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.