Adventures in la Belle Province

Time for the annual trek to St-Felicien in Quebec for the 12-heures de Clorophylle. I signed up for the solo 8-hr option, since I just wanted to go for the riding and was not so keen on the idea of night laps. The Boy's friend, who builds all the great trail at the St-Feicien Tobo-Ski, talked him into doing a 12-hour tag team.

First, however, we had to get there. We drove to Montreal on Thursday, where we stayed with my cousin. The next morning, we lounged over brunch, and then we were off for the rest of the drive. Took a couple of breaks, especially when we passed through the town with the giant chair.

We arrived around 6pm, and decided to go straight to the race site, to see where our friends were camping and say hello. We had one minor mis-hap at this stage. To get to Tobo-ski, you take a dirt road out of town. There are a couple of off-shoots, and in our we-only-come-once-a-year fuzzy brains, we turned off one dirt road too soon. It took a little while before we realized our first mistake, we turned around and (being in the middle of nowhere), I took the opportunity to relieve myself  - this being our second mistake. We continued back out to the main road, and were stopped in our tracks by a long steel cable, spray painted fluorescent orange, pulled across the road and locked. It was so unexpected, I briefly thought that we had made yet another wrong turn, and that this was not the direction we'd come from. No such luck - the guy working in the area must have left while we were turning around, and not realizing we were on his property, locked us in. Did I mention the trees and boulders lining the road? The only way out meant sorting out that little locked chain and cable situation.

We inspected the cable, and saw that it was attached to a chain with a couple of bolts. We had pretty limited tool selection - think "here for a bike race" - but one of the bolts was 15mm. All bow down to the mighty pedal wrench, which the Boy used to undo bolt number one. Bolt number two was a bit bigger, and we tried to jam the pedal wrench on, even employing a rock. It wasn't working out quite as easily, so we hiked the last kilometre or so up to Tobo-ski for reinforcements. Since the Boy's friend works there, we had no problem getting vice grips. The boys went back down on the quad while I tended to the campfire, and within 10 minutes they were back - with the car! One potentially stressful situation diffused by being resourceful and really lucky.

The next day was race day. I was taking a pretty relaxed approach to my race - I hadn't given nutrition too much thought, and planned to just take breaks as often and for as long as I wanted. My only goal was to get in more than 6 laps, which was what I managed last year. A secondary goal was to make it to the start before the actual start, and I did do that, though barely!

I did two laps off the start, and was happy to recognize a bunch of stuff on the back half, and to feel like I was riding it better this year. Took a break to get a fresh bottle, and fuel up, and headed back out for another double. I knew I was getting comfortable on the course, because it didn't seem so long. Laps 3 and 4 were pretty uneventful - people had really spread out, so you got to spend plenty of time on your own. I followed this up with a really long break - I got changed, got fresh bottles, and made a bit of lunch. Then I made some coffee, and hung out for a bit with the Boy, who had come in about half an hour after me. It took some real self-talk to get myself out there again, since I was starting to feel pretty relaxed. I finally got going, grabbed extra food, and put a spare bottle down by the transition so I wouldn't be tempted to come back to the car. Lap 5 and 6 were good. Through lap 7, I was making a lot of mistakes, and generally getting a bit tired. By the time I got through the fun stuff on Slalom and Ricochet (two great trails), I was feeling a bit better, and started to wonder if I'd have time to squeeze in one more. I decided that if i got in and still had 50min or more, I could dial the effort back but still get one in and finish before 6:30pm. I came to transition, and had 49min left.... close enough! I had a gel, and threw the bike in granny gear to get myself up the opening climb. My last lap, I somehow felt better than previous, and loved every minute of it.

I ended up 5th, and had pretty steady lap times between 41 and 45 minutes. Definitely a fun time! The Boy and his friend did well as a tag team. They had a couple more hours of racing after me, since they were in the 12-hour category. We thought they were winning, but at the awards ceremony, learned that they had finished 2nd. There was a second list of tag teams that we missed, and never knew they were behind this other team all day!