QOL for Dummies

Blog.

2012-01-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

2012 is back. I think I will probably start blogging again soon.

If you care:

- i am going to england soon
-we have a new cat-friend named boots
-billy likes to drink milk
- i did a new mix:

ADHD in HD - A D. J Sparls (Progressionless) Hack Mix. by JSparls

With Love,

Jamie

1111111111111111111 - A CSparl's Special...

2011-11-11T10:03:00.001-08:00

There are many definitions. Here is a good one.

Today I remember my Uncle’s brother, Donald MacPherson, a Hong Kong survivor. Donald was a member of the Canadian Army 78th Battalion "Winnipeg Grenadiers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winnipeg_Grenadiers> ". He arrived in Hong Kong Nov 16, 1941. The city was attacked by Japan on Dec 8th (6 hours after Pearl Harbour had been hit) and a horrific two week battle ensued. On Christmas morning, he was huddled in a trench with his good friend and brother-in-law Wilf Barrett, when they were hit by mortar fire. Wilf was killed instantly. Later that day, the city fell to the Japanese. Donald spent the next two years in Hong Kong POW Camps, the first 6 months at North Point, followed by the next 18 months at the Sham Shui Po camp in Kowloon. He was forced to sleep on bare concrete floors (which caused huge and often infected sores all over his body) and he ate nothing but a steady diet of rotting, wormy rice. He witnessed pathetic sights like hundreds of men fighting to near death for a few cookies thrown into camp by the local Chinese…while the guards stood by and laughed.
In his first year his weight fell from 170 to 103 lbs. He was 21 years old.

In 1943 he was taken to Japan aboard a small ship, where along with 500 other prisoners he was locked in the ship’s hold in stifling heat and humidity. To make matters worse, the seas were rough. They had no latrine and were forced to wallow in their own vomit, urine and excrement. There were no bunks, no room to lie down, and they had to sleep sitting or squatting. They were given only 2 buckets of rice per day. The trip took 20 days and they were brought 'topside' only twice, simply to be hosed down and to have the corpses removed from amongst them. When they were on deck, the Japanese guards would taunt them by opening red cross food parcels, (intended for the prisoners) and would proceed to bayonet the tinned food, suck out the gravy and toss the remains overboard. This odyssey ended at the Oeyama POW camp, which by all accounts was an absolute hell-hole. For the next 2 years he laboured in the coal and nickel mines, 14 hrs. a day, 7 days a week. The entire time he suffered from severe starvation, beriberi, pellagra, dysentery and diarrhea. The beriberi caused his feet to swell up like balloons, and he was forced to continue working while enduring excruciating pain. The camp itself was no better than a pig sty. The well was crawling with maggots and the drinking water was abhorrent. Throughout this ordeal he suffered frequent, random, and often severe beatings, and always for no apparent reason. in 1942 he had already started to lose his eyesight (due to malnutrition) and by the wars end he was legally blind. When liberation came in 1945 his weight was well under 100 lbs. Food from American planes was dropped into the camp by parachute. His stomach was so shriveled up that when he ate, he instantly threw up. Nonetheless, he and ate and threw up and ate and threw up for days. He was eventually taken to Yokahma for delousing and debriefing. There he was awed by the sound of women’s voices, something he had not heard in 4 years. It was here he met and shook hands with General Douglas MacArthur. He was put on a ship called the HYDE and days later transferred to the battleship INDIANA. Due to health concerns he was again transferred to a hospital ship called the RESCUE and was eventually taken to San Francisco where he boarded a train bound for Canada. Through each stage of his return, he delighted in the kindness and royal treatment he received from the Americans.

After returning to Canada he recalls going to the grocery store where he stood in line and listened to people gripe about the shortage of coffee, sugar and other staples. He had little sympathy for their complaints.
He eventually married and raised 3 beautiful daughters, and despite his sight impairment, he took up curling and golf and went on to live a full and active life.
The reason he survived?
In his words: “Just a personal determination to survive and return home”

BUMP IT UP.

2011-11-09T11:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Blog,

I am running the Thetis 4 x 5km Relay on Friday. Would you please provide me with a 20minuteish ADD pump up mix to make it so the rest of my team doesn't embarrass me for my complete lack of running skills??

Kindest Regards,

Jamie

Dear Jamie,

Click Here.

Best of luck,

-Blog

PS - there are no swears.

Essential

2011-09-07T12:03:00.001-07:00

The Essential Mix has probably been my most favorite radio show for the last 10+ years. There is something about getting a 2 hour session of music that seems to fit well with biking; trying to make a 4-6 hour playlist of 2-7 minute tracks takes way tooooo long. A couple of essential mixes take only moments to select... and after every Friday, there is a new one to check out. After over a decade of listening to these mixes over the internet (FM doesn't go intercontinental yet,) I have been enjoying tuning in live here in the UK. A few days ago, I decided I would rank and review my favorite editions.

These are not necessarily my favorite artists... but favorite compilations. Since this is a Bike Blog, and I am a turbo bike nerd, I am going to give these sets a rating of: Endurance, Speed, and/or Recovery.

10 Pete Tong, 20 Year Anniversary, April 9 2011 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Timeless. This set is mixed my the man who has been exposed to two decades of electronic music. Sick mixes, awesome flow. A Lot of "classics." ""required because a classic in electronic music is at MOST 20 years old.

9 Boy 8 Bit, May 15 2010 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Interesting. This one is a bit different and is super electric. Lots of Groovy melodies in weird synths. Totally a great mix done by one of the dirtiest looking dj's in the business.

8 Armin Van Buuren December 24, 2006 Endurance
One Word Description: Eternity (trance always has stupid themes that try to be abstract and meaningful... I think this would be best explained in an excel function: =if(person=>HIGH AS FUCK; eternity = deep and meaningful). I am not really a big fan of Armin, but this set took place in an era in which there was some bangin' trance tunes. And a 3rd version of Communication? Probably the Sickest Bass Drop teaser of all time. This set has a nice progression and is perfect for some long exercise.

7 Steve Aoki, August 2nd, 2008 Speed
One Word Description: Stoked. Probably the best intro track of any essential mix followed by 2 hours of super hard pump up jams. If you have trouble getting motivated to do some exercise... listen to the first 10 minutes of this. Plus if you are offended by swearing... all the raunchy tracks have nice clean censor edits!

6 Gabriel and Dresden May 7th, 2006 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Flow. This mix came around the release of their self titled album; an album I still hold as the best production of electronic works ever. I really love the songs in this mix, but G and D LOOOVVVVEEEE long simple mixes. Kick Drum loop for 3 minutes inbetween the meat of the tracks. I am such a critic.

5 DAFT PUNK December 30, 1997 Endurance
One word Description: Iconic. This set has said to have been influential on so many artists. It's the first signs of electronic music merging with hip-hop. Super quick simple mixes in to super songs. It reminds me of night riding in Sooke By myself... Weird.

5 The Twelves December 19 Speed / Endurace
One Word Description: Catchy. I can still remember how stoked I was when I listened to this one. It is done live... which is cool, and it has sooo many popular songs redone in a way that I have never heard. It is fast moving, for the ADD mind, and does not disappoint. If you are unsure of electronic music, I would start here.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Where did Block Rockin' Beat Come from? Sick.

4 Cold Cut January 29, 2006 Endurance
One Word Description: Unique. There are a ton of different Genres thrown into this one... yet it is very flowing and smooth. I think they were going for a bit of a political theme... and aren't big fans of George W. I would say the dominant genre is hip-hop; but not like 50 cent hip hop... People do rap outside the common mainstream template (What am I drinking? What Club am I going to? What Kind of Car am I Driving? More specifics... Rim Size and other aftermarket upgrades... Am I VIP? How many girls am I Dancing with? How Good Looking are they? Will I get them home? and so on.) There is none of that here. Just Quality.
Favorite Moment / Mix: They take the remixed instrumental version of Lou Reed, done by A Tribe Called Quest, and re-apply the Lou Reed Acapella. Class.

3 MSTRKRFT May 24, 2008 Speed
One Word Description: On. This is the most amped up, stoked, hard as fuck, 2 hour piece I have ever heard. There are pretty much no lulls... this set is a regular in my warm-ups. If you want to get the endorphins flowing. Load this up.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Phantom Part 2 and Da Funk together as 1? This is the kind of achievement I will spend my life striving for.

2 Krafty Kuts February 27, 2005 Speed / Endurance
One Word Description: Professional. This is a true DJ's set. The mixes are amazing and the track selection is extremely fitting. This is hardly a collection of songs with smooth transitions, rather a musical experience on its own. It is very evident that Mr. Krafty Kuts is very much in control of his decks; if you listen carefully you can hear some non-abrasive scratching as well as cueing and other forms of vinyl manipulation. There is a variety of music in this one, but the dominant genere is breaks. It is an upbeat set which always leaves me smiling.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Full metal jacket sample in a 2 live crew remix. Mesoo Howny ...??? its funny and groovy!

1 Justice June 10, 2007 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Diverse. This is the most played in my library. It is a collection of 70+ completely unrelated, unlinked and different songs mixed quickly and cleanly over 2 hours. It is not an electronic set, yet contains so much electronic music. I expected it to be like their album "cross," and at times it was... but at times it was pink floyd? or hall and oats? or the buggles? I mean... making a mix that can have so many unalike songs work takes skills... One minute a 60s tune is banging and the next it sounds like a computer is going to explode... awesome.
Favorite Moment / Mix: The second last track is the Climax of this set, a very dark and intense classical song from Fantasia. The darkness builds and builds until it releases into Joni Michell - California. It brings a tear to my eye; two french hard electro producers ending their essential mix with an original song from a Saskatchewan mind.

I just thoroughly reviewed 10 essential mixes; My ray bans and skinny jeans are affecting my brain.

This weekend I start the tour of Britain. Thor who?

Jamie

Back with Beats

2011-07-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

A few months later I am back. With some musical treats.

1. I was asked to do a 5-6min intro deal for Canadian MTB nats... this is what came up with:

DL Here.

2. Summmmmertimes?? Scope this one out. It is a bit all over the place. But meh.

DL Here.

NExt week Cascade. Fly fly fly bike fly fly.

A lot of swears and stuff. Whoop!! tough stuff.

Xxxx OOOXXXXOXOXOXOOXOXOXXOOX

JJJamie

Riding Bikes

2011-05-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did a bike race. It was sort of like a provincial/state championship. Our team, being an English professional team, sent 5 men to contest the ENGLISH East Midlands Championship. Our roster consisted of 2 Americans, a Dutchman, frenchman and a maple syrup gargling beaver teaser.

The whole team rode really hard. And then PHil rode really, really, really hard. And then I rode hard for about 75meters to win.

Dave Clarke (2nd Place) was as strong as 5 or 6 guys, so it was lucky that most of our team resides within this region.

Whole Team Riding Hard

Me Riding Hard for about 75 m

Chezs' BDAY with the Raleigh Crew

I spot a lurker

The best picture ever. These little gaffers were on the course cheering us on! They were given team cards for every rider... but i am sure it wasn't hard to pick their favorite.

