Of Bikes, Blogs, and Sleeping in Airports

Still in Vancouver. Still in the Airport. Still have wifi. If Tim Horton's stays open all night, I may never have to leave.

After not really sleeping, except on the flight, in pushing 40hrs my brain doesn't have much left in it except blogging. If racing makes me this cracked out, I might be able to pull a Kerouac every night and have half a dozen books written by the 4th. We'll also finish dead last.

Speaking of dead last, did anyone see the start list of this thing? It's a veritable who's who of elite MTB racing. I'm the last guy on earth to engage on character worship, and even I recognized all these peeps:

• Seamus McGrath / Chris Sheppard (see, even MTBers dope!)
• Alison Sydor / Lea Davidson
• Catherine Pendrew / Katerina Nash
• Ryan Trebon / Georgia Gould
• Chris Eatough (<--!!!!!!!!) / Jeff Schalk
• Barry Wicks / Kris Sneddon
• Andreas Hestler

yeah, and then there's these guys.

If we don't get beat by more girls than the Teams of 4 field has entries, I'll be a happy camper--well that and if we don't have any serious mechanicals.

While most people like to adhere to the rule "don't change anything before a big race". We dared to be different earlier this week and went back to the wrenching-board to work out the final bugs. I finally put on the big and 32t middle rings I've been avoiding all year because of the NE terrain and the $225 replacement cost if I want to replace it with another XTR when it wears out. I also shoehorned in a second bottle cage with zip ties and electrical tape and trimmed the shift levers down so I could trim another 1/4" off the bars per side, leaving this final product:




Eric didn't escape the rule-breaking either, as the application of age-defying lotion by the gallon continues to obscure all the Yeti's wrinkles--like this one, that we drilled out to keep it from spreading:



then there's the frankensaddle:



and frankenshim:



We also replaced the RaceFace 22t chainring and SRAM 970 cassette with their Shimano XT counterparts and readjusted the rear derailleur cage spring in an effort to keep the drivetrain from skipping under power on rough terrain (we also switched out his back wheel for one of my training wheels that was decidedly less beat up). Don't know if our fixes helped yet (that's how down to the wire it was), but at least it's sexy lookin':



And finally, the most rediculous bottle cage setup ever. I can't believe I let this happen, but it'll probably work (zip ties have since been done neatly). Why do they put braze-ons under the down tube anyway? useless:



and the full monty:


THE PLAN:

Now that we're (almost) up here and settled, we're hoping to get a big ride in tomorrow and preview some of the first stage or two, work the kinks out, etc. then it's two days of easy spinning and enjoying the city until go time.

Newly equipped with a Casio exilim EX-FS10, there should be some worthwhile photo evidence of our race vacation between now and Sunday. After that I'll probably pack the camera, but uploading opportunities could be limited until the end of race week. Meanwhile, results will be posted on the BC Bike Race site, and probably also in the other major online cycling rags.

exciting, eh?