Squeeze Me...

So I had been procrastinating on this race for quite some time. I always love doing it but as I missed it last year I just sort of got out of the groove of it. Went for a ride Saturday morning to ponder my options as the rain they forecast hadn’t hit yet. Had just had the Major’s hubs redone by Pieriks’ Cycle as well as some flashy yellow bar tape added. Took the major for a boot from the domicile out to and through the Dundas Valley and back on a lovely typical fall ride, loving the colours and crisp autumn morning air. Returned home some time later and was still undecided on the Squeezer. They were calling for deluge of rain overnight and the Squeezer’s home trails being the 12 mile creek and Shorthills are notoriously good but are clay based and turn to greasy snot when wet! Headed down to Ottawa St in search of some furniture and whatnot after enjoyin a lovely second breakfast with my Tanya at Limoncello’s. The only thing better that breakfast is second breakfast! As the rain started, I started painting the baby room with a fresh coat of primer…as the honey-do list was getting long. Saturday 3:28pm, signed up for the Squeezer. Since I waited to the last minute I had my choice of the ‘B2’ wave or the ‘A’ wave. I chose the former, over the latter, as I didn’t think my lungs, body and determination were up to riding with the big kids. Went down to the basement and pumped up my back tire (CO2 leak from flat in stage 3 of CTS) and pronounced my bike fit for the squeezer! Well a hardtail would have been a better choice, and a 29er hardtail even better than that…but alas those options were not available at that time so we go with what we got…an Ellsworth truth with a leaky fork. Sunday morning arrives after a long night of rain, drive Tanya to work, gather up my gear and the monster and heard out the door fro some sloppy fun. Dropped the monster off en route at J&A’s place and carried on to St Kitts. Arrived in the not so thriving not so metropolis of St. Catharines around 9:40 and headed over to Montebello Park to sign my life away in exchange for a little chip and a small number plate. Grabbed my best looking kit (CTS jersey with Sweet Pete’s shorts), and was about to saddle up for a warm up around the area, when my parents showed up! It’s always nice to have fans! I hadn’t seen them since before CTS, and they were happy I survived that in one piece and always love coming out to my races (especially the squeezer with the sweet treats at the end). Saddled up, warmed up and proceeded to the finish line. There I hung out with many familiar faces in the B2 wave, some Wescam riders, and some Wednesday night roadies. The start wasn’t until 11:06, 6 minutes after B1. The B2 group looked like a real mixed bag of nuts, men, women, children, lycra, cotton, sides, runners, uber skinny, fat, freeriders, full face helmets, it was going to be interesting. Just prior to our start some skinny mid-twenties punk decided that he could fit in front of me but there really wasn’t room for his bars so I know then it would be a slow start…how I overcame the urge to pop his tire still entirely evades me. Off we go, well sort of skinny punk actually can’t get going because, and as predicted there wasn’t room. I smile and wave for the cameras as we head off down Ontario St. I’ve rode this race, excluding last year, some 6 times and know exactly what we are in for in the starting 5kms. As we took the first corner there were people all over the place, the gong show had begun. I decided to make my move up the pack, into the wind, on the St Paul bridge, this went well…passing little girls and elderly men. As we took a Left left on Henrietta and Hainer the riders were still all over the place and it was purely survival of the fittest, or he with the biggest testis. We then proceeded on the wide and wet doubletrack where I took the opportunity to pass more people thru the puddles as they went around them; this is great two fold as you not only get to pass them but you get to splash them with crud water as well! The pace was actually very mild on this section and it was into the wind but there didn’t seem to be a shortage of willing victims to ride at the front. I just say in 10 deep and hoped for the best. I knew where we were going and what needed to be done, also quite confident of my big guy burst sprint aways I was confident with my plan. With about 130m before the double track ended chicaned under the bridge into the single track, I made my move. Took off and gapped the lead riders with effort but without redlining, then disaster struck. I took the corner faster than necessary I guess, it was dry my brain told me although not registering that my tire were wet, and down I went. Quickly, picked myself back up in time to regain about 15th entering into the singletrack. At approximately this point it decided to unceremoniously begin raining. The singletrack was greasy at best, and more rain surely wasn’t going to help. Slipped and tripped along the single track mixing in some running, sliding and abrupt dismounting (both intentional and not), until we got to the top of the reservoir where some passing was in order. Tire choice seem to be decent for keeping me mostly in the proper cycling position but due to the slippery trails much was not able to be take at ‘fun speed’. The squeezer when dry really is a roadie’s dream course. The bridges were like Teflon and no fun whatsoever, after climbing the seemingly never ending road and diving back into the single track I proceeded to dismount and run the hill as I knew that that bridge was hell on wheels. I was right actually I nearly died trying to run it! Kept the pace as high as possible and passed as many folks on the double track as I could, definitively needed to make up some time lost on the front half. Was feeling strong and confident in the trails, too strong as I was upended when I lost traction and plowed head first into the ground near Brock U, there was no one around to see it but my neck is sore enough to vouch for it. Enjoyed the rest of the trails, followed someone through the Suzanne trail at what would be considered a conservative speed, and laid it all out on the last stretch of double, up the hill, over the bridge, down and up and down and up. Took the last hill past the devil, fully locked out in the big ring and rode off into the sunset…er finish line. Where some lovely volunteer (unsung heroes) removed that dastardly burden of a time chip form me and let me no my way. I was met by my cheering parents, my buddy J and the monster at the finish line. Was convinced to go to first aid tent to get cleaned up but the line was too long so I found someone with a hose with a high pressure nozzle and cleaned out the road rash. Turns out I came in third in the Double Magnum category (this is for riders of a certain girth). Stuck around to collect my trophy and while waiting picked up some grub at the festival. Also, took this time to take photos of the ‘A’ wave which you can find below. All in all, it was a good day, special thanks goes out to Tanya for supporting me and to Liberty Bicycles for running a first class event.

