No no no, THIS is Christmas.

Oh yes, it's that time again. What time is it, you ask? Time for yet another

MIGHTY RIDERS CHRISTMAS PARTY!!

As 1/2 of the Mighty PPC, I am pleased to announce that this years Xmas party will take place on Friday December 17th 2010. Like last year, the party will be held in 2 stages. Think of it as a party specific stage race. Or a stage specific party race. Or something. Or a chance to get drunk with all your cycling buddies. You know.

Stage 1: Beers and treats at On The Rivet/Mighty Riders. 7-9pm. This is for all the Vets, the calmer bunch, the Saturday morning workers, the moms and dads that aren't going to rage into the night, the, ahem, Nick Berrys of the world. There will be decor, merriness, pals, jokes, and bike talk I'm sure.

Stage 2: Food, cheap beers (mighty beer special), raffle, and debauchery at our dear friends and neighbours fine establishment Bandidas Taqueria (2718 Commercial, at 12th). 10pm-1am. I hope to see the whole team filter over, as this is where the raffle will be held. Like last year, we will have some excellent prizes from many of our vendors and sponsors. Here's the catch: because Ed and Sean have generously provided a food budget, and because there is no cost involved in the venues, there is no need for us to generate any money by selling raffle tickets. Instead, we will be collecting 1 item of warm clothing to donate to a charity (tbd) per raffle ticket. You bring 1 thing, you get a chance to win 1 thing. You bring 2 things, you get 2 chances to win things. Cool, right?

Mark it on your calendars. Warm up your livers. Pump up the tires on your bar bikes (we will most likely all ride down 10th ave to Bandidas together). Also, please feel to bring ONE date. GF, BF, one night stand, whatever, but just one. We want to make sure we are able to adequately feed/water all of you fine folks that fly the Mighty flag so proudly all year. So there you have it. See you soon!

Yours in all things party related,

Phyllis and Angela, Mighty Riders PPC (Party Planning Committee).

Surrey Shred

This weekend was slick.

Not in the good way.

More like "oh, hey, you want to spend some time on your ass?" slick.

The whole debacle started with Daryl Evans Racing CX/BC Cup Finals in South Surrey. For those who remember last year, the cruel and unrelenting forces of Daryl Evans built a course of grass, that somehow ended with me getting a black eye. I mean, I'm sure some other stuff happened. But I really remember that black eye.

This year was flatter, but still rough, with the course slick as oil about 2 inches deep, where the mud ended and the ground met us, frozen and unforgiving.

Paul, Stacey and I rolled out to the race, meeting Haley and the GS Goofs (Thomas Pickett and Matt Kennedy) already there.

Paul raced Cat 3s with myself and a crew of 24 (?) racers. He mentioned taking it easy on me since he was sandbagging rather than racing 2s.

Being a nice guy, he yelled some pretty encouraging words as he chased me down in smooth style, but I was pretty self-focused on catching Eric Mulder. Damn 17 year olds. I did not revel in his mechanical failure, however, as the guy behind me was taking full advantage of the times I wasn't looking as pro as this:

Aside from falling down the Rocky Mountain Slip And Slide next to the announcers booth almost every lap, I managed to stay out of this kind of trouble:

And ended up making the extended podium behind Rob (?) in SuperChampion kit

and David, who is always secret fast, as well as a guy who's name I can't remember. I think it got knocked out of my head when I did some break dancing before what would be the final sprint for 3/4.

Stacey gives us the following thoughts on her race

"3,4,5 was a super tight battle until the last lap in my race. I tried my best to knock them down with a hip check, but Katherine Vipond broke away in the last lap and left Joelle Guynup and I to battle it out for 4th."

I've edited the bit about the sandpits, you know, for the kids.

The Mens Elite and Masters showed a few of the usual suspects, but as we were cold, wet and tired, we didn't see too much of it. Here's the podium shot for you gawkers:

More on Matt Barber and the North Van Wieners tomorrow.

