Perfect Pemberton Trails

Without a doubt, we could not have asked for better conditions for the Nimby 50 in Pemberton this past weekend, it was absolutely perfect.  As quite often the hottest place in Canada, last year the race was an absolute scorcher.  This year with rain all week and threatening rain for race day, I was a little worried that it would be a clayey muddy mess.  But race day was dry, trails were tacky, and the weather was a little chilly to start...perfect.

From the start I knew last years winner Brandi Heisterman would be the one to watch, and it was a good battle to end.  I think my lack of high end right now paid off because I didn't go out like my normal bat out of hell and blow up.  A couple of wheels behind her up the first long climb, I worked hard to try to pass her into the first single track but she nabbed the first prime and stayed in front of me.

Into the Nimby climb, 101 switch backs up to the top...yup that's right, I was a couple of wheels behind and set a comfortable pace that seemed to match Brandi's.  Last year being my first year here, I attacked the bottom of the climb and ended up walking a lot of the last third of the course where the climbs just get punchier and punchier.  This year, much better plan of attack.  About 1/2 of the way up I had moved right behind Brandi's wheel, she dabbed on a corner and I was following a little too close and really dabbed.  Off the bike and running, she managed to put a good distance between us and it took me some good time to catch back up to her.  As soon as I caught her wheel, so pulled over with seatpost issues, but that didn't slow her down as she was charging hard.

Into the Red Bull downtime I had 15 seconds on Brandi and was excited, I rocked the downtime last year.  But this year, I road it like a donkey, not very well at all!  Not sure what was going on, but I definitely didn't feel great this year.  At the split in the trail, I couldn't remember which way I took last year, so I took the smooth route this year.....that ended up being the wrong decision.  The smooth route ended up climbing back up a little, going a long way out and finally back towards the downhill, easily twice as long.....at least it gave my arms and hands a little brake.  As I was meeting back up with the rough line, Brandi popped out right behind me....Gaaaaah, lost any advantage I had.

Up through the feed zone, and into the last loop of the course....the Victoria style trail, steep punch climbs and rock face trails.  Up the first climb I was feeling good and put in a little effort, slowly pulling away.  This gave me a big encouraging boost and I had saved enough from the first half to charge.  I worked hard to create a gap, going over the bars on one section just putting my wheel in the wrong spot, haha, it was a picture perfect form over the bars.  Through the last of the singletrack my only thought was smooth is fast, smooth is fast.  The Kenda Kozmik Lite II always seems to amaze me, with the Stan's Race Gold wheels and sealant I ran 23/24 psi no problems, tracked really well in the dry and muddy corners.  Smooth is fast, and no flatting is even faster!

Out on the rail way, hammer back to the road and a good 2 km in the headwind to the finish.  I was in no mans land, running scared of Brandi charging behind me.  Took my first Nimby 50 win by only a minute twenty.  Thanks for the awesome race Brandi!  Huge Thank you to the organizers and many volunteers of the Nimby 50, love this event and I will definitely be back next year and year after and year after and............

BIG CHECK!

Huge thank you to all of my amazing sponsors!!

Sea Otter - Hotter Otter 2013

It's been a number of years since I've done the Sea Otter Classic, and this was one of the most enjoyable. It was a great weekend with the Stan's NoTubes crew and the Women's Elite Team....and getting to finally ride my new Scalpel 29er!!! A lot of tweaking the new XTR, setting up positions and testing out the Kenda Tires, then it was time to race. It was a busy hot weekend, with Shannon, Kenny, Kaila, Amanda, Nina, mechanic Chris, junior Taylor and myself.......almost a full team, missing Vicki, Sarah, Sue and almost new mom Jenny (okay, maybe half the team).

Friday morning was Short Track time!! It's been a couple years since I've done one of these, but its like a shorter cyclocross race on the mountain bike. 20 mins plus 3 laps of pure hammer. It was really neat getting to line up at the start line with 4 team mates and being able to try to ride team tactics with Amanda during the race....tactics are definitely not my strong suit. Amanda and I managed to find ourselves in the chase group of 6 girls with 2 laps to go and I could see the pink kit of Nina just out of reach behind. There was an attack into the last gravel pit and getting stuck behind a bobble I got spit out the back of the group and tried to chase back for last half lap, finishing 12th, just out of reach of the sprint pack with Amanda finishing just ahead of me and Nina close on our heals. Taylor and Kenny raced the XC later that day, with Kenny stomping out an impressive win in the Masters Me !!!

