Sometimes, going easy is the hardest thing to do.

My friend Étienne has been trying to convince me to do a BC Randonneurs event for a while now and I'd always been able to find one excuse or another to get out of it, but it finally happened. All in all, it was a pretty gentle introduction to brevets with a (mostly) flat course starting in Coquitlam and ending at Red Truck Brewing in Vancouver. The route was exceptionally well supported by volunteers with food and liquid (chocolate milk!), although we did have to make an "emergency" 7-11 stop for water, Coke, and Sour Patch Kids to get us through to the next control.

The ride was challenging, but not in the ways that I was expecting. At 200km (plus some bonus distance because all of us sucked at cue-sheet based navigation), it would end up being the longest single ride I've ever done. Our group of eight stuck together for most of the day and were content to roll at a relaxed, but steady pace. Part of the challenge was the record-setting heat wave over the weekend, but the bigger challenge re-configuring myself mentally. Throughout the day, various members of our group reminded the rest of us to keep things at a "sustainable pace." With my longest previous ride topping out at around 160km and my regular weekend rides usually hovering around 100km, it was difficult to judge exactly what sustainable meant. The route was mercifully flat with the exception of a few overpasses and short-but-steep hill, but it was still a difficult mental adjustment to resign myself to what seemed like an eternity in the saddle.

Final stats:
210.3km
24.8km/h avg. speed.
8h28m moving time.
11h15m elapsed time.
111W normalized power.

All in all, not an unpleasant day on the bike. Awesome company, well-supported route, interesting scenery, and a sense of accomplishment for challenging myself to something new. Étienne is already bugging me to do a 300 or to push a faster pace on another 200, but that's going to have to wait until next year. While cleaning the bike, I discovered a crack at one of the spoke holes of my rear Pacenti SL23 rim, a well-known issue. I thought that I was going to be able to escape this fate, but this combined with the impending 'cross season means that I'm calling it the end of my road season and relegating the Naked to indoor trainer duty until I can be bothered to source a replacement rim over the winter.

This one goes to 11.

Every once in a while, I get to haul my butt out of bed while it's still dark, load up the car, and head off into the unknown on an adventure that will, more likely than not, involve questionable decision making. Sadly, the relative lack of entries on this blog this summer can attest to, the lower frequency of these adventures compared to seasons past. In my desperation to enjoy what's left of summer, I was eager to latch onto any adventure, no matter how ill-conceived.

Enter Grungefundo. The full route runs 140km from Squamish to Whistler on the Sea to Sky Trail with somewhere between somewhere around 1900m of vertical. With the ongoing forest fires ravaging BC and the resultant smoke being blown down into the Lower Mainland, a bunch of us opted for the "mudio" route, or about half the distance of the full starting from Chance Creek.

With full bottles AND hydration packs, six of us set off through a mix of double-track forest service road, gravel and loam singletrack, and some disgustingly steep and twisty switchback climbing with the plan to meet the full grunge riders in Whistler for lunch before turning around and doubling back. The combination of the heat and the smog made things more challenging than they normally would be, but not as much as we had all feared. I think most of us would agree that we arrived in Whistler feeling the effort, but were not completely cracked. Yet.

After being saved by Coca-Cola and pickles (among other foods) and refilling all of our assorted liquid-carrying vessels, we turned around as one large group. The grunge riders led the way back down the Sea to Sky highway before departing at the head of the trail section to hammer their way back. We decided to keep things decidedly less spicy. Quite by accident, we discovered a section of trail that we had missed in the morning when we opted to take the paved option (aka, missing a trail sign). Even though we were bummed that didn't get to shred it twice, our little discovery and the resultant adrenaline from the mostly downhill section was a nice little pick-me-up for everyone and made the return trip feel a lot less grind-y.

Overall, I think the greatest challenge was having to run a high enough pressure to avoid pinch flatting on all of the rocky sections. Personally, I was aired up to 40psi front and 50psi in the rear. The good news is that nobody from either group flatted (apparently a first in fundo history), but the downside was some less-than-ideal handling on what was mostly loose-over-hard terrain, but it made for some exhilarating moments.

In summary, this was ride where everything goes to 11: the company, the scenery, the trails, and the air quality advisory.