Eddie didn't believe that i could probably drink 2 of those filled with coffee in one morning

1 Englishman, 3 British cycling medals!

And a closing thought:

what is the deal with british people and titles? I mean seriously... duke, dutchess, count, countess, earl, baron, puff, etc.

From now on I shall refer to myself as the Count of Tickleberryton.

Bloggggggggggggggggggggggerific

2011-05-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

S T U P I D

Short
Tasteless
Unpredictable
Posts
I
Deliver

SMART goal Fail. Stupid Goal Suceed.

Since my last post I have done some fun bike races, hosted one of the nicest ladies around and become excellent friends with the neighborhood stray cat!

Here are some pictures!

Chillen in Hillingdon Crit while Parnes and Phil rolled the breakaway hard.

22 days with no real training... Coming off injury. National A race. 2nd pwace? Solid.

Doone hame Scotland. Trying to bring something back for yellow jersey MC. It looks like I am staying nice and relaxed.

Rollin the front all day long.

Suffering

another shot of me biking.

Raleigh still going full-frontal.

Recovery Beer with excelllent company!

I am not so good at chewing and thinking. Typically I like to do one or the other.

Matlock. Castle. Blue Skies. Lell. Awesome!

Bonding!

Neo Hipster nerd wannabe!! (best looking neo-hipster nerd wannabe ive ever seen!)

This lane started at the end of prayer street.

Tourists!

Here is a picture of me eating dinner. Still shammed.

Another BFF shot!

Whoooooop! QOL is high!

A special big ups to RB for riding his bike over some mountains really fast yesterday.

OUT

Jamie

Lanes

2011-05-06T03:17:00.000-07:00

Riding in England is different than Riding anywhere else. There are a trillion different lanes that wind their way through the beautiful country side.

There are two types of lanes:

1) lanes i ride
2) lanes i ride the shit outta

Here are some of the latter:

There are an infinite amount of these lanes. It is nuts (or should I say its nutty?). I will get some hard evidence in the form of street signs.

Sitting in the subway in London a voice comes on "you are on the pickadilly line ending at cocksmoker avenue..." I smile and look around... the other passengers continue grimacing and don't even flinch. Exactly.

Jamie

Quick Updates

2011-04-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

Distant Past:

Team Raleigh Training Part One from Joe Coales on Vimeo.

Team Raleigh Training Part Two from Joe Coales on Vimeo.

Past:

Chillin' in London. If you zoom and look at the top of the building on the right, it says Canadian Pacific. Whoop.

This past week I took the train to London for the Tour of Britain Launch; it was turbo-cool to check out the heart of this big city and to attend such an intimidatingly-motivating event. 8 stages with class teams will provide some excellent life/bike experience. Stages 8a and 8b are particularly exciting as they take place in the heart of shut-down London. Here is a write up.

Present:

Coffee. Modern Family. Lell. Nice Days. Biking.

Cruisin' The Nice Roads.

Tree Tunnel

Future:

This bike race.

This Weekend.

Back in '82

2011-04-16T09:31:00.001-07:00

Word Yalls,

Who likes 80's hair rock?

Me too.

DL Here.

Tomorrow I am doing the only one day UCI race in Ingleand. How much you wanna bet I could ride a bike over them mountains?

Jamie

Quadrouple Threat: Sun, Biking, Bros and Fam

2011-04-11T00:58:00.000-07:00

This past week has been oh-so-awesome.

I raced a few bike races in Spain, Visited with my parental units, and hung out with my Raleigh Home-boys.... all underneath sunny blue skies. Awesome. sun sun sun = happy happy happy.

The race I did was a 4 day stage race. Here is a brief(ish) recap and report through my own biased eyes. Skip to the pictures if race reports aren't your thing... (I do this 99% of the time when reading other peoples blogs.).

Vuelta Mallorca UCI 2.2
189 Starters
A good international mix of Continental Teams
1 Canadian
1 American
Lots of Euros

7km Pancake Cobbled Prologue
Personal Account - Ride had for 9minutes-ish... What an evil distance. No pacing. MAX. EXPLODE. HANG ON.
Team Account- Despite some horrible prep (being sick the week before) Parnes still manages to roll a rock solid 13th place. Most of the team hits the first page of results.

150km with a Cat 2 and a Cat 1 Climb
Personal - Nervous start. Get over cat 2 climb in front group. Within 15 minutes of cresting cat 2 climb we start the cat 1. Ride my own tempo to the top. Make contact with solid group. Descend like an age-group triathlete. Finish.
Team - Parnes Sets us all up for good positioning on the first climb. Liam climbs well only to loose contact with final selection of 12 with only a few km to go. Cricket suffers an ill timed mechanical. Everyone makes it over the bergs to see another day.

150km with 2 cat 2 climbs
Personal - Surf Attacks for 51km. Find breakaway With Cricket. Roll it as hard as possible. Help Cricket get KOM points. Descend like an age-group triathlete. Almost pee pants during descending terror. Leg-Hiroshima on second cat 2 climb. Roll in with main pack.
Team - EVERYONE does excellent job of ensuring a break with 2 Raleighs gets away. Cricket takes out both KOMs and gets the jersey. He makes the final selection of 8 riders, which includes major GC threats, but has an ill timed puncture. DOH! Liam has no problems making the front peleton... and the rest of the guys cruise on in ready to throw it down the next day.

150km With 2 Cat 4 Climbs
Personal - Surf attacks. Find Breakaway again, this time with Jones. We roll strong.
Jones takes first KOM, I take the second one, ensuring Cricket's jersey. 2 minutes with 30km to go. Leave everything on the road. Get caught with 5km to go. Unzip jersey and cruise in.
Team - EVERYONE cycles break again, setting up 2 Raleighs in a break of 7. Cricket finishes with KOM jersey. Morale is high.

After racing I was able to chill with the folks and enjoy an amazing Mediterranean island. Huge shout out to Chris, Sue, Helen, Pete, Chez, Eddie, and of course Liam, Cricket, MC, Jonesy, Parnes and my roomate Kippo for making Mallorca 2011b awesome.

Here are some unorganized pictures:

Taking this picture took skill. Its like the woman's version of the Canadian tux.

Cricket was not so game for a mandatory-celebratory swim. He is a strong little bugger!

Post race coffee for me, beer for mom!

Class

My de-sham was a little too quick (as if that was possible) for a team photo.

Podium wait!

Kippo travels light. Philadelphia light.

Early morning start.

Liam and I post stage 1. He makes me look massive.

The first Climb of the race. Cat 2 - Soller. Thanks to Parnes, this was stress free.

Sue at the top of Soller.

Bros

More Bros

I am pretty sure Liam is flexing.

Sign-on

Don't forget to bring a towel.

MJ looking lean.

Apple and Tree

In the Jone-Zone.

Cricket Ready to Pounce.

Just wait until this fool is 100%... watch out!

Raleigh from above

Hangin' at the folks' pad

I like how you can see our view in the reflection. So awesome.

Coffee and Compression. 2 of my fav things.

Pete found us a Stellar spot!

I love fast internet!

Jamie

I'm so Vain, I bought my own domain, Before coming to Spain.... Again.

2011-04-06T02:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome to jamiesparling.com,

I had to get this domain before one of the other jamie sparling's snatched it up!! Maybe I will become one of those people with website... but probably not... owning jamiesparling.com is lame enough.

Right now I am back on mallorca doing a UCI 2.2 stage race. Whoop! I just did a 7km prologue... what an evil distance. Tomorrow we are going to be climbing some serious bergs. Snap!

CSparls and SSparls are here visiting which has made it a great trip. They are getting a very rich cultural experience in Magaluf... blindly booking hotels online can sometimes lead to bonus culture!

Here are some completely random and unorganized pictures from the last bit. Let me explain to you why this is: The internet hotel costs 15 euros for 5 days. It is a basic residential connection with a wireless router in which nearly a hundred people are on. I got back from my TT early and maximized the bandwith.

My stellar roommate for this trip

Parnes Getting a little H 2 Oh YA from Cheddie.

not a bad super-bed!

Heading back to the Spanish Starbucks

MCoffee

More Hydoshots

Releasing the Skin to the Sun again!

Chez holdin down the fort.

This new cat-friend started to get brave. Her friend (on the fence) was a little more on the fence.

Big thanks to John Walsh for dinner last night! Spanish Steak! (insert overused contador joke here.)

Bros

Chill on the patio at Chris and Sues.

Driving is a strong word. Trying to drive in England.

Getting some mix going.

Hanging with my new friend.

A botched classic endless pool shot. It was hard to see on the Crackberry. Anyways, it still looks kinda cool.

Whooop!

only 35 minutes til the buffet. awesome.

Jamie

Islin' and Stylin'

2011-04-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

The following is a marathon (1400 word) article that I was asked to write for a Caribbean Sports Tourism magazine called Ilse n' Style. If you have been to my blog before, you know that it is not in any position to put 1400words of my writing to waste... even though it is slightly (WAY) more PG than normal, and uses 10000x more amazingly awesome adjectives it was not worth wasting. Thanks to Phil's wonderful lady-friend, Mandy, for giving it a once over and refraining from condescending my many errors. Wow, with this introduction this will most certainly be the longest thing my blog has ever seen. If you are bored skim it, if you are not bored you are soon going to be.

My name is Jamie Sparling, and I am a 26-year-old West-Coast-Canadian. I started riding bikes when I was four years old. This pastime has since evolved into a complete lifestyle and now career. The following is my personal recount of the Tobago International Cycling Classic, a race that I view as pivotal in my cycling journey.

It was a nice summer evening in Calgary, Alberta Canada. The sun was low and the air was becoming crisp. I sat on my parents’ deck sipping a glass of sparkling water while enjoying the birds chirping and the sound of kids playing. My mood was especially tranquil as I was in the midst of a hard block of training. I recall that on that particular day, I had ridden over six hours in the thin mountain air under a hot, dry sun.

August for me had been a particularly hard month, both mentally and physically. Races were becoming scarce and the stress of finding a proper professional cycling team for 2011 had begun. Over the last few years, I had built up a somewhat respectable list of results (multiple stage wins at MT,.Hood Cycling Classic, podium at BC Super Week, countless Pacific Northwest Podiums and Wins, and Canadian National Track Medals, to name a few). However, I felt that I needed one big win late in the season to catapult me to the next level for 2011.

As I sat, my mind wandered. Where could I possibly find a late season race? Green Mountain in Virginia? No – too far, no support, a logistical nightmare. Oregon? There was a stage race in Eugene in early September, but even if I was able to do well, would it carry the prestige needed to find a contract for 2011? Probably not.

“Buzz, Buzz,” my trance was interrupted by the sound of my phone vibrating; a few text messages rolled in. I flipped my phone open to find that the messages were coming from an unknown number. “That’s weird,” I thought. “I wonder where the area code 650 is from?” I read on: “Hey dude its Ryan Parnes from the Yahoo cycling team. Phil Mooney and I were wondering if you wanted to come to Trinidad and Tobago for two weeks to do some late season racing? It’s happening late September to early October. Let me know if you’re interested.” Endorphins started to flow and my trance subsided. All of the sudden, I had a big race on the horizon, and it was in the Caribbean! I was excited… very excited. I quickly texted Ryan back, and we set it up. Trinidad and Tobago 2010 was a “go.”