2009 Crank the Shield - Day 1

Was tons of fun... more to follow. photo cred: Photo Ted

Pre-amble: Prior to signing up for this race in June (before Vermont trip) I had spoken with many people who had done it the year prior. Most of them said it was logistically a good experience for a first year stage race but that the trails were sooooo wet that it turned them off from repeating this event for 2009. Had spent most of the evening packing and repacking my stuff into the lovely blue CTS bag provided…repacking was basically adding more stuff as it was not quite full yet! I basically brought everything I owned including lots of tools and spare parts and tons of clothes. Day 1 Alarm goes off at 5:00am which is really 4:45am in the real world, I consider myself a morning person…but this was way too early. Race start was 10:30, Haliburton forest was 3hours and 23 minutes away according to Google but in order for the math to work out favourably I would have to get across the top of Toronto prior to ‘rush hour’! I was out the door coffee in hand at 5:20am (real world time). The drive was uneventful, just the other side of Lindsey it started to rain and I had disparaging thoughts running through my mind to which my only solace was that I brought wet lube. Stopped at some ‘hole’ to use the lieu and grab another coffee, which could only be described as undrinkably awful, and a krueller (fuel) which was at least 3 days old and carried on. As I drew nearer to the start the rain stopped and the heavens opened up before me and life was again as it should be…sunny! Arrived around 8:50am availing plenty of time to get my last minute preparations taken care of. Parked the wagon, got my bike together (put front wheel on it), got chamios’d up complete with some chamois butter (TMI), dropped off my bag at the gear truck and decided, in a stroke of brilliance, that it would be best if I didn’t warm up and just used the first ¼ as a warm-up. Well, the start was rather anticlimactic, was really hoping for some hillbillies with shotguns to do a 21 gun salute but it was not to be and off we went. Started a ways back in the pack, probably not wise as the 3 guys in front of me locked handle bars for some 20’ before disattaching themselves successfully and worked my way up but there was a lot of miles ahead and getting too spent at this point was not the idea. After about 6km of gravel road, mostly downhill = not a good warmup, we hit the trails running, or biking, the trails were challenging and as the field had not yet strung right out there was immense pressure to clean everything or get outta the way. The trails were challenging and without the proper warm-up I found that I was quickly overheating, unzipped the vest and jersey took on more water and kept on going. Later on I stopped and removed my armwarmers and headthingie so that I my body could properly regulate temperature. The peoples on the trails were mighty friendly and kind with very few exceptions. I found myself riding entirely with people I didn’t know. Then I met Tanya, this was a total fluke, days earlier my partner for this event informed me that he had sold his spot to some girl named Tanya from Ottawa…now normally I am really bad with names but this one seemed easy enough to remember. I looked back and seen her plate number and that she was sporting a Joemamma jersey, introduced myself, she passed me and that was that…strong. After much huffing and puffing, and a couple spectacular dismounts I made it out of that section and onto the fireroads. This is where I met Brazilian Dave! Well actually we had met before at HAN, we with some others held a nice formation through the fireroads, there was a beautiful line down them that seemed to sweep from right to left and back all the way, it was so awesome. There was much more single track, plenty of tough trails and some real fun rock features. One thing of note was how quiet it was out there, for a race with 230 entrants you were often riding in complete solitude for 15 minutes at a time before passing or being passed. It was hard to ride with other riders as our strengths seemed to all be quite different. Some could climb, some descend, and some attack the single track. There were sections of short hills which I rocked; the one joy of being an oversized cyclist is the uncanny ability to attack anything that is a false flat (1-2 degrees) as though it