Regina and the Wascana Challenge

For the last week I have been in Regina, Saskatchewan which is slightly west from central Canada. It can get pretty hot here (as well as very cold around -30 degrees in winter!!!), not as hot as Vegas but still uncomfortably hot. We end up sitting around doing nothing because of the heat most of the time.

While wewere in Canmore we were camping next to this young family that are from Regina, they opened up there house to us with a camper on their front lawn for all four of us to sleep in for the time that we were going to be in Regina.

So far we have found that Canadians are very kind and helpful, but this family are over and above everyone else, it’s not every day you come across people as helpful as Kim and Jeremy, I mean Kim cooked us wonderful meals and Jeremy helped us with our bikes the day before the race and got a hold of a bike from Western Cycles for Adrian to use before he flew to Vancouver to get his. The kids also provided some good times. Thank you guys so much, greatly appreciated.

The river valley the track was, with the feed zone tents in center

Not only they done all that for us, we also were given a free entry for the race that Jeremy sorted out and even still got prize money and lunch at the track!

The race itself was a tough one, with 30 degreesand being humid it wasn’t quite what we were used to. The track was based in a big river valley because there are no hills around Regina it is all dead flat. Being flat we thought maybe not much climbing? We thought wrong; the track was up hill then down dale for most of the lap. Lots of 30 second climbs that soon wore us down; there was also some nice tight single track for us to negotiate around. Over all a great race track for our 2^nd race in Canada.

The low key podium. From left Jeremy Erdmann, Carl Jones and Scott Green.

I placed 2^nd a few minutes down on the winner Carl Jones (NZ), we were together for the first few laps and the pace he set was digging a hole in me in particularly on the hills. He rode strong.

New Helmet

Today I spoilt myself with a new helmet. After having my one in Chile it got a bit thrashed and I had tape holding the back support together. I did how ever go for one of the flashest ones in the shop and spending a lot more than I should of, but the saying goes, "safety first" doesn't it?

The red will match my Waiariki kit and my new stem on my bike to contrast the black and green of the frame.

I have a race this sunday, which has a lot of step short climbs so its going to be a intense race. Im not sure what other competition there is going to be, besides us kiwi's. Looking forward to it, this will be my second race in Canada.

A week in Canmore

For the last week we have been in a small ski town called Canmore, there is some great riding here on the mountains slopes around us. We have been here for a week and have had time to settle down in a RV park and find the best riding around the area.

There is a lot of climbing around which has made a great training ground for us and its all at altitude so makes it great for hard training

.

me and the nice view on a sunday ride

The main reason we came here was to watch the Canadian National Champs, we weren't aloud to race because were not Canadian residents which is fair enough. So we just watched and cheered the very few people we know on. Normally watching races is pretty hard because we all ways want to be in them and get all excited just watching.

The elite mens race was pretty cool to watch they are just the next level from what we have in NZ and to see Jeff Kabush smash it out in the last lap to loose two other riders that were on his tail and take the National title. Making the small journey to Canmore has been worth while and is another place we can tick off on our Canadian experience.

On Tuesday we are moving on to a bigger town Regina, just north-east of here where our next race is this coming weekend.

Race one in Edmonton

My first race in Canada was in a city called Edmonton. Edmonton is the Capital of Alberta a state

in Canada. It is a pretty cool city, I’m guessing around a million people living here. It has one of the biggest malls in the world; I am going to check out today.

Pro men started at 2pm just like in NZ and there were 45 starters. We raced 6 laps of a 7.3 km track with a few short climbs, over the whole lap there was only 116 Vertical meters of climbing which is pretty low for a XC race. The hills that were around were definitely ones to hurt on and still make up time on. The dirt was well packed and made a fast highway when there weren’t bundles of roots which did happen to be an often occurrence. This race track reminded me of the track that Timaru used in last year’s south island cup, in the middle of town with bits of track going all over the park.

The race itself was defiantly an eye-opener; there is plenty of training to be done in the next few weeks no doubt about that. I was ranked 10^th from the UCI points that I won in NZ so was in the second row on the start line. The start was straight into a short step hill that hurt more and more every lap. The first four laps were good I was feeling strong but not strong enough to race up front with the big boys yet. The second and third laps I rode mostly by myself, after that everyone was starting to feel it and I started to catch a few, things were good. After the fourth lap I then started to feel it but just kept on digging in, knowing it was only going to be beneficial to be in the next few races.

It was a pretty warm day, reaching about thirty degrees, so keeping the body hydrated was the key to finishing the race. Every lap I was drinking a full Raiseys drink bottle (750ml) of HYDR8 to keep me hydrated.

This is the event village, a lot bigger than we get in NZ.

I finished 24^th in pro. Overall for my first internal race this year I am happy knowing that I still have some much better results to come. I am now moving on to a place called Canmore where the Canadian national champs are, we aren't aloud to race in them but we heard there is heaps of great riding there so will go and spend a week there then moving on to a town just outside of Regina, Saskatchewan (the next state east of Alberta). My next race is in two weeks, so I am going to get some good training in before the next race on the 25^th July.

My Ride for Single Speed Worlds

Hey everyone, I can confirm that I will be riding a Ventana El Padrino at Single Speed World champs in Rotorua in October. It is a 29er, which has 29 inch wheels as opposed to 26 inch wheels. It is a Aluminum frame with Rock Shox forks. Here are some pictures of the bike. Its not going to be exactly like the photos like the bag carrier on the back will be gone. These are the only photos I could get ahold of. At least you get the general idea. when you have some spare time you should check out the Ventana webpage website http://www.ventanausa.com/, you might see something you like and in that case get ahold of me and well get you sorted.

This was all made possible by a real cool guy named Oliver Whalley. He imports these bikes from the US and sells them in NZ. He is lending me this bike for SSW. If you feel like some good reading check out his blog http://www.mountainpedalerNZ.blogspot.com/.

Thanks heaps Ollie, its going to be a great ride.

Touch down in LA

Well I am now in LA after two days of living in airports, which has been an experience.

My first race is on the 11^th July so I have got one week to make my way up to Edmonton Canada. Adrian and I have decided that we are going to drive up through Las Vegas and Salt-lake city. Driving this way to Edmonton is about one and a half day’s non-stop. We are going to stretch it over four days and try get some small rides in.

Our van for the epic road trip

We have bought a van and everything that we need like pots, pans, gas cookeretc. All that kind of stuff was so cheap at Wall mart all up cost us about $300 USD. As we are going to be living out of it for the next two and a half months, it’s going to be tight but can’t I complain when on a budget.

I have still not got confirmation whether I am in the NZ team to race at worlds or not, which is a pain but it’s just how MTBNZ are running their selection this year. I start my training this weekend, combined with the race at Edmonton to kick things off, I am looking forward to it, it has been a long time coming.

Ill post another update about the drive through America and my first race after this weekend.

Just a huge thanks to Carl and Debbie Retief (Adrians parents) for helping us sort a van and everything in LA.