We're a week closer to the holidays - whoopie! And this weekend saw another race on the mtb! It was heinously technical, and on wiping out for the umpteenth time on the Saturday pre-ride, my moral ebbed, and I realised that, barring one day in Moab last summer, I haven't ridden my mountain bike on trails for two years (since being in NZ) - the first time being my last race!! Somehow I managed to cling to the endless singletrack and dropoffs through the trees and stick with the race to bag second place again (third overall, but second in the Masters age group!).
Here's a piccie showing two old gits on deck chairs looking all bemused as the pretty lycra cyclist spoiling their view of Edmonton;
It's rather amusing to note that this is the ALBERTA mountain bike cup! Quick Geography lesson: Alberta has some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet - the badlands out East where the ground falls away into chasms like mini Grand Canyons, the rolling agricultural foothills, and obviously the Rockies (a la some of the best mountain bike terrain in the world). So, being the Alberta cup and all, why would you stage a mountain bike race on the edge of an industrial estate in North West Edmonton? Admittedly the organization was great, the course was very well set up and rather tricky, and although it did run past a somewhat picturesque river at some stage - why the heck did they choose this venue for the race? This isn't a grumble, more just a confusion - although some things Albertan continue to confuse me - such as why do I need to have a new chest x-ray to be able to drive a mini bus for school? (and any of the chest x-rays that I've had every month for the past 2 years just aren't acceptable for the driving agency - they obviously have a special minibus driver chest x-raying machine that is far superior to any bog standard x-ray device found in the cancer hospital).
Such is life!
Happy birthday dear blog,
Being first loser is always better than being second loser,
It could be worse,
S&S.
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