isn’t really there. I took off from the group I was riding with and made attempts to catch anyone I could. I was feeling freshish now having regained some composure after the singletrack and was truly enjoying it. I would not say that the first day was a race day, I went hard in spots but definitely kept it at the forefront of my mind that this was day 1 of 3…I had to make it through 3 days. Day one was making for a ton of elevation, climbing not being my forte I took it all in stride. There was a 5km road section 9 km form the end I was told, caught a tailwind, locked the truth out, and grabbed big gear; the 5km was over before it started it seemed but the race was not. The last 4km of the race were some truly tough single track with plenty more climbing, and with 73km in the legs it was truly some tough sleddin’. And I was impaired psychologically by some lovely volunteer who announced it was 2km when it was more like 5km. 2km later someone told me it was 20 minutes…okay I, just give it to me straight as I have been out of water since I got on the road! Oh well, lesson learned you should never take candy from strangers. Bike handled fine for the day, no cleaning or service would be necessary aside from some chain lube. There was a lovely feed station with subs, chips, pop, ‘nola bars, cookies, eload, water and the likes right at the finish line. Results, in Chico style, were available instantly just beyond the feed station. From there you could see your gear bags and were directed to your cabins by some most helpful volunteers. The volunteers were great although it would be nice if the 80 pound bags were carted to your cabin as after 77km of racing, it truly is a struggle. I spent much time stretching on the dock, the camp, although rustic, was situated on a serene lake and had all necessary amenities. Got cleaned up, chatted with some peoples I know or know now. And hit up the second sitting for dinner. Food was great with plenty of options even for those that don’t eat potatoes… Sat around for some time, enjoyed a Wellington, caught the awards ceremonies for the day and talked to my better half for some time on the mobile standing still as reception was hit and miss at best. Decided to call it an early night…tomorrow as a big day! Flatter but with lots of short ups and downs that were going to wear me down I was told. Lost or destroyed: 1 pair of Sugoi RS bibs now have extra speed holes thanks to beautiful line that kicked me into tree on Lakeshore trail – still wearable in proper company. Sleep – many hours lost. Stage Time 5:33:22.21 Stage KM 77 Average Speed 13.86 Total Time 5:33:22.21 Total KM 77

9 Hours of Mountainview

August 15th arrived before I was ready for it, for some reason this race seemed like a good idea, although I’m not sure how I could have rationalized riding around in a rock infested 8km circle up a ski hill for 9 hours, but alas I did. I was probably the Dutch in me doing math…$40 / 9 hours = almost free (at least in the race world) and it came with a T-shirt! Conditions were near ideal, course was dry, skies were clear, sun was out, what more could you ask for?…perhaps an iceblock and a fan strapped to the handlebars! It was going to crest 38 degrees and although a nice portion was in the trees under cover it was going to be a tough one. The goal of this race was for me and Dave to ride together in prep for Crank the Shield but alas, his arch nemesis from O-cups past was there and well once the megaphone sounded he was long gone. I was content to ride far slower than race pace, it had only been 2 weeks since the last dislocation of my shoulder and I wasn’t quite up to giv’n’r on trails that I knew nothing of. The course was great! I fell 3 times on the first lap, once on the second and finally rode clean on the third. It had some steeeeep climbs, fast and/or sketchy downhills and some really nice rock features. The flow was found and it was a well laid out course. There were time bonuses to be had through contest participation, pie eating, waterbottle slingshot, bike limbo etc. Long and short of it was Dave blew his knee out and I got extremely dehydrated and began cramping in my legs and my right lat due to overly babying my left shoulder. Called it quits and went home before the pieeating began. Props go to Thomas Wood and the Mountainview crew for putting on a great event, though small in size was huge in heart!