Expanding into 2012

Team Roster will be announced soon but until then here are some secret vague photoshopped shots of our new riders.

p.s. we run on a limited budget just remember that

- Peace out
Tristan

Tour De King and AWI fun

So Chico is hosting another great event called Tour De King and I think y'all should check it out on the Chico site HERE. AWI will be there hopefully on a fixi tandem so its worth the trip just to see Jacob and myself crash and thrash the King!

Last Hardwood Ski and Bike weekly race series night Matt,Jacob and myself deciding to race Go-Karts. Heres a vid of us hitting the Joy Ride 150 jumps.

Cheers,

Tristan

I got this one guys

Well I guess im doing this report, Still waiting on another team member to do a 9 hour report but whatever people are busy camping I guess.

AWI has at least one official member at Worlds(the real actual worlds not provincial worlds) this year. Though there are some prospective team members in attendance. So saturday at 10:30 Ontario time you can watch yours truly on the interweb and live timing race here in Switzerland repping the Team.


check ya later

First XC win for AWI

Thats right, AWI finally scored an olympic format win this past weekend at Blue mtn at the Georgian Bay open AKA east coast open.

It was a crazy course see my own personal blog for a detailed report. Hey just a question does anyone else read this thing?

Anywho, good weekend all around, the AWI coffers are a little deeper now. Should make for a good end of year BBQ.

Sick, also we had an exec meeting last night and we have decided who we will invite to join the team next season. I hear Cavendish is looking for a team.....

If You're Not First, You're Sixth

Kelso O cup report, and since i am the only one that raced it i guess i have to write the report.  Pre rode yesterday and it was super dry, and prbably the best course i've ever ridden at Kelso.  With the threat of rain Sunday i was ready for whatever, until i woke up and saw it was actually pouring, then decided i didn't want to ride in the rian.  Turned to the trusty radar and it reassured me that it would stop.  By the time race time came around it had been dry for a couple hours and the sun came out just in time to cook us on the climb up the escarpment 5 times. 

Kinsie and i had decided to race for last and second last.  Gun went off and i started my nice chill climb settling into a solid 20th or so.  Everyone was trying to kill it the first lap and there were some mistakes made on the remaining few slippery sections.  After lap 1 i was sittig just inside the top 15 and just plugged away at it.  At the end of the second lap Bretton caught me and i turned it up a bit to see if i could hang on.  I did and he towed me around for 2 full laps....Thanks again Brett.  During that time i got all the way up to 6th and all i had to do was hang on the last lap and not screw it up.  Held the position and got the hurt on the last half lap.  Good race overall. Kept all my laps between 25:01 and 25:47 so pretty consistant i'd say.  Pounded back some choco milk at the end, accepted my huge pay cheque and headed for the Booster Juice.  Nom nom. 

Not sure what the team is up to next. Maybe an interclub road race, maybe East Coast Open, for me the next thing will be the M View 9 hour solo.  All for now. Just wondering when the next AWI slip 'n slide party is......

Later.
Jacob

ROCKSTAR!!!!!

I'm starting to wonder why I am the one who has put up the last two race reports? I don't really race mountain bikes, truth be known....I don't really "race" anything. I participate in various event, I socialize, I take in the sights, I get some exercise, I have a great time, and I learn new skills.  I'm not sure if these are the things that you readers really want to hear about . Oh well, no one is tying you up and forcing you to read this, so I guess I will just go ahead and babble since I am home alone right now, and Matt keeps telling me that part of my responsibility of being an AWI team member is to write about the races I play in.

So back to the original point of this post: rundown of AWI representation in the 8hr Rockstar Adventure Race. So for my second kick at the can, I joined forces with my brother (who is an experienced adventure racer), and tackled the Rockstar. We were racing under the guise of team Double Distilled. Is it fate, or just coincedence that my brother raced under that name with some other team mates in the past? You see, the taste for fine single malt scotch is something that both my brother and I are afflicted with. Keep and eye out next year, we may be flashing some Tartan.

Once again Sean Roper and his crew put on a sensational race. I can't say enough great things about the Storm series of races, if you haven't tried one yet, I highly recommend you do. The race runs like clockwork, the staff and volunteers are extremely friendly and helpful (including my most awesome fiancee Matt, who is responsible for getting lots of broken bikes running again, including one which kept throwing it's peddle off. Fixing this peddle resulted in a third place finish for the bike's owner (bet the 4th place team wouldn't be to happy reading about this!) To bad we didn't stay for the after party because there were a few people who wanted to buy him beer. LOL, it would have been pretty funny if he hadn't told me about the mechanical mishaps and the people who wanted to buy him a beer......when the first woman came up to him asking him what he was drinking, so she could get him another!

