Panama

Well La ruta 2007 has concluded for this yr so I hit the road and biked down to puerto viejo costa rica to relax for a few days. Found a hostal, rocking J´s, which had 50 tents set up in a barn type structure and another 80 hammocks in another barn along the ocean. Pretty wicked. Spent 5 days there, surfing and eating then hopped on the bike and pedalled down to borcas del torroa island, panama. The biggest difference I notice between canada and panama is that they have banana crossings down here instead of moose crossings. Yah for real, no lie, it scared me at first to see bananas crossing the highway but I guesse its common. My first impression of panama is that its people are mischievous alot like mexicans but at the same time pretty good people. There are also alot of americans down here investing in cheap land. The biking is pretty good, few cars on the highways, although the monkeys have started throughing things at me out of the trees and some crazy sounds come out of the jungle, something like a sasquatch slash rutting elk cross. Food is cheap, i eat bananas. They are all over the road. I ate 14 of them during a 4 hr ride. I am now swinging across pànama on vines. Well I got bananas to eat so until next time.....

La Ruta La Finito

The fourth and final day of la ruta had a net elevation loss of 1500 m and a 70 km flat section to end the stage. pretty easy right. haha hahha ahh, nope. pretty hard. to start the day we road up a 6 km climb in which i was sitting around 20th near the top. after the first decent i made it into a paceline with 3 other riders (andreas hestler, jason sager, a tico). riding with other riders was key for the day as most the day was on flat gravel roads in which drafting helps alot. after an hour or two of riding in the paceline we hit a railroad track which we had to bike on for 12 km, hiking across trestles with rivers and crocodiles 50 ft below us. pretty sketchy. coming onto the first trestle, the rider ahead of me had a tie break loose from below him, luckily his ass hit the tie behind him, while is feet dangled in the air. we all got scared and quit the race. haha. nope. we actually kept going but i didnt go as fast and got left behind. for the next 25 km i chased hard as the 3 riders ahead of me kept catching up to other riders and soon they had a paceline of 6 riders. the highlight of the day was watching the wheel vehicle that was following the 6 riders ahead of me gettting swept downstream at one of the many river crossings of the day. i got to watch as the water came up to his doors and slowly drifted the crazy tico downstream. lucky for him he got wedged up on a sandbar and was able to back up and reroute to a bridge like the rest of the vehicles. seeing this entertainment put a smile on my face and a bit of extra juice in my legs and soon after this i was able to latch onto the paceline which had 7th-12th place in it and cruise with them for a good hr before coming to the second railroad section of the day. this time on one of the trestle bridges we came across the lead motorbike which had driven straight into a 3 ft gap were one of the ties was missing. 4 ticos were trying to pull his wedged bike out of the hole while the rider looked pretty stunned sitting beside the tracks. unfortunately none of us saw the crash but rumuor has it that it could challange for TSN highlight of the night. right after this i lost contact with the paceline as my bodywent offline an had to put pretty much all my power in making the bike go straight as i was getting dazed, my muscles were scraping whatever fuel was left for them and my mind was on the caribean beach beside us. After riding another 15 km on the tracks we got rerouted into the bush were were biked through countless washouts in the road, some which were 3 ft deep and our bikes were up the the top of the tires in water. with 15 km to go my body came back online and i was able to catch one tico before the finish as I rode in for an 11th place for the day which gave me a 13th overall gc for the 4 days. the finishline was on playa bonita beach, 50 ft from the ocean where i did the only thing i could think of and hopped off my bike and dove straight into the first wave a saw. the greatest finish to a race ever. period.

For the next 5 hours a bunch of us sat around, mowing down the food and watching other riders crawl across the line. I must say that as hard as this race is, it must be 5 times harder for the slower riders that take 10 hrs to finish the stages as they donèt get a chance to relax or eat food all afternoon like some of us. instead they finish at dark, get clean, get one meal in them and then bed before waking up at 4am for the next stage. From what i saw this isènt only the toughest mtn bike race in the world but it is also probably the one with the greatest diversity as we road across every kind of terrain which costa rica could possibly offer us. For anyone interested in an adventure they should check this race out!

