More Winter Training Fun

Dave Collins may still be doing laps of Bermuda but Lats and Mark have returned to "real" winter weather...

Mark's view from the top of Big White

Lats at Big White

 Mark's kids in the Big White snow.

Andrew Summers in the sunshine.  And in the fog.

Sixty days (give or take) till Road season kicks off... time to get training.

True Love

From Irish Mark and Jen G respectively...

Winter Training Part 2

 Chapman's Peak

Emulating Lats' example of winter training, Mark has gone searching for some sun in the Southern Hemisphere as well.  He's racked up a thousand clicks in the last week or so riding in South Africa's 30 degree heat.   Personally I think all this warm, sunny weather training is BS and can't wait to expose them to the snow/mud/kale of a Mighty spring training camp.  Expect these fit Pirate bastards to be back towing us around on the Mighty ride soon!

 

His partner Genevieve riding up Bains Kloof Pass.  

Mark says this is the 'best climb of his short biking days'.

And he spotted a Mighty appropriate poster in the LBS.

BC GP of CX

Newest Mighty Rider Andrew Summers topped the podium in the Masters 3/4 Race on Nov 18th.  Full Results Here.

Lats Down Under

Lats is in Oz winter training and causing havoc with his Aussie Pirates.  Yesterday he was 2nd in the St.Kilda Crit and immediately spent the winnings as any good Pirate would...

 

Patrolling the front with a teammate.

 

Off the front.

 

Enjoying the spoils.

 

Also, there is some race footage above and a write up 

from his teammate.

(Note: Lats goes by 'Semi-Pro' when in the Southern Hemisphere) 

Led by Semi-Pro; Concrete Pill, Crackers and Done Deal fixed bayonets and charged the trenches of C-grade.

Done Deal spent some good time at the front, testing the legs of the bunch before Semi-Pro got bored and attacked. After a few laps alone out the front, he got even more bored so he returned to the peloton.

A break snuck away, and Crackers hopped across. Despite a heart rate of 192, Crackers worked well and the breakaway stayed away for quite some time. While this was happening, Concrete Pill sat on the front of the bunch controlling the race at tempo. His tempo, that is, as the rest of the bunch appeared to be well into the red zone while ‘Pill rode on the hoods and took in the scenery.

Part-time Pirate Col Red unfortunately popped off the back while the beak was away, and despite valiantly hanging on for a few laps retired from the race. Consequently the very next lap the breakaway was caught, and the pace slowed.

Bored again, Semi-Pro attacked another 17 times, and/or drove the pace from the front.

In the final lap, all the Beach Road pirate buffoonery paid dividends. Crackers drove the train down the back straight while ‘Pill pulled through the last corner. Semi-Pro exploded off his back wheel but unfortunately could only manage 2^nd, with legs deadened by spending most his time attacking and driving the pace.

Full Volume, ½ bionic and Uber Ubes supported from the sidelines with their small humans and WAGS Clare Crackers &  Kaz Concrete. This clearly contributed to the success.

Humans are smart...

 

Coming soon to a beach near you:  Climate Change!
It's enough to make me lose my beans. 

Updated Nov 29th.  Reuters ran a slideshow of the 'Surrealism of Sandy' highlighting the devastation we are helping to bring upon ourselves. 

Save the Date!

Ho Ho Ho!

So it's that time of year when everyone starts asking and talking and getting very excited about "A Very Mighty Christmas" party plan 2012!

Plans are in the works have no fear!

But for now this is what we have for you as Ed and his elves hash out the rest of the details.... FRIDAY DEC 14th.

So save the date!

(from the Liisa elf... note: bring whiskey. -Ed.)

Truth

I don't normally talk about the doping side of cycling as it *tends* not to affect a bunch of beer drinking ruffians like our crew.  But one of the most humble and well respected cyclists that has ever come out of BC has written a very good article setting the record straight.

Read it here: Vancouver Sun Article

Cycling is a hard, beautiful sport and a wonderful metaphor for life.  And it will always be so - with or without a Pro Tour.  I don't forgive any of the pros who tried to dirty our passion and now say they are sorry.  But with pros like Will (and his original teammates Svein and Meier), I still have some hope for our sport.

I told Will after Edmonton when he won the National Championships jersey and I finally caught up with him to congratulate him:  it's good to see the right guy win. 

 

A hard man representing Canada well.

Pumpkin Cross

While Meat was down in Seattle grabbing a very muddy podium the kids lined up for Local Ride's excellent Halooween Hooliganism known as Pumpkin Cross.  Barry and his crew always puts on some of the best racing in BC while having a blast.  Full Results Here. Below is Stott's re-cap:

Local ride organized a tight race under what was some obvious concessions to the land owner.   All of the Cat's started on time. The course consisted of three all too short tech sections, 3 massive straight stretches, and just 2 mandatory dismounts.  If you were a power type rider on a geared bike, this course was for you.  The sun broke through Sunday morning, and the weather  was great, with a heavy rain the night before that made the course really muddy and that suited my riding style.

 I had put the foil on in anticipation of a rough Cross race. 

