belgian fun in the sun

the belgian triathlon went off on saturday afternoon - what a blast. the day started with an early morning meeting at the pole archery grounds where myself, tom and ian met to set up the 'cross course

(the poosher surveying the grounds - "yes, it is good")

following the setup i headed back home to get my ultimate gear and make it to assinaboine park for our first playoff game. on the way i had a very president-like moment when i lost control of my bike after hitting a rock on the river trail behind balmoral hall, causing me to careen into a tree - ouch. after a hard fought battle on the ultimate field (we lost - however, our team came back in its second game of the day to win. yeah team.), it was back to the pole archery grounds for the triathlon. the format for the triathlon had one cyclocross rider pared with a bowler, pared with a archer. each team received points based on how the team member did in their event, you could enter any or all of the events. maybe i was still feeling the effects of the run-in with the tree, for whatever reason, i did not put my name in for all of the events and found myself only entered in the cyclocross.

ian and eric figuring out the teams

cyclocross went first and we had to race around a short course which was all grass. nothing kills me more than racing on grass - it sucks you dry from the get go.

tim on the 'cross course

the next event was belgian bowling. belgian bowling consists of rolling a beveled disc, which curl as they roll, at a stake placed in the ground.

jon

gianni

apparently tom has signed us up as team for the belgian bowling league this winter. our team name is mucr-vecken(sp?) and our team uniform - yellow 'lion of flanders' cycling socks.


the final event was the pole archery. pole archery is where you try and knock birds off their perch on a pole 110 feet above your head with a bow and arrow. the arrow's have blunt ends which is a very good thing for obvious reasons.

birds on the 'fork'

here is what it looks like from below

tim shooting with his homemade bow (he built this while in high school)

arlene shooting at the women's target which was 40 feet away and horizontal

sol shooting

the next four pictures show colin preparing to shoot

of course the final event of the day was going back to the belgian club for their other national activity - hooray for the belgians!

tom's pictures from wed night race

pictures from the last wednesday night race. only one more race this year coming this wednesday. unfortunately i will not be there to fly the fgbc - anyone willing to step up to the plate?

me looking at the back of the braunonator's bike (this is the only thing i ever get to see - and only for the first 7 minutes of the race). i know i look like some soccer ref with the knee high socks, but damn, i hate that poison ivy

arlene and sol

good times

bianchi for sale

selling this bike. only ridden 4 times and it's time to let it go. reason: went to 29er ville.

option 1: frame (21") and fork (reba team) for $700
option 2: above and wheels for $1000
(wheels are mavic 717, revolution spokes, white industry hubs, and white industry 17t freewheel - wheels are two seasons old)

gianni's job

yesterday tom, ian, paddy, and i went for a ride to scout cross courses for the upcoming season. prior to the ride ian told me had a good day a work because he got to take pictures of llamas. here is ian's picture of cinnamon

wednesday night ride photos

it was a scene as they say...

young john riding to dr. h's

mr. dr. and matt waiting for the bus

juan and jimmy waiting for the yahoos to finish drinking their beer at the bus stop

the yahoos

young john and luc eating their baconators at the f-n-h

ATHF Opening

for those who like movies and death metal (i'm looking at you jonny b)

1/2 men

another wednesday night race has come and gone. as usual, jon b. and i rode out to the event (real racers ride their bikes to local events - or those who want to put themselves behind the 8-ball before the race even begins, unless your name is neil grover, paddy, or tom). any ways, we had a couple of out-of-town riders attend the event: a couple from alberta and a guy from england. seems like they enjoyed the race and liked the course. when talking to the guy from alberta he mentioned that gord's charged him $20 to join them for their tuesday night ride. what the hell's up with that???

why i titled this post "1/2 men" is jon and i decided not to ride back home after the race, excepting rides instead of biking back in - wimps that we are.

the following picture shows the good doctor and myself manning the cyclocross booth at the belgian pavilion tuesday night. the only question we could not answer was "do you speak flemish?"

laps counted and not

well the results are up for 24 hours of 9 mile and it seems like they missed the lap i did without my timing chip. more my fault than their's. any ways, 13 laps equals 270+ kms (185 miles) ridden on the weekend.