Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Offenburg world cup #2

I kind of had a bad start and was maybe in the 80s on the first lap, then I was just playing catchup the whole race and made it up to 53rd and that was all I could do. I am racing well, but the results are just not really what I was hoping for. If it was a norba I would be up there, but racing in Europe is so different, there is a 100 good quality guys over here and in North America we maybe got like 10. So all I can do is get ready for next weekend.

Right after the race we got in the Halls bus and drove to Poland and thats where I am staying this week. Krakow Poland! I am staying here with Greg and his Family and its so unreal. We are going to fly to Madrid on Thursday for World cup # 3. I am really loving it here, yesterday I rode my bike to the Krakow whitewater kayak course and it made me feel a little like I was at home, that whole facility is just unreal! Then I came back from the ride and Greg's mom feed us crapes until we could eat no more, “na na, eat eat, here one more” they were really good and I didn't want to be rude so I ate what she gave me. Then we went to this indoor rock climbing class and had a ton of fun bouldering, however my arms and fingers are very sore this morning. I will try and put some photos on here later

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Welt cup #2

This week has been great, I am staying with the Polish Halls team at this really nice hotel/B&B/restaurant. There is this German lady who runs the show and she cooks us whatever we want and the breakfast is quite nice, my new thing is smoked salmon at breakfast. Smoked salmon on fresh bread with cream cheese is the cats pajamas. I have never been to Germany before and I am blown away! I think it may be my favorite Euro country. The little town squares are so nice, I rode through one at the start of the week and they had a market set up and the smells that were coming from the market was unreal!

The course is very nice not a ton of climbing but there is a lot of single track and a couple little drop offs that once some people get tired there should be some serious crashing. The weather has really gotten nice I have been riding in just shorts and a jersey the last couple days and its been great, I got to work on my tan. The beer garden at the course is massive and it is Germany so I am sure the Beers are also very big. My pre ride today went quite well just 2 laps and I nailed everything so I guess I should be good to go. I moved up a couple in the start to 49th but there is still 238men on the list, these world cups are just massive, I cant believe it! I don't know yet how many laps we will have but we start at 2pm German time. I hear live results are all the rage these days so I think you can find a lap by lap coverage on www.pedalmag.com and www.canadiancyclist.com

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Offenburg.

Gutten tag. Well I made it into Offenburg Germany yesterday. I drove with the Halls team in there big sprinter van. The 4hr drive went by quite quick cause we all watched the Aviator on the TV/DVD player that the van has in it. Unreal! The weather is not so good it misting very hard and is maybe 10c. I was very tired from the race yesterday so instead of going for a ride in the rain and getting sick I just chilled out. The weather is a little better today and looks much better tomorrow and for the rest of the week. The pace I am staying here is very nice. Its like a little Hotel/B&B/restaurant and its very euro and very nice. The rooms are even a little bigger then the ones last weekend. The lady that runs this place has a bunch of random cats running around, there is one laying on my bed right now and its like a massive fur ball. I had a wicked steak last night and I was spotting some pizza at the next table that looked quite good. So maybe pizza will be on the menu today. OK I am going to go for a little ride.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Big Race

Well today was the day. The big race. I raced OK. Nothing spectacular but it was not a total wash. In the end I finished 52nd. I had a good start, for me thats just maintaining my position. Then I rode with this Belgian guy who was world champion then got busted for doing EPO and is back after a two year ban and the thousands of people were just going nuts for him. I was going up the main climb where there must have been like 5 thousand people all going nuts, I could not hear myself think it was crazy. Then I had a good crash and when I got up my bars were side ways then I did a quick fix and only lost a couple places. I rode the rest of the race a little sideways but it was not so bad. It was someones bright idea to bring there little Jack Russel dogs to the race and let them run free all over the course and I almost rode right over the little fellow and almost crashed trying to avoid it. The weather was good today and the spectators were unreal. Tomorrow I am off to Offenburg Germany for th second world cup next weekend, but now its bed time.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

pre ride

It rained over night and in the morning and is lightly misting out right now. I pre rode the course this morning, things went well, the first lap was OK but nothing great then I nailed the second lap and then got off the course. It was really hard to get any flow going over the tricky sections because there was a line up of riders waiting to go down them. Training on the course was only open for a short time in the morning so all 273men and 130 women were all out there and it was line up city. Tomorrow is going to be crazy with 273 guys are going for it. Right now the tires I am running for tomorrow are going to be Maxxis cross marks. They say its going to dry up a bit and that the rain is suppose to stop. Here is a link to the preview along with a start list. http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/apr08/mtbXC1worldcup08/default

