You’ve heard of Cyclocross I’m sure. But now you get to see some from Spokane. Looks like a lot of running and jumping involved to me.

This was posted on Cycling Spokane, a blog you might check out.–Corrie

I came across this article on BMX cruisers in Oregon Cycling awhile back and I think it really captures why cruisers are so fun and why more and more people are getting into 24″ bikes.

The writer, Tom Baldinger, talking about his “secret agenda”:

My agenda is naturally, more cruiser riders on the streets, the race tracks, the skate parks, etc! I love to see other people on them, because I know what fun they are!

Why to get a 24″ instead of another type of bike:

If your budget is limited, and you are looking for a bike that is easy to maintain, can be ridden hard, and will provide more entertainment than should be legal, I would highly suggest a 24-inch wheel BMX cruiser.

How a bicycle is more than just “transportation”:

…if a bike ride is more to you than a utilitarian passage from point A to point B, if you are prone to explore alleys, jump off curbs or look for embankments, cruisers are a great option.

And finally, because (and I think this is a little tongue-in-cheek) riding a cruiser makes you a bit of a renegade:

Perhaps the best reason to ride a cruiser is the renegade factor. Mountain bikers chuckle, 20-inch wheel BMX riders scoff, road bikers are bewildered. Cruisers have a kitsch factor that’s hard to beat, they are super practical. Try one out, you’ll be surprised at the amount of saddle time it sees and I guarantee the ride will put a smile on your face.

Here’s hoping that 2010 will see even more renegades giving cruisers a try….

So this was the year that I would finally try my hand at Cyclocross or “Psychocross” as I’d heard friends refer to it as. I passed the idea by a couple members of the Dedham Bike racing squad and was met with an excitement filled “let’s do it” ! Now mind you, none of us had ever tried this side of bike racing. Some of us have extensive road or mountain bike experience but most of us had never so much as thrown a leg over the top tube of a cross bike. We all had different ideas on what was to come but one thing we all knew was it was going to be different and it was going to be fun !

Some of us spent some dough and grabbed cross bikes while others ran with what they already had. The idea was to do it as cheap as possible while still having decent enough stuff so as to not let our equipment hold us back. Yeah well the cheap route didn’t last too long and before ya knew it we were all getting new bikes and wheelsets,  I guess you could say we are all a bit competitive !

After we got all our gear issues settled we decided to hit up our 1st race out at Springfield’s Blunt Park.  Matty Bruce & I woke up to a mid 40 degrees and rainy Sunday. Let me tell those of you that haven’t done an athletic event at 8 a.m. in the morning on a cold rainy day it will definitely make you question what your idea of fun really is ! But we also knew going into the whole cross thing that weather can and will play a  part in this type of racing, it really can be a big contributor to the outcome of any type of racing but especially to Cyclocross races.

So there we were at 6 a.m. hauling down the Mass Pike in the rain wondering if we had made a mistake in thinking that we going to have fun in our new endeavor, when we both agreed that whatever the outcome we would have fun and that it was definitely better than being at work !

We arrived at Springfield at about 7 a.m. and had time to walk the course. What we saw was a super fun looking race course with all types of challenges including singletrack, a bunch of mud, barriers , slick roots and logs. We were both a bit nervous at 1st ride on the course being on new bikes with very little riding time on them but we were confident that our years of riding experience would take over and see us through just fine, because after all a “bike is a bike” in my mind.

So finally it’s time for our race , we both had signed up as Category 4 ’s seeing as how this was our first crack at this stuff. What we didn’t know was that there were no “call ups” for staging at the start based on registration order. So as a result Matty and me ended up lining up darn near last, oh well we can make up ground easily enough right ? Haha, not so easy after all we quickly found out once the race started. The start was about 150 yards of paved road into a hairpin turn on grass, this was like pushing 50 golfballs down the same garden hose ; you do the math. Well as it turned out we both ended up doing better than expected , out of a field of nearly 50 guys we got 12th and 19th respectively. We were both pretty jazzed by our results but we also knew we both could do better and we would.

One thing was for sure after this 1st race, we both agreed that it had been years since we had so much fun on a bike. Cyclocross is one of the hardest things you will do on a bike and at the same time one of the most fun and rewarding things as well.

Cyclocross was here to stay for the Dedham Bike crew !

Matty Donovan getting his Silver Medal(far left) after Sunday’s Cat 4 35+ race in Providence . He preceded that with a 5th on Saturday. A pretty good weekend of racing all in all !

www.DedhamBike.com

Have you been frustrated by your inability to accurately predict how you’ll do in your next marathon? Or even know if you’ll finish the damn thing?

