Time flys....

when you're in limbo land...hehe. The past couple of weeks have flown by, spent mostly riding, relaxing, drinking coffee, watching "Pushing Dasiys" and hanging out with Regan.

Last weekend was Cross nationals and the Jim Horner UCI races in Edmonton Alberta. Juventus does a great job of hosting these events, and despite the frigid cold weather and blowing snow, it was a lot of fun. We had a pretty good sized field of women show up, including mtb legend Allison Sydor...it's always really cool getting to line up with her...even when at over 40 she can still kick my ass....seemingly easily. I ended up finishing 4th in both races, with a sizable gap up to 3rd, but a good battle with Sarah Stewart behind me. Day 2 I couldn't quite shake her as much as Day 1 (nats) and I definitely felt the pressure from her the whole race....it's awesome. Really proud of fellow Albertan Pepper Harlton finishing 2nd and 3rd consecutively.





thanks to Regan for catching some super wicked shots of the weekend....pain and all

After a week of somewhat slovenly living (which I rather enjoyed because I had great company for most of it and for the making of popcorn balls...mmmmm), I decided last minute to race the Blow Street Cross today in Calgary. I do admit I love playing in the mud, which will be great as tomorrows race at COP is said to have about 2 inches of snow covering the entire course as of today...yipppeee....and thank goodness for mud tires.

Fall Season

It's one of my fav times of year, the changing of the leaves, the new smells of the season. I love being able to unpack my woolies (but really I don't think we actually packed them away this summer) and head out into the chilly weather for a run or ride...or soon a ski....and of course cross racing.

I'm sitting here wondering what to do with myself today, watching the snow fall outside, getting ready for the Dark Cross...Calgary's super cool night cross race. And it's supposed to be wet, snowy and cold..hehe.

Last week was my first cross weekend of the season, nice little double header that left me knackered all week...yikes, not used to that super high intensity right now...it's awesome. Came second to Pepper Harlton both days, but I like to think that I didn't make it easy on her. It's awesome to see how fast she has gotten in the past couple years, it's a struggle to just keep her in sights now....it's great.

Thanks to my parents for coming out and cheering..super fans!!!! and to Regan who shot some really great photos during the weekend....and I actually talked him into racing the sunday race.... 'whispered voice "I think he's hooked" '...hehe.

Oh yeah, got my new cross bike yesterday from Barry at the Trek Toronto Store, and I'm really excited to rock it tonight....it's a really nice rig :)

Pee in a Cup

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...hehe....I got the CCES wake up call this morning. This is actually really exciting for me as it's the first time I've been drug tested!!!!

It's cross time baby!!

My apologies, kinda fell off the face of the earth after getting home from Australia.... and my autoblog didn't take over for me..grrrrr. Needed a little time to decompress from the travel and the crash...regroup a little. Good news, found out nothing is broken in my shoulder and wrist..yippeee. Just a whole lot of good deep bruising and spraining of various parts....just need time to heal...ugggh....

Right..hehe. There's no way I'm gonna miss the best riding time of the season!! I've been doing a fair bit of road riding, which feels great, and even a little light mtbing, which surprisingly feels not too bad. Spent a week up in Fort Mac visiting a good dear friend and checked out all the good oldies but muddies trails. The occasional seize up of every muscle in shoulder causing me to yell out profanities, but that's usually the result of hitting something.

Took Frank out, my newly fully rigid singlespeed, yesterday on some pretty fun singletrack around Fish Creek Park....a little stiff today but not bad enough to not push my luck trying out cyclocross at the Midweek Mayheim cross race tonight...yippee, a little stoked about that....

* BIG STUPID GRIN*

Just a quick update

I'll give a better report once things slow down a little. Yesterday was the World Championships race in Canberra, Australia. I have to admit I was having a pretty good race, sitting in 17th position going into the last lap, feeling pretty good, definitley hurting but in a very good head space. Then things took a turn for bad, I failed my flying lessons and had to abandon the race unfortunately. Spent the afternoon in the hospital, good news, nothing is broken. Pretty sore and stiff, not sure whats up with my shoulder, landed pretty hard on it. Very happy with my helmet, totally did it's job.....it's being put to rest in the Australian dump this afternoon.... Thank you helmet :)

We are off to Sydney this morning to spend the day being tourists and Monday I fly home. Pretty excited to get home for a little....but I have to start looking for a job...if anyone has any ideas, pleaselet me know!!!!!!

Ciao for now

T-25 hours and counting

One more pre-ride lap of the course, then clean bike and relax for the rest of the day....try not to get too nervous

Another lazy day down unda

Action at the World Championships started with a bang on Tuesday with the Team relay. Team Canada put in a super strong team of Geoff Kabush, Catharine Pendreal, Raphe Gagne and Evan Gunthrie...and they didn't fail to put out. Starting the week off with a super solid 2nd place, only 6 seconds back of the the Italians and 2 seconds ahead of the French, it was a really exciting race down to the finish.



Who says XC racers are weenies??? It took me a couple of tries to dial this jump, nose wheeled the first couple of attempts but totally dialed it when I had a guy breathing down my neck in pre-ride....don't slow down, don't slow down, don't slow down...was all I could think of.

Yesterday was the Junior women's and U23 women's races. After a good couple laps of pre-ride I decided it was best to go back to the hotel to stretch and relax, so I unfortunately did get to watch these races (and freecaster isn't broadcasting online yet...what is up with that nonesense????).

Today, woke up to frost and rain...yet again.... big booooo on that one. Making an executive decision to just ride easy today. Gonna spin the hour to the cousre, clean my bike up and take it to the Shimano guys...batt my eyelashes at them and hopefully get a little work done on my bike .. hehe.

Two more days to race day, getting very excited but super nervous at the same time. It's a pretty small field of only 50 women and I have plate 39....can only go forward from there :)

G'day mate.