Fernie

Hello again.

For the family day weekend, my family and I went to our condo in Sparwood near Fernie. It would serve as an addition to the recurring theme of carefree relaxation that has been a characteristic of my off season. Saturday was pretty warm, so my Dad and I went for a ride on the lower elk valley road. It is the ride we do every time we come down if the weather is favourable and this time it was done on ‘cross bikes to handle the condition of the roads. It was a fun ride and I felt pretty good for the first time on my bike for 3 weeks. There was barely any other vehicles around and we saw great numbers of wildlife. It felt good to get back on the bike.

Sunday I went to Fernie for a day of downhill skiing, something which I have done since I was 3 and which I raced until I was 13. It felt weird doing something that I hadn’t for over a year that I used to do almost daily. So, for first run I headed up the Timber chair en route to the White Pass chair and experienced some pretty horrific weather. It was hailing fairly hard and the wind was quite strong (later in the day they would close a couple lifts because of the wind). I was in the mood for some steep terrain leading to some possibly deep fresh snow, so for first run (technically second run after skiing to the second chair) I made my way over to the saddles connecting the Curry bowl and Lizard Bowl. I found what looked to be the best one (see before and after pictures) and skiied down into some ok ice/snow powder. The rest of the day was more of the same with some interruptions from not being used to my ski boots and a lunch break. It was a pretty good day, but I don’t really enjoy skiing as much as I used to. I had fun, but I would rather be riding.

It was nice to go down to the mountains again. I don’t get the chance to go to Sparwood often because of my training and racing, and I forget how beautiful it is. The easy-going and relaxing way of life when we are down there was perfect for keeping my mind off racing in the off season.   

     before

   after

      

First downhill of Hoogerheide World Cup – Elite Men

This is just sweet.

Interview from Canadian Cyclist

Home!

So I arrived home Saturday night and have been trying to get over the jet lag and catch up after missing my frist week of the second semester in school ever since. I have two days off school now and I suddenly realized this morning “oh yea I should update my blog”.

 As you may have noticed I have some pictures up from my trip to Europe. I will try and put more up as I have time to do that now.

So, I never really talked about Paris when I was there, but that is probably because I had mixed emotions about it. It is a stunning city with history, sights, art, cuture, etc. But after the first day when we went ot the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay, I was really sick of museums. They had some great art, but after walking for hours past hundreds of paintings and sculptures, you start to get tired of it. I also really dislike large touristy crowds, so that probably made it seem worse. Paris has so much history and the fact that the Tour finishes there every year made the trip worth while. But, I don’t exactly like being a tourist and when I travel to places, I can only handle about a day before I want to just go and ride around the area. I was more excited riding cobbles, single lane backroads and the ’cross courses in Belgium than I was wandering around Paris. After we saw most of the spectacular sights and museums, we tried to find a good bike store or a veledrome to watch some racing. But we were unsuccessful, so we continued the tourist thing. Paris has some great food. Almost every meal anywhere is fantastic as they like good food. But the thing that annoyed me about Paris was the fact that many Pariseans try to rip people off. An example is on the last day we were in Paris. My Mom was off shopping and my Dad and I decided to sit outside a brasserie (cafe/restaurant/bar) with a beer and watch the people and traffic go by. Apparrently, according to the owner of the place, it would cost us extra to sit outside. So the bartender and owner talked to discuss a price at which they would charge us that changed from 9.50 Euro to 8.00 Euro. This was frustrating as it was quite obvious they were just trying to get some extra cash from us.

So the next day when we were leaving, I was pretty anxoius to get home. The travel on Saturday coming home was long and tiring. The first flight from Paris to Toronto was 8hrs 45 min long. We then had a 4 hr wait in Toronto which turned into 5hrs as the plane was behind schedule. The flight to Edmonton this time was 4 1/2 hrs and it was about 10pm when we got home. Now, the 8hr time change made that seem to us like 6am the next day, and if you total the hours awake while travelling it comes out to about 23. So I was a bit tired and jet lagged, but I think I am adjusted now. And even though I enjoyed my trip to Europe, I am really glad to be home.  

  

On the road

So I am a little behind on posts as I am now about to talk about my trip on Monday from Hertsberge, Belgium to Rouen, France.

As I ended my stay in Belgium, I was becoming quite used to life there and the landscape. The Belgian feel tends to be quiet and relaxed but full of culture. Most people live in small villages which almost blend as you traverse the countryside. By travelling, it becomes apparent that Flanders (the western, dutch-speaking region) Belgian life is centered around beer and their sports, football and cycling. Just as I had grown used to this rather interesting lifestyle, it was time to change the scenery and go to France. 

I didn’t notice a change immediatley after crossing the border, but pretty soon after it became noticable as hills appeared and the vegetation became different. On our way to Rouen, we stopped at Calais and Dieppe, both on the coast. The views were awesome. In Calais, there were picture perfect beaches for miles and in Dieppe, the cliffs were very impressive.  One of the biggest differences I immediatley noticed was the food. In Calais I had a sandwhich on a baguette, mineral water and a pain chocolat (pastry like a croissant filled with chocolate bits). I was finally allowed to stray a little from my regular race-minded food as it is now off season for me.

We made it to Rouen as the sun was setting and settled into our hotel for the night.