Brutal Hardcore 29er / CX Action

This is mainly for Mike Anderson's benefit as he hardens right up at this kind of thing.

See Al Crossling at 39secs and Hayden Richards at 1.58

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Where for art thou SlackBoy

Now I keep getting asked "Where are you now? Why haven't you graced our presence with your majestic calves. True our partners find it harder to lust after you, which we find grateful, but nonetheless, we miss you SlackBoy"
Now don't worry my lil star-struck fan base, for I am not completely gone. For I now call a mountain top mansion of cheap pine and tin home. And am one of the chosen that worships upon the altar of trail building, and carve out of the mountainsides sweet womanly curves of dirt and rock.
For once, tho I have been digging trails for years, I am actually being paid for doing what I used to do on my day off, for free.

Here's a small sample of what I/we have been doing..........

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Like a Bat out of Hell I’ll be gone…

Haha, you have that classic Meatloaf song in your head now! But I’ll spare you, that’s where the singing stops and the racing begins; Vegas was host to another awesome race on Sunday, the Whaka 100. 100km’s, 5 hours and a whole heap of sweet Vegas single-track.

The forecast during the week was pointing to a foul Sunday, but alas the weather played ball and just held up (providing you finished by 1pm). With a decent amount of sunshine in the lead up, as well as some resealing on most of the 4wd’s in the forest, a fast race was on the cards. A few of NZ’s Pro Elite sifters lined up for the 8am start, with a decent contingent of single speeders from around the globe gearing up for this weekends World’s (100km’s on one gear isn’t my cup of tea)! With my big bro having the honour of leading us out around the field on a CX bike, it was down to business as we hit the single track.

The first 15km was literally all single-track in the core network part of the forest, allowing Cabin and myself to pull a gap on the rest (always handy sitting behind locals). All the tracks were flowing sweet, bike was riding smooth, legs were pumping; everything was looking good as we headed out for the large out back loop.
After about 20km I felt really strong, setting a rhythm I thought would last me the following 80km; this rhythm was a bit faster then what Cabin had in mind so he happily sent me on my way. Around the lakes, over three big hills (including descents of No Brains and Split Endz), through Old Chevy, everything was still feeling comfortable. Through the feed-zone for a quick refuel, a time check (4mins back to Cabin) and, onwards to the more challenging second sector.

On the way up to Billy T things began to fall apart very quickly. I could feel fatigue starting to set in fast prompting me to slow things down (hard ask when you have a 400m climb ahead). After a brief breather at the top it was time for one of the coolest descents in Vegas, except this time it was a struggle with a body that was refusing to cooperate. Into G-Rock then Rollercoaster, the race caught up quite literally; what was a 4 min lead on Cabin was wiped out in 10km, Cabin was right back on me!

After a quick jaunt across the flat towards Hot X Buns, the penultimate ascent began which would confirm my world of pain. Cabin simply rode away and all I could do was conserve my placing. Down Hot X Buns cleanly and onwards to the final hill of the day (with out dribbling on, managed to get over in one piece and press onto the finish).

At just under 5 hours I crossed the line in 2nd place, some 9mins after Cabin (that sandbagger pulled 14mins on me in 35km)! While I was disappointed to not win I was relieved to finish and improve on last year by a full half hour.

Lessons to be learnt…? Riding like a Bat out of Hell won’t always work. A 5 hour marathon race such as Whaka is a complete different story to the 2 hour XC events I’ve been racing for the past few months, but how can you hold me down when I’m thrown into a race, of course I’ll ride at 110%.
Bit of rest for now, but I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to hopefully defend my PNP series title and win the Huka race at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge; if I’m right, on Sunday I blew at about the same point as the Huka race finishes, 80km, here’s hoping….

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Short and Sweet

Just like the course used for Sundays third round of the PNP MTB series, I’m going to keep this quick.
Mt Victoria in central Wellington was the setting for the latest PNP race, held on a 6-7km course with heaps of roots, clay and pine needles; when it rains like it did for the 12 hours before the race, Mt Vic can turn into lethal sliding feast even for the Steve Peat’s out there. Us Pro-Elite punters were thrown 4 laps of fun, sending us on our way for 2hrs of pain.
The turn out for PE was fairly down, but I still had Alex Revell keeping me honest through out. For the whole of the first lap Alex was right on my tail, pressuring me to ride full tilt (couple hairy moments but nothing too scary). Come second lap I really put the hammer down, trying to distance Alex as soon as I could; it took over half the lap but I finally pulled a gap.
Even with a fair amount of traffic, my legs happily settled into a steady rhythm, attacking every up-hill and descent. Only one small slip up to mention, landing on my knees which left me with a few cuts, but other then that my SantaCruz was railing everything.
After 1:55 of racing I rolled into the Mt Vic velodrome for my second win of the series; a nice step towards defending my title and a good sign ahead of the Whaka 100 this weekend.

So this weekend it’s the Whaka 100, 100km of sweet Rotovegas trails sandwiched between 5hrs of pain. Forecast is looking sweet so should be a great day!
In the mean time off to Metallica on Wednesday, hopefully the adrenalin will still be pumping come Sunday (and my hearing returned).

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Ben Nevis Dh race

Finally I have a vid of this race up.

I won, not usual for me, but I'll take it, even if the main competition of Derek Winwood was hungover.
I did crash on my 1st race run and sprained my wrist, tho I didn't know or even feel this until later that afternoon. However the 3 weeks since I haven't ridden my bike at all, until today. I got 3rd today at the fringed classic. Once more running the bushlove colours, with matching pink strapping on my wrist.

