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!
