The time in Victoria the past few weeks was great.  The weather was great, the riding was great, everything was great except for my head as I tried to recover from having my ears almost explode on the flight home from Louisiana.  I’m not sure what went on there but my head couldn’t equalize when the plane went up or down and caused the most pain I have experienced in years.  I ended up hopping off the plane in Seattle and taking a boat home.  The week after I was spitting up blood, and it took 2 weeks for my head to feel right again.  Sketchy.  I feel good again, but during my two weeks of head agony I came up with the idea of riding down to the next bike race so I wouldn’t have to fly again.  I’m sure I would be fine, but it gave me a good excuse to plan a little bike tour down the Washington/Oregon coast!

My bro dropped me off at the Port Angeles Ferry last Saturday and since then I have been cruising.  The first two days in Washington were wet but once I left Astoria Oregon I have really lucked out.  Pulling a 50+lb bob and camping along the way makes for a solid day, every day. My carbon road bike, the Kona Red Zone has been handling the Bob no problem.  We even hit a muddy gravel logging road for 20 km and it just laughed.   Asides from the logging road, the riding has been unreal, especially down the Oregon coast.  Right now I’m on day 4 and have reached Waldport Oregon, 600 km into the journey.  I have another 360km to go to California where I have been planning to meet up with our Kona team mechanic Dave who is driving the Kona rig down to Santa Rosa CA.  We will meet the rest of the team there for a race this weekend then it will be onwards to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterrey CA.  Hopefully I get there in time for a pickup or else I may end up riding a little farther then planned.  The way the trip is going thus far that wouldn’t be such a bad thing!

A full report is on its way, probably once the tour is done as right now there’s a lot of miles to ride and campsites to be made.

I would like to send out a huge thanks to one of my new sponsors Wild Mountain in Jasper,Banff, Kelowna and Red Deer for the support and great TNF gear which has really come in handy in the wet weather.  Wild Mountain is an outdoor clothing store specializing in The North Face gear.  They live to inspire outdoor recreation.

Headin down the road!

April 20-21 Sea Otter, California (XC,ST,CR,RR,TT,)
April 26-28 Whisky 50, Arizona (MX)
May 12 Salty Dog, Salmon Arm (MX)
May 25 Nimby 35, Pemberton (XC)
May 30-2 Alpen Tour, Austria (SR)
June 6-9 Four Peaks, Germany (SR)
June 15 Test of Metal, Squamish (XC)
June 30-6 BC Bike Race (SR)
July 11 Gastown Grand Prix, Vancouver (CR)
July 12 Giro di Burnaby, Vancouver (CR)
?July 20 Cascades 100, Oregon (MX)
?July 27-Aug 2 TransRockies, Alberta
Aug 18 Canada Cup XC #5, Whistler
Aug 25 Marathon National Championships, Quebec
Sept 1-7 Mongolia Bike Challenge
?Sept 27 UCI Marathon, Malaysia
Oct 12-13 World Solo 24hr Championships? (Australia)
Oct 19-27 Crocodile Trophy (Australia)

We as Kona mountain bike racers had two missions last week. One was to do some southern riding and get our engines going for another year of ripping. The other was to test out the new Kona road rocket ship called the Red Zone . We succeeded at both. First we rode for a week around the rough rolling roads of St.Francisville, Louisiana. It was great country riding, lots of picturesque sights and temps in the low 20′s. Barry had booked us a little cabin by Lake Rosemound which made for a great training headquarters to refuel and rest between training escapades.

Secondly we signed up to race in the 15th edition of the infamous Rouge Roubaix. A 104 mile road race across patchy roads with 4 long gravel sections covered in loose pebbles and cross ditches.

A couple nights before the race we headed into Baton Rouge to visit the local Kona Dealer Pedal Play. 1 block from the shop we got pulled over by the local cops as Mr Sneddon had forgot to turn the driving lights on. Fair enough. Next up we waited in the van for 30 minutes as 3 more cop cars pulled up surrounding us. Barry and I broke out in a laugh at the retartedness of the situation. Apparently the Baton Rouge Police corps were looking for someone else, not a van loaded with bike racers pounding coconut waters and eating whole food takeaway meals. Eventually we were allowed to continue on our way to Pedal Play for a night of good times with the boys at Pedal Play, drinking Louisiana beer and eating Jambalaya (creole mixture of rice, meat and spices).

Sunday was race day: In the first gravel section Kris took one for the team and tested out the Red Zone’s ability to ride into a cross ditch at 40 km/hr. The light carbon frame and wheels held up perfectly. Kris didn’t fair so well with a bloody left arm requiring hospital treatment. With the testing of the toughness of the bike out of the way, Barry Wicks, Spencer Paxson and myself continued on to determine just how fast we could make these things go. We road hard at the front of the pack bringing back attacks and keeping the peloton moving along until we hit the 3rd gravel section which contained some small climbs. This demolished the pack, Barry was off the front with the leaders, Paxson and myself were left chasing as we searched for some early season form. From this point on the race was awesome as the gravel roads and wind meant there was no place for anyone to hide. Riders were cracking everywhere, Paxson used his cyclocross skills to pull himself and is Red Zone into the top 10, and I dieseled along behind picking off blown up riders 1 by 1. In the end Wicks hung on for 5th, I cruised in for 11th and Paxson followed up in 12th. A very solid day for a crew of mountain bikers at Louisiana’s premier road race.

That evening we were all wrecked. Wicks, Paxson, Kona rep Nate Clark and myself all retreated back to our beds where we started the day. Sneddon was doing alight, a couple stitchs in his arm but upbeat and energized as usual. It eventually rubbed off on the rest of us as we had an evening pounding food and chit chatting, before packing our bikes for our trips back home. My 3 teammates left yesterday, I road around Baton Rouge eating crawfish, then was suppose to leave today but American Airlines is having a rough day. First the 6:40 am flight was delayed, in the 2nd attempt the plane broke its steering on the runway, the next 3 flights were overbooked, and the 4th one is now 30 min late. It’s now 13 hrs after my scheduled departure and I’m still eating Louisiana Crawfish. Fingers crossed they have things figured for the 6 o’clock flight or else it’ll be time to unpack the bike and make this place home for a while.