Day 2 starts off in the quaint little town of Cumberland so it is an early wake up ( one of many ) to get loaded up and drive up. This will also be one of the last days we will have the truck as we are ahead of support for the rest of the race. Base camp is to be at VillagePark right at the end of Downtown Cumberland. I spend some time here on and off during the summer and its great place to come and ride. If you can get here I recommend it. The route will take us right up the main drag of this historic town and into some of my favorite trails on the whole Island. With trails names like “Two and a Juice, Buggered Pig, and Short and Curly bouncing through my head how could you not love it? Weather is again magnificent as we herd together in the field. Luckily our Start is also our finish today so its one huge loop ….kind of.With approx. 60km and 1300ft I am hoping the chain holds today. No worries, I am on my bike so life is good.
The gun goes and we are off. Its cool seeing 500 cyclists rolling down the strip in Cumberland. We pass the Old Waverly hotel famous for Lucky lager consumption among other things. It’s Just a quick burn on pavement before we hit some dirt. It doesn’t take long through some quad trail to get packed up with traffic. So much so that we are now at a stand still. The time I was thinking of gaining with trail knowledge is dwindling as we speak. I would be bummed but it’s sunny and we are riding so “hmmph”. Just like the Colwood Crawl in Victoria its hurry up and wait. And trust me; I am in no rush to get to Forbidden Plateau. I have shuttled it in the past but never tried to climb it. Now I know it’s a grunt. I just settled in and grunted along. Often felt like I was going backwards. The aid station is atop so I dismount and grab some food and drink, something I didn’t do in Nanaimo and think it hurt me a little bit. The downhill is super fun and then super technical, on the rigid bike anyway. A lot of rocky stairways and loose corners so its survival mode for a lot of people. Regretting the no suspension idea for a little bit.The trail Peels out to some wicked fun riverside trails and then back towards town. Again I recognize some trails so I crank he throttle a bit. I am Full boar until town where I see my friend BOB waiting for me. Its A super fun day, as all riding days in Cumby are. Dinner tonight is a little different in that some local restaurants are opening there doors to serve the BCBR clan. We hit up Tarbell’s and as we walk in there lies the biggest chocolate cake I this boy has ever seen. At least I know they won’t run out!! Dinner was awesome and I would like to thank all the folks that kept everyone fed here in Cumberland. You truly cannot beat a small town in Canada.
Sept 6/09 As I sit in the Calgary t int. airport I am troubled with thoughts of my upcoming few weeks. Going to see my father and brother in the H ha same time, filled with fear and anxiety. I have been in such great spirits lately, life moving forward in mostly a positive form, someone that I care for deeply, and whom I hope feels similar, riding tones and surrounding myself with people that are of the same attitude. Even work is good right now. So why……. With this latest development that brings me home it’s very hard to not start to take these things personally. I know that is a dumb statement and fairly immature, but just as things start to look up and start to become happy some unknown force just tries to thumb me down! Yes I am too sensitive and yes I am pretty hard on myself but yrs and yrs of it is starting to make me wonder. Even going as far to think I’m cursed because of an incident that happened Friday that actually I was not involved with or had any hand in ...
Today was the first of which I hope are many, Leechtown races. For those of you not familiar with what or where Leechtown is, take a look. In my usual procrastinating way I decided to build my Masi SS late last night for the "race." I figured that a SS would be safe as most of the @stuckylife guys run singles. Man was I surprised when the only two SS ( not including the fixies) were Pro city boys, Colin being the other. Well, no refunds so nut up and enjoy the hurt! I think there were about 26 people out which for a gloomy Sunday is frigging awesome. Good to see Tanya out after nuking her elbow at The Ricky Bobby. It was set up Neutralized for the first 15k or so till Veterans Memorial and after that it was game on. As soon as we were off neutral it was giver. With a lot of road crossings for the next while i realized the single speeds only downfall was with all the yielding, it meant a lot of accelerating. Well i do need work on my starts so take the positive right? It lo...
Coming off a great day with my baby I am left very reflective and very hungry!! Thinking about last weekend as its pain is still very fresh in my head. We flew back to FMM for a celeb ration of life for Dad put on by the School board. I must be honest in saying I was less then thrilled about this ceremony but mom booked us tickets then told me so I couldnt really avoid it. The turn out was nice, people that I really didn't expect to see even showed up. Gil Espejo put together a great lil slide show of photos my family put together complete with music. Francois set up a web cam at Aarons hospital so he could watch via Skype and people could talk to him as well. The topper was the Lefevbre and Diakow families dressed up in the Bill Pringle tuxedo!! I got stressed about nothing as it was very nice lil ceremony. The next day we took dads ashes to the cemetery to place him in his final resting place. A perfect -28 for the day. A lil prayer and words and mom placed him in as I comforte...
favorite trails on the whole 
s atop so I dismount and grab some food and drink, something I didn’t do in 
ferent in that some local restaurants are opening there doors to serve the BCBR clan. We hit up Tarbell’s and as we walk in there lies the biggest chocolate cake I this boy has ever seen. At least I know they won’t run out!! Dinner was awesome and I would like to thank all the folks that kept everyone fed here in 
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