First of all there was the racing, I was only home for a months (April to June) so I didn't get to do a ton of racing or actual training for that fact, but I still went out and had some fun on the bike. There was the two endurance races in the format that I am quite use to, the Giver 8'er and the Organ Grinder, both of these I went out pretty strong but slowed down quite a bit by the end. The giver 8er was quite the mucky race, I got a flat and couldn't recover after that so I called it early. the Organ Grinder the following week was a good little race I went out a little slower had a goal of doing 5 laps in the 5 hours and I did that but not much else was too impressive about that one. The day before the Organ Grinder was the Iron Maiden Alberta Cup race and since I didn't have a licence I raced in the citizen class which was only two laps. I went in feeling pretty good also not thinking there would be too many people to actually race with in that class so my goal was to catch as many of the sport riders in front of me. I did pretty good at that caught over half the field and won the race but I did have to work for it thanks to one of the guys from Canmore. So that was my race season, two weekends back to back lots of rain and a lot of fun. I MISS RACING!!
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| Finish of a wet and cold Organ Grinder 5 hour race |
I got to build my first bike from scratch which I detailed in my last post from the spring. I upgraded my road/cross bike so it shifts nicely now, as well as I picked up a nice little Ti city bike this winter to replace my old fixie for getting around town on. The first time I got to ride it was doing a little Christmas shopping a few days after a snow storm in Calgary and it was -20 out, so far I think it handles well and it should be a good little bike to rip around town on.
As for new places I got to ride I did a little more exploring around town, and outside of town there really is some great places around Calgary to ride bikes. The other thing I was able to do was to go out and explore some trails around town, while walking the dog I found some good trails over at the dog park that just happened to be on my way to work, so I started riding those trails. Every day I would explore a little further and by the end of a week I found pretty much a full trail starting about 4km from my house all the way to work.
September Long weekend I finally got to do a little car camping trip with the girlfriend and the bikes. We packed up and headed to Golden BC. One day I hit up kicking horse for some DH runs and the next day we ventured into the trails around moonracker. Such fun trails, A great place for the girlfriend to go riding and the puppy had lot of fun chasing us though the trails as well. Up until that weekend I was pretty sure I was going to sell my DH bike and get a 5 or 6 inch trail bike, but nope I am sticking with the DH bike for at least another season and I am going to see if I can make it to some more places with lift access.
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| Rudy having fun on the moonraker trails in Golden |
Those were my highlights of the 2013 season however short it was for me but I am looking forward to a great 2014 because there is some big changes coming. It will be my return to a full season of racing, entering my first stage race, swapping my 26" wheels for some 29'ers. I am going to try and not use the car too much in the new year and do everything with the bike, that includes groceries and other errands. Oh and all of this is possible to do for me next year because I am going to be at home all the time. I have decided to finish up at the rigs and try out a new carrier which will allow me to get back to training and racing and doing what I , love, RIDING BIKES!
