Day 1 of Transrockies #5 for me!! Wow, has it been that many?? Unfortunately I'm only doing the 3 day again this year....but that's probably a good thing as I seem to have caught a nasty little head cold. Feels like my eyes are going to bug out from the pressure. Riding is okay...so I should just keep riding. Pounding the vitamin loaded EBOOST to try to curb this thing fast.
Day 1 starts and finishes in Fernie as time trial style on some of the best trails in North America...in my humble opinion. When asked when I'd like to start I slotted myself behind Wendy and Norm, my 1 minutes rabbits. Nothing like a little Hyperventilation action to start off the event. It's my 3rd time racing up that beast this year, I think I'm getting it dialled! Managed to keep the super strong Czech masters behind me on the climb and just caught my rabbit at the top of The climb.
Down the backside of this climb, Hyperextension and Roots, is a fast technical and long downhill...LOVE IT....which is much easier when dry unlike the Furious3.
I tagged along as third wheel with these 2 for the rest of the race. Enjoying my dually on the tight singletrack and pushing hard to stay with them on the steep climbs. Hitting a few of the nasty puddle reminants from previous very wet weekend, but the trails are in perfect and fast shape right now and my bike was running perfect!!
Broke out the new Flash Yellow Lazer helmet for this weekend so I'm easy to see :-). Looks good with the pink blue and black of my new Champ Systems kit. Thanks to all my other sponsors Binab Property Group, Eatmore Sprouts, Magpie Obsession, Broadmead Physio, MediaOne and Eboost for getting me out here. Thanks to Esi Grips, Lazer Helmets, Sidi Shoes, Maxxis Tires, Pro City, ProGold bike lube, Champion Systems and of course Transrockies sponsor Planet Foods for keeping me rolling!! Thanks to my dad for cleaning my bike for me...spoilt!!
Typos curtesy of stubby fingers with iPhone
Saturday, 28 July 2012
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Furious3 Fernie
First stage race of the season, and first multiple days in a row or riding hard for the season! Nothing like a little stage race to whip myself back into some kind of shape....Furious3 Fernie. Fernie trails are bar non some of the best designed, fastest, flowiest (is that even a word), funnest and most technical trails that I've ever ridden......and I love these trails.
Being compared to the floods of '87, this was by far the wettest that I've ever seen Fernie trails, making an already very challenging race just that much more difficult. Day 1 was the driest overall of the 3 days, starting with an 8km road section to drag us far out of town before starting the first climb. Like I've said many times before mountain bikers on the road is a scary thing! First climb was a measley 5 km of switchbacks..OUCH..that brought us to the newish really fun and very steep and technical "48 Hours". Fantastic Trail!! Definitely used up a lot of my descending karma here, I railed this descent, passing bodies shooting off the trail every which way. Next on tap was the really steep and aptly names climb "Hyperventalation". I've done this climb a couple of times before and each time its pretty daunting, but very rewarding. If you survive the tight switchbacks, down the backside is another great technical descent. Like I said, I used up most of my dh karma on the first downhill and was flopping all over the place on this one. Trees, roots, water, everything was getting in my way and I fought with my bike the whole way down. Still ENOURMOUSLY fun....yes I did say that too.
Then we were sent out to the more familiar lower Fernie trails just above the downtown. Just when I thought we were finishing up, cruising back on the typical finishing trail to most days, we were sent up one more challenging climb for the day. I finished first female on the day, and managed to put 4 minutes into Kate Aardal....knowing she'd just get fast the longer the race I set out to put as much time into her today as I could.
Day 2, after a night of constant rain, started up at the Fernie Ski hill and ended up back in town. Any day that has more descending then climbing is a great day in my books. Due to a very low snow line and the mass amounts of rain this spring, the course was altered to avoid a lot of the really high trails that would have been snow bound....but we still did a lot of climbing for the day, 1700m...and more mud then I though Fernie could have. I was ready for the trails to be bad, but I wasn't expecting this, and I was soooo glad I had made a last minute decision to go shopping for a tire with more tread then I had....I'd still be out there flailing otherwise.
