Morely Indoor BMX racing!

So it ain't mountain biking, but for Calgary in the middle Dec when it's -20C outside, riding is riding. Fortunately we are lucky enough to be riding one of the most technical tracks I've ridden in a REALLY Long time! So I'm pretty stoked, in the same week I can ride waist deep pow one day and then go ride for 5 hrs at the track. It's going to be a GREAT Winter.

I'll post some photos next week when I bring my camera to the track.

Qn'r

Calgary Cycle DH Team Whistler Review

After the Nationals at Mount Washington, the whole team was on their way to Whistler BC, for the Kokanee Crankworx Festival. The first race on the list was the 4X Race which happened to be in the pouring rain, but despite the grim weather the course held up very well and was a blast to rip down. There were a couple muddy spots, but for the most part it was fast, tacky, and tons of fun.


Glen Bradley -

After the 4X the next race was the Garbanzo DH. The rain was continuing to come down hard and beat the course relentlessly, making for an extremely slippery and muddy race. Many riders dropped out of the race because of the dangerous conditions and all of those who were racing were scared for their safety to say the least. In the end the race turned out to be a great success, and one by one the muddy and soaked racers came down the hill and across the finish line.


Robert McPhalen -

Geoff Briggs -




For the Jim Beam Air DH a few days later the weather was finally staring to look up. The hill had begun to dry out and the sun was peaking out of the clouds making the riding in on the hill even more of an amazing experience. By the time of the race the course had been groomed and was very tacky and smooth. Times were fast and the race laps were nothing less than perfect.


Jesse McCrae -

Robert McPhalen -

Geoff Briggs -

Nick Quinn -

To break up the races a little there was the "Slope Style" event. The course wasn't in as good condition or put together as well as other years and resulted in a lot more injuries and crashes, but all in all it was still a lot of fun to throw down on.


Glen Bradley -

The last race and competition at Whistler this year was the Canadian Open DH Race. The course was very similar to other years but with some new extremely techy and rooty steeps in the trees. The weather was great for the race and was one of the best courses many of us had riden. It had a variety of terrain including, fast open sections, gnarly rock and root sections and some good old flat pedalling portions to.


Geoff Briggs -

Robert McPhalen -




Jesse McCrae -

Glen Bradley -




Whistler this year was once again great to our team! We all came home with a few battle wounds and smiles all around. We'll be back next season for some more amazing riding at Whistler!


Glen Bradley,

"Let'er Buck"

Dirt Jumping On The Prairies

Today a bunch of my friends and I headed out to my buddie Sam's farm where we have been building jumps for the past little while. After a little buffing and packing of everything we started to hit it up and I must say out of all of the jumps I have ever riden these were some of the funnest. They incorporated steep lips and landings that required you to boost high and pump to get enough speed for the next hit like bmx jumps, but at the same time they had enough room to rock it on the mountain bike.

We all had a blast just riding the jumps let alone trying tricks on them. They were the type of jumps you could ride all day long not throwing one trick and still be having the time of your life. As the session progressed we did start doing some tricks, but mainly small ones that we all felt comfortable with as the jumps were already difficult enough to ride.



After riding these jumps in excess of six hours we were all tired and decided to call it quits. Can't wait to go back to Sam's farm to ride and build come new stuff in the near future!

Glen Bradley,

Let'er Buck

Commitment

This picture caught my eye this morning. (Browsing Farkin.net) Why you ask? the bright blue, the clarity? Nope and Nope. It's the commitment the rider is showing here. Cranks down, Knees tucked in as if he's railin' a berm...but wait, it's an off camber flat corner.
I dream of cornering like this...not because of the fear of failure, but simply for the joy of feeling calm going that fast over something SO difficult to execute. I had one of these on Saturday. Calm, Cool knees tucked in weight back and low and the bike just bounced back and forth between drift and corner, drift and corner. As DH racer's we see the likes of the World Cup racers floating their bike over the terrain insuch calm and cool manors. Learning to execute techniques like this, something I've never really understood is so rewarding!! Now...consistency is the next step...doing it ever single time, over and over and over again...in other words, consistency to commit.

