Wednesday 19 August 2015

Horst Engineering

And of course every cyclocross racer NEEDS an array of the best toe spikes available for their shoes!!!  Huge thank you again to Horst Engineering for giving me traction again this year!  My first experience with these spikes was at World Championships last year in Tabor.....enough said!!


 Available in Canada very soon!!

Sunday 16 August 2015

Naked Factory Racing

As some of you may know, my plans for the cyclocross season were sidetracked earlier this year and I was forced to look for a new plan.  I'm really disappointed that I won't be rocking the Stan's No Tubes carbon Valors this CX season, I've been racing with Stan's for the majority of my CX career, and it's like being a part of a family.

So when the infamous and really rad Sam Whittingham of Naked Bikes came to me a program, I was blown away and so over the top excited to be riding these beautiful handcrafted bikes for the 2015/2016 Cyclocross season!!  I mean, these bikes are truly a work of art!!

Let me introduce my team!

My Naked Bikes are going to be fully builds with Shimano Ultergra Di2 and Pro cockpit.  Pearl Izumi is making the really cool kit that Sam designed (and will match my bike :) , and Giro is going to protect my head, and cover my feet and hands.  Wd40-Bike is going to take care of me and my bikes while travelling, and I'm really excited about the amazing local Nourish Kitchen and Cafe  are going to be taking care of some local Victoria hunger (this place is soooooooo good!!!!)

Super excited to stay on board with Oakley Canada and another local company Rumble Supershake (can't wait to try the new Coffee Bean flavour) again!!  Thank you to my local bike shop Pro City Cycles, especially Regan Pringle (repechage wheel works) for keeping everything running smooth!

I'm so excited and proud to be working with all of my sponsors this season, and can't believe that Vegas is less then a month away (gulp).  Going to be a busy year :)

Summer Loving

It's been a wild and crazy and amazing summer and I don't want it to end.

After a quick recovery from CX Worlds, we kicked the summer off with a really cool SuperPro Racing gravel grinder race, Menso's Slo Ride from Hell.....aptly named, but when you get to eat pancakes and sausages and peanut butter pretzels and other great food during a race it's a great day.

Front end heavy cross country season, racing some super fun local Island Cup Series races including the 12 hours of Cumberland I had the privilege of racing with a rad group of girls on Team No Nuts (thank you Emilly Johnson for setting that up), the annual and in my opinion not very fun Sea Otter Classic (though I was smarter this year and only raced the short track and cross country, no quadruple header for me), and the cool and high altitude Whiskey 50 (which saw me detonate and whimper on the long climb out of Skull Valley.

Had a wicked adventure taking a Harbour Air flight over to the Sunshine Coast for a Marathon race.  Super sad to miss the Nimby 50, but was really excited to finally get the opportunity to race the 7 day Transylvania Epic in Pennsylvania with fellow Stan's NoTubes elite women's racers Sue Haywood, Vicky Barclay and Emily Shields.  This was a whole different style of riding then I am used to and I was really impressed with how challenging the trails were.

Oh, can't forget about my token annul road event, the Russ Hayes / Accent Inns Grand Prix!!

My plan was to do a lot of Enduro racing this season, but with not being able to ride my bike until June, I missed a ton of early season events and the time to get comfortable on a 160mm travel bike.  And in my typical arrive late, no pre-ride I had a lot of fun riding with some rad girls at the Dry Hill enduro in Port Angeles and the all women's Hot on Your Heels enduro in Squamish.  Pretty disappointed that I didn't get the chance to go back and challenge the Whistler Enduro again, but after dislocating my shoulder last year and not being able to pre-ride at all, I opted the smarter route and stayed home to do some epic riding with Regan.

Lots of camping, a kayak adventure, buying a van #vanlife, lots of sun and a relaxing summer job....I love not growing up up.