Woodnewton Ocup #1

Well yesterday was the first mountain bike race of the year for me, also my second mtb ride of the year so I was pretty stoked! I love my new Norco Revolver 29er, it is super light and handles like a dream. Can't wait to spend as much time out on the trails as I can on it!

I arrived at the course on Saturday on a bit of a dreary day with windy, cold and rainy weather greeting me at the race site. Luckily though the rain managed to hold off until after I completed my 3 laps of the course in the early afternoon. I got an easy lap with extra practice on the lines followed by a fast one where I hammered sections of the course to make sure I could hit them at race speed. Also another fun lap with my buddy Quinton and a new rider on the team this year named Nick. The course was still dry and tacky despite the rain and this allowed me to stick with my trusty Schwalbe Racing Ralphs for race day.

Next it was off to my Dad's place in the nearby farm country for some rest and relaxation before the race the next day.

I arrived to the course around 11:30am and watched as the riders from the third start of the day went off for their races. It was so great to see everyone again and I really enjoyed hanging out and talking before my race. Lots of familiar faces and I was ready for another fun filled mtb season!

After a solid warmup on the warmup loop and on the race's starting stretch I took my place on the start line about third row back, which was very advantageous as the trail narrowed very quickly right away. The start went off fairly calmly and I was able to sit in and draft for the most part up the opening false flat before the first steep climb. Once we hit the climb it was an all out attack and this year I was happy I didn't get caught behind and didn't allow a gap to open between me and the leaders.

"Chillin on the Start Line" Courtesy of Mike Slaughter

This meant I was sitting on the back of a fast train of riders including the national champ Derek Zandstra who I knew was going to push the pace very high. I was feeling confident and happy with my position but as the lap went on I started noticing myself making some dumb mistakes and all of a sudden I realized I had gone a little too hard to stay with those guys. This became apparent when we hit the next real climb of the lap and I felt as if I was falling backwards as riders went by. I saw the lead group crest the hill as I was starting to round the corner and I could really feel he pain setting in now. As riders went by I tried to hook onto their wheels and managed to get a good group consisting of my long time friend Mike Garrigan and Matt Martindill.

"The New Norco in Action" Courtesy of Lori Bailey

We started to hit lap traffic almost right away and this really split the race apart, I felt comfortable riding with those two but a few nifty moves by Mike getting around some lapped riders gave him a good gap on Matt and I. Then as we spread out more Mark Winfield had also managed to bridge up to me and I rode with him for a little while but a lapped rider in some singletrack split us up and just like that he was gone.

A bit of a fading backwards race yesterday for me but I was still happy to finish my first mtb race of the year in a decent position and had a lot of fun ripping through the fast and flowy trails of Woodnewton!

"Done!" Courtesy of Mike Slaughter

Next race for me will be the first Canada Cup at Mont Tremblant in two weekends and it will be a wild weekend of racing and partying with the Wolf Pack Crew who are a fierce team to contend with this year!

Red Bull Race the Place

Well it sure has been a long time since my last blog post, but this weekend's race was just too good not to post!

I spent my Saturday at the old Ontario Place theme park on Lakeshore Drive where it had been re-opened for the first time for a sweet event that Red Bull decided to put on called 'Race the Place'. It was basically a tight, mostly paved course winding it's way through the iconic sections of the Ontario Place including the 'Cinesphere', the arcade and 'the cave'. The event was set up so that there was qualifying time trials in the morning to hold your position in the start grid for the mass start 80 person final that night!

I arrived around 9am to warmup on the course for an hour before the racer's meeting at 10. I had time for a couple laps of the course along with some last minute adjustments and checking in to the red bull athlete's lounge and getting my time chip. The course was incredibly fun with lots of really fast sections with some wide sweeping corners as well as some really tight ones where you had to slow down almost to a stop. I wasn't 100% confident in the course but I didn't have time to practice more laps so hopefully I'd clue in a bit more for the time trial. I had been running cross tires since I decided to use my cx bike, but definitely was a good call to switch to my 25c road tires for the race. I noticed almost everyone else had road bikes but I really liked the handling and quick acceleration of my cx bike.

After a quick warmup and watching some of the other qualifiers, it was finally time for my tt at around 12:20pm.