Whistler Crankworx "Slopestyle"

Heading out to Whistler this year, there were a handful of different events to compete in. One of these events was the Slope Style. Competing in it last season was a blast, so I went into it expecting nothing less this year. Coming into the event everyone had high hopes for the course. Unfortunately it did not meet the expectations of most. The course had lost a lot of flow from last season, had some very flat landings, and was extremely accident prone.

Practice runs started off fairly smoothly, but as riders became more comfortable with the terrain, they started to go bigger and before you know it, ambulance after ambulance was called in. Seeing all of these riders hurt was not exactly a confidence booster, but as a wise man once said, "The Show Must Go On," and that it did.

Coming into the day of qualifying, everyone’s nerves were acting up. There was a much more tense feeling in the air than most freestyle competitions, and you could 'feel' the fear of all of the competitors. For my first run I just wanted to play it safe. It was going extremely well with some tuck no handers, x-ups and a bar spin onto the Kokanee Box, with a 360 off the box. But when it came down to the last jump, I ended up falling on my back flip and came out hurting too much for another run.

Needless to say I did not make it to the finals. I'll be back next year Whistler ... can't wait!


Glen Bradley,

Let'er Buck

Mt 7 Psychosis

We rolled up Wednesday afternoon to the 9th annual Mt 7 Psychosis in Golden BC. Practice started Thursday and continued Friday leading up to the 5km race on Saturday and than the main event the 14km on Sunday. The 5km race went off without a hitch and had a good turn out. The fastest time of the time of the day was our very own Justin Willoughby with a 5:30. Later Saturday after the 5km finished practice was open from the top. As more riders started coming down the mountain it was starting to become clear dead dog was way to sketchy. Thanks to some volunteers the steep got some love and water. Sunday was a nice 36 degrees and the racer were off. Starting with the Sandbaggers, Masters, Hardtailers, The Pro men and women finally made their way down the course. Helicopters could be seen with camera men hanging out filming Steve Smith and Tyler Morland for the latest movie by the collective. Sam Hill showed up, did two runs and decided he’d like to win $5000 and so he did. Steve Smith was 2nd and last years winner Tyler Morland was 3rd.

Now off to Mt Washington for a Canada Cup, Nationals and finally Whistler for Crankworx wait for our next update to see how our season rounds out.

Till next time,

Calgary Cycle Race team

Calgary Cycle Team Canmore Sesh

Wednesday evening Robert, Jesse and I headed up to Canmore with our small bikes in search for some good jumping. We had all heard good things about the new jump park up at the Nordic Center and a cool step up in town.

We ended up rolling into town around 8:00pm with the temperature still scorching hot. Our first stop was the step up which turned out to be a little smaller and run down than what we had originally thought, but with a little buffing it was good to go. Robert, who had been there before, was basically our tour guide and guinea pig for the evening. He landed a 360 or two and some awesome whips off the step up with Jesse and I not far behind him, to spin a few ourselves.

Next stop was the Nordic Center. Having not been there before or really heard anything about it we had no clue what to expect. The jumps turned out to be a blast and were built extremely well. They were very smooth and were hard as rock. Not long into the session all off us were hitting transfer lines and starting to trick the jumps.

All in all our trip to Canmore was a success. We had a blast and all three of us walked away with smiles on our faces.



Let'er Buck

Glen Bradley
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Panorama Mad Trapper BC Cup

Last weekend, June 23-24, the Calgary Cycle Team and many others made their way up to Panorama Resort for the Mad Trapper BC Cup. This year was a bit different as they had completely changed their course from years before. We were all a bit skeptical going into the new course, but once we started riding there was nothing but smiles. The course had some really fun treed sections that were amazing to pump through and ended with a very fast section cutting onto the old 4X course from last season.