As a side note, I had met Ryan Parnes and Phil Mooney only once before at a BBQ in Oregon. We got on well but had little contact after this encounter. Ryan had scrounged up my phone number and messaged me on a whim; hence my surprise to what seemed like such a random invite.

I landed in the Port of Spain airport early one morning. It took me three long flights (one of them a red-eye) to get the Caribbean. Peter Sue and Robert Farrell rolled in and picked me up. I used what energy I had left to crawl into the back of Robert’s truck. Within minutes I had come to two conclusions: first, I was extremely fortunate to be a part of the family-like bond exuberated by the Exustar team supporters. Secondly, it was freaking hot. I am a Canadian; make it snow and I will thrive. 30 degrees, with seemingly infinite humidity, was going to make the next two weeks challenging.

That evening I met up with the rest of the team. Local man Roger Farrell was our manger whose race sense and experience would prove invaluable. Atze Dijkhuis, from the Netherlands, was probably the funniest guy I have ever met. He had also raced in Tobago the previous year and helped me understand exactly what I could expect. Nathan Parks was a Californian, textbook nice guy and had the ability to go uphill fast. I knew that both Phil and Ryan were great guys and fast on bikes, but it was nice to see them again. The foundation for Exustar began that evening over my first experience of roti and doubles.

Before heading over to Tobago, the team set the tone in Trinidad. Ryan took the sprint at the Newsday Classic and Phil won both stages in San Fernando. This helped with confidence and momentum, but the start list for the Tobago Cycling Classic was far more intimidating. However, we were getting some reinforcement in the form of Dutch addition Tim Ottens. Tim was good on both the climbs and flats, but most importantly, Tim was tall and gave an excellent draft. Even with a strengthened roster we would have to play our cards right if we wanted to carry on our winning ways.

Stage one started in the heat of mid-day. After only a few kilometers I managed to find the day’s serious break. We gained nearly six minutes, and at the finish I was 3rd, same time as the leader. A one-word summary of stage one: HOT.

Stage two was the time trial. It took place under the far more forgiving conditions of the early morning. To my delight, I was able to win and take the leader’s jersey into the next stage that afternoon. A two-word summary of stage two: short-pain.

Stage three was my first experience in a leader’s jersey in a long time. Typically, I am more of a stage hunter and my GC ability is unproven. That being said, I had a strong team behind me and a support staff that seemed to grow by the day. Roger has a lot of friends! Exustar did an excellent job of keeping me out of trouble, and I was able to keep the lead going into my favorite day… the lime. Three-word summary of stage 3: STEEP-HEAT-PARNES (Parnes because he rode the front so hard until he was dropped over the hill… I would always assume that he was gone for good but out of nowhere he would return and go right back to the front).

LIME - This was the most fun I have had in a long time. Part of me wanted to stay at the hotel and make sure I was fresh for the remaining days, but I am glad I went out and fully embraced the party. This was surely the highlight of my trip and is something I will remember forever. Jet Skis, Beautiful Weather, Beers, The Caribbean. One-word Summary: Unreal.

Stage four was uneventful for the team. My guys did a great job at keeping my closest rivals in check. They ensured that I would take the jersey into the final stage. Four-word summary of stage four: Stress-Free-Team-Protection.

I woke up the morning of stage five with no real expectations. A stage win and a few days in the yellow jersey were good enough for me. I am not a spectacular climber, and I had been warned of the ruthlessness of stage five. Racing got underway early. As I pedaled along I began to dissect my complacent attitude. “Why shouldn’t I fight it out?” I thought. “I am on the verge of that big win I so desperately want.” Right then and there I did a mindset remix. “I am going to win,” I told myself. After the first climb I could tell my legs were good. The stage evolved and the peloton thinned to a group of 12. The course was like nothing I had ever seen. It was spectacular, beautiful and ruthless. The sheer difficulty of the course prevented my rivals from putting me under too much pressure. No one wanted to venture off alone. Eventually the terrain eased and the attacks started to fly. I had no teammates left and had to ride the front by myself. I dug deep and crossed the line to join the alumni of Tobago Cycling Classic Winners. Five-Word Summary of Stage 5: Epic-Epic-Epic-Epic-Epic.

Later that afternoon, I received an offer from Team Raleigh in the UK. I had achieved my goal of taking cycling to the next level for 2011. The next few hours for me were completely ‘out-of-body.’ I will forever remember slamming a few Caribs and floating in the ocean under the stars, after winning a big bike race, after achieving my most major 2010 goal. Tobago will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Jamie Sparling
Jsparls.blogspot.com
@jsparls

MIX Done. LEt Life resume.

2011-03-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

Frig,

Why I am so ADD except when I am trying to piece music together? I have been glued to my computer trying to put all these songs together. I needed to finish it so I could leave my computer. Frig.

Hopefully the randomness of all this music in one 5 minute chunk amuses you. Every Song in the comments is used in some way. Take a listen... can you hear yours?? listen carefully!

DL HERE.

WHOOP!

Jamie

5 Minute Mix.

2011-03-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hello,

Micro-Mixes seem to be quite popular on the internet these days. I want in.

Post a comment with one of your most favorite songs and I will throw a piece of it in my 5-min-mix. I will do my best to sample bits from all requests. Hopefully I can come up with something that is UBER ADD. I will not discriminate against any songs.

What will 5 minutes of mashed up random songs sound like??

Do you think Gordon Ramsey could cook a spectacular meal if a handful of people shouted random ingredients??

Nope.

But lets give it a whirl anyways.

I realize that I am likely to get 0-3 comments, but that will just make it easier.

Here is a picture of my DJ setup. It has absolutely no relevance to what I will be doing. Looks cool though eh??

RESTRESTREST,

Jamie

Please Phil - May I have some Darley Moor

2011-03-27T01:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bit of a dreary day. I cruised around for a few hours and then raced the LEGENDARY Darley Moor. Phil and I enjoyed a lot of time off the front... while Ryan, G6 And JJ
Did their own damage behind.

Phil was gracious enough to let me join the 'National-B-Win-Club.' I owe him! Anyways, Eddie was out with his camera... here are the results:

Trying to Relive This to Warm My Spirits.

Cruisin' Along the Speedway.

Talk About an Excellent Product Endorser

Phil Towing me Along

Nothing But Smash

Our Enforcer

JJ Looking, and going, Fast

Ryan Already hitting the brakes Before crossing the line.

JJ Making Sure he Handily out-sprints Geoff, The Raleigh Marketing Director.

The Future!!

I had 4 coffees after the race. It was chillllly.

Who likes Potatoes??

BIKEBIKEBIKE,

Jamie

Slow Internt. Short Post.

2011-03-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Chris from cycling weekly for hooking me up with this pic. Best stand-off Result ever.

Sunshine is awesome,

Jamie

If nice days were sold, I would be broke.

2011-03-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Blog Momentum continues.

Before riding today I spent 10 minutes talking to a door to door 'dooms-dayist.' What a funny chap! Earthquakes and War and WORLD ENDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Phil applauded my patience. If you make it through this shitty blog post I will applaud you!!!

Today I went for my first ride mapped with my new pal: Garmin. England is a maze of tiny roads, and until today, I have not had the confidence to go deep into the Peaks National Park... My new friend is awesome; she took me on an unbelievable route on THE most beautiful day of 2011 thus far.

Ride Tidbits:

- is it still bad luck if the black cat that crosses your path has no tail? I mean its not really a full cat now is it? more like 93% of a proper cat.
-the smell of mowed grass needs to be captured and made into a fragrance
-copious amounts of sunlight transforms all of the village people's (every time I roll through a village I come across a few locals) dreary grimaces into full out smiles... filter filter filer. All smiles are welcomed!
-Horse people are the same here as they are in Canada.

More or less the route... a few remixes here and there. PS - Map my ride shows that this route has 950m of elevation gain. It was 1950m. Be warned when mapping a ride!

&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/30190128"&amp;gt;A ride mapped on 03/23/2011&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/?location=South Derbyshire, United Kingdom"&amp;gt;Find more Cycling Routes / Bike Rides in South Derbyshire, United Kingdom&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;

Here are some pictures:

Blue Skies and Castles

Lots of Smiles up in here!

Lurking in the Self Shot Shadows

A nice little bridge into the Peaks!

That bridge helped me avoid this hydroad.

ROLLLL ROLLLLLL!!!

14% Self-SHOT!!!

BAD GARMIN!!!!!! ( I still love you.)

Its lamb season! These little things are sooooo cute. They are soooo young. Their little brains are telling their little legs to move, but they are so uncoordinated and twitchy. Its too bad their fate is determined...notice the spray painted number.

24 Hours of Randomly Delightful Events.

2011-03-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes life throws you a delightful curve ball. A month ago our team manager organized a day in which 4 of us foreigners would meet up with the organizer of a rider sportif (basically an organized 100 mile fondo-type-deal). Our job was to pre-ride much of the route while being photographed and answering questions for Cycling Weekly. WWOOOOOOTTT ATTTTEENNNTION!!! I LOVE ATTENTION!!!! POST A COMMENT!! !!ATTENTION!!!

The sportif started in a small town that is located in the heart of the British Army Country. Sooo... we got to stay on an army base!! WHOOP! Here are some fun facts about staying on an army base:

-Eating in the mess hall is awesome. Imagine 12 people eating at a 40ft long table with 20 ft ceilings and 2 huge portraits of the Queen and Prince watching you.
-You get your own massive room. No Bunk Beds.
-Passports are needed.
-Salutes do happen
-Camo one piece suits are the Bus-Cas of day to day work.

Anyways staying on an army base was only one of the cool experience I had in the last twofourhour.

Other highlights include a beautiful ride through some of the most history rich areas ever. Take a look at some pictures:

There are two guns at the Main Entrance... one has a maple leaf on it!

Phil Posing

The 4 of us with the Colonel of the Base!

Whoop! Presentations

Tidsworth Hizzzouse

F Stone-Henge. Wood Henge is so much more underground. (this is actually wood henge. There is actually a wood henge)

Yes SIR!

This was the best part of my entire day. We were getting our photos taken with stone henge as the back drop, when I noticed this Japanese woman filming us very intensely. She had a power stance and a double grip. I figured, that if she films me, I am for surely going to film her. We got into a mexican standoff until she started to get really excited. She ran down the bank and in broken english got us all to pose with her. Awesome. But really, look at this photo... I mean, here is a woman taking a picture of me in my funny blue suit while fucking stone henge, an internationally iconic photo subject, is in the background.

Phil, being an American, is use to this sort of thing.

If your going to ride? Don't ride the white horse.... This is some Pagan deal... apparently 400+ years old.

Bros Rolling it homeward.

Check this one off the Life List.

Because you told me to drill sergeant,

Jamie

monday monday monday.

2011-03-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

Hello family and the 1 or 2 people that still surf on over to my neglected blog (I didnt specify which Monday I would update in my last post). I have been SOOOOOO busy watching internet TV and preparing 15-20 coffees a day that the blog has been on the back burner. Motivation can be hard to come by sometimes; I have decided to use one of the 3 things I have retained from my degree to help with future blogging:

Setting a SMART Goal: Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Time-Specific.

