Full Swing

Is it still a recovery week when you are working 12 hour days in the field?????

Mountain bike season is in full swing with three top spots, and I'm getting excited to meet up with my Stan's No Tubes teams next weekend in Sea Otter and pick up my new Trigger!!!  2014 is the year of making things happen…I've just decided that.

The past three weekends have been a whirl wind of local Island Cup Mountain Biking goodness…some of the best courses and trails around, I absolutely love this series and the people with it.  Starting the season off with the Hartland XC in my own backyard.  It was good to see Dan Proulx bring his U23 national team riders out for the races and good motivation to ride hard.  Always chaos off the start with all expert riders, men and women, taking off at the gun, but that's the best part, getting to ride with everyone.  Had my first win of the year taking the coveted first place cookie (it's a monster….and soooooo good!), with Andreane Lantheir Nadeau in second and Katie Button in third……. it does feel good to be able to still stay ahead of some national team racers :)

Then we moved to Englishman River Falls just outside of Parksville for round 2.  This was definitely more of a fitness course with a long steady climb followed by easily the sweetest section of continuous flowy downhill that I've experienced in a while.  Off the gun, Haley Smith took off and found a good position a couple of spots ahead of me going into the first single track.  Once we hit the single track it was a slow steady march with little chance to pass.  A couple people dabbed and I soon found myself right on Haley's wheel.  Spinning out on a log I managed to squeak by her.  From there I pushed back and fourth with a couple of the men.  The climb was just painful enough, kicking up a little at the top, but that downhill was definitely worth the effort.

Third weekend, last weekend, was Cobble Hill….lots of steep climbing and steep fast downhills.  Nothing like 1100 m of climbing in 2 hours to get some climbing miles in.  Good battle with Carey Mark and Luna's Danelle Kabush, but I was motivated for the first place handmade pottery mug :)

Now I'm trying hard to get a little recovery in before I head south.  Something possessed me to register for the short track, enduro, cross country and cyclocross race….all in two days!!!  Yup, this is going to hurt a little.  Kicking the season off in style :)

photos courtesy of Colin Wilson