Devon "Blizzard" winter bike race

Saturday was a bit of a gong show. I was planning on going on a road group ride, and upon arriving at the meeting point, I noticed on of the cleats on my shoes was moving around, but the aluminum (doh!) bolts were stripped so I couldn't do anything about it and just soldiered on. Then my Crank Brothers Candy pedals decided to engage their pain avoidance technology (saving me from possible suffering on the group ride) and disengaged from the pedal spindles. I've enjoyed the float, ease of entry, and mud shedding ability of the Candy's but they are disposable, and I am jealous of my brother's Shimano M520s that still spin like they are new.

Switching to Shimano ASAP!

Sunday was the day of the winter bike race in Devon. I wasn't going to race with cleats moving around, so I decided to race in flat pedals, for the first time in 7years. Luckily I had some 5.10 shoes with their sticky sole rubber! Oh yeah, and we were going to ride to Devon from Edmonton...on our mountain bikes...with me using flat pedals.

I've developed quite the diesel engine with all the skimo racing that I have done and was rolling like quite the hero with Andre coming into Devon. Race course conditions were slushy with some rutted out sections, it was going to be a wet race with lots of running!

nice shoes!

I took it pretty easy off the start and worked my way up and then got into a bit of a battle with Mark from Hardcore, but ended up 4th.

After the race, I enjoyed some chili, and everyone came away with a draw prize. Sweet! Compared to mud and sand, riding in snow is fun. I was experiencing the same sensations as in mud or sand, but my bike wasn't getting super dirty.

The ride home was tough and everyone was suffering. Solid ride for sure!