Oregon Gravel Epic Fail

The gloomiest/wettest/coldest spring in my four years in the PNW continues. Although it's been a week since the trip down to Oregon with some fantastically sunny/dry/warm-ish days in between, I'm currently sitting here listening to the sound of raindrops pattering against my living room window while I type this. 

I'll warn you now that there aren't that many photos of the ride itself. Constant driving rain has a way of encouraging me to keep my camera safely stowed away, especially when the roads are loose and bumpy. The Oregon Gravel Epic has been on the plans for the better part of a year and was meant to be one of the highlight rides of this season. With that in mind, you'd think that somebody that plans as meticulously as I do and has as much clothing for various conditions would be prepared for pretty much anything Mother Nature threw at us, but we'd both be mistaken. I was a victim of my own over-confidence in the forecast for shorts weather. Don't be like me; pack EVERYTHING.

ALL. THE. CLOTHES.

We woke up on Saturday morning to strong coastal winds, and though it was overcast and dry. That lasted for all of about 30 minutes or so because as soon as we left paved roads and hit the first dirt section, the sky sprung a leak and continued to empty itself for the entire morning. Long story short, Alex and I bailed out at the first aid station and took the option to do the short course instead of the full monty. When the organizer tells you that first aid will be at least an hour away if things go sideways and you're soaked to the bone with not enough foul weather gear, common sense and self-preservation should probably triumph over ego. It's a shame because despite the wet spring hampering my ability to get regular training in, my body felt fine and wouldn't have struggled with the terrain or ride profile at all. I had a handlebar bag full of om nom nom and with three total aid stations, it wouldn't have been a problem keeping up with caloric intake. There's always next year.

The good news is that we had plenty of fun off the bike hanging out with Alex's college roommate and his family and running into the usual spots in Portland. One of the highlights was Alex running into a former riding buddy who knows the owner of VeloCult and getting to venture down into the basement. If you've been there and seen the stuff that's hanging in the rafters on the main level, just imagine the cool shit that's packed away downstairs.

Year in review

The continued cold spell and the dangerously icy roads in the city have been keeping me inside lately, so there hasn't been much going on to document. I doubt you want to see the puddles of sweat under my rollers, even if I made it all artistic and ran it through ALL THE FILTERS.

Instead, I've spent the last week or so reviewing the archives from 2016 as I needed to pull some shots out for another project. I had toyed with the idea of creating a print calendar for fundraising but didn't get my act together in time to pull it off. I'd still like to create something physical and tangible this year, so that may take the form of a 'zine or a run of prints. 

Anyway, while reviewing, I thought it'd be interesting to look back at the year that was and pull the best from each month. Clicking on images will open them in a light box, which may be useful for fitting the larger portrait orientation shots on screen without having to scroll...

January 28. The weather at this point last year couldn't be more different. I was regularly able to go and do efforts up Cypress. It was really peaceful being able to get up there, dim my lights on the way up and ride by the glow of moonlight and the light polution from the city.

February 8. The snow did accumulate at the summit, but it was still completely rideable.

March 7. Looking at this, I can only reminisce about how nice it was before the traffic control measures put in place for the Burrard Bridge update. Looking forward to its completion, whenever that is... 

April 3. Gorge Gravel Grinder in the Dalles, OR. This was the first big event of my season with the usual gravel grinding crew. I love this one because it captures one of those quiet moments that's an integral part of any ride, race, or event, but is so often overlooked in the rush to get out there.

May 22. Gran Fondo Leavenworth, WA. I remember having to go pretty deep into the red to make it up the climb in order to get the shot of Calvin coming around that bend. It was also a nice reminder to slow down and look up from the Garmin every now and then; you never know what you could be missing.

June 20. Technically, I took delivery of my Naked steel racer back in April, but it took a few months to collect the small parts I wanted to finalize the build. This shot captures the combination of stainless steel, turquoise, and burple flake when the sun hits the frame juuuuuust right.

July 29. There was a lot going on this month including Superweek, one of my annual rides up Mount Baker, and just generally awesome weather for being outside, but there was no doubt that July's pick would come from my trip down the Oregon coast with Tobin. 

August 29. A non-cycling photo had to make it in at some point. This one took some planning in terms of figuring out the exact time of day where everything literally lined up and finding a friend willing to stand in as a model, but this one will go down as one of my favourites of all time.