Time Trial Start

I started out well and put the hammer down right away, I noticed that I was braking a bit too much in the corners and so lost a good deal of speed and had to work harder to get back up to speed but all in all it wasn't a terrible result. I ended up 6th after the first 100 riders so would hopefully have a decent position on the start line. It seemed my cornering would have to get better in order to do well in the final.

Now for the next few hours I hung out in the expo area, got some free lunch courtesy of red bull and listened to Rick Meloff's colour commentating. For the remaining time trials I definitely witnessed a lot of carnage on the joyride whoops where fixie riders would forget to pedal and do a front flip. Saw one broken collar bone and a lot of other very painful looking crashes. Good thing they would give us a chance to go around them in the final!

Finally 6:30pm rolled around and it was time for the main event! I got 7th callup from my tt result and luckily I was placed in the starting grid right behind Stefan 'Fish' Vis who was the race favourite after setting a blazing time trial time.

Waiting for the gun

It was a hammerfest right off the gun and almost like a mountain bike style start in order to get a good position into the tight sections.

'Fish' takes the holeshot

Right away a group of 3 of us formed chasing down 'Fish' with my buddy Chris Fruetel and a Giant rider who was the second fastest qualifier. We lost some time on the turns to 'Fish' and Chris went down hard in 'the cave' so the Giant rider and I had some work to do to catch back up.

Chasing down 'Fish'

We managed to get 'Fish' right before the end of the first lap so luckily for the Giant rider he was able to nab the 200$ prime from 'Fish' as he timed his sprint perfectly.

Now we were a lead group of 3, the pace cooled down a bit after the first 4 laps which all had primes and 'Fish' got the last 3 of them totalling around $140 into his pocket. Before we knew it a chase group with Chris and others had caught back up and we then formed a slightly larger group of 7. The pace then got pretty chill as noone wanted to work and so I got a chance to rest. I made a break for it on the back stretch in the headwind and Chris followed me as we came through the finish line in the lead. We held it for a little while but it didn't seem to stick as we were caught by the 5 chasers behind.

It stayed chill for the most part until with about a lap to go, I dug deep and attacked with all the strength I had left as we passed through the finish line. I flew through the next two corners and looked back to see I had opened up a good gap to the group. I then put my head down and hammered all out to try and stay away. Crossing the bridge I then noticed that two riders had bridged back to me, of course 'Fish' had joined and the giant rider had as well. I knew they were both going to be tough to take in the sprint.

We rode at a hard enough pace to stay away from the chasers who had broken up in the turns and realized it was going to come down to us 3 for the final. 'Fish' pulled off a little before the final corner and I entered it into the lead. I made sure not to start my sprint too early and just as we passed the Joyride whoops 'Fish' attacked and I yelled as I pushed as hard as I could to hold his wheel. I couldn't quite come around him in the end and the giant rider managed to sprint by and take the open class win just ahead of me.

Wow what an exhilarating race! I was pumped full of adrenaline and pretty happy with how it played out although it definitely would have been nice to nab the win!

Still made it home with a nice $250 cheque, a watch and a pretty sweet looking medal. What an amazing and fun event put on by Red Bull, I really hope they have it next year as the format was pretty awesome! It was cool to have such a mix of different riders, anything from fixie track bikes to full on dh bikes with 8.5 inches of travel.

Podium shot

Now it's time for me to gear up for my first P2A next weekend, should be fun!

*All photos courtesy of David Lebrun

Hardwood U-cup

A little late on this one again, but I decided I would put up a post about my first race back as an alumni for Queen's Cycling at the first University Cup of the season. The 'U-cup' series is a really laid back and fun time and it was great to be back to hang out with the Queen's crew and get a chance to race at one again after missing them last year due to my injury.

The weekend started off by meeting my good friend Brett Weersink Saturday morning at Vaughan Mills near Toronto. Brett was one of my co-captains on the Queen's team last year and we made our way up to Hardwood Hills to take part in the team pre-ride and do some riding on the trails afterwards. It was great to see old friends from my year's at Queen's again and I also met some new team members that just joined the sizeable 30 rider team this year. We rode the first lap as one big team, a few injuries and mechanicals happened to occur right away including a separated shoulder (I think?) and a bent derailleur hangar, which caused some delays but is likely to be expected with that large of a group on a trail at once. For lap two the 'A' team and 'B' team's split up into groups and we focused on lines and tactics for the upcoming race. Etienne is running a tight ship this year and has the team riding pretty smoothly, so I'm looking forward to another potential U-cup win for Queen's!