I had a strong start, as per usual, with some steep climbs up the ski hill and some of my old favorite Canada Cup course trails. As we started moving away from the ski hill and into some of the tough singletrack climbing I noticed that Kate had moved in behind me. We road together through the first feed station, stopping to wash an lube our drivetrains....not a happy bike today....sand, clay and lots of muddy water are never a good combination for a finely tuned machine! I lost contact with Kate up the super steep and really long climb "Session 9". I was really missing my Sidi toe spikes here as I had to do the duck walk just to make it up a couple of the really steep muddy sections. Flashbacks to my very first mountain bike race...throwing my bike up and crawling up after it, then repeat. This climb seemed to go on forever....I'm really not kidding, turn a corner and it's still going up!
Just as I said out loud, "I could really use some downhill now...PLEASE!!", I popped out on a powerline decsent..phew! However, this was really short lived as I looked left and started to climb again up "Mushroom Head". The downhill once I finally made it to the top was very rewarding, and fast, taking us all the way down back into Fernie. Again, at this point I would have been very happy finishing the day, but we cruised through town and up the other side to tackle more of the lower Fernie trails. I grabbed a wheel flying by me and managed to hang on for a couple of mins before being shot out the back to continue my lone slog. All in all, I managed to keep Kate to in with 2 and a half mins on the day, and maintain my lead by only 90 seconds...and of course the sun came out and it stopped raining once we were finished. Needed an ice cream reward after this day!!!
Final day, Day 3 started back in Fernie, and after the rain of the day before I happily decided to keep my mud tires on. My initial plan was to sit on Kate's wheel and just try to match her pace, but when I pre-road the start of the stage and saw we hit singletrack after only 1.2 km, racer brain kicked in. Hammering off the start with the guys I entered the bottlenecked singletrack in about 20th position. Maybe pushing a little too hard off along the soul sucking "Coal Discovery Trail" that just seemed to drag on forever!! I was pretty cooked by the time we hit the gravel road and was told Kate was less then min behind me...YIKES.
Grabbing a wheel I held on as long as I could...thanks John!!!...but was quickly punched off the back as Mike Vine came steaming past me. A little more singletrack and a lot more climbing later we entered "Hyperventaliation" again. I've always done climb near the start of the stage, so hitting it near the end was a shock to the body...easiest gear spinning at about 50 rpm the whole way up. At the top we traverse/climbed (a lot more climbing then I was expecting) along "Castle Rocks" to "Southern Comfort". I cracked pretty good here and was sooooo thankful to finally see the end of the climb :-)
This is a really fast open and rocky descent, "Please don't flat, please don't flat". After stopping quickly to see if I could with a mechanical, sorry dude, no extra chain or derallieur, I noticed that Kate was right with me again, and we proceeded to hammer each other all the way to the bottom. Out on the last couple km....and what the..CHAIN SUCK!! BAD!! We were still far enough from the finish that if I ripped my derallieur off I wouldn't be able to run to the finish in time. Quick fix, then I hammered to catch back up...nothing like a head to head sprint on Day 3 to finish off a great weekend of racing.
Kate took the day by about 3 seconds, but I managed to hold the lead by just over a measley minute. Proud of my dad for coming out and conquering his first stage race ever....even after a nasty Day 2 crash..tough old guy :-)
Thank you Bruce Dickman for all the much needed ProGold bike support!! The bike wash and new Extreme lube was a life saver and a drive train saver on a weekend like this. Thank you Mark for the great, well organized race...it's definitely on my to do list again. Furious3 Moab anyone???
Being compared to the floods of '87, this was by far the wettest that I've ever seen Fernie trails, making an already very challenging race just that much more difficult. Day 1 was the driest overall of the 3 days, starting with an 8km road section to drag us far out of town before starting the first climb. Like I've said many times before mountain bikers on the road is a scary thing! First climb was a measley 5 km of switchbacks..OUCH..that brought us to the newish really fun and very steep and technical "48 Hours". Fantastic Trail!! Definitely used up a lot of my descending karma here, I railed this descent, passing bodies shooting off the trail every which way. Next on tap was the really steep and aptly names climb "Hyperventalation". I've done this climb a couple of times before and each time its pretty daunting, but very rewarding. If you survive the tight switchbacks, down the backside is another great technical descent. Like I said, I used up most of my dh karma on the first downhill and was flopping all over the place on this one. Trees, roots, water, everything was getting in my way and I fought with my bike the whole way down. Still ENOURMOUSLY fun....yes I did say that too.
Then we were sent out to the more familiar lower Fernie trails just above the downtown. Just when I thought we were finishing up, cruising back on the typical finishing trail to most days, we were sent up one more challenging climb for the day. I finished first female on the day, and managed to put 4 minutes into Kate Aardal....knowing she'd just get fast the longer the race I set out to put as much time into her today as I could.
