leelikesbikes.com - Bromont Practice Love Fest

Posted Sept. 3, 2004
Bromont Practice Love Fest

I'll tell you this: Room service crepes are fine and good, but I'd rather start my day with cereal, fruit, soy milk and a gallon of strong coffee. The in-room coffee was weak sauce all the way, but I kept running water through the machine until every bit of caffeine was soaked out of the little Folgers ready pack.

Today I enjoyed six runs down the DH course. The UCI World Masters Downhill Championships has the complete mix of high speed, ultra-tech, coasting, pumping, pedaling, open spaces, woods, rocks, roots, gravel, mud, grass, pavement and even a big jump. This will test the complete rider.

I wired all the tough sections, and now I'm working on attacking the tricky corners and holding speed through the transitions. I thought the course would take me three minutes, but today's runs were going around 4:50 with cruise control and some traffic. Tomorrow I'll start dialing up the speed. The course is drying nicely. It rained for a few minutes this afternoon, which freaked everyone out. Let's hope for continued dryness.

I thought most of the riders would wear national garb, all patriotic and everything, but so far practice feels pretty normal, with everyone running their team gear. This morning I asked myself, "Do you support terrorism?" Hell no, I replied. "Then wear your national jersey, damnit!" I am Evel Kneivel. I am Captain America. I like bikes, and I hate terrorism.

I did meet a guy from Caracas, Venezuela, who's 69 years old and who has been racing bikes for 48 years. Forty eight! He started as a track and road racer, and now he does it all, including DH. He's racing DH on his XC bike, because his big bike got stolen last week. Things are tough on the streets of Caracas. He says he'll give racing another two years then retire to make it an even 50. Super cool.

And now some photos. These are from yesterday:

Looking down on Ski Bromont and its sister mountain across Highway 10.	The view is flat, flat, flat with the odd mountain to break things up.	After a short woods section the course opens wide.	Say ahhh ... then reign it in for the loose right. BTW, cool view!

Mmm ... this looks sweet.	Woodsy Owl says "braaap!"	Who's a dork? Me, that's who.

Sex-fiend accountants from Montreal (Rated R)
When I got back to the hotel today lots of people stood around the lobby, drinking and kibitzing. That's unusual enough, but there were tons of beautiful women, which really got me curious. As mountain biker I'm exposed to my excellent wife and a few other standout women, but otherwise my life is one big sausage party. So I asked what was up. Turns out it's a company party for Deloitte & Touche. I'm talking about dozens of uncaged female accountants enjoying some freedom and free drinks. Come to Bromont. There's still time!

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