During the closing ceremony the organizer had prepared this little video recap of the event. Its pretty good, if you can't speak spanish forward through some of the interviews to the race highlights in the second half.

So as I predicted I didn't get too many questions but nervertheless I think the two I did get warrant some answers.

The Princess of Darkness asked:What is the deal with the lycra??? What makes a leg-shaving cyclist WILLINGLY don a pair of lycra shorts? No woman in their right mind likes lycra and yet cyclists flock to it like Pam Anderson to silicone. And don't try and tell me it is more aerodynamic. What gives?

A: In a word, wool. Lycra replaced wool as the fabric of choice for cycling apparel. Wear a wool jersey and shorts on a hot day and it becomes pretty obvious why we wear lycra.

Plus, it feels so liberating to parade around in skin tight stuff. Try it.

The next question come from Cranky Pants who asked: When you are riding in a breakaway and sitting-on, do you ever feel any regret and/or remorse for doing so? Or do you as the consummate pro just think "You poor suckers, I am going to rock you today!" Please discuss.

A: No I don't feel any regret or remorse, usually I am too busy thinking of excuses to tell the other guys in the break why I am not working.

Actually, I only sit on when I have to. When it benefits the team.

On a final note. I was asked the other day why we are not going to Univest. It's pretty easy, you need at least 5 starters and we only had 3 available (myself, Will, and Randell). Unfortunately, Z-Man had to go to track nats and The Young Man is doing Avenir, both for National Team duties. Furhtermore, Kabush is doing some big MTB race over in Europe (some 24 hr race or singlespeed thing) and Mash is on a bit of a self discovery tour.

For those of you who want to know what is up with the boys down in Ven. Apparently she's a doozy of a banana tour, even for banana tour specialists such as us. Getting off to a terrible start because of a 55 hour sleepless travel experience to get there doesn't help, followed by Chavez's revenge (kinda like Montezuma's revenge, but the type you get in VEN) doesn't really lend itself to stellar results. However, there are 3 stages left and and you never know……….

As they say "Some time she goes, some times she don't go. She didn't go. That how she goes."

Eric, Zach and I had a quick trip up to Calgary on the weekend for the Tour de Bowness, which takes place in a friendly neighbourhood that was long ago, gobbled up by the big city. I did this race in 2005 with Christ, Marsh and Sherby and it went pretty well for us. I promised Eric and Zach cowboy hats from Bow Cycle if they attended, so for them, it was a no-brainer.

We started off with a 3-up hill climb up Canada Olympic Park. It's only 1.3km but that just gives you a false sense of security. With about 300m to go, my legs were screaming. Zach proved the quickest on the day. I was 2nd and Eric, 4th. Thanks to my buddy Chad for setting the pace on the "lower slopes". And by the way, I figure Zach cheated. He also poured salt into the wounds afterwards when he told me to go on a diet.

For the criterium on Monday we raced around the biggest bike shop I have ever seen; Bow Cycle. This place is as big as an MEC. Two floors. It's enormous. Outside, Norco had the tents set up as did Shimano. So we had a nice place in the shade before the race. The La-Z-Boy guys drove out for this one too. We were able to break up the field after a bit and settle down to all 3 of the S-Team in the break along with Jamie Sparling (La-Z-Boy) and Jeff Bolstad (H&R Block). Eventually, the move split again with Zach and I up the road with Sparling, while Eric escorted Jeff back to the peloton. When the lap counter said 10 minutes plus 5 laps to go I attacked to start putting the pressure on Sparling. A lap later, they changed the counter to 15 minutes to go. So a little more work left than we thought. Jamie put up a good fight but eventually had to give in and let Zach ride away. I finished up 2nd while Eric won the bunch sprint for 4th. There was an omnium too and the S-Team managed to sweep the podium.

After the awards I had lunch with my family who drove from all over Alberta to take in the race so that was pretty cool. Later on, Eric, Chad and I ventured back to Bow Cycle to take in April Wine in concert. The shop had been nearly emptied of bikes for the show, which was in celebration of 50 years in service. The drum solo was the best part. The guy is in his 60's, did a hard-core solo for 15 minutes, blew himself to bits, and then came back for more. Awesome.

A big thanks goes out to Tom Bastable, the Alberta Norco rep. Eric's bike didn't make it in time for the hill climb so Tom offered up his Norco which was the same size. Bow Cycle donated some Shimano pedals too. Much appreciated guys. Hope to see you in '08.

There's talk of maybe adding a road race next year too. Sounds great. I hope the event continues to grow and that we'll see the emergence of an Alberta superweek in August. Come on Edmonton. Two weekends of racing and perhaps a mid-week event too works rather well in B.C.