Winter Training with World Cup DH-ers

Trek tweeted this little video about their DH-er Tracy Moseley ... interesting. Cross training on a dirt bike?! I'm in the wrong discipline. ;) PS - the soundtrack is an awesome song on high rotation on my ipod. So I'm also tagging this post a RACE TRACK. ("Home is where the heart is" by The Sounds)

And ... for a lighter look at the off-season, check out a day-in-the-life with World Champion, Steve Peat.

2009 Results

2nd Paris to Ancaster
2nd XC Ontario Cup #1, Mansfield
1st Super D Ontario Cup #1, Kelso
1st DH Ontario Cup #1, Kelso
14th XC Ontario Cup #2, Albion
20th XC Canada Cup #2, Tremblant QC
18th/6th XC Canada Cup/Ontario Cup #3, Hardwood Hills
10th Test of Metal, Squamish BC
7th CHIN Road Race, Toronto
6th XC Ontario Cup #5, Buckwallow
3rd XC Ontario Cup #6, Mountainview
7th XC Ontario Cup #7, Provincial Championships, Kelso
5th Overall: XC Ontario Cup Series
4th Winter Wow, Mansfield

The Atherton Project

The Atherton's are making a reality TV show? Well it's about time if you ask me. Dan, Gee and Rachel are the 2008 men's DH, women's DH and men's 4X champs. Yeah. That's right, they swept the podium. They've got matching rainbow jerseys, and huge personalities. So I'll definitely be watching, and linking each episode from here. Stay tuned!

Here's the trailer:


More Mountain Biking >>


From Dirt Magazine:

Red Bull will launch a brand new reality online TV series: ‘The Atherton Project’, on Friday 15th May. The fly on the wall show will track the exploits of the most famous family in mountain bike history. Follow British riders Dan, Gee and Rachel Atherton as they compete in the 2009 UCI World Cup Series and the World Championships in Australia, where Rachel and Gee will defend their 2008 crowns. The series promises to delve deep into their lives, especially life away from the training routines and competitions. Viewers will get an unprecedented insight into what makes the amusing trio click as the series unfolds. All aspects of family life will be uncovered; nothing will be left to the imagination, even the areas usually reserved just for family and friends! The man behind the camera is legendary mountain bike film maker Clay Porter. Dan, Gee and Rachel have given him unlimited access to their lives as he follows them all over the planet in the one of the craziest adventures to hit the internet. In the first instalment viewers meet the family during their winter training in California. Tune in to find out which one of them is scared of spiders. Plus what wise words does Rachel have for US President Barack Obama? The entertaining episode tracks their progress all the way to South Africa as they compete in the first round of the UCI World Cup. Expect plenty of ups and downs as one of them has to face up to some harsh realities after being hit by a truck. The fast paced show has been created specifically for an online audience and new episodes will released every other week, and be available first on www.mpora.com and www.dirtmag.co.uk, and then via all good websites and video platforms.

More photos from Sunday

I'm lucky I've got talented friends! Sean got some great souvenir shots of me from Downhill Day (and some unintentionally hilarious ones, which I'll mostly keep to myself). He was kind enough to forward me the jpegs so here you go! Thanks Sean!

This one makes me laugh because you can see the effects of a borrowed bike up close: Chris likes a wider handlebar than I'm used to and I've got at least 2 inches on either end in extra space! Also, at some point, my elbow pads became wrist guards. I didn't notice until it was time to take them off. Newb.

This one was taken during practice (I can tell because my elbow pads are where they're supposed to be)
This one is on the landing of the log drop. It's huckable but that's not in my bag of tricks yet. Well, a little huck maybe.

The log drop -- and amazing blue skies -- in the background. I saw guys landing outside this frame so I've got a long way to go!

Race Report: Ontario Cup #1, DH, Kelso

I'm exhausted, sunburned and totally stoked. Today was my first time racing Downhill and I'll always remember it.