Using these criteria I have come up with the following blog-goal: to do a minimum of 2 blog posts a week. (BTW the other two things I have retained are: buy low sell high and blame subordinates.) This blog post about blog posts is getting lame fast. Lets switch gears.

Today Phil, Ryan, JJ and myself are going to a military base in the south of England. We are staying there tonight and then doing a ride with cycling weekly for an article in their next magazine. Whoop. I don't know why we are staying at a military base, but at least I feel safe about it. Maybe I will snap a few pics and use then to fill my blog quota??

Yesterday I raced my first road race in England. It was nice to get out there with my teammates and ride on a course with a little bit of elevation gain. (holland had under 50m of elevation gain over 183km and Belgium had under 20m over 195km.) The team rode extremely well and I was able to do a full grocery shop with the prize money. WHOOP!

In weeks to come I am focusing on a UCI 2.2 on mallorca. I love that place. Maybe I will post some WKO power files so you can see how I am doing.... NAAAT.

Words are getting/gotten boring. Here are some pictures:

Liam Taking the Dub Yesterday. MJ rollin 2nd, and myself rounding out the podium.

Hey! Look at me!

One bad-ass combo

Although English, MJ could really do some damage in America's national sport.

This is me in Belgium. This photo made the newspaper, along with a few shots of the winner.

Parnjusting

Pete is the man.

Post Travel Spin

A Canadian War Cemetery in Holland.

Fully Compressed.

All Smiles

Sleepy Time

Phil on JJs bike.... Yesterday morning as Phil and Ryan were getting their stuff together, I took the liberty of loading all the bikes. I put 3 in the back of the van (JJ was not racing yesterday.) I accidentally loaded JJ's bike instead of Phils. Whoops.

Coffee, Pack, Ride, Chill, Travel.

Jamie

Offinspace. Can i borrow your stapler?

2011-03-11T11:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Phil Gave me a Buzz cut:

Today I Took a bit of a tumble on my bike:

Tomorrow I am going through this:

Sunday I am racing against him:

Monday I am going to write a proper blog post.

BELGIUM TOMORRRRROW.

Jamie

INGLEAND Back up Ins.

2011-02-27T04:44:00.000-08:00

This morning at about 6am I got back to Derby after a month abroad; Spain-Holland-Germany-Holland-Belgium-France-England. Snap!

It feels oh-so-nice to be in our own home. Whoop! Stenson Fields.

Yesterday was a hard bike race. I have not passed my grade 1 crosswind classes yet; nonetheless, I decided to jump in and try to defend a PHD crosswind thesis. I have heard so many times, from so many people, how hard the gutter is... get to the front, blah blah blah. I did not fully grasp this concept until yesterday. 200 dudes on a bike path with lots of crosswind = lots of gutter. It is the kind of racing where positioning is 100000000 times more important that cranking out watts. Any which way, all of us rode super hard and gained a good sense of what we can expect next time. No stellar results, but results rarely tell all. I will have to put these lessons to use in Belgium in a few weeks... SNAP!

PS - Being an stock broker in early 2008 is probably the only thing as stressful as a long euro neutral start. Dodge Dive Dip Duck and Dodge.

On another note, a big shout out is due to the Janssen's.... SO AMAZING.

Here are some pics from the Last bit in NL:

MExican in the Netherland

Rolling to The Grocery Store, dutch style.

Doin' Some Biking

Fun Times at Night

A talk with the manager was needed to make this one happen.

Double up.

LIFTOFF!

RP rolling Through a Forrest.

Stress, Stress, Stress.... GONE!

Riverside Motherfucker! (Normally I would filter the F-bomb... but being that this river flows through Nijmegen and Sidney Samson is from Nijmegen... this is the actual riverside.)

Goodbye Holland!

This is the product of a long travel day! SCOOOPPPE IT. Quick Mixes with some variety.

DL HERE.

Time for coffee 7,

LOVE,

Sincerely,

Best Regards,

Kind Regards,

Warm Regards,

Regards,

Best,

JAmie

HOLLA (nd) atcha BOY

2011-02-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we left Spain. I will miss that place... it lived up to all the hype and provided an amazing location for some great bike riding.

One Last Spain-Shot... Soller-ong for now!

I am now in Holland. What a place! there are bikes everywhere... its nuts. People ride EVERYWHERE and the city is built for bikes. I know, I know, NL is totally famous for this and I am not making any unique discoveries, but I think that you really need to see it to grasp just how much of a bike zone it is.

Today JJ took Ryan, Phil and myself out on a ride. We got lifted on coffee, well I got lifted on coffee, and went all around town. We even went to Deutchland! WHOOOP! Here are some pictures:

Ryan Making sure his bike is up to snuff.

Saddle up partner

Phil, JJ and Joop! Whoop! JJ's Ma and Pa have been oh-so-nice in letting us stay with them! Such a nice house and neighborhood. Total Euro-Stylezz

The SMILIN' Dutchman!!

Going into Germany makes me want to reach for the sky!!!

Scopin' a new country with P and R in the distance.

German JJ

Back to Holland... Almost sub sea level.

Allied Troops Return

Bad-ass Houseboats

Rollin' into Nijmegen

EURO

OMG what was that in that window?????

What's your husband getting???

Whoop Non-Bombed square!

The core of the City. Awesome.

Tour Guidin'

This bridge was only built for bikes and Trains. Awesome.

I am so ignorant,

Jamie

2011 Team Raleigh Profiles... External Style.

2011-02-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

Bonjourno,

Would you like to know about the 2011 team Raleigh? If yes scroll down. If no don't scroll down.

The Guys, The Shams, The Cheddie, The Spain.

Matt Cronshaw

Matt, or MC, is an eligible 22 year old gent. He likes swimming pools, downhills and summer jerseys. His 25 most played playlist on his ipod consists of DUBstep and Emo tracks. Every once and a While you gotta get down. MC's grooming level is more than double the level of anyone else on the team.

Matt Jones

Matt Jones surely has the best blue steel look of the team. He is a certified chef and a known facebook status infiltrator. His wheelie and track-stand abilities are unmatched. He is the most genuinely nice guy on the team. In the past he crashed on his face rendering him unable to whistle.

THE FLYYYYYYIIINNNNGGG DUUUUTTTTCCHHHMMMAAANNNN!!!!!! has a smile as bright as the Spanish sun. He is punk specialist and a CD collector. Doctor Pepper is one of his favorite drinks while top gear is one of his favorite shows. When it comes to bike riding, JJ has some insane cornering skills as well an impressive force/mass. At 9pm he becomes the nightman. His weaknesses include cheese and tipping.

Matt Gee

Also known as G6, Matt is pretty fly. Although he is not known for sippin' slissor or getting scissored, Matt can "smash it" like none other. This proper Englishman is an experienced electrician who's insight has already fixed our washing machine. His wardrobe screams class and his vocabulary is 17 times deeper than mine.

Philip Mooney

PMoones brings some much needed midwestern vocal twang to the team. Phil is by far the most competent person on the team; he knows how to get things done. Aside from being a time trial master and a chatterbox extraordinaire, Phil is a master of geology. His hobbies include skype, freedom and Nathaniel English stories.

Richard Handley

Rickety Cricket, as he is now known by the team, knows how to roll. This young balla made us all suffer a lot this camp. His speed uphill, downhill and on the flats pales in comparison to the speed in which he can get on facebook chat once a ride is finished. This young whippersnapper has excellent taste in music (LCD Sound system in particular), can scale a tree like no other, is a WKO master and reps an originally amazing"lego-man hairdo."

Ryan Parnes

El Mammoth packs a sprint as quick as his blog. This Standford educated, i-da-HO, is a master documenter who does not let tourist-shame get in the way of an excellent picture. This broski has a versaitille look... bearded... clean... short hair.... fro'd up. Any which way Parnes has game on and off his bike. Ryan is the kind of guy you want to hang out with, ride bikes with or even start a band with.

Dan Fleeman

Did someone say hill? Dan floats up hills like no one I have ever ridden with. This homeboy is a seasoned leader who had ridden with the big boys (A Canadian sponsored team by the name of cerbike or brainvelo or... cervelo? something like that). Any which way, Dan's skills, knowledge and nerd-like enthusiasm (he forwarded 5 of us some power files... which were actually very relevant in shedding light on a discussion we were having ) will be exactly what the young pups need.

Matt Kipling

Kippo, as he is known by his teammates, is a pop-culture guru. This guy is not only a wealth of info on hollywood, but also has a knowledge of B, C and D list actors and films that I never new was possible. Kippo has three ratings of movies: unbelievable, unbelievable and unbelievable. He has been quoted saying things like "Steven Segal doesn't make bad movies" or "Ryan Reynolds doesnt make bad movies" or "Friends seasons 1-5 is unbelievable." Aside from pop (or not so pop) culture, Kippo's sense of humor and enthusiasm is matched only by his ability to throw down a mean sprint or roll a viscous tempo. His accent is also really thick.

Gael Le Bellec

Gael's confidence transcends language barriers resulting in some of the funniest commentary I have ever heard. This bro knows how to roll a solid uphill tempo, massacre a buffet and choose a perfect facebook profile shot. Friends and desperate housewives are two of his favorite shows. Gael's hair is always primed, his shoes are always white and according to the entire team, his sister is quite cute.

Liam Holohan

This Lad knows more about trailer park boys than me. He Rocks out to classic rock, can sprint and climb and owns a Gibson Les Paul. Liam has a versatile look and looks dapper with his hair slicked backed and pushed forward. If he were a geneticist he would most likely try to create a being that was 50 % Neal Young and 50% Frank VDB. Liam climbs in the drops, slang-talks everyone under the table, and can through down a burn like no other.

Jamie Sparling

Slang Talking Canadian who is trying to find a picture of Wayne Gretzky to put on his stem. He is tall and gangly and speaks confidently about things he has no clue about. Jamie is really into stupid gizmos, like the ab-tronic. He can't climb or sprint, but has been known to wear shorts in any conditions. Virgin Shirley temples are his drink of choice. Excel macros anyone?

Thanks for reading.

Tomorrow Holland.

JAmie

Sunned up and ready to go.

2011-02-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

All of the guys on the team go home tomorrow. It has been an amazing camp. Myself, Ryan and Phil are stickin around til Monday. Whoop!

Here is an very censored interview I did for Ryan. He is a master of the edit and had some amazingly creative questions. Scope out it out here!

I love sleep!

Jamie

Final Days of Camp.

2011-02-09T08:48:00.001-08:00

Dear Diary,

Today was the second last day of camp. I will be sad to go home. I have made such good friends... but wait? it continues for months and months in different parts around the world? Awesome.

Pictures instead of words:

Charlie is amazing.

Smart mouths say stupid things.

The Tree is blocking the wind!

10 O'clock!

Tired Eyes.

Pete gettin' er done

Collaboration.

Crickets need food too!

First Race February 26. WHOOP!

Jamie

for your (Lin)EARs

2011-02-08T23:50:00.000-08:00

My blog continues to be a series of bad puns.

Here is some music.