The weather for race day couldn't have been better, and Bark Lake is an ideal location for this type of race (both for racers and spectators). I could go through the race bit by bit, but really there isn't to much to say. My brother Kevin is amazing to race with. We had a great bike, no problems with the Nav (thanks to Kev's superior skills and experience), and fun bushwacking (which only left a few marks). The paddle left a bit to be desired, we haven't figured out if we kept pulling to the left because one of us is stronger on one side, we should have traded spots in the boat, the wind was working against us, or we just had a wonky boat. Next year I may bring my own boat and we'll see what happens. So for our first attempt at racing together, we finished last (as per AWI rules), but as per Storm's results we finished 4th....not to bad if you ask this newb. We'll be back next year for sure.  Just look for AWI, it will disguised as Tartan.

I believe that Andrew will be responsible for the next race report (see, you're not the only one with the password buddy!) That's it for me, until the Xterra duathlon at Hardwood next month.

Happy trails, Shannon

Too hot to race

forget how to "embed"  heres the link AWI heat training

I did just as it told me....I got LOST IN THE ROCKS AND TREES

So with a LOT of encouragement from Matt, I agreed to try my first mountain bike race this past weekend. I only agreed because this was a race that was far away from all the people I know and would be self conscious racing in front of. Of course when I say I am going to race, that really means that I am going to start at the back of the pack and ride around the course at my speed, trying not to get in anyone's way or take anyone out. You see, I'm not that good on two wheels, but put me on something with four legs and that is a whole different ball game. Any how, against my better judgement, Matt and I made our way up north into the rocks and trees. This is a race that he has wanted to do for a long time now.

We stayed in a motel in Mattawa on the Friday night that was right on the Ottawa River, this made for a great relaxing night reading on the balcony before bed. Race morning came, did the usual stuff for Matt's race and saw him off as usual, then I found a shady spot to read for the next two hours before it was my turn (awesome, not even Matt there to watch me start and cause me to be nervous!). So the 30km race was small (sweet, less people to worry about running into!), the start went of well, I decided to start in the middle. By the time we hit the only section of single track (just down the driveway), I think I was in about 4rd spot. We had to get onto the highway for a short section and then make a left turn off the road onto some double track....here is where the "problems" began. The leaders carried on down the road, past the left turn sign, and this being my first race, I was hesitant to head in an entirely different direction by myself....so I turned around and rode back to the nearest race official to ask them where to go, meanwhile telling everyone I passed that I thought the leaders went the wrong way. It turns out the leader DID go the wrong way, so I sent the 4 wheeler after them, and led the rest in the right direction. Things were going great for the next 10 minutes or so, and then it went wrong. To sum it up, myself and a new friend ended up doing an extra 13km with lots of standing around discussing which way we should go. An extra 50 minutes or so of riding, with lots of repeated climbs up the same hills made of loose beach sand, and we were back on track. We rode the course just to see what we would have missed had we pulled the plug, we chatted, we rode through really deep muddy puddles, we hung out at the check station for a bit....all in all I had a great time. It turns out the problem was that someone had stolen a very important directional sign, aside from that the course was extremely well marked. This was a fun race for my first time, and I will go back again next year, the organizers are great, and the area is beautiful. So I think there is the possibility that I could have done quite well at my first race, but instead I did as it told me, and got Lost In The Rocks And Trees.

Cheers, Shannon

More international tales

Hanging out at the guebec city airport, have a good amount of time so here is the rundown. travel here was solid smooth like butter. Training on the course was good, it was a little damp out there in spot. Except for the Ontario section which was bone dry and sandy.

Got to watch the kids race at nine thirty which was neat, I dont usually get to watch my teammates race much. They trucked her pretty good out there. Gave me some motivation to be on my A game.

Race day was nice and hot by 2 30, Stayed as cool as possible, rolled up to the line pretty much at the back, no biggy, stated sure enough almost ended up in a pile up right off the gun. Stayed upright, stayed positive. First singletrack was all just hike a bike, got to the beatrice, opted to stay on the bicycle. Probably a bit excited, rode the left hander into it too fast lost the front end and tucked and rolled. I was fine, but my stem was turned at about a 45degree angle.