After the ride we headed over to Jeff's famous cottage on Six Mile Lake just down the 400 for some nice relaxing dock time, boating and hot tubbing. Some other highlights included cliff diving, rope swing and a really intense and delicious white chocolate fountain!

Etienne is thoroughly enjoying the boat ride

Now on Sunday it was race time and we all made our way over to Hardwood for the 11am start of the Men's A race. After a tasty breakfast prepared by Jeff's incredibly hospitable parents we were all ready to tear it up! I didn't forget to have my trusty sweet potato of course.

My love for sweet potatoes

After a good warmup with Jason and Cam, practicing the start hill a few times and making sure everything was ready to go I lined up on the front line beside my fellow University racers (as Alumni now). The race start was fast as Will Clarke from Guelph must have been ready to show off his skills at his home course. 

The Men's A start

I didn't get the best jump and unfortunately I noticed as I shifted up my gears began skipping right away, which was not the greatest situation to have for the upcoming race. I quickly put that out of my mind and then moved my way up on the climb and entered the singletrack in 1st to try and get myself off to a good start. Fairly quickly a small group consisting of my teammate Etienne, Will C and Alex Flav were riding together for most of the first lap. As we started the long section of doubletrack on the course though I started to lose some time as Will and Etienne got away after I had lead most of the start. I managed to catch back on after ripping it up through coffee run and drafted down along the stretch before the finish line.

Having fun on coffee run

 The rest of the race was spent trying to open a gap for Etienne on Will and finally on lap 3 we were able to get a small one through the climbing singletrack sections. I made sure to keep the pace high and tried to pull Etienne along as best as I could. Was glad to be able to use a little bit of team tactics even though I wasn't able to count towards anything in the standings. Etienne and I rode the last couple laps together and in the final sprint he took the lead as I drafted until the last possible second before shifting in my highest gear so as not to cause a skip and sprinted by for the win! I was pretty happy to finally have my first U-cup win after 5 years of racing them and had a very fun weekend as well. I hope to make it back for the final race at Ganaraska Forest and hopefully help out with some more team tactics and watch Queen's hoist the University Cup for the fourth year in a row! 

Provincials at Horseshoe Valley Resort

So I thought I'd finally get around to another post, there have been a couple races since my last National's summary but Provincials was kind of the last big hurrah of the season. In mid August, the Duntroon Ocup went pretty well where I missed the podium by 30 seconds coming in 7th place. I also headed up to Quebec for an awesome race for Marathon National's in St Raymond and it was a great weekend spent with some good friends from Queen's and U of W.

Duntroon Ocup - Preparing Myself for 'Son of a Pitch'!

Callup for Marathon National's in St Raymond, QC

Now on to my past weekend up at provincial's at the exciting new venue of Horseshoe Valley Resort! After hosting a fun BBQ and games night on Friday with my new housemates in Waterloo, it was time to be up and early for preride on Saturday morning. When I first woke up I found out that the course had been closed for the morning due to rainy conditions so I opted to grab a few more minutes of sleep after being up fairly late the night before. Then it was time to head over, picking up my friend and teammate Petey D up at U of Guelph at his new home in res on the way. It absolutely poured on us on the way and we definitely considered throwing on the mud tires for preride, but as we got closer it seemed to clear up, so I figured my trusty Racing Ralphs would do the trick.

Once we got there it was sunny/cloudy and a little humid and after dropping my stuff at the beautiful Disera residence in Cathedral Pines, it was a short ride down to the course for a couple laps. I rode the first lap with Peter, making sure we got all of the lines down with some tricky rock gardens and rock jumps that needed a few runs over. It was great to see everyone from the Ocup circuit again and I definitely spent a lot of the day socializing with friends as well as my two preride laps to get ready. I took my bike to Havi the skillful Norco mechanic to make sure my bike was dialed in for the race ahead and then my second lap I put down the power a few times to be sure my bike and body were ready.

