Tour, local road races and durian cup photos

I've been away for a few days swimming and enjoying the sun at Shuswap lake. But now it's back to the grind and back on the bike. Being off it for a whole five days has been good, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss it. Tonight, there should be some street sprints happening in the city, and the weekend is filled with cycling events. Tomorrow morning everybody needs to get up early and watch the tour. Then there is a race in Sidney on saturday evening: http://www.sidneytwilightgp.com/mainpage.html This Criterium should be a blast to watch especially since it is raced on a figure eight course (although not quite like figure eight car racing, thankfully the race cource will not cross itself, that would be carnage!). It is also the final race in the BC cup which should add a little bit to the excitement.
On sunday there's another crit, this time in Oak bay, (see event here) so if you want to see some road racing action this would be the weekend to do it.
I had my old age confirmed to me last Thursday (the 18th) as a took the series win in the "Masters" (read oldman) category see below:

Picture courtesy of Dave Shiskoff

Me and my fellow winners got the very fancy durian cup trophies, of course made by Dave from reused wood, dried out Durian fruit husk and some paint he had lying around. Quite the craftsman, Dave is.

Durian Cup trophy

Durian Cup, Street sprints and other fun stuff

Mitch flying through the card collecting station

Yup that's me fixing a flat (which is becoming a rather unpleasant habit)

What a great time this is, in the cycling world. Grassroots racing happening every week at Hartland (Durian Cup), and underground sprint series on the streets of Victoria. People are on bikes everywhere, the weather is awesome, and to top it all off: The Tour De France!

Last Thursday Me and Mitch made it out for the Thursday nights Durian race. This time it was a poker run set up in a bit of a different way than usually. You collected cards for each lap you did around the short race track which included Little face, Emergency two, and Rolly Ridge. Then you could stop at the card playing stop and play your hand. Now this is where it got complicated for non-card players like myself. You could play everything from one card to five depending on what you felt like...I was not very good at this and that in conjunction with my new found fondness for flat tires resulted in a mediocre placing. Both Mitch and I had a blast however, even though we agreed that we would have liked to see the top half of Little face included in the race course, to add a little gnarlyness to the racecourse.
The day after we were both feeling the pain of the previous nights escapades. -Cross country racing is a painful sport. We did not have time to recover much though, because that night we had street sprints in Esquimalt. We had a good showing from the store with me, Mitch and Justin representing...The sprints were oodles of fun as always and Mitch took it upon himself to destroy everybody else, and thus retaining his title as the reigning sprint champ. I did not escape the humiliation of Mitch's speed and got crushed by him, not once, but twice. I did however, not manage to loose to anyone else so that placed me in second, after "The Destroyer".
Justin had some epic battles as well with a three series sprint race with Paul One of which was a spandex and no shirt affair on the part of Paul, and on his insistence Justin raced shirtless as well...This was strangely entertaining. But their first race was the best, as they switched the lead at least two times and crossed the line dead even. The first draw ever. In the end Justin sadly lost out to the aerodynamics of his spandex-clad competitor, something I'm sure he will try and avenge next time around.
Tonight we have a night ride at the dump, but since we have to attend a product knowledge seminar after work, this will be later than usually and we should be at the parking lot around 8:30-9. I'm going out anyway, and I'll see if I can drag anyone with me.
This will be a true night ride though, lights mandatory!

alley cat and party...

Just a reminder, Velo Vixens' fundraiser alleycat and Variety show is on tonight. Race starts at 7 from the Camus bookstore on Quadra, next to Cafe Fantastico. Entry fee is $5. The variety show/party including performances and bike videos and whatnot's starts at 8, and is by donation. I'm sure there will be some refreshments as well.

"Today (Thursday!) is the day! Come out to Camas for our annual Velotines fundraiser. Come at 7 for the race, and 8ish for the party. Anyone can race, you don't have to be super speedy- it's more about the fun of it all. And speed isn't everything in a Velovixen race - it's more about your style...it's going to be fun... and there's a sweet lineup of performers and entertainment.
See you there!!!"

Check out the Velotines event here

This will be a nice warm-up for upcoming events and a good way to kick start the new year which will be filled with exciting cycling related events. For those of you who don't feel like racing, there is no shame in just showing up for the party, check out the bikes and the entertainment and enjoy the community of cyclists.

Also coming up tomorrow (Friday) is Rev. Will's Moonlight Mystery ride. Which is a monthly casual ride through the streets of Victoria. Meet at 10pm on Centennial Square, ride leaves at 11.