Luckily im old school enough to still carry a tool with me, I was at the back, 1 st lap, so i opted for a proper fix, took my time to make sure I wouldnt need to stop again, and with the follow moto revving his engine behind me, I got going again.

Didnt take long to catch back up, took me a while to get onto some clear trail, Then I was able to start cranking out some good laps.

Rode up to Cameron, followed him into the beatrice, he crashed right where I did and as it turns out so did about half the field. I didnt have anywhere to go, ended up rolling off my bike again, im pretty sure we were in a full embrace at one point. Now apparently I got back on and yelled T.O.sucks as I rode past him, I dont remember that part.

After that nothing to exciting, at the end of 5 I caught Bishop, and started getting my head into last lap mode, when out of nowhere a commisaire jumped out of the woods and stopped the two of us. First world cup pull in a while. bummed but thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Got a few UCI points, held it together, had some good laps.

So home, some good livin, then off to New York for more bike racin goodness,

Thanks to my team for a great stay and of course Kevin and Norco for the support.

AWI front, im working on some recruiting, stayed tuned there could be some new names pop up on the roster. Of course i need to run them past the president first.

A few changes and an addition

I apologize in advanced.  As the team grows and the event list gets long the site needed just a little TLC  There are some reprints of previous posts but things will be much more streamlined now.  More race updates to come, World Cup this weekend for one team member, some recovery time for others, training for the remainder of the team.

Speaking of the team, we all went to welcome Sean Ruppel on as an official member.  Mainly its because we want to play with his breasts, his riding ability is questionable but his dog seemed to help influence the selection committee to allowing him to join the most exclusive race team in Ontario.  I do believe the Muskee's influence was more on the sacrificial body offering in the means of a chew toy to the three wise dogs.  They have yet to receive the offer.

The selection committee

Starbuck, food works to bribe your way past this judge, of course after she eats your hand off your riding ability may be limited.

Rogue, the silent one, the young one.  Not much is known of this judge.  Potentially the decider.

Molly, has Nascar passed the best and speed check crashed the best.  Impress her with your technical skills and speed, you may get in.  Slow up and she will put you into the wall.  

Brenden Matheson,

 The only man who can smile and puke at the same time.  Would rather race in a pair of Daisy Duke shorts than a team kit.  Feels that everyone should dress like a super hero, even if you're not.

Andrew Parry,

Although he has opted to live in the country known as Quebec he helps with the international presence.  Has been seen more at night than during the daylight hours.

Chris Wong,

 The only man who feels that the team kit doesn't have enough pink in it. Feels that looking fast is way more important than being fast.  Closet team member, closet something else????

Matthew Spak,

 The old guy of the team, of course this doesn't mean he has much wisdom.  Doesn't ride that fast so compensates by doing really really long races.  Writes better than he rides and most times that's even in question. 

Shannon Spak,

 Yes that is a horse.  She rides horses faster than we ride bikes, she also runs faster for fun than most of the team does scared.  Turning to the dark side and will be seen running and more so riding in the flashy colours.  Yet another woman on the team to put shame in the boys during the winter training. Not officially a Spak but accepted the proposal.

Tammy Simmons,

 Rides to eat.  If her bike was made of chicken she probably wouldn't leave the house.  Only injured 7 children as she pushed her way through the line up for this picture.  Does the same for lineups with Santa and the Easter Bunny.  Can't officially race for the team, closet racer.  

Jeremey Simmons

Old man Simmons, has more pins and screws in his right knee than the local hardware store. Lives in a house made of bubble wrap.   Has the best Just Walking Along story, so good he repeated it.  Has been taunted more than once by one of the members of the selection committee. Runs some bike shop that doesn't allow him to race in his true team colours. Closet racer, .

Scott Irwin

One thought, he may be piloting the plane you're in.  Scared yet?  Was asked nicely to sober up a bit before his lap by a bunch of guys drinking during a 24 hour race.  Has been trapped up in the land of moose and rednecks.  Well rested and well fueled for the race season.

Brandon Parker

At 6 foot 20 or something massive Brandon is known for making trails wider as he rolls through with absolute grace. After many years of being unskilled he left the triathlon world to become a cyclist. Has the ability to break a bike just by looking at it and has more JRA stories than he should for his age. Riding for some random central Ontario bike shop, weak but is a closet team racer and will go into the light. 

Jacob McClelland

The other half of the twins.  What he may lack in power he makes up in weight saving.  Only person who would take a dremel tool to an xtr shifter because it's to heavy.  Has been known to run down small children during the weekly race series.  