Friday, April 18, 2008

Houffalize

I made it into the little town of Houffalize on Tuesday night. All is great and life is good. I was living solo the first 2 days then the Polish guys that I am staying with came in on Thursday and now I got to try real hard to try and learn Polish. I had to move rooms a couple times but after being solo I am now sharing a room with this polish junior, and our room is tiny. If you took a quick glance it would look like a small room with a double bed when in fact its two single beds close together. I got a massive hockey bag full of all my stuff and it has to go into the bathroom cause there is no space anywhere else. I think every big team in the world is staying here. The hotel is packed and this hotel has the only Internet connection in town so everyone from everywhere comes here and steals the connection. They had milk at breakfast today and they must have went and got it right from the cow like 1hr before I was drinking it. Has anyone seen the cows in Belgium? They all look like body building cows, they are all jacked! Anyhow the milk is great. The course is very good lots of climbing and the rain looks like its going to come big time before the race on Sunday. Laps are 7km long so its kind of long for a world cup. There is something like 280 guys on the start list, good thing I am doing OK on the uci ranking cause I get to start in 56th. Not great but its not 280th. Training is going great, I have done the course a bunch and except for a little dumb crash today everything has been perfect. I have had next to zero jet lag, I sleep from 10-830 every night and the only thing that get me out of bed is the wicked breakfast that awaits me. Its really cold out there too, 5c maybe in the morning. This Junior guys name is Marek and he has a unreal hair cut, its like a rat tail/mullet combo. I am so jealous. Mom can I have my rat tail back? So here are some photos.
eat your meat.
the room is kind of small

taking the train, this guy was not happy about my bike being all up in his face.
start/finish right downtown, 20m from the hotel I am in.
the polish teams set up.
who needs some wheels, will trade for cookies.
the main strip of Houffalize.


Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I made it.

I made it into Belgium late last night. You know that saying “planes trains and automobiles”? Well that was me yesterday, cause I need all that to get into Houffalize. Its all good, I am going to be staying with the Polish team but they don't get here until Thursday. The Hotel is like 100m from the start finish and the breakfast is unreal with fresh bread and a good selection of of the Euro meats and cheeses and of course some good coffee. I had a unreal sleep last night, the first sleep in Europe is always good but the second night is not so good. But I will find out tonight. I could go to sleep right now, I am so tired and its like 2pm. I think I am going to try a power nap. Ok good night y'all.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Ricky Bar

Oh the Ricky Bar! Many of you might know about the “Ricky Bar” but most people don't know about it. The how to make your own Ricky bars is below, but if you are real nice to my Mom she might make you some. So back in the good old days I would go off to races and my Mom would be like “you need some energy bars, here take these” and she would load me up with like 20kgs of these bars she would make. Then at the races I would share them with everyone and the name of the bar became “Ricky Bar”

Ricky Bars.
5cup-assorted crushed cereal, I like to mix in like 2cups quick oats then 3cups crushed cereal.
2/3 cup finely chopped dry fruit(dry pineapple is unreal)
2/3 cup chocolate chips
2/3 cup sunflower seeds or other small nuts
mix all this together in a massive bowl and set aside.

2/3cup honey
2/3cup brown sugar
1/2cup natural peanut butter
bring this to a boil on a stove top.
Stir the wet in to the dry and mix it up then put it all into a greased up pan and pack it to the size of bars you want. Let it cool down and cut it up. Then chow down.

I am just drinking to much espresso right now waiting for my Dad to get here so we can go for a ride, he is going to ride the scooter and I am going to ride the road bike. Its so nice out right now, clear and the forecast says 21c, mama see ta, I am going to get such a sun burn today! 2 more days before Euro!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Spring Time


Spring is unreal! This weather is insane. I think everyday this week we have had ever kind of weather on everyday. Crazy times. Training is going well this week. I needed some rest today so I did a little paddle at the lake with Craig and out of the blue we meet Nikki there with some of her friends and the one guy that was there was very new to kayaking and flipped over and had to swim out of his boat. This guy was a long way from shore and was in the water for like 5-10min. I thought he was going to freeze to death but I think he was OK. I remember when I swam in a kayak in February in the Chilliwack river (thanks Toby) so I know how this guy feels. I played roll up the rim today and lost, I also replanted Howard into a bigger pot, he got some growth hormone as well. He is going to get jacked!

