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!
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