I was pleased to see Mr. McCloskey in the parking lot.  He was running file tread tubulars, which was amazing to watch him control the slips and slides.  In my opinion it was without a doubt the loosest handling bike on the course.  I gained some speed due to a well timed beverage hand-up, and spent almost 2 or 3 laps with Paul trying to work together and gain time on the guys in front of us.    I finished 22nd, Paul was 21^st.

 (I think Hanson Brothers Stotts looks kinda like Bubbles... - Ed.)

Pat came to do battle in the masters race, he was in great position and it was sad to see him have his derailleur let go, and be forced to retire from the race.

Jen Gerth put down a hell of an effort for her second cross race (on a touring bike! - Ed.) and in Barney costume no less.  Here she is with some of the awesome women that pinned it on the course in full costume. 

 

Next weekend,  Nov 3-4th is a double deader called Cross Border Clash, in Ferndale WA.  A short road ride south of the border, and if the number of Canadian points exceed the number of USA points in the race the Canadians win the cup.  The cup would reside in Mighty on Broadway for a year, as is the declaration of the race organizer.  I am out of the province for the races, but maybe someone can come out of retirement and take my place.

2012 BC CX Provincials

(This past weekend was Cross Champs.  Below is Ashley's race report.  Full Results Here.)

      In anticipation of a great Sunday filled with cross-dressing in North Vancouver, I couldn't contain myself.  So I begged and pleaded to anyone that would hold still, "Please come to the US of A, and race on Saturday!".  Predictably, I went solo.  But as a surprise, I ended up 3rd in Single Speed B's (my best finish ever in Bellingham B's).  After repatriating myself, I carbo loaded like a champ, washed my skinsuit, and gave my trusty bike a once over.

 

      It was a dark and story night and when I awoke the sky had about fifty shades of grey.  When I saw Nick at the parking spot,  I could tell we were both ready for some classic North Van CX action.  The course was in great shape - the puddles were muddy.  Atomic Racing's Jeff Van Mulligan had added some new run-ups and noted on the Race Flyer that due to the fact that some racers destroyed the showers last year, there was no hot post-race shower action.  It was really muddy last year.  I mean, really, really muddy.
      Mighty was well represented with Pat and Meat running gears, and Nick and myself choosing to limit the potential cost of shifter replacement and racing singlespeed.

Nick Berry hustlin'.  Photo by Warwick Patterson (aka Bacon Handup).  Nick raced strong and finished 13th in the Men's Elite despite a mechanical.

Meat finished the day like he started it: warm and loud.  In between campfire singalongs, he managed to get dirty, race really hard and finish 12th with a few bails along the way.

A great photo of Pat by Doug Brons.  Damn, Pat is all about CX in this shot.  The mud, the suffer face, the fact that he probably can't see shit out of his glasses and the fact that his skinsuit is probably still in the laundry trying to get clean takes the cake.  This photo is even more awesome because this racing stuff is so hard.  Srsly hard.

Me, I had a good day.  It's been a good season so far with many more races left until the end in January.  Photo by Warwick Patterson.

Cheetah

The Nelson Vails story.  Should be good - probably even better than Quicksilver...

Winter Cross Training

Winter is here.  Some kids go to the gym, or ride around in circles fast or cross dress.  Below is Mark's gym...

Livewrong... Nuff said

I am tired of articles on "he who shall not be named on this blog".

Go ride your bike.

Hoy meets MacAskill

Hot tub biking... wait, what?

Screw the bad weather and our winter training rides, I am going hot tubbing.

New Brighton CX

Mighty was out helping Meat and the Vancouver Cross Coalition run the New Brighton Superprestige. Nick Berry found time while organizing to win the Singlespeed Category.  Full Results Here.

Women's winner Mical Dyck.  

Photo by Doug Brons.

Paska Lake MTB

The road season is over so it's time for beer drinking, Cross Dressing and/or mountain biking.  Last weekend our friends hosted us at the Finnish Sporting Club's cabin on Shit Lake.  I did not make that up - translate Paska via google...

The view from the fire pit.

View from the kitchen.  The little green roofed hut is the sauna.  

Apparently beer and 100° Celsius saunas are good pre-ride prep.  

No, really.

The cabin is actually at 1400m so the nice thing is the day starts with a 30k descent towards Kamloops.   This is us at the start of said descent:  Basse, myself, Ryan, and we had a celebrity guest appearance from one of the finest climber's in BC's history - Carl Jacobson (6 time BC Hill Climb Champ).  Basse's brother Rob also joined us and is behind the camera.

And they're off!  The view doesn't really come through the pics but there are amazing sight lines for miles around from here over the Thompson Valley and it's surrounding peaks.

It is open rangeland and about half way down we came across a large herd on the road.  

They are bigger so get the right-of-way.

Bass yelling obscenities at them and informing them of their future on a dinner plate which seemed to cause them to move on.

At the bottom you pop out in the open grasslands surrounding Kamloops.  We climbed back up via Lac Le Jeune.  Not many pics (we were cracking in the heat...) buy Ryan's Strava has all the deets.

The view from the dock after a hard day.  Not shitty...