122. Northumberland Humbler ’21

Humbler '21:  Now With Even More Aweosmeness! Well That Was Different... The Substance Projects Northumberland Humbler is my favourite race.  Like, ever.  I love the course, I love the trails, I love the everything about the forest.  Lemme say it: Northumberland County Forest is my favourite place to ride.  Full stop. I've raced it a …

121. A Scrappy Badger Indeed

Um, But I Don't Crash... Aw geez.  I should have said Spoiler Alert.  I just gave it all away in the title.  Yup, I crashed at the Substance Projects Scrappy Badger.  Pretty hard too.  Beauty raspberry, decent bruise, and I even lost a chunk of skin!  My thumb and wrist are shot for a while, …

FOTC: Barry Cox and (not) the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice…in August!

One Lawyer, a Pair of Hot Cutoffs, and 5,000 Words For some strange reason, Adam Ruppel of Chico Racing gave me a mic for five hours on Sunday morning at he Chico Racing 24 Hours of Summer Solstice.  I situated myself at the last punchy climb of the lap and called the race.  It was …

FOTC: One Jonathan Calcagni, One Gear, and an Eager Beaver

Some riders are legends. Some riders are legendary legends. Those riders look up to Jonathan Calcagni. Full disclosure: I love this guy.  He’s not just an epically legendary legend, he’s also a hell of an awesome guy.  We met for the first time at an Epic 8 Hour.  He was racing solo singlespeed (as legends …

120. Eager Beaver 2021

Well That Was Fun: A Tale of an Eager Beaver On a normal Monday morning, some people log on to Zoom and start their meeting saying things like “Did you see Folgers coffee is on sale at Metro?”, or “I took an interesting picture of a goose”, or “I really enjoyed my game of golf …

119. Everything I Need to Know I Learned in an Epic 8 Hour

Life Lessons, Bike Lessons, and Six Dang Laps Okay, maybe I didn't learn everything I need to know (because I still can’t solve for X) but still, I learned a bunch of things.   The Summer Epic 8 Hour, presented by Pulse Racing, was…erm…how do I say it? It was not my day.  Yeah, that’s a …

118. The 2021 Race Season!

They're Baaaaaaaaccccck Races that is.  Races are back! Races.Are.Back!!! Boom. Now that COVID is fixed, it's time to return to the old world! I'm kidding of course, COVID isn't fixed, and it's most definitely NOT time to  return to the old world (because seriously, parts of it weren't all that great anyway), but it's time …

117. Fatbike Birkdale

It's  wrap! Well that was fun.  I didn't just make a trail this winter, I made a thing of beauty. I called it Fatbike Birkdale (named after the park it was in), and it not only kept me riding through the winter, it kept me sane. Fatbike season is now over (yeah yeah, I know …

FOTC: Danielle Bourque and Her Observations on the Inclusion of Women

Dani B and the MTB Community Danielle Bourque has a crisp way of identifying--and calling out--some of the sexism many of us WITNESS in mountain biking.   Danielle Bourque also has a crisp way of talking about the sexism SHE expereinces in mountain biking.  In terms that are easy to understand for cyclists, Danielle is N+1 …

116. That’s So Gay

An Honest Look at Playing Bikes I'm part of a Facebook page called Awesome Mountain Bikers Ontario.  The description for the group is as follows: An inclusive group to discuss mountain biking in Ontario for all skill levels, genders and wheel sizes. No disrespect will be tolerated. Whoa.  The words "inclusive" and "No disrespect will …