Weekend with a GDL

This past friday I flew out to Canmore for a surreal weekend with Tinker Juarez (Cannondale), Leighton Poidevin (Santa Cruz) and the rest of the crew organizng the World 24 Hour MTB Championships there in September. Getting to spend the weekend alongside a *GDL (Gosh Darn Legend) in Tinker Juarez was super rad. He is likely the best known mountain biker ever with over a 10 page resume of ripping up bike races in the past 3 decades. Pretty much the Wayne Gretzky of mountain bike racing. I was a bit nervous but did my best to bring things back into reality remembering that status and fame are just made up entity’s and that Tinker was just like I in which we both like ripping other peoples legs off in bike races. With that mindset I tried to treat Tinker as a brother as we would be spending the weekend togethar, riding bikes, racing dogsleds, answering questions in front of a packed house and enjoying the winter festivities of the Canmore IBU (International Biathlon races).

Friday night started with a solid dinner at the Bistro Market with a crew consisting of 24 hr figures and supporting members from the community. After dinner Kevin “Houda” led the partiers out to a local drinking hole while a few of us packed it in early to prepare for the busy day ahead.

The indoor training session Saturday morning was a boobie trap. 4 other riders were invited to ride with Tinker, Leighton and myself. Little did we know that Alicia, our coach at the Ascent Physical Therapy & Performance Lab, was going to turn our “training” session into a 12 km race on the virtual 1995 European XC Championship course. I tried to force gag myself to get out of it but was unable to upheave anything from my stomach in time and was soon in the middle of a 7 rider indoor sufferfest. Tinker and Leighton got out to an early lead which relieved some pressure but pretty soon 4th place rider Craig Bartlett overtook me and forced an uneccessary death star fight to the end. At the finish line I felt I had won as I didn’t pass out, but in reality Craig took 3rd place by a mere 1.5 seconds. Sorry Craig but we can no longer be friends after the punishment you dished out to me!

After that it was Hollywood time as we did some interviews and then it was down to mainstreet Canmore for a dogsled race against Tinker! This was showtime. After getting beatdown in the trainer session I was up for revengence. Actually I didn’t really care if I won or not as I was more concerned with not crashing my sled into the dogs or spectators surrounding the 300 ft course. We each had our sleds hooked up to 4 savage dogs that got uber excited when they saw the sleds and began trying to rip there trainers arms off as they were held back by there leashes. Tinker and I gave each other WTF looks as we were both nervous like a couple of kids in there first day of kindergarten. Once the marshalls said go, we held on for our lives as the pinner dogs pinned it like a herd of water buffalo being ambushed by a pride of Lions. 50 ft from the finish line we were told to jump on our brakes so the dogs wouldn’t trample over the end fence and head up to Alaska. We were both relieved to get off our sleds without any upsets.

The evening was spent at the Drake pub doing a Q&A in a packed room. Here I was given my prize for winning the dogsled race (a shot of whisky), which helped with the evening. Once things got rolling it was alot of fun as Stuart Dorland (The Organizer of The World 24 Hour MTB Championships) did a great job at directing the Q&A and the audience had alot of really good questions for us. Just as things were winding down in the evening things got wound right back up as the legend himself, Crazy Larry showed up on his bike from Banff. All of a sudden the electicity in the room went through the roof as Larry’s positive energy radiated through everyone. It was a stellar way to end a stellar weekend.

Almost..

On Sunday Leighton and I went out for a little ride with local pinners Matt Hadley (Xprezo) and Brian Cooke (Bicycle Cafe). Brian mentioned something about making the ride a memorable one before we left. It was just that as we did something neither Leighton and I had ever done on our bikes in over 40 yrs of combined riding. All I can say is that we probably would’ve been better off with our skis… Thanks for the unforgettable ride guys!

Sunday evening while I was headed back to Calgary via the Banff Airporter I couldn’t help but grin thinking of the dogfight Tinker, Leighton and myself will be in the next time we meet up in Canmore this September.

After a few days of solid training back in Victoria I’m now hopping a plane to the sunnier skies in Arizona to meet up with the rest of the Kona Team for The Kona 24hrs In the Old Pueblo. Something is trying to tell me that it is a little early to be doing such a long race but with the 24 hr Worlds coming to Canmore in just 7 months there really isn’t a better time then the present to get a jump on the competition~!

* The true acronym for GDL is rigger certified, but not certified for the use in under these circumstances…

* Thanks Mr. Gibson for the great pictures. http://www.gibsonpictures.com/

** Thanks Mr. Dorland and twenty4 sports for setting up such a rad weekend for us and looking after our flights etc… You guys treated us like royalty!