Backyard Fun

Me and the crew all headed up to are local Cumberland bike trails for the 3^rd XC race of the Vancouver Island mountain bike series. I think it’s safe to say we were all feeling pretty nervous as well as excited. We were all ready for a good beating!!! Which is exactly what the course gave us, up a short steady climb on gravel road and then into some technical stuff and then back out onto the road for a steady steep climb up, back onto some technical trails with a steady climb (agreed to of been the hardest part of the course) and then the fast flowy downhill with small stretches of gravel road in-between in spots, then just up a bit of paved road and through the Cumberland #6 mine park were the lap point was.

Everyone did the best and it defiantly showed. Dave, Nick and Andrew all rocked the expert men’s category, Andrew had a strong 13^th place finish even though one of his pedals fell off and had to go find it and put it back together. Dave also had a steady race on his single speed and came in 25^th. Jordan one of my good buddies came in 1^st in intermediate men and my Dad/Glenn followed shortly behind in 5^th place. I had a good race as well and came 1^st in intermediate women.

At the end of the race the sun was shining, there was music going and burgers grilling; it was a really good atmosphere and the perfect way to end a bike race.

Amanda

Amanda and Jordan in the News

Check out this awesome article about Amanda and Jordan in In Foucs Magazine

King of Bling

I’m not the King of Bling, I leave that to my good friend and teammate Dave Nowak, but I did need new shoes. I’ve been riding the same tired old Shimanos for a couple of years and it was starting to show. Because I ride both road and mountain, with a little bit o’ cross, I always try to get road and mountain shoes built on the same platform.

This year I’m riding for Jeff at Trail Bicycles on the Trail Bicycles Eatmore Sprouts Cycling Team. Trail is a Trek shop and as such offers a wide selection of Bontrager parts and accessories. I’ve never owned a pair of Bontrager shoes but the ones I tried on in the shop seemed pretty comfy so I looked through the catalogue and decided to go with Bontrager’s top of the line RXL road and mountain shoes. Light weight and with full carbon soles they were exactly what I was looking for.

I’ll admit that I did see a picture of the shoes in the catalogue, and they did look a little flash, but I was still surprised when I pulled them out of the box.

All white, bright white, adorned with gold bits the only way to describe these babies is bling. I haven’t ridden these suckers yet cause I don’t want to get them dirty, but I have been kickin’ about the house and they feel pretty awesome.

I’ll update this review after I spend some time on the bike with them, but before that I need some euro length socks and some white leg and arm warmers. I should give Dave a call and see what he got.