2010 Trek Dirt Series

I love anything that gets women on bikes… Primarily because women on bikes are at least 15% more attractive than all other women (it’s a proven fact, don’t bother disputing it), but also because I feel that cycling (especially mountain biking) can be a slightly intimidating environment for women.

Anything that able to put women in a comfortable environment and let them immerse themselves in the awesomeness of cycling is something I can get behind!

Not being of the female persuasion, and not willing to pull out some Ms. Doubtfire action, I reached out to two of my friends to recon the 2010 Trek Dirt Series (originally the Sugoi Dirt Series) and answer some questions for me. I wanted some different perspectives, and since both Cate and Kim come from fairly different backgrounds, I think I got it.

If you’re sitting on the fence, or even considering doing something like a mountain bike camp, I’m sure the answers below will have you signing up in no time!

So without further ado, meet your hosts:

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Featured Racers: Gabor Csonka & Bogi Gyorfi

For the July Edmonton Canada Cup Husky Feature Racer article, and with the Edmonton Canada Cup mtb race only days away, Ken got to chat with the iconic Alberta racing duo Gabor Csonka and Boglarka (Bogi) Gyorfi.

Our Husky Feature racers of the month for July are the husband/wife duo of Cyclemeisters Gabor Csonka and Spin Sisters Boglarka (Bogi) Gyorfi.

Outside of Gabor’s iconic hot-pink, rigid single speed, the couple is probably best known (and admired) for pulling the whole family together for most of their races. From serious racing roots in Hungary and the Midwest to training, racing, working full time and managing two energetic young kids – we get a brief glimpse into the controlled chaos of their lives!

Gabor Csonka

You’ve been racing for a number of years (including at a professional level in Hungary) – When did you first start racing, and how did you get started?

I started in 1992. I picked up a 12 month loan to pay for my first MTB, (an orange Scott Peak with Shimano 200GS!). The guys in the shop convinced me to try this weird muddy bike race on the weekend. They even give me some VHS tapes with Overend and Tomac and others racing the world cup.  So I did try the race, crashed hard many times and finished 2nd behind the series leader back then.  Later I joined the local MTB club and started to race the national series.

I notice that you’ve raced road, triathlons, duathlons, mountain bike races and running races. I would imagine that mountain biking is your focus?

MTB is definitely my love. All other races I did for training, or just to try it out. The MTB training/racing is way more fun (for me) than running, or even road riding. Icing on the cake is the people; I find the MTB racer community a lot friendlier and laid back than competitors in other endurance sporting events. The best place to find good friends.

Continue reading on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

Bogi Gyorfi

A competitive downhill skier, kayaker, orienteering runner, mountain biker, triathlete and mother! Is there anything you don’t do?

Yeah, I do not work :-)

I am so fortunate to stay home with my kids. I think this is the only way we can keep up this active lifestyle. If I stayed at my profession, I was a gymnastics coach, we could not arrange riding, racing times for sure.

I know that a family can have a profound impact on a persons athletic endeavours (especially a woman’s), what advice would you give to other women wanting to keep their interest in sports, but also interested in starting a family?

After many years of training and racing there is time to try different things, like raising kids… Which is the most challenging thing I have tried so far. After I have reached some of my athletic goals and was not going to go to Olympics… :-) I was ready to have family.

It was a totally different life for the first year, a nice change from the athletic scene. It is interesting how our perspective has changed after having kid… Life just got real and full. We both became whole persons as parents… [con't]

Continue reading on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

You can read the full article on the Edmonton Canada Cup blog.

Feature Racer: Bridget Linder

This month I had the chance to pick the racing brain of Hardcore Bikes team rider, Bridget Linder. Here is a snippet of the article to get you going, but you can link to the Edmonton Canada Cup site to read it in it’s entirety.

Our Husky Feature racer of the month for June, is none other than team Hardcore Bikes, Bridget Linder. If you’re from Edmonton, you’ll likely recognize Bridget as she’s been sporting that iconic Hardcore green for number a years now in the women’s elite category. In this article she talks about her very first race, what’s so great about riding in Edmonton and balancing her racing goals with ‘real life’. Here we go:

Let’s start out with a little history on how you got into riding and racing. What’s the Bridget Linder Story?