Liz Ross

Jersey designer, treasurer etc etc. Know as Deathmarch Liz can you see why we gave her control of the money. Has the ability to make the strongest cyclist beg for her to slow down, there's a fast pace then there is LRP (Liz Ross Pace). The team's navigator, Liz has some internal gps that keeps us from being lost in the woods and eaten by cougars. 

Andrew Watson

Owner and V/P of AWI, because of contract rules can't officially race for his own name sake but has promised to flash the team jersey at a World Cup. Is know to be faster than his hair and creepier than his mustache. Can be seen on billboard and videos through out the country and those aren't even the ones the cops have. Has dreams of following in Siskel and Eberts foot steps as a movie reviewer if this cycling thing doesn't pan out. Lucky for us he rides pretty good for a little guy. Closet team member

Tristan Spurr

, Known as the strongest technical rider in Canada, when everyone else is out of the country. The president of AWI racing and half of the famed twins of the Monday Night Something crew has a list of successes in the cycling world including Tandem wins at Paris to Ancaster and 24 hour tag wins at Summer Solstice. The mighty T doesn't like doing things alone. 2011 Has Tristan attempting to scare the shit out of the road racing scene, call the 

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150294299696195

Besides this Matt and Tristan managed to win the tag team division.  Andrew was again called a ringer by more than one team and Brandon was cause of a major pileup during the first lap slow 80% of the field to a stand still.  A very successful 24 hour of Summer Solstice

AWI DOES TT NATS

like I said we are the most diverse team in canada just all over the place racing anything with two wheels

Chillin on the coach after a long day, started off with a nice scenic drive down to Belfountain early to make sure I could pick up my race numbers. Got there a little after 8, signed in met up with Kevin and met the H & R block riders who are part of the Norco family rocking the bikes on the road scene, nice group of guys. Even got some free tax advice.

With a long wait I headed to Orangeville for some interwebing at Starbucks. Got back and got ready for my 1:41 departure. weather seemed to changing by the minute, warmed up on the trainer as it seemed like the thing to do.

Good downpoor just before the third wave which i was in got started making for a nice slick road surface. For some reason I was put in with the heavy hitters, had some serious horsepower behind me, Darko Ficko, Ed Veal, were just minutes behind me, Osmond Bakker was my minute man.  Then all the superstars, Tuft, Zach Bell etc. A few more minutes back.

Got started heard there was a nice climb on the way out and not to kill it the first lap, check, my legs were feeling a little angry anyway. After that I got into a nice groove, probably took the corners a little easier than I should have but really had no idea what they were like dry so I wasn't gonna push it.

Course was very similar to our now old club TT course. Never flat always rolling, so it was good. Most exciting moment of the race was ont he fastest decent on the course I was almost spinning out so probably close to 60kph and gravel truck headed the other way at 80-90, with aero wheels in an already windy stretch yeah I'm very glad I had the whole lane use.

Lapped through feeling good, heading out for the 2nd lap legs really started to come around, Charlie and team Ontario rider caught me, but once I found my legs wasn't able to come by, and and then I realized I still hadn't been caught by anybody, Ed, or Darko, gave me a little motivation to know I wasn't going to get demolished by those guys.

Looking at my watch started to realize I had a fair amount left in the legs, after the last turn I accelerated stuck it in my biggest gear and just tried to spin it as fast as I could to the finish. 1:03:08. 40.8658 kmh on a rolling course with some wind. 6:40 back from Tuft (who won by nearly a minute) 40th out of 61 starters, Ill take that I was secretly hoping for a 61-62 minutes, but ill take that time and result.

As for the race within the race, Kyle Fry took top honors besting me by 21 seconds, with some mechanical issues, so I must give credit where credit is due. Kudos young man.

side notes, the entire Rocky Mountain team wasn't able to start cause their forks were out of the 3:1 rule, Charlie Bryer had to use his road bike with aero parts, so yeah they were tight on the new bike regs, 12 DNS's I think most of those were bike regulation issues.

Here's the altitude graph, my hr monitor went wonky partway but the elevation shows the rolling never flat nature of the course.

Anywho, im tired.

good times, I'd love to do more TT's in the future it has that certain mystique, just you and a bike, no BS unless you make up the BS.

