Is This A Logo??

Is This A Logo??

Thursday 29 September 2016

The Fall Epic 8 Hour MTB Relay Review Part 2 - And More Pics

Yup...more pics.  Especially now that Apex had their 16,000 (seriously) pics indexed.  Find yours  (or mine if you prefer) here.

ApexRacePhotography FallEpic8

Lois even took some pics...which she finally shared with me (luckily for y'all she kept my nudes to herself this time...).  So, more pics saves you enduring bad writing stuffs.  Sorta...

Anyways...Jaimie, NewfieSteve, and I had gone to Hardwood to preride the course a week or so ahead of the race.  The first 2 or 3 kilometers was a long gradual climb...but we figured that last bit of snow fence climb could be a bit of pain by lap 6, 8, or 10....and it was.  And the few technical bits (those rock garden/mounds) were easily rideable and the arounds were long enough to make for a reasonable time penalty.  Then the last half of the course was almost all fast, twisty, but flowy descent.  As I mentioned last post, quite possibly the fastest, funnest 8 Hour course ever...especially for a solo.

I was lucky enough to have Lois be my pit crew...and lucky that she likes to arrive early and get set up...just as I do.  Good friends eventually arrived to help with pit set ups...





Or at least watch to makes sure it was all done right....

I made time to get my pre-race meal in....


Champorado...pre-race meal of champions...and me.

Sorry about the old horse eye pose in this pic...





But, better than my duck face...

Anyways I headed out for a bit of a warmup, (perfect MTB weather on this day!!) then made my way to the paddock....again too late, and again near the back....I really need to learn this lesson.




Then we were off....and I spent the first two laps picking through traffic....trying to move up...
Then near the end of the second lap, having just passed through the solo pit area...I dropped my chain.  WTF??  That never happens!  Struggling with a clutched rear derailleur it took me a couple of moments to get the chain back, and I carried on.  However, 6 more times throughout the day, I would drop my chain.  Not sure what the problem is, but it will be getting checked out...

Eventually traffic thinned out, and I did my best to make up time...but this was a very well attended event...and there were plenty of us on course.  Also, for such a fun course, I came up on a surprisingly large number of crashes.

And it was great to see the Apex photographers on course....they always do such a great job of making me look like I know what I'm doing out there...





A couple of pics of friends by Apex that I picked off of FaceBonk...

Pinoy "TheSpeed" Ryder

Ken "The Meattrain"


And Lois took some pics from the pit...


NewfieSteve...not trying so hard???


Grant...always trying hard...and keeping up to his dad Seth...


Marting...kicking my arse!


And then....







Swedish Twins 

What??  Swedish twins...there's always room for Swedish twins...isn't there??
Kind of like cat coasters...




Right?  No??







Ummm....no....wrong Swedish twins...


Anyways...way, way off track...again.
So...this race review thing...by lap 6, or 8, or 9...I don't really remember....the suffering was starting to set in.  Enough, to pull in at the pit, to restock food,  get a short stretch in, and a vitamin I....and ask Lois how I was placing.  I really had no idea...after the poor start, I had made some passes, and had gotten passed, and was sure there were some well ahead.


The suffer face...

"You are in 6th place", Lois answered.  Ah, well.  I thought I was doing better...was hoping for better.  But it was a fast course, and there were some super fast competition I was up against.  So I continued on...determined to do my best...and you never know what could happen in a race like this.

Nothing happened.

I remained in 6th...so I made my goal to push for 13 laps.

Finished lap 12 at 7hours26minutes...and I didn't have 33 minute 13th lap in me.  I was done.
TerryS took first with 15 laps.  More machine than man I think.
GordR second with 14 laps. Followed closely by Martin with 14 laps.
I wasn't even close with my 12.

But a fun course, great racing with friends, no crashes (by me!), just a great day to be on the bike!
Actually I was most impressed by this guy...



RichardBeeeef....completed 12 laps solo singlespeed...then competed in a cyclocross race the next day.  Who says UKers can't be tough??
I think he may have cheated though....fueled by 4 months old bottles of perpetuem that had grown a 2cm head of mold on them...(seriously).  Not sure what must be in that mold...I may have to try that.

