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