Well, wonder no more! Now there’s The Performinator, the first online calculator that can answer that tough question: “Will I be like Happy Paula or Sad Paula next Sunday?”

Click on the image above to see a larger version.

Pretty exciting stuff, huh? If it actually worked, you’d see something like this. The reality, however, is more like this.

And that’s what makes the marathon so exciting and mysterious.

Some time ago, I talked about the Bufori CS, a car being worked on by Malaysian manufacturer Bufori. The racing version, called the BMS R1, made it’s world debut at the Macau GT Cup earlier this week.

It did fairly well, advancing from 28th place to 23rd place in a matter of 3 laps. The driver was Alex Yoong. Best lap time was 3:00.388. It looked like it could place up high, but later in the race, a piece of debris flew into the car and jammed the throttle, ending the race for Bufori. They plan to further improve performance.  They will be working on improving aerodynamics, reducing oversteer and increasing power.

As for looks, the front looks quite nice, much better than the pictures of the road version released a while back, and the rear end isn’t too bad, though it looks like a bit of a Ferrari 550 Maranello rip-off.

So they’ve done a good job on the race car by the looks of things, but if those previous pictures are anything to go by, the road car won’t be a looker, though the underpinnings might compensate. I’ll make a final judgment when the car is unveiled at the 2010 Beijing Auto Show. The BMS R1 will also be there, presumably some of the updates they want to do will be done by then and it’ll look a bit different.

Source: WorldCarFans

Pumpkin Pie Classic 2009 at Mae Simmons Park – Lubbock, Texas

Margie Nolen (Bicycle Sport Shop), Tommie Richardson (Bicycle Sport Shop), and Heather (our competition)

This race is part of the West Texas Mountain Bike Series… it’s a very low key race with a small town feel.   The race was very different than the TMBRA races that I’m used to… not many racers, maybe 50 or so, no map of the course, no marked start line, and no marked finish line… I couldn’t figure out where we were going to finish.  So I asked some of the guys what we were going to do, while we were lining up at the start line to race.   One guy said, “We ride the west loop once, and then the east loop twice and we finish over there pointing at the sign in table.”  Weird no marked finish line… oh well… I’m just looking to have some fun, so I’m not too worried,
Before the race, I looked at the previous times on the website and Cat 2 women times were coming in at just under 2 hours, so I’m mentally preparing myself for a pace I know I can handle for that long.  All the Cat 2 men and women start at the same time.  For the women, it’s just Tommie and I and our one competition, Heather, another Cat 2 woman.  At the start, Tommie takes off like a bat of hell with the faster guys… I’m just chugging along with an older guy behind me and Heather right in front.  About a minute into the race, Heather slides out on the loose dirt… I pass her and think… she’s not going to be able handle this course… it’s not that technical, but there’s a lot of loose dirt and gravel… I’ll be able to ditch her soon enough…

So now I’m in front, with the older guy behind me, and Heather behind him.  Up and down the rolling hills we go and Heather is still back there… dang it!  Then there were couple of tough, short climbs that I made, I figured she would dab… nope… she’s still hanging in there.  Now, I’m thinking, “Great, so much for the fun race, now I’m gonna have to work, can’t let this gal beat me, if she’s going to beat me, she’s going to have to earn it.”  About 15 minutes into the race, we’re with the wind through a fast, flat, and twisty section, so I gotta try to hammer (OK, OK hammer by my standards), so I put it in the big ring… no luck losing her.  Since, you can see a 100 yards of the course ahead, I watched some guys in front of me struggling up a short climb… sure enough the trail dipped us down and I knew I better get out of the big ring for the short, semi-steep climb, don’t want to dab with her behind me.  Then I finally thought, it’s still early, only 20 minutes into the race, just chill and ride your own race, there’s no one in front of you to mess you up.

We finish the west loop and we pass through the “finish line”, the table that is 5 yards off of the course, so I know we have to do 2 laps of the east loop, which we are racing backwards from how I’ve ridden it the few times in the past.  Shouldn’t be problem I thought, it’s more technical than the west loop we just raced, which should work to my advantage, and there’s no crazy drops or climbs from what I remember.  The trail is pretty loose, so there maybe a few sketchy downhills and some loose climbs that I may have to walk.  Better to be safe I think, gotta remember my #1 goal, stay upright on the bike!

