I'm aweful at updating this blog :o)

Wow – it’s been another long time since I’ve updated this blog! My sincere apologies to any blog followers I've got out there - life is taking up an aweful lot of my time and energy these days! It’s really funny; since I’ve gotten rid of my TV I’ve never felt so busy….how the heck was I making it through life WITH that thing!!! It’s really nice not to have a TV actually:
- I can still watch DVD’s on my computer when I want
- I watch ‘seasons’ of shows I really like (Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld, etcetera)
- I read a lot more – books, mags, newspapers, online news
- And I feel like there’s nothing tying me to my apartment, so it’s much easier for me to get out with friends
- I ride my bike more since I don’t get sucked into the TV :o)

So what’s been happening recently? Well, quite a lot actually. I’m not sure where my last blog entry left off (I’m not online right now), but I remember it was after the Tour Alsace in July, so I’ll go a bit from there.

At the end of August I flew to Wisconsin for my good friend Sean’s wedding – he and Brynn tied the knot at her parents place on a lake in Wisconsin (can’t remember the name of the lake right now ;o) It was a really great wedding – couldn’t have been better! I’m still waiting for photo’s, so I’ll post some when I get them. Lots of great people around and I had a really fun weekend catching up with Calgary crowds. After Wisco I wandered to Chicago with Mike and Danny Bristow (brothers who are great friends from Calgary). We hung out in town for a few days and had a stellar time together catching up and getting lost around the city. But the visit was too short - they flew out after 2 days!

Then Kiersten flew to town and we spent 5 days together which was wonderful. We really explored town and saw lots, some highlights include:
- boat tour through the Chicago River (LOTS of history in this town and it comes out on a tour like this)
- museums and Imax movies (Wired to Win - about the Tour de France, with STELLAR cinematography - my favorite scene was the camera right down below a riders rear derailleur as they descended high in the mountains, and as the rider took a sharp turn to the right the camera kept going straight and over a huge cliff - no idea how they filmed that, but the vertigo I got was stunning!
- jazz tribute to John Coltrane at the Opera House downtown – that was a last minute deal that was really amazing (I have new respect for musicians!!!)

After that it was back to NL for Sept and the start of Oct, which included some more racing which was super fun. My season was winding down, but I was still able to cram in a few races and have some fun at the same time:
- celebrated my 30th birthday with some surprises – I woke in the morning and had to finish some work, but when I turned on my computer I got the ‘Black Screen of Death’. Normally it’s blue, but in this case it was so bad it was black…..great, all my data (and personal stuff) lost. Of course my fucking backup didn't work properly - why would it? It's only called 'Backup' - it's not like I'll ever need it to work properly.... The day ended on a good note though as I went for a fun MTB ride with Wilco, ending with a beer in the warm sun on a patio. Then off to Indian food for dinner with some friends, and a few Mojito’s to finish off the night. In bed by midnight though….I’m getting old!!
- Dutch MTB Marathon Championships – it was a cool race because I was in the lead group of 15 riders until the 2 hour mark, then I crashed in some sand and lost contact. After that I lost motivation and ended up 29th overall – not bad, but I really expected better after how well the first ½ went.
- A week in Provence for work, and I was able to do a little riding. First with Renny (colleague) for some great riding in the PR countryside, then Renny and Frank (husband of a colleague at Trek who was vacationing there) and I rode Mt.Ventoux, from the Bedoin side of course! That was a great ride as Frank and I continued over the top and down the backside (hitting speeds of 85kph on open roads!) and came back through Malaucene….probably my favorite ride of all!
- I stopped in Karlsruhe (Germany) on my way back to have a drink and dinnies with Michelle Boucher and her husband Misch and lovely little girl Kaya – and great news, they announced they’re expecting their second child!!
- The next weekend was off to Harderwijk for the season’s first cyclocross race. This one was the official opener of the Dutch season, so many of the big hitters were there – Richard Groenendal, Thys Als, Zdenek Stybar, among others (Nys and Wellens decided to stay in Belgium for a race that day – whimps!). It was my first elite level cross race, and overall I think it went pretty well – I finished 44th out of about 85 starters – not bad considering I was hung over, it was my first time on a cross bike in MONTHS, my warmup was shite, and I started dead last
- Then last weekend I was invited by one of my teammates to join a few guys going to Paris for an invitational criterium – Criterium International de Levallois (a suburb of Paris, about 15 minutes ride from the Arc du Triomph). Teams from all over showed up – Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, and of course France! The race was great fun actually, and I was really happy with how I rode – the first break got away from me, but after that I was at the front of the race for the entire time with my teammate Marco. We tried (unsuccessfully) to get into another break that might catch up to the leaders, but it didn’t work out. By the end we were both ridden into the ground, so with 10km to go we dropped back to finish with the main group.-
Now I’m off to Toronto to spend the weekend with Kiersten – wahoooo!!! Can’t wait to get off this plane since she’ll be waiting there to pick me up…..but we left about 1.5 hours late….I hope she waits for me ;o)
- Next weekend (Oct 29th) I’m registered for the St.Michelsgestel cyclocross race – which should be a-fucking-mazing!!! This is part of the SuperPrestige series, so ALL the worlds best cross riders will be lining up for it…..with me included!!! I’ll be way at the back, but this is such a cool opportunity – to say I raced cross against Nys (one of the top 3 crossers EVER), Wellens, and Gronendal – along with all the new top riders chomping at the bit. Should be incredible too with all the drunk Dutch and Belgian fans along the race course….yikes, I’m getting butterflies just thinking about it already :o)