The Atherton Project

Episode 11

Following her training injury earlier this year, Rachel is back on the bike and back on the pace as she takes on the gnarly trails of Schladming, Austria. Shes fit and focused and looking to reclaim her position as world number one in 2010. Meanwhile, brother Dan has his eyes set on a strong finish in the Schladming 4X finals. Can he end the year on a high? While Dan gets his lines down on the rebuilt 4X track, we gain an insight into the life of Animal Commencals firey photographer, Sven Martin as he hunts for the perfect shot. Its been a solid year for 2008 World Champ Gee Atherton, and with a little more luck he could well take the World Cup title next year, but for now hes focused on putting it all on the line in Schladming, and he does just that.

Life Cycles - Stance Films

Update: Apologies for those that didn't get to see the teaser while it was up. It's since been taken down and I haven't found a replacement yet. In the mean time, visit Life Cycles site and see what they've got going on.

I'll post the teaser again ASAP!

Mtbthebruce.com

I stumbled on the website mtbthebruce.com a little while ago and was pleasantly surprised to discover mountain biking has come to my old stomping grounds. With five different sites to choose from, how could we not bring bikes home for the weekend?


G and I packed up a couple rigs and headed to Port Elgin Friday night. Found a second wind and ended up staying out a little too late, and drinking a little too much. But what would Saturday be if it didn't come with a hangover? We took our hangovers to Brant Tract to ride them out.


Double Track at Brant Tract

The temperature was perfectly crispy, the trails were nice and tacky, although wet and muddy in some places. We did a nice two hour ride through fall colours and sunshine, even stopping to help out another rider with a flat. The trails were all named, extremely well marked and just challenging enough, with lots of flow. I'd feel comfortable bringing mountain bikers of any level there. My favourite part of Brant was the teeter totter at the trailhead. Thus cured of hangovers, we made merry for another festive night.

Sunday, we decided to take the bikes out again, this time to the beach at Port Elgin and a lap around town riding curbs, stairs, parking barriers and other assorted skinnies. What a great time of year: no need to worry about "training hours" or "intervals;" just spend time goofing around with your favourite people and your favourite toys.


G gets rad at the beach

Besides riding, we spent a glorious three days eating my mom's amazing cooking, nature walking at MacGregor Point Provincial Park, and visiting with family and friends. Weekends like that remind me I've got tons to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Atherton Project

Episode Ten

This week's episode follows Gee and Dan to the World Champs in Australia. With Dan's disappointment in the 4X at the World Champs the Atherton's season hangs in the balance. It's not all bad news though, with former World Champ and World Cup winner Rachel Atherton well on her way to recovery and eyeing a successful 2010 season

Back to School!

A couple weeks ago, I got tickled by the idea of returning to my mountain biking roots and turning the pedals for a University Cup Race. The idea became even more tantalizing with some cyber smacktalk between myself and fellow O-cup racers KK and Ashley. The two of them had been leading the series and with Sunday being the final race, I thought I'd throw my hat in too.

Except, while they assure me they haven't been training, they have still been racing every weekend ... whereas I haven't been on my bike since Provincials due to lack of interest and also the persistent shoulder sprain thingy (which seems to now be a-okay, btw.) Oh, and I was also staying up late, eating garbage and happily drinking some wobbly pops on weekends.

And so out-gunned, I lined up on a rare warmish and kind of sunny October day relying on residual fitness to get me over the first big hill.

And it DID! I WON THE HILL CLIMB! and then died shortly thereafter when all the snot and mucus I had in me tried to make its escape through my nose and mouth, and my lungs shrunk to the size of a sandwich bag. It is REALLY hard to breathe with that stuff hanging off your lips. I grossed out Falco (an old friend from U of T and random photo-shoots) who was kind enough to ride with me nonetheless and compliment me on smooth pedal strokes thus taking attention away from the slime stuck to my arms and legs.

