Ok, July was jammed packed with a wide variety of
different events.
Not all racing
either.
Finished off June with 3
days of amazing racing at the
Fernie 3.
It was a hard fought battle against some fast women on some of the most
amazing and fun trails, but I managed to finish 2
nd to World Cup racer
Sandra Walters.
July started off with an amazing 7 day backcountry mountain
bikepacking trip from Durango Colorado to Moab Utah, the
San Juan Huts.
Approximately 250 miles of riding, with some
amazing singletrack options like Little Molas Pass out of Durango lead by local
Shannon Gibson, and the Whole Enchilada into Moab.
Hitting lightning and hail and rain at 12000
ft on day one, to 113 degrees and dry lightning at on day five, it was am
amazing hut to hut trip.
The
Cannondale Scalpel
was a great workhorse, turning her super lightweight racing machine into a
bikepacking machine with
Apidura bike bags and
Stan’s Crest wheels. I do have to say, the
Apidura bags were absolutely amazing on this trip. They handled the single track like a rock star, standing up really well to most amazing abuse a bag could take! I would highly recommend these…..designed and tested by a hardcore chick that has ridden many long adventures including the Continental Divide!
 |
| Hut life |
 |
| Whole Enchilda |
After a marathon drive back to Victoria, I decided to
participate in a ramped up version of the Rapha Women’s 100, aka #badass200. With a small group
of women riding 2 days at a hilly 110km each day with camping gear and spending
the night at Fairy Lake Camp ground.
The
camping vibes were complete with smores and bourbon. I outfitted my
Ridley X-fire nicely with the Apidura seat bag and frame bag.
The following weekend
Singletrack 6 (formerly the Transrockies) started and I was joined by her teammates Shannon Gibson and Nina Baum
on this leg of my July adventures.
6
days of racing through the mountains with hundreds of other people that are
super stoked to just be on their bikes!!
Doesn’t get any better than this.
The
Cannondale Scalpel with Stan’s
NoTubesValors was the obvious choice for this adventure. Day 1 in Bragg Creek was a
shock to the system, so much climbing, but so much descending.
Day 2 in Nipika was the rooty technical fun
and punishment that is always expected of that area.
Day 3 in Radium was a pure sufferfest for
me, I started the day off slightly dehydrated, and spent most of the day in
survival mode in the exposed heat.
Day 4
and 5 in Golden were amazing fun, getting to ride the old school Mount 7
Pychosis and the fast flowly Moonraker trails.
And Day 6 finished a very hot week on the awesome trails of
Revelstoke.
After glorious 6 days of racing,
I finished 2
nd behind Kate Aardal in the overall, but scored a win on the timed downhill section for the week.
Definitely not fully recovered from that adventure I grabbed my
Trigger 29er, I am totally in love with this bike! and headed over to Whistler for the
Crankworx World Enduro Series race. I consider myself a pretty good technical rider, able to hold my own on most trails, but this was a little easily the hardest course that I've ever tried to race. I was literally shaking in my shorts on a couple of the technical sections……only to have Anne Caroline Chausson, 14 time multi discipline world champion, come by during practice and school all the dudes standing there…..yup, that's what I was up against. Needless to say, I had a tough go this event and crashed hard on stage 2, dislocating my shoulder and ending my day. I am sooooooo happy I was wearing my
Lazer Phoenix full face (full face mandatory course) because it definitely saved my teeth!
 |
| Pre-ride Stage 4 |
3 weeks off the bike to let the shoulder heal….guess I really do need some recovery time…..and finally update my blog :( And getting ready for CrossVegas on the trainer for now !
