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Click this link here for the PDF version of the Miller Times or continue to read below for the slightly messier format of the Miller Times. MillerTime_May_2013
Joining me for the 2013 year are Ergogenics Nutrition. They’re a North American company specializing in New Zealand Whey and recently Whole Greens and a plant based Hemp line. I’ve been using their products for the past three years as my training became more demanding I needed to recovery and fuel myself properly and purely.
“Ergogenics Nutrition has a core belief in being an ethically responsible corporation by putting our customers health first over profit! We believe it’s important to nourish the body with premium quality all natural & organic ingredients, instead of using Artificial ingredients that pollute the body and may have potentially harmful effects. We are a company that is trying to bring back “integrity” to the market and to our customers and their health. That’s why we use only the finest and healthiest ingredients for all ourformulations.”
Squamish is unreal when it comes to the support of the community. It’s pretty cool to have random people congratulate me on races or ask me how my training is going. It’s even better when someone takes a step further and offers to help you. Shaun Greenaway of Dirt Merchant/Tantalus Reality approached me last winter with the idea of helping me achieve my goals with a motivating incentive program. I’m grateful for this opportunity and look forward to the rest of the year!
Sea Otter is a pretty fun time and an excuse to go to California. I’m not especially strong at that style of course but each year I feel I get a little bit better. People seem to love to complain about the DH course, but let’s face it. It is what it is so come prepared for it. If you like bikes and you like riding them, chances are you’ll be able to have some fun. I raced my Nomad, the first year I’ve raced a ‘little’ bike and thought I was finally on track…Until everyone made fun of my wheel size! But I ain’t afraid, 26’’ is just like freeride- not dead.
Only two races in Port Angeles seems all too few. The first round of the US Grand Prix, or the 2nd round of the NW Cup or the #underworldcup2013 was a ton of fun. It was my first ride on my new v10 and in true PA style I was able to bang out lap after lap and it was easy to dial in. Bikes were ridden, guns were shot, heckles were called, burrito’s consumed and at the end of the day I walked away with 2nd place behind Jill. I’m happy to be riding well this early in the season and look forward to the Tremblant Canada Cup in a couple weeks. (That is the more French and generally less organized version of a NW Cup.)
Pinkbike has a short recap video of the US Grand Prix, from Jasper W. Around the 1:40 mark you can hear everyone cheer, “Adam, Adam, Adam!!” As I ride by. We assume it’s because of our obvious similarities of awesomeness…And great hair.
To view the PDF and proper version of the Miller Times, click this link. MillerTime_PortAngeles Or continue to read the messy blog conversion I’ve done below.
We were a bit rushed as usual to get ready for the race weekend with a last minute stop in Pemberton and Whistler to get some missing pieces for our bikes and some fresh Chromag and Dissent Labs gear. We then got RAMMED by a Dodge in Duncan on our way to the ferry. I took it as a warm-up, getting my neck ready for casing some hucks. We were able to drive away with all our bikes unscathed-thankfully they weren’t on the tailgate! Remi was bummed about his dented truck and I was mostly upset about my really good coffee that ended up on his dash and floor.
Port Angeles reminds me a lot of Squamish; not quite as good but similar. It is a small port town with great riding, back country access, water sports and what seems like a meth problem. If it’s all of those things or just one of them, regardless I feel at home every time I pull onto the streets of P.A.
Off and on all weekend we got to experience the Pacific Northwest at it’s best; the pissing rain. Our seeding runs were cold and the battle was trying to use your frozen limbs in the correct manner. By race time it had stopped raining and warmed up, leaving everyone a little happier. I pulled a good run to finish 1st along with fellow Canadians Zander Geddes winning Junior and Mark Wallace owning Pro.
A special thank-you goes to Tyler Morland, Chris Dewer and Shawn Cruickshanks. On the off chance they actually read this- to quote a guy named JayZ, “Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, you’re far too kind.” 
Great job to Remi Gauvin for a 2nd place finish in Pro Men and Dean Tennant for 6th. Lee Jackson for crashing and pulling off a very close 5th place in Junior Men and young Dunbar rider Magnus Manson for 3rd. Last but most certainly not least congratulations to Adam Mantle for rounding off the top 10 in Pro Men and earning himself another NW Cup glass- protein shakes will never taste as sweet as they do out of one of those cups.
Alchemy presented by Chromag Bikes is a sweet video put together by Eric Lawrenuk and features my local favourite, the most handsome dirt bag around, Kevin Landry from Artbarn. Lots of local landscapes and a good variety of riding. Canadian DH Girl, Micayla Gatto has a part riding the North Shore as well! Check it out here on Pinkbike.com
Yesterday it snowed and today it poured. Like call up Noah and the boys, build me an arc lets go! Fuck the animals we’re sailing without. I woke up this morning and there was a brief moment lying in bed where I thought the rain had stopped. No it hadn’t but I was determined to go riding but I was being a brat about it. It was raining, it was cold but then I remembered that I have drawers full of cycling gear and the worlds best trails. I figured I should skid down some of them in the pissing rain.