Day 2, after a night of constant rain, started up at the Fernie Ski hill and ended up back in town. Any day that has more descending then climbing is a great day in my books. Due to a very low snow line and the mass amounts of rain this spring, the course was altered to avoid a lot of the really high trails that would have been snow bound....but we still did a lot of climbing for the day, 1700m...and more mud then I though Fernie could have. I was ready for the trails to be bad, but I wasn't expecting this, and I was soooo glad I had made a last minute decision to go shopping for a tire with more tread then I had....I'd still be out there flailing otherwise.
I had a strong start, as per usual, with some steep climbs up the ski hill and some of my old favorite Canada Cup course trails. As we started moving away from the ski hill and into some of the tough singletrack climbing I noticed that Kate had moved in behind me. We road together through the first feed station, stopping to wash an lube our drivetrains....not a happy bike today....sand, clay and lots of muddy water are never a good combination for a finely tuned machine! I lost contact with Kate up the super steep and really long climb "Session 9". I was really missing my Sidi toe spikes here as I had to do the duck walk just to make it up a couple of the really steep muddy sections. Flashbacks to my very first mountain bike race...throwing my bike up and crawling up after it, then repeat. This climb seemed to go on forever....I'm really not kidding, turn a corner and it's still going up!
Just as I said out loud, "I could really use some downhill now...PLEASE!!", I popped out on a powerline decsent..phew! However, this was really short lived as I looked left and started to climb again up "Mushroom Head". The downhill once I finally made it to the top was very rewarding, and fast, taking us all the way down back into Fernie. Again, at this point I would have been very happy finishing the day, but we cruised through town and up the other side to tackle more of the lower Fernie trails. I grabbed a wheel flying by me and managed to hang on for a couple of mins before being shot out the back to continue my lone slog. All in all, I managed to keep Kate to in with 2 and a half mins on the day, and maintain my lead by only 90 seconds...and of course the sun came out and it stopped raining once we were finished. Needed an ice cream reward after this day!!!
Final day, Day 3 started back in Fernie, and after the rain of the day before I happily decided to keep my mud tires on. My initial plan was to sit on Kate's wheel and just try to match her pace, but when I pre-road the start of the stage and saw we hit singletrack after only 1.2 km, racer brain kicked in. Hammering off the start with the guys I entered the bottlenecked singletrack in about 20th position. Maybe pushing a little too hard off along the soul sucking "Coal Discovery Trail" that just seemed to drag on forever!! I was pretty cooked by the time we hit the gravel road and was told Kate was less then min behind me...YIKES.
Grabbing a wheel I held on as long as I could...thanks John!!!...but was quickly punched off the back as Mike Vine came steaming past me. A little more singletrack and a lot more climbing later we entered "Hyperventaliation" again. I've always done climb near the start of the stage, so hitting it near the end was a shock to the body...easiest gear spinning at about 50 rpm the whole way up. At the top we traverse/climbed (a lot more climbing then I was expecting) along "Castle Rocks" to "Southern Comfort". I cracked pretty good here and was sooooo thankful to finally see the end of the climb :-)
This is a really fast open and rocky descent, "Please don't flat, please don't flat". After stopping quickly to see if I could with a mechanical, sorry dude, no extra chain or derallieur, I noticed that Kate was right with me again, and we proceeded to hammer each other all the way to the bottom. Out on the last couple km....and what the..CHAIN SUCK!! BAD!! We were still far enough from the finish that if I ripped my derallieur off I wouldn't be able to run to the finish in time. Quick fix, then I hammered to catch back up...nothing like a head to head sprint on Day 3 to finish off a great weekend of racing.
Kate took the day by about 3 seconds, but I managed to hold the lead by just over a measley minute. Proud of my dad for coming out and conquering his first stage race ever....even after a nasty Day 2 crash..tough old guy :-)
Thank you Bruce Dickman for all the much needed ProGold bike support!! The bike wash and new Extreme lube was a life saver and a drive train saver on a weekend like this. Thank you Mark for the great, well organized race...it's definitely on my to do list again. Furious3 Moab anyone???
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Tour de Victoria
Survived my first fondo!!! Huge shout out to the organizers and all the wonderful and very plentiful volunteers of the Tour de Victoria!! The 2nd annual Ryder Hesjedal event was a huge success with over 1700 participants!! 3 distances this year, 140, 100 and 50 km gave people of all abilities the chance to be a part of this event. Too bad Ryder is off being such an amazing Canadian ambassador for cycling and Victoria, missing his event this year...I would have loved kicking his butt up Munns Road....HAHAHAHAHA!!!
