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!
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