Pictures are up

Her is one of my favorites from the weekend in tremblant. Check my gallery for the rest http://picasaweb.google.com/parkerbrandon2

CCUP #2

Got home lastnight from the Canada Cup in Mt Tremblant.....Shitty shitty experience. Well I shouldnt say that, I got a solid pre ride in on friday. I was super excited at how technical the decending was, and the climbing was all double track....dammed near a perfect course for me. I lost track of time on race day, and didnt have much time to warm up. The beggining was probably about 1km or so of double track climbing, but not a really steep grade. So i figured, no big deal, just take that easy, and use it to warm up, then I can work my way up during the later stages of the race. Well the start was so slow, that my warm up pace had me going from 9th in the begginging of the climb, to 3rd going into the first single track(I made alot of positions on this super super loose gravel road section we rode for about 150m right before you hit the single track, there was a hard pack section about 2ft wide that was super fast that I was the only one that rode it). Any who, so I was in 3rd, I was just chillin in the single track, and then right away the guy in second fell, so I got by him, sweet, I was in second. Then I got stalled on a rock garden(i think the whole course was just one big rock). I got passed by 3 guys. I noticed there was a big gap to the next guys behind them, so I got back on, and caught the 3 that just passed me. There was some single track and big wide ski runs to cross, so I just sat in and stuck with them. I knew where I was waiting for. It was a 500m steep double track climb. All the guys infront of me went to small chain ring for the climb. I stuck in middle and just went. By the top I was about 100ft behind first place and had put about a minute on the guys behind me as they were putting very little effort into the climb. I decided to use the single track section to recover, especially cus there was almost no more climbing from this point, as its all decending into the village, then climbing all the way up. So the guy in first was so slow on the technical stuff, I caught him right away. There was this short little punchy climb that whent up a big rock about 15ft of vertical. I used this to pass the guy in first, but in doing so I somehow managed to sheer my Derailer hanger in half. So that was it for my race. I probably would have won the race as my buddy that finished in 4th, said that the pace never got faster, only slower, and I was feeling fanatastic. So I walked the like 4km back to the village as my hanger brock above the mount point for the rear wheel, so I couldnt even do something like coast down or anything. Sucky. So I hung out with my Buddy that is one of the Pros from the Norco team who is on the injured list himself. Then drank a whole bunch that night, then drove that same friend to the hospital in Ottawa, as it seems the foreign nation of quebec didnt feel they needed to treat him even though his right quad had swelled to twice the size of his left(doctor that he saw said that based on looking at it anti inflamitories would do the trick). Though it was swollen for over a week....

So after 7.5hrs got home lasnight, uploaded some pictures I got of the race, and the Red Bull Monte Decende relay race at night, and went to sleep. I will try to remember to upload those pictures tonight when I get home from work.

Also, I have to give a huge huge shout out to the NORCO mechanics. I brought them my broken hanger, they found a matching one, and just gave me a new one. Pretty solid dudes.

Ottawa

On our way to Mont-Tremblant for Canada Cup #2. Stayed at the wonderful Thomas's apartment lastnight. It was a fairly uneventful drive. The plan was to take erins car, but that plan was over when we found out that her hitch ball is seized onto the mount. So we loaded our stuff into anges car, and we were off. We finally pulled into here at about 1130. Talked for a bit, sleeping by 1230. I fortunatly have an incredible internal alarm clock that decided that 6 am was a wonderfull time to get up...thanks.

Today we are going to be driving the last 2 hours to tremblant, get a preride in, talk to the usuals, tease stu cus he is all broken, then get into the hotel. I have my camera, so I hopefully can get some good pictures on race day. I race at 10, but I have no idea how long of a race it will be as the whole website for the race is in french. I am geusing it will be around 1h30, so that will give me lots of time to get changed and ready for the 2pm start that Lee and Thomas are in. Off to kill more time surfin the net for random stuff while I wait for everyone else to wake up.

Thursday racing

So last night I race unlimited. Jacob showed up, and the rest of the normals. I went out i suppose a little hard. I was out front until the first climb. I lost traction on a steep part, and got passed. Kept going, got passed by the reset on the second climb, same problem. Ohwell. Still need to learn how to ride glassfords, I need to just take it easy one day, and try it low speed to find the line. No idea how I finished, I was so far off the back the second lap turned into fun. Which to me equals big ring for the whole lap(minus the 2 climbs)....it was interesting.

At work for another hour or so. Go home and build up all my Campy Record onto my old trek frame. Hopefully I can get out for a few hours today on it. Then tommorow the group ride. Then who knows....apparently we are doing alot of work this weekend sais ange. So that will be fun.

lazy lazy

I think I am getting a little lazy. Lastnight was the second time this week I havnt ridden, and tuesday wasnt much of a ride because I forgot the spacer in my cassette and shifting was all messed up. Tonight is the MtView race, so that should be fun. I think I am going to try and get out a bit early to do a lap or two. Tommorow get into the shop to get my crankset transfered off my Guru, onto the old trek frame, then I can build up the old frame with my good components until i get the warrenty done on my good race frame.

This weekend is looking like its going to be sketch weather. Good thing I will have tommorow afternoon off. I think I will go poach at Mt View and ride for a few hours there.

Albion

Well OCUP#2 is over. I thought I did well, but the whole time I felt like I had more to give. Like riding with your brakes on. I found out why. I had a snapped rear axle. My rear wheel was giving me alot of resistance. Might have ment a couple places as I was within 1 minute of 10th place(I was 16th). Ohwell, turns out its $80 to replace because of 3 letters.....XTR. Ohwell, the price of fancy wheels.

Almost an epic ride

Well it sure turned into something lastnight. I went to Copeland to ride with the MCC crew, and it was a hard ride, i was out with Peter Lister, Tom Giout, Lee, Mark M, and Dale. They are fast. So it was about an hour and a half of hard riding. Then Lee convinced me to ride to the night ride. Well it was about another 40 minutes of a solid hard pace to get there. Still was late, about 2 minutes after the guys left. So me and lee rode around toms forest looking for them until it was getting dark. Then we headed back. About an hour laterish we were on our way home....legs a little sore.

Just gettin ready to leave work, got another few hours to ride tonight at Mt View. Going to do the race course a few times. I still just cant dial in the climb up to the top. I have only ever made it up those little switchbacks once. I will probably work on it a bit tonight.