Genre: Progressive House
Tempo: 128-130bpm
Length: 60minutes
Notes: Start slow. Build. 10(Getting dirtier. Build. Get Dirtier. Build.)
Not super poppy like the last few I have done. This one is for intermediate electronic music listeners. There are also no F-bombs or potty mouthing. Its clean.
There are a KAGILLLLLION JSParls Edits in here.

DL HERE.

Jamie

every day its the Spain thing.

2011-02-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Rest is the best. Today we indulged in some chillaxing time. Awesome.

Amsterdammmmmmmmit! on Monday. A change of blog material will be good.

I finished an hour long progressive house mix. I dig it and will put it up asap... the bandwidth at the hotel is totally throttling my uploads tonight... maybe tomorrow it will work.

I had about 10 coffees. 7 short of my goal. Whatever.

Here are some more pics:

SHAM REST!

DESKTOP BACKGROUND - Centerfold!!!!
Matt Kippo
Likes:
Friends Season 1 - 5 Titanic, Stephen Segal Movies.
Dislikes:
Empty Suitcases, Friends Seasons 5 and beyond.
Perfect Date:
Dinner and a Ryan Reynolds flick.

Helen the super-soigny. Knees or feet, she gets it done!

Guess where the sun is?

Deceiving. 5/10 coffee.

We stopped in a depressing old tourist town. It looked like things would have been bumpin' 50-60 years ago.

Not a bad little spot!

Awesome little town.

G6 scoping out some caves.

OUT.

Jamie

sPAINFUL TrSpaining BLOCK... not in spVAIN?

2011-02-07T12:48:00.001-08:00

As my title implies, I was in for a lot of PUN-ishment today. The twelve guys got separated into two groups... and for some reason my group was called the "climbers." I spent the better part of the day rolling tempo up a lot of hills... errr... Rolling Rickety Cricket and Dan Fleeman's tempo... for me, it was more of a Max-effort-red-zone-Jesus-Visit type pace.

Any which way tomorrow is a day of rest for all! Whoop!

Stop.

Picture Time:

Today was going to require a lot of Coffee. But not this coffee. Matt Cronshaw needs to pray at least 17 hail Marys for this Cardinal Sin.

Coffee Carnage.

Cricks. 2 hours before we are about to go.

Cheddie Looking HIP!

Phil was also happy to see me.

Rolling Some controlled efforts up Soller.

Finally A picture that can capture a little bit of what we are riding through.

Similar Style

Cricks and I

Pete doing an awesome job.

After biking was done we relaxed. This place is a relaxation Catalyst.

I made a new Friend!

MC in between texts to his lady-friend in the making.

Sea Urchin hiding. I took a look at the area i went swimming in today. What a stupid idea. There was so much shit in the water... rusty metal, sea urchins, garbage. I am lucky.

5 sunset Pictures. I totally dig sunsets.

Tomorrow = 17 Coffees.

Jamie

2011-02-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Current Trspaining Camp Template:

Buffet. Biking biking biking. Hanging. Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mighty Boosh. Buffet. Massage. Sleeping Sleeping ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Restart. (Dreaming is not limited to sleep.)

Tomorrow will be no different. There are going to be a few lumps in our route.Whoop!

I am halfway done a progressive house set. It has some banging tunes in it. I will upload it in a few days. Stay tuned!

And a few Pics:

The Team From behind?? I haven't uploaded one with some palm trees yet have I?

Surely I haven't uploaded one with a Dodge Viper. (a viper in europe?? who'da thunk?)

MC and his mr. universe legs. SNAP!

This pup was totally scoping out one of our refuel stops.

CENSORED

Repeat Tomorrow.

Jamie

Fom Coffee Shops to Mountain Passes

2011-02-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today was a hard day. We rolled up some serious climbs and worked up a mega-appetite. The buffet tonight was like Normandy... and the team Raleigh crew stormed STORMED.

Ride Notes/findings:

Gael LeBellac informed us that he likes the shows: Friends and Desperate Housewives.
upon a serious dissing from the crew.... Matt Kippo came out of the word-work as and described friends seasons 1-5 as "unbelievable."

Liam's Favorite Rush song is Working man.... or Tom sawyer.

Rickety Cricket Floated up a few more mountains.

Phil can tell you all about this geology

Turns out a paradise wasn't waiting at the end of the light. Just some bars and more suffering.

The feeding trough

Riding by brail.

3 guys constantly fighting 9.81 m/s^2 ... and doing it wel.

No patch kit !

Tight formation.

I am exited to show Ryan (we had discussed it on the ride) this classic:

JAmie

Coffee. Rest. Coffee. Coffee. Chill. Coffee- UPDATE - Video Edition...

2011-02-04T04:49:00.000-08:00

I have had 9+ coffees today: Large, Small, Medium... Pressed, Espresso, Instant, Brewed... In water, in milk, straight... Store bought, home brew, buffet-brew... Great, Good, Meh, Gross...

Any which way, It felt great to relax. Today we were not at the mercy of Cheddie's plan, rather a choose your own adventure recovery ride. I rolled it chill with 5 other bros. We hit a solid cafe in a nice harbor and then u-balled it back to our digs.

Once we got back we spent some more time chillin, took some pictures and then right back to the cafe on the ocean.

What it felt like to be One of us this afternoon.

The Blue-Bros and our Manager-extraordinaire.

Behind the Scenes Footage. Smartly dressed... and in my case, by the look of this picture, smartly mouthed.

Late Afternoon Relaxation... Until A little betting started to take place.

15 Euros, an Ice Cream and some Street Cred was on the line if I could swim out to one of the Buoys in the Bay... I was talking a lot of smack about being a cold-blooded Canadian and Matt Kippo enforced a hard lined Marty-Mcfly Tactic... "whats the matter, are you yellow??"

Slow and Steady... Lots of rocks and I spotted a sea urchin or two... Careful steps.

Still a little unsure... 3 - 2 - 1

Splish Splash!

No Worries at all! It was actually reasonably warm!

While I was out in the water, our waiter poured a little something for me on the house. He also gave me the thumbs up when we left! ha.

Street Credit +10.

An Unrelated shot of the guys. Good times.

Tomorrow we start fresh!

Jamie

PS - Double your Raleigh Camp Angle with the words of one of the best looking, best dancing best singing mother brothers of all time: HERE!!!

Pictures. Captions. Coles Notes.

2011-02-03T12:20:00.000-08:00

Today I woke up and went biking once again with my Blue-Kitted Homeboys.

Summary:
Sun
Awe
The Wrath of Rickety Cricket's Time Trial Legs
A Lone Contador siting?

I can hardly sleep I get so excited about this.

Blue Formation

Goin' Coastal

Rock and Roll? ...

Picture Summary.

Jsparls Streetview.

I was so relieved! I had forgotten my glitter cowboy outfit in England and didn't think I'd be able to find a replacement on the island!

Bossman Holohan Rollin down.

When God plays golf he tees off here.

MC Reflections

Mouthful Self shot! Quota filled.

Parnesmiles

Controlled Collaboration

Man I hate urban sprawl!

Stylin' Chez at the helm.

Bamboo-YA!!!! (i took this picture solely for the sake of writing that caption)

Moonin' the Roads

Perched

Airborne MC. Amused RP.

STRESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best for last. Ladies here it is!!! I uploaded this one at super high quality so it can be used as a proper desktop background. (Ryan even looks mad-impressed.)

Tomorrow we (rest, coffee, chill, hang, and watch 9-10 episodes of this.)

Jamie

Trspaining Camp - Day 2; No Frills only Hills, Skills and Thrills.

2011-02-02T07:21:00.001-08:00

The vibe at Team Camp gets better and better everyday. All of the guys are mint (I stole that word from my teammate Liam's Vocabulary.). Everyone is getting along super well on and off the bike. It is so awesome to be able to ride beside any one of the 11 other guys and carry on a good convo. It is also nice to ride with guys that like to ride properly; steady, controlled efforts, not trying to take the whole pack on a death decent.

Today I went on one of the top 3 routes of my life. I have ridden a lot of places... getting into the top 3 is no easy feat. Here is a ranking:

1. Volcano National Park - Hawaii, Big Island.
2. The Mallorca Route we did today.
3. Kings Ridge, California

Here are some more pictures:

On the way to Breakfast...

Socks over leg-warmers?

Pmoons Making Sure he is safe!

Photographer becomes the Photograph

Team Car Substitute

Fresh White Kicks!

Roomate Rickity Cricket! (uphill master!)

Bikes!

PArninating!

Rolling with my Raleigh Home Boys

Tunnel Vision

Bad Photograph, Amazing Subject.

High Spirits

Rolling under a nice sky

Pumped Parnes

The Darkness Before the Climbing Storm

The Flying Dutchman Flying

Town Cruise
Village Cruise

More Town Cruisin

Down Down Down

I had a moment on this descent. It was so spectacular.
Kippo does have permits for these. I checked.

Shorts?? Leave it to Canada!

More Raleigh Madness

Cheddie Rollin' on our 6

Mountastic!

Field with some Blue

View From the Hotel. Niceeeaa

The Glorious Parking Lot

A Poto-Capture of the Overall Vibe of the Camp

Another Shot of the View

Reverse View!

Eddie and Myself After a great day on the bike!

Buffets are awesome,

Jamie

Trspaining Camp - Day 1

2011-02-01T07:36:00.000-08:00

Today I joined my fellow teammates on a Training Ride in Spain. The only thing better than the ride was the company. We have some swell chaps in the Raleigh family.

Words are not coming easy today. Here are some pictures:

Getting the bikes ready for action.

My whip ready for the day!

Geoff from Raleigh won the prize of the day... a Go-Pro with harness!

Matt Kippo Reppin' a classic stretch.

Cruisin' in the hills

Gaelle Force.

I am limiting myself to one self shot per post.

Endless Roads.

MJ doing what he does.

Majorca's Version of the Dub F.

Gaelle Force and Myself... (Gaelle's presence nullifies the Self-shoted nature.)

I think this is the Local Star-Bucks

It feels great to roll on the right side of the road again.

Raleigh Madness!

La Tigre.

Enjoying the Sun!

The 3rd Matt in this post.

So are you serious about going in the pool??

I think this setting is better than any recovery shake I have ever had.

My Job doesn't pay nearly as well as a starter analyst position in Calgary.

meh.

Jamie

Spaintastic.

2011-01-31T11:21:00.001-08:00

Today has Been Grand:

3:45am - Wake up.
4:45 am - Witness best ever Blouse / Luggage combo coordination ever. (leopard print exhibited by a 60-65 year old Asian woman.)
5:15am - Bucks
7am - Board Airplane
7:01 am - Easyjet-MAll-in-Sky-Sequence begins (who doesn't want 40% off + duty free on a nice bath robe at 7:01 am on an airplane?)
7:02 - IPizzz (Its all gone Pete Tong sound track was fitting.)
11am Arrive in Spain
Noon - Hotel. Wow.
NoonThirty - Am I really on Mallorca?
1pm - Lunch.
145pm - Sleep.
330pm - Set out for a pedal. Wow. I guess I see why so many pros come here. Imagine if California and Hawaii had a love child. (At this point in time the Rain Gene was showing strong, but you know that this baby will grow out of it.)
6 - Chill with my Roommate. LCD sound system in the hizzouse!
Seven - Buffffff et.
Eight - IP address reconfigure. Severe Nerdification.
Now - Blogpost.