I dabbled with mountain biking when I was in high school growing up in Kamloops. Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like my time in Kamloops was wasted. Maybe not wasted, but it was definitely spent  doing other things like basketball and volleyball. I rode a bit, but my friends that rode were spread out across the city and I really didn’t get out much. Prior to Uni, I sold my bike, bought a cheap four-wheeled vehicle complete with a combustion engine and moved to Calgary. My passion for cycling remained but I didn’t own a bike or have any friends that rode. After a year or two without a bike I caved and bought a sweet used Rocky Vertex with a Mag 21R and Kooka cranks. I credit any of my technical descending skills to using this oversized (19”, I ride a 17”), under suspensioned bike as a shuttle bike during my summers home in Kamloops. Unfortunately, this didn’t help my climbing!

Fast forward to the day I met my husband… I think Dave fell in love with my Kooka cranks before he fell in love with me. Dave loved cycling and had been mountain bike racing for a few years before we met. Dave was my “in” to mountain bike racing, which was something I’d only dreamed about before meeting him. With a new riding partner/racer (and much more) I had finally found my way into the sport.

To read the rest of the article you can click here to visit the Edmonton Canada Cup wesbite

Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer – Krystyn Ong

In the second installment of the Edmonton Canada Cup, Husky Feature Racer series, I had a chance to catch up with a River Valley Cycle teammate of mine, Krystyn Ong. She’s been in the racing game for a while already and has a lot of experience and insight to offer. Here’s the Q & A:

So how did you get your start in cycling, and what was it that got you into racing?

I started cycling with the Dirtgirls cycling club in 2005.  They hosted a race that year called the Down and Dirty, and I decided to try racing in the U17 category.  I decided later I wanted to race more competitively so I joined a performance based club called Juventus and started working with their coaches the year after.

I know you used to race road, so what was it that made you switch over to mountian?

Well, actually, I started out mountain biking, but then raced both for a while.  Now I am just racing mountain bike, cross-country and downhill, even though I still train on a road bike. I really prefer racing mountain bike because I like technical riding and being out in the wilderness.

To read to full article, you can link here

Spring is in the air

Arguably one of the most exciting days in any cyclists life has to be “new bike days,” and one of my co-workers, Sarah, has been lucky enough to experience a few of these days over the last few years as her riding needs have changed. Given her depth of experience I thought I would toss a few questions her way and see if she could impart some of her bike purchasing wisdom unto our readers ;-)

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Edmonton Canada Cup Feature Racer

This year, I’m doing a little ‘giving back’ to the bike community I love so much, and putting in some time helping with the Edmonton Canada Cup. The ECC team have it well under control no doubt, but it’s fun to lend a hand and get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes glitz and glamour. Last year, I spent the entire race watching and filming from the sidelines, and this year, again, I may end up not spending any time in the saddle, but that’s okay. This is going to be a killer race, and more than that, a killer bike event! The Bike Expo is back, we’re going to have beer gardens, and with such a massive Novice class turnout last year, we’re hoping to see an even stronger showing this July 11. More details to follow, but good times ahead. Here is an article/interview I did for the ECC website with Dana Ouellette, a local Edmonton Pedalhead Club rider and racer (not to mention my racing nemesis. He beat me by something like 11 seconds in the 2009 Perogy XC and I haven’t had a chance to avenge it yet!).

We’re going to do an article each month on a feature racer so check back to the ECC site for those. And so, without further delay, Dana is ‘Racer 1′. Enjoy!

When did you start riding ’seriously’ and what got you started?

I only started seriously mountain biking in June 2008. Back in the late nineties when my parents still lived in Edmonton, my dad got me into mountain biking. My dad and I would go to Terwilliger and just ride, not seriously, just have a good time. That was on an old Specialized RockHopper, which sadly got stolen. It wasn’t until June 2008 that I bought a new bike. I was excited because I had a lot of positive memories associated with cycling (just my dad and me having fun). So I bought a Rocky Mountain Fusion to go out occasionally on the weekends, and I got totally hooked. Then weekends turned into 4 or 5 days a week.

I don’t know why I got so hooked. I started riding with Pedalhead, and that was probably a large part of that. Once you make friends who ride, you want to get faster and be able to keep up, it becomes not just fun, but addicting. And it’s good for the self-esteem. It’s always motivating when you clean a climb you’ve never done before, or fly down a technical section you used to struggle with.