We enter the east loop, and the older guy behind me asks to pass and he goes in front, with Heather still riding behind me.  Then, so much for my #1 goal, on a sketchy downhill, I jack-knifed my front wheel to the left… which sent my flopping over to my right.  Fortunately, I wasn’t going very fast.  Heather asked if I was OK and stopped, I told her I was fine.  I was mad because I figured she would get in front of me now.  For this section of the trail, there’s a lot of mesquite on both sides of the trail, so it’s hard to pass.  Well, she must be very nice or not experienced, because she didn’t pass me (I would have), she waited a few seconds for me to get going on the bike.  So, off we go again, with me in front and her behind.   Not much after that, I dabbed a climb.  She had a chance to pass me while I was walking my bike and she didn’t.  I guess she just doesn’t know that if she wants to pass, she’s gotta jump in front of me.  Then, the trail opened up to a double wide and she passed.  I figured, she had “toyed” with me enough, and she would just pass me and I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  Well, we keep riding and I’m still with her, neither of us could gain anything on the other, we both could climb and we were both a little tentative on the sketchy downhills.  Then, the trail flattened out to fast and twisty and since she was now in front, I took the opportunity to eat some much needed shot bloks.  We were 40 minutes into the race and I figured we had another 50 minutes to an hour to go.  Since I lost a little ground to her slowing down to get my shot blocks, I had to catch back up.  It was at this point that I figured out that I was faster than her on the flat, fast and twisty, because I was catching back up with her… go figure, I thought that was one of my weaknesses.

So we ride together for another 10 minutes or so and she pulls over to let me pass.  WHAT???  I didn’t get it, but I’m not about to stop ask questions, so I pass and now she’s behind me and I’m slowly losing her.  I thought, here’s the time to get her, it’s still flat and twisty, so I put it in the big ring and hoped that there wouldn’t be a sudden climb.  I had just ridden my singlespeed earlier that week and it finally hit me… ride in the big ring like your singlespeed… stand up if you’re losing speed rather than lowering the gear and then get back in the saddle once you can carry the momentum.  I came up to the finish line and still had one more east lap to go and I didn’t see her.  I also realized that we were only an hour into the race and I had saved too much energy, so I could do a faster second lap.  I couldn’t figure out what happened to her, she didn’t seem like she was tired.  Not much after, I caught up with the older guy and passed him on a climb he didn’t make.  Since, I lost my real competition Heather, I figured I would use this guy as my competition now.  We rode a short ways and then there was a long climb on a double wide that I didn’t like the first time I climbed it.  So I had to hammer up it to try and lose him, mission accomplished, I wouldn’t see him again till after the race.

I rode the rest of the race by myself and I tried to stay focused and continue to hammer on the flats in my big ring.  I felt great and I was looking forward to the finish.  I came up to finish line with Tommie taking pics of me.  Apparently she had plenty of time to go to the car, grab the camera and her recovery drink, and get back to the finish line.  Short race, I finished in about 1:30 with still too much left in me, but I didn’t know the course and I thought it be closer to 2 hours.  Tommie was happy to see that I finished before the other gal.  She said she could see her in front of me off and on during the race.  After over 10 minutes of waiting for her to cross the finish line, we finally saw her walking her bike toward the finish line.  She had gotten a flat after I had passed her.  I was bummed, it would have been a lot more entertaining had we been able to continue our battle.  She must have fixed it, rode for awhile, and then it must have gone flat again.  I’ve gotta hand it to her though, she walked her bike all the way to finish line and didn’t DNF.

Run in 40:21
129^th of 336

I have A LOT to say about this run.  So you might want to grab a snack and a drink.

Shelby’s Run 10K/5K/1K walk is the 5K I ran last weekend.  It was…. An experience. They finally got the results posted yesterday, so I thought I’d better get this out of the way before we go out of town and I don’t have internet/cell service to post this.

Shelby’s Run raises money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.   According to the website, Shelby Grover was a little girl who died in 2007 from an inoperable brain tumor.  Shelby’s Run was started in her memory.

When the alarm went off at 7 AM I was up and at ‘em!!  “It’s racing day!”  The Husband was less enthusiastic.  It was his first racing day.  Heh, but he’s not as excitable as I am.    Breakfast was a spinach salad with sunflower kernels and Asian dressing, and a cup of Tazo Ōm tea.  Yum!

The race started at 9 A.M. so we were there by 8:30 to pick up our T-shirts and get our bib numbers.  The start was at Clever H.S. and when we arrived there were a lot of people already there.  There was this huge group of little girls all wearing orange shirts.  I later found out they were all part of “Girls On the Run”.  What a cool group!!!

Now, as previously stated, this was “an experience”.  The first “off” thing that caught my eye were the number of people wearing mp3 players.  The rules CLEARLY stated no headphones.  I was okay with this because I know I need to get used to that.  But this was The Husband’s first race and he would have been more comfortable with music to help him keep a rhythm.  It was very disappointing to see that they WERE allowed.  Sorry, The Husband.  Booooooo.

