Monday, May 28, 2007

More Coffee!

Raced the Merritt BC cup this past weekend. It was OK I kind of felt not so good but that was fine because my new Trek Fuel was unreal and the course was wicked good, and I won this little prize pack of Kicking horse products. Best prize ever! A bag of coffee, a box of tea, and the real "kicker" a little box of chocolate covered coffee beans. In the race I got a little slice in my side wall of my tire and by the time the stans sealed it some air leaked out and I only had like 20 psi in there for 3/4 of the race. Running low pressure like that is sweet the tire really hooks up. This week is already going really well, there is a CSI marathon on right now, and I think I am going to go for a paddle in the river tomorrow and it going to get up to like 30c. There is also a ton of snow up by the tolls on the Coke and the Fraser river is already supper high, I think Chilliwack might be under water by next weekend. I get to chill out for a bit now no racing next weekend. I am off to Hardwood hills on June 15.

Friday, May 25, 2007

relax.... take it eeee eee zzz

OK, so I for 5 nights I have slept in a different beds, and after nightmare travel I am now home, oh baby! I got kind of sick on the way home too. full stuffed up head and coughing all day, my back is so sore from coughing the last couple days. I feel good today, I am going to ride my new Trek Fuel that I just put together. I am racing it in Merritt this weekend. Chilliwack is such a nice place the mountains are so unreal, I love it a home. this photo is from me and Marty driving to some race in Poland following someone that is driving kind of fast. the civic only went 170max on the first weekend then at the end of the trip it was doing 180, I guess we broke her in.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Poland #4

Well its all done now. My final race in Poland was yesterday. I finished 3rd. The course was maybe like 4km and hilly and in the woods with no real hard sections, kind of a lame course but one of the better ones here in Poland. The race started out good with a group of 5 guys going off the front and I was right in the mix. then the group was down to 3 and I was still there. then there was 2 and I was not there. I rode the rest of the race in no mans land, it was real long like 2and a half hrs and I took down way to much gel and my post race gut was one for the books. I think my legs reached a new level of pain during the race, I was fighting hard for the podium, and it turns out I had a good gap, but I am not dead so I must be stronger now. Its good to end the trip on the podium for sure. I now get to go home and get some rest!

My week was very interesting staying with Marty's grandpa, the man speaks no English, not one word. My Polish is better then his English. It was really only 2 days so it was fine, and the old man makes a mean soup. then on Thursday the Halls team mechanic picked me up and we drove to the race. 6hrs on really bumpy polish roads in this massive truck, not wicked. My travel now gets really bad. I fly out of Krakow tomorrow at 530am and then have a 12hr stop over in Prague then a 16hr stop over in London. I get in to vancouver at 3pm on Tuesday. See you all soon.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Warsaw, Polski cup #3

Race Report - So this race was in Warsaw, the course was just on the out skirts of town in a Park with a bmx course in the middle of this hill. we went up 6 short steep climbs and down the bmx course. the course was 2.4 km long and we did 14 laps. It was dry and fast and wicked for all the folks that came out to see it. I had a front row start which is always good and found myself in the lead group of 4 after the half way point. I kind of tried to do a dig at like lap 3 but it was not really my day. I had a bad gut the whole day and I was not on, just a bad day. I was only like 10sec off 3rd and was fighting tooth and nail until the finish, it was so fast and hard, full euro style. So 4th its all right but I kind of want to win. I got one more chance to do it next week, my last week here in Poland. Marty is going home on Tuesday and I am going to be solo in Poland but I think I will be able to make it to the race and airport after. time will tell.

Non race report- So me and Marty loaded up the Civic and pealed out fallowing Greg and Anna from the halls team. before we took of Greg asked Marty "so how fast does that thing go?" at that point Marty said I better drive, good thing too because I was peeing my pants the whole time and was sweating buckets the whole time while we were driving 180km racing euro cars the whole time. I cant believe I am still alive. At one point we were doing 160 and making all kinds of sketchy passes and we looked over at Greg and he is just chilling talking on the cell phone and I was like "Dude man! this is like a video game" "its nuts". we made it to Warsaw in one piece and the Hotel we stayed at was unreal, the best hotel I have ever stayed at in my life, best breakfast, best shower, English speaking people all over, it was sweet. this morning we drove from Warsaw to Kielce to visit Marty's Grandma and she is just feeding us old school polish style, right now I am eating this unreal cake.