Yesterday, as I mentioned, I was a little bit unsure of myself. I hiked the hill once to take a look at the course, sessioned some sections I had trouble with (read: every one of them) and then drove home thinking I was in way over my head. I even had a little heart-to-heart with my boyfriend about it in which we decided that maybe if things didn't look better in the morning, I would skip the race and thereby eliminate the risk to my XC season. It seemed clear to me that the potential for serious injury was high.

I woke up early so I could get there with plenty of time to run the course. Things didn't feel better. In fact, I'd had nightmares about the damn thing. But the sun was shining and I had some friends to collect on the way so off I went.

Sean, Jeff and I made the trip in the minivan. I came to race, they came to work on their picture-taking skills. Once I had the loaner bike and all the armour paraphanalia sorted out, we went our seperate ways. I was on a mission to figure out downhill. And I only had two hours to do it.

Photo cred: Jeff Monk. This is me during the race run, trying not to run over Jeff.

I hiked up the ski hill about six times. The lift was taking way too long and I was wasting valuable practice time just standing around. Each run I'd figure out another little thing. But still, before the race I hadn't yet been able to string a clean lap together. My riding was full of dabs [putting a foot down], erroneous braking and expletives. The course looked something like this:

1. Start gate then a straight with lots of room for pedalling, but with a jump (I'm an XC rider and even the smallest possibility of my tires leaving the ground makes me squeamish)

2. Gnarly rock garden starting with a pump section (three undulating bumps that you have to use your whole body to work the bike through or else lose all your momentum)

3. Six foot drop ... which I went around via the "chicken line", which was still steep and covered in rocks and roots, with an off-camber out

4. Flatter pedalling section (yesssss!)

5. Two sets of jumps

6. Log drop to off-camber berms and more rhythm sections

7. Gnarly rock garden

8. Wide open track to the finish ("pedal, pedal, pedal," roar the crowds).

By the time the race rolled around I was exhausted from walking up the hill all those times with a 30 pound bike, fullface helmet and armour (and nowhere to put a water bottle). I did a couple warm up sprints while doing my best not to watch as the other racers took off in 30 second intervals. It would mess with my brain way too much if I saw someone eat it on those rocks. So I just sat in the sun and prayed to Jesus to keep me safe.

Then a miracle!

After spending the whole morning talking about how scared I was, how over-my-head I felt and resigning myself to last place (if I finished at all) I took my spot in the start gate. The numbers beeped down, and I swear, I literally felt a "click" up in my brain and the competitor in me took the wheel. I was focused, calm, relaxed and at last! That smooth run I'd been trying for all morning just happened. I finished happy, and all in one piece so I'd already accomplished all my goals for the day. But to my surprise, my smooth-at-last race run was the fastest of the day for the women's field. I'd won a gold medal! And not like yesterday's ... today there were three other very fast, experienced and respected ladies to compete with.

Downhill was a great adventure, and an exercise in the power of positive thinking. I had such a fun weekend, and only wish I could be in two (or three!) places at once so I could come out to some more, but for now, I think it's back to XC.


After the race, the boys took me to Swiss Chalet, where I was given a yellow balloon and yellow pie in honour of my yellow medal.

Check out the shop's coverage of the event -- a great weekend for Sweet Pete's!

Race Report: Ontario's First Ever Super-D

I was awarded a gold medal today, but I didn't win it. I got it just for showing up to Ontario's first ever Super-D race put on by Sir Bikealot Racing in conjunction with the first Ontario Cup DH race to be held tomorrow.

I watched the pre-registration list throughout the week but there was no sign of other females stoked to try a Super D. So I told myself they must be planning on pre-riding the course, then deciding and registering at the event. Since Super D is a new discipline in Ontario, I thought it made sense that people would like a taste before they dropped 39 bucks on their entry fee. But as it turned out, I knew I'd won the race before I even started. You'd think that'd be a good feeling, but really it just kind of took the wind out of my sails. To keep it interesting, I decided I'd push to see how far into the men's category I could get instead.

Before I tell you about my day in gravity sports, let me lay out some basic information.

