Green is the perfect word for Vermont. Everywhere my eye wanders I see green grass. This was definitely the word of the day at the Catamount Outdoor Center. Green grass. A fast grassy course. Dry as a bone. Loved the race today. Great venue. Challenging course. Lots of people out cheering. Well organized. Bumped into lots of old friends and made some new ones.

Can’t really beat this for a Saturday. And to top it off I got to watch Marc race his bike and then I got to race. Smooth. Marc and Steve were up first racing in the elite Masters field. They both suffered some crashes which set them both back but I’d have to say they put on some pretty good shows. Riding through the field to finish off in with solid results. Great riding guys. As usual, an inspiration for me. Robbie O put down a super awesome race in the 45 plus elite Masters race and finished off 4th. Way to go Rob! Josee also raced this morning with the 3/4 women and she had a most excellent ride. Way to go Josee!

All in all a most excellent day at the races. I had a decent day on the bike. Check out the race report.

Just chilling out here and relaxing. Catching up with the goings on out there in ‘cross racing land. Convincing Shane to race cyclo-cross. Think it is going to happen! Talk has switched to all out ‘cross and biking in general. Got to say it is super awesome to be hanging out a house instead of a hotel. So much more room to spread out. Nice to have other people to talk to and hang out with. Also extra bonus is having a big kitchen and just room to be. Looking forward to another excellent day tomorrow. Weather is calling for rain but I don’t believe it. I fully believe it will be dry. Okay, I’m out. Thanks for all the cheering and support out on the course. See you tomorrow!

Oh, I really really like Vermont. So beautiful. So much green. Mountains. Fresh cool air. Nice.

We had a pretty easy drive down. We went through Cornwall to avoid the Montreal rush hour chaos. Worked perfectly. Cool part of the drive was the ferry. We took a ferry from N.Y. state to Vermont. Nice. A mere $9 and a 12 minute ferry ride. Actually very relaxing.

Got to Catamount and we squeezed in a few laps before darkness descended. The course was all set out so we were able to check it out. Grass is the word of the day. Flowy course. Some long steady climbs. Fast tight little descent. A run-up/ride with logs. A fast descent down and around the barn. I really like the course. Challenging. But there are places to catch your breath.

We caught up with the Ottawa cyclo-cross crowd and with our pals from Mass. Great way to kick off the weekend. Now we’re settled in with Skip’s family. So super awesome to be staying in a house rather than a hotel. Thanks Jen and Shane for the hospitality! We’ve just kind of taken over the basement with our bikes. Shane did a little wrenching on my bike and fixed up my rear derailleur! The boys are off at the grocery store – time will tell if they actually buy what they are supposed to!

Well, I’m going to sign off. I’ll post up a race report tomorrow and of course a story about the day. Looking forward to a fun day of racing, cheering, and hanging out with friends.

Well, the Vermont race weekend is here. This is this first series of races in the New England Verge Series. The New England Verge Series is one of the best (if not top) cyclo-cross race series in North America. Deep fields in every category. Well organized. A strong mix of courses and venues. Experienced promoters. And extra bonus – getting to travel to New England. I’d have to say that is thanks to the New England Verge Series that I’ve discovered some real gems of towns and cities in New England. Could definitely move to Vermont or Massachusetts. And well, Rhode Island – I’ve been a fan of this little state ever since I wrote a report on Rhode Island for my grade five social studies class.

Hmm, seem to have digressed there. Sorry – must be the caffeine in my tea talking! Yep, so hopping in the car soon to drive down to Williston, VT for a weekend of racing at Catamount. Luckily for us we are able to skip the hotel process this weekend and are bunking down with Skip of Kingsbridge and his extended family. Nice change not having to cram ourselves into a little hotel room. Thanks guys for the hospitality!

So maybe you are wondering what goes into preparing for these weekend escapes to cyclo-cross country? Here is a small glimpse into what we do to get ready:
– clean and pack bikes (four bikes) into car
– clean and pack wheels (six to eight pairs of wheels) into car
– pack race bag (wonder if it will rain, snow, sleet or be so hot we will be melting)
– pack street clothes (decided to forgo extra pair of pants in an effort to save space)
– prepare food (made an uber-chili, cooked up brown rice, made salad, prepared pre-race meals of oatmeal, prepared post-race meal of couscous with egg, whipped up baggies of trail mix, breakfast cereals, and car snack food)
– wash and pack up the bottles
– find someone to look after Mr. Murphy for us
– general last-minute tidying of the house
– gather together miscellaneous stuff like bike tools, folding chairs, iPods, iPhones, GPS

Finally, cram all this stuff into our car and then hit the road. More or less on time. Drive. Arrive. Stretch out the kinks in the legs on the course. Crash in a hotel or host housing. Eat. Get race bags ready and finally hit the sack for the night.