I was feeling pretty confident on the course and it was wicked fun, especially the final downhill after the massive singletrack climb to the top. Although I knew the steep sandy climbs would hurt, it was at least a nice relief to have a fun descent after them to recover. I headed back up to my 5-star accomodations at the Diseras, where we had a delicious potluck dinner and I met a lot of new friends and had a nice relaxing night before the race.

Race morning, I was feeling good and everything seemed ready to go, once again it was nice to be able to actually ride down to the course and so Quinton and I rolled down to the course to hang out a bit before the race. Warmed up a bit on the road and Copeland forest trails across the road and practiced the start loop once to make sure I was prepared for the hard start.

Lined up in the pen and for the first time ever I got a top 10 callup, which got me pretty excited! I was second row and off the gun lost a few positions up the climb but made a few back on the downhill/flat and corners towards the first singletrack. Entered the first singletrack in 11th position, which was just off my goal of top 10, so I felt like that was a good spot to be in. Was riding in a group just behind Watson, Davis, Ryan and Matt Martindill and hesitated a bit on the big rock over since riders ahead were paused on it, which allowed a small gap to open and extended as I made mistakes through the singletrack. Before I knew it my legs were really starting to feel it and after the first half loop Corey and Matt F had bridged across to me. We were able to ride together for a bit before they got away from me on the long steep climb before the final descent. It took me a little bit to recover and recollect myself after that hard start pace and partway through lap 2, Petey D caught me and I upped the pace to stay with him as long as I could. It didn't take long before a few mistakes and slips before he slowly rode away from me (I wasn't too mad since he's the second fastest junior in the world) and I then made it my goal to catch Matt and Corey.

They weren't too far ahead so I worked on nailing all the sections and getting past the large amount of lap traffic before getting stuck behind them in singletrack. It was hard to tell the gap but I could see them around corners and came really close to Corey on laps 3 and 4. I finally on lap 5 was able to make it up to Matt F and I rode behind him for a bit before he squeezed by a Masters rider that stopped me on a climb and caused my calf to seize as I put it on the ground. I fought my way back and managed to catch him on the final climb and attacked hard on the two open gravel sections to get by lapped riders and make it first to the descent. This move worked perfectly as I opened up a good gap and rolled in for 12th place on the day.

Ripping down the really fun final descent!

One of the rock gardens near the end of the course

Just outside my top 10 goal, so not a bad performance and realized after the race that I had just missed the under 23 podium by a minute or so, which was somewhat frustrating but glad that I had a fighting chance for it. Corey definitely rode an awesome race and rocked the 5th lap to get away from me and take the 3rd place medal on the day.

Big thanks to the Diseras for hosting me at their beautiful home, Emma and Angry Johnny for their ongoing support all the time, Havi and Norco for their amazing bikes and service, my Mom for always coming out to support and feed me in all the races, all of my friends and family for their support and my awesome coach Peter for being a great friend and mentor to help me excel in my racing career and in life.

Now it's definitely time for some R&R as the mtb race season comes to an end and cross season begins. I'm pretty stoked to try out some cross racing since I just got a new Norco cross bike and looking forward to some fun rides into the fall as well as rejoining my fellow Queen's racers as an alumni for the U-cup this weekend!

On another note I am selling my mtb for the year at an awesome deal, check it out on Pinkbike

http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/1420754/

National's!

Well after a late arrival back from the Sudbury Canada Cup it was time to rest up and get a couple good rides in before the big race at Hardwood this past weekend. I can definitely say that I had an incredible time and it was an amazing experience to be around so many great people at such a well organized event.

So I'll start out with the Thursday night where I fought my way through rush hour traffic in order to catch the end of the all new Eliminator National Championship race. It was a really cool event consisting of a short approximately 2 min course where 4 competitors duked it out around tight corners and over tough obstacles to finish in the top 2 in order to make it to the next round. It was also the first time it has ever been held at National's so I was excited to see who would take the inaugural title this year. I really wish I had been competing in it as well but I just couldn't justify taking both days off work since I had just started a little over a month ago.

