Totally Floored my Bike is Still Here

Remember that time I gave away my belongings, then lived like a gypsy for almost a year?

During that time, 1.5 years ago, I left my bike locked up on the street, maybe the only time ever. That night a car backed into it. My luck.

Faced with ahhh crap, I don’t have time to get fixed and I’m moving, I hid the bike in a downtown condo parking garage.

I’d forgotten where I’d stashed it, then remembered, then returned this weekend to see if it was still there.

Into the garage, march clockwise for a few levels….. OMG it’s still here?!?

Genuinely floored.

I thought for sure the condo corporation would have cleaned house by now. I squealed when I saw it; I never get this lucky.

It’s an awesome bike, quite Batman-ish. Plus my cycling team gifted it to me, for being an awesome president for 5 years.

I’ll have to move it this week, because probably I’ve now jinxed myself by blogging this.

 

My 5th Year as Cycling President

If we’re just meeting, I’m president of a cycling team, and we race in the OCA – Ontario Cycling Association.

See the red logo on the shoulders?  That’s my internet show, The Canadian Explorer.

2007-10 I travelled around Canada celebrating it (do more of that, okay), documented it all in 80 episodes, they were some of the best years I ever had.  The site is a mess, but if you’re willing to wade around there’s some entertaining stuff over there.

Other teams have tents and buses, many are 30+ members strong.

We are small and scrappy, but we medal a lot.  

We are a great team.

We’ve placed 3rd in Ontario 3 times already this season!

 

Who’s with me?

Click here for all cycling posts, and here’s a great post to meet the team, there’s two videos.

One of my favourite things about a race: the mobile command centre.

Another favourite part:


What a great way to mark time.  You know how I feel about time.

My least favourite part.

They race for 90 minutes, so sometimes you have to feed them.

They grab the bottle at 30km/h, and if you screw up they cramp up, lose, and you are a bad president.

(note: if you ever meet someone who did this race, be impressed; that hill is gruesome)

Here’s to a successful second half of the season, team, <3 ya!  

 

 

Hope Your May 24 Was Excellent Too

Kicked off the weekend Friday night with a beer up on high.

Look at the guy in blue behind me, ha.

Now look down.

I love the holidays in town, you have the city all to yourself.

Switched cars again, look for an orange blur around TO this week.

It’s easy to drive, the Focus.  This is the one that parks itself, too.  All. By. Itself.  Watch my video of that here.

I put a few hundred kilometres on Sunday driving to Pelham, Ontario to cheer on my cycling team, who performed great, go team!

I took a break from the internet all weekend.

Can you leave your phone alone, or one further, at home when you go out? If you can’t, that’s not good.

I cleaned a lot this weekend. I do every year around this time.

Look at that smog water; that’s the price of living downtown.

Ahhhh better. I was surprised when the floor turned out to be white.

Like my snow tires ottomans? Driver at Heart.

Spring cleaning done, and this is a very happy me.

I can’t concentrate when things aren’t in order. I’m completely moved in now.

Girls night!

Lots of long city walks.

That’s Yonge and Wellsley.

I saw $3 million in cars go by in as many minutes.

A guy tapped me on the shoulder yesterday, “hi, I’ve been following you for several blocks, you have a really great walk, and I had to tell you”.

Notice anything about my outfits in this post? I’m not wearing all black :O

You must’ve been tired of seeing me always in black, I know I was tired of blogging the photos. But one suitcase for four months means everything must match, which means everything black.

I unpacked all my clothes that had been in storage since last fall.  Colour ahoy.

Have a great week! 

 

My Cycling Team is Top in Ontario AGAIN!

Once again my cycling team is tops in Ontario, YES fellas.

My team are O-cup racers, which means, they compete against the top cyclists in the province.

From last week at the 43rd Annual Springbank race in London Ontario, here’s teammate Nick…

A 40km race around a 2.2km loop (so 18 times around), all in the freezing rain (that wasn’t the best Sunday weather that day).

During the last lap he pulled ahead of eeeeeveryone…

And then:

Tada! FIRST PLACE!

Congratulations Nick! You’re killing it!

900km in 24hrs

I don’t like missing out on things, so sometimes adventures like this happen.

Boarded a train. Saw this machine in the middle of Union Station (did you know there used to be a shooting range there?).

Started this book. So far so great.

Fatal System Error by Joseph Menn

Went to a party and then another with a lot of old friends, and now some new ones, many of whom pick me up when they hug me, which I love.

Tried this for the first time. Meh.

At 4am I got out of one car and into another.

Hi from Hamilton, it’s cycling race day!

This is the Good Friday Road Race hosted by Canada’s oldest cycling club – The Hamilton Club.

You can better see the course in my episode, Exploring Cycling, because I filmed from the back of the pace car.  It’s set to some beautiful classical music.

It’s a 55km race, average speed was 37km/hr, takes 90 minutes.

It was so cold out (and ya it’s April, but remember the good weeks in March? Also, watch my weather video for why it’s good it’s cold in Canada)

Waiting for the results. Sleep dep FTW.

BOOM FIRST!

WTG Nick and great team work fellas.

Came home to a home cooked meal even, then I slept for a while the end.