Tuesday Night Crits at UBC

To complement the last post, here's some info on the Tuesday night crit races. It's only $7 to race as long as you've got your Cycling BC licence, plus $13 for a number plate. These races go down at UBC near Thunderbird Stadium every Tuesday unless it's raining.

Escape Velocity's World Tuesday Night Championships.


View Larger Map

Thursday Night Crits in Richmond

Tonight I went out to the West 4th shop with T-Pick and Matt Kennedy, and met up with Meshkat for his famous Thursday night ride. The plan was to ride a loop of UBC on the way to the Richmond crit course. We got lost and went to Steveston, and missed the races. Next time I'm not gonna let that happen, nor should you...

Coastal Race Club Thursday Challenge Series.


View Larger Map

Westside Classic - Provincal RR Champs

The Westside Classic was Sunday and once again it was the Provincial Road Race Championships and once again Claire made the podium solidifying her spot as one of BC's fastest women. She finished 3rd in a tight sprint with a tough women's field that was ripped apart by Catherine Pendrell on the climbs.

Women's Podium. (Photo by John Litherland)

In the Men's 3/4 race Andrew finished 6th with Dave Groves somewhere around 10-12th and Ryan and Paul in the pack but most importantly intact after the big crash in the last corner. Ian contested his first big race of the season with the 3/4's and gained some valuable experience and hosted a wonderful post-race breakfast (pancakes!!!).

Haley raced her first ever road race this weekend and fought hard and finished with a good group in the Women's Cat 4 field. It sounded like she really enjoyed herself so maybe we'll distract her from the mud. For a little while anyhow...

Andrew leading the Men's 3/4 field through the start/finish.

(Photo by John LItherland)

Claire leading the Women's field up the climb.

(Photo courtesy of Greg Descantes)

The Women entering their last lap.

(Photo by John Litherland)

Race the Ridge

Our good friends over at Local Ride put on another excellent stage race last week. It was comprised of a rainy 22km Time Trial in beautiful Golden Ears Provincial Park, a rainy, technical Crit in downtown Maple Ridge, and a cloudy but dry Road Race on the tough Thornhill Circuit.

Mighty had some good representation. Claire finished 6th in the TT, 5th in the Crit, 2nd in the RR and 5th overall. In the Cat 3/4 men: Andrew finished 11th overall, Ryan was 31st overall and Dave Groves had his first taste of a big race weekend and loved it.

Claire in a close fought sprint in the RR. Just getting pipped by former teammate Jenny. (Photo by Tim Sherstobitoff)

Climbing in the hilly RR.

Jenny, winner of the RR and still part of the Mighty family (check out the knee warmers...)

Claire stringing the group out in the wet crit. Unfortunately, there was too much water for the Men's Cat 3/4 crit to go ahead. The CX team is still laughing about that...

I only competed in the Time Trial. I was unhappy with my time but at least I was dry. Ok, maybe this pic just reflects how slow I felt and how epic the conditions were.

Congratulations to all the kids who made it out for a great weekend of racing!

Late to the Party: A Chronological Retrospective

After my post here at the end of the year, many thoughts were stirred about my first year of mountain biking. I forwarded that blog post over to Cam at nsmb.com, and suggested that I tailor the story for their audience. Cam was definitely stoked, and gave me the go-ahead to start work on the project.

Looking back at a year of riding through great photos—who could argue with that? My mtb-versary was in the first week of February, and I had a few weeks to get something together. As I went through my hard drives mining photos and stories, an overwhelming amount of material came to surface. As that date quickly approached, I realized two things: I had a ton of material to work through; and I probably wasn't going to finish in time for the anniversary.

Cam was supportive, and suggested we split the story into two parts. He also asked me to fill in a bit of my background: how did I avoid mountain bikes all my life, and what was it that pushed me to give it a go. Part 1 of the story went over well, even though it was quite long. A bit more time to finish Part 2 was nice. However, it was turning out to be even longer, so it was split again. Part 3 was another epic, of course, so Cam took liberty to split that one as well.

When all was said and done, I had a series of four published articles on nsmb.com. We're looking at about 10,000 words and over 100 photos. My official introduction to the world of mountain biking has been a great experience. The value of writing down your stories and experiences is invaluable.

So, after that introduction, maybe you want to read these articles... I promise they'll make up for the lack of photos in this post!
Part I: Born Again as a Mountain Biker
Part II: A Hardtail Summer
Part III: Enter the Duallie
Part IV: The Final Chapter

I'm very happy to announce that I will be continuing to work with nsmb.com. My next article just went live today; The Digg Never Stops came together as Cam and I met up for a ride to check out and document the new work on Digger's venerable trail on Mt. Fromme, Ladies Only. Hope you enjoy it, and I'll see you on the trails!

Spring Series Wrap-up

Numbers were pinned. Pedals were turned in anger. Tales of glory were told and some were even true. Another successful Spring Series campaign has wrapped up. The weather was it's usual crazy, inconsistent lower mainland spring-self and there were a few epic races as a result but also some sun. No, really.

Meat racing and no snow or mud in sight. Weird.

Spring Series is all about getting back into shape. There were the usual good results, pack finishes, OTB's, DNF's, DNS's but most importantly I believe we had NO weekend with the worst outcome, the DNB. Along the way, Mighty had some (extended) podiums:

Andrew (B group) - 3rd at River Road RR, 2nd at 232nd RR

Vic (Novice) - 4th at 232nd RR

Jenny (B group) - 3rd at Aldergrove RR

Mighty Ladies working together.

Ryan fighting the 'home' team EV'ers.

Jenny pushing on the hill at Aldergrove. For those unaware, Jenny has 'graduated' to the Cycling BC Provincial team which is sponsored by Local Ride. Follow her exploits here and on the Cycling BC website. This last weekend she skipped the Spring Series to climb atop the podium twice in Oregon.

Ryan at the front doing work.

That wraps up a busy March. Hopefully you are feeling faster and ready for the upcoming 'real' racing. I've said it before: be sure to get out and push yourself in a race, because it's the only way to find your true limits. You can train as serious as you like and have the fanciest bike but don't forget to just get out and play on it. As Jazz legend Charlie Parker said, "Master the instrument, master the music. Then, forget all that shit and play."

A big thanks to Doug Brons for the excellent photos. And full results for the Series can be found here.

Oh, and DNB is 'Did Not Beer'...

Aldergrove

SSS leading an A group up the Aldergrove climb. Photo by Doug Brons. More here.