keeping up with the jones's

okay, i made the leap into 29er-ville at the beginning of sumer more on a lark than a well laid plan. in spring i thought that i would be racing the bianchi lewis and using the redline as a fun bike. what i did not realize at the time was that this bike, the redline, would become my preferred choice for a race bike and that the bianchi would just end up sitting in the basement (hope to be selling it soon). at the end of this season i decided that i wanted to get a lighter frame and decided to look into buying a new frame. after consulting with the poosher and paddy at the shoppe i have finally made a decision on a custom made fame from mike truelove. some of you may recall that i was looking into this earlier, but did not bite at that time. well, that is no longer the case as mike and i have sent several emails back and forth and a new custom made frame will soon be in the works. so far i have decided on a more aggressive head angle, more slope on the top tube and slightly longer top tube. the bike will be mostly made from reynolds 853 and maybe some tange ultimate tubing. even though the frame is not scheduled to be built until some time in october, i am way too excited - almost like a small kid at christmas. more details will follow.

wednesday morning cross training

who ever thought that running cross training rides the morning after a fgbc tuesday night ride was a good idea may need to reconsider their decision making abilities.

(does this look like it is going to lead to high levels of participation for cross training?)

by the time i got to bed it was 1:00 am, and the thought of getting up at 6:30 to be at omand's creek park at 7:00 sat about as well as the sometimes skanky beer that is served at the f-n-h. regardless, i rolled out of bed with the encouraging words of mrs. dr. trailing behind me ("are you nuts?"), and got into cycling gear. half of my motivation for getting out of bed was that this was going to be good for me, the other half was avoiding the ridicule of the others if i did not show. when i showed up, only deanna and scott were there. with scott still on the mend, deanna and ran hills, did laps, and practiced our cross dismounts and mounts. after 45 minutes we were done. we headed home feeling good about the training, and for me, an added sense of moral superiority that i showed up (soon to be dispelled i am sure)

running laps up and down the hill

this time with the bike

xc8

last weekend the poosher and i headed out to xc8 for eight hours of joy and pain on the fabulous course at buffalo pound provincial park. we left the city at about 3 pm and headed west

(yet another car window view of the prairies as we speed by)

7 hour later we arrived and promptly set up the tent and had a pint of the good stuff

the morning was cool and we woke up to find a slew of other manitobans had made the trip (dave, seema (sp?), corey smith, shawn zayak, mike kuczer, shane lindsay, and others). it was at about this time that the karma that the poosher was going to experience the rest of the day made itself apparent. at the very first wednesday night race of the season someone left a nice cycling vest at the race site, tom picked it up and carried it around for the next 5 races. since no one claimed it, tom thought he had some nice trail swag for himself. of course the first time he wore it (this weeked) shane identifies the vest as his and tom gives it back - which is not so bad, but tom felt embarrassed. that behind him, tom got ready for the race and just prior to the start did a warm up climb on the hill which was the at the start of the race. anticipating a long day the poosher had selected some tunes for his ipod shuffle and clipped it on to his jersey. he did not turn it on for the warm-up so he did not notice that it had come off during his warm up some where on the hill - where it still lies as i write this post. with the embarrassment of the vest and missing shuffle behind him the poosher settled into the race. on his third lap tom was pushing the pace and attacking a downhill section which was fairly straightforward except for a few bumps and at times a high sided rutted main path - well this got the better of him. as he describes it he knew he was in trouble even before he got in trouble, and the trouble was there was nothing he could do about it. tom caught the rut at a bad angle and slammed hard into the ground, breaking his catlike helmet. it was right after this that i came upon him and he was pretty banged up and shaken. we discussed whether i should go get the medic, but tom said he felt okay enough to ride out - his race and weekend were done.

(morning of the race)

the race course at buffalo pound was excellent, much like birch, but with some really fast twisty flowing single track descents - what a blast and one of the better coursed i have ridden. i was riding the 29er with a 32X20 set up which was find for the the first 4 hours, after that i wish i had 22 cog for the back, because the climbing started to take its toll. the last 4 laps that i completed were hard as the climbs and bumpy descents (i also like to punish myself by riding a rigid fork) added up. i managed 10 laps and think i finished 7th overall which i was pleased with. dave finished with 11 laps and corey had an excellent race and finished in 6th with 10 laps just ahead of me. seema rocked with 8 laps and managed to make the podium with a third place finish, where she got a medal, prizes, and cheap champagne to spray over the crowd - cool.

following the race the poosher and i packed up and headed back to winnipeg, arriving at 3:30 in the morning; a long day, but well worth it (tom may disagree).

i heart dr. laura

when it comes to beer in winnipeg, our selection is somewhat limited. we need a better beer store. someone needs to open a fine beer store, just like there are fine wine stores. minneapolis has plenty of fine beer stores, and laura proved that by bringing these fine selections home from her weekend trip to the twin cities. yeah! i am going to put on my belgian cycling socks, pop in a 'cross dvd and enjoy a fine lambic.

friday night fun

with mrs. dr. out of town visiting friends from her doctorate progam, my social calendar was wide open. with nothing better to do i headed to the shop to hang out and shoot the breeze. paddy was building some wheels, the poosher was helping a friend price out bike parts, al was working the front, and john and adrian were turning wrench in the back. upon discovery that the fridge was bare, i departed for the f-n-h to replenish the stock. upon my return i was pleased to see that jon b and dave had joined the fray. we sat around the back, talked and had few beers as jon's trusty steed got a makeover. when it was time to close the shop jon, dave and i decided to take in a movie. now, i had a couple of beers, jon had a couple of beer, but dave - dave had a couple of beers and a bottle of wine earlier in the day. i had no doubt jon and i would make it to the theater in tact, but dave was another story - would he survive the ride to the theater. the short answer is no - in fact dave wiped out big time on portage avenue as we made the turn to cross the st. james bridge. big ouch (thank goodness for helmets). dave got up, dusted himself off and declared himself good to go - and he was until just before we got to the theater. we stopped so jon could take care of some plumbing issues and when dave came to a stop down he went like a poorly constructed house of cards. dusting himself off, dave once again declared himself good to go and we finished our ride to the theater. arriving at the theater we locked our bikes to the rack - well at least jon and i did, dave on the other hand managed to get the lock on his bike and that was about all. i quickly re-locked dave's bike to the rack and the three of us found our way into the theater to watch the movie. good times and a funny movie with some great lines. after the film we parted ways and i made my way home - what happened to the other two i do not know, but there must be another story there somewhere.