Huge thanks to Sue Haviland for the bike,  Brandon Parker for the sick wheels, and  Havy for the help today,

Canada Cup update

rich update from the previous weekends Canada Cup. Team did well, Andrew aand Jacob played with the nations best, Andrew doing it with some european cold that would have put a weaker man on the side lines moaning and whining. Solid race by both, Andrew 11th, Jacob 19th.

At a later time slot Matt and Tristan took on the gear less crew. Some late race battles found the boys with good results also with Matt finishing 5th and Tristan in close pursuit in 6th. Chris and Brandon had some fun in the Sr Ex division and were both attacked with some bad luck, both will be ready for the next one.

Warning to the general public

Team update, other provinces and country have come to AWI Racing's backyard to play. Some were invited others were not. This weekends Canada Cup at Hardwood will be see some official colours, gang signs, and possible a ride by. Stay tuned as details or police reports become available.

Team AWI getting a sneak peak of the Olympic course, all we need to do is form our own independent nation and field a team next summer. 

and my Offenburg World Cup report

I got an awesome pep talk from Scotty he put Al Pacino's inches speech to shame. Got lined up in a solid field of 155, smaller than what i thought it would be. It was going to be a long hot one by today standards. Played it chill off the start. If i'm super aggressive or just patient I always end up in the same place after the start loop. First lap was full of bottleneck goodness, which is nice for keeping up foreign relations and picking up useful euro swear words.

After the first two laps, I got in a solid group of three other guys. Once we got rolling we started freight training individual riders. It was a good group, we didn't jit each other out, like I've said before its like daytona, you need to find the cars that work with yours. The group lasted till almost the last lap when it fell apart and I attacked off the back.

Jumped on Adams wheel for a bit as he came by but faded of him as well. Last lap was a battle with JHK,  in the end he had more kick than me and I came across in 68th. Same as south africa, but I probably had a better race in a deeper field here.

Big thanks to the Staff, Kelly, Scotty, Kyle and Dan trip was awesome.

Tremblant

Article from jacobmcclelland.blogspot.com

Race day. Legs were feeling ok warming up but not great by any means so i spun around with only a couple short efforts and rolled to the start line. After the Quebecois started the call up wrong and everyone got mad they sorted it out and we were off. 82 guys on the start, with some chaos in the first singletrack causing my front skewer to be flicked undone by someone elses wheel. Not to panic, we were climbing and it didn't need to be done up for a bit. Saw some guys hopping off for a technical corner and i took the chance to just off, do up the wheel and then actually ran it past a couple guys who were getting jammed up behind one another. After that things calmed down and i settled into my pace.

From there it was all uphill. Just started picking guys off and never looked back. At the first feed i was in the 30's and each lap got some positions. Managed to sit in behind someone for the bike path section for 4 of the 5 laps, with one of them behind Zach while he tried to TT it away for 3 others. It didn't work. Lap 5 i was on a mission to catch Noble and a french guy, and by the top i was just behind them, maybe 20 seconds benhind Noble and 10 behind french. I caught them both on the dh and once we hit the bike path nobody was willing to pull the others to the finish. I sat on the back and right before it got twisty made my move and was off. Beat them both in and ended up 18th. Super happy with that. Pretty sure it is my best Canada Cup result to date in Elite and will shoot for another good one at Hardwood.

After the race had some pizza then headed back to the condo to find Jer and Tammy who should have both been racing. Jer thought he broke his bike and Tammy the healthy paleo person was vomiting. Maybe eating nothing but meat and vegtables, then drinking 5 litres of heed has something to do with it. I dunno, just saying, i eat as much wheat and sugar as anyone anf don't recall the last time i was sick or had digestion issues. Well i'm sure i've offended a bunch of people who are on that diet so i'll end here.

Victoria's 100 miler

To say this was one of the hardest races I've done would be an understatement. Tough course, lot's of climbing, great single track and a mix of weather took it's toll on my body. Started out at a pretty conservative pace, leading the group for the first 10km or so, a slight break in the group and I chilled and let it go. It's a long race and I've seen that happen before.

Body started to do some strange things in the first half of the race but mentally pushed it aside and continued to push along. Things went downhill on the second lap as what I thought was heat stroke kicked in. Stubborn as I am and with a pretty twisted threshold of pain I kept pushing along holding on to a top 5 overall finish and second in division. Unfortunately this also got me a trip to the hospital for a lube, oil and filter. It was not the most enjoyable post race meals I've ever had, didn't taste as good as the burgers that were being cooked up at the venue.

