Wattage cottage

Well today was the TT and it was a pain train for sure. It was pissing…ahh now this is the beauce I remember from 2005. It was raining hard enough at one point it actually hurt. It was awsome…no joke I actually enjoyed it…quite epic…hard and crazy. In the end I was able to pull out a 3rd place which I was more than happy with…it was what I thought I could do if I had a good ride… and I did…. so perfect…Svien ended up second and Ryder Hesjdal rode away with the jersey…but we all had good rides and that is how it shakes out…check out the pic…Rocky as a cyclist no? I Coulda been a contenda…

pursuit of…um..pain

Well I have been training for Points Race as many of you may know…as a result this is my face after a pursuit…for the love…that hurt. but the time was ok. Close to my PB’s and with not real work on it…but let me tell you I am opened up now…I just love this picture…I think Andrea pretty much got what pursuiting at this level is all about…the best part is every guy that does one will have this look in his eye at one point. Andrea is one of my roomates back in Burnaby…and let me tell you she is pretty good with the old camera as well…this could be a pain poster…or something…So yeah check out her other pictures on canadian cyclist or her web site.

Points race tomorrow…time to feel the burn.
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Christmas in JANUARY

So, I have most recently acquired the coolest and most swankadelic stuff in the last 3 weeks…some of it you may have seen already…some you may not have. Anyway these things are sure to raise my stature among the monocle wearing, ear waxed mustache, “hum hum” members of society. So check out these newfound symbols of stature with which I am much pleased.

1. Medium National Champs skin suit.

- This item was first seen at the LA world cup but let me explain some of the more exciting features…as you can see on the back is the word Bell…this of course is meant as a commissarial message. In the points race this is to encourage the officials to give me the bell each time I come around…unfortunately it only seems to work about 10% of the time…I have my best font scientists working on improving this feature but at the moment we seem to be lacking the impact we are looking for.
-It may appear to be read but don’t be fooled this is a hyper colour skin suit…for some reason it turns pink when you have it on…it all has to do with fit… I am not fit, or it doesn’t fit, or “that bloke looks FIT”… something like that…

2. The 1998 CIVIC HB, Deep PURPLE edition

- Now this was not so much a gift as a necessary evil. But it has to be, don’t it look mean. >:(
- As you can clearly see this bad boy is a tribute to the magical guitar riffs of DEEP PURPLE…I did not just go out an buy a purple car people…come on now.
- It has 90 shetlands under the hood…and maybe a few garden knombs, a wishing well, and one half eaten package of double mint gum from the era when the still put the twins in there commercials. Now I to will be able to pretend I am fast and or furious…
- Oh and it is a standard…now I know you are all thinking…”come now zebidia, your pre-technology attitudes have rendered you incapable of operating such an evil and devilish contraption.” Well this is just not true…I have been rolling this baby backwards and stalling it in traffic like no bodies businASS…or maybe it is no one is getting to business…cause I am “staled in the right hand lane”. I think global has assigned there traffic copter to follow me 24/7

3. The Cream DE LA…the cats PJs…the pantaloon restraint I have been searching for low these long years…

- This purchase and in fact the one above was made possible by the educational styling of one Groovy chick who shall remain nameless (secret identity and all that)…needless to say she has educated me on the manual transmission and the automatic purchasing power of E BAY.
- Yanick Morin this ones for you…my very own YUKON JACK belt buckle…who needs dog tags or bling bling when you can by a belt buckle like this from a guy who wore it 3 YEARS BEFORE I WAS BORN in Tennessee. Look at it and all its majesty…creepy borderline sourdough hermit on meditating quality among his woodland friends. It is the Yukon captured in a boo CLAY. No less then an explosion of waistband history, sure to draw the eyes of the world to the top of my pants as I roam through the crowded markets of the VAN city.

High society here I come…I am going to put on my skin suit…put on a belt and roll down to Glen Eagles Golf and Country club in my Purple Haze, Jimmy Hendrix edition C VAC. Maybe play a few rounds with Tony Parsons, he could get a lift in the G-1 traffic copter right?

Big Bucks and Barbicide….

I know, I know, every body is thinking “gee wiz this guy has been really lame-o with the blogs lately.” Well ok maybe you are not thinking in a 1985 schoolgirl phonetic but I am sure your hip and trendy, train of thought has produced some P H fat version of the above quote. Well here is blog to tide you over. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind extravaganza of fast racing and middle America experience. It all started about 2 weeks ago…

*cheesy fade to black and white flash back scene*

Bank of America was the biggest money race so far. My form was less than stellar. After get 2nd on one of the first big primes (no money for first loser…ha) I promptly became the ticket taker until about 9 laps to go. OUCH…I was obviously not any where near the form I had back in 82…

The rest of that week was spent with a Mr. Ryan “D” Wald. He treated me to many good and not so good experiences…Good = Riding in the Philly area…Not so Good = Scrapple (who thought making cream of MEAT was a good idea)

From there me and the “D” headed out to Chicago for some more big money…the dwindling pennies in our pockets encouraged our drive heavy legs to perform at a reasonable level. The Elk Grove Race say crazy roller derby style carnage in the first half lap. We came out with a cool $1000 prime…OOOO Rummy. We figured for once we at lest made out fair share. We where 1% of the field and we got 1% of the purse. What can I say us Canadians are all about sharing. We are like a country full of big purple dinosaurs.

