Ping Pong Balls!

I thought you said King Kong's balls.

Well, the Conquer the Pass race has come and gone. It's now stored away in the old memory bank amongst the other mental debris. Like windfalls on the trail, every once in while a synapses will jam this anamnesis into the forefront of my mental derailleur and it will hurt. How long will it be a point of annoyance. Perhaps, forever. Perhaps, only as long as, oh say, a strip of trail marking tape will remain across the branch of singletrack that is not the race course. Perhaps, the disappointment fade of into the distance, much like the 4-5 leaders did as the next 20-25 racers veered of course to the tune of about 18km and 40 minutes. Perhaps.

Jacques and Micheline Cote for Velo Cape Breton. I don't get to see them nearly enough so far inland. The kilometres they put in all year round would make my season look like a trip to the liquor store.

I see Michelin and Jacques once or twice a year, but get a monthly newsletter that Jacques edits every month. It's the usual club events, but the motivation and inspiring stories are real soul fuel and the coverage of local cycling advocacy is great. Get signed up at their sight and watch for a ride you might be able to get to. It's well worth the trip to hang with these kids and check out amazing pave and trail in Cape Breton.

So, the much anticipated race at in Wentworth Valley turned out to be an awesome ride. Trails were in awsome shape, descents were fast and varied in technical features and the sun shone for the better part of the day. I got to really put my Cannondale Rush 3z to the task and it responded with the handling and bomb proofity that makes me very, very happy with my choice of geared race steed. I have never descended so fast and with such stabilty in my life. I bowed out of the 100 km race and finished up with the 70km with effervescent recovery drinks on my mind. Despite my carreer first DNF (organizers were kind enough to leave our names of the results list as opposed the to blazing them into the very bottom of the cat results with those shameful letters trailing) I did keep a race pace for the whole ride and I'm quite happy with my time and performance. I only endo'd once and it was into the deepest muddiest hole on the whole ride. I would need photo evidence, but I believe I was fully submerged in Willy Wonka-esque chocolate milk bubble tea (with mud acting as chocolate and tadpoles as tapioca) I amnaged to get some photos (more here at Bruce's site) below and here are the 2009 Conquer the Pass results for you numbers folks. Looking forward to next year, already.

This video was forwarded to me by no one. I found it. Just remember that when your super high and you gotta mix things up, it only takes one man, a hand full of move and no shirt.

Mrs Lucky has her birthday coming up and she wants tickets to Sappyfest in Sackville, NB. I'm normally not a festival kind of guy, but the lineup is a who's who's a Eastern Canadian indie and it's a very laid back scene. Tickets she will get and fun will be had, even if I have to dance by myself in a narcotic cloud for a minute or two. I'm sure Mrs Lucky will dance with me, and even hold my hair for me when the Quaaludes and bourbon have there way with me.

While, cruising past my neighbors house I fell in love. Not the love a man has for a woman or for another man or for a pre-op, hormonally supplemented combination of the two. But, a love as unique as it divine. The love of a car. I was never enamored by a car before and it feels strange and a little dirty.

The heart knows no bounds and I am smitten.

If you were to check out the "interior" I believe the seat can be removed to simply hose the entire thing out. Awesome!

The Hillsborough 5 Hour XC race is on for July 26th, even thought there scary little detail or promotion for this awesome race. The trails in Hillsborough are my favorite in NB and this race showcases the best of them. I'm sure we'll get some details and a race flyer soon.

The seat of your pants: The only way to fly!

Best laid plans my go awry, but sometimes, when you load up the bike and head out of town on a whim it turns out stellar.

I finagled my way out of a Saturday night shift and hit the road for a short track race at the Dieppe Rotary Park on to raise some funds for the National Cycling Centre – Atlantic Canada. They got big plans to get some much needed work done to their Velodrome and every little bit helps. Either that, or they’re going to have to change the regulations to allow track bikes equipped with suspension.

This is a risky move because given the local weather trends there is good chance I would wish I was at home on my couch instead of warming up for a 1hour + 1 lap afternoon race with a 12 minute dirt/mud time trial first thing in the morning. Not so! The sun came out, the racers were there (about 45 of them) and the mud, of course, was in attendance.


Frank form Fitworks was there serving up his specialty, Grosse Sauscisse, and Bud rolled in with the Coffee Can to spread the smoothie love. Afrow Craig was the sleeper of the day. With his reign of terror on Don’s 69er he banged out 6th in the open TT and 2nd in the D cat over all. I didn’t realize how much I missed the intense competition of short tack races. Sprintastic! Here's a video. It's not live but you can cheer if you want, like when people clap for movies. What the hell is up with that?


The only disappointment was the poor attendance for post ride wobbly pops. Everyone was heading out immediately for XC Nationals. Good luck, kids! Show ‘em how we roll on the east coast; in the mud. Edit: Our man Stuart Wight took third at the Jr National 20km TT. Way to go! Must be the waffles he's scarfing down in Belgium. He's gonna kill 'em in the RR.

There’s a debate as to how you can love mountain biking and not watch the freecaster.com coverage of the World Championships. Frankly, I don’t see how I should be obligated to watch people I don’t know try to ride their bike faster than some other people I don’t know. I have recently given football a chance as a spectator sport (more for the hot wings than anything else) and there is no way in hell I will ever play. So, I’m gonna tune in for the live coverage of UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Mont-Sainte-Anne, and maybe even a little T de F. We’ll have to see how much I can get away with at work. Will I laugh or cry? Will there be thrills? Spills? Hot wings?

From the culture desk: Gallerie Sans Nom has got a show on with some ambitious folks who have accumulated some iconic pieces of Moncton's rich Punk/Rock history. It looks to be a lot of stuff from the late 80's to mid 90's, which just happens to be when your good buddy, Lucky, was struggling with his awkward years and a 100% bonafide gig-rat. I remember standing in the rain to see acts through the window of the Esquire tavern (every blue moon they would stop letting minors in for some reason). I got this picture attached to an email from Michigan Bolt at GSN.

I look, did a double take. I think I was at that show. That is Batman hanging, (not an uncommon occurance at Bad Luck #13 shows) there are forlorn youth everywhere (again nothing unusual), but wait, there I am, in a rare long hair appearance from the glory years of Moncton punk. You think you can pick out the kid? Gawd Damn! These shows were fun. Check out the show if your in that end. You never know who'll you'll see hanging from the rafters.

For any female readers, Fitworks has installed a site just for you. It's quite pretty and you'd be surprised to what lengths people are willing to go just to get in on the action.

That's all I could scrape up for now. With all the rain, I mostly just cry lately and I don't think I'm ready to talk about that, yet. Speaking of crying, Foster and I are packing up for Conquer the Pass 100Km in Wentworth this weekend and I'll have full report on our return.