La Ruta Days 2 & 3

Day two began with a small 3 km climb to warm the riders legs up for the 3600 m of climbing, 75 km stage 2. Throughout the day riders rode up on ridges above the sweet costa rican landscape and through small villages were the school kids went crazy. To end the day the organizers put us down a 4 km mud shoot singletrack which was nearly the end of a couple riders. Half way down the decent I slid out on a side hill and fell face first about 1 ft from a 25 ft drop into a gully which was hidden by the dense jungle. Later on in the day another rider wasn´t so lucky and tumbled head first into the drainage. Somehow unhurt, the american rider spent the next 20 minutes or so trying to find a way back onto the trail. After stage 1 this a breeze although my day started with a flat 3 km in which a nail pierced my rear tire. Spending the next 10 minutes fixing the hole, i soon found myself at the complete back of the 550 rider pack. After passing a couple hundred riders, i flatted again, this time having better luck fixing it and then spending the next 4 hours riding my way through the field to finish in 28th.

Stage 3 was a 35 km climb up a volcano before a 30 km decent down the back side. Coming to the top of the climb in 19th i hit the dh which was full of softball size rocks and 1 ft deep mud which proved to scare the living sh*t out of most riders. Canadians have been well known to dominate this dh in the pastt and i figured i better let my breaks go for a while and pretty soon i had blown by 8 riders in less then the first 5 km. Feeling pretty good about myself i soon came around a bend to find 3 cows in the middle of the trail. Pretty sure that the cow would win in a head on collision i head for a mud slide beside the path and somehwat controlably bailed. Now pretty scared sh*tless myself i decided i better slow it down a notch before i became implanted in the next cow. For the next 1 hr i decened solo down to the finish for an 11th place. The highlight of the day came with the chance to pose with the two Clarita water girls and the finish line for a sponsor shoot. Tommorow is the final day of this yrs La Ruta, a 120km coast down to the caribean ocean.

La Ruta de Suffer

Arriving in san jose costa rica monday afternoon i managed to catch a ride 2 hrs to the small town of Jaco, the start of the 4 day, 360 km, 13 000 m of climbing, La Ruta de Conquistator mtb race. On tuesday I met up with some other riders from alberta and pre rode the first 10 kn of the course..... wow did i ever feel magnificent in the 30 degree, 100 percent humidity. a bit of a change from work last week hiking around in a foot and a half of snow chasing around pine beetles in northern bc. Nonethless the start of the real suffering was less then 24 hrs away so we did the best we could to get some sleep before the 3am arrising and 5 am start today.

4:50 am, the organizers put on a huge firework show before firing the gun and sending the 600 racers from 30 countries into the dawn of another costa rican day. The first 5 km was great, flat, fast gravel and then the suffering began with the first 1000 m climb of the day. This was just a warmup for the 3 900 m of climbing of the day, some on hike a bike donkey paths and not to mention the dozen or so large creek crossings. After crashing hard early on in the race I managed to get in a a decent rythym and passed a few riders before riding solo for the last 3:30 hrs of the day without ever seeing another rider. Between the 4 feed zones I drank 11 bottles of water on the day and probably consumed around 7000 calories. This I found out was not enough as with 10 km to go the legs went to autopilot and my head went to foodland. the legs went there speed and only there speed, which probably wasnt all that fast as a young boy on his grandmas bike pulled up beside me and started smiling. He then got a goofy smirk on his face and took off on his bike ahead of me leaving me in the dust. The fact the boy was 12 yrs old and on a 3 speed bike with a basket made me feel good. On the last decent of the day i started cruising to make up lost time for my legs, all was going well till I lost my back brake and started gaining speed much faster then I would ever want too. With a large switch back coming up i had no choice but to make my own run away lane into the jungle. probably the scariest moment of my life as I tore into the thick vegetation expecting to run into a log and supermaning across into the costa rican jungle, instead though i hit a marsh and gradually came to a hault.... crawling out of the bush and back on the decent i tired to keep speed down with the front breaks and then used what was left of my legs to climb the final 2 km to the finish line where i found out I ended up 17th overall. Today was the hardest day I have ever had on a bike but I guesse that is what marathon biking is all about. Well off to get some eats and small sleep before cracking into stage 2 tommorow.....