I rode the 140 with the Pro City Racing road team, thanks guys for letting me tag along!! Nothing like hammering with a dozen very fast men to make me hurt for 4 hours. The entire field splintered fast as we started climbing, so we stopped at the top of Munns to regroup the team. It was pretty cool seeing the faces of some of the riders coming up and over the summit of Munns Road, excited to have conquered a nemesis hill for a lot of people. I popped a little on the punchy, rolly Ross Durance following....there’s a lot more climbing through there then you actually think...but regained my rhythm once I hit Willis Point and had to hammer to catch back up.
Quick stop for a mouthful of the new Chocolate Honey Stinger Waffles.....this was my first taste and BEST FLAVOUR YET!!! Though I actually couldn’t taste them while riding because I was just stuffing my face as fast as I could, but a taste test at the finish confirmed my observation.
Making really quick work of the rest of the route...relatively flat compared to the first half. Though there are a couple big surprise hills that you just seem to forget about when concentrating on Munns Road. I was seeing stars on a couple of the hills just to stay in contact with the pack. Don’t lose that wheel, don’t lose that wheel!!!
Starting at Munns Road with about 12 guys and me, we rounded those final couple corners with about 50 guys in tow. With the Pro City Race team working smoothly at the front, we were picking up lone riders left right and center. I managed to pull through a couple of times, but when we were hitting speeds of over 50 km/h it was all I could do to just hang on a couple of times.
I was really amazed at the finishing time of about 4:10...that’s including a couple of stops to regroup and eat.....140km in 4 hours!!!! Blew my projected 5 and a half hours outta the universe...okay a little overkill.
Couldn’t have asked for a better day. Sunny, not too hot and nooooo wind...first day in....I can’t remember the last time we had a day like that. Big Salmon burger at the finish was the perfect cap to the great ride!
Yup, I love bikes! Thanks Sara and Russ for hosting the Tour de Victoria clinic after party. Burgers, wine/beer and cakes...multiple cakes! And thank you Bill Fry for not crashing in front of me when you clipped your pedal!!!!
Monday, 18 June 2012
Test of Metal 2012
Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck!! That about sums that 67km of mountain bike riding! I was hoping the forecast of rain and 13 degrees would be slightly wrong, but nope, I think they have the forecast pretty dialled in Squamish. And I have 4th place pretty much dialled!! Going to have to change that for the Furious3!
Nothing like warming up in full Goretex to set the tone for the day. Opted out of glasses for the day, but was really missing them on the road start...well, missed them for the whole day but I know after the first 10 minutes I wouldn't have been able to see anything, so why bother. Nasty road crash only 5 minutes into the race along the highway. I didn't see what happened but the sound was gross; metal and carbon and other bits colliding in a cacophony of bad noises.
Typical Test start, mellow till we hit the climb, then it's a testosterone fuelled hammer fest, with a couple really fast chicks, all the way to the single track. Last year I blew up more then a little on this climb, so I tried to scale it back a little, but with Brandi up ahead and Wendy right in front of me setting the pace, I worked hard to stay as close as I could.
I know a couple of these girls are stronger climbers then I am, so my strategy was to stay as close as possible during the climb and work my magic on the downhill. Well, my lack of intensity training soon became evident as the climb seemed to go on forever....and once you hit the dirt it's not over...I think you continue climbing for an hour!! OUCH.
I wasn't able to stay on Wendy's wheel...which would turn out to be the wheel I really needed to stick with...and had to scale it back a little and just settle into my own pace. Cruising along I actually thought I was doing pretty good, hurting but felt solid. Then all of a sudden Mel McQuaid flies by me leading a train of 5 guys like I'm standing still. I will admit, I maybe wasn't feeling as solid as I thought and had a mini break down with the pace she had passed me at. It took me a few moments to pull myself back together and settle back into my rhythm. Popping out on a section of road, I grabbed the nearest wheel I could find and sucked road spray as long I could till I popped off the back...thanks for the pull. Little more painful climbing, then some single track climbing and to my surprise Mel was right in front of me!!