The heat that came blasting in got to me, with little to know real training in it over the last few months when it hit it hit hard. Overall a great race, minus the hospital stuff. Would have been great not slowing down to snail's pace during the second lap, normally where I shine is later in the race. Not this time. I'd recommend this race to anyone up for an epic challenge.

Spread thin

With Spak racing the 100 miler, most the crew out of the country in Quebec and myself across the pond, the team was reping all over the place.

Im sure the others will post something up regarding their repective races, as per their contract.

The Dalby world cups was again a road race on dirt with groups forming early after getting shattered by high winds. After a while it was just a race within a race. About 10 of us were battling hard for 80th, sounds crazy but when your out there its just trying to kill every guy infront of you.

Rode aggresivly and fought hard to end.

Today AWI hit up the olympic course just outside london, pics to follow of that excursion.

Up next Offenburg.

Debut

Next goal for the team is to have more than 2 people at a single event. It was up to Liz, Jacob and myself (owner/vice-president) to represent at the Barrie Cycling Club 15 TT out at the fairgrounds in Oro.

Liz was on Photography duty while Jacob and I tackled the TT course in our respective categories. Jacob in the Eddy Merckx category and myself in the newly formed MTB with slicks category. We'll call it the Killen category.

We met up on Bass lake sideroad for a team warmup, and then rolled into rave reviews of the kits, people were pleasantly surprised to see a kit that will stand out.

Jacob and myself both topped our cats, I also accomplished my goal of besting Jack on my MTB, even though he doesn't accept it as I was riding slicks.

all for now,

Interclub Road Race

My name is Tristan Spurr and I'll be your host today.

This past weekend was the first Interclub race.The Race started at the 15/16th side road and the 7th.We had a team meeting before the start and Watson decided to use similar starting tactics  as used by Tammy during her race at Mansfeild. Team director Watson informed me (Tristan) that the first lap was mine and I was to pin it for the 15km first lap (he was joking but didn't clarify so I did it anyway).Thought it was weird but I'm not one to challenge a famous World Cup competitor.

Gun went off and so did my MTB style start.Went into TT mode and didn't take my foot off the pedal. Apparently there was a pretty large gap between the AWI three and the rest of the pack.I wasn't about to  shut her down until the lap was over and Watson realizing this made him think if I didn't shut it down it could cause some anger within the group, he then road to Jacob and mentioned that we had lost the pack.Jacobs response was "good".Watson then jumped in front of me to slow it down, I of course thought he was giving me a break and as soon as he dropped back I put the power back to full.After I noticed Andrew and Jacob dropping back a bit I realized I should turn it down and join the group.

Unfortunately that hole start thing kind of left a sour taste in everyones mouth and set the tone for the rest of the race.No one really wanted to work with any one and the group never really got organized.There were a lot of little random attacks wich caused both spak and I to fall off the group.Jacob Stayed up for most of it but apparently the group split on the final lap leaving him split from Watson.Watson allegedly through down one last attempt to catch the lead group but couldn't  reel them in before the finish.

Solid ride by the team but we still have some work to do.Maybe a training camp or two...Thanks to the clubs for an awesome day in the sun and also a round of applause to Elizabeth for working the corner....It was hot for me, I can only imagine what it was like for her....

Cheers,

Tristan

My turn

Tammy here, since Jacob wrote the Paris to Ancaster report, Andrew wrote a South Africa world cup report and every other AWI team member wasn't racing it was up to me to write down my thoughts about Mansfield.

Pre-ride day was solid, did some tempo laps and practiced my starts as per my coaching instructions from my awesome coach Peter. Got to see my best friend Andrew Watson, he was in a very good mood and wasn't grumpy at all.

Race day came around,  my bike was all ready to go thanks to my awesome husband Jeremy who washed and prepped my bike. Lined up with a nice size field of 16 women. Pete told me to kill it off the start so I did. the rest of the race is kind of a blur, finished 6th and was able to hold off three other women who were all within 60 seconds of me.

All for now
Tammy

AWI's Andrew Watson does South Africa

Back at the team Canada compund after a solid day of Baseball. All was dialed coming into today thanks to Dan and Scott, the weather gods were smiling on us, must have been the monkey I sacrificed yesterday. All that was left was to warmup and kill it or as Pete would say punch some snakes in the face.

Got lined up in the smallish field of 114, I was definetly closer to the back than the front. After seeing the start list I changed up the race plan a bit. Decided to just chill out and maintain my position the best I could. Not try to burn to many matches early on. With 6 minutes of intensity since Columbia I was cool with riding into the race a bit.