All in all it was a great weekend. We got to ride some of their new trails, rip it on the DH course, and Geoff Briggs ended up taking the win in the Junior Men’s category (see photo above).

Can’t wait to ride there next season, who knows what they will have in store for us!?

Here are a couple snaps from the weekend ...

Robert & Quasar

















Me on the course












Glen Bradley
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Shooting with PowerBar USA.

This happened awhile back, but I thought I'd share the story with ya!
PowerBar USA was looking for athletes to shoot a national campaign in the US for advertisements for their 1-2-3 system. They were looking for a male "Mountain biker", a female "Mountain biker", some roadies, some tri-athletes etc etc. Lucky me was selected through the connection I have via my lovely girl-friend Elise. Long story short, I got to be a model.
It was a pretty interesting day for me. Having to put on make-up, put on different outfits courtesy of Oakley & Dakine and re-riding up hill sections, downhill section and just interesting sections of really easy trails. I thought to myself, I don't know how the heck they are going to get anything descend out this terrain, but man I was wrong. Here is a "proof" I got from the photographer Jason Stang. Damn is all I gotta say. I believe the term, "something from nothing" comes to mind. Pretty amazing what a few flashes and some photoshop work can net you.

Who knows if these or some of the other images from the day are going to be used?

But it was a fun experience, one I need to get more "gig's" like that.

Images courtesy of Jason Stang Photography.

N.

ABA DH Race #1 - COP June 3rd

It was a lovely day @ COP Sunday for the first of three ABA Race series. Lot's of racers showed up, not as many as the Wed night races, but still a good 50+. Not a bad showing for the return of DH to the Alberta "licensed" racing scene.
The course was running fast with the lack of moisture all week. It sure was great to see the likes of Partick Lebel and Damian Bissett out to race. These boys whoop it up all year racing pro bmx, so it was nice to see them not riding little kids bikes!!
I thought the team worked pretty well together to help pick out the faster lines on the course on Sunday. Unfortunately Robert had a crash in his run, cause he was looking oh so fast in practice. In the Juniors Ex category Glen took the win. First Junior Ex win I think for him, so props!!
So how'd it go for me?
With Damian And Patrick in the mix, combined with Andrew Pohlmann (Cafe Racers) racing on a Santa Cruz Nomad I certainly knew I had my work cut out for me. My time the previous week was 2:00.91 on a V10, so I knew Andrew would be able to beat that on a Nomad for sure. Not to mention in the Senior Ex category, Mitch Thorton was able to nail a 2:02 in his race run on a Giant Regin. So the question in my head was, do I run Heckler or the V10? Funny I had the same question @ Sea Otter and choose the v10 then. This time I decided that I would be able to make-up more time in the bumpy sections riding the 10 then what I could make up on the sprint with the heckler, I'd just have to pedal harder on the 10 then I did @ Sea Otter. In the end I was able to sneak a 1:58 something in and take the win. Really all I attribute that too is increasing the cadence of my pedal stroke on the sprint and making sure I'm always 1 gear too high exciting corners. Why? Well after watching WC guys on video's, I noticed that the 1st & 2nd pedal stroke out of every corner they take is very heavy (meaning High Power, low Cadence).So that's how I practiced on Sunday morning. I just memorized exactly what gear I needed to be in for specific exiting or speed generating corners. Now, if only I can start transitioning this type of thinking into more course's I race.

The Team is off to "Race the Ranch" this weekend in K-loops. Kevin should have the pits looking sweet and rumor has it our graious sponsor Pioneer/Visions added a sweet soundsystem to the trailer. Dance Party!! Ok, not really.

Next Wednesday night race I'm going to wear a funny outfit...look out!!!

Picture courtesy of the beautiful Elise Russell !!!

