Freeeeeeedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Done.....and done......

Finished up my last night shift, packed up and flew home saturday night....yippeeeee :)

Last minute decision to do the first island cup....can't miss a local race in Victoria at the Dump. Regan raced intermediate at noon and rocked the fully riged steel 29er to a solid 3rd place (great job babe!!!)

Catharine Pendrel (and her hubby Keith) made the road trip out to the island and decided to do the race, as well as Melanie McQuaid and Joele Guynup....ended up being a great race. I really wasn't sure what to expect from my legs, I've just been doing trainer rides for the last 3 weeks and only going on about 6 hours of sleep in the past 2 days..uggh. Warm up was painful, only thing that kept me going was my brand spanking new super sexy full carbon Series 9 Trek hardtail.....oh my goodness, after a winter of riding a 30 poundish 29er I feel like superwoman on this thing!!!!

Off the start I had a pretty good jolt of energy (the beer preem at the top of the climb was good motivation......somehow we got missed though and never did get the beer) and lead out the group up the major climb. We quickly started moving through the expert men's field which started a minute ahead of us. I managed to put a couple of guys between myself and Catharine...I was feeling pretty proud of myself...hehe. But with a quick shoulder check I noticed she'd managed to move back in behind me...with Melanie in tow.

Coming up to a small steep rock face, there was a guy on the left line off his bike, and a guy on right line straight up the rock) off his bike. I quickly decided to take the right line and half way up I clipped my guy as he was turning and slide 10 feet down the wet rock listening to the pedal of my new bike grinding down the rock.....ahhhhhh!!!!! Picking the left line, Catharine cleaned the rock and quickly put 20 seconds on me. As I'm picking myself and running back up, I hear Melanie coming up behind me encouraging me to get back on the bike.

For the rest of the first lap, Melanie and I motor along just outta reach of Catharine. Going into the second lap I hear Melanie slip up on a small rock face and I grab a couple gears and hammer up the start climb...outta sight outta mind.

For the last 2 laps I kinda find myself in no mans land....not able to see Catharine, but getting reports that she's 40secs, 30secs, 60 secs ahead of me, and just outta sight of Melanie. Finish off the first race of the season 2 mins behind Catharine and 2 mins ahead of Melanie.

Great way to blow out all the oilsands from my legs and lungs. Love, love, love my race bike, Trek Series 9. Gonna clean it up really good and pack it away for Fontana in 2 weekends. Special thanks to my mechanic for building up my race rig and again to Barry at Trek Toronto.

Also big thanks to the guys at Pro City Cycle (Trek Victoria) fo hosting the awesome race...super fun course and very well run. Next week, Port Alberni :)