But alas, for I can give you no more wordy prose this fine night, as one has consumed too much bourbon and tis late.

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Canadian research - "learning experiences"

Well my trip was not just about riding and stocking up on cheap souvenirs, it was experiencing different things. Some things were a bit more "different" to what my Lonely Planet told me to expect. So here are some of the highlights...

Begging in Seattle
Unfortunately Seattle has been hit hard by the recession, so there were a lot of people begging on the streets. However some of those out begging don't seem to have a credible story:
Begging Woman: "Hey man, spare a veteran a dollar?"
AL: "Sorry" (NZ accent of course)
Begging Woman: "Well excuse me, you're not from round here. We liberated your country and you can't give me a dollar?"
AL: "Ummm I don't think NZ was liberated recently" reaching in my pocket to give her the change I had just so she would get lost. "Here" giving her a handful of quarters and pennies
Begging Woman: "What, you waste my time and that is all you give me?"
AL: "ah....."
Drunk man who just appeared on the scene: "Hey man, ignore that stupid b____! I won't lie to you sir, I'm no veteran but if you give me a dollar I will be go get drunk!"
AL - I fish out my wallet and give this man $5!
Drunk man: "Hey man, America needs more people like you! I'll go raise a toast to you right now!"
It was only 9am in the morning...

Sh!t coffee in Seattle

The original Pike Place Market Starbucks "Coffee"

Ah yes, the original Starbucks in Seattle's Pike Place Market, where sh!t coffee was born! There must have been a Starbucks every 50 metres in Seattle with a queue in every one. They sure do like their coffee flavoured sugar water over there. But to add insult to injury, they love to top it all with whipped cream.
So as a fan of real coffee and an even bigger fan of tea you can imagine my delight in find an independent cafe that specialised in "real espresso coffee and good old fashioned tea"
So I went in and order a tea. All was going well till I was asked if I wanted cream. "Sorry, did you say cream with my tea?" A surprised look from behind the counter... then she pulled out a can of aerosol cream! "Yes sir, whipped cream for your cup of tea"
I admitted defeat and just had a crappy coffee and donut instead

Yummy!
Not all the food was complete rubbish, there were some interesting and yummy things out there
...like waffles for breakfast!

Fresh Sockeye Salmon for dinner...

I had to bring back a bit of food as well, like Marshmallow Fluff for the hyperactive food colouring fan club at work

1.6kg on Pancake mix for my father (it's nice, but c'mon! It's just pancake mix!)

Hello Yogi!
Yes, as you probably already know, Canada has bears. Now given I was travelling alone, I quite often would you out riding alone... in back country Canadian trails...

But not all bears hangout in the woods, they quite often come into town looking for food.

So there I am riding along the main highway going through Whistler. I pull up to the main set of lights outside Whistler village and there is a queue of cars (or to be more precise North American Suburban Assault Vehicles). People are hanging out of these cars taking photos. But there is only a ditch on the side of the road, so I look at the them all a bit puzzled till I hear a noise from the pavement. A black bear is standing right beside me on the pavement as if he was waiting to cross the road at the lights. Given this bear was less than a couple metres from me and I have never seen a bear (but heard lots of stories about them), I decided that I could justify the traffic ticket for running that red light and getting the hell out of there!

REDNECKS!
Now Nanaimo was my favourite place my trip, but I did fear for my life during my ride there. When I visited the bike shop to get directions of where to go the shop owner gave me a few landmarks to get my bearings from. One of those landmarks was a clearing with quote "what looks like the remains of a redneck party, shoot up cars and lots of beer cans." I keep an eye out for this area as it was where the good trails started from. It was easily to find then I thought it would be...

Moments after this photo was taken... a redneck scared the sh!t out of me!

As I came out to a clearing with what I thought might have been the area the guy in the shop was talking about a guy in a pickup truck pulls up.
Guy in pickup truck: "Morning"
AL: "Morning"
Guy in pickup truck now parking the truck and getting out: "Are you alone?"
AL: ".......yes?"
Guy who has just pulled out a rifle from his pickup truck: "Oh yup"
BANG BANG BANG (three cans on a log at the end of the clearing are shot at)
That guy again: "Oh sorry man, that question was a bit odd. I just didn't want to shoot any other riders"
AL: "....ah cool... I'll just head off now...."

I have no photos of the clearing or the redneck, funnily enough I wasn't in a photo taking mood and felt the need to move on!

Farewell oh British Columbia!

So there you have it, I still have a few tall tales to tell. For a donation to the Send-Al-back-to-Canada fund...

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NEWSFLASH - Al cheated in showdown with Tigs

Al of Bushlove Racing has just announced that in his crucial showdown with Tigs at the final round of the 2009 PNP Series at Makara he used performance enhancing drugs.

Al has released the following statement:
"When the pressure of my impending showdown with elite rider Tigs at last year's PNP series final was starting to make me doubt my ability, I did what any ex good roadie would do and looked for ways to improve my performance. I had to take a HTFU pill to beat Tigs.
I haven't taken a HTFU pill for a while and I think my test results from recent races will clearly show that. I think I have to be honest with everyone and tell people what I know.
Other riders in Bushlove are not innocent either: Davo has used pies and lager to good effect, Angry owns a powertap that he secretly uses.
My only excuse for this is I use to be a good roadie, so assumed that was what you did."

In reply to this statement, Tigs made the following comment:
"Look everyone knows I am an elite rider, so when someone like the ginge Al beats me something must be going on."

WADA has also made the following comment about the matter:
"We will be investigating this matter, but early indications are that Al was not 'just sifting for the win' as it defined in the Bushlove code of conduct. This behaviour cannot go unpunished."

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