Saturday, during the heat of the day, we headed out for the pro women's one lap of the 20 mile course. With a road start of one lap around the Laguna Seca raceway, we had the typically sketchy mountain bikers in a road pelaton feeling. I don't know how it happens but I managed to find myself in a really good position coming off the pavement and on to the dirt. My Kenda Kozmik Lites were great in the fast loose powder that is the Sea Otter cross country. My engine wasn't completely up to snuff yet and could maintain contact on some of the longer climbs but I managed to pick off a few racers on the long last climb back into the raceway.

Not even 3 hours later we were back in our spandex getting ready for the cyclocross race. Following most of the short track course with a few added features and some high speed barriers, but oh how I do love cyclocross. Nicole Duke, Caroline Mani and myself broke off from the field early in the first lap and worked well together to put some distance between us. There were a couple small attacks but with the relative flat wide open course and lots of head wind, we stayed tight together the entire race. Coming into the last lap I giggled, saying it looks like it'll be a 3 way sprint. Last lap Nicole put in an attack, then I countered. We had managed to put a small gap on Mani. Nicole went down really hard into the high speed barriers, I had a moment when I though should we stop. Mani quickly caught me in the gravel pit and we kept motoring. Through the last technical boulder section I bobbled and Mani was able to put just enough distance into me that I couldn't close. Grabbed a second with Nicole closing fast behind us.

Super fun but really long weekend at Sea Otter. Huge thank you to all of our amazing sponsors! Love my Cannondale Scalpel 29er with the Kenda Kozmik Lite and my Candy pedals.....and of course the Stan's NoTubes Race Golds!!! Thank you Uvex Helmets, 3T components, Fizik Saddles, Northwave shoes and Esi Grips. Couple days in Durango getting my altitude on, then we are heading down to Prescott, Arizona for the Whiskey 50!

Gearing up for MTB Season

What am I doing, where have I been...oh my gosh, I AM still here!!!  And slowly pulling myself out of fat and sassy season.  After a full year of office working and only being able to train part time, I've been fully enjoying being unemployed right now!  But I do tell you, it's harder then I thought it would be to move back into the realm of volume training.  A previous 20 some hour week would be a solid week of training but right now I'm finding 16-18 hours are really taking a lot out of me.....and of course, there is definitely no easing back into it haha.  I am enjoying the time though!!

Island MTB Cup #3 this past weekend in Duncan was fantastic, very wet and very technical after a very hard steep climb.  Had a great time battling Mel up the climb and rallying with the boys on the downhill.  Great opener and prep to get the body back into gear for racing Sea Otter and Whiskey 50 in 2 weeks....yikes!!!

Super excited to be riding with the Stan's NoTubes Elite Women's Racing Team this summer!  Carrying over from a great cyclocross season and program, I'm really thankful that Shannon was willing to keep me on for the mountain bike side of things.  I'm super excited about my full Shimano Scalpel 29er!!!  Giggity Giggity.

I want to make a little shout out about my Stan's NoTubes Alpha 340's that I've been running on my road bike all winter.  Yes, tubeless road wheels.....and they rock.  Running slightly lower pressure 90-100 makes them a very comfortable and stable feeling tire on the rough roads of Victoria.  And I haven't flatted all winter...knock on wood.  Following the Bill Fry at 100 miles an hour (not quite but pretty darn close), I nailed a rock with my rear wheel hard enough to dent the rim and nearly throw me in the ditch....and I didn't even burp the tire.  With a tube or even a tubular I can almost guarantee that this would have been a flat tire!  Yup, I officially have NO TUBES in any of my bikes....and don't miss them at all :-)

2 weeks more of training and kicking off the season in style!  Maybe Cumberland Island Cup this weekend as one last opener.

Louisville 2013

Well, that's a wrap, and there's absolutely no better way to cap off the season then with Cyclocross World Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.  They did an amazing job with the event and I don't think there is a single bad thing I can say about the week, especially considering the conditions they had to deal with.  Regan and I arrived monday night into Louisville to 21 degrees shorts weather, yes, hot and wet.  Shannon raced the Master 45-49 womens qualifier on tuesday (the only women's qualifier for some reason), and Kenny raced the Master 40-44 men's qualifier on wednesday to both move on to the finals.

