Nine is the magic number.

Fig Rolls (Canada) were at the Comox Valley Snow to Surf again this year. This race is a lot of fun, and involves a lot of people. Well, 9 racers. This year we were:

"Parker" the driver: Darcy

Alpine Ski: Paul

Nordic Ski: Nikki

Run 1: Angie

Run 2: Andrew

Mountain Bike: Marc

Kayak: Lina

Road Bike: Dave

Canoe: Brenda and Colleen

The snow to surf is a minefield of equipment and being in the right place at the right time... with the right clothes on. Our driver for the day, Darcy, did an amazing job of keeping us all organised and ferrying us and our gear around in a big truck. Thanks Darcy!

The race started with the usual lung-busting run in ski boots at the top of Mt Washington, followed by some fast and furious descending. I did this leg a couple of years ago and I'm glad Paul has taken over from me on this one. Besides, he can ski faster than me. Paul came down just behind the main pack and handed off to Nikki who stormed off on the nordic ski. I grabbed Paul and his shredded lungs and we jumped in the truck to get me down to the transition for the second run. After a little warming up, Angie soon appeared... we were doing great! I held our position on the road run and then managed to make up a few places once we got into the trails at the end of my leg... I love the mud. I handed off to Marc who set off on the mountain bike with his usual enthusiasm.

The 4 of us "mountain" racers made it down to the lake to see Marc hand off to Lina who battled wind and waves in the kayak. I didn't get to see it, but apparently her leg went numb in the boat and she had to hobble up a mud slope to hand off to Roadie Dave using only one leg. Nice work Lina! It looks like we came out of the water in around 8th place overall, which is pretty incredible. Dave put in a fantastic ride on the road bike and we caught him whizzing through Cumberland. Then 7 of us, a bike, and 2 sets of skis got into the truck and headed to the finish. Our canoeists were stitched up by the boat rental company and given a huge hulk of a plastic boat... quite a sight compared to the sleek racing canoes they were paddling against. The ladies gave it everything in the massive, slow boat and got through wind and waves that were turning plenty of other boats over. We cheered them across the line, and found we had got 3rd place in the Open Mixed. Great stuff everyone!

Paul running into the ski transition

Nikki waiting for Paul

Angie on Run 1

Andrew on Run 2

Marc and Lina at the mountain bike / kayak transition

Lina paddling

Dave pedalling

Brenda and Colleen paddling "the ferry"

Mmmm, edible medals.

Paul's blog has the whole story and more of his photos... and Lina wrote stuff too.

Back in the game

After a very long silence, I'm back! Long silence following the misery of SITS 2008 - mud, mud, mud and then 5 months off riding due to injuring my knee from pushing my bike for 24 hours.

This time was used to full effect to finish my singlespeed build - originally planned to be a 'budget' build but ending up a long way from that. XT, hope and stans flow rims put paid to that idea, but it has turned out to be a brilliant bike (confirmed yesterday whilst riding the new singletrack at Sherwood Pines - not sure I have ever ridden that quick before!)

Comedy cyclo cross at Christmas time followed, with the team taking a sound kicking in the Lincolnshire League.

An entertaining trip to Dalby has been and gone, and now I've got back into the local club racing at the first Lincs League Road Race on Wednesday night. Somehow, after virtually no riding over the winter, I managed to keep with my group and nearly get the sprint! Ace stuff, but much pain.

Oh yeah, I have also grown a nice red beard, but that it (possibly) about to go.

Hooray for bikes.