It was a beautiful and super hard racing weekend in Hinton Ab.
Saturday I lined up in the Elite field for the 2011 provincial champion jersey,Bogi raced in the expert category.
This is probably the hardest XC course in the ABA calendar with tons of climbing and about 2 hours of riding time. The course does not suit me very well as its climbs are long and it’s descents are fast and bumpy. I still like the course as it reminds me the races we did in the 90’s,when MTB races were held on gravel roads and hiking trails as opposed to twisty technical single tracks. The field was strong;we concluded that only the fast guys bothered to drive to the race. I felt good and was able to ride 4th and 5th place for most of the race.
Not catching anyone and not seeing anyone behind me I let off the gas for the last lap. I was trying to conserve my muscles for the Marathon race the next day. Note to self:when there are fast riders behind you don’t let off the gas. Or at least look back often. In the last 200m of the race Cody Canning zoomed by me and smoked me in a sprint finish. Ouch…
Cory Wallace took the provincial champs jersey (again) with Gord Jewett and Graham Torrie rounding the podium. Cody finished 4th and yours truly 5th.
Sunday lined up for the Marathon,again expecting a super hard race. About 5 seconds after the start Cory attacked and I tried to go with him. Of course I got dropped on the second climb,but I had a nice gap on Gord,Graham and Cody. Yeee!
Having a nice gap on those fast guys is always a pleasure even when there is more then 4 hours of racing left and I know I will blow up soon at this pace. No worries there,I enjoyed my moments in 2nd place and continued hammering.
First Cody caught me in lap 2 then Graham and Gord later. By lap four I felt my well-deserved suffering for starting too fast. Legs were getting heavy.
The organizers made the marathon even more interesting by including 4 timed downhill sections. Good for people who can ride their bikes downhill,embarrassing for people like me,who are chicken on the descents. Here is a video from one of the descents:
Also there is a good pre-race article on PinkBike
At the end I took another 5th place behind the usual suspects. Happy with how I felt,my fitness is improving still. The Superfly SS was working very well at 34×20,and I really liked the Rocket Ron/ Stan’s Raven tire combination.
Cory took the marathon title too with Gord and Graham close behind him.
Kate totally dominated the girls field both days,as well as destroyed about 90% of the men’s field!!! She is super fast uphill and downhill.
Bogi