Quote of the day, Tom Skinner after selling his bike “it gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction knowing that I sold someone something of such poor quality”
I hope the guy that bought this bike doesn't read this. And I don't think I am going to buy anything from Tom.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Seatac Shuffle

On Sunday I raced the Seatac shuffle. I won the race in a mad mud fest. It was all dry before and after the race but during the race it rained on and off which made for really bad conditions nothing on the bike really worked all that great, there was a ton of mud! But the real story of the weekend is that my car made it all the way to Seattle and back. For those of you who don't know my muffler is rusted off of the exhaust pipe and it sounds like one of those Honda's the young kids are driving these days. Plus the car has no power and anytime you hit a hill it has some problems. Also the car was packed, 2 bikes on the roof and 4 people in the car plus a bunch of gear. We drove out of the race and there was this short steep hill and the car was hurting, so I pulled it into the right lane and turned my hazards on and we were getting passed by all the other bike races driving better cars then me and they all pointed and laughed and gave the thumbs up. Meanwhile everyone in the Trecel is just howling. The car made it home fine and all is good. I won $100 with the win so maybe I should put that towards some exhaust. Next up I fly out to Europe on the the 14th.
Trash talking 5year old style. Marty and I did some trash talking via text messaging before the race so some side walk chalk was used to draw what the podium might look like. My neighbors must think I am nuts! Little do they know.
Before
during
After. I still am picking mud out of my ears and eyes. Its everywhere. Just like Kramer with the sand.


Saturday, April 05, 2008

First Video

OK so here is the first video ever on rickyfederau.blogspot.com I did a kayak race a couple weeks ago I think there was 17 gates and I made it through maybe 6 or 7 of them. I will post the video of the K2 run but it takes forever to post it and I am just about to go from a bike ride so stay tuned for more video. I am going to be racing (mt bikes) in Seattle tomorrow so I am just going to go for a easy ride with Brad Rodgers right now. I like riding with Brad cause I can make him feel the same way he makes me feel when I play him in Squash. The guy is a unreal Squash player, maybe one day I will post some Squash video.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Something like that.

It was labor day weekend I was 17 I bought a coke and some gasoline and I drove out to the county fair. Da da da da, I had a bbq stain on my white t-shrit da da da da skipping rocks on the river by the rail road tracks.

What?

Ok I can explain. So summer is here that means full Bar b q. but no stain on a white t because I don't own any white t. the rocks on the river by the tracks? Well I did a unreal mt bike ride with Marty here in Chilliwack in the morning and on the way home Marty bonked like a girl and I rode home the long way over the rail tracks that cross the river. but no skipping rocks. And then at night the county fair was hit up. The zipper the sky master oh it was crazy!. I couldn't sleep at night cause I felt like tossing my cookies and my head was spinning.

Anther story. So I go to kins farm market. I walk up to the massive Fuji apples and I am like “oh mama se ta.” then there is this old Italian lady next to me that heres this and is like “what is this? Mama se ta?” So I tell her “well when something is you know really good you say mama se ta” this old lady then picks up the apple and holds it in her hand and says “ mama see ta!” with the Italian accent and all it was unreal.

cow on grill mmmmm mmmmm
the fair from the top of the fairis wheel.
show me what you got corn Dawg.
Hey Shelly, I won! In your face.
Happy Birthday Jube-Jube Jon. note the Polish beer coaster.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Road Trip to Cali

First race of 2008.

The Plan.
Road trip. Me and Marty Lazarski (the polish wonder child) get a rental car and drive it to Fontana for Norba #1. Once there we stay at the Landis (Floyds cousins) house of Ken, Irma, and Steve in razzle dazzle of Ranchococamuga about 20min from the race venue. We eat a boat load of Burritos and race our bikes. On the drive down we take our sweet time and try to save the legs, on the drive home we drink coffee and coke and try to do it as fast as possible.

