Day3 -Part Deux

Finally today went reasonably well for both of us.

We started out with cool shaded climb through the forest with huge cedars all around us. T's knee was sporting some blue medical tape which pulled his knee cap over a bit, such that his filbert flange was meshing just a touch better with the dingle gromet. In any case, still needed lots of 'management' but it wasn't as painful as Day2. Stu was solid all day, and Trev led the congo line up the big climb which restored some knee confidence. The last 15km could have been excellent... with fresh legs. The initial track was ancient abandoned logging rail which was a bobbing misery. Then it progessed to a series of very windy short sharp 10' drops and rises, all over roots, with trees just a little closer than the width of the handlebars - lovely. The last bit was very fast and fun - nothing like bombing down a twisty 30 degree decline 1' wide track at 45km/h :). It was very hot today, we think 30C +. One of the race workers mentioned that yesterday was a stunning 38C.

We have been given a gps with modem uploading- our race can be tracked at http://bcbikerace.flaik.com/

Tomorrow is an early rise at 5:30, a ferry ride to the Sunshine Coast, starting at 11 on some of the worlds best single track - lots of climbing though.

Mark (our Kiwi friend) told us about Roturua in NZ, a mtb destination. Maybe next year :)

We will make a bigger effort to include pics of the ferry and the trail tomorrow.

Cheers,
Trev and Stu

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Day3-part1: looking forward to some single track!!

The event is starting early today so that organizers have more logistical time to transport bikes for Tuesday's start on the Sunshine Coast.

Stu and Trev are a little concerned about Trevor's knee. Yesterday was an exercise in injury management; don't push so hard as to make it worse, don't push so little that you suck. It is looking, from our current vantage point, that this will be an issue for the next 5 days. Trevor expects the more the single track, the less of an issue it will be.

The leaderboard is much more interesting this year - it is wide open. Last year's winner, Team Trek (Chris Eatough sp?), on word of mouth, displayed unsportsmanlike conduct bitching and complaining about a team from Costa Rica (Manuel Prado) who edged them out for a 3rd in the final sprint. Allegedly 'over' drafting... odd complaint considering Team Trek won every stage last year.

Stay tuned for part 2 of day3 ...

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Day 2 - Trevor's turn to suffer ...

Well, it looks like the 'almost tweaking' transitioned to 'fully tweaking' today for Trevor.

After a very strong start and into the heat (~30C), at ~60km Trevor's right knee started to hurt under quad pressure. Luckily, our legs also have hamstrings, and this is what Trevor used for the remainder of the day, which was a hair under 130km at Port Alberbi.

Low lights:
-125km of fireroad, was a slog, boring and hard
-hot hot hot !!!
-

High lights:
-finishing
-Stu had a good day
-fun to finish a little single track

Tomorrow will be more single track (after the 1st 60km) and hopefully that will perk us up as it did today. One mistake today was Trevor locking out the front suspension for the fireroad, we suspect that the harshness is what caused part of the issues.

Just finishing our dinner, the awards ceremony is on, and our eating partners, team Spike Shooter 'mixed' and Spike Shooter 'mens 80+' (David and Mark) got 3rd and 2nd respectively - very strong guys!

Team Winded is now 19/44, not bad considering we had some issues both days :). Our good friends at Team Inflatables had a bit of a hard time today too. Mike was supporting Stu - it seems there was some bonkage going on !

Cheers,
Trevor and Stuart.

Day 1. Hot and Hilly

Physically and mentally exhausted after finishing day 1 so this will be short. "Just keep swimming". (ala. Finding Nemo) and as Stu's colleague Roger says "remember you are over 40" were alternating through the head today. Overall a surprisingly good day as we finished in 6:40 and 17/41 in our category.
Low lites
-No riding gloves for stuart (he's known to be forgetful) and subsequently fell and tore palm minor ouch
-Stuart lost sun glasses on trail
- Stuart legs cramp up 1/3 in for 3 full hours, just at the start of the days big climb
- Trevors knee started almost tweaking
- Trevor came close to going over handle bars on a very steep grade with lots of pointy rocks
High lites
- Trevors "Ebola" is gone, and felt quite good and strong the whole day
- stuart's cramp disappears in the last 1/3
- Chatting with Tinker Juarez, a mountain bike legend, gave really interesting view point of Race Across America
- great mountain views
- seeing our friends from last, Team Spike, David and Mark, who came in second, and Manuel Prado who came in 3rd.


We are number 165 for anyone looking at the website. Apparently as well, some 'Flake' system on the web page http://www.bcbikerace.com tracks our progress for the day. The organizer tagged us for this treat as a returning team.

Tomorrow should be good :)

Cheers,
Trevor and Stu

Ps - we beat Team Inflatables today :)

Thumbed from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Advice from Vince Lombardi

In the dorm stairwell, Stu and Trevor heed wisdom from an unlikely source on the eve of the race....

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Stu's new race partner?

Trevor's ebola has progressed to a stage where Stu is considering all options ...

As a sign of things to come in the race, Team Inflatables, despite a 3hr head start on the flight from Ottawa, still arrived later than Team Winded at the same hotel. Indeed also without bikes - thank you Air Canada!!

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Traveling Lite

.....so we just came away from the lost bags counter in Victoria airport. Bikes and everything didn't make the flight that we were on. They were too heavy to lug around downtown anyway. AC lady promises they will be on the next flight tonight. At least she was smiling as she said it.



Trevor thinks he has the "ebola" virus and complains of feeling "funny" and keeps asking, "is it hot in here?". Apparently he has been reading about nasty stuff you can contract when cleaning out old raccoon nests from under the deck. Hopefully it is just the jet lag:). Actually, it was stinking hot so not too worried

Stuck in Ottawa !

Thunder and lightning delaying our trip adds a little tension for Stu and Trevor at the start of our trip. Well not really.... but we are concerned. After spending just an hour in the airport waiting .... we are already sick of each other.

...and what kind of training did the baggage x-ray lady go on? She was able to correctly identify the big tub of white powder in the carry-on as "protein powder" just by looking at the screen. We are feeling safer already. Stu's Huggies for sensitive bums also drew some notice.

Stay tuned, assembling bikes tomorrow, race Saturday. Our only goal: beat the Inflatables, a "Johnny Come Lately" team from Ottawa hanging on our coattails. . Visit http://bcbikerace.blogspot.com, pls post on their site asking if they have any hopes to compete at all with Team Winded.

Here we go !!

T minus 1 day, and the nerves are setting in for team winded.

Last minute issues killing me!
-moving house during training peak!!
-getting house ready so wife is pleasant during peak training time
-millions of odd and sods to get ready from the big (full new drivetrain on the bike) to the trivial (4 stores just to get antifog for the glasses

As Team Winded approaches it's second year on the BC Bike Race, we find ourselves more relaxed, even with less training. I keep telling myself - it is only 7 rides, but regardless, feeling a little of the nerves !!

Stay tuned!

Trevor out front. Stage 4

2007 stage seven finish photo --- we're done!

After the seventh stage in Whistler we were really happy about

finishing in one piece