Ready to Roll

Hi all... so the much anticipated TransRockies is just a couple of days away, so all of that harping on about the 'Big Race' I've been doing for the past year is upon us - yikes! Much excitment and a hint of sheer terror curses my veins 24/7 at present - just can't wait to get on the start line and pretend I'm as good as the Pro riders (until the gun goes).

Mark and Lucy arrived all on time on Friday - bike bag all present and correct this time around too (thank goodness!), and Brina landed in from the Soo literally 3 minutes after Mark and Lucy touched down from NZ. A couple of days out on the mountain bikes over the weekend got us all psyched up - a few laps of Suffer Springs in Bragg Ck in the sun, followed by an evening ride from Canmore down around Spray Lakes that caught us in a nasty storm where temperatures plummeted to about 3 degrees (not good for lycra clad skinny lads) and brought the onset of hypothermia by the end of the ride (Mark was so glad to have done his heat acclimatization training in front of the fire at home, in preparation for our summer. Sticking your head in the deep freeze for a couple of hours is the best way to get ready for Canadian summers!). Needless to say, the thawing out post ride process of mincing around Canmore in compression socks, blue crocks, down vest and a beanie made for interesting stares from the holiday makers in town.

We've figured that we'll be consuming more food than ever before in this race, so here's a sample of our daily race diet...

I think we have about 100,000 calroies on the table - should keep us up and pedaling for a day or two!!!! (and this is just what we'll be riding with - never mind the cupboard full of pasta and steak etc..).

We headed off to Panorama for the last couple of days - that's the place where the TransRockies begins. We wanted to check out some trails and get a feel for the place (and the place is bloody lovely by the way - a must stop see place on a ski trip for this winter). However, being the TransRockies, nobody knows the route until the day before the race - that is unless you are a jammy little bugger and happen across the man who actually designs and sets the course for the race whilst you're rummaging through his workplace searching for a map of the local. Alas, we managed to glean a good idea of where the first 5 days will be running (not that it's that useful since we couldn't ride it all) but we at least have an idea of where the first stage takes us - and it is quite simply like this "find the biggest, steepest, longest, most painful looking hill climb you can and start up there, after which the desecent will be a blur as your oxygen starved brain will have ceased to function half way up the climb" - a 4000ft climb off the bat - nice!

Mark brought over a shed load of new kit, so here's the new fandangled international R&R race jersey....

And with Mark having got us sorted out as Team Icebreaker NZ, it has meant a great deal of sowing Icebreaker patches onto our many jersey's and paraphanalia such a camel backs etc... I feel like I've been working in a Phillipino sweat shop for the past few days doing so much nimble fingered sowing...
We've loads to organize today, so I should really go and get on with that.... we get the camper tomorrow and head off to the race Saturday - the race begins Sunday and no doubt can be followed on http://www.transrockies.com/ .
Other news that doesn't involve biking doesn't really exist right now (thoughts of work still linger in my mind, but they are seriously burried deep until after the race). Big Red bought himself a new shiney road bike last week - so it's good to see all the Williams' getting out on the velo!
I trust that you are all as prepared as can be,
lets hope the hard work was worth it,
Have a blast!
Team Icebreaker.