I totally needed a new FB profile shot!

Raleighing up a Hill

Mountain Self Shot

Some VerY nice roads.

Parntastic! Reppin' his kit with class.

New Magnet Bracelets. Power Up!

View from our Balcony.

Biking is rad,

Jamie

HAMbledon Drive

2011-01-29T10:35:00.002-08:00

Today I went riding with the man, the legend, the mammoth, the Noisy-Boise-BoyEEEE, Ryan Parnes.

We held a solid base pace and I decided to drink from my water bottles every 14.2 minutes, apposed to my regular 15.7minutes. I also wanted to consume 104.3 Kcal per 39km. OBVIOUSLY at 247 watts and 142bpm this was going to prove necessary.

Let me describe my training ride in further detail:

15 minutes in
Avg. Spd - 29.7kmhr
Power - 239 Watts
HR - 131 bpm
Notes - I started out the ride feeling 7.3456 / 10. It was a little chilly, but at this point I was happy with my clothing choice.

30minutes in
Avg. Spd - 30.1 km/h
Power - 242 Watts
HR - 133bpm
Notes - My hands and feet were feeling great! but my upper layers were too thick. I was over dressed.

45 Minutes in
This joke is getting old. However I have found it quite odd that, while writing such detail, I have had a compulsive urge to put speed laces in all my shoes.

Today I road my bike with Ryan. We had a great ride. Here are some pictures:

My Cockpit looks nice and Clean thanks to the help of new Teammate Dan Fleeman

Here is the View from before... So j-Bag

This is our dryer. It Never Breaks down and uses almost no energy. It does take a while though.

I remixed my room setup. I think it looks swell. Especially the triple kitten picture!

Controlled Clutter

Desktop Background Material.

Ryan scoping my pockets for bananas

Typical Lane. We are getting better at connecting these things up. About 75% of a 4-5hour ride can be don on these quiet beauties!

Glorious Rollers!

Skype is so awesome. Here is a video chat with Lell, Nomes and myself. I put myself in the middle. I also blurred out Lells face because she told me she would kill me if I posted that pic... I am all about pushing the Limits; on and off the bike!

To make matters more random, I have found the most emo title of any song ever made (it is quite good though!):

Later crocodile!

Jamie

Coffee and Kit!

2011-01-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Today I went biking in a new outfit. It was awesome. Everything about my outfit was coordinated. Even the stuff underneath the outer layers! So hip!

Want some good beats???
Check out this essential mix.

Power-up!

I am getting pretty sick of this dreary and dark English Winter!

Taking some new clothes for a test drive...

BIKEBIEKBIKEIKBIKEKBIEKBEIBKEBIEAKBIKBIBEKBEIBKEDREAMBIKBEIBE
KBEIBEKBEBIBEKEIKEIBKEBIEKBEBIKEBIEBIEBIKEIKBEIDREAMBKBEIKBEBKE

Jamie

BaD

2011-01-27T14:39:00.000-08:00

2011-01-26T13:31:00.000-08:00

Biking Continues as usual up in Derby. Here are a few photos of the latest. Whoop.

Our new Riding Kit has arrived. Christmas again? Whoop.

Spain on Monday. Whoop.

The Pain Cave.

Tweeting from Within

Hours with a grimace, a second of jokes.

Teen Beardin' the Hills

17 Coffees and a LOT of electro music made this session possible.

Photo/Video/Broskizzz Credits = RParnes

Toot a loooooooooooooo

Jamie

Terrific Tuesday!

2011-01-25T05:40:00.000-08:00

DJ set in the house! This is another quick-mix... short and punchy; the kind of musical supplement that serves well in giving a motivationally challenged athlete a quick push out the door.

15+ songs in about 15 mins. There are a lot of square words in this one so beware.

DL here.

Jamie - Recovery Mode - Sparling

The Least Relaxing Chesterfield I have been to...

2011-01-24T00:46:00.000-08:00

When Eddie, our DS, told me we would be riding to Chesterfield, I envisioned a land of fluffy pillows, lounging and maybe an easy to use universal remote control. About 2 hours in I was made well aware that this vision couldn't have been more opposite. (hills, wind, a brisk pace!?) It got me thinking, maybe there is a marketing opportunity there... At 330am, on the shopping network, some fit people could go on about how easy it was to get fit by staying so close to their Chesterfield... a lot of fine print would be needed. Who knows? Maybe I should have eaten a few more high5 energy bars to prevent my mind from wandering into such a stupidly random state.

Yesterday was our first official team ride of the year. 10/12 of the Raleigh bros rolled alongside a few of our rookies and seasoned vets. For us foreigners, it was our first experience of The Peaks National Forrest... and it was B-E-A-utiful; quiet roads, unique and stunning scenery... hills. 5.5 hours flies by when your mind is continuously occupied with vast stimuli...

Next up for us is team camp in Mallorca. WHOOP!

Here are some pics:

This is an example of one of the many estates I was talking about in my last post.

If you ever get a chance, go here.

Re-Fuel

A bit of a suffer going on here. 20+%

Liam in his big ring.

Mountaineers

A pretty solid Back drop

Lots of Grade going on here

I needed a harness and chalk for this one

RPArnes slanging the uphill

PMooons is pretty stoked

The approach to the wall

Thats me tailgunnin' through a small town

All for now.

Jamie

Pickin' some Pics

2011-01-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

England continues to be an adventure. It is really hard for me to fully comprehend that I am here. Cruising around on my bike seems to be a constant history lesson. Abbeys, Churches, Castles, Estates are everywhere all the time... far different than the mini malls and super-centers I am use to. Here's a question... I was riding today past a lone mansion, on the top of a hill, that must of been hundreds of years old. Do you think that the owner would have it decked out with 60" plasma screen TVs, a 5000watt sound system, a playstation 7 and state of the art kitchen appliances?? or would you be inclined to assume that there is nothing but candlelight, books, fine china and a rose with petals that keep falling until true love is found. I assume the latter.

Anyways, Here a bunch of super sweet pics (thanks in part to my broskiz, teammate and photographer extraordinaire Ryan Parnes.)

Too Early to ride...

Turns out Monty Burns Moved into Derby as well!

Something unsettlingly beautiful about this picture

England in Da HOUSE

Ride-Lounge-Ride

Hydrating at our favorite church.

Priority church and all its glory

Dinner on the plate, Dessert in my hands

This kit makes any hotel room 5 stars

Range Rovers are totally for Puffs

Shotgun acting

Team Bonding

Test Track!

Team bikes 2011!

One of the Whips

Reppin' the Maple Leaf

London Bounds

Tomorrow is a team ride. Its probably going to be hard. Whoop!!

JS

For British Eyes only

2011-01-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

Today I was out cruising around some of the nicest roads I have ridden.... The peaks district is England's version of NorCal. It is awesome. So awesome.

Anyways, During this solo mission I blew a funny fuse. I literally followed a car, for about 800 meters, who's license plate consisted of 3 characters: MRF .

I love arrested development so much!

Jamie

Visual Stimuli

2011-01-20T11:39:00.000-08:00

Hi There Chaps,

Here are some pictures. Some enhanced, some eau naturale. There has been a lot of sun lately and all of our spirits are high!

Tonight was Mexican night! Was it ever good! Big ups to PMoons for making food dreams come true.

Natural Sunset...

We were wondering why the paparazzi was following us around... until we found this.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH some.

I had a bit of a slow leak.

Pretty cool place for flat repair

JJ VS JS

More biking tomorrow and the day after,

Jamie

Shaking Babies and Kissin' Hands

2011-01-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

Don't Mess with Ryan Parnes... This bad-boy is the cover over every Raleigh Bikes Catalogue. Snap!

QE on the Dolla Dolla BILLZ

2011-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that Victoria and Derby are on opposite ends of the planet... they still have that same broad on the cash... however there are no polar bears, loons, beavers or caribous... just old peeps.

Today was awesome. We got internet... and not just any internet, we got some super duper high speed internet! WHOOP! goodbye 3G hello broadband.

The last week and a half has been nuts. In the span of 10 days I have completely relocated my life to the land of wrong sided narrow roads. So awesome. Things here are great, I have completely lucked out on roommates, support, housing and Riding quality. I literally live on the edge of the Derby which has allowed for endless, and often maze like, back roads. The definition of road over here is also quite broad (Broad Definitions of Narrow). Some of these roads are more like what us Canadians would call single track; an occupied mind makes for enjoyable riding.... no dazing off here. orr err no safe dazing off.

Here are some pictures!

The TV - Ipod - BlackBerry - Fan - Mirror Stimuli are nothing compared to the constant sensation of feeling lost.

Special Bonus Shout outs to Brian and Viv Walsh! They took the time to de-hobo my teeth! (that is a self shot on a trainer.)

Not quite as cool as the Starbucks in Cochrane

This is "Priority" Church...

P Mooons Kickin' it Medieval Styleezz

More OldSkoool

Upon Arrival to Derby we were Granted "pre-Training"Bikes... Brand new DA Carbon bikes to use before we get our official team bikes. Awesome. This thing rides a lot nicer than the Jake I was use to!

Phil Lookin for His Keys

Lost

A Common Occurrence... Usually followed by profanity, laughter and a serious head-shake.

Maiden Voyage... PMoons and Parnes navigating one of a billion traffic circles.

First Ride.... I didn't have a wrench to take off my pedals. So I Rolled my normal kicks.

A Nice Little Pantry.

I love High Fives and High5

Check out my Kick-ass wall paper!

Xmas Round 1: Tons of GEAR

Our Dutch Team/Roommate JJ. Yes, that is actually a Michael Jackson themed kids sleeping bag.

The First of Many Team Dinners. awesome.

x = riding

1/x = Uk riding

Brake Cable routing is opposite, Traffic moves in the opposite direction, I did not bring a helmet... I do have one now. Phew!

Strolllin to the Kebob shop

The View from the Kitchen Sink

Cars go on here

Casual Clothing Core

Anyways thats it for now. Now that we have inter-webs expect a dj mix or two!

Honey Nut Cheerio,

Jamie

Team Launch 2011

2011-01-15T09:22:00.001-08:00

What is a team launch like for a uk continental pro cycling team? Here is the skinny...

Public Sham time. Lots of cameras. The A-team theme. Multiple clothing changes. Short choreographed interviews. Hair product. Fresh kits. Smiles. Blue steel. Leg flexing.

Our kits are made by MOA (nalini) and are super flash... Especially the uci logo. Flossin.
Jamie Sparling
Sent From My Crackberry

Crack Post 2.0

2011-01-14T00:42:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Right now I am sitting shotgun, on the left-hand side, in one of the Raleigh vans on the way to the london bike show. The next three days are suppose to be filled with mad amounts of meets, greets, and gear-treats. Whoop!

The past week has been a bit of a blur. It seems like xmas was ages ago. We are pretty much settled in and are stoked to get real internet on tuesday! This 3g business isn't quite scratching the itch.

The riding is unreal, the people are friendly and the experience is new. I am doing an ok job of document and will provide some media once the interebs are broadband. 1 000 000 00000000 mb/s.