Double Crossed

Here's Meat with a wrap-up of last wknd's double dose of dumb mud days:

(oh, and please ride the fancy new bike...)

Saturday morning was the first annual Glotman-Simpson CX race, with a course that was previously handled by Daryll Evans, but this year laid out by the few, the proud, the Matt Kennedy (and hosted by Thomas Pickett).

I caught a ride in the All Star Van with the illustrious Nick Berry, listening to the new Arcade Fire album and using our minds to keep us warm in lieu of a heater.

For my last debut at 11am in the Cat 4 race, I was graced with a few Island racers and folks I had never raced against. The weather was simply cold, and the new skinsuits tight as could be. Our course was similar to last year, with a beautiful mud pit, a few off cambers, but largely a flat and fast. One hill begged to be ridden, though many would run. I used Matt Atkinstall's patented "Big Ring Racing" technique and kept it 46t in the front the full race. This helped after a good bobble into the mudbath (http://www.flickr.com/photos/35696093@N05/5175323120/in/set-72157625382559316/then http://www.flickr.com/photos/35696093@N05/5174717235/in/photostream/) on the first lap, and a good number of heckles, to keep the blood flowing. I finished up first place, taking my first ever #1 and earning my upgrade points for Cat 3. GS provided some excellent prizes, BTW.

Haley competed with the Open Women, putting tires to mud with Kelly Jones as the two female competitors willing to brave the elements for a non-BC Cup event. Haley came out with a payment, which I believe makes her a pro racer. Keeping it clean.

Mens 3 went off with a fast pack and 3 solid leaders, Paul McClosky showing Mighty/OTR colors. He breathed deep and held a solid 2nd place during a "bunch" sprint to the finish. Paul kept it smooth and earned some tires and socks for that 2nd place victory, as well as upgrade points to 1/2s next time he feels like it! Paul, I'll drop those tires off at the shop sometime soon.

Finally the big gun show, with Nick Berry in 1/2s racing 10 grueling laps with Calhoun, Noiles, Andre Sutton from Edmonton and Andrew Pinfold coming out of left field. The laps were hot, with the gang of 5 playing cat and mouse, finally Pinner and Calhoun took a bit of a gap. In a sprint for the end, Pinner beat out Calhoun by 2 seconds. Nick came in after Noiles by 6 seconds, dropping the Edmontonian, who had been out performed by our fearless CX leader.

This double header weekend continued with Sunday's Atomic Racing out in Aldergrove. There are photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/graemej/sets/72157625272406709/with/5179039944/

Thanks to upgrades, Nick and I drove out for a 12 o'clock start on a drizzly Sunday morning. The conversation consisted of household cleaning products and their safety, Matt Barber, Belle and Sebastian, hemp hearts, and farming. We arrived to a wet, grassy course near the US border, holding for us bogs, hills, switchbacks and the promise of seized bottom brackets. The preride consisted of a bog ("the free bike wash") which we enjoyed crossing 3 times, a long gravel trail, back to a grass climb and long mud singletrack with grass descents and a short switchback before, well, more grass.

With Cat 3s as my new home, I lined up with Brett Wakefield of Local Ride, Geoff Agnew of GS and two others I just don't know.Classically, Brett has destroyed me on long flats, but those organic bananas must have had something in them, as I took lead on the first lap and never (well, no, I did) looked back. The extra 10 minutes of riding was nice as opposed to Cat 4s, and I opened a considerable gap on Brett after he had some bobbles on the "technical" descent. My first race in 3s was my first #1 in 3s, and I hope to keep it up as I love the sound of 60 minute slog fests. Self congratulatory enough? I exchanged some good heckling from Local Ride on the descents, so I might have to watch my back.

Haley raced with a larger field, finding the bog section to be less than agreeable, however slaughtered it out to the finish. She was kind enough to lend me some coffee after the race.

Jay Loder graced BC with his presence in the Masters Race, putting in a solid performance, though showing quite a bit of mud that I never could quite explain. The new skinsuit was looking good.