We wandered in and out of the gym a few times so The Husband didn’t get overheated.  Too many people in the gym.  We walked back and forth to the car a couple of times to drop off t-shirts and water bottles and get his phone.  Then decided we’d hit the head.  Dude!!!!  The bathrooms??  Oh man.  The whole hallway smelled like shit.  Literally.  Shit.  I was cracking up.  Once I got INTO the bathroom (ladies, you know how those lines are) I realized it must be the men stinking the school up.  Ha ha!

One of the times we wandered outside I noticed that alongside the snack/water/Powerade tables was an old dude with a table of bibles.  Really??  Heh.  Whatever.  Made sure not to get too close to that table.  Didn’t want to be responsible for the lightening hurting anyone….

FINALLY it was time to get started.  And by started, I mean at 9 o’clock, they corralled everyone into the gym.  The guy with the mic thanked everyone for coming, gave props to the “Girls On the Run” group (again, super awesome kids!), blah blah blah.  I say that because it was hot in there.  HOT!!!  And the dogs were restless.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  More on that later…
I tuned back into what the dude was saying and realized… HE’S READING SCRIPTURE.  And he’s acting like we all KNOW these passages.  Um, yea, no.   I was now super not happy about standing in this hot gym with all these people and their dogs LISTENING TO SCRIPTURE.  Ugh.  The Husband said he needed to go to the head again, so I followed.  Screw this God/Jesus/Bible noise.   **Interesting note: Clever is in CHRISTIAN County.**

When we came back in, he was telling everyone to bow their heads in prayer.  No thanks.  I started looking around and saw my friend Josie sitting in the bleachers!!  And, HAHA!!, she was looking around like me!!  But she didn’t see me.  So while these Jesus people (and the ones too embarrassed to NOT bow their head and pretend) prayed, I texted Josie “What the hell are you doing here?”  I saw her head come up and she reached in her pocket as her teenage daughter looked at her like, “Are you serious?”  HAHAHAHAHA!!!  (Sorry, Miranda!!!)  I finally caught her eye as the prayer ended and went over to say hi.  Her daughter, Francis, was in the gigantic group of awesome little girls in orange shirts!!!  BadASS!!!!  It was her first 5K.  I wished her luck and told her to have fun.  What a beautiful smile she has!!!!  Like pure sunshine, I tell you!!!

“Here’s how the waves will go…”  10K first.  Then 1K walkers.  Then 5K.  Weird, but okay.  Oh, and the maps they had up?  Not super helpful.  More on that in a minute…  Their instructions on where to line up in the parking lot included “at the big crack”.  Should have realized at THAT  point…

The Husband and I lined up.   Not in the FRONT front, but not too FAR from the front.  I wanted to avoid the dogs if possible.  And finally off we went!  “Good luck!” I told The Husband, and then I ran off.  I was following the GOOD sized group of 5K runners in front of me.  I’m not familiar with Clever and for some reason, coming out of the parking lot, everything looked totally different to me than when we checked it out a few days before.  Oh well.

About the dogs… I have nothing against dogs (more likely to have a problem with their owners), and I think it’s cool people bring their dogs to run.  As long as the dogs are under control, not running all over the place and dragging the owner along for the ride.  And as long as they’re not SHITTING ON THE ROAD IN FRONT OF ME.  Guess what shoes I was running in?  Yea, VFF’s.  Guess how disgusting that would have been if I had run through the large pile of dog shit?  I almost did, too.  Because the woman realized what was happening and tried to get off the road, but was cutting people off in the process.  Grrrr…..

I said “oh well” about things not looking familiar.  NOT “oh well”.  We ended up going about 2 blocks PAST the first turn.  And please understand this means we ran past 2 or 3 people wearing yellow vests that had they been paying attention should have TOLD people they were going the wrong way!!!  EVERYONE was going the wrong way!!!  *sigh*  So we all turned around and had to run AGAINST the sea of people coming at us.  I was yelling and waving to them “5K is that way!”  Sheesh.

Finally, we made the turn into the correct road.  And this is where I got REALLY pissed.  So far I’ve endured scripture, prayer, dog shit, crazy dog OWNERS and having to turn around because they didn’t mark the course.  NOW, I keep getting stuck behind these jackasses that want to WALK (we’ve just started… why the hell are you walking???) 4 across on this country road.  FOUR ACROSS!!!!  Trying to get around them is insane at this point because there are so many of us.  We got so bunched up due to having to turn around that there is no other way to describe this except to say that it’s a cluster-fuck.  *sigh*  And to make matters worse, the road we’re on is shit.  Like I said, it’s a country road.  So while I’m trying to go around all these yahoos, I have to watch for potholes, cracks, divots and DOGS.  And children- if I run into an adult, who cares… If I run into a kid I’m gonna feel bad.