I found out that throwing a race into your rest and relaxation program is ill-advised ... I haven't hurt like that in a race in a really long time. It is amazing how fast the fitness goes if you don't take care of it. Good inspiration to stay on top of winter training!

The three leaders got away, and Morgan called out a three minute split at which point I remembered that as an "alum" I wasn't getting any points for this ... so I decided to quit the suffering already! I just rode the rest for fun, which isn't hard to accomplish at Ganaraska.

The course was super tacky, not very technical, but some sections had some serious flow to them that brought me straight to my happy place. I'm super glad I went, even if I did open up an opportunity for the annual cold/flu. The results are posted for your viewing pleasure.

The rest of the afternoon we spent enjoying the University Cup BBQ, beers, fun and prizes. It was so great to see Derek and Morgan from Sweet Pete's '08. Got to see Eric again, and his lovely fiance (and their new pup, Sammie) who all took an extra-long ride in the minivan (thanks to badly placed detours!). Caught up with Falco post-race and covered a wide range of topics, most notably his two-month touring adventure to Newfoundland. And perhaps my favourite part of the day was watching KK shotgun a beer faster than a bunch of college dudes.

In closing, I'd like to thank U of T and especially Dave Wright for their dedication to the sport and in recruiting more and more riders every year. A lot of the racers in the "B" category had never rode a mountain bike until this year, let alone raced one. I was one of them, back in the day! Ganaraska was the site of my second-ever mountain bike race in 2004 and I'm so happy to have met the people I met, learned what I learned and used that knowledge to lead me where I am today: still loving the ride, and still racing my heart out. I wear my Blues jersey proudly!

The Atherton Project

Episode Eight

The Atherton clan hit up round seven of the downhill World Cup in Bromont, Canada. Mechanic Stevie gets loose on the dancefloor, while Dan stomps his way into the 4X final following a few words of wisdom from trainer Roberts. Will he survive one of the season's biggest pile ups and grab that ellusive top spot?

Episode Nine

Dan and Gee train for the World Champs in Aus, while back home Rachel's getting stronger, preparing for a full-on assault on the 2010 downhill scene.

Still Hungry!

G and I returned from the rugged terrain of Northern Ontario, reluctantly, and have now been back at it for more than a week. Someone I met this week put it great: "vacation is funny ... you get back and you think, 'uh, why was all this so important again?'"

But for the most part, the 'vacation effect' has been super duper positive. Didn't realize how I tired I was until I'd had a break from everything and got that wonderful "recharge" feeling. Ah! So that's what it feels like to be me!

However, finding an outlet for my new energy has forced me to broaden my horizons. My shoulder is still bunged up from the Mountainview crash so riding is on the back burner. My chiro tried accupuncture the other day. He said we'd plateaued in recovery and thus decided to try something more invasive. Translate: I told him I stopped doing my exercises as diligently (since there were no races to keep me honest) and he punished me by sticking needles into my shoulder. Anyway, since then I feel more tweaked than ever so that's a battle. I still ride to work, but anything longer than an hour results in a lot of advil.

That said, I have surveyed the lay of the land and there are a few items on my hit list:

First, Hardwood Hills is running a "Single Track Challenge" for the first time. It's 50km, no loops, and takes place Oct 18.

Then there's the Winter WOW, a really fun event as long as it doesn't snow. And it hasn't the past two times I've done it (but I tend to do it only every other year because on the odds I've got a bike, and the evens, it's already been sold). So that's at Mansfield, Nov 22 and guess what! There's a chili cookout afterwards.

If I'd had my act together I'd consider the Squeezer, but maybe next year. Same goes for Crank the Shield -- by all accounts an awesome second year for Ontario's only stage race. Sweet.

So that's it for me, hope everyone's well and enjoying happy trails. Fall riding is really my favourite. No stress, great colours, perfect temperatures.

I'll leave you with a few shots from "What I did on my summer vacation":

A she-wolf stands watch

Playing on bikes-with-motors, we stopped at the river to check things out

Hiking up our "mountain" and looking out over the rock race to Lake Superior