I made it just in time for the semi-final and saw my good friend and teammate Peter Disera (super fast junior) advance to the final round to compete for the title! Then it was time for the women's final where I saw Jean-Ann Berkenpas, riding my former bike sponsor, Xprezo, to the Women's National Eliminator championship in a very tight battle.

Peter Disera on '3 rox'

Now finally, the men's final was going to take place in a pretty stacked heat with former u23 National Champ, Leandre Bouchard; Mitch Bailey; Peter and Patrick Martin. It was a crazy fast start with a close battle for position into the first corner, it was pretty back and forth the whole race and everyone managed to stay upright on the jumps luckily. Then as they went out of sight everything went silent until we saw Leandre come around the corner with a sizeable lead to take the first ever Canadian National Eliminator title for the men. What an awesome event and I hope it continues more and I can participate in a few as they come up.

After the event I headed over to the OCA house, where there was a chef who prepared everyone a delicious meal and I got to hang out with a lot of cool people discussing the upcoming race and having an all around great time. Geoff Kabush definitely won the diving competition with his massive style jumps into their backyard swimming pool. There were also a lot of good jokes thrown around by the 3 rox team and it seemed like they were a pretty tight team who really got along well. This weekend was already turning out to be super fun and relaxing and I was really enjoying it so far.

The next day I arrived at the race course around noon in order to get a couple laps in and nail my lines so I'd make an attempt to ride perfect for the race on Saturday. As it turned out I got to ride with my good buddy Chris Fruetel and we ripped off a couple good laps even getting a little race intensity in to know how it felt to go fast on the course and test ourselves over the crazy new obstacles they had put in. Lucky for us we just made it to our cars before a massive storm rolled in and took out a bunch of trees and the power. The course was already basically a giant sand trap so it could definitely use a little rain anyway.

After enjoying some time back home up in Muskoka with the family and chilling out, it was now time for my biggest race of the year. I made sure everything was dialed on my bike and got a good warmup in before rolling up to the line for my callup. Once again I got another decent callup this week since I had done fairly well in the first few Canada Cups and so I was on the second row for the start, which really helped put me in a good position. 

The u23 men start! Courtesy of Joe Bailey

Off the start I tucked in behind the leaders and tried to conserve whatever energy I could by drafting behind their wheels. Other than one small brake check where the trail narrowed a bit it was a pretty smooth start and I was feeling pretty decent at that point. I lost a few spots right before the singletrack and then got caught behind someone who was caught on top of a log pile and so this set me back a bit but I tried to work with what I had and make back the positions. I felt like I was riding smooth and was flying through the singletracks that I had grown up riding, especially coffee run, which I always have a ton of fun on. When it came to the climbs though I felt as if I just didn't have the speed and people seemed to be riding away from me a little too easily. I tried my best to stay close but it was hard to close the gaps and so it started to extend out with each lap. I found myself riding with a couple guys for the last 2-3 laps and we worked together on the flats and pushed each other up the climbs. Finally on lap 5 I lost contact on a climb and the three of us then spread out on the main climb of the course after boneshaker. I tried my best to rally back but I just didn't have it in me and rolled in for 19th place, my best finish yet at National's but not quite what I had hoped for.

I felt as if I was riding smooth and had no crashes or mechanical issues so I could draw a few positives from the race but I will definitely still have to improve my fitness to keep up with the fastest guys in the category. Luckily I have a week or so to chill out after my peak race and then it will be back to it in order to get ready for the last couple Ocups at Highland Nordic Centre and the new venue Horseshoe Resort!

On the Sunday it was the regular Ocup categories racing as well as the team relay event, which I had entered with a team consisting of Griffin Lambert from Bracebridge (on Cycle Solutions), Heather Gray (really fast girl on CS) and my good friend Chris as well. I decided to take the first leg of the race and it was a shortened version of our elite course that we had raced the day before. We started off super fast as I was in my top gear standing up just in order to stay on the crazy pace that is per usual for guys like Kelsey Krushel and Tyson Wagler. I put worked as hard as I could to stay on their wheel and managed to get by Tyson just before Coffee Run but had lost the lead group where Kelsey was dictating the pace. 