So....that's about it for me for this MTB season, 'cept for maybe the fun race here and there.  Until the fatbike season starts.  I started out this season great...with a few podiums...then kind of let the last half of the season slip away...

So, for now some fun rides....but mostly get back to work shaping up for next season...I really need to be able to be competitive for a full season next year.

So...let's get at it!!  What's up this weekend??

Stay posted!


Felix...amazed by it all!!



Tuesday 27 September 2016

The Fall Epic 8 Hour MTB Relay Review Part 1 - in Pics

So there it is...over and done.  The Fall Epic 8 Hour Mountain Bike Relay race, held at Hardwood Ski & Bike, promoted by Pulse Racing is in the books.  And so much good stuff to say about this race!


Glenn TheMan


The weather was perfect MTB weather.
There were so many racers in attendance...which meant for so much great competition...and had to be 100 solos there abouts!  I felt sorry for the team riders that had to negotiate their way around us all.  Added to the technical features, I guess.
And about the course...could well be the most fun, flowy course of any 8 hour race I have participated in!! (I have done a few in the past 8 years).

And lots of folks with cameras...so I have scavenged a huge number of photos for this post.  ApexRacePhotography was also on site, took over 16,000 photos!!!  But they are still indexing them, so not available yet....but that is OK...will give me some material for Thursday's blog post!!

In the meantime I am not sure who to give credit for which pics here...I know JeffS took a ton...and ArlieK took a few...and there was a drone on site piloted by someone I don't know...so I apologize ahead of time if I don't give credit where credit is due.

Also, I apologize for the haphazard manner in which the pics will appear here...organization is not one of my strong suits...so just grab the edges of your desk, hold on, and enjoy the ride (and hopefully you do not hear those words from your boss today...)...or just go with it like these fellas...





Anyways....here we go...

Drone pic of the start paddock...



A different point of view....





My view from the back...



Yeah, I know...I have to learn to get there earlier, and get closer to the front...or just be able to go faster throughout the day.

However, I was lucky to have Pinoy Ryder join me at the back...



And JeffS consoled me after the finish (yes I needed it)...what great friends I am very lucky to have!!!




Pinoy Ryder and some of his crew ...



ArlieK got some pics of me...very, very rare...cuz they make me look fast....almost...







OK...that last one wasn't me...but it was apparently very confused....and moosebehaving...

Anyways....some of the people that really were fast...


In a very strong solo singlespeed field, Hal took third!  Well done Hal!!  



MixedTagTeam...RobandJoc second, JeffandSarah third.


Then Jeff got congratulated by some famous Wolfpackers!



TagTeam PawelandGiant showing some True Grit taking the win...DukeandAdam for third!


4PersonTeam...Nucking Futs for the win!


Captain Fut??



SoloMale50+...TerryS for gold, GordR silver, Martin third!!  
This was my cat but they all completely kicked my arse!!


DaveV took second to AdamH in SoloMale40-49


More True Grit shown...father/son team of Seth and Grant take first in TagTeamMale combined age under69.  These fellas are both redonculous fast!!


Meredith first SoloFemale...13 laps!!!



Meredith in action!


BikeZone 4personFemale take gold!


ThreeMenAndABaby (with Burnsy and Al) kicked butt coming in second to Jon's Trek Canada team in 4 Person Open Age120-159!!


Here they are again!



CycleSolutions...DonnaDub, Peter, Alexa in there...and I think that crazy guy who volunteered to direct traffic at the EagerBeaver 2.0 earlier this season....



The Lapdogs who edged out Team True Grit to take third in 4 person open.



Fig may have got the best prize of all...he got a 'nice guy' award for stopping to help a rider repair her bike.  Fig a nice guy!!  Who knew??  Well...I guess we did...and now everyone does...


All of the solos who did over 100kms.
Got this...



Hey...no pics of unglued??  Or SSSarah??  Guess they were too fast??  Besides...gotta save something for Thursday's post...


Anyways...due to time constraints...and a severe lack of attention span...that is all I have for today...





I like cookies...

I will have more review on Thursday...about how dang slow I was... (I was!)...




Well maybe I wasn't that slow...there were some dang fast solos out there!!

Till Thursday...

Stay posted!