Start was pretty good, actually pretty civilized for a WC start I thought. On the open Doubletrack my legs were screaming at me. lapped through in the high 80s I think. Legs started to come around, as guys were starting to crack so I was able to start moving up through the field. The bone shaker was insane first two laps there were just guys laying on the ground all over the place. Had to run the bottom part twice.

Heading out onto the third lap, I started to turn on some more cylinders. Moved up five to ten spots a lap. Mostly on the bone collector with two to go I managed to get into the top 60 which would have been sweatness for the following world cup callups, but the legs started to give out a bit, held onto it for a lap but cracked on the final lap and just had to put it into damage control.

Lost some spots but manged to get a few back before crossing the line in 68? Ish. Happy I rode a clean smart race. Better than Dalby last year.

Three weeks to crank it up a couple notches before round two and three.

Big thanks to Scott and Dan for a great trip.

I also totally expect it to be nice and warm when I get home, I could get used to this 20's plus weather. 

Watch out, here we come

So where will you see AWI Racing? Everywhere!!! World domination baby ,because were evviillll. We have all been promised mini me's with every race victory. Jacob and Tristan's are being grown right now, twins of the twins at 25 percent it's size multiplied to the root power of holy shit. Yep, were excited.

The race list is long, Ontario Cup, 100 milers, Canada Cups, 24 hours. We will be everywhere. The first planned team time trial is coming up quickly also with the inner club road race in oro. It will take 3 clubs working together to even put up a bit of a fight when the pink and purple come steam rolling through screaming Shake'N'Bake.

Of course you can watch AWI Racing fast guy, Andrew Waston this weekend on FREECASTER.COM racing at some thing called a World Cup. Next season that will be changed to AWI Cup, the UCI would have changed it this year but AWI Racing felt that it would be better for the rest of the world to have a slow transition. World domination should never take place in one sweeping step, at least not one that you are aware of, we are ruling everything, you just don't know it yet.

There is no point looking over your shoulder, we've already passed you

Paris To Ancaster

 The first ever AWI team race was this past weekend down there near Hamilton, going from Paris to Ancaster.  Leaving at some redicilus hour on Sunday morning we headed down and got there with lots of time to get suited up and cruise around showing off our kits.  Of course since we don't have our actual kits yet we used the outfits that have inspired our actual race kits.  We also borrowed some aero helmets from Brandon to top it all off. 

With our cruise around complete we lined it up in the start pen and everyone was loving the "Mandem".  I'm sure lots were intimidated since we were killing it last year and only doing poorly because of mechaincals.  we had no excuse this year. The bike was running smooth, and well, we were in pink and purple spandex. 

Anyway the gun went off and we turned it to 11 blazing up the side of the road with Tristan screaming "tandem on your right!!!".  Got into a pretty good position for the railtrail and tried to hang on to the insane pace.  I have never seen the pace so high on that section.

We backed off a bit and let all the heros kill their legs in the first 5 km.   Once we made the hard right hander and got past that loose gravel climb we started picking people off.  Going by a group, they would hold on for a bit then we would just keep moving up.  Not too far in we had a slip up with the chain guide and we had flashbacks of last year.  We were stopped on the side of the road scrambling to fix it up.  Got it going again, but shortly after my seat came loose doing a remount and during a running section we had to pull out the tools and make another quick pit stop.  By that point we had moved way back in the group and knew it was impossible to reach our goal now.  Rode the trail sections smooth in the first half and we were working hard to get back in it. 

After the halfway point we took a crash on a muddy downhill and had some guys enjoying our riding style and staying with us just to sandbag on the roads and sit on our wheel.  Not too long after that the line of guys just sitting in so we started doing randon attacks.  I had had enough of people not working with us, and just sitting there so we were trying to lose them.  On the cross wind sections i was riding along the far ditch so nobody could sit beside us out of the wind.  The second long railtrail section we had a few guys on and were reeling people in like no other.  A bunch of the tried to jump on the pain train too but by the end of the straight we only had 4 guys left.  I feel we put the hurt into some people doing that, but also into ourselves.  That went right into a muddy run/walk section which was followed by a refuel energy bar stop.  Legs were fried and still had probably 10km left.  Rode it fairly slow, tried to find somone we knew to finish up with, and managed to splash through the mud chutes and ruin our white shoes.  We had come across Scott Luscombe and did the secret hand signal saying we aren't losing to him.  Put the hammer down and lost him up the final climb.  Tons of pain but it was worth it.  We ended up being 8 minutes slower than last year and a lot of places lower.  We ended 1st tandem and 177th overall, which means we were both first and last i guess.  Got our free lunch and got the frack out of there as soon as we could.  Got hame and dranks some beer.  Time to get ready for the next AWI race.  Might even have real kits by then.