Style Points! Courtesy of Pedal Magazine

A couple more guys came around me throughout the course including my coach, Peter Glassford, who had just won the singlespeed 'National Champs\ that morning and still managed to pull off the second fastest lap in our group. I was hurting and definitely feeling the race from the day before in my legs, especially with the speed of that lap. Our team ended up pulling off a respectable 7th place, which is where we were after lap 1 so even though we gained and lost a couple spots we finished off how we started. Very fun race and definitely something I want to take part in every year from now on.

To cap off the weekend it was then time for a post-Nationals group ride with a bunch of fast guys from all over Canada. It was lead by local legend, Andrew Watson, and we rode some fast and flowy trails at nearby 'Sugar Bush'. Great group of people and definitely made some new friends after the weekend and got to see so many old ones. It turned out to be a very action-packed weekend with lots of racing, riding and good times had. Stoked that Nat's are coming back again next year for 2014!

Sudbury Canada Cup

Back to it again after a busy month of starting a new engineering job for Megtec Turbosonic in Waterloo and  also getting myself ready for the two biggest races of the year for me: the Canada Cup at Sudbury and National's at Hardwood.

First I'll start off with this past weekend where we made the long journey up to Sudbury for the 3rd Canada Cup in the series, which also doubled as Ontario Cup #4. It was a long 5 hour drive from Waterloo but luckily I was accompanied by three great traveling companions, Jason, Jeff and Alex. It was a tough fight through cottage country traffic for Alex and I to get to Innisfil to meet Jason at our first stop, but then we were able to make a nice relaxing stop at Jeff's cottage on Six Mile Lake, just up the 400.

We were originally going to push on that night and arrive super late at Charlie's house near Sudbury but realizing we were about 2.5 hours away and it already being 9pm, we decided to crash there for the night and boy are we glad we did. Went for a nice sunset boat ride then packed it in to get up early for the preride the next day.

We got to the course at around 11am and since my course was only about 6km for this race I decided I would do 3 practice laps rather than the usual 2. I also didn't know the course as well since it is a new venue so I wanted to get my lines worked out well for the race. Ripped a few laps with the Two Wheel guys where they showed me up on their dualies (full suspension bikes) and then I decided that I was ready to face the 6 lap race ahead the next day!

Now that we were done practicing, we decided to head over to the cliffs near Laurentian University to cool down and relax with the 'Wolf Pack', who are all local riders from the Sudbury area. It turned out to be a really nice beach, located right on campus and we decided to swim over to the cliffs, not that we needed any more exercise the day before the big race.

After a nice relaxing afternoon we headed back to our friend Charlie's beautiful house by the lake and were treated to an amazing pre-race dinner that was definitely a group effort to prepare. We then had a nice group bike prep session after dinner and made sure our bikes were primed to go for the race. It was surely a great way to spend the weekend hanging out with the Wolf Pack, they are awesome people and all sure know how to rip on a mountain bike!

On Sunday, I woke up bright and early to make it out to watch the 9:30am race where a few friends, including Jeff, were going to be tearing up the 8km course. After fueling up on some eggs and sweet potato for the big day it was time to head over to the course. Once we arrived I tried my best to chill and stay out of the sun as much as possible to keep cool before the race. Only gave myself a 20 min warmup since I knew that it was already hot enough to not need much of one at all, just a few short sprints to prep for the fast start.

This was going to be the first time that I would get a decent callup at a Canada Cup so I was pretty pumped. I was placed in 'pen #1' this time as compared to Tremblant where I was almost at the complete back of the field. Plate #24 had me just a few rows back and already gave me a decent advantage on the start. Off the gun I was able to sit in and draft the mainly downhill/flat section, narrowly avoiding a crash where I noticed Watson sitting on his top tube to my left and heard that Matt F's bike went airborne. Gave a quick punch to get good position in the singletrack and was able to enter it in the top 20, which really helped given I wouldn't have to face a huge bottleneck.

Tried my best to hold the wheel in front and was feeling good for the first half of the course and when we hit the feed zone for the first time I could see the leaders just ahead of me. Slowly I realized that I was not going to be able to hold this pace and I was riding above my limit for sure. This became more apparent when we hit the long climb on the course and I felt as if I was falling backwards. Limped through the rest of the first lap and tried my best to hold on to riders coming by but it took a while to get some legs under me again.