Hit the top and down Rob's Corners...trouble with being a little slower climber, you get stuck behind some people when you really just want to rail the descents, but hey they earned that spot in front of me so I sat in a line of guys, just itching to go faster, all the way to the bottom of RollerCoaster. I think this could have been a really fun trail if it was open in front of me....and I could actually see where I was going!! Regan was watching here said all he could see were two white eyes in a face cake of mud....spa treatment at 40 km/h!!
Back onto a small road section I buried myself to catch back up to Mel, and passed her just before turning and dropping down into more fast descending. Out through the feed zone and up the infamous and much hated 9 mile climb. I had somehow convinced myself from last year that this climb wasn't actually 9 miles but much shorter.....bad mistake to make.....while cracking half way up I was cursing my optimism at the bottom!! Looking over my shoulder a couple times I didn't see anyone, giving myself a little breathe and settled into a good pace.
Just coming up the very last climb I was really surprised to realize the "dude" behind me was actually Kate Aardal sneak attacking up behind me!! Wow, I need on the Trans Portugal program!!! Super super super ...I mean super fast descent, moving into the really tight and technical singletrack AKA "The Plunge". I put a small gap on her, and with a bunch of the flailing men (sorry guys) I tried to put as many people in between us as possible. Dropping out onto the gravel road to and up through the feed zone, climbing after descending for 30 mins my quads started cramping up bad!!! Passing a girl being pushed by a guy I asked "Where's mine!!!??". Kate managed to put herself right behind me and stay with me the entire last section of the race. I think she felt my weakness...haha...and passed me with only a little trail left to go and hammered. Small slip on the trail, jerking the bike back I was hit by a great big hamstring cramp.....and managed a BIG yell. This last section of trail was littered with bodies of guys in the bush yelling in pain trying to massage out leg cramps!!!
Out on the road, Kate was just ahead of me, perfectly placed at the tail end of a train of guys.....and I was just out of reach!!! Bad place to be. I pushed hard, but that was about all I had left in my body and could only watch them get farther away from me. Head down I slogged through the last couple turns of the course and was soooooo happy to somewhat see the burry finish.....and my second 4th place finish at the Test of Metal!
Huge congrats to Wendy for her first Test of Metal, Kate Aardal for killing it in the last half of the course and actually managing to pick up 2nd and Brandi Heistermann for hanging in there till the bitter end...and picking up 9 primes!!! Next year I really am going to have to move up on that ladder.
Want to send out a huge thank you to my mechanic Regan Pringle for having my bike dialed and working amazing, especially considering the conditions....I'm sorry about the shape it's in now. A huge thank you to the guys at Champion Systems for my awesome new kit!! I love it, and the chamois has stood up to the worse possible riding conditions and was actually still comfortable at the end!!! And all of my other great sponsors this season!!
Tour de Victoria 140 this weekend, Furious3 next weekend...watch out Kate, I've got your number this time :-)
Nothing like warming up in full Goretex to set the tone for the day. Opted out of glasses for the day, but was really missing them on the road start...well, missed them for the whole day but I know after the first 10 minutes I wouldn't have been able to see anything, so why bother. Nasty road crash only 5 minutes into the race along the highway. I didn't see what happened but the sound was gross; metal and carbon and other bits colliding in a cacophony of bad noises.
Typical Test start, mellow till we hit the climb, then it's a testosterone fuelled hammer fest, with a couple really fast chicks, all the way to the single track. Last year I blew up more then a little on this climb, so I tried to scale it back a little, but with Brandi up ahead and Wendy right in front of me setting the pace, I worked hard to stay as close as I could.
I know a couple of these girls are stronger climbers then I am, so my strategy was to stay as close as possible during the climb and work my magic on the downhill. Well, my lack of intensity training soon became evident as the climb seemed to go on forever....and once you hit the dirt it's not over...I think you continue climbing for an hour!! OUCH.
I wasn't able to stay on Wendy's wheel...which would turn out to be the wheel I really needed to stick with...and had to scale it back a little and just settle into my own pace. Cruising along I actually thought I was doing pretty good, hurting but felt solid. Then all of a sudden Mel McQuaid flies by me leading a train of 5 guys like I'm standing still. I will admit, I maybe wasn't feeling as solid as I thought and had a mini break down with the pace she had passed me at. It took me a few moments to pull myself back together and settle back into my rhythm. Popping out on a section of road, I grabbed the nearest wheel I could find and sucked road spray as long I could till I popped off the back...thanks for the pull. Little more painful climbing, then some single track climbing and to my surprise Mel was right in front of me!!