Golden Sunshine

so this past weekend me and my dad headed out to golden for some riding. we left calgary bright and early saturday morning and rolled into golden around lunch time. to start the weekend off we did a little dirt biking, myself playing around on the dirt jumps and trying to master the art of wheelies on my crf 50 and my dad trying to get the skills down on his brand new yamaha ttr 230. Aaron from NME tours than showed up with his shuttle rig( chevy passenger van with a flip down tv, and trailer for bikes) and was kind enough to take me up for a rip on the 10k. conditions couldn't be better, nice tacky dirt the occsonal slippery spot made for some good fun. A run and 5 black bears later Aaron got tired of shuttling he decided to go get his bike and come for a ride. We rode the black trail which is full of jumps and some large stunts. The trail is in mint condition and i've never seen it better. We than linked onto the ridge trail from b12 than linking onto 6.5 k, again the trail was mint. Sunday rolls around and Justin Willoughby decides to show up as well as Terry and Leah from the shop. Trail conditions hadn't changed even after some light rain saturday night. Justin and I decided we'd man up and give bris a try. Expecting it to be some what scary and greasy the steeps were actualy nice and tacky. After both getting closed lined by a single tree branch we had a good laugh than tunneled our way under the branches of a tree than had fallen across the trail we hopped onto 5k and headed for the bottom. Than is decided to pour. It rained pretty hard for a good 20 minutes soo we waited. Than we decided it would be a great idea to go for a mud run so we headed up the road to the 10k. Suprisingly no rain had reached the upper part of mt 7 but once we made it down to 5k things got sketchy. Justin lost the pin in his back break lever, soo he had a frustrating run trying to ride only with his front brake. "people say the front brake is the one you want, screw that at least with the back brake you can still kinda pin it" says Justin.

even with the rain it was a great weekend and i can't wait to get back to mt 7

git r done

Robert McPhalen

COP

Last night me and my dad went ot ride cop for the first time this season. later we met up with justin willoughby for some more fun. its good to be back on the local hill and nice to have good riding in the city. the trails are still somewhat the same but some new changes have made them much better and more fun to ride. the trails in the trees have had new entrances made other than that they have stayed the same. the current downhill course is alot differn't, changes were made due to snow from the terrain park still in the way of the old trail. the trail is mostly the same until you hit the trees on monkey suits. talking to jari (trail guy) i guess the course is gonna be re routed to the left of dropping in and won't be going down adrenaline like it currently is.

i'm headin back out with justin tonight, so if your free come ride!!

Robert McPhalen

Qn'r Trail Report

Golden - Good to go 5 or 6 k down. "Trail is too tacky I belief is a quote I heard"
Swansea - Good to go to the big switch back, again. Pretty dry out there in spots already but better than the atomic dustin bin that it is in the summer.
Canmore - Reclaimer is running oh so smooth, plus the Benchlands XC ripping is pretty pinner.
Banff - Lake Minnewanka to the Ranger Station was super fantastic on Tuesday. Pinned riding at it's best if your into the pedal like a mofo thing.
Moose - I haven't heard much yet. Mr. "Free-rider of the Year" Reg Mullet should provide a good scout out soon enough. Probably pretty soggy and heavin' frost I'd imagine. Plus this recent rain storm probably doesn't help much.
Fish Creek - DJ'n is prime, fun jumps, Rain helps them, plus the pinner XC'n is stellar, just stay on the South West side to avoid the bridge bs and your good to go.
Millenium - Looks stellar, I haven't made it DT yet this year, something about being in the mountains catches my atttention more than being stuck in the city. Feels too much like "workin'" I guess?

Anyone actually reading this bs I'm writing. I'm going to go with probably not...oh well I've been know to enjoy talking to myself?

fishy djs

Today Glen and myself (Robert)went and rode the fish creek djs. I got to the jumps at around 12 to find glen and some other riders playing around on the small set. I jumped in and trained glen to get the speed right. There not the hardest jumps but fun, flowy and great to play around on. After a few runs on the small jumps we swtiched it up and started to do a little digging and some loose dirt on the tranny to add a little cushion for trying tricks, than we started to ride. Glen was quick to bust out a 360 and even go for a backflip. My self on the other hand, I'm still workin up the courage to try something on the bigger jump. After a quick run for some training food ( McDonalds) we were back to the jumps for some more digging gettin the jumps ready for our next ride. All in all it was a fun day and hopefully i'll have the balls to go for a 360 on wednesday when we head back for some more riding.

keep er crunk

Robert McPhalen

Sea Otter - Quinner's perspective.