That’s it. Sounds like a lot. But after a few weekends of this, we have things down to a pretty good science. The first weekend is always a shock to the system. Amazing how quickly the brain forgets how much stuff we need to take with us to a ‘cross race weekend. It is all part of the experience.

So with that, I’m signing off. It is still kind of early in the morning and I have a few things to do still. Besides I want to hit the big bookstore to pick up some reading material for my trips next week. As for preparing for a double trip to Italy followed by a week in Edmonton? Uh, not sure yet. I’m leaving on Wednesday. Guess I’ll know on Tuesday what goes into prepping for such a long and mostly solo trip!

It all starts tomorrow night (Wednesday). The Ride with Rendall ‘cross clinics are starting again for the season. These clinics are excellent sessions for you to get out and learn new skills and refine existing skills.

These clinics are open to all skill levels. Anyone can attend – you do not need to be a member of Ride with Rendall to attend.

I attended a number of these clinics last year – learned a lot and had fun just hanging out with other people.

Here are the details:

– 10 weeks of clinics
– the first 3 weeks will take place on Wednesday nights at 5:30pm in the park at Carling and Champagne (Across from Rogers store).
– registration forms to fill out, and all riders will need a UCI licence, Citizen Permit, or else you will need to purchase of a one day licence.
– a nominal fee of $10 for the season.

Ah the good ‘ol second day of racing on the cyclo-cross double-header weekend. Somehow the Sunday morning comes so much more quickly on the second race day. Funny how that is. I suppose staying up a bit later on the Saturday night to do things like surf the WWW and catch up with the other race action going on doesn’t help! Plus there is the post-race racing brain to deal with. Don’t know about you but sometimes after a race I tend to race the race over and over again in my head. I tell myself this is a good thing – an indicator that I’m working on learning from the day’s race…

Anyway, on to Sunday. We made our way to beautiful Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, Maryland for some more cyclo-cross racing action. Wow – what a park. Massive, complete with a conservatory, botanical gardens, zoo, amazing green spaces and so much more that I didn’t even glimpse. I’m always impressed with the places we get to race our cyclo-cross bikes.

We found a decent spot for the massive Yukon. (Oh I’d love to own a Yukon – so comfy to travel in and pretty darn handy for ‘cross racing.) At least we thought we had a decent spot. Seems there are a lot of acorn trees in Druid Hill Park… No sooner do we pop open the back of the truck and start unloading do we here “bang” “bang” and stuff is falling all around us. What the heck?

Yes, the sky was falling. Acorns! Duck. Run for cover. I can tell you those little suckers hurt. Now I know how Chicken Little felt. Oh well, better to get drilled in the head by a few pesky acorns than to nail my head on a tree again!

I’ve written a full race report. Go check it out for all the racing action details. I do have to say that Marc had an awesome race today. He started way back in the field and rode his way through so many guys to finish in 6th place. I was so stoked to see him ride like that. He just kept on digging extra deep and making moves to get around guys. Inspiring.

The day was pretty good. Lots of fun racing action. Catching up with friends from over the years and chatting with people we met on Saturday. The atmosphere was pretty cool at Charm City. Lots of families out enjoying the day with kids playing in the play structure and their moms and dads cheering on friends and family. There were fans all over the course – by the sand, at the massive cement barricades, on the stair run-up and on the various climbs. Oh, and the barbecue. I’ve never seen a barbecue like this before! The meat that these people were cooking up looked and smelled amazing. The line-up went on forever. During the race I could get a whiff of the barbecue as I raced on by.

The drive home was long but pretty much uneventful. One minor detour (thanks to me in Pennsylvania) but other than that we made good time. We elected to just eat as we drove so I packed up a bunch of sandwiches, fruit, veggies, and trail mix for us (with a few cans of coke thrown in for good measure plus two stops at Sbucks for me).

A most excellent weekend of racing. Many highlights to take away from both races. Great to get in some early races to test out the form and the brain. Even better to hook up with our ‘cross racing friends. Extra bonus of meeting some new people. I will definitely make the trip down again next year to race at Nittany Lions and Charm City – two excellent race courses – with solid promoters, well organized, two different and challenging courses and smooth ‘cross vibes on both days.

Next up are the first races in the New England Verge Series in Catamount. Looking forward to these races. Extra plus is being in Burlington. I’ve already got my stomach set on a trip to Moe’s after the race on Sunday. And my wallet is primed for a stop at EMS and Barnes and Noble for a little browsing/shopping! Good times ahead. Super fortunate to be doing this.