One of my favourite pictures of late. This was such a beautiful morning. I was riding in North Vancouver near Mt. Seymour. I wish I had my SLR, but this is what I got with my phone. Still pretty nice, I think.

In Austria

I arrived in Austria yesterday, just outside of Saalfelden, the site of the 2012 World Championships. There are beautiful mountains surrounding the area, which I saw briefly when I arrived. Since then, the clouds have rolled in and it has rained a lot. It is still really nice.


I'm staying on a small road heading into the mountains. This is my view down into the valley. The view towards the mountain is really nice as well, but obscured by clouds at the moment. There are cows roaming freely. I can occasionally hear their bells ringing or a random "moo".

The town of Saalfelden looks really cool and will be interesting to explore. Tomorrow will be the first chance to check out the race course.

It was pretty cool riding with Wade Simmons...

I did the Wade Simmons Clinic on the weekend at Blue Mountain. Brett Tippie was coaching (and entertaining) as well and both he and Wade were awesome to learn from and ride with. I learned so much in 2 days of riding. I went from being too scared to jump or really be in the air at all to doing the jump line at the end of the DH course at Blue. Like actually landing on the transitions!

Here's a report  and some pictures from the clinic.

Here's a video of me riding some stuff.

DH'ing

This week I did the TEVA Tuesday night DH race at Blue Mountain. The race was on Embryo, which I was happy about. It's a trail I really like and is not too hard or scary. The race was an open jam style where you could do any number of runs in an hour and your best time is counted. It was fun to meet and chat with other riders while waiting for your turn. I won the recreational women's category and a sweet pair of TEVA LINKS shoes. Report here.

Come out this week for the Tuesday XC.

I love summer!

So what have I been up to lately? Lots of fun summer stuff. I bought a stand up paddle board, which I am absolutely loving. It's been so warm and sunny here, it's great to get out on the water. It's been a fun challenge figuring out how to control it in the sometimes choppy bay and winds.

I also started downhilling at Blue Mountain the past few weeks. It's been a really fun progression and so refreshing to work on new skills and ride new trails. My Scott Genius has been the perfect bike. It took me a few rides to get used to a full suspension again, last week I even put down the seat!

Last week was the East Coast Open race at Blue. It's a 3 race event with a XC, dual slalom, and DH. I decided to do both the XC and DH. I thought about doing the dual, but was too tired after the XC race. The XC was great, a long course covering 12 km per lap and we did 2 laps. There was a long climb, a traverse across the top and then down one of the most fun DH trails. I felt good and took off from the start. By the top of the climb I could feel the effort and my teammate Mikaela Kofman took the lead. We rode together for a while, but I felt I could ride the trails quicker, so I took the lead again. From there I opened a gap and build on it for the rest of the race, taking the win. It was great to win and especially at a hometown race. My teammate Derek Zandstra won the men's race. Race report here.

The next day was the DH race, my first. It was a trail that I felt comfortable riding, so I knew that as long as I didn't do anything crazy or stupid, I'd make it down alive. I knew I would lose time on the jump line at the bottom, but wanted to have a run where I pushed my limits a bit and rode smooth. I had my fastest time on my race run besting my qualifying time by 6 or so seconds. The winner was some 50 seconds ahead! Pretty awesome and inspiring to see how the women rip.

Hardwood Fast and Female

Here's a nice summery of the fun day at Hardwood Ski and Bike this past Saturday.

http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=24242

BSP Road Trip

Last weekend I spent in beautiful Baie St. Paul, Quebec. I arrived home last Monday from Europe and was picked up at the airport by Kaesy. It's so nice having someone waiting for you at the airport. We had almost three whole days together, which was really nice. On Thursday I dropped Kaesy off at the airport and I continued on to BSP. It was a fun solo road trip. I cranked the tunes, sang, and just spent time thinking and looking out the window. I really enjoyed it. After arriving on Friday I went for a ride around town and to the water. It was really nice and refreshing to smell the ocean.

The race went okay and I finished 3rd. It wasn't the best race but also not the worst. I made some mistakes I will hopefully learn from, and did some stuff well that I can be happy about. After quickly packing up, I was on the road again. This time with Peter Glassford as a travel partner and with the goal of an early morning arrival at home. The drive went fast, with good conversation, music, and Tim Horton's espresso (super happy about this!). We made it home at 2:30 Monday morning. Still time for a good night's sleep with the bonus of waking up at home in my own bed.

Now it's time for some vegetable growing and home stuff for a couple of weeks. This Sunday is the Trek Store Canada Cup at Hardwood Ski and Bike. It's awesome to have a race an hour from home. Also taking place on Saturday at Hardwood is the Fast and Female MTB event. Fast and Female is an awesome organization promoting girl's participation in sports. It's going to be a fun weekend of mountain biking!

A quote I really like:
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight." - Jim Rohn