NQ here.
Sea Otter from my perscpective: I rolled in Wed afternoon, got organized, went for a little pedal around the hotel parking lot and hit the hay pretty early cause pro practice started at 8am. I'm Defintely NOT a morning person when it comes to riding. It's pretty easy to get up and ride, but get up an learn to pin it...that's tough. My body doesn't normally "wake-up" until like 2 or 3 in the afternoon, so 8am starts were tough. The course it self was actually pretty fun because of the berms and jump set-up's. After running the course on Day 1 on my heckler, then day 2 running my V10 I decided to go with the V10 simply cause it was less sketchy to ride at high speed. I'm not sure that was the right choice. Race-runs are usually 1 sketchy moment anyways, so ...should have ran the little bike instead of the monster truck V10. Oh well, lesson learned about the importance of bike selection, set-up etc.
Day 1 Practice was a pretty cool expierence for Justin and I in that we rode with Mark Weir and Forest Arkwanka (sp, sorry Forest). I really look up to Wier for multiple reasons. Namely his fitness level and how fast the old bugger is. Plus the dude has a sweet mustache!!! For me this was one of the "cooler" experiences about the whole Sea Otter trip, riding with the big boys.
My Race run went pretty descent. A few things threw me off a bit though. In the US, maybe it's a US Cycling thing, but there timing system runs off a series of beeps instead of using eye's. I'm so use to rolling into the start gate, listening to the beep, beep, beeeeeeep. and then you go after the long one at anypoint cause your time starts when you cross through the eyes. Down their it runs a serious of 6 beeps. beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeep. Thing is you go on the last beep, but the clock starts on the 6th beep. So do you actually go on the 5th or wait until you simply here the 6th then intiate your starting pedal??? Since I was like the 5th dude out of the start gate I wasn't sure. Oh well. Lesson learned, pay attention to how things start...could be the difference between 1st and 54th. That's right Rennie got me by 15 seconds cause of the start gate...HA HA kidding. Actually it's cause the guy is a monster. I felt like a little kid standing beside him, but he remembered me from Psychosis. Bugger...I need to beat him this year, I know I'm dreaming, but a guy can dream right!!! Speaking of Rennie, I was reading NSMB this morning and came across this picture Dan Barham shot (www.danBarham.com). That shot says it all right there. Intensity, Focus, Determination and the fact that Rennie is a fricken Monster Truck. Kids if your reading this, look at learn from this shot. A picture says a thousand words, in this case this picture says one thing "I'm winning this race".

Word of the day today "Listen to Slayer"... incorporate that into your ride!!!

Summer is here, summer is here, summer is here!!

Apparently while I was away in B.C. summer decided to show up here in Alberta. Finally. So in celebration some of the old school CC shopper guys are going "xc" riding. Funny how that term has changed over the years. Really it's just a bunch of ole' DH guys pedaling up these wonderfully light Full squish Santa Cruz bikes up big mtns in order to ride down. Sure riding old school favorites like Baldy, Jewel, Cox, Jumpingpound, Powderface etc are technically "xc"... but in the past couple of years I think the more correct term is "All mountain". Either way, when it's time to go down there really is only one speed...Pinned!!!

Pic from Sea Otter: Photographer Dave Pawlak 2007

Off to Invermere and Golden.

You would think April would be about the spring flowers and riding muddy dirt around here...not so. 1/2 a foot of fresh pow this morning...sweet! Oh well the team is off to Golden to start running hot laps and getting use to these new rigs of ours. Word of the day "superfantasitcawesometimes" Try to incorporate that into your riding today!!