Mountain Bike Rally
Huge thumbs up on this one! A new event, made up of timed and transition (a.k.a non-timed) stages. It sounded fun, and given the low number of mountain bike races after the month of June, it seemed like a good time for an extra race and to try something new. Totally worth it!
The timed events were fairly short - about 5 to 7 minutes - followed by transition stages of about 30 minutes of awesome single track. My great challenge was to really race the timed stages, without having pre-ridden the trail. With each rider going at 30s intervals, there were no line to follow, and each was really a mini TT. Realized pretty quickly the importance of looking ahead, as I made a few small mistakes like cutting a corner too tight.
I thought I had a good battle going with Carlene, but given the TT-nature of each stage, it was hard to know who was ahead at any point. In the end, I picked up silver, but only by 6 seconds.
OCup 7 - Highlands Nordic
Last OCup of the season! The Boy and I came up to check out the course earlier in August, and by lap two, I was having fun on it. Same drill for the pre-race pre-ride - first lap felt awful, but the second lap was good fun, and I was feeling excited to race. I pre-rode with Mike, and we had a good time. It was nice to have someone about my speed, and similar technical ability, so we could help each other figure out some of the sections. After many, many, many re-tries, I finally nailed the long, flat rock garden. It wasn't really that bad a feature, but it was definitely the one thing from my first ride at Highlands that I couldn't ride, and I needed to conquer it before it became an issue. Having accomplished that, I was feeling pretty good about racing the next day!
We stayed in Collingwood, at the Mariner Motor Hotel. It looked to be just the right combo of dodgy and cheap but not scary in the photos online, and it was a good choice. Best part was the random bunnies living across the street. Reminiscent of Canmore, and the Boy managed to get pretty close for some photos and to feed them by hand. Random morning cuteness done, we headed to the race!
I was feeling a bit lazy once we got parked, and totally stalled on my warm up. May or may not have included seeing if I fit in the trunk of the car.
Anyway, finally got myself warmed up and to the line. The lap starts with a long climb, and I managed to stay near the front, in 3rd. I drifted back to 5th within the first few sections of single track, but managed to catch back up to 4th before the end of the lap. We were still in a small group when we hit the rock garden, and I was pretty nervous about people behind me. I ended up flying through it so much faster than any of my practice runs, I scared myself! Second time up the hill, I was passed like I was standing still (did I mention that I was racing against an Olympic rower? She was killing it on the climbs!), and was back to 5th. Lap 2 was pretty uneventful, but I was definitely feeling more comfortable on the trails and having a good time. Just as I started my last lap, Kate caught me on the line... I was pretty sure she was ahead of me before, but I learned she had had a flat. I was really hurting, so I let her lead up the climb and through the single track. Once we started going down, she gapped me pretty well, and I didn't really catch up to her until she was by the side of the course, and withdrawing... a second flat. I was on my own for the rest of the race, enjoying that sweet course. Fun way to finish the OCup series. I ended up 4th in the race, and 4th in the series.
Next up: road trip! Leaving tomorrow for the annual trek to St Felicien, and my second stab at a not-very-serious solo 8-hour.
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