We're nearing The End of the World...

.....Cross I should say.   With all these silly exam type things at school I'd almost forgotten there was still one cross race left.  I haven't been riding much due to excessive exercising of the brain (pfff engineering), but all those cross videos I've been watching should be able to count as something, shouldn't it?

Only 4 more days till freedom!

Its stuff like this that gets me so excited to go out and ride some bikes :)

A Great Southern Party

This past weekend anyone who was has a brain headed south to my new favorite small town, Altona. For the past 6 years they have put on a great festival of biking, local sausages, and cross!  Yet again the fine folks at ABES did not disappoint. Enjoying their play structure in the morning (I can be 5 again thank you very much), race mid-afternoon, heckles all day, and a lovely post - race social.

This course always promises to be fun with so many different elements to a cross race. Lots of technical turns, sandpit, mud pit, hills, and straightaways. Perfect. The race was fast from the get go....thanks alot Oliver, still trying to get in front of you. Got a great face ful of mud. Came third overall , just inching out young Kurt in a great sprint.
                                     

Mud full of face.

What I love about cross racing is that it gives me the chance to cheer on all my friends, and heckle the other ones.n On this fine day Luc decided to show up, so  I finally had the chance to yell "Sandbager" all day. Good on ya sandbaging the open race Lukey. The A race was exciting with the some of our only beer handups were by the taken by the two leaders. Hell ya! Following the A race was the social which as alwasy promised included lots of beer, chips, and good times.

Wilma

Ollie and Jake announcing.

This race always makes it to the top of my list of favorite races.

This is how its done in the toba.

Na.




or maybe the demon rooster?

All things fall.

Beer. Cross. NIGHT RIDING. hoodies. bon fires.
oh ya and school.
I love fall.
I can't believe there are only 3 cross racez left.

After my terrible math exam last night I dragged Ari out to Birds Hill for the first time since I've come back from the Best Coast, and for my first night ride of the year (with lights I should say....one interesting trip down Sagar). With my new fancy ass light, we could see no problem, enough to take DARING new lines....hahah.  Which is quite contrary to our previous night rides, where we're guided by the stars and the moon.

Ari's awesome lights.

Na.

My favorite kitten

Hope everyones enjoying the lovely fall weather and beautiful colors.

Dark Cross!!

After such a long wait....the race I'd been waiting for was here. Time for racing at night on a speedway.  Lots of work went in to putting this event on so Thanks to everyone at FGBC, RRR, sponsors and friends That helped out! I'd say it was a success.

So I headed out to the speedway early on Saturday to help set up for the big day. Set up some tikis, supervised some beer drinking, and just enjoyed the day in general.  This year the course was a little bit different, with much more straightaways, a really sick flyover, and some other stuff.

A couple of highlights from the race:

• First time on the cross bike this year (i missed you so much Surly bebe <3>
• My fans are awesome. 
• Blinded by Camera Flash each Grandstand Run, hoping that my feet would land on each step.
• My fans are ROWDY.
• 1st Woman, 2nd OVERALL!! (i'm so stoked, maybe I'll drink less beer this season)
• Serious calf cramps.
• Great party!!

Really you all just had to be there to get the jyst of it. Words hardly do Dark Cross justice.

Banana

5 bikes, 5 days

Mind blown. What an amazing weekend of riding bikes. My words can't even begin to describe.

or maybe that photo does.

Friday : Specalized Safire
Saturday: Trek Remedy
Sunday: my road bike (boo..would have been cooler to be another mtn bike)
Monday: Trek Session 9.9 (FULL 2013 SAINT...holy shit)
Tuesday: Trek Elite 9.9 SSL (or the baby bike as i like to call it)

Friday was nothing special, just a rip on the Shore with Christine and Grant, except for the part where we "biked" Bitches Brew. Since it was Grant's birthday we headed over to the Black Bear for some post race grub.  What happened after was awesome though..Grant's car is this wicked old mercedes, and we locked all of the bikes into the car. Total bummer cause I was racing an enduro in Squamish the next morning.  Luckily Tahn Tahns was gracious enough to lend me her Trek Remedy, which in turn was a better bike than the Safire.

So early Saturday morning I raced up to Squamish with a bike I had never ridden before. This weekends race was different than any other that I've done thus far this season. The event was: Hot on Your Heels Classic. A women's only enduro (and for you non mountain folk an enduro is a downhill race with several different timed stages), my first "downhill" oriented race. There were so many women on gnarly bikes standing around in the parking lot it was just so RAD. All of the volunteers were men (mandatory lack of clothing as well). Along the route there were a couple of "aid" stations.
The first one was pretty legit with watermelon and bananas. The second was gummie bears and palm bay. The trails : Angry Midget, Fools Gold, Hoods in the Woods, all really great (but lets be serious everything in Squamish in so amazing)  Unfourtunatly I couldn't attented the post race party, but I'm sure that was quite rowdy.  An amazing event put on by SORCA. I ended up 5th (for the 2 downhill timed sections) after crashing a couple of times...so me.

Sunday: road ride....borrrrrring.

Monday, Mario, Cam, Christine, and I all headed up to Whistler to shred the park.  This would be my first time ever on a downhill bike (after three years of living in the mountains it is a superme fail that it took so long).  So i rented.  Going into renting I thought for sure it would be some shitty shit shit. But no I showed up to the park early (no way was I not riding on this day) to my surprise they have one of the pimpest bikes i could dream of: Trek Session 9.9 carbon. Topped of with 2013 saint.
Now how does one of these bikes end up in a rental fleet? I don't know. Don't question it.

Whistler Bike park: SO. MUCH. FUCKING. FUN. if you can go. GOOOOOO GOD DAMMIT.  At first it was hard. There's so many jumps and before Monday I had been afraid to get any air, but on a bike with 8 inches of travel its not so scary.  We rode so many trails and hit so much gnar.  And it was so simple..the bike made everything easy.  Nearing the end of the day my forearms were getting so sensitive that even the slightest bump (from the tiniest rock or stupid brake bumps) would give me so much pain.  I had to end the day. Fortunately for me it just started to thunder, closing the lifts, and effectively ending the day.
On my way back home I made a small pit stop to hang out with Fraser and Grant. I expirenced my first shuttle run (ish..i was the driver) Just driving the truck on the sketchiest road was fun enough since I could no longer bike on this day.

Tuesday I made full 360 degree circle back to my baby bike.  After just being touched up by Rob Mulder again (such a great guy..Roberts Composites) I got the bebe on the road trails again. I rode with Tahnee for the first time, we just did a couple lap of Frommage bobsled.  It felt so good to be on my bike, especially the bebe bike.  Almost anyone who sees me ride it on the shore is completely astonished.  What really made this ride though was a thunderstorm.  It was bright and loud, and raining just enough and since we were in the forest I wasn't too worried about getting struck. The experience felt so surreal.


I know..your all jealous.
Anna Banana.