The 1/2s had more folks from the Island on Sunday, with Drew Mackenzie and Dylan Tremblay coming in with fresh legs. After a fast race on Saturday, Nick and the Kevins went out fast, with Drew, Dylan and the Edmontonian trailing the lead 3. Mr. Berry looked strong in the technical and, though neither his bottom bracket or his legs had been well stretched, put down some power to set pace. The sprints with Pinfold must have taken a toll on Kevin Calhoun, as he dropped after 3 laps. Drew, however, upped his game and pushed into the lead, with Kevin and Nick continuing to hold strong. Unfortunately, fresh from the rock, Tremblay took position over Nick at the end and our Mighty ended 4th.

Overall, a wet, muddy, grassy, skinsuit-y weekend. Nick was kind enough to pull over on the side of Highway 1 so my bladder wouldn't explode on the ride home. Fun.

[edit: I hope this information is accurate. It seems results from Atomic are yet to be posted, so no fact checking has been done]

(photos by Daryl Evans Racing)

Pumpkin CX

Another great Halloween Pumpkin Cross has come and gone. Local Ride once again managed to scare the bejeezus out of the BC cyclocross racers. Or at least get them really dirty.

Cat 1/2 Men: Nick Berry on the extended podium with a 4th place.

Women: Stacey 5th, Jenny 9th, Haley 11th. Of note was Stacey swimming the mud pond for the prime on lap 3 only to have found somebody already got it. D'oh!

Masters Men: Jay Loder 25th.

Cat 4 Men: Barry 25th.

Below: Jean Ann McKirdy - women's winner and a terrifying member of the hosts, Local Ride

Below: Pimp Daddy Paul Craig, another Local Ride'r who helped put on a great race. Apparently the inspiration of the Spiral of Death which came right after the Spooky Forest section...
Thanks to Ted for the great pics! Rest of the set is HERE.

Escape Velocity CX BC Cup #4

The real cyclocross weather finally showed itself and the kids faced a wet, techincal course out in Burnaby's Foreshore Park.

Cat 4 Men: Meat was 2nd with Matt in 3rd after a good last lap battle with some questionable navigating by Matt... This gives Matt the points to upgrade to Cat 3 with Meat likely to follow soon.

Masters Men: Rob is moving up each week and finished 7th.

Women: Stacey was 5th and Haley in 12th. Stacey is now sitting 2nd in the BC Cup Overall just two points behind first with two races left in the series.

Cat 1 Men: Nick fought a good battle, mostly with the tight course, to finish 6th. This puts Nick in 6th overall for the BC Cup series.

The next local race to come out and yell at the kids or perhaps get dirty cross dressing is Local Ride's Pumpkin Cross which is always a blast. Check out the full calendar here: http://www.cyclingbc.net/calendar-cyclocross

Featherweight!

I'm certainly not a 'weight weenie' about light bikes/components but sometimes it has it's place. The boys at the shop helped Bill put together this sweet ride for his mom's 80th birthday. Check out the bling fork and stem. According to Bill, "After being used to her old 3 speed Raleigh, she couldn't keep it on the ground." Sounds like she's ready for the bike park with Nick/Barber/Morgan.

New Brighton Park & Vanier Park CX

Lots of results so I am just gonna list them by category. First up on the beautiful Saturday was New Brighton Park:

Cat 4 Men: Matt 3rd, Meat 5th (missed in results), Barry 25th

Cat 3 Men: Paul 4th

Masters Men: Rob 13th, Loder 31st

Cat 1/2 Men: Nick 4th

Women: Stacey 6th, Haley 9th

Tykes: Sophie lapped the field

Sunday the weather was closer to Cyclocross norms for Vanier Park:

Cat 4 Men: Meat 3rd, Matt 5th, Barry 29th

Cat 3 Men: Paul 1st

Masters Men: Rob 12th, Jay 27th

Cat 1/2 Men: Nick 6th, Basse 13th

Women: Stacey 4th, Haley 13th

Thanks to Sean for bringing the tent out, MJ the beer and Ryan and Ted for the great pics.

Ryans pics: HERE