Oh yeah, food is good. So how was the ride across the Gardiner westbound? Nice headwind. I came home, ate, ate somemore and then naptime. So tired from catering all day Sat.

That was the first ride for heart that I've done. It's an interesting ride. I almost crashed a bunch of times as people decided the best way to take a break is to hit the brakes in the middle of the road.

Ken Souza.

Race report?

My biggest peeve on the ride is the people who don't feel like checking around them when they change their line. Like is it that hard to make sure you aren't going to get smoked by another rider. One lady almost caused a massive accident as she drifted from the left lane all the way to the right on a downhill while braking without once looking around. Cyclists all voer swerving and swearing. Just oblivious to all others.


But the riders who stop in the road are pretty annoying to.

You could just as easily replace instances of cyclist and bike in the above quote with driver and car, and it would be just as relevant. A lot of people are just inconsiderate.

Our old friend, Darkmother, with full on 'race scowl'.. :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/funinthegym/2538379230/

Yep darkmother in teh blue with MEC shorts and excellent no words jersey.

Absolutely - I guess most of the people riding aren't people who generally ride their bikes in traffic so they somehow think... well... I don't know what they think but they most certainly don't think "if I don't look around me I might take someone out / get taken out!"

One guy, at about the 45k point realized his sticker had fallen off so he just stopped dead in his tracks, rolled back and picked it up causing everyone to swerve at which point a lady almost took out my buddy's dad that we were riding with. You ****ing dickhead, you don't need the ****ing sticker past the starting line... DICKHEAD!

All in all a fun ride - I'll post up some pics from the ride once my server goes back online...

Great pictures, it's a shame I couldn't come and watch. Are they making it an annual race?

Pretty rough in spots, I just mashed into it and waited at the top of the offramp before the Ex. grounds - tired now, but loved the workout - scary as hell on those big downhills though :twitchy:

I certainly hope so. I really wanted to get in there! :D

So many carbon wheel sets.. *cough*me wants*cough* :P

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2178/...b56b362264.jpg

(no, that wasn't at the race, but just drooly)

C.K. CX hubs? I like the Edge stuff a lot.

That headwind was a mother-Seems to me I was fighting headwinds all day today. This was my second Heart and Stroke ride. The wind was worse this time.

the winds were brutal, i was so gassed by the end of the ride.

Yay for me! I actually managed to finish the 75 k! :) And to think I was thinking of doing a third 25k loop for 100k.
Seriously, that was alot tougher than I thought it would be. I think I need to work on my endurance. Or at least get a new saddle since this one broke my ass.
Headwinds and hills were the order of the day.
Thanks to Gurgus for draggin' me out this year. And a shout out to Flimflam & his roofing buddy.

DG

Hey DrBenway -- think I just saw you on my way in, riding (the wrong way!;) ) down Beverley into Grange Park around 9:30. I was going to say hi, but forgot your real name + didn't want to be the d-bag shouting out "Hey <internet nick>!"

Tiffany.

:lol:

The Canada Cup at Hardwood was freakin' hard. It seemed like we were always climbing...awesome for me on my S.S.:twitchy: They put in just about every tough technical section they have there. The hard climbs were almost always followed by a sketchy downhill chute filled with drop-off's and slick rooty awesomeness. Crashes and mechanicals were in abundance...Barry went down really hard right in front of me on one of the techy chutes. I could swear I felt him hit the ground when he went down....a couple of cracked ribs for him but he kept going and finished like a trooper. Wes had a couple of spills including blowing his tire off the rim on the BMX berms. He too finished like a champ. This was one of the harder races I have done. As I was sitting on the line awaiting the start I contemplated letting my team-mate Matt (who is leading the series in S.S.) pass me so I wouldn't have to do the last lap. I did the full race though finishing a not so spectacular 19th out of 19....still good for points though :thumb: In fact I think most of the team managed to make the points. My bed felt extra good last night.

Nice trooping there guys!

Almost forgot... I saw these, amongst some other pretty nuts looking bike/stuff:

http://imagebank.ipcmedia.com/imageB...f08dbda17a.jpg

Crazy looking things, Roval hubs of some sort - the guy who had the bike was a cool dude, we had a brief chat at one of the rest stops. I also saw a fully suspended mountain bike with tri-spokes on both front and back - had to wonder what he used the bike for.

I found exceeding 150rpm for more than a few seconds is really quite uncomfortable and a tad scary when not pushing... I unclipped and rested a few times on the downhills heh - one of them made me realise how easy it would be to blow out a knee.

Did anyone take photos? MattR?

Was good to meet ya there, Gurgus & gutbucket!

I have an admittance, the other day in the Don I pulled a total jackass stop and sent this guy on a gorgeous roadie well into the air.

I felt horrible! Hangovers should be reason to remain indoors. :stupidstupidstupid:

To be fair, I was riding a heavy dust-covered rig slowly on the right edge of the trail, and there was nobody in front of me. Why didnt he pass wide? He must have been going twice my speed. I hope hes okay, he said his knee was pretty sore, so Id feel even worse if its gimped.

P.S. Hi TOfixed, anyone going for a ride t'day?

Sure did

Tony took some too

Ok so that was you guys. I wanted to offer some thanks for the wheel sucking I did off of some your riders. I would have said thanks in person during the ride, but I was afraid to open my mouth in the middle of my 75 K due to possibility of projectile vomit and projectile vomit don't make you many friends.

So thanks for the wind blockin'.:thumb:

Make that 3 proper spills (and some other small ones that don't warrant mentioning). First one near the end of lap 1 when I landed funny on one of the dirt jumps (couldn't help but launch myself :D). Then on the last lap I went over the bars in the boneshaker downhill and then later on the same lap my bike went out from under be after riding up on top of that big off-camber boulder. And yeah, my tire blew off the rim after the bad landing on lap 1. I definitely provided entertainment for the spectators. I couldn't get my bars nice and straight again after that first crash either, which didn't help.

edit: I also tried to body-check a tree that jumped into my path on Saturday and have a couple nice scrapes/bruises from that on my forearm/shoulder, too.

It's unfortunate because I was feeling pretty good through the first lap until that happened. Then I got passed by most of the field while I fixed my bike. I just rode the rest of the race with the old guys with a smile on my face. :) I finished 12 out of 12, but I think there were like 6 or 8 DNFs in my category too. That race was crazy technical, but a ton of fun, especially when I could keep both wheels on the ground and spinning!

On the crappy side of things I can't find my Garmin bike computer. I know I had it after the race, but I'm not sure where the last place I saw it was. I'm hoping it turns up eventually, but I'm all unpacked and I haven't seen it yet. :(

I don't know how you guys handle all that falling! I took a really small spill at polo last tuesday and now i'm nursing what i believe is a bruised or cracked rib... sucks balls! i mean, it's not that bad but i've got a dodgeball playoff game tonight and i'm expecting that throwing is going to be difficult!

two and a half words: tuck 'n' roll.

hahaha, yeah, i mean, i learned that move very well in 10+ years of skateboarding as a youngster but my last tuck 'n' roll was a little off and i ended up with a torn ac joint in my shoulder...

i guess on the other hand, if it weren't for the tuck 'n' roll that torn ligament would have been a fractured skull.

shout outs to the tuck 'n' roll. brrrrap! brrrrrrap!

no problem! glad our girth is good for something! which guy (or gal?) were you?

Anyone know where to get microfibre cleaning cloths in Toronto?