I realize this is very long, but I warned you, geez!!!  Here, I’ll try to sum up the rest:

Pros:
*Those little girls were super awesome to see along the way.  Very determined, smiling, confident young ladies running doing a fantastic job!
*There was this cool old dude wearing a Clever Fire Rescue shirt (I believe he really IS fire rescue), and denim shorts over a pair of blue sweatpants.  He also had on a knee brace.  He made me smile.
*Saw 2 guys running the 5K with their kids in strollers.  Well, I ASSUME they were their kids.  I could be wrong.  But I thought that was great!

Cons:
*There was this kid… a skinny little boy who was probably about 10.  I wanted to pick his skinny ass up and chuck him into a field.  He kept stopping in front of people.  And then, for whatever reason, decided to only do it to ME.  Grrrrrr….. I try not admonish other people’s children.  Not nowadays when you have crazy stupid parents who think little Johnny can do no wrong.  But I really did think about throwing him into the nearest pile of cow shit (there was plenty; did I mention we were in the country?).
*The Husband almost tripped over the same dog 3 times.  What the hell????
*A different kid came to a full stop in front of me at the water table.  Almost plowed him over.
*About ½ mile from the end, the mail had to be delivered.  The mail man was hell bent on getting the mail out.  Almost ran over the kid I wanted to throw in the field.  Meh.

So in conclusion, I’ll do this run again, but with a TOTALLY different attitude.  Josie and I decided we’ll run it next year together just for funsies (but we promise to stay the hell out of the way of the serious runners).

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Poster on August 11th, 2009

Well the end of the race season has passed with the provincials in Blairmore, AB. I was looking forward to the weekend for a couple of reasons. First and foremost it was the start of my summer holidays which I’ll wright about in a couple more post over the week, and secondly I hope the longer, more traditional DH course would provide me with a chance to get another top 10 and end the season on a high note since I’ve managed to fall in 3 of the 4 last races. Practice had me feeling good on the course and I felt a top 10 in the large field was an attainable goal but after a fun day of practice the skies opened up over night with rain, lightning and hail and we knew a new element was just added to race day where staying on two wheels was going to be a big part of placing well.

After the mornings practice I still felt good having survived the tech sections on every run and felt good on the rest. However come to my race run I tried pushing a little past my limit on the top sections and lost it on some roots bending my brake lever. Trying to salvage my run, knowing the conditions would slow a lot of racers down I pushed hard but lost it on the rock face locking my rear brake not being able to undulate the braking power properly with the bent brake lever leaving my hopes of a good finish out the window. I’ll leave you with a few pics and hopes that next season I manage to keep the bike rubber side down.

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Posted on July 23rd, 2009

First to thank the crew from Park Cycle, the ADHRA and the volunteers who made this a great weekend. It was a fun weekend where the best was made of Rabbit Hill. I’ll be the first to admit on it’s own merit Rabbit Hill doesn’t provide a course that is considered a true DH track, and isn’t suited to my riding strengths personally so I didn’t have high expectations for this race. However, living in Alberta it does provide lift access racing, with great a group of riders from Alberta, and you know you are in for a fun weekend regardless of the terrain. The track reminds me more of a slalom style course then a DH run with a long pedally top section in a few trees after that for a couple of turns and then out into the open for a few doubles and step downs before ripping down to the finish. The weekend went on without a hitch till race day. Where rain and high winds shut down the lifts making the race runs a hike bike (only time I was glad rabbit doesn’t have much more vertical). That same wind made the pedal at the finish into the headwind much harder and I’m sure the gust of wind on their own was enough to add a couple seconds to someones time.

The Rage Crew showed strong with 3 of the top 5 pro times and Mark Wolstenholme tearing the field apart the day after his Stag with a 1:24 about 5 seconds ahead of the second fastest time of the day, and 4 podiums with Mark and Derek 1st and 3rd in Pro, Tyler Gregson winning the U15 even with a hard bail just before the finish, and Michelle Wolstenholme taking 2nd in the Masters A Women. Personally I had a bad race run with a few bobbles and almost eating it on the doubles but still managed a 16th out of 27th which looking back isn’t all that bad considering how poorly I did and a course that I new I wouldn’t be particularly strong on. Now I’m off to travel a week in the prairies before making it back for the Provincials in Blaimore next weekend which starts of my weeks holidays in Rockies, mountain biking and hiking.

