the ice queen reigns

Saturday night was the fabled Icycle Race, at Dufferin Grove Park. An annual favorite, for sure.

Last year, I stepped up from volunteer extraordinaire to give racing a shot, on a set of tires made with DD's help & free labour. It was a small women's field, and I managed to pull out the win.

This year, the women's field was just about double, though at 7, it still wasn't breaking any records. With a few new girls on the ice, we actually had two separate preliminary heats though! In my heat, I went for the hole shot, making sure I got to the first corner first, and held my lead from there. Wire to wire, baby! I was cornering pretty aggressively, and a couple of times, I was really worried I was going to go down, but those tires held so well. In the other preliminary heat, Ms. P put in a pretty solid ride to keep T at bay.

We were all in for the final, and with both rinks open, there was plenty of room. I still wanted to get to the front ASAP, and stay out of trouble. Had a great start, and again got the hole shot, so I went into the first corner exactly where I wanted to be. Things went a little awry when we went onto the second rink, though - no one had put any cones down to mark the corners, so it was a bit of a free for all! T took a shorter line than I did, so she came out ahead. I didn't want to panic, but since the race was only 5 laps, I didn't want to leave any moves until too late. She led for a full lap, while cones were put in place to keep us on track. Going into corner 4, I took the inside line, and came out ahead. Super fun to have such a close race, and to have more women out!