tour

The End of the Year

Posted on by Smoke

Yeah, I’ve been avoiding htis update. It’s just been an unpleasant month…what can I say? The day started out pretty good actually. Gary and Tom from Hertfordshire were on deck for a day at the bike park, and the Cove boys came out for a rip. Even Chaz was tearing it up on Garbonzo today.

Since it was the last dry day on Garbonzo, I started to ride really hard. Four NON-STOP top to bottom runs, plus a couple more at a slightly slower pace made it tough to hang out with anyone else. Riding by myself for a change was actually really refreshing.

Pete, the Angry Pirate, hung out for a run on the Manager…..

…and for a lap on this big scree slope near the TreeFort (he managed to clean it a couple of weeks later).


We ran a sweep run off the top together to close ‘er down, then hit the lower park for a few more quick ones. I managed to score a Dirt Merchant for lower sweep, and that’s when the shit hit the fan. Thinking to myself, “Geez, I’m kind of tired out, maybe I should slow ‘er down a bit” I tagged my brakes at that high speed shale section on lower A-Line and promptly chattered my hands off the bars.

High speed ejectamenta inot the boulders on the right. At least I got myself to the bottom of the hill under my own power, but I didn’t feel so hot. Kind of pissed off too.

Final tally on the injuries? Cracked ribs and pubic bone, a few hematomas, contusion of the liver (and a pretty good one too), whiplash, and my thumbnail got torn off. Oh well, in twenty four straight seasons of riding, this is only the third trip to the hospital for me, and as of writing this one month later I’m nearly 100% good to go.

Actually, I rode the Full boar Challenge on Greenstone Mtn. three weeks after this crash and finished the race in a respectable 25 mins (THATS a downhill), but I don’t think it did me any good.

Absolutely EPIC season. 150 days on the bike, and they were all stellar. Now it’s time to regroup for next year.

Watch out for changes to the site coming soon, and announcements regarding the Wade Simmons Experience ’06, as well as the possibility of more tours with other superstars of the North Shore.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and to all the support. I’ll have a proper list up soon of everyone who made it such a great year.

The Lawnmower Tour — Last Day

Posted on by Smoke

Wow.

Another stellar trip. Man, 2005 was definitely an epic…..what a great way to wind ‘er down.

Harley basks in the spotlight.

Our own personal spotlight was highlighting the woods today.

Ralph getting the star treatment….

Peter gets off…

This next shot is my current favourite of CBC. The Millenium Log in case you can’t quite place it.

Frank cruising the old growth.

Some not quite ready for primetime on Salvation.

Peter on the same wall.

Holder….

..and Stefan, Synchro’s Log.

Frank on the Pangor rock.

The other Stefan returns for one more lap before returning home.

Frank had his strongest day today. Round 2, on Ned’s.

No hidden meanings or ulterior messages. Just a funny shot of a glove in the woods.

Jerks.

The Lawnmower Tour — Day 5

Posted on by Smoke

Another absolutely stellar day. You can sure tell that summer is over though. I forgot to mention how cold the mornings have been lately. Well below freezing, and the snow guns are running on Blackcomb already. I’d guess it was about -8C in the alpine the last few nights.

So we’ll go to Squamish where it’s warmer. Our first lap was some mellow XC-ish downhill in Alice Lakes.

A nice little change of pace from the wham-bam-bam of Whistler.

Oh……HELLO there………

Our man Ben likes the ladies, and for the most part I think I agree with him. If you’re going to ride in Squamish, you gotta check out the Eagle Run Coffee Shop. Trust me.

After lunch, it was up to 19th Hole.

We got into a new one called Cortez or something like that. It’s pretty cool, but it won’t last long. The construction is a little dodgy.

Hey, what’s brown and sticky?

A stick….get it?

Yeah, you don’t know from funny.

Lots of cool little moves made outta twigs is my point anyway. Nothing over a couple feet to worry about, and nice flow.

The best section had to have been Homebrew. Stefan was riding very good today, so I got him to follow me in there. It’s been a couple of years since I hit that one, but nothing has changed. We non-stopped the whole line and he was peaking. To hit that line at good speed with no idea of what’s coming up has got to be pretty intense. Of course, no pics ’cause we non-stopped it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

We finished out on Deliverance. Man something was SO dead out near the top. I made the mistake of breathing through my nose and spent the next part of the trail trying not to hurl.

Unlike Christian and Holger, who were enjoying hurling themselves off of everything.

One more day, and that’s it for the big tours this year……..