Bonjour...ohh la la

After a week of this I was more than relaxed and rested up...much overdue I think. The weather in Tremblant this year was amazing, I even sat out on the deck one day in my bikini - needless to say, besides my ever present biker tan, I think my body sadly is incapable of a colour other than white. We actaully managed to catch a very small part of dinner one night from the lake, using a Sherwood hockey stick as a fishing rod, now how Canadian is that?

The course was great, same as last year but dry for the first time ever I would imagine. Some good technical climbs and some really tough techy downhills. Had a decent start, but managed to slip up on the first rocky climb, fall off my bike and drop my chain...hmmm, sabatoge. Amanda Sin lead the race the remainder of the way, I managed to catch her once but every lap she put time on the climbs. Overall I'm happy with the race, especially my save on a near death crash. I don't remember exactly what happened, but ended up back on my bike so I definitely can't complain.

I've never really 'gone out' in Tremblant after the race, there's usually the Hardwood Hills Canada Cup the following weekend, but not this year, so why the heck not! After a really cold Scooter ride into the village, some ice cream with killer chocolate sauce, I spent the night of dancing with some good friends (to which I'm actually really stiff from).

Got up early the next morning, thanks to a glass of aqua 'accidentally' tipping over onto me...hehe, actually I believe it was an accident. Went for one last cruise around on my bike, found some really cool singletrack, then hiked the DH course. I must say that we XCers lucked out, Sunday was pretty chilly and wet outside.

Home now for a couple of weeks, Pigeon Lake Road Race this weekend, then heading back out east for a month stint. I think I'd better learn how to speak French, I'm spending most of my summer in Quebec this year.

Oh yeah, in foreign news, Catharine Pendrel kicked ass in the World Cup in Germany this weekend....29th!!!

This course makes me smile

I stole this pic from Rob Jones at Canadian Cyclist, don't tell him. Cool shot though.

We awoke to killer weather for Bromont, sunshine and warmth, definitely welcome after yesterdays rainfall, but not enough to dry the course up in the slightest...oh well, I love playing in the mud.

I honestly wasn't expecting too much, being my first Canada Cup of the year, and after my last two weeks of field school...sitting on my ass for 14 hours a day in front of the computer....stellar. Not too worried about about call up, figured all positions would be called based on UCI points, I hung out near the back, I don't have many right now. Half way through call up though, they just said, 'and the rest of the elite womens field'..great, dead last..oh well. Had a great start, moved my way quickly up to the top five and the rest is history. Definitely feeling the last two weeks on the climbs, I continuously lost time to the other girls, but was able to make up some of it on the fast techy downhills.....the dh's in the xc course here are absolutely amazing. By the middle of the third lap I found myself in fourth place and that's where I stayed for the rest of the race.

After a long fiasco with results and being first posted as a DNF, I finally got my position sorted out....that's always a little stressful..damn it, I worked hard for the forth place.

Cleaned my bike up, it was pretty nuked from the peanut butter and soupy mud combo...great for the drivetrain. The Shimano guys were supper nice and set me up with a new set of rear brake pads because mine were completely GOOOONE. Thanks.

They've set up a little sprint course for tomorrow, might go give that a try if it's not raining too much.

NIIIIIICE

It's warm and sunny in Bromont. Great change from the expected forecast of rain, rain, rain. Go figures, as soon I change my tires the weather gets good. Oh well, it's beautiful outside....I don't think that I've ever been here when it's been nice.

Off to the races.

On the road again...just can't wait to get on the road again...

My apologies, the past two weeks have been incredibly hectic and I' ve had very little time for riding and even less time to post anything. Following the Norba race in Santa Barbara, I headed to Vancouver for a week of hydrogeology field school, makes me sounds smart doesn't it. Spent five days doing not much but sit out in the rain and watch the water levels in our test wells change due to the tidal and pumping tests. Not my idea of a great way to spend a week, espcially when you see a large group of cyclist ride by your site...:( Managed to go for two rides and one run, and managed to hurt my achilles tendon to the point where I was almost in tears just putting shoes on. It was probably a good thing that the the field school write up was also ridiculously long and hard and a lot of work, took a veryy easy week with very little riding, and my achilles is feeling almost perfect again, just a little crunchy sometimes. Back to field school, spending 14 hours a day, for seven straight days sitting in front of the computer looking at numbers isn't my idea of fun, kind of stressful actually. But handed my probably 100 page project in on Monday with a smile (not because I was confident that it was a good paper, but just that it's done).....and I'm free for the summer. Yippee.. So for now, I'm back to being a full on biker bum.

Raced in the second Alberta cup race this past weekend in Edmonton, great course, very technical and tough. Only three women showed up for the elite category which was really lame, but we started two minutes ahead of the expert men, so it was good motivation to stay ahead of them. Dallas had a nasty crash, not a good feeling when you come around a corner and see you boyfriend lying in the trees. I stopped to see if he was okay, but he just told me to go finish the race. Only to find out later that he thinks he busted a pucker string (aka ACL or MCL), not cool and it's still really swollen and sore. Going into see a Dr on friday, so hopefully we'll hear some news, preferably good.

Also raced the second Calgary Midweek Mayhem race, road crit, tuesday evening. Great turnout, probably about 40 men in the B cat (never road raced in a group that big), and finished in 6th place......need to learn how to sprint.

Today, just arrived in Bromont, Quebec for the second Canada Cup race. As per usual with Bromont, it's wet and cold, with forecast for possibly more rain......always expect to get wet here. We took the red eye flight, so I'm absolutely beat right now, fueled by the five cups of coffee I had with breakfast........I think I need a nap right now...the room is starting to spin....Ciao