Midsummer Night's Cross

Haley in the lead.

Kicking off the 2011 Cyclocross season was a rare summer time race about an hour outside of Seattle - the Midsummer CX sponsored by Raleigh Bicycles and MFG Cyclocross. The course was technical, dusty, bumpy and exposed to a strong wind, placing a premium on power. Most impressive was the $40,000 in prizes which included pro contracts for the top man and woman rider.

The story of the day was Haley's Cat 4 women's win: She started mid-pack and quickly began driving the pace. By the end of the first lap, she had only one other rider contending for 1st and the two of them had a significant gap on the field. Later in the day Jay placed 8th in the Masters 40+ and Ashely was 17th in the Cat 4 Men.

Spectators and riders enjoyed a VIP catered tent courtesy of Raleigh which featured a delightful selection of burgers etc and included an open bar and beer garden serving up a local microbrew. Unlike most races, the booze and food was offered rather than procured by stealth and cunning. Not sure how the Mighty Army would have reacted! The beer hand ups from the VIP tent were plentiful and ambitious.

Next race is the Mighty CX at Aldor Acres, Sept 4th.

The bumpy descent.

A great picture gallery here.

Full results here.

(Write up courtesy of Jay/Ashley)

Fastest 300

Ryan continued his Rando exploits last Monday with the fastest recorded 300kms in BC's Rando History. He and his partner, Nigel Press, took twelve minutes off the previous fastest time. They rode 300k in 9:28 for a 33km/hr average. Crazy.

Check out his Garmin for all the ride deets. Here's his brief recap of the ride:

There were headwinds both ways, not as bad coming back, but the wind always seems to change midday so that its blowing west in the morning and east in the afternoon. So the only tailwind we had was going up to chilliwack lake.

We pulled Craig and Gerry for 120km and then left them at a control (we minimized control stops and were off the bike for just around 20 total minutes I think the whole day).

It got pretty hot in the afternoon, but we had a bunch of tree cover for most of the climb to chilliwack lake. We had our last water stop at around 225km into the ride after descending from chilliwack lake. I ran out of water 10km from the finish, but it worked out perfectly.

Post ride: tired but grinning.

Riding stoker on the tandem.

Inflicting pain on the others.

We need to get the four-legged Mighties doing this.

Le chien le plus cool du monde !

Summer Road Trippin'

I decided to go for a bike ride. The idea was to head east to Ontario to hang out with my family. I had ridden to Winnipeg and jumped on the train before so I wanted to make it a little further. Here is the break down of my trip out:

• June 25th - Hope to Princeton, BC 134kms
• 26th - Princeton to Grand Forks, BC 239k
• 27th - G.Forks to Creston, BC 215k

(This was one of the hardest days on the bike. Three summits, see pics below...)

• 28th - Creston to Fernie, BC 202k
• 29th - Fernie to Seven Persons, AB 351k

(Amazing day. Started at 11am but the tailwind brought me all the way across Alberta that day.)

• 30th - S.Persons to Herbert, SK 292k
• July 1st - Herbert to Moose Jaw, SK 128k
• 2nd - M.Jaw to Fleming, SK 316k
• 3rd - Fleming to Carberry, MB 172k
• 4th - Carberry to St.Anne, MB 229k
• 5th - St.Anne to Longbow Lake, ON 193k

I made it to Ontario but had to be in Ottawa so the last two days were riding west and north to catch the Via train which doesn't follow the Trans Canada Hwy.

• July 6th - L.Lake to Dryden, ON 129k
• 7th- Dryden to Sioux Lookout, ON 96k
•                         Kamloops to Vancouver                         350k

[That's 2696k over 13 days, averaging over 207k a day... in case you were wondering. -Morgan.]

The trusty Olmo decked out with tri-geek bars. Not a single flat.

The three big summits in one day in the Kooteneys.

The Alberta border and Crowsnest Pass. Awesome tailwind.

One of my fastest days on the bike. Ever.

There are weird things out there...

World's Largest TeePee, Medicine Hat, AB

Giant white horse outside Winnipeg, MB

Um, random VW Bug outside Kenora, ON

This felt good.

People have asked what I ate to fuel the big km's.

As much fat and sugar as I could.

Let's just say Cinnamon Buns are a staple in my diet.

As is Dairy Queen.

And the ultimate dinner to replenish the salt is Poutine.

Picture of the family I rode out to visit.

And the lake which we ran into to escape the heat wave.

I hopped on the VIA for the trip home. Here it is parked in Jasper, one of the longer stops on the trip. It is a great way to experience the country and it's people. I highly recommend it.

I jumped off in Kamloops and rode home to Vancouver, 350k. It was a shock to the system after lounging around for two weeks but it also showed me how much fitness big km's like this trip leave in the legs. It was a hard vacation but a great experience.

Parting thoughts...

Getting High in Idaho

Last week I went to Idaho for the first time in my life, at a media event for Scott Bikes on behalf of nsmb. Sun Valley sits just below 6000 feet elevation, and I rode as high as 9150. Some more photos here, and another article to come. Stoked on Idaho!

Savage on the road

Shane just met up with this guy: http://grandpascan.com/ around Waldof, Ontario. He left Vancouver 5 days ago!

Update: Good picture.

two chicanes and a bump

alright, it's been two weeks since our trip to Lillooet for camping, cycling, drinking happened, but since I was ASKED to write something, and I'm trying hard to be a good person, I've written this and decided to plagiarize my wife's work at the same time (hey, I said TRYING).

Chessa wrote the following blog about the trip here: http://crossingover2cyclocross.blogspot.com/

unfortunately, she's right - I did get her sick, so the trials and tribulations of Lillooet that she experienced were slightly different than those the rest of the Mighties may have experienced. to complete the other perspective, it was amazing to do that much climbing (3,300 meters) in a 200km weekend (two days) was awesome with so many killer friends.

Ryan was kind enough to share some photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/gowlin/LillooetMightyCamp?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTyi6Cl0v2O2AE#

but to get you a shot of the good stuff:

also, chocolate bananas:

and to elaborate on the title, the bumpy roads of the Duffy highway, though picturesque, make your feet fall asleep. they are covered in ice cracks, separated in sections and driven to rise and fall from the weight of hundreds of CANADREAM RVs rented by wandering tourists. warned by Shane in one of the corners for the "two chicanes and a bump", we decided it needs to be a Mighty Riders drink. I'm guessing, by what Andrew, Claire and Ryan were drinking, it should be Jack, Jim and, maybe, coffee.

Thanks to Matt and Emily, for driving my bike out, Haley for pro tips and marshmallows, Louis for low calorie beers. Bear and Bison for eating the scraps, and to Shane for driving me, Chessa and our crap out there.