Struggling in the heat. Courtesy of Lori Bailey

Ended up riding with Jon Winfield for the remainder of the race as we put the hurt down on each other and this definitely helped get me through the finish to have someone there to push me. On the final climb, Jon was able to put in a good sprint and I lost his wheel and I struggled to recover but was unable to catch back by the end. I was a hurting unit by the end, my lower back had seized up and I felt like absolute garbage after racing almost 2 hours in the heat.

After a relaxing cool down I got some food in me and was able to feel a little better. I was pretty happy with the race and even though I wasn't able to hold my starting pace for very long I was glad to be able to mix it up with the leaders for a bit. Definitely has me psyched for National's next weekend!

On the drive back, Jeff's parents once again provided us with an amazing dinner at their cottage and we got a refreshing swim in the lake. Then we pushed through for the long drive through cottage traffic back to Waterloo, arriving home at almost 1am. What an awesome weekend, can't wait for Hardwood!

Quebec Trip! - Tremblant and Baie Saint Paul Canada Cups

Well it's been a while since my last post but I thought I'd talk a little bit about the time I spent up in Quebec for the first two Canada Cups of the season.

It started on the Wednesday of the Tremblant race where I was picked up by my traveling companions for the next couple weeks: Steve Noble, Daniel Varga and Sam Wagler. We were then on our way to the beautiful resort of Mont Tremblant, QC. We left pretty early in the morning in order to get there for a quick ride to free the legs up after the long drive. It was a smooth drive and we arrived there in the late afternoon to some rainy and cold weather that made riding not seem as if it would be quite as enjoyable. Turns out the course was actually in good shape and not super muddy even with all of the rainy weather recently. As they headed out for a lap of the course I went out for an easy spin on the flat bike paths below the village and just enjoyed being back up there again.

The next day (Thursday) it was time for a few decent paced laps of the course since I had a couple days before the race. I decided to do 3 with the first couple just sorting out my lines and the third as more of a race paced effort. I was feeling confident on the course since I knew most of it from years past (it never really changes year to year) and was happy with how I felt on all of the technical stuff. The lap basically consisted of a long climb starting with gravel to sort things out and then jumping into some really rough singletrack and fire road to reach the top of the Porte du Soleil chairlift. Then it was downhill on a super fun wild descent that still managed to keep my heart beating fast even though it was all downhill for about 5 min. The course then finished off with some high speed paved bike path and a sprint finish up through the middle of the village.

On Thursday I also moved over to the Cycle Solutions team condo for the next few nights where I was always kept laughing by our team manager, Angry Johnny, who has been really supportive of my racing career and an all around great guy for all of my years on the team. There were also some friends that arrived later that night to fill up our condo to around 8.

Since I was feeling good on the course after my Thursday preride laps, I decided to take it easy on the Friday of the race and just got out for 1 lap to make sure I saw any course changes that might have been made last minute. The rest of the time I spent hanging out with friends and walked around the village where I ended up buying my Mom a birthday present since it was coming up on the Tuesday after the race.

The race was pretty late this year with it being a 2:45pm start, so I had a lot of time to chill out and eat lots of food before it on the Saturday. I got a good warmup in on the roads around the course and then it was time to line up for the start. Unfortunately since I hadn't done so well in the Canada Cups last year, I was placed in the second start corral so I was already at a disadvantage. I was also near the back of this group do to lack of aggressiveness to force my way forward more. I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged at this predicament but I had heard of many stories of Canadian riders having horrible start positions in World Cup events and still moving there way up so I kept this in mind (Max Plaxton's 5th place finish at the Nove Mesto WC).

The race started super hard as usual with everyone fighting to get to that singletrack first to avoid bottlenecking. There were a couple crashes/slow downs right off the bat and it forced me to slow almost to a stop and ride way off to the side to get around them. This tired me out before I even got going really and so I was not in an ideal position by the time I hit the first singletrack and had a long, slow wait to get in followed some really slow sloppy singletrack riding with everyone being tired from the all out effort and being jammed up. I continued to pass riders as the lap progressed and was feeling a little better but just as I was coming down a rock drop I got a little too far left and bottomed out my fork, causing me to go flying over the bars into a few rocks at high speed. This left me pretty rattled and I tried to gather myself on the side of the trail for a bit, assessing my injuries and any damages to my bike. Luckily I was still in ok shape so I started up again slowly and tried to get my mind back in the game.