What is Super D?
Super D is somewhere between downhill and cross country mountain biking. Although the course points down, you still need to pedal. There are a few uphills, but mostly your momentum carries you. Throw in a some flowy single track, the odd technical section (nothing scary, girls!!) and it's all over in just a few minutes. It's basically everything that's fun about XC (unless you think long technical climbs are fun in which case you're out of luck.)

What kind of bike do you need?
I rode my Trek today which is the same bike I ride for XC races. People also rode 4X bikes and burlier trail bikes (6-inch travel) but certainly you'd be fine with 4 inches of travel and a hardtail. For the record, both the women's and men's fields were won by XC racers ... so I'd say it's kind of our thing.

What do you wear?
I made a point of wearing lycra today because I was in DH-land and they can't stand it. I thought I'd better represent. Full face helmets are necessary on the DH course, but not on the Super D -- I just wore what I wear to XC races. Some people wear ski-style helmets with goggles though. I wasn't too sure about the steeze on that one ... I guess it's cool?

What can I expect?
This morning, rolling into the parking lot, I thought "This'll be easy! Rock n roll!" Turns out you shouldn't expect easy. I was pretty much redlined for the entire 4 minutes and 39 seconds I raced. It's downhill, but it's a sprint too. Plus, unless you're willing to wait in line for an hour to get up the slowest lift in the world, you've got to ride up the ski hill at least two times to the start. In Super D, you must do two practice runs and the commissaire has to see you do it, and mark it on your number plate. Otherwise you can't start the race. I'm not sure how it is in other places (I think some Super Ds run heats?) but at the Ontario Cup, we were started one at a time at 30 second intervals.

That pretty much sums it up. Next time, I really hope more girls and more XC racers go out to show those gravity dudes what's up. It was such a fun course, and it teaches you a ton about carrying speed and cornering. I'm glad I did it, even if it was lonely in the ladies' category.

My day started fairly early as I wanted to practice on the course before the racing started at 1pm. The weather was pretty fair, but once in a while it did rain a bit. It seemed to get colder as the day went on as well so I ended up racing in knee and arm warmers again. I made friends in the morning with the only other person in lycra. We rode the chair-lift together, one back from our bikes dangling precariously by their back wheels and decided we'd just skip the chair for the rest of the day. *shudders*. I chased him down the course a couple times. He races Elite as well in XC so we were both on a little field trip to the gravity side of things. He won his race too. We must have had a lucky chair that morning.

I prerode the course, and also whipped around on the single track gloriousness at Kelso. I ended up doing alot more riding today than I anticipated, and that's a good thing! I didn't really know anyone so I hung out in the minivan eating my lunch and reading a book until it was time to climb the hill to the start.

My race run was fantastic. I did everything the way I wanted to, hit my lines, got some great, positive comments from the spectators, nose-wheelied the finish (although that was an accident ... tee hee) and even gave a young girl a pep talk at her dad's request. I think she'll be ripping it up next Super D. And so should you!!

Once that was all over with, I went back to the car and put on my DH disguise. I grabbed the bike I'm borrowing ... thanks Chris! ... and hiked it up the mountain. The switch from being clipped in to flat pedals was scary. The rocks were scary. The jumps were scary. The drops were scary. Respek to downhillers who make that rough stuff look butter smooth.

Tomorrow is race day again, so I'm off to bed, hopefully to dream about how to string together a good DH race run.

My loaner bike -- Trek Remedy. Suuuch a nice ride.

ABP and X-0 Equipped!!

Obligatory down tube shot ... and custom sticker job

Spy cam captures his royal cuteness. Only 11 weeks old!

The New Gen: "It's Sick"

Rob Fraser is a pretty familiar name in Ontario's DH scene.

But forget him, check out his protege! This vid was too rad not to post. Thanks Rob!


Protege from Rob Fraser on Vimeo.

I took my 6 year old neighbor to the start of our new DH trail to practice. For his first time riding DH, he ripped big time.