Recent Cycling

First MTB race of the year at birds hill park.

Finished middle of the pack.

It hurt my legs.

I need to spend some time on the MTB bike.

A monkey does ride the bike, but not this one.

Apparently sippy cups fit pretty well into water bottle holders.

Gratuitous artsy shot.

Benefits of having some 'extra time'

Well well, I've rejoined the ranks of the unemployed thanks to ~1/2 of the workforce at work getting laid off (just over 350 people). Upside, is that I've been able to get some really nice rides in lately.

The weather has been terrific (no need for extra layers or arm warmers). Saturday I went with some guys from the shop out to Darlingford to do some hill repeats (hill repeats are when you ride up and down the same hills to get a good workout in a short amount of time). It was good and hard. We passed this sign on the way to the valley we would be going into, then out of, then into, then out of, then into, then out of... how many is that? Either way, did 6 climbs that day over 65km

Sebastian(left) and Marion (coach):

Dr. T with a good suffer face going on:

Panoramic shot stitched together with Photoshop:

and last but not least.

Sebastian eating a banana:

what a great picture.

Then Monday, I hit Birds hill park for a few laps. Tuesday I rode up past Selkirk for another 80km. I got a cramp on the way back, and was having troubles holding on, gotta drink more fluids.

St. Adolphe... almost.

We've been having a little warmer than usual spring here in Manitoba, so the roads are clearing up quicker than normal. Nearly all the snow is gone. Yesterday was a nice, sunny +8 degrees Celsius out, so I took advantage of that and went for a ride south to go see how the roads were out to St. Adolphe. This is a very popular route, and one that I often head out on, it's a nice 30k ride if you leave from the perimeter highway, but can be stretched to 50k if I leave from home and add a little loop just past the town of St. Adolphe.

One reason why I wanted to head out that way was it follows the Red River, which is very high this time of year (not as high as last year when the roads were flooded out). As I came up to the turn to go over the river, I saw a barricade. So naturally I went through it and rode the very loose, and very rough gravel road up to the bridge.

I had to get off and walk a couple sections, so I took a couple more photo ops.

You can start to see the water level and ice on the river.

The geese are coming in already, and there was a herd of deer out in the field too.

And this is why this post it titled 'St. Adolphe... almost"

Last year the bridge was found to be unsafe to drive on as one of the support pillars had shifted.

I remember riding over it a couple days before it was discovered and thought the gaps in the expansion joints looked different than usual. I did forget about it by the time I got back home though. Hopefully the bridge is fixed soon as the residents have to drive a long ways out of their way to get over the river now.

Riding with Abby

It was quite a nice day out, so naturally I wanted to get outside for a bit (even though I'm a little under the weather lately). As I pulled up to the house Abby, Natalie and their mom had been out drawing on the sidewalk (and tree stump) with some chalk. I had mentioned earlier in the day I had hoped to go for a bit of a bike ride when I got home. Turns out Abby wanted to go too. So I got the trailer all set up, got our helmets out, and went for a ride. Abby had a little snack (some gummy bears) to keep her occupied during the ride (~1/2 and hour or so... I think).

She must have had a long day, because when I pulled into the driveway, and opened the cover on the trailer, this was what I found.

It was a nice relaxing ride through a couple of neighborhoods. Maybe next time we'll take Jess and Natalie too.