Sprint Finish with Matt F! (Courtesy of James Clarke)

It took me a little bit to get going and I didn't feel as if I was climbing incredibly well but I just tried to make as many spots as I could throughout the race. After the first lap I was in 46th position out of around 75 riders that started and I moved my way up to 34th in a sprint finish with Matt F at the end, so I was fairly satisfied with this result considering my poor start position and high speed crash.

This wasn't exactly how I had envisioned myself finishing given my goal was a top 20 finish but I was glad that I was able to finish in one piece and no major mechanicals or injuries. Now it was time to relax a bit and enjoy myself that night in the village at Cafe D'Epoque and of course the infamous Petit Caribou!

After a quick ride on the Sunday on the sick mtb trails around Mont Tremblant, it was time to move on to our next location near Mont Ste Anne where we would stay for a few days before heading on the Baie St Paul for the second Canada Cup of the series. So I rejoined with Daniel, Steve and Sam and we also picked up a new traveling companion, Davis Ross. We made our way up to the Mont Ste Anne campground where Sam's friend had graciously allowed us to use his trailer for the week where we could shred some trails in the area and have some fun and relaxing times.

We spent a few days up there, which mainly consisted of sleeping in late and then heading over to the local 'Radio Cafe' to have coffee and use some WiFi. We would then ride the awesome singletrack around Mont Ste Anne (120km of it!) and even got a lap in of the World Cup course where I got my first crack at the storied descent 'La Beatrice'. I was scared to death the entire time coming down it but I was glad to say I did it!

I could really get used to this lifestyle with all I had to worry about was my ride that day and making sure to get lots of food and sleep. I also got to hang out with some pretty cool people, which made it all the better!

Finally it was time to head over to Baie St Paul on a very rainy Wednesday and we got there in time for one quick lap of the course, which was still holding up pretty well with a lot of new gravel laid down to combat the wet conditions. We checked in to the Hotel Baie St Paul, where we got to hang out with the Team Ontario riders and hide from the constant rain that seemed to be coming in the valley of Baie Saint Paul. Got in a few more laps throughout the week and really realized how much I love this course it has the perfect mix of technical riding and climbing to sort things out. It was also nice that we were close enough to ride over to the course in less than 10 min and everything else was basically within walking distance.

Due to the amount of rain we got they took out the two major climbs and descents on the course and it turned into a very quick lap that we would do 6 of. This time I was determined to get a good start position after last week's debacle so after my warmup I tried to arrive early and pushed my way up a bit more this time. I was only a few rows back so feeling better about my spot.

The race went off like crazy as most Canada Cups do and I found myself almost falling off the back up through the campground, so much for my ideal starting position.. I then caught back on and tried to move myself up a bit before the singletrack but the pace was still super high. Once again I found myself caught in another bottleneck and it felt as if we were walking in slow motion for the first part of singletrack. The first lap was a bit of a gong show with the amount of traffic and a pretty muddy course so I just tried to make passes where I could and hammer the hills to get ahead. I felt like I was riding the climbs well today and the course was more of my style with all out efforts followed by rests on the singletrack rather than sustained efforts such as the Tremblant climb. I was also feeling good on the downhills after my preride laps and I found I could make up time in a lot of places. The race was pretty back in forth for me with a few guys and I found myself passing them on uphills and then I would screw up somewhere and slide off the course and they'd catch back up (not exactly ideal). I was happy with my race and generally made progress throughout it, ending up with another sprint finish although I went early in the feed zone with a dirty pass that gave me good position for the final sprint and I ended up taking it this time!

Finished up in 30th place, which is definitely an improvement on last year but not quite at my goal of a top 20 and so I have some work to do for next time for sure. Hoping to really improve before Hardwood National's and Sudbury but we'll see how it goes with my new job starting up in Waterloo on Monday!

Great couple weeks of racing and I had a really fun time traveling with lots of good friends. Hopefully I can continue to do this trip every year!