August Goodness

You can tell how good a race buggered you up by how long it takes to post something on your blog afterwards.

The Transrockies was a good one.

Stage 1 : 31 km Mudfest time trial

- started 5th behind Adam Craig (Giant), Max Plaxton (Sho-Air), Matt Hadley (Canada), Carl Decker (Giant) (based on UCI pts)

- thinking top 5 would be solid

- left the shoot at full steam trying to catch Decker who started 1 min ahead.

- catch Decker, leave him in rear view mirror

- close in on Hadley

-finish 3rd behind Craig and Plaxton

-ride of the week!!! I thought....

Stage 2 : 72 km Climbing Roady stage

- Decker sets pace, drops eveybody but Plaxton, Craig and myself

- Craig ups the tempo, Decker drops off

- ride with Plaxton and Craig towards finish

- both guys seem to be suffering so I up the tempo and open a gap

- 3 km to go and i'm beating Plaxton and Adam Craig!

- Come across the line 1st, 25 secs ahead of the other duo

- Biggest win ever.

Stage 3: 70 km of true TransRockies Goodness

- 40 km muddy fireroad

-15 km hike/bike/crazy willows/ giant rocky climb up the continental Divide

-8 km decent down boulder field

- 1 flat, Hadley and Kona boys pass me, Plaxton is ahead for the the win

- fix flat, catch Kona boys who also flatted, real in Hadley.

- roll in 2nd on stage.

- Adam Craig had a rough day and loses 10 min. I move into 2nd in GC.

2nd overall TR3!

Stages 4-7

-Team up with John Firth from Canmore for last 4 stages.

- finish 2nd overall on stage 4 and 3rd on stage 6.

- learn John is one crazy ass hardcore Diesel engine hockey player who can tear it up on a xc bike.

- freeze our asses on stage 6. Deja vu Bow 80....

Stage 8- Party

- 1 yukon jack, 3 fireballs, 1 wine, 1 ???

- crash hard

Stage 9- Road Provincials

- get worked over by 8 man H&R block

- Jamie Sparling and I spend 1 hr chasing back break

-catch break with 8km to finish

- try to ride in on diesel fumes for the victory

- finish 7th behind riders who emerged from the pack for the first time all day at the finish...

Stage 10- Ice Cream DT Cochrane then Camp on the Icefields.

Monday-Wednesday: Write off

Thursday-Saturday- Hike up in the Rockies

I'm still pretty worked over, hence this messed up blog report.

Next up is Hinton XC and MX Provincials this weekend. Come out to the Rockies for some good times!!!

Grizzlied

The rest week after 24 hrs was pretty perfect. Fishing, camping, hiking and hanging in hammocks up in the mtns. That was until friday night when Lilla and I were returning to camp around dusk only to find a Grizzly in our way.

After some yipping from our golden retriever dog, and some yelling by us we managed to really piss the old grizz off and he charged at us through the willows only to stop 15 ft from us to growl and let out his outrage in hair rasing noises. Slightly intimidated we opted to backtrack down the trail to give the beast his space. The only problem was he started to follow, charging through the bush, stopping just short of us to let out his outrage again. After a few minutes of this it got to the point that we were either going to have to keep this up for another 60 km back to civilization or else try to get past the cranky thing to my truck which was only 500 m away.

I opted fro Plan B, Lilla probably disagreed, but she followed as we road back at the Grizz who was just out of sight in the willows beside the road. Once we got past him, old grizz started running beside us in the bush then onto the road behind us and over onto the other side of the road. I gave Lilla my best thought out advice. "Don't Fall!" "NO SHit" I think was her response. With the truck in sight and the dog already under neath it, Lilla and I hopped in and watched as the bushes and trees were trampled away only 30 ft in front of the truck. The Grizz would never come out and show himself, but we had a standoff with him in the woods growling for 15-20 min as we sat belittled in our truck. Eventually our friend got tired and wandered off up the mtn, letting off one last angry freakish noise as he faded into the night.

Our problem now was to either return home with a 2 hr drive, or to risk the 7 minute hike through the dense bush to get to the hut. We made the hike in 4 minutes. Dog in tow.

The next day the Sun was up, Grizz was no where to be seen and life was pretty good again...

Tonight we are down in Fernie gettting ready for the TransRockies to kickoff tommorow. I will try to defend my TR3 Solo title I won last yr. This is probably a pipe dream with top World Cup racers Adam Craig (Giant), Max Plaxton (Specialized), and Carl Decker (Giant), on the start list but I will I empty the tank trying.

After the TR3 finishes off I will be sticking around to cover the final 4 days of the TransRockie Team event as it finishes off in Canmore next Saturday.

Starting tommorow, reports will be up at http://www.sleepmonsters.com/