Hit the top and down Rob's Corners...trouble with being a little slower climber, you get stuck behind some people when you really just want to rail the descents, but hey they earned that spot in front of me so I sat in a line of guys, just itching to go faster, all the way to the bottom of RollerCoaster. I think this could have been a really fun trail if it was open in front of me....and I could actually see where I was going!! Regan was watching here said all he could see were two white eyes in a face cake of mud....spa treatment at 40 km/h!!
Back onto a small road section I buried myself to catch back up to Mel, and passed her just before turning and dropping down into more fast descending. Out through the feed zone and up the infamous and much hated 9 mile climb. I had somehow convinced myself from last year that this climb wasn't actually 9 miles but much shorter.....bad mistake to make.....while cracking half way up I was cursing my optimism at the bottom!! Looking over my shoulder a couple times I didn't see anyone, giving myself a little breathe and settled into a good pace.
Just coming up the very last climb I was really surprised to realize the "dude" behind me was actually Kate Aardal sneak attacking up behind me!! Wow, I need on the Trans Portugal program!!! Super super super ...I mean super fast descent, moving into the really tight and technical singletrack AKA "The Plunge". I put a small gap on her, and with a bunch of the flailing men (sorry guys) I tried to put as many people in between us as possible. Dropping out onto the gravel road to and up through the feed zone, climbing after descending for 30 mins my quads started cramping up bad!!! Passing a girl being pushed by a guy I asked "Where's mine!!!??". Kate managed to put herself right behind me and stay with me the entire last section of the race. I think she felt my weakness...haha...and passed me with only a little trail left to go and hammered. Small slip on the trail, jerking the bike back I was hit by a great big hamstring cramp.....and managed a BIG yell. This last section of trail was littered with bodies of guys in the bush yelling in pain trying to massage out leg cramps!!!
Out on the road, Kate was just ahead of me, perfectly placed at the tail end of a train of guys.....and I was just out of reach!!! Bad place to be. I pushed hard, but that was about all I had left in my body and could only watch them get farther away from me. Head down I slogged through the last couple turns of the course and was soooooo happy to somewhat see the burry finish.....and my second 4th place finish at the Test of Metal!
Huge congrats to Wendy for her first Test of Metal, Kate Aardal for killing it in the last half of the course and actually managing to pick up 2nd and Brandi Heistermann for hanging in there till the bitter end...and picking up 9 primes!!! Next year I really am going to have to move up on that ladder.
Want to send out a huge thank you to my mechanic Regan Pringle for having my bike dialed and working amazing, especially considering the conditions....I'm sorry about the shape it's in now. A huge thank you to the guys at Champion Systems for my awesome new kit!! I love it, and the chamois has stood up to the worse possible riding conditions and was actually still comfortable at the end!!! And all of my other great sponsors this season!!
Tour de Victoria 140 this weekend, Furious3 next weekend...watch out Kate, I've got your number this time :-)
Sunday, 3 June 2012
20th Anniversary of the Bastion Crit
Pro City Tent City
45 laps with 4 left hand corners...yup 180 left hand corners. I do wonder how my tires are looking after this one :-) I did try to count the laps on my Garmin download....haha. Want to send out a huge thank you for the awesome race to Jon Watkin and Tony Zarsadias of the Condo Group for putting on a such a great event....and only 5 min ride away from home. I was actually able to watch the first couple races from my balcony as I was eating breakfast this morning.
Had a lot of fun, especially with Carnage Corner...being a mountain biker was an advantage here, though I am really glad it was dry today! So as a self-professed unknowledgable road racer, with the mountain bikers impatience to just sit and let everything unfold, I managed to take 4 or the 6 primes I believe. YES for gift cards :-)But with the final prime being on the second last lap, which I actually thought it might be the final lap (sometimes they do forget to flip the lap cards), took just enough juice out of my legs leaving me sucking wind on the final sprint and finished 4th place. Coulda shoulda woulda haha. Awesome race, and my bike worked absolutely amazing!! Thank you Regan.
And huge THANK YOU to everyone that came out to cheer and heckle!!! That was fantastic :-)
Saturday, 2 June 2012
Bastion Crit!!! Here I come....ready to turn left 180 times real fast! Yup, a little nervous but should be fun. Thank you Regan so much for the new Dura-Ace (poached from your new road bike :-), for dialing it perfect and for gluing my first set of road tubulars on my Zed Wheels from cross season! Feeling PRO!!