Tuesday- No rental company's in Canada will let us drive a car in the USA. So we rented the car from bellingham Washington and my dad droped us and our stuff off and we got the car. We got a 4 door chevy cobalt and packed it to the brim with bikes, wheels, gear, and anything else you need to live for a week. We drove for like 10hrs to a place called Yreka, Cali. We dove straight to the supper wall mart and set up our tent in the back of the parking lot with a bunch $300,000 glorified camper vans. Food for the day was Chipotle burrito in Seattle and a California dreaming safeway sandwich in Medford OR.
Wednesday – Good morning wall mart! It was sort of cold at night maybe 3c, but nothing a -12c sleeping bag cant handle. We wanted to ride but the weather was kind of cold and wet so we just started driving. I heard some good things about Redding so we pulled over and rode for a couple hours. Redding is good, just so you know. Then we killed some more Safeway sandwiches and drove to the Landis'. We got in at like 10pm.

Thursday – hum the legs don't feel so hot. So we eat some food and go to the ghetto/Fontana bike race course, you know what ever you want to call it. Rode a lap, got a burrito across the road and went back to the house where we had a nap, watched one of the 10million satellite channels. Ken made us some spicy Spaghetti. At night we went to this massive outlet mall and Marty got some shoes and Steve made fun of Martys lufa that he left in the shower.

Friday – Pre race day. So my Dad's big thing right now is to find “deals” on what ever over the internet. He found this camper that is a “real steal” like 20min from Fontana. This camper is nice, so its like high class red neck style, I am sure you can get some sweet gun racks for the back and you can still pull your trailer with your dirty quads. The camper fits in the back of a full sized pick up truck. So after riding the course and chowing down on Burritos we checked out this camper. My old man might drive down in a couple weeks and pick it up. We tried to fit it in the trunk of the coblat but it was kind of tight. Then it was back to the pad for some Carbo loading.
Saturday – The big race. I really had no idea what to expect. I have trained quite different this winter as compared to any other winter of my life. I am never really that strong in March, but whatever time to giver. So they stuck me on the second row cause I got UCI points from last year. GO! I had a great start and was in the top 5 guys going into the singletrack. I rode in the top 3 guys for a long time then went to the front on lap 2 for a while then kind of went backwards starting the 4th lap. And by the end of the race I had blown hard and ended up finishing 7th. I really went for it and paid for my efforts. So whatever, my fitness is way better then any other year at this time and will only get better from here on in. The real story is post race at the Baja fresh. I went to the counter and asked for the biggest burrito known to man and they made it happen.

Sunday – Short track and driving and more driving. Worst call up ever! So cause short track is not UCI and cause I did zero NORBAs last year and cause I did not pre register I got called up almost last. I think there was 2 guys that got called up after me, and one of them was Marty. So the gun went off and the dust started flying and I started to play Ketchup. I ate a ton of dust and passed a ton of guys and finished 17th. What can you do? Not much else to say. Quote of the race has to go to Quebec super start Matt Toulouse and his thick dust filled beard.
Ricky “wow Matt your beard is really dusty”
Matt “yeah its a dirty Sanchez, oh its more like a dirty Tremblay”
OK time to kill some driving. After the short track it was back to the Landis house for a lasagna feast and a quick shower. We started driving at 5pm. I killed a tank of gas, Marty slept. Marty then killed a tank of gas and I slept. Then we did some 2hr sleep/drive intervals and then I finished off the drive. 18Hrs worth! We averaged 116km per hour. We drank coffee, coke, ate m&m's, trader joe's peanut butter filled pretzels, and we had Safeway sandwiches and coffee for breakfast. My stomach still hurts, “uh I don't feel so good” We were like a bunch of hard men, no messing around! Some quotes from the drive from Marty.
1:05am - “holy cow! 430miles to Portland”
1:06am - “we should see how fast this thing goes”
3:19am - “oh man its 319”
anyhow its great to be back home in Chilliwack, for a little while. Next up is the battle in Seattle on Sunday, then I am off to euro land for the World cups.



Big thanks to the Landis family for taking Marty and I in for the week. Also thanks to Maxxis tires for helping me out with a bunch of new rubber for the year. And my other sponsors Ricky Federau's savings account, Wentings bike shop, and Pinkbike.com.