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Posted on July 7th, 2009

To start this post off I want to give shout out to the Bikehawk Bike Club, Nitehawk Ski Area and the ADHRA for organizing a great weekend of racing. The Bikehawk and Nitehawk volunteers worked hard to make sure this event was fun, they all had tons of enthusiasm and organized a great event. I’ll be honest coming into the event I wasn’t expecting much from the course knowing they had limited vertical and it was a relatively new hill. However, as with all the riders I spoke to, we where pleasantly surprised at how much fun the course was, and how it wasn’t only a great race but a great event with the race, a BBQ, opening the Freestyle Ski Water Ramp , fastest speed with the RCMP on site with a radar gun and camping right near by. The course was approx. 2 minutes long, with some steep sections, well manicured berms, a variety of terrain, multiple little jumps, drops, natural features, and even if the area is a little short on rocks and roots they did a great job at adding some technical bits with some off camber sections, quick shoots and tight corners leaving all the riders stoked about the weekend and the fast course.

From my standpoint the weekend went well and I’m quite happy with the results considering I had a scary spill on Sunday’s practice before the race run. I will say I’m glad I decided to start riding with the Leatt Brace this season though as I felt my helmet hit the brace as I came down hard head first and walked away with minor bumps and bruises. As a result I was a little hesitant on my race run but my times where still respectable with a 10th place finish out of 18 or so riders in my category but more importantly I was only about 2 seconds off the pace I was hoping to be on which would have had me close to the top 5. The Rest of the DHR had a good showing as well with 1st and 2nd in the Elite Class, The fastest the womens time on the day and 4 riders in the top 10 for Senior Sport. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make the Kicking Horse next weekend so the next race update will be sometime after the Rabbit Hill Race in two weeks. (I’ll hopefully add a few more pictures as they surface in the coming week.)

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Posted on June 29th, 2009

Well well another race weekend in BC, how to sum this one up. Wicked fun course, awesome people, great weather and the snow melt made sure the course was just muddy enough to be a riot to ride. So after an amazing 2 days of riding, and maybe a little drinking I can home stoked as soon as I managed to forget about my race run. Two falls and Dropped chain resulted in my worst finish ever and I guess I’ll be looking to regain a little pride once the Alberta Cups start next weekend. But oh well that’s racing! A quick Shout goes out to Tyler who took a top 10 finishing 7 in his class in his first race after killing it all weekend, look out for him on the Alberta Cups as he has a lot potential for some podium finishes in the near future.

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Posted on June 12th, 2009

We’ll last weekend saw Race the Ranch in Kamloops come and go. It was a fun weekend, as all weekends that include friends, bicycle and a mountain always seem to be. I have to say racing in Kamloops is an entirely different ball game though., and the picture to the left sums it up pretty well. The thick powder of dust on the trail resulted in perpetually changing lines, and multiple riders falling into pillows of Dust. For myself the runs where mixed. In all honesty I only had one practice run where I felt good in this foreign terrain. So I had hoped to just take it relatively easy on my race run in the top portion which seemed to be claiming so many racers and then pedal my @#% off on the bottom to tie in a decent run. Well the top third went well, but trying a slightly different line I got sideways took out flag pole amd in an attempt to make up the lost seconds bailed twice on the bottom sections killing any hopes of a decent finish. However as always it was fun weekend rippin’ on bike, and I can’t wait till the next race to try reclame a little bit of pride ; ).

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com Posted on March16, 2009

We’ll with everything that led me to Edmonton over the winter I’m a little (ok a lot) behind on my cardio. But as thing settle training has begun both on and off the bike.

One final push for all of you out there wanting to do a Turkey Trot tomorrow morning. Click on the Turkey to find out information on the Turkey Leg tomorrow morning. I always enjoy running a race on Thanksgiving morning, makes all that turkey, gravy, pie and mash potatoes taste so much better. I hope to see many of you tomorrow morning at the Turkey Leg 5k. Click here for details.

by Cliff Robinson
Community Manager

Football, The Macy’s Day Parade, turkey, getting wagers down on your favorite race track – it must be Thanksgiving!

Nothing like enjoying the company of family and friends while placing bets on Aqueduct, Calder, Churchill, Fair Grounds, Golden Gate and Hollywood. Not to mention early action on South Africa and UK tracks!

Youbet.com will be ready early morning for all of your horse racing needs.

Oh, and we can’t forget “Black Friday”.

A busy day at the Malls and on the Youbet.com network with the 136th Clark Handicap at Churchill on tap. Watch Einstein try to defend his title in one of the oldest races in the United States.

Start handicapping early so you can get your bets down Friday before running off to fight the lines at the department stores.

Have a safe and profitable Thanksgiving!

2008 Clark Handicap:

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Happy Thanksgiving to everyone… and good luck to all of you heading out to Jingle Cross.

If you’re traveling this holiday season, remember that Google is providing free WiFi in 31 US airports. See the details here.