- This was me.
So I got out there and went for a ride. Much of the trail was flooded and almost everything of me was numb and I had far too much mud in my eyes. But there were a couple moments that made everything worth it.
I then started thinking about a car commercial I’d seen. A plane is landing and the captain is announcing cold weather and the man is starting his car from his iPhone. And I thought of the feeling of starting your car in the winter, sitting there freezing and swearing until it warms up. It does suck but…come on! I then turned on the news and listened to some mom quack on about not letting her kid ride the bus because there are no guardrails on a certain highway it travels on.
Ride in the rain. Get mud on your face, in your eyes, in your mouth. If you drop food on the floor- eat it. Wait until you reach your car to turn it on. Treat your kids like kids- not babies. In other words let us all stop being such wimps. And also, what is going on with the price of gas?
I am constantly being reminded about how great the “cycling community” is. (I find that phrase a little bit annoying, probably because it’s over used.) But we’re a fairly small, nerdy group that share something in common, the love of cycling. There are then a group of people that work tirelessly to spread their love to others. One of those was Jeremy Storie.
His recent passing was a shock and many, many will miss him. I’m lucky to have been able to work with him at the Velodrome, albeit not often and had the opportunity to experience his amazing sense of humour. I have very little involvement with track cycling, but I would get the occasional and random email from Jeremy telling me to get down to the track and start training. He was always keen to help me out with nothing in return. I wish I had had the chance to get to know him more but that’s not the way it works so I can only be grateful for all he did for me and so many others. Just another reminder to be grateful for what and who we have in our lives and to spread the love.
Why I Love Strava
It isn’t always about the QOM, sometimes PB is good enough.
I recently read an article titled, “This is Why I Hate Strava” and a few sentences in it states, “don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Strava.” This is my only annoyance with the story. Well maybe not only, but it’s an opinion. Like mine. I’m going to tell you why I love Strava, like the title says.
I’m a competitive person and I believe competition is a great thing. I also believe that it can have unattractive qualities and annoyances. You know the person that nudges in front of you at the last second, or buzzes your rear tire? You don’t need to do that anymore. Strava makes me feel better about being competitive off the race track. It allows me to be competitive not with the people I’m riding with, but with the people before me. The unknowns. When I pass my buddy with a flat tire and yell out a half hearted, “you all good?” but continue until the end before hiking back up to see if he needs a tube, I feel better about it. I still look like a jerk, but I sure feel like less of one.
I love that a KOM or QOM doesn’t mean victory. It isn’t one weekend where the king and queen is crowned on Sunday and remains that way until the next year. It’s an open battle. You think you rode a trail fast, you think you railed that corner harder than everyone else until you get the email saying, “Oh no! Jared Rando just stole your KOM!” I also find myself thinking, “how many people faster than me rode this trail without Strava.” In most cases, you can bet a lot. Unless it was Adam Mantle, he was slower.
The proof is in the numbers. Seeing your times, your speed, your average and max HR on each ride, each trail is awesome. You know that you improved that day. Or maybe you rode slower due to conditions but pushed harder or maybe you were slower because Adam Mantle was in front of you.
I’m not a super strong climber. I don’t have any QOM’s on climbs in town. I live in Squamish, BC. That should be explanation enough. There are countless world class athletes passing through or then there’s tons of local crushers that I chase around in twoonie races. When it comes to certain climbs I’m not after the QOM, all I want to see is that cartoon trophy with a PB beside it. Sometimes you don’t win but knowing you did your best on the day is a pretty damn good feeling.
When I’m riding with friends, my Garmin is on and I will be uploading the data to Strava later that night. I’m not letting this dictate how much fun I had riding, or how much I enjoyed my time with everyone. Maybe there will be a section of trail that I can try my hardest to hit perfectly, maybe I can stand up and go as hard as I can from one tower to another. Or maybe I will sit back and talk about how Erin Gwin will ride super fast on the new Nukeproof. The little computer talking to space on my handlebar isn’t about to tell me how much fun I’m going to have.
I do agree that there is certain Strava etiquette that should be followed. You don’t need to time the distance from your house, through the playground, across the hospital parking lot, over the bridge and through the lights to Starbucks. If it becomes unsafe for others, don’t do it. And in the woods, respect the other riders and the trail. Also, I’m guilty of this one- don’t Strava creep. It’s worse than Facebook creeping. I did it once and got caught in the act so to speak. I had just creeped someone that had gotten KOM on one of my favourite trails. I later saw them in public and before I could even stop myself said, “Oh you’re so and so and you just got KOM on bla bla.” What a tool.