Thank you to all of my supporters for the season as well, my kit is on it's way, was really hoping it would be here for this weekend but I was just a little too slow on the draw. Eboost Canada, Eatmore Sprouts, Magpie Obsessions, Binab Property Group, Media One, Broadmead Physio, Planet Foods with Honey Stinger, Ultima, GoMacro (Excellent) and Kicking Horse, Lazer Helmets, VellendTech/Sidi Shoes, ESI Grips, Champion Systems...of course Trek Pro City......and everyone else who is a part of my life.
CORNERS here I come!!!
Thank you to all of my supporters for the season as well, my kit is on it's way, was really hoping it would be here for this weekend but I was just a little too slow on the draw. Eboost Canada, Eatmore Sprouts, Magpie Obsessions, Binab Property Group, Media One, Broadmead Physio, Planet Foods with Honey Stinger, Ultima, GoMacro (Excellent) and Kicking Horse, Lazer Helmets, VellendTech/Sidi Shoes, ESI Grips, Champion Systems...of course Trek Pro City......and everyone else who is a part of my life.
CORNERS here I come!!!
Monday, 28 May 2012
Nimby 50
Okay, my weekend wasn't quite as spectacular as Ryder's (YAAAAAAA!!!!!!), but I still had an amazing weekend of riding/racing some amazing trails with some amazing people in some amazing weather...it was all around an amazing weekend!! Pemberton, BC played host to the Nimby 50....which is actually is only 37km but is called 50 because it really does feel like 50....or even more! Easily the hardest, most demanding mountain bike course that I think I've ridden in a long time....and I thought I was in shape :-)
Typical neutral start with 400 mountain bikers on the road is guaranteed to be sketchy. Once the neutral car peeled out of the way, we hammered up a steep long gravel road...everyone trying to be first into the first section of singletrack. That first section of singletrack ended up being a lot farther up that road then I was expecting and was really uncomfortable by the time we hit it. Working on intensity is on my list of things to do (starting today with 9 nasty intervals...thanks Bill Fry...I really was serious about wanting you to push me all the way home).
Quick rough decent popped us out on a gravel road and our last little bit of repreive for almost the entire rest of the course....yes, already done all the easy parts. Next up, 11 km and 101 switchbacks up Big Nimby. Nothing super steep or technical, but just constant elevation gain getting slightly harder as you go up and as you get more tired and as you loose more and more oxygen due to altitude...Yes, I am so using that one!!!
Catherine Pendral was no where to be seen, but Brandi Heistermann was just one switchback up from me the whole way up Big Nimby. I was really proud of myself for putting the pressure on a climber during a climb :-) But I really started to feel the effort near the top and had to take a little moment to myself....and I lost contact with Brandi. Out of the switchbacks we hit some really fresh fast loamy singletrack, then a little more climbing and into the Red Bull DownTime. I was really excited about this section, a race within a race, your clock starts at the top of the trail and stops at the bottom.....awesome. But riding this trial blind was extremely difficult and it really wasn't pretty. Keeping it upright and my rear wheel behind me on some of the rock slabs was interesting....but somehow I managed to pull off a 3rd place time on the DownTime.
DownTime podium with local downhill superstar taking the win and World Champ on her 5 and 5 inch bike in second (I was really jealous of this on the downhill, but glad I wasn't the one hauling it up the climbs)
By the time I popped out of DownTime I was more then excited to start climbing again because I couldn't feel my arms or my eyeballs for that matter. Through the feedzone and up into the steep technical climbing half of the course and I soon lost that enthusiasm for climbing...haha. This short little loop near the end of the race was just about the end of me. Catherine's husband Keith came up behind me just before the last singletrack..."Wendy is about 2 mins behind you!"....Me "10 mins???"....Keith "NO 2 mins!"....Me "S&$t!!!!". Hit the gravel road at the bottom and quickly hit the pavement back to the finish. 3km of by myself on the road trying to get as small as I possibly could and hammer as hard as I could...OUCH!
Brandi was able to smell blood when Catherine flatted and pounced taking the win.
Thanks ladies for the awesome race. Thanks Pemberton and the Nimby 50 organizers for the awesome race and the 27 degrees. Thank you Pony Espresso for the amazing post race burger! Thank you Regan Pringle for teching out my rig and for the awesome weekend. So proud of your finish!
Regan's post ride dust
This weekend.....Bastion Crit :-0
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