adventurerace.com

Enemy Territory

Since my last post I have relocated myself to Battleford SK to help my Uncle out for a couple weeks of driving watertruck. I eat red peppers whole rather then swallowing down greasy food and I'm an almond butter addict, not a chain smoker so i'm not sure if I fit into the mold of a trucker but driving around in a big truck listening to country tunes and splashing water around on gravel roads pissing off the other semi drivers as they get stuck in my mud holes is a great way to earn a dollar. On friday last week though Mother nature opened her eyes and took over my fun for awhile so I had the weekend off to hang out in saskatchewan. Not sure what to do with myself i started checking around and found out the Saskatchewan mtb championships were happening on sunday down near regina. Sounded like a good time so i tossed my bike in the pickup, got a thermos of green tea and headed south. Got into regina late saturday night in an impressive thunder and lighting show that shut down the rider's game but provided for an entertaining night. On sunday I lined up with 60 other riders for a mass start, not sure who my competition was I decided I better go out fast and try to set the pace. After a lap I had a 1 minute gap which was reduced to 10 seconds after the second lap before I pitched'r into high gear and cruised in for a 6 minute victory. Alot of the SK folks seemed a little surprised to have an outsider come in and take there championships but the people out here in SK are probably some of the nicest in Canada and no one tried to drop there gloves with me. Surprisingly they wouldn;t give me the provincial medal as they didnt want it to be Alberta bound but none the less I left my tracks across the SK prairie.

Provincials

Last yr I missed XC provincials as I was called in for some forestry work out near Prince George. This yr I was gunning for glory. The 6 km course, situated in Terwilegar Park in Edmonton is 90% fast hard pack clay. The other 10% was wet, muddy and rooty. My plan, put on the slickest fastest tires around (maxxis maxxlites 310 g) and make my time on the fast clay. My plan was questionable as for the first lap I was all over the place, in the flowers, bouncing off trees, sliding past other riders into ditchs but still holding myself around the top 10. As for the dry sections I was rippin, these tires were faster then Lance Armstrong. As the race went on I moved up to 3rd, 10 seconds behind 2nd with a lap to go before crashing hard and eventually coming in 2 minutes behind the winner, Evan Sherman, and 50 seconds behind 2nd place Shawn Bunnin. All in all a pretty good day.

Test of Metal

The Squamish Test of Metal took place this last weekend on a soggy west coast afternoon. For the first part it felt like my legs were made of burnt jello as I slipped to 40th before finding a little metal in my blood and coming through for a 14th finish. The day reminded me of hockey games where your down 5-0 before you figure out were you are and then trying to make a game of it from there. Overall the race was pretty cool as we constantly swung up into the mountains then back down into the hoards of fans in dt squamish. This event proved once again, apart from Jasper, squamish might be the next best place to mtb in the world. Endless singletrack, big mountains, clean air and a vibrant small community. Off to iron out the legs before the real season starts with Provincials in two weeks and then off with the Alberta Team to Nationals in Mt Washington.

Back from the woods

Hear I am crawling out of the bush, a few pounds lighter, a much heavier wallet, and ready to tear it up in the coming months. The last two weeks have been spent out in the Robson Valley running around in the mtns planting little trees into there homes for the next 90 yrs. Finishing with my greenpeace work for the summer I headed down to kamloops with my parents for my first bc cup xc in 4 yrs. Things were going pretty good as I sat in 2nd place after 7 of the 9 laps before my bike got tired and decided she was done racing for the day. Two flats, three blown co2s, and a long walk back to the start line. Turns out 4 of us elites double flatted and 3 others single flatted. Cactus are not friends. After that I hopped in with friend Simon Tremblay(watch this name climb the leader board in the coming yrs) and we drove to the coast for the BC Cup RR # 4. After a short rest at friends in Maple Ridge we arose at 5:30 am to a torrential downpour and paddled our way over to abbotsford for Simons start at 8am. After the flash flood, the rain cowarded down and the racing began. After watching Simon finish 10th in his race I set up for my first road race in over 2 months. Doing 12 laps of a 10 km rolling course with a 2 min climb each lap proved to be a rude awakening to my legs which have come accustomed to carrying 400 trees around the bush not chasing skinny tires around the block all day. After getting dropped on the 2nd lap, chasing back on, getting dropped, chasing on again, I finally found something left in my legs and managed to stay in the pack for a 18th place out of 50 or so starters. Never knew 18th place could feel so good. After the race we started another race to catch the 5 pm ferry over to victoria. Finishing 129th we caught the ferry and were now in the BC Capital hangin with my bro and startin the wind ourselves up for the big races in July. First off is the Test of Metal this weekend in Squamish, 800 racers, 67 km, 2 mtns and then Faith Hill and Tim Mcgraw at BC stadium for the wind down party......

