Jordan Belchos Qualifies For The Canadian Jr. Long Tack Team, Big Rideau’s Skate The Lake Pictures, More Links For You, In The News

Jordan Belchos Qualifies For The Canadian Jr. Long Tack Team: Just as he was coming of age and becoming a threat in inline skating, Jordan Belchos made a successful transition to ice skating. Own The Podium groomed Belchos for about a year to earn a berth on the national junior team this past weekend. He won the 3000-meter race (junior) and placing 3rd in the 5000-meter race at the Canada Cup #2/ Junior Trials race in Fort St John, British Columbia. Click here for the results.


Jordan Belchos (in 2nd) behind Jesse Pauley and in front of Robert Watson; Jordan is the newest addition to Canada's junior long track squad
Big Rideau’s Skate The Lake Pictures: Here’s the link to my photos and here is the link to Alicia Weiss’ pictures. I froze my toes while taking pictures, but it was worth it. Here are the results for the Skate The Lake. MSI’s next race is this weekend’s North American and US National Championships in Lake Placid. I haven't had the chance to work on the video yet.


Driving to Portland on Saturday was the most dangerous drive of my life- and I've logged a heck of a lot of miles. Other than seeing about 30 cars in ditches and crashed up, I witnessed 2 accidents; this van flipping over a few times was the more dramatic crash that I saw. I was the first one on the scene. The driver walked away rattled but uninjured.

A pack including Montreal's Francois Leclerc (in 3rd)

Eventual 50km race winner Adrien Loewen in the lead in front of Jake Maarse

Aaron Arndt; this previous top-3 finisher was unable to finish this year- the cracks took their toll on Aaron- with 4 falls in 12km and his calves seized up, he had to call it a day

Women's champion Martine Charbonneau

A metal worker

Suzanne Dionne in front of Suzanne Tousignant

How typically Canadian eh? A game of hockey on the pond

Friends from all over!

Jake Maarse, Adrien Loewen, and Tony Ziegers

Frozen ice on Adrien Loewen's lashes

Morgane Echardour, Martine Charbonneau, and Mike Rivet

Women's 50km podium

Men's 50km podium
More Links For You: CP Calzada- I know I had this one before but they’ve got a cleaner look to their website. Speaking of changing looks, Andrew Hegarty changed the look of his blog and reorganized it so that when he hits this year’s world cup circuit, you can easily browse his reports. One final link for you to explore is Patinaje de Velocidad.


Track plans- see if you could build your own...better yet, please come to Mississauga and build one here...please?
In The News: Enjoy these skating photos from skating in the California desert. From California to Montreal: photos from Roller Montreal’s end of season dinner.

There has been some more information about track constructions posted; it’s been an interesting thread to follow. Check it out.

There’s an interview with Cado Motus’ Diederik Hol on SpeedSK8rs.com. Finally, Bill Begg started a thread called BIG Colombian New Year Event which contains a whole bunch of information and names that will get you pumped up about the Bolivar 150 Years Race. I can only say that I wish I was there; I wish I was there.