Capshun by Jake

Capshun by Brett

You probably know the ref. for this LOL, but heres the clip anyway cuz its WIN!! An if anyone has not seen this movie, I beg of you…you must, MUST!! Anything less is, well, inconceivable

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Drive 20 of the world’s fastest cars in this auto racing game. Need For Speed™ Undercover is Black Friday priced at $US2.99, down from $4.99 and a $9.99 introductory price back in May, 2009.

I still haven’t got into FV for the start of the Jumps. In the meantime, other methods are giving the occasional bet.

ashfordwatches.reviews2u.net TAG Heuer Carrera Tachymeter Racing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTBCUlOhHkI&hl=en

ashfordwatches.reviews2u.net TAG Heuer Carrera Tachymeter Racing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTBCUlOhHkI&hl=en

From dustinsroadtonowhere.blogspot.com posted April 5th, 2008

With summer around the corner, the snow almost all gone and the weather warming up I find myself thinking about fast flowing singletrack, more then the previous months and reminiscing about some of last years highlights. I thought I’d share what was probably the highlight from last year, my trip to Killington, Vermont to race Granny Gears 24hrs of Killington.

We had been having a great season racing with the guys from Elite Racing Association and we wanted to plan some riding somewhere different during the season. With Elite Racing’s strong track record in Ontario’s 24 hr events landing a spot on the podium of nearly every 24hr event they’ve raced since the team was assembled we wanted to see were we stood outside our environment? Killington sounded like a perfect test of our metal, about 4 laps each over 24hrs with 1800ft of climbing every lap (i.e. 7200 ft each) with a maximum elivation of 2,950 ft, a reputation of being wet, having the most technical single-track in the Granny Gear series and the guys from Granny Gear have a reputation of putting on first class events with strong competition due to their events success and points series, we knew we where in for something different. 2007 was Killington’s second year as a venue and the participation numbers were lower then their other events, however I couldn’t imaging racing that course with a sold out roster. It would have been havoc on the DH section getting mixed up with other riders.

So we assembled a team of 5 riders to race in the 5 person Coed class including Myself, Mike Harris (no he’s never had anything to do with politics), Marty & Allison, and Dave Stone. Marty, Allison, and myself took an extra couple days to drive down through Bromont, ride some downhill for a day then take our time driving in into Vermont, while Mike, Dave and their girlfriends decide to leave the day before the race because of school and work and making it an intense weekend. So we pilled into Marty’s Xterra afterwork, with 5 bikes (3 XC bikes and 2 DH Rigs) DH gear, everything needed to race a 24hr event, 5 days of clothes and where off towards Bromont. Finding a room at about12:30AM in the area proved difficult as there was some sort of equestrian competition or festival in the area and a lot of rooms where booked resulting in us back tracking towards Montreal to find a room, we where glad I’m fluent in French finding a room about 45 minutes outside of Bromont.

We woke up to the Sun shining, promising a great day of lift access riding with next to no line ups as it was Friday and most of the regulars where hard at work. It was scorching hot and the combination of all DH armor and navigating the technical trail had the sweat pouring, but it was a great day of riding and a nice change of pace from Blue Mountain. The eastern DH riders out there all know Bromont has some of the best old school DH trails in the area. The World Cup is actually making a stop there 2008, I hope to make the trip to up to see some of the worlds best rip the track apart. Alley did some XC while Marty and I had some fun on the big bikes and we ended the day in the Water Park to re-energize. I’m not sure how appreciated me and Marty where swimming in the Water Park in the DH Shorts we wore all day, but no one commented on the circles of sand floating around us as we dove in the pool. Dinner was at Mikes in the honor of Mr. Harris and we headed for to the Comfort Inn and Suites self proclaimed Taj Mahal of Vermont, which is quite the statement. It is one of the nicest properties I’ve seen a Comfort Inn on but I’d have to say, Taj Mahal was bit of an overstatement to say the least.

A continental breakfast saw us leave the Taj Mahal and we where on our way to Killington. We arrived early in the afternoon, a quick stop was made by the local bike shop which had some awesome staff and we’re building road bikes from the guys from the Bare Naked ladies. Now I know a few of you are going scoff at following, but with the event based out of a resort and the suggested accommodations where slope side condo’s. I loved and rest of the team will concur. Sleeping in a warm bed, with a washer and drier ensuring clean dry cycling clothes, a warm shower after a tough cold night lap, fresh coffee and a full kitchen for your cooking needs makes 24hr event a lot less painful, allowing concentrate less on logistic and lack of sleep, and more on racing. I will admit it does take away from the cycling community/party atmosphere at Chico’s event and some of the energy is lost, but if you are there to compete and win the condo is the way to go. An early dinner in town with a pint to help the carb loading along, and then it was back to the room feeling a little more like a holiday than the race we ended up in the outdoor hot tub having a beer with some of the competition till 5-0 came to break up the festivities. Shortly after the rest of the crew arrived on a mission drive, unpack, sleep, set up, and race and things started to feel a little less like a holiday and more like a race.

