http://www.phoyote.blogspot.com/

Erik Bakke’s blog

http://bikingbakke.blogspot.com/

You will find club information and the new forum in the links at the top of the page. News, events, Team blogs and Photos are available in the links on the right.

Go to “events” for information on the 2010 Deadgoat Giver8er

June 1st, Registration is now open for the Summer Solstice at ******www.karelo.com ******

Sunday June 20, 2010, the “Summer Solstice Suffer Springs race” an ABA sanctioned XC race at Station Flats on the Sulphur Springs trail.

The Giver8er went off despite the weather and the snow/rain in the days previous. the course dried up nicely after a few hours and there were a lot of smiles around. App 170 racers participated.

The trails held up very well with minimal damage. We have cleaned up the venue and will make sure the trails are good for future riding.

******Thanks to all, racers, volunteers and spectators******

Thanks to our sponsors, Bow Cycle, Gu Energy gels and drink, Schwalbe tires, Scott and Pearl Izumi.

Get ready for next year as we’ll be Givin er again.

Other important race events

BC bike race

Bow 80, Revenge of the Ninja Cows

TransRockies

Breck Epic

Please see the ABA calendar at www.albertabicycle.ab.ca for details.

Sign up is on www.karelo.com

Day two we thought would be easier due to less distance, but it turned into a Cost Rica type stage with endless climbs, not as much hike a bike as day one, and some fun technical single track downhill to finish the day. All in all I found this day to be tougher than day one but we finished 27th overall compared to 46th on day one. Go figure.

Day three promises to be a fun day because most of it is downhill, but we start the day with a long (they all seem long at this point) climb before we hit some super fun single track through more farm land. It´s incredible to see people walking what we consider to be extremely easy downhill single track. The route continued on with another climb through some more towns where it seemed like the entire town was out lining the streets cheering. After all the climbing was done,(or so I thought) we had a descent that started on a paved road through a town just as the fog rolled in. As we had missed numerous markings on day one, we were a little tentative as we could only see about 20 metres ahead. The fog cleared and we hit a rocky downhilñ similar to an Elbow loop descent with a few more loose rocks. Fun for a while but I found it started taking it´s toll on my arms after a while. The lat part of the day was a cobble stone road descent that must have gone for 10 km before another stretch of fairly technical single track downhill. Then a brige crossing like you´ve only seen in the movies. This bridge was a cable suspension bridge spanning a wide gap across a river and not only swayed when you walked but was slanted off to one side. Trish figures the train bridge crossong at La Ruta was worse but I peresonally think this bridge would give it a run for the money.

As I said earlier, this was the funnest stage race I´ve dope and highly recommend it to anyone looking for something different

Cross air