Time for a rest...

The last few days have been a whirlwind of chaos as my plans, wait plans, whats a plan, I don't have plans but somehow my bike and I got home to Jasper in one piece regardless of any plans we may or may not of had. One tip of advice, don't book a flight out of an airport which is 3 hrs away from the race course when you only have 4 hrs to make it in and you have no planned mode of transportation.


Saturday- finish 22nd out of 80 in canada cup
- leave for ottawa asap, got onto plane with 3 minutes to spare
- arrive at Matt Decores house for 4 hrs of sleep

Sunday- up at 7am, down to safeway for food, back to Matts, eat, fill bottles, clean bike.
- race Alberta Cup # 3 in Devon, finishing 2nd behind coach Tim Heemskerk
- get home to Jasper for first time in 5 months.

Monday- Sleep, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat, ride, sleep, eat, sleep

Well sorry for the lame post but i'm pretty tired today and am thinking about as clearly as i do in math class during calculas lessons. After racing 7 times during the past month over both ends of the country it is time for a week of recovery as I head out to mcbride bc for a week to plant sometrees and hang out with some bush people and enjoy the atmospher around there laid back existance. pretty sure marijuana is a banned substance by the uci (International Cycling Federation) so I will have to watch my back as this substance seems to be attached to the trees we plant. over and out,

Chocolate Cup # 2

The second canada cup was held in mountain bike mecca, Bromont qc. Over 800 cyclists showed up for the races this weekend, half of them being party hard, beer bellied, i cant pedal my bike uphill downhill racers and the other half being real cyclists. As far as the race went.... not good. Had a decent start and was in the top 20 or so before blowing my tire off the rim on the first dh. Attempeted to fix it to no avail and had to call it a day just 20 minutes in. I guesse my bike wasnt rested enough for the effort. This week my bike has been given lots of love and care as we prepare to regain some pride this weekend at the third canada cup at Mont Tremblant qc. Although the racing in bromont was not up to par, the local annual chocolate festival which was held last weekend was. On our rest day sunday, 4 of us headed down to check out the scene and had our share of quebecs famous chocolate soup. Probably better then the best maple syrup this province has ever produced. Other then that we are now down to 2 functional hockey sticks but we gained a basketball so we should be alright for a little while yet. Go Sens Go!

Canada Cup # 1

Well the first Canada Cup has come and gone and the Alberta boys have a 4th (Roddi Lega) a 16th (Brian Bain) and a 18th (myself) to show for our efforts. My race started off suprisingly well as I got called up to the start line in 14th place as a result from my Canada Cup points from last yr. Having a good posisition at the start I was determined to defend it at all costs and about 1 km into the race a quebecois racer tried to cut me off so I pretended I was back playing hockey for a second, lifted my elbows and togethar the two of us collided and rode straight into the trees. Once I pulled myself out of the foilage I was in close to last place (55th place) and spent the rest of the race chasing down riders. Not quite the result I was hoping for but overall much better start to the season then last yr at this time.

After the race we drove to our new digs in Bromont QC were we found ourselves surrounded by a 60 inch tv, 12 person hot tub and leather couches all for 15 $ a night. Yesterday was our rest day and after a light spin we headed out to find 6 hockey sticks to play some ball hockey between our rides. We are now down to 5 sticks as Roddi was dissapointed with his results from our first day of street hockey. Off for a ride and to search out a new stick.

later,

CW

Je suis de montreal..

Here I am resting in the montreal youth hostel waiting for the rest of the Alberta crew to fly in tonight then its off to race through the montreal disaster called friday night traffic on our way to Bae st paul for the first of 3 canada cups. After one night in this playoff hockey deprived city I have learned the hostels out here are nocturnal and walking around downtown at 2am can be a great place to catch some real life carnage as the drunk pedestrian trys to take on the much younger but faster 50 kmhr geo metro. The geo was victorious. I'll be back to update after the race on sunday. Special thanks to Denis Rowley and Kona mtn bikes for helping me get out here this year!

Welcome to my world....

This is the place to come for your bike racing information addiction. I make no promises but will try to keep this blog updated regualrly throught the season. Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Cheers,

Cory Wallace

Wallys world

Coming soon..