September 3. I did a double take as I was riding past Park Royale and had to turn around to get this. It triggered the aesthetic sense that had been buried pretty deep for a while and was a nice reminder that I used to be able "see" this kind of thing all the time. The proof is in this secret gallery. Sometimes I wonder whether I should put the links to my non-cycling related portfolio back up for public viewing.

October 29. This month was the low point of my year; I had been sidelined from most of the CX season by injury or illness and when I taco'd my front wheel and jacked up my knee at Valley Cross, I decided to just throw in the towel and try again next year. I'd been feeling pretty sorry for myself, but this sunset made some progress towards turning things around. The fried chicken I had right afterwards helped too.

November 12. With racing out of the way, I was able to focus on shooting at events instead of splitting my attention. Portraits have always been high on the list of styles I enjoy and this one ticks almost all of the boxes I look for: interesting textures, nice diffuse lighting, good "colouration" in the iris, and overalll suitable for a monochrome conversion. I usually prefer shooting candid portraits, but this one sums up Sven so well, despite the direct look into the camera.

December 4. I've already written about SSCXWCPDX16, but back to portraits: one of the reasons I love them so much is their ability to convey stories and emotion. This one serves as an apt representation of the community of friends I've been able to build through this sport since moving to Vancouver a few years ago. To each of you: thank you for continuing to be there to support me and what I do, in all the various ways that you've shown it.

'Tis the season.

The off-season, that is. Aside from twice-weekly jaunts down to the climbing gym, I've been doing a self-imposed boycott on "serious" bike rides since my last race in November. The polar vortex certainly isn't helping the motivation factor at all, but it's been refreshing not worrying about putting fenders back on, remembering to charge my lights, or worrying about sketchy drivers and/or black ice while doing monotonous park laps after dark. I was all set on staying off my bike until the new year, but knew I had to come out of hibernation, if only temporarily, for the second annual CXmas50.

The event is hosted by Joe and Christine up in Lynn Valley where access to a spectacular trail network is literally at their doorstep. The big question was what conditions were going to be like up in the forest given the snow and freezing weather that's blanketed Vancouver for the past week. The day's forecast called for a cold, dry, sunny afternoon, which was a (possibly) welcome departure from Last year's ride where everybody got soaked by continuous rain and then subsequently froze on the way back. The city of North Vancouver had also decided to close a good chunk of the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve trails due to downed trees, so we knew we were going to have a shorter ride for this year. No problem; it just meant more time for admiring the sun streaming through the frost-covered forest and whiskey drinkin'.

Trail conditions weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. The gravel sections contained of a lot of icy sections, but as long as you kept turning over a steady gear without any sudden accelerations or abrupt changes in direction, you were able to keep things rubber side down. Richard Juryn and Circuit 8 trails were a bit more challenging due to the crusty-topped snowpack that had been pockmarked by hikers' footprints and more ice. The challenge was to find a tire pressure low enough to afford some tractions without getting low enough to pinch flat or roll your tire when things inevitably got a little sideways. When all else failed, you simply got off your bike and pushed/carried it until you could find a spot to get back on and try again.

In the end, I was probably over-dressed for the occasion:
- bib shorts with windblock tights over top
- Craft Active Extreme baselayer (best damn cool/cold weather base I've ever tried)
- Thermo-roubaix long sleeve jersey
- Puffy down vest
- Arc'teryx Beta AR Gore Pro Shell jacket for the layering room
- Black Diamond ski gloves
- Smartwool ski socks with toe warmers adhered underneath
- Giro VR90s with Endura MT500 neoprene booties over top
- Merino neck buff and cap

My body tends to run on the cold side and based on last year's ride, we'd spend plenty of time standing around shooting the shit and swigging out of hip flasks so I wanted to make sure I wouldn't get chilled when we stopped. The puffy vest overkill given the dry conditions, but I ran with my pit-zips open for most of the day and was able to regulate well enough. The biggest problem was with the gloves: while they kept my hands plenty warm, they were too bulky, resulting in some forearm cramps as I struggled to find the least awkward grip on the levers while getting rattled over the lumpy terrain.

In summary, an excellent day of bad decision making amongst good friends, fuelled by alcohol and peer pressure. A huge thanks for Joe and Chris for opening up their home and being the gracious hosts that they are.

Only 364 days until we get to do this again.

Bad decisions abound. . #cxmas50 #crossruinseverythingaroundme #blameroni #fringesports

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