That night you could feel the temperature drop fast, and we got a call at 4:30 am from the front desk with a tornado warning, yes, tornado hit Louisville.  Huddled in the laundry room with 10 other people at 4 in the morning, awesome!  Followed quickly by rain, sheets and buckets and tonnes of rain.  Then snow!

The already chewed up Masters course went from bad to worse, but Shannon still rocked a 2nd place on Thursday and Kenny a 10th place on Friday (without the aid of a bike wash - frozen lines and power washers...ooops), while Regan and Richie worked tirelessly, chipping, scraping, spraying, just to keep a couple gears on the bike somewhat functional.

The Elite races were scheduled for Sunday with the U23 and juniors on Saturday, but with the forecasted flood looking ever more likely, the UCI moved all the races to Saturday.  Minor kink in the prep plans for the race, but everyone is in the same boat, so Saturday morning after a good inch of fresh snow and -10 it was race day for me.  Like I've said, I really wasn't too sure how good my fitness was going into this race, I've worked hard to stay motivated up north and do the time, so I was really, really nervous for this race.  Thanks to the Pro City race team killing me the previous Saturday, I did know that I still knew how to suffer :-)

Third row call up, not great, but at least not 4th row haha.  It wasn't a huge field, but all of the top players were definitely there at the start line.  I had a great start, definitely the best part of all my races, avoided a big crash off the start that took out the back of the pack, and took a couple low off camber lines that allowed me to pass 5 girls at a time!  At the top of the steep limestone stairs I found myself behind Katie Compton (who didn't seem to be having a great time on her bike), but it flashed through my head, maybe I can stay with her!!  Came through the start finish on lap 1 in 9th place...WOW!!!  But I quickly felt my slight lack of fitness starting to set into my legs and started making a lot of errors on the 2nd lap....which ended up costing me a lot of placings and time.  Slippery off camber and frozen ruts are not my friend when slightly cross eyed.

Lap 3 I slowly started getting my rhythm back slightly worked my way back into the race.  Had a good battle with Pepper Harlton again, but lost her when she dabbed in the sand pit.  Fought and finished in 19th place at my first World Championships for Cyclocross, and easily one of the best cycling events I've ever been to.  Watching the men's race was absolutely amazing!!!  My Stan's IronCross wheels worked fantastic in the icy mud with Kenda Kwickers at 22 psi...yes, 22 psi with no problems.  My Ridley X-Fire was flawless, along with my Lazer Helmet and Aeroshell (single best cyclocross accessory), and my Sidi Spyders.....we easily have some of the best gear around.  Thank you Shannon and Kenny for all the hard work you've put into the team making it run so smoothly.  Thank you Regan for making my bike work super smoothly like always.  Thank you Richie and Aaron for fantastic race pit set up, and Cindy for everything!!  Including the underground Zip-lining!  And thank you to Louisville and all the fans, especially all the crazy Canucks that made the trip down south to cheer!!

Officially in fat and sassy season, bringing my xc skies up to Fort McMurray this rotation, not even worrying about a bike for a couple of weeks.....but really jazzed about the Cannondale Scalpel coming soon!

Photos Courtesy of Kenny Wehn

Worlds Prep

    Wahoo,  I've been a slack ass with the blog since....wow, since I won myself a tattoo!! I do fall off the blog bandwagon from time to time, so almost one month later, here I go.

    Bend USGP was awesome, probably one of my favorite courses and venues.  Regan and I loaded up our fast growing puppy and did the good ole road trip down south.  Stopping in Ferndale at Transition Bikes to pick up Regan's new toy, we had a great and uneventful drive down.  This was my first experience in Bend, and I have to say it's a pretty neat city.  The course is on Deschutes Brewery grounds in the Old Mill District, so the river and the big smoke stacks in the back ground make for a very neat picture.  I had a great battle both days, Day 1 sprinting to the finish with Teal and Day 2 battling with Julie on the last lap, finishing 7th both days.  Last race till worlds!!

     The monday after Regan and I did something that we've never done before!!  We slept in and just enjoyed being tourists in Bend!  Lots of walking and exploring and tiring the poor puppy out.....she was dragging her butt back to the hotel for sure.  Nothing like sitting outside on the patio enjoying a coffee in December....and being too warm.  From there we headed north to visit my parents in Calgary for a couple of days.  Hit The Elk Pub in Spokane (from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)...YUMMMMM, spent the night in Fernie and Laila got to experience her first snow (cute!).  3 days in Calgary, and I flew straight up to Fort McMurray for 10 days of work.....or prison camp more like it.  It's really not that bad, I really only worked 2 or 3 days this rotation....but it worked out to be well over 50 hours in those days, needless to say I spend a lot of time recovering.