Bonus travel tip: most things here are far less expensive than Canada

For example:

6 months of 1gb of bb data = 30$ CAD. (Flat rate NOT per month!! RedonK)

500g fruit+nut cereal = 1.25$ ! What?!?!

A land line and broadband web (including install and modem and wireless router) = 10$/month!

Anyways, my thumbs are getting tired!
Jamie Sparling
Sent From My Crackberry

castles and mates and cheeeerios

2011-01-10T10:45:00.000-08:00

Phil stealing some web

Right now I am sitting in a mall cracking out a post on my crackberry. It is friggen 630pm and the stores are closing?! I miss the pure capitalism I am use to. Maybe I will cry myself a river.

Anyways, things here are insanely awesome. Our house is rad, I already have a full da pre training bike and spirits are at an all time high! 2011 ! Whoop! Soon I will have some real internet so I will be able to post some quality pics vids and music. Boooooya.

Today I road to a castle on a hill; rode a double decker bus on the wrong side of the road, drank tea and had a walmart (asda) greater say "cheerio" to me. Awesome.

Stay tuned for more wasp shifting.

Jamie

More Airport goodness

2011-01-08T05:44:00.000-08:00

I am sitting here drinking shit coffee in the paris airport writing this post on a friggen iPod!

I was suppose to be in England by now but air Canada delayed my plane in Toronto long enough for a snow storm to roll in. Meh, there were some good movie options and I ended up in a coma for Nearly the whole flight. The adventure didn't begin until I landed.. I had missed my connection and was getting no help from ac in rebookin my flight. I was given the run around by literally 6 customer service agents... Finally one suggested I go to the main ac dept terminal that was like a 45 min bus/train/power-walk awAy. I thought his was my only hope... Just as I was about to hop a bus I noticed another customer service desk outta the corner of my eye. I tried my luck and I am now sitting at the terminAl! Whooop! But the real purpose of this story is that I walked by an old gross couple making out... And then during my back tracking an hour later I walked by the same place and, I shit you not, they were still going at it. Gross. Anyways, traveling is fun and it's greAt to be back in eu.

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=FR#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=zJKgXWQBry

Oh and I got two passport stamps because I had to officially enter France to get my boarding pass.

iPod post finished. Stay tuned for a crackberry edition.

Fuck you air Canada,

Jamie

Airport Observing

2011-01-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

Whats the deal with the airplane boarding lineup? I could never figure this one out. Instead of waiting for the the rush to settle while relaxing in a seat, people insist on "rushing to wait." THE PLANE MIGHT LEAVE WITHOUT ME!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!! THEY CALLED MY ROWW!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!!!!If i was in the line i wouldn't be able to do this post. They have called my row, but the line up looks to be about 2 gazillion people. I am going to eat my treat, drink my tea and sit back until the chaos subsides.

Hopefully the plane has a good movies... an american pie sequal perhaps?

Jamie

Album of the Year 2010... The Winner is:

2011-01-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

Chilly Gonzales - Ivory Towers. (thanks Adam.)

Canada is awesome. Scope out this track... Best Lyrics ever.

Scope out the entire album at radio3.cbc.ca

So awesome.

Jamie

The Story of my Life in Song.

2011-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

This was shared by LELL.

I wish I had a grey hipster-doo,

Jamie

S(a/i)ndell Palace

2011-01-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

This past fall I spent my time living with some of the most illlllinist broskis known. It was such an honor to become a member of the Sandell Crew for a fall. During those past months we certainly had some good times. Here is a peek into the world that is Sandell!

Sandell in All its Glory!

Fellow Sandweller, Austin, in Full Sail

Some of the Sights outside the Front Window!

My Favorite Spot; The Fall-apart couch!

Guest Sandweller Adam, getting hydrated!

The Sandell Mascot... Toby!

Coffee, Facebooking and a nice looking haircut!

Sandell in Rave Mode.

Fog Machines cost about 4$ to rent for a night

I think those are Jenny Skinners feet. She put us all to shame that night!

C-Lowgs, runnin show.

Patio Good Times!

Sometimes girls would come over. USually only if they were already roped into some sort of relationship with a sandweller.

More Rave-Mode

Dan Skinner Left this party at 10pm

Fog, Fubar and Lasers

Smack Talk

Captain Sandell Himself; Tweak Hams!

Pre-Fog!

A haircut, Homemade Roof, Keg and a pre-shower.

awesome.

Sandell goes East German

Gun Showin!

Welp that about does it. Throw in a bit more coffee and a lot more toby and you can imagine what life at sandell would be like.

until next time,

Jamie

Dominant Hands are Overrated.

2011-01-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Once Upon a time there was a left handed girl.

This girl was SOOOO EMO.

One Day D. J Sparls mixed up some EMO housey beats to pay tribute to this Left Handed Emo Girl.

The Left Handed Emo Girl then used her Right Hand to Draw a Mix Cover... that is soooo emo!

ADHD brings you up. LEAHMO brings you down.

DL HERE.

I think I just referred to myself in the 4th person... (Calling myself a nickname in the third person....) awesome.

This set was all about selecting a bunch of songs that are good and putting them together. The mixes are simple.... This is not an intense DJ Set but merely a collection of nice songs. You gotta get down just to move on up. ***(FERGUS THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF SONGS AND NOT A PURE DJ SET.)

UK on Friday. WHOOP!

Jamie

Life is interesting again, Blogging is Back.

Prairie Style Winter Biking.

2011-01-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

Winter Prairie Riding is probably one of the most under-rated, under-utilized forms of bike training out there. Once you learn how to dress and prep, an endless amount quiet and scenic roads await! Calgary is the perfect destination for WPR; there are a crazy amount of back roads, Cold but not TOOO cold temps, and a group of some of the most fit, dedicated and hardcore bikers out there.

Prep:

3 - Infinity Cups of coffee ( i prefer infinity.)

Watch this Video, min 1 time, to make yourself aware that you are simply pedaling a bike a cell-phone call away from an emergency pick up. (daft punk is so awesome.)

Ipod on Standbye with FRESH beats.

Hearty Breakfast

Insulated bottles (some guys use a Little JD or Smirnoff to prevent freeing.... not recommended for the beginner...*also illegal)

Dress:

2 pairs of tights

2 pairs of WOOL socks

booties

toe warmers

Chemical heat packs

balaclava

UNDERLAYERS

WINTER JACKET

3 pairs of gloves that can be layered on and off

Glasses

Skirts, High Heels, Blouses, and Cufflinks are strictly prohibited.

WPR not only provides you with great views, riding and friends... but it gives a sense of accomplishment like no other kind of riding.... 5 or 6 bangers (8 or 9 hrs if your name is Craig, Dallas or Keith) well below 0C?? Probably not a typical cyclists first choice.

Some of the Gravel Rollers West of Calgary (Roads I have never ridden on until last week. The adventures of WPR totally allowed for this discovery!)

Keith looking at Footprints in the Foothills.

3 Car Sitings in the span of 1.5 hrs on a Plowed Gravel Road.

Craig, Keith and a Classic game of Canadian Outdoor Hockey

Keith with Soaring Spirits; Miniature Calgary Skyline on the left..

Beautiful Untapped Roads

The Winter Office

Tomorrow the WPR adventures continue. Next Week the Euro Adventures begins.

Fuck the Wind Trainer,

Jamie

Gold Fish Attention Span

2010-12-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I like a quick mix with a lot of bangers; it pumps my shit up... especially when I am looking for any motivation to get my ass out the door and on the bike.

Scope this one out. 20 tracks in under 20 minutes. WHOOP!

DL Here.

HOOOOO HOOOO HOOOOOO!

Jamie

The best BBQ ever.

2010-11-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Have you ever sat down and wondered how you got to where you are? How the combination of both random and controlled events have led you to where you are at this very moment? … This is getting a little too “first-year-undergrad-deep” for me, so let me switch gears.

This fall I have been riding a wave of optimism and excitement; 11 years of putting my life into cycling has finally amounted in the achievement my most major long term goal; getting a pro contract. But how did this happen? Besides the obvious: hard work, winning a few bike races, and sending out a resume or two, there was a different factor at play here, a more random (or fate?? If you believe in that kind of thing) factor.

Last June I was fortunate enough to be billeted amongst a very tight knit community during mount hood. On our last night (the night before the last stage) we were invited to the neighbors, who were putting up the yahoo cycling team, for a block party style BBQ. At first we were a little skeptical; forced social integration between cyclists can often be a challenge; we are a weird bunch. All too often I have found myself listening to some dudes random story about how he almost won some huge race several years back, or how he would be winning this current race but his training has been too tough lately or other amazing stories that are hard to listen to. I am sure these guys expected the same.

After about 5 minutes, to all of our surprise, we were quite happy to find that these guys were in fact cool. There were no stories about the 2006 dirty dozen challenge, no stories about how awesome they were… just good ol’ fashion real people socializing. The food was amazing as well!

At a reasonable hour the Total Resto crew took off. We saw the yahoo guys at a few more races this season and it was always nice to say hi; but the true power of this BBQ did not start to mature until September.

I was chillen like a villain one day when My phone went off. It was a series of text messages from an unrecognized number. Finally on the 3rd or 4^th message the sender indicated themselves as Ryan Parnes (from yahoo). He asked me if I wanted to go to Trinidad; (and after some amazingly awesome parental support from S and C Sparls) I said yes.

I went to Trinidad and Tobago with Ryan Parnes and Phil Mooney (from yahoo.) We got along well and, more importantly, raced super well together. There was an instant team-like bond between us and we totally exploited that bond to win everything we entered over our two-week journey. I think our bond was intensified by our constant need/search for internet. The fall is when pro contracts are finalized, none of us had anything finalized and e-mail was our only means of making a contract happen.

It was during one of these coveted email sessions when we were all put in contact with Team Raleigh. We all joked about how awesome it would be to continue this vibe into 2011 as (pinky up) “euro-pros.”

After a few more days of HARD riding and racing, this joke was looking to become more of a reality… and on the last day it became a reality… it has been hard keeping something so awesome off the blog until it was officially released a few days ago!

2011 is going to be awesome. I am extremely motivated and I know my two North-American teammates are as well.

Next time you are at a BBQ go talk to someone you don’t know.

http://www.teamraleigh.co.uk/

Jamie

PS I think the word count on this is greater than the paper I am suppose to be writing… ha!

a little bit of hike, a little bit of work.

2010-11-15T17:09:00.000-08:00

HelllllLLLLLLLLLLOoooooooooooooo ooohhhhhh!

I have been putting off a blog update for a while now... I was waiting until some exciting bike news became public... Should be this week. I will give you a hint: I am on a new team! One of those good new teams! WHOOP!

Before Reading on... Download this set. (I tweeted this one a few weeks ago, so you could already have it.)

Here are some Victoria Life updates:

Getting Juan de Fuq'd:

This Remembrance day 6 of us headed out to conquer the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail in one day.

Summary:

47km

RAIN

HILLLLLLLSSSSS

Rocks

Tides

Mud

Coffee

Here are some pictures!

So Optimistic at the Start!!

Thruster Coastin' along

One of the Few shots of Merkyl not laying down the pace

Rob Pumped!

