From the chaos of Santo Domingo to the beaches of Boca Chica to the mountains of Costanza, we had a great tour of the Dominican
Republic. The Vuelta de Independencia was relatively flat but the racing was hard and provided a great boost to all of our fitness levels. In the course of 9 Stages/1001 km, I went from being a woodchopper
to a biker again. Finishing in the top third of the pack, somewhere around 40 out of 120 starters. Alright for an out of shape mountain biker. More importantly we had a week full of laughs mixed in with some solid Latin American chaos.

Road racing is a great way to see a country and get some base fitness in. My King Zing was great, we dominated through the rough roads and bunny hopping speed bumps. My road tactics weren’t dominating as they are still a work in progress and left me using more muscle than mind for most the week. Once I get some better tactics down such as pack position and energy conservation, these roadies will be in trouble. Read More→

Getting to the Dominican Republic was slick. Hop a couple planes from Victoria-Toronto-Miami-Santo Domingo, arrive 2 am, walk outside get a shuttle into town, check into hostel, sleep for 8 hours. It couldn’t of gone much smoother. My rippin Kona Road bike, King Zing, and I were both safely in the Caribbean and ready to kick off the season! Or so I thought.

Day 1 in the Dominican turned into being the unofficial Stage 0 of the Dominican Republic Tour, “Le Tour De Santo Domingo’s Slums”. After having a chill morning in the touristy Colonial Zone, I started to build my bike so I could head over to find my teammates (I’m guest riding for the Quebec team 1% For the Planet) at the Fiesta hotel. This is where it all started to go sideways as the USA airline security had gone through my bike box and taken my bag of C02′s which also happened to contain my headset bearings. My bike was pretty f’d up without the bearings, un-raceable, but rideable after I jimmy rigged it with some headset spacers.
Lesson learned: if flying with C02′s, don’t pack them with anything valuable..

So I imprinted a google maps image into my head and took off on my jiggidy bike to find a bike shop in the city of 2 900 000 people. After 45 minutes of sketchy riding through slums I got to where the bike shop was suppose to be, but it wasn’t there. Danm. Next up was Spanish 101 as I practiced my spanish trying to find where a decent bike shop was. 2 developing bike shops later, I got directions to a more modern shop which could help me. Back through the slums, down the freeway, through a tunnel, a couple backroads and there was the shop. Aro Y Pedal. They were great. New headset bearings a new Maxxiss Courchevel tire, and off to the races I go! Almost.

The Crocodile Trophy is one of the greatest mountain bike adventures I have experienced. It’s one part bike racing to one part playing Boy Scout in the Australian Outback . With blazing heat, crazy and deadly animals, euro racers and the “X-factors” of the Outback it makes for one heck of a challenging nine days and 900km of bike racing.

Coming into the race, I knew I should have good form, but having raced the Scott 24hrs just five days earlier, it was a bit of an experiment to see how the body would respond to such a tight turn around. Read More→