 Showing the SSCXWC Trophy to fans

Thx Verge and Stans Notubes For the Nat.Champs Kit

      Quiet Christmas at home, fun surfing filled weekend in Tofino for New Years with some great friends, and now I'm back up north doing my time.  With less then a month till CX World Championships in Louisville I'm trying to tailor my workouts to have me fast for that weekend.  In a way, trainer riding is almost better for this because I can really focus on my intervals......sometimes, days like today when I'm recovering from a looooong shift, I feel a little drunk on the bike :-)

   This is going to be an experiment in self coaching and sleep deprivation going into Worlds!  Lets see what this body can do!

Thank You to Matthew Lasala For the use of these beautiful pictures.

http://www.lasalaimages.com

CXLA and SSCXWC.....busy!!

Rain in LA!!  What the....  Left cold, wet Victoria for......at least it was warm and wet.  Final race of the Cross After Dark series Saturday night, another UCI race Sunday morning and SSCXWC Sunday night lead to a jam packed weekend!  And as usual we did you quick in and out trip.  After flight delays, yippee San Fransisco fog/rain.

After a day of just a little rain, the course seemed to be drying up nicely.  Pre-ride on my dry tires was awesome and the flat CXLA course looked like it was going to be fast!  It started raining shortly into my warm up, but no panic, it's really sandy so conditions should stay half decent for a while.  Wow, couldn't have been more wrong with that one!!  I couldn't believe how fast the conditions of the course turned really really really slippery.  I was sorely missing my Kenda Kwickers on this one.  A good wipe out coming out the BMX course and I lost contact with the lead group.  After that I found myself tip toeing around all the corners, perfecting the fish tail!!  And in a great battle with a couple of girls for 8th to 10th.  I know I wasn't the only one having troubles with the mud, it was about an inch layer of grease sitting on top of the hard pack underneath.....just like riding on ice.  I made my one and only move on the last long straight away in the final lap and managed to put a small gap on those two to nab the 8th place spot.

Some yummy greasy Chinese food for supper (didn't sit so good the next morning), Regan did a great job of cleaning all the bikes and we were in bed by 2am.  Only to have to get back up at 7:30 to make our 12 noon start.  Talk about a quick turn around, I think everyone was hurting today!

I decided to run the Kwickers on Sunday, and after not even a half lap pre-ride (which was all I could get my bike through, sticky gluey peanut butter mud did not make my bike happy....and impossible to clean) we converted my pit bike to a single speed.  Had a great race on Sunday, blew up a little in the last 2 laps, but it was fun being able to ride up at the front for the first couple of laps.  Pepper roared by me in the final lap (and put some good time into me) and I finished 7th place.

Another quick turn around, change into dry clothes and easy spin on the trainer, and it was SSCXWC time!  I've wanted to do this for a couple of years now, but it just never worked out, so when I found out it was with the UCI races this year I was really stoked!  Few little mods to the course; whisky short cut through a minivan (I have perfected the barrel roll) and the sesspool of filth (ewwwww) and a lot of very rowdy fans.  There were some awesome costumes out there, I personally sported a Norwegian jumpsuit/pajama/I don't really know what it was....but it was comfortable!  Waldo aka Pepper was coming on strong, until she took one too many whisky short cuts.  The very itsy bitsy bikini with lace body suit made a late charge and ended up only 200m behind me at the finish.  I didn't catch anything in the sess pool (there was some money filled condoms and a bike frame), but I had an absolute blast.  Shortly following the mens single speed race I was kidnapped and taken straight to east Hollywood for the coveted SSCXWC tattoo!!  What a story :-)

Thank you Dorothy Wong for organizing CXLA and Murphy Mack for the SSCXWC.  Huge thank you to Matt and Joan Wehn for the yet again awesome home stay, and Regan for looking after all the bikes!!  It was great having almost the whole team there together again!!!  Looking forward to rocking the X-Fire disc again in the mud this weekend in Bend!!

Jersey Baby!!!

