, the cairns were hard to see to follow the trial to the south side of the third lake, you might end up bushwhacking. Well, we did. First hour we did 10km. Second 10km took 90 minutes. Third 10km took two hours. We did a pep talk that digging in deep to make pace was better on the body, even if hard, than bushwhacking blindly on trails we couldn't find after the sun went down. We got on the scree and rolled, knowing trial was south, and made it to the dry lake. That was an easy marker and we could easily see the trail so joined it. 

The dry lake. 

This is more conducive to speed. 

Eventually popped out of Banff park. 

We took a slight detour south here after not seeing the climb out of the Ghost River valley Craig referred to, then knew we were off so came back to find the climb. Wasted only 5 mins out, 5 back. Climb was described perfectly, it's just hidden a bit. 

Top of climb looking back west.  Essentially from here we have 17km left, net down and on roads. 

Happy to be making pace for a bit. 

Nearing trunk road. 

Within striking distance of done. 

Overall this was a great ride. Mixed terrain, beautiful scenery. Could work with a Banff drop and a Cochrane pickup. Terrain surprised you, it gets exponentially slower as you go given the trail conditions, so at one point you think you're almost 4h deep for half way, and the extrapolation doesn't feel so good with a chill in the air and sun setting and zero people around. But it gets better just after that. 

Pumphouse 'cross

The Synergy folks put on an awesome race at the Pumphouse Cross this weekend - tight little course using every bit of available space, it was so fun.  I was having my best race of the year, and for a few laps where I even felt relaxed, I had worked my way up where next man up was Ian Auld... who's a perennial top 5.  Then on the stair climb I didn't lift my front wheel high enough one lap, and it bumped a stair.  Oddly enough that was enough to rotate my wheel/stem alignment, so I had to fix that at least close enough to ride.  Then my rear tire started going flat, which is odd as it has a tube, and usually it's binary, it's flat or not.  I lost several spots on the lap where I noticed it was mushing out in corners as all of a sudden I was going waay slower, then fell once when it mushed out, then had to push my left brake back in line, then got a pump and lost most of the rest of the spots.  Right-o... upper half of the field glory still eludes ; )

Cindy had a great race in her first women's open since being upgraded and was 9th!

Drie Zussen Superprestige Cyclocross Probincials Canmore

Beauty day for racing and cheering after the morning rain shower passed through!  RMCC hosted a great event.

Chocolate ancillary medals are a great idea!

Deer Kitty

Bunnin and I rode after work. Warm, but the earth's axis of rotation at this point in our journey around the sun makes for shorter evenings.  On the way to his house, some commuter blew by with amazing speed. I chased on, and at the lights complimented him on his vigorous approach to commuting. Turns out that chasing him was actually fast, I KOM'd the 26 th ave bike lane, probably only because I also chased into him. Ridiculous. After that we got in 92km of bliss. Spot the deer. 

Steepest bike path of death in Cochrane.  Spot the kitty.  

Bici Rodeo 'cross

A second day in a row of quite warm weather made for a great day of racing. Two stories unfolded.

One was the winner of sport women, Cindy. From a third place start to reeling them in to power climbs that made up for dainty barrier crossing, Cindy put out the power today to take a win. Good job!  

Slicing corners. 

We'll work on barrier speed. 

Powering it out solo. 

Crossing the line. 

Podium!

I started faster and more aggressive. Was in 8th going into first corner, which was nice positioning and once it stretched out, was smoother around the corners. I used cornering, riding the run up every lap, and the big barriers, then the last half of course corners to stay in with a group that was putting out way more watts. It was a good recipe until two laps to go, when their surges got me, the 28C started taking it's toll, and I over turned my handle bar by the 2nd gate between the fields where it was all bumpy and the bump ate my wheel and spun it all the way for a little low speed dismount. After that I couldn't catch or hope to catch the group of three into the headwind section, but also nobody was behind. 

BikingBakke climbing. 

Chasing. These barriers and the remainder to the start finish I could usually reel in to then be with the group up the headwind section. 

Finish!

Toast to a victory!