Self Shot Vol. 1

Whoop!

Sessford on the Coast

Mike Layering Down!

Coming Undone

10km in.

Solid Pace

Those rocks were pretty slow moving

Beach Combing

Water Stop. 20km down 27 to go!

So Naive. The Next 20km were UNFORGIVING!

7th Wind

There were 4 suspension bridges on the trail

Some Duck Tape Foot Repair

Lighting up The Picture and the PAce!

No Time To wait for the tide!

Swim-Hiking

Jumpin' in !

Light is getting a little more sparse

Always Moving Forward

Some Big Waves!

Da BEEACH BOYEE

Self Shot Vol. 2

Juan De FUQED

Recovery Bananas

Pumped to be done!

That was difficult!

Working

I have gotten a little bit of work spinnin CDJs on Saturday nights! WHOOOOP!

Welp, I need some cofffffeeee.

Jamie

Season Doneskies! (and some beats)

2010-10-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey All,

My initial intention was to re-start my blog for my trip to trinidad... however the lack of internet (especially picture upload worthy internet) really harshed on that plan.

Here is a one word summary of the trip: BONKERS.

There is no possible way to describe the craziness of this trip. The only way to understand how nuts this experience was is to live it yourself. Instead of writing a bunch of stuff I have decided to do a bit of a picture summary. They are in reverse chronological order... I uploaded them wrong. Whoops!

Channel 5. WOOT! I think a managed a 6-7/10 interview despite some serious canadian distractions from behind the camera man. It was also funny to watch the local news and hear a lady in a different accent pronounce my name.

X in da House BOI!

Halle Berry and ZEP. Side note: Zep is the craziest person I have ever met in my life. Words cannot describe the level of nuts.

Zep and I after the last stage. Straight outta his mind!

Some Eschlon in the later parts of stage 5. I started to get tag teamed pretty good.

It was hard to capture the actual steepness of this climb on camera. It was sustained 25-27% for about 1km. I wish i brought a harness and some chalk for this one.

Uphilllllin'

Pike on steroids!

Such a Beautiful creature!

Son of a BEACHin it with a possible teammate for 2011???

Bruce Lee Straight Documentin'

Glass Bottom Boat Tour Stage 2 - Sand Bar Stop: Boat stops out on a sand bar. Beers come out, Music gets turned up, party gets rollin!

Underwater Self Shot Vol. 1

Underwater Self Shot Vol. 2

Canadians in Tobago!

Tan Linin'

Outta Water Goggles !! - Later on in the day Bruce and I went out on the jet ski together. He almost lost those precious goggles!

Underwater Fun Times!

PArnes - Cannon Ballin' and Shot Callin'

Atze getting my back. AHHHH YAAA!!

A needle fish and a cool picture.

Body Temp Lowering Procedure

Caribbean Sunset

Shammin up after the Beach

Phil and Ryan and a Beach

ME!

Phil's Creation

Best Host Family Ever!

X Gun show. Check out Bruce Lee's cannons!

Phils latest whip!

A/C Faceplant

Starting our Billet off on the Right foot!

What a great time! A special Big ups to my teammates who rode so selflessly for me. Also to Roger Farell and Pete Sue for hooking the whole thing up. TnT 2010! WHOOP!

If you were at the Dark Night CX race here is the soundtrack:

DL Here.

Set Description:

Hour 1 - ELECTRO (my fav)

Hour 2 - POPPYISH

HOUR 3 - HOUSE

2011 holds some exciting things....... stay tuned!

Jamie

TRINIDAD and Tobago 2010!!

2010-09-24T08:38:00.001-07:00

Rolling on a Sunset Cruise!

Port of Spain Today... San Fernando Tomorrow... Tobago Island Monday! WOOT!

Morning Spin with The Bros!

Left Side ! AHHHHH

And we're back.

Right now I am down in south america.... technically. Trinidad 2010!! wooot!

What a journey it was to get down here:

Victoria - Seattle-REDEYE-MIAMI-Port OF Spain.

I got totally hung up in trini customs... I did not have an address of a place to stay so I had to sit by myself while the nice customs lady went and found my director and confirmed my address. I had a minor panic attack... no phone, no internet, no admittance... AHHH!! Thank goodness it all worked out.

I am doing a little biking right now in the tropics. It is hot and humid. Tonight we are racing a crit. I am both terrified and pumped. Stay Tuned for some more pictures and maybe a funny story or two.

OUT!

Jamie

Funky-Ass Bass and a Story of DANGER!

2010-07-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last week wrapped up a long stint of bike racing.

I have raced every week (including 3 x week long stage races since May.) Needless to say I was feeling more burnt than a sunscreen-free albino that passed out beside the pool in Cancun. Lucky for me there is an easy fix; time off.

This past week I have been in full on morale/body remix mode. It is totally awesome. The highlight has been a 2 day hike-camp in glacier national park. My buddy Jeff and I drove up on Wednesday and hiked to a "bivy-sit" at the base of the Sir Donald peak. We were way above the tree line at about 2300m. We spent the evening doing some scrambling under perfectly blue skies before we retired to our bivy sacks (way more hardcore than a tent). The weather was awesome!!!! ...... until 3am.

3am

Jeff and I are awoken by some light rain. Nothing too major...

I decide to go pee just in case it started to pour.

Tinkle-tinkle....

FLASHHHHH (whole mountain Lights up)........10secnds........ BAAAAANNNNNNNNNNGGGG!!!!! (totally amplified by the amphitheater-like mountain.)

OH FRACK! This is not good. what do we do???

Jeff and I discuss options:

Run? Too Far.

Get Lower? We will Expose ourselves too much to a fast approaching storm.

(FLAAASSHH........... 5 seconds......... BAAAANNNNNNGGG!!!!!!)

Should we try to find something to hide in? Oh yeah, we are on a fucking scree slope; there are just a bunch of rocks.

(FLAAASSHH........... 3 seconds......... BAAAANNNNNNGGG!!!!!!)

I guess we are staying put and staying low. Conversation ends. I don't know about Jeff but I entered my own fear zone. I start to plead and get the shakes.

(FLAAASSHH........... 1 second......... BAAAANNNNNNGGG!!!!!! 10 times louder)

I start to think to myself; I am lying in a pool of water on a fucking mountain in the middle of an electrical storm. Let the life dice roll!

FLLLLLAAAASSSHHHHHH----KAAAAABBBOOOOOOOMMM--ROCCCKKK SLIIDDEE.

fuck me sideways: 5 second sound delay = 1 mile. Instant thunder = a few hundred meters at most.

45mins - 1Hour of Close Terror Strikes Continue. Then I started thinking to myself... Jamie haven't you been smoking peyote for 7 straight days.... couldn't this just be in your head?? But unfortunately I hadn't and it was actually happening. I just lied there; wide awake pleading....

Dear God, Please don't let me die from a lightning strike... however, if it was meant for me to get struck, could you please give me powers like Ernest when he escaped from jail instead of the more predictable cardiac arrest.

Anyways the storm subsided and with a little shout I was able to get my drawers clean.

The lesson: Don't Fuck with Mother Nature.

Sorry for all the F-Bombs, but I am just keeping it real. I wasn't up there thinkin "jimminy crickets this one of heck of a storm!"

Here is a public link to scope out some pics.

Anyways To celebrate the fact that I am not dead I mixed up another set for you peeps, Scope it out!

DL Here.

Tonight I plan to celebrate life with boooze!

WOOOOOT AUGUST LONGG!!! WOOT WOOT!!

Jamie

My Blog; the red headed step child.

2010-07-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry for having neglected you during the past month. Sometimes a blogmaster has other things to do... like watch mtv's disaster date or american pie 7.

A lot has happened in the world of Jamie in the last month.

Lets recap (This is basically just a list of shit i did. If you don't care just download the music.):

-I discovered the double rainbow video courtesy of michael cambridge at KCC.

-I participated in track-camp-twenty-ten. Man I am slow at riding track bikes. Here is a fun track fact - My all out sprinting effort for 200m is about .5 seconds slower than the consistent 200m split times of the team pursuit guys over 4000m. I thought my brakes might be rubbing....

-I made a new friend! He is such awesome!

-Mixed beats.

- I raced BC super week, Beauce, and nationals.

Lets fast forward to the present.

What do you get when a half iranian engineer, a hipster-king, a dutch spacer and a short-short specialist go to bend oregon?

memories.

Anyhow, here is some music:

DL Here.

I love short shorts,

Jamie

:-)-:

2010-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people have bad days. Sometimes people have good days. Sometimes People have average days.

Yesterday I had a bad day. Today I had a good day. Tomorrow?

Here is a new set. I put a lot of effort into this thing so scope it out.

The tracklist and progression have been carefully planned in an attempt to reflect common human moods.... orrr maybe its just a bunch of hocus pocus. Either way I think its the best one I have done in a long time.

Take a Journey into my psyche here.

Jamie

QOL for Dummies

Blog.

1111111111111111111 - A CSparl's Special...

BUMP IT UP.

Essential

Back with Beats

Riding Bikes

Bloggggggggggggggggggggggerific

Lanes

Quick Updates

Back in '82

Quadrouple Threat: Sun, Biking, Bros and Fam

I'm so Vain, I bought my own domain, Before coming to Spain.... Again.

Islin' and Stylin'

MIX Done. LEt Life resume.

5 Minute Mix.

Please Phil - May I have some Darley Moor

Slow Internt. Short Post.

If nice days were sold, I would be broke.

24 Hours of Randomly Delightful Events.

monday monday monday.

Offinspace. Can i borrow your stapler?

INGLEAND Back up Ins.

HOLLA (nd) atcha BOY

2011 Team Raleigh Profiles... External Style.

Sunned up and ready to go.

Final Days of Camp.

for your (Lin)EARs

every day its the Spain thing.

sPAINFUL TrSpaining BLOCK... not in spVAIN?

Fom Coffee Shops to Mountain Passes

Coffee. Rest. Coffee. Coffee. Chill. Coffee- *UPDATE - Video Edition...*

Pictures. Captions. Coles Notes.

Trspaining Camp - Day 2; No Frills only Hills, Skills and Thrills.

Trspaining Camp - Day 1

Spaintastic.

HAMbledon Drive

Coffee and Kit!

BaD

Terrific Tuesday!

The Least Relaxing Chesterfield I have been to...

Pickin' some Pics

For British Eyes only

Visual Stimuli

Shaking Babies and Kissin' Hands

QE on the Dolla Dolla BILLZ

Team Launch 2011

Crack Post 2.0

castles and mates and cheeeerios

More Airport goodness

Airport Observing

Album of the Year 2010... The Winner is:

The Story of my Life in Song.

S(a/i)ndell Palace

Dominant Hands are Overrated.

Prairie Style Winter Biking.

Gold Fish Attention Span

The best BBQ ever.

a little bit of hike, a little bit of work.

Season Doneskies! (and some beats)

TRINIDAD and Tobago 2010!!

Funky-Ass Bass and a Story of DANGER!

My Blog; the red headed step child.

:-)-:

Coffee. Rest. Coffee. Coffee. Chill. Coffee- UPDATE - Video Edition...