Use Strava responsibly. Use Strava if you want. Don’t use Strava if you don’t want to. I love Strava and will continue to wear the ugly face of weekend competition, but remember I’m not racing you. (Unless you’re Adam Mantle.)
I’m usually down to watch any movie if it’s great or god awful. I have been harassed by a friend multiple times to watch ‘Premium Rush.’ So we can quote, “dissect it.” For those who are unaware, it is that movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger riding a fixie.
I finally caved and started watching. Plot break down. He must deliver a very important envelope but the evil, gambling addicted cop will do his best to stop him! And during all this time he has to hash it out with Manni the fellow sexy, athletic messenger who rides a bike with brakes and gears and wears lycra! What a wuss! (Who’s also trying to steal Levitt’s girlfriend- the sexy lady messenger.)
I find it interesting and actually cool that they have even made a modern, Hollywood movie about cycling. But as a cyclist this movie is hilarious in so many ways. One of my favourite scenes is the race between curriers in Central Park. They’re chasing each other up a hill and Manni yells, “not a problem for me baby! I’ll just drop it into my little ring.” At least he was using SRAM and had Fox Head gloves on. That I approve of.
So while Levitt is racing Manni, being chased by the evil cop, he’s also being hunted down by a NYPD Bike Cop that somehow manages to keep up with them on a mountain bike with pannier racks and his seat way too low. There also is an amazing scene at the beginning of Sexy Girlfriend Currier truing her wheel.
Apart from the terrible plot, script and some mediocre acting the riding is actually really good. One reason why would be is that Danny MacAskill was one of Levitt’s stunt doubles.
I would continue but I don’t want to give away the ending. You should probably just watch it. Unless you have more important things to do. Like going on Facebook.
I still think the slow-dance, flat-land scene in RAD is better.
Ride like Hell.
Check-out the latest issue of the Miller Times.
I have slacked off recently and haven’t posted in a bit. A bunch has happened! I went to Austria for World Championships where I got to room with Claire; we had a lot of good laughs. Hands down the best World Championships Team/Staff ever! We played USA in a game of beach volleyball and WON.
My creepy shoes scaring claire. What’s behind the curtain?!?!
Actually, I’ve skipped ahead a bit. Before I left for World Champs one of my best friends Pat Cox married another one of my awesome friends, Josee. I was honoured to be a ‘best-man’ along with Deaner Richards. It was an amazing ceremony at Porteau Cove- a pod of killer whales even swam behind them during the ceremony! Crazy.
Dean, Pat, Miranda
The Wedding Party
After the Wedding and after Worlds, my friend Remi and I went to Rome for a couple days to look at old things and walk around and get sore feet. It was a lot of fun, as rarely we don’t get to be tourists anywhere. We both discovered that we need to read more history and while things were ‘familiar’ to us we were fairly useless. The best part was using, “When in Rome” for nearly anything we did.
Russell Crowe’s house.
After looking and learning in Rome I came home and shortly flew from the ol nest, from one hill to another and moved into a suite on Hospital Hill. It will just be for the winter, until racing and travelling starts again. But it’s been nice. I work at Corsa Cycles, a very kick-ass bike shop in Squamish and my employers are, “the old people downstairs” as I like to joke. They’re not old, and they’re really cool. They sometimes make me dinner.
It’s been a hard but necessary transition from riding 5-7 days a week to working full time but I’ve been making the most of my days off. For example today I GOT QOM AND KOM ON ANGRY MIDGET!! Winning, even when it’s not really a race is awesome. But the pressure is on and people are going to be out to get me. It’s a long fall from the top but I’m going to keep fighting…I might just have to wait another 5 days until I have my revenge.
Talk soon,
your pal Miranda
I’ve been staying up at Champ’s house, the tall blonde one….if you’re confused I’m talking about Strand. She had an excellent performance in the Enduro taking home top spot and a very well earned pay check! Yesterday was the Garbanzo DH, my favourite race of Crankworx because it’s so hard. It’s a love-hate relationship. It’s so mentally and physically challenging but seeing how hard you can push on those trails is something you only get to do in a race situation. I took it pretty easy in practice as it was pretty hot out and easy to over do. It was for the first year ever, dry out and times were SO much quicker than past years. I threw away any sort of plans of conserving my energy and decided to go hard for the entire race. Easier said then done, but I did my best with only a few mistakes and finished a few seconds behind Casey Brown and a hair in front of BUCHAR. It was a really fun podium. Go canada!
claire
daniceuyesugi
STRAND
micaylag
mirdoc
vaeav