Wow....It looks like all I need is some really nasty cold rain and mud to have a great race.  I’ve been wishing for mud all week cause I was really excited to run my Kenda Kwickers in the mud, love these tires, and they helped me win my first ever Canadian National Championship title....YIPPEE!!!!!!  Though halfway through the race I was really wishing for some warm sun 

Caught the 5pm ferry over to Vancouver Friday night after work, made a quick stop at the pet store to buy another collar and leash (not used to packing for the puppy yet), then over to the venue for about 8pm.  I did a quick slippery walk around as much of the course as I could...should have brought a light...as Regan set up the tents near the course. 

Photo by Steve Pukesh 

Saturday morning still hadn’t brought the forecasted rain and I was seriously starting to doubt my tire selection.  Come noon the skies opened up, and I mean it started DUMPING!!  Horrible start slipped my pedal once, twice...uggh...finally got in and had some work to do.  Thankfully the starting straight was really wide so I had no problems finding a path back up to the lead group.   Pretty quickly we had a break with Pepper Harlton, Wendy Simms and I off the front with a small gap to Catherine Pendrel and Emily Batty.  First time up the stairs I tripped, second time up the stairs I tripped hard landing on my knees in the rocky mud, third time up the stairs I tripped yet again!! GEEEEEZZZZZZ, first time with my new feet!  I think it was the 3rd step each time too 

Photo by Steve Pukesh

All 3 of us were trading blows trying to hammer each other and break away...also knowing there were some really fast women very close behind us.  Part way through the 3rd lap, Pepper started having some problems with the corners and hit the ground a couple of times.  This allowed Wendy and me to open up a gap on her.  We seemed to work together a little to put some distance between us and the chase.   Near the end of lap 3, through the slow slick off camber section, Wendy choose to run and I managed to clean it (just), looking back I had opened up a small gap so I kept the pressure on.  I ran a clean race for the final 2 laps, staying upright with Regan’s smooth is fast and fun mantra.  Not quite believing it I won my first ever National Champion title!!!  Happy Dance, Happy Dance, Happy Dance....though I was too cold do to my happy dance at the time.  Celebrated in style by ordering in pizza, grabbing a tub of Haagen Daas and popping the top to some San Pellegrino.  YUP, I’m wild in my victory....supper in bed!!

Photo by Jamie Cameron

Photo by Jamie Cameron

Day 2 had no more rain, leaving the mud a very sticky peanut buttery consistency, and a really flipping cold wind.  They changed the course a little, removing my dreaded stair (not sure my knees could have handled that one again) and all the straight aways were straight into the nasty head wind.  Had a great start but smartly decided not to stick myself out in the wind right off the bat.  Sunday’s race stayed a lot closer together due to the wind making it a very different dynamic of racing, really neat to have a race so close.  After the first lap I found myself in the group just slightly off the front with Catherine, Wendy and Pepper.  Lap 2 Catherine had some serious troubles with the blowing course tape and soon it was just the 3 of us again.

Photo by Steve Pukesh

Photo by Jamie Cameron

No one launched attacks (when we did it was useless) because as soon as you moved out of the draft you were really hammered by the wind.  My only strategy for this day was to hit the last section of muddy course in the lead.  I wanted to have a clean run at the course and if I made a mistake I didn’t want a gap to open up.  I had a clean run and the second last corner I heard Wendy who was sitting second wheel bobble and I opened up a gap.  There was a fast pavement downhill into a hairpin corner to the finishing straight from there.  I hadn’t realized how hard Pepper had hammered to catch back up to me, and while rounding that last hairpin I noticed her tire out of the corner of my eye.  Head down full on sprint (slowly) uphill into the head wind.  She played it smart, staying in my slipstream as long as she could, but made her move a little too late and I was able to just hold her off at the line, taking my second win of the weekend.

Photo by Jamie Cameron

Thanks ladies for the awesome weekend of racing.  Hard, muddy, cold and fun   And thanks Daryl Evans for hosting the nationals weekend.  This was my first really good disc brake cross bike experience and they were great.  Late breaking into hard rough muddy downhill’s, no problems!  My Ridley X-Fire performed flawlessly with my Stan’s Iron Cross Wheels and Kenda Kwicker tires at 25 psi...loving this low pressure thingy.  Very thankful for my Lazer Aeroshell, kept my noggin warm!!  Huge thank you to everyone for their congratulations and big hugs!!  Thank you to my great Stan’s No Tubes CX team and my awesome mechanic Regan who made everything run so smoothly!!

Giggle giggle giggle