Group Rides ...wit ya crew.

Yes, tonight marked the hallowed beginning of the Cyclesmith club mountain bikes rides, attended by CSD members, local bike heroes, new faces, new legs and seasoned veterans alike. We kicked off the season with a session at Spider Lake, under glass-smooth twilight skies, which locked in a 25-degree atmosphere around our helmets. Bug-free riding on a hot August night-this was truly a killer, memorable time. (Also a temperature record for a Nova Scotian April.) Thanks for coming out, everyone. I expect they'll only get bigger and better as the season wears on.

DTB also got a ballin' new rack setup today, and I don't mean day surgery. Dual Highrollers. Naaam sayin? Take a peekaboo:

W-R XIII !!

The Real Roubaix; Lucky numero 13

The Burge and chops were up and at it early on sunday morning; picking me up a little later to head out and lay down some discrete arrows on the pave. As it was a special edition, we were feeling adventurous, and were discussing ways we could spice it up a bit. With the help of JL’s GPS we were finding potential roads every 5 mins up north mountain. JB could hardly keep his foot on the gas pedal—he was shaking with so much excitement, knowing he was back on form for 09; great to see!

We found a couple possible options heading up the mountain; one road that appeared more like a driveway but it was a road according to the GPS. We checked it out; it was looking perfect; it didn’t go up the hill but was just a reasonably smooth section of double track—just what we were looking for—but unfortunately it soon attempted to engulf the car as it petered out in the middle of a sopping orchard. Eventually we found a little addition with a nice little steep climb in it that proved to be decisive a few hours later. After laying down the KOM marker chops said “I hope no one was planning on bringing their bitch-legs today”.

After heading back for some more coffee it was time to roll over into the packed parking lot; always great to see the best turnout of the year Roubaix Sunday— it’d be great to see all those riders make it out to every event! The atmosphere was great, with everyone loving the literal sun-day and ready to roll out. The calm first 30k started a little quick with JB not quite aware of his own strength, but upon the scolding of Tomlin a social pace was resumed. Justin William managed to keep his breakfast down the hatch, and was out “just havin a time”; very impressive as all his carb-loading in the last 24 hours was done via my boi Jack, due to an illness not letting him keep down food and an unwillingness to pass up a good party.

We finally made the turn onto the dirt road and the hammer was down for a little bit, then due to a strong headwind and no one really wanting to pull the group into it we took it easy for a bit before finally a little motivational speech from The Godfather got a line rolling. This shrunk the front group down a fair bit, but was still much bigger than usual; must mean there’s a lot of people out there on good form this year (!)—plus the headwind always keeps it together a little more. I lost my glasses while riding the front on a paved section, and after some debate headed back for them. Luckily just as I was beginning to try and chase back on, Chops rolled up in JB’s CSD team car to give me a nice motor pace back up, this combined with the group kindly waiting for me had me back in no time, and we got it rolling a bit again.

Things picked up again on the KOM climb, with Lazza unfortunately flatting right at the bottom. I pushed it on the climb and over the top TT, Macbadass and The Young Gun had a bit of a gap, so we rolled it. Young gun could sense his dreams for the past week working out well, as he is on fine form and in a good position to take his first cobble stone which is great to see—he’ll be flying by the time the first Canada Cup trip rolls around. Mac-10 unfortunately flatted, and after some waiting combined with Lespy missing a turn, the group behind was getting too close for comfort so we started riding again. As we turned onto the last dirt section the Young gun accelerated up the road; TT chasing him down quickly with me on his wheel. Just after rejoining I had a bit more speed rolling from the back and switched across to the smooth yellow line and pushed “a bit” getting a gap. I rode that into the finish, just ahead of TT and TYG. The Burge rounded out the podium, not even breathing hard from his sprint. GOT had a rough day as well with his front brake jamming his wheel and a long stop to fix it. Fresh Ben still had a good ride as well despite not having the freshest legs on the day. There were many notable rides I’m forgetting but the Big Man definitely qualified; imagine what his form will be like in a month when the weathers good and he gets his 8th and 9th ride of the year in.

In closing, it was an awesome day for a great ride. CSD capped it off with some socializing and beers at Paddy’s, and discussed the HUGE O-lab party going down the next day/ night, which I unfortunately had to miss due to my flight to the other coast going out the morning after. Look forward to updates as Zach Garland and myself stock our deep freeze with mad ice; snagging summit finishes, solo breakaways, and sonic-booming time-trials the continent over. Team Kona-Adobe: Meet CSD.

G-Money