Quote of the week
"I never thought I would say this but the civic is just too slow" Marty as we are pinned doing 180km per hr.

here are some photos from last weekend.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

The big W.

I just finished the the second race here in Poland and I won! it was unreal the biggest win of my life. the Polaks were amazed. it was crazy the street was lined with people going nuts and there was wicked podium girls and a sausage grill with like 2000 sausages and a bunch of crazy dunk dudes. I am loving it here in Poland. the race was 8 laps of like 5ish km and I just played it cool at the start and by the 3rd lap I was in the lead and never looked back. it was unreal. I have never hurt this much before, I had a good gap going into the last lap and then I started to fade and the guys almost caught me and my legs almost stopped working. if there was 1 more hill I was done. any how got to go, I am so done. Winning is fun. whats up with the Canucks? eeeee.

Friday, May 04, 2007

The eye of the Tiger

It Friday right now and I have found some Internet and its good. Marty and I drove to race #2 yesterday and it was the most nuts drive I have ever done. we followed this guy we meet at the gas station, "oh just follow me I will show you where to go" and he was killing it, like 170 on the wide open (top speed for the civic) and we were passing like 5cars at a time on these narrow little roads at 140 and I was scared for my life. but I am alive so all is good. The course here is really good, kind of like hardwood but more climbing. I feel good. the only problem is my eye is kind of hurting, it feels like some one punched me in the eye. Kind of messed up but I can see so its fine. maybe a bug bite but its on the inside so I don't know, it could be some grapefruit pulp, "pulp can move".

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Poland week one.

I made it to Poland and the Internet is really hard to find but I got some now so its all good. there is no way I will be able to post photos, but I will post them when I get back to Canada. So it all started last Tuesday afternoon when my Dad dropped me off at YVR. Then 24hrs of travel later I was sleeping in Myslenice Poland just 25km south of Krakow. I also had a mental sleep, you know one of those 12hr pass out sessions? then me and Marty went for like a 1hr bike ride and then this Polish team picked us up in there team bus and drove us to the race, 9hrs away. So I did another 12hrs of sleep. I think this is the most travel I have ever done, there was some serious head bobs going on in the bus. This Polish team is unreal they drive us, don't charge us for gas, book our hotel and meals they are also washing our bikes and fixing them, its unreal. The meals are Pasta, pasta, and more pasta and if you are good they might give you some olive oil. also if you ever want to have less airport hassle don't try to "clean" your pass port by putting it in the washing machine. The Poland customs guy did not like it. "what is this" followed up by a half hr of yelling at me. crazy polacks!

The race was the worst course I have ever done. no joke. there was this sandy ski hill and the course was 2.7km long and there was tons of running due to the sand. the course went up the hill and down the hill 4times then went across it at the top. laps took like 8min and we did 14 of them. it was like a cross race, no fun to race on but there was a ton of people watching and there was a big screen tv at the top. it was nuts. I got called up dead last of like 50guys and had to do some riding over my limit to get into the top ten. then I got to 3rd and rode a long time trying to catch the Ukraine guy who was in 2nd he was only like 30seconds up and I could see him, all I could think of was Seinfeld and "the Ukraine is weak" well I used up to much gas to catch him and got caught by the guy who was chasing me down. I finished 4th. the racing is hard and fast. The series is very cool, if you can read polish the web site is www.skodamtb.pl.

Next week should go better. I got some good recovery this week, I was trashed for a while but felt the love on the bike today. I also will not have to travel for a million hrs and the drive tomorrow is going to be like 3hrs and the polish team is still looking after everything. I went into Krakow yesterday and checked it out its very cool. When do you kayak guys get here? we should hang out? I need to talk to some people that speak English.