Race day! Priming the bikes setting up the pits around the start are and then at 12 we are off. Dave’s old XC running days helped him out on the LeMans style start when the only guy ahead of him was wearing running shoes instead of his clipless shoes and by the time he swapped into his clips Dave was already off on his bike and heading up the ski hill. Now Dave got lost not once but twice giving him some extra climbing, and adding minutes to our opening lap (he swears the trail wasn’t marked as well on his first lap as the rest of them but I didn’t hear anyone else mention the changes). But Dave’s exploring only had us a couple minutes back from the top of our category and still in striking distance of top teams overall (it is a 24hr race after all), and came back excited about the course. My first lap had me quite nervous as the riders reports was climb up the ski hill for half the course, then come back down over the 9.28 mile course. Not being a particularly strong climber I was worried I’d blow up, and to top it off Vermont received a lot of rain coming into the week and the technical DH was apparently quite slick. Well turns out they weren’t lying. The course was essentially a 5 mile fire road climb up Killington to get your legs burning then back down a Black Diamond DH run and then a Blue run down on XC Hardtails and the course was technical and sloppy resulting in arm pump like nothing else by the end of the weekend. Feel free to translate that into a rocky, slippery, blast that had you whoot’n and holer’n all the way, with the odd Oh S@#*. The short climbs in the singletrack on the way down where slick and tough with one climb being un-climable as every rider walked up the steep pitch with mud over your ankles. To my surprise this course turned out to be a perfect for me, as well as the team. The long climb was tough, but it was a sit spin gradual climb that didn’t put me at the disadvantage I though it would, as I could set a good pace and spin my way up. Then with Me, Mike, and Marty riding DH the way down was technical, but fun with the mud just adding to the excitement. I was having a blast beating the XC bike up, however got myslef in trouble a few times as I’d seemingly forget I only had 4” of travel up front resulting in me being thrown over the bars more then once over the weekend. After my first lap we saw some rain to add to the slick condition and they became nothing but sloppy. Our times where good and we where well ahead of the other coed teams, realizing our times weren’t far off the top teams overall and the excitement started to build.

Things were going smooth and as the night laps came up a lot of riders where loosing time trying to get down the hill in the dark, the shadows from the lights made it tough to navigate technical DH section (about 3 of the 4 miles down). Our teams done a lot of night riding thoughout the year though and it pay off as our times stayed respectable through the night stretching our lead in our category essentially locking up first before the sun came up. Doing night laps in a small field with a course that is spread out over a large area is you can spend 15 to 20 minutes without seeing another light feeling like you’re alone in the night wondering if you missed a turn vs. Chico events where dozens of lights are often in view. There may have even been a member who comforted themselves by talking out loud just in case one of those bear? that reside at the ski resort popped out. No mention of names though (cough cough Alley Cough). The guys from Granny Gear did a good job marking the trail thankfully and whenever you had doubts a sign seemed to pop up. The marshals stationed at the little break into singletrack you had from the 5 mile climb lit up the entrance to the short singletrack section like it was Christmas at your local trailer park so you wouldn’t miss it (Someone else saw that right I was going crazy?).

With a firm hold of first in our category come morning, we set our sights on an overall finish in the top 5. The morning saw a couple strong laps and we where riding in 4th place overall about a lap back from the Men’s Expert team who eventually won the overall Granny gear series. I had the honors of the victory lap as we were a couple laps up on second. I was going to get the hand off for the last lap around 11:45 and as long as I got out before 12 we should have 4th overall locked up. The riders first place men expert team left just behind me, and my personal goal was to hold him off as long as I could on the climb. As the pitch steepened I noticed I bent my derailleur and lost the bottom 3 or so gears which may by why he didn’t catch me till the end of the climb and I was starting to think I could throw down a fast last lap lighting a fire under my ass. This last lap was no longer a victory lap but a personal races to beat a member of the top US team on my last lap. I pushed hard picking my way through the rocks and got by him about a mile in, but the pass left me with an awkward line around the corner which saw me go over the handlebars bringing the bike with me still clipped in and I was brought back to reality as he gingerly picked his way through. I pushed my way through till the end and crossing the line to close our victory in Co-ed and fourth overall. After the banquet, awards and lunch/dinner we where on the road for the second shift of laps in the Xterra as me and Marty switched between sleeping and driving for the 8hr – 10 hr drive home.