A good few inches of hail fell (enough to cover my ankles) and the thunder and lightening made for more than dubious riding conditions - so after a caffeine hit, it was home to spin indoors (urgh). I'm thriving the bachelor lifestyle at the moment, although am readily realising that I need to get things ship shape in the house before the misses gets back (the dragon).
Headed out to Nordegg on the weekend to race a 60km race on remote single track descents and killer climbs. It was the otherway round for me though, the climbs were great, it was the single track that killed me - crashing (no surprise there then) and banging up my knee so that it ballooned like a golf ball, forcing me to abandon the race after another lap of agony. First DNF of the year was awfully disappointing as I was riding well and in contention with the overall winner - but hopefully I'm getting all the mistakes out of the way before the TR! (Was thinking about my racing stats this year, and the races where I haven't crashed, I've won!!! Not saying that I'd have won the races I stacked it in, but it's an entertaining statistic that highlights my riding ineptitude!). Decided to cheer myself up so drove home from Nordegg via the Icefields parkway, to get to which you drive along the very deserted David Thompson Highway - which has endless views of....
and of this..
There were just endless spectacular views with nobody else around for hours... and that's before hitting the icefields parkway!Got the knee all iced up last night, swelling went down a fair bit this morning (I'm still singing the praises of my compression socks for such assistance), and the aforementioned Mr. Weible drove us out to K Country for a superb ride over Highwood Pass. Those of you familiar with Canada's highest paved road will appreciate the grandeur of the scenery (especially on a clear blue sky, hot and sunny day), and being a Monday made for us being passed by all of 10 cars (if that) over 2 and a half hours. BUT... the piece de la resistance that will keep this ride in my memory until Alzheimer's kicks in is that as we summited the Pass the second time coming back to Peter Lougheed, we viewed out to the mountain and saw two Grizzly Bears digging around in the undergrowth, turning over rocks and generally having a damn good rummage for whatever yummy Grizzly goodies where hiding there. They were two awesome beasts, I couldn't believe it at first, "They're not sheep are they?" I commented, not wanting to be disappointed (having seen zillions of rocky mt sheep on the road), "No, they're bears" responded Brad in his usual laid back tone (whilst no doubt thinking "Sheep?!?! Dumbass!!"). We watched them for 10 minutes, and they were huge! It was one of those Canadian moments I've been waiting for since we arrived - awesome! I could just rant on about the Grizzlies all day, so I'll contain myself and leave it at that, as I head off to ice my knee and watch a re-run of today's stage of the Tour!
You never know what's around the corner,
Striving for yellow,
S.
1 comment:
i can actually hear Brad in my head saying just that.
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