Now I have spent the last week with a host family that have fed me well and showed me the sights of Chicago…Dominick, Anna (absent from photo), Vince, and Dominick Jr. have taken great care of me. Making sure I have the “Chicago experience”…awesome.

Lastly I went to get my top cropped…I used the following parameters when selecting my Stylist.
1. Walking distance on MapQuest
2. Price…as in lowest
3. How far away I could smell the nail polish remover and perm chemicals from
4. How many flocks of seagulls I could see when sitting in the chair.

In Retrospect I believe I need to update my selection criteria. Long story short I sat there looking at the blue container of combs that said BARBICIDE on it…Paralyzed…thinking how appropriate it was that that is in fact what I was doing. Committing barbicide…I am pretty sure I narrowly missed actually coming out of that place “back in 82”.

Who With the What Now…

“And that’s the ball game”…I’m sure someone heard that in the baseball crazy city of Boston some time in the past 36 hours I was there. Why was I there? For once it was relatively unrelated to cycling…somewhat. Here is the Story…

About a week ago I headed down to Rochester for the Twilight Crit. Great race…one of my all time favs now. It’s fast and fun with a little bit of everything. The team rode well with Dwald in a break and then the guys fought the good fight to at least get me to where I could cramp my way across the line to 8th.

From there I headed to the country for a bit of an escape. I spent the week with Brad and Jdub’s (Jon Wirsing) parents, wife and kids. It was great; it took me back to my roots in the wilderness a little…paddling and the like…but on with the story.

From there we headed over to Fitchburg, however we left with a new team mate. The new man will bring a new perspective to the blog. I am thinking of giving the dude a corner on the old blogarro. Introducing the one and only (ok maybe not only, but the resemblance is scary)* Dan Schmatz. Ok so he is not the real D Schmatz of Sierra Nevada Fam, but the resemblance is scary.

Fella got into a lot of trouble during Fitchburg…including macin’ on my main lady Jen. Feeling generally insecure as a result of Dan’s rippling pecks I felt I needed to treat her to a cliché holiday. After the Racing it was off to Boston for 36 hours of bean town fun. While there we saw all the sites. We walked the freedom trail, went to Cheers (no one knew my name) and had some of the Boston sea food everyone was talking about. Check the Pics…

do what BIG PAPA tells you

What is in a nick name…is there any truth to it…as a new team member the team is, inevitably, looking to “label” the new guy. I have cycled through a few, and as with every men’s team I have been on, the names have gone progressively south. First I was the Canadian Cannon…one that I was hoping might stick…and it might have if it wasn’t for some meddling cycling news report that referenced certain softwood lumber like features of my anatomy, giving me the name TRUNK (get your mind out of gutter, its trunk as in tree trunk legs…not tripod) but now I have been deemed “Big Papa” which according to goggle puts me in the same category as this guy.

As a cyclist, this is not comfortable company…unless he could pull of a 13th on GC at Joe Martin, with teammate help. (there, there is your race update) which I doubt. This has led me to believe that big papa has very a very limited coolness factor for a white boy cyclist from northern canuckistan. Therefore I must shake the scourge upon my character lest I be forever deemed the “big papa”. A name suitable only for the questionable movie industry, and over sized novelty pickles (see Photo).

Huh…well I guess that is something I am already involved in (see videos above). I mean those are defiantly movies, and are certainly questionable at best. Maybe all they lack is proper promo. Well maybe this next film will do better, check out the two pieces of promotional material for my next ridiculous submission to the world of weblopidia. Click the poster to see the exclusive preview.

“…the chiseled, tree-trunk legs…”

The following update will be in visual form only. The pictures below taken by Bill McCarrick at buffalo2step photography (http://cvillebike.com/photos/v/2006TOS/).

We done good…Two of four sweaters, 1 win and 2 podiums in 7 days…none of it would have been possible with out the team. The skinny pro road like an ox when I needed him.

I leave you with this humorous referance found in the stage 7 update on cycling news.

” Over the past six days, Brent Bookwalter proved his mettle as an all rounder. He succeeded in the gruelling Blue Ridge Mountains. He excelled in the time trials. And in the finale, he took on the chiseled, tree-trunk legs of Rite Aid’s Zach Bell, one of Canada’s top track cyclists.” On of the mor interesting media references I have ever incountered…

I have lots more coming down the Z-Rail so stay tuned for films, contest updates and other tantilizing tubular titalation over the next week.

previously on jetfuel…

This year I wrote a fair bit of content on my bike team’s site. You can check out all posts by me here: click boom/go

We took a bunch of photos during the races this year too, here’s some samplers: