CHICO 2011

Ontario Cup sked arrived in my inbox today! Hurray for putting in the missing pieces in my calendar. If you're planning a wedding, cottage weekend or road trip, could you please work around these dates? ;) Just kidding.

1. Mansfield, May 1

2. Woodnewton, May 15

3. Hardwood Hills (Canada Cup/Ontario Cup), June 5*

4. Albion, June 12

5. Buckwallow, July 10

6. Kelso, Aug 7

7. CHAMPS: Highlands Nordic, Sept 11

*Technically, this is a Pulse Racing event, but it's included if you pay Chico for the series up front

Business and Pleasure! Cycling Camp in Colorado!

If you're like me, a camp that combines the business of training with the pleasure of gravity assisted sliding sports (skiing or snowboarding) is exactly the kind of thing you'd want to see under the Christmas tree.

Aldo and Renee are trusted coaches of mine from seasons past (they also run a camp in Alabama that I've been known to frequent). Not only do they have a wealth of solid, tried and tested cycling knowledge to share with you, they know exactly what the cyclist-in-training is looking for: good food (and lots of it), good routes/rides that help you accomplish your training goals, and comfy cozy accomodations.

They've got all that in spades. Plus, their newest camp in Colorado also happens to be very close to a ski hill, which brings all new meaning to the term "active recovery!!"

Hope you get the chance to train with them!

DANGER in the Don.

I can't even believe this, it's so evil.

Someone has purposefully sabotaged bridges in the Don Valley in order to hurt riders doing their thing. If you, like me, enjoy the skinnies, beware. I hope the person(s) responsible are caught and for their sake, I hope they're caught by the authorities, if you know what I mean.

Canadian Cyclist has more information. From their story:

"Bridge was cut partially through in Four places and appeared undamaged from
above. The fall from this Bridge is Nine to 16 Ft, depending on which side you
fell from!!!"

I ♥ @StevePeat

This morning I checked the email I reserve for "junk" like pharmaceutical marvels, mail-order university degrees and social media updates to find something I considered definitely NOT junk.

My heart raced as I scanned the subject line: StevePeat is now following you on Twitter.

Holy. Shit.

Steve Peat. "Peaty". World Champion. People's Champion. And consistently my favourite part in mountain bike videos that get me through every winter on the lonely trainer. (I can't tell you how it warms my heart to spin along with him at the start of his part in "Seasons".)

I immediately rushed to my twitter profile to see for myself as I began mentally composing what I might tweet to @StevePeat!

That's when the truth of the notification landed with a thud.

Turns out, it wasn't @StevePeat following me. It was @StevePeatDH and I was so excited, I saw what I wanted to see, skipping over those last two crucial letters. I stared at my screen as the realization sunk in. (philosophical sidebar: does someone who has a fastest-man-in-the-world jersey hanging in his closet really follow anyone?)

The silver lining is, although I'm still a total stranger to the greatest downhiller in the world (and I'm not sure him following me on twitter would change that fact all that much ...), he DID put out an app for iphone/ipad/ipod touch. Rad. It's always good news when the sport gets more positive exposure because that means maybe more people will get out there and try it (and then become addicts like the rest of us).

To close, may I suggest that if you're on twitter on this lovely Friday, you #ff @StevePeatDH and of course the man himself, @StevePeat.

More snow ...

[scattered flurries] from felt soul media on Vimeo.

Saw this today on a blog featured on the right nav. Everybody loves a bit with a dog!

New Look!

In honour of all the blogs, tweets and facebook posts I've seen welcoming the snowy season, I've decided to take the green, summery theme you've grown to know and love and replace with the more timely theme of winter, mountains and thoughts of skiing/riding (the other kind) that it provokes.

Hope you like the new background, colours and header photo. The photo is a view of Seagrams, in Whistler back country. G took it last season and I love it.


[Gross Photo]

The Headwinds of Lakeshore Boulevard

Just when you think you're a superstar, you turn around and realize you've been riding with a tailwind. Ah, that sinking feeling.

But the croissants were worth it. Mission Accomplished.