World Champion! ...of Tuesdays.

The final EV Tuesday Nighter was last night and the final season standings are here.  Sara won the women's and Jen was 4th.  This gets her name on the big ass fancy trophy.  And beer money!  Cory had enough points to finish 8th overall in Cat 3 but raced the last month with the big kids in Cat 1/2.

Summer Dirt Trippin 2014

 With the road racing season almost wrapped up, it was time to take the fitness and go ride some dirt roads.  No real plan other than to get in as much climbing as possible and to check out some places i've been trying to get back to for too long.

Day 1: the top of Blowdown Creek FSR

Day 2: Relay Creek FSR.  An early top-out where you can see Dash Hill in the distance, the day's turnaround.

Dash Hill.

The turnaround at Dash Hill.  LIke a lot of my shitty cell pics, this was a little disappointing as you can't tell how high up this is or how steep this road that turns into a trail is.  This region is amazing.

It's a little better if you turn around...

The view east over Carpenter Reservoir at the end of Day 2.

Day 3:  The picturesque (albeit dead) estuary at the east end of Carpenter Reservoir heading to Bralorne.

The Bralorne climb.  Hurley River valley in foreground, looking out to Bridge River valley and glacier. 

The far end of Downton Reservoir.  The second of three big BC Hydro batteries up this way.

The Bridge River FSR crosses all these crazy creek canyons and waterfalls.  They need to be seen in person to get the size of them.

About half way down Downton Reservoir.

This used to be the town of Minto.  Now it's my hot tub.

Day 4: Eldorado Mtn just peaking around the corner.

Crazy views when up this high.

Some silly singletrack up on the Cinnabar trail.  I asked myself:  what would Meat do?  Then tried to do the opposite...

Day 5:  Yalokam FSR.  Another great ride.  After this pic you start climbing towards Poison Mtn.  And shortly after heading up that way I found myself hugging a pretty Spruce tree (she was really quite lovely) to avoid the lightning and sleet storm. 

A very good trip.  And best to get up there before the glaciers melt if you want to ride to see the amazing views.  

Chilli Lake

I spent Sunday dialling in the new gravel/winter bike on the backside of Chilliwack Lake.  Mmm, backsides.

New Brodie Romax.  Yay!

I feel like I get bonus points for finding a beach all to myself on a hot Sunday in August. 

Glaciers and waterfalls.  Bike is great and all prepped for upcoming altitude camp...

1st Annual Pirates Ride

We've stomped around Lillooet quite a bit the last few years.  Somewhere in those whiskey fueled evenings we've thrown around the idea of doing something stupid - well, more stupid than we usually do.  So we threw out a challenge to see how quickly we could do the 'loop'.  The loop being some 570ish km's with ~6000m of elevation gain.  

So, after 18.5 hours of riding, 10 flats, 2 wrecked tires, all of Lillooet's pizza and gallons of chamois creme and sunscreen we think this was a great idea and want to do it again.  In at least a year's time.

5 of us completed the loop.  Check out the Strava's for all the deets.

Approaching the dreaded Duffy Lake climb

Rolling into Lillooet after a hard day 1.  

This is the best stretch of highway ever.  Basse told me so.

Day 2 begins.

A lovely view.

Sidic joined us for motor pacing duties.  

 Rock bites made for lots of 'rest' breaks.

 Tunnels on the Fraser Canyon Hwy.  Motto here is 'go faster'.

Back to the bad drivers and haze of the city. 

BC Premier Series Final Standings

The White Rock Crit was the BC Premier Series Finale and Trek came out with all guns blazing and attacked Sara relentlessly in a hard fight for the jersey.  In the end, Sara finished up second overall after a strong and consistent first season of racing.  Full standings HERE.

At the front defending the leader's jersey, surrounded by pros.  Excellent photos courtesy of Scott Robarts Photography.

Trek applied the pressure and made Sara (racing in her composite team kit - ATAC Sportswear) work at the front all race and finally sprung one of their riders away.

On the men's side of things, Dylan Davies had a huge lead and finished up W.Rock strong to cap a great season with his new squad.

Week of Stupor 2014

BC Superweek  has it all.

Teammates on podiums.

And teammates smiling before serious bizness racing while incurring beer fines for very questionable attire.  Polka dots?  Really?

Baker City Madness

Neither thunder, lightning, gale force winds, melting heat, 3500m of climbing or 2 strong teams could stop Sara from running rampant in Oregon and walking away with the GC win at the Baker City Cycling Classic.

Final GC Podium.  With beer.

She was third in the first RR, won the TT (43kph!), second in the crit and tamed the 25k climb to the finish in the last RR with a second place to wrap up the overall win.  Full results here.

Bring on Stuporweek and Cascades...