For those who want to race there is the road provincials this weekend in Holland, details here. Some of us are going to St. Malo to check the cross course, let halberto know if you are interested. If the weather holds and things dry up maybe a trail ride might pop up - check back for details. Lindsay talked about trail building in Stead, let him know if you are interested.

In other news there are some new regulations for cross bikes, check them out and make sure your bike is legal for racing this season.

For the second year in a row our friends over at the Alter Ego Cycling Club put on another stellar 8 hour event. The numbers were small but the friendliness, vibe, course layout (one of the best courses I’ve been on at Birch) and attention to detail were superb. I’m guessing that pictures and results will be posted on the race site shortly.

Dylan, Ron, and myself (halberto) were in attendance from our club. Dylan continues to work himself back into shape following his European vacation and tonsillectomy, limiting himself to just 5 hours of riding time. Ron also went hard for 5 hours not wanting to burn himself out before Provincials, and I blew up after 4 laps feeling the effects of building trails for 5-6 hours the day before (including towing a 60lb trailer around Grand Beach - not afraid of using any excuse available to me).

As I mentioned the course was brilliant. Fun, with some really neat new stuff that everyone was raving about; it would be worth anyone’s time to go out there just the course now - it was just that fun.They used a push weed trimmer that did a brilliant job clearing the trail, something we’ll consider getting for the club.

- Halberto

How about this?

Details here

On June 19th Olympia cycling clubs fearless leader and most devoted member, Hal Lowen, will be competing in one of Canada’s largest epic xc race, The Test Of Metal. http://testofmetal.com/ . The 67km race course in and around Squamish BC, (consisting of 40km of insane BC singletrack!) well know for black diamond descents and heart attack accents, definitely makes prairie folk dream. 1200m of climbing! This will be Hall’s second time racing the Test of Metal, first in 2008 where he finished 3h and 54m putting him in 33 of 100+ riders in his category and 230th of well over 600 men. Good luck Hal!

test of metal, mens elite start, 2009.