At what point did you decide to start racing?

To be honest, I really don’t know why I started racing. I started going out with the Pedalhead riders after our Wednesday night rides and a lot of them are racers and told stories about racing. That peaked my interest, but I still never thought I’d do it. Then all of the sudden, less than a year after buying my first mountain bike, I found myself buying a full suspension bike for racing. But I still wasn’t 100% sure I’d actually do it, until I found out about the Edmonton Canada Cup. I live only a few hundred meters from the Kinsmen Field House. When I heard where the course was going to be, that’s when I realized I could actually do it. Even if I sucked, at least it would be on trails I’m familiar with and ride a few times a week.

To read to full article link here.

Riding through the pain

One of the best (if not the best) by-product of racing is the environment and people that it puts you touch with. This past year during my first season back racing I was lucky enough to join up with the Deadgoats – an awesome group of guys and gals. I will admit that they’re a pretty hardcore bunch, but it’s been good to get back into the mix, and there’s nothing like riding and surrounding yourself with people that are better than you to raise the bar on your riding. One of my newbie cohorts this season was Kyle Husband. He managed to squeak in every type of racing you can think of, and even won himself a new bike frame at one of the races. In light of his diverse experience I thought I would get him to share some of his thoughts as he looks back on his first race season.

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New Ride Down Under

So, while locally, we’re coming to terms with dropping temps, ice and snow, others are basking in the approach of summer. Some friends of our, Kyle and Shauna Gross, moved from Kamloops BC all the way to Australia a couple years ago. If you’ve ever been to Kamloops, then you know it’s one of the best mountain biking areas you could ever ask for, with dry, rugged foothills giving up miles and miles of endless downhill and singletrack fun. Now in Australia however, Kyle finds himself in a more road bike focused scene, and recently picked up a new ride. It’s funny how much ‘bike talk’ always comes around to our desire for that next new ride. Getting a new ride is always exciting to think about, and you can’t help but be a little envious when someone else is actually makin’ the move.

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Burn Out – by Kirk Hamilton

I didn’t know Kirk Hamilton was a rider at first. I find it funny but it was actually a lot later on that I found out he was an Elite level XC racer and bike afficianado. I’ve since had a pleasure of riding with Kirk (or what might be better described as, trying to keep up to Kirk) and it’s been interesting getting to know him better. He started where I am now, just a wee Novice racer with a big dream, and he successfully made those strides to get up through the ranks. I was fascinated by that story because, I wanted it to be my story – with every ride and race I wanted to get faster and be able to move into Sport and then maybe even Expert. Who knows if that will ever be in the cards for me, but, as our next Feature Rider, Kirk will explain himself that this kind of progress can come with a price.

So without further ado:

It happened.  After eight seasons I had enough, I was burned out from racing my mountain bike, I was finished and frustrated, wanting nothing more than to hang up my shoes and helmet and do something, anything, other than ride my bike.  Somewhere along the way in the summer of 2008 I lost my way and I forgot to have fun.  I grew tired of the seven-day routine of the weekly race regimen and viewed training days with the same disdain as cleaning the bathroom: something only done out of necessity…

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Jonny ‘Spaghetti Legs’ Hagan

Continuing with our Feature Rider series, installment two is from Jon Hagan. He’s a passionate rider, not for competitive reasons, but more so for the simple joy of getting out on the bike. I think if you were ask Jon, he’s into riding for the lifestyle more than hardcore fitness. He commutes to work all the time and gets a lot of pleasure out of it. That said, Jon has been known to take on some pretty difficult challenges and his annual ride to Pigeon lake is certainly one of them…

I bought my bike just over a year ago with the hope of fulfilling the modest goal of riding to my family’s cabin 120 kms southwest of Edmonton. Experienced riders don’t find this to be an overly challenging distance, but for me it was a start. It was a start that I had tried once before about five or six years ago. Riding a three hundred dollar mountain bike (a sparkling gold Raleigh Tarantula) and really only being a casual rider, I naively thought I’d be able to average 20 km/h; thus making it to the cabin in about six hours. What I didn’t take into account was the fundamental rule of preparation. As far as success goes, this rule applies to everyone. However, thinking will power would be enough, preparation was something I overlooked.  

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