That's all folks!  Later.

Jacob

The start of something scary

You're not seeing things, it's tacky, it's bright, it's ummmm well figure that out for yourself.  Welcome to the world of Ontario's premier unofficial official invite only race team. 

Meet the team

Tristan Spurr, known as the strongest technical rider in Canada, when everyone else is out of the country. The president of AWI racing and half of the famed twins of the Monday Night Something crew has a list of successes in the cycling world including Tandem wins at Paris to Ancaster and 24 hour tag wins at Summer Solstice. The mighty T doesn't like doing things alone. 2011 Has Tristan attempting to scare the shit out of the road racing scene, call the ambulances now.

Andrew Watson,owner and V/P of AWI, because of contract rules can't officially race for his own name sake but has promised to flash the team jersey at a World Cup. Is know to be faster than his hair and creepier than his mustache. Can be seen on billboard and videos through out the country and those aren't even the ones the cops have. Has dreams of following in Siskel and Eberts foot steps as a movie reviewer if this cycling thing doesn't pan out. Lucky for us he rides pretty good for a little guy. Closet team member

Liz Ross, jersey designer, treasurer etc etc. Know as Deathmarch Liz can you see why we gave her control of the money. Has the ability to make the strongest cyclist beg for her to slow down, there's a fast pace then there is LRP (Liz Ross Pace). The team's navigator, Liz has some internal gps that keeps us from being lost in the woods and eaten by cougars.

Jacob McClelland, the other half of the twins.  What he may lack in power he makes up in weight saving.  Only person who would take a dremel tool to an xtr shifter because it's to heavy.  Has been known to run down small children during the weekly race series. 

Brandon Parker, at 6 foot 20 or something massive Brandon is known for making trails wider as he rolls through with absolute grace. After many years of being unskilled he left the triathlon world to become a cyclist. Has the ability to break a bike just by looking at it and has more JRA stories than he should for his age. Riding for some random central Ontario bike shop, weak but is a closet team racer and will go into the light.

Scott Irwin, one thought, he may be piloting the plane you're in.  Scared yet?  Was asked nicely to sober up a bit before his lap by a bunch of guys drinking during a 24 hour race.  Has been trapped up in the land of moose and rednecks.  Well rested and well fueled for the race season.

Jeremy Simmons,old man Simmons, has more pins and screws in his right knee than the local hardware store. Lives in a house made of bubble wrap.   Has the best Just Walking Along story, so good he repeated it.  Has been taunted more than once by one of the members of the selection committee. Runs some bike shop that doesn't allow him to race in his true team colours. Closet racer, .

Tammy Simmons, rides to eat.  If her bike was made of chicken she probably wouldn't leave the house.  Only injured 7 children as she pushed her way through the line up for this picture.  Does the same for lineups with Santa and the Easter Bunny.  Can't officially race for the team, closet racer. 

Shannon Spak, yes that is a horse.  She rides horses faster than we ride bikes, she also runs faster for fun than most of the team does scared.  Turning to the dark side and will be seen running and more so riding in the flashy colours.  Yet another woman on the team to put shame in the boys during the winter training.

Matthew Spak, The old guy of the team, of course this doesn't mean he has much wisdom.  Doesn't ride that fast so compensates by doing really really long races.  Writes better than he rides and most times that's even in question.

Chris Wong, the only man who feels that the team kit doesn't have enough pink in it. Feels that looking fast is way more important than being fast.  Closet team member, closet something else????

Andrew Parry, although he has opted to live in the country known as Quebec he helps with the international presence.  Has been seen more at night than during the daylight hours.

Brenden Matheson, the only man who can smile and puke at the same time.  Would rather race in a pair of Daisy Duke shorts than a team kit.  Feels that everyone should dress like a super hero, even if you're not.










The selection committee

Starbuck, food works to bribe your way past this judge, of course after she eats your hand off your riding ability may be limited.

Rogue, the silent one, the young one.  Not much is known of this judge.  Potentially the decider.

Molly, has Nascar passed the best and speed check crashed the best.  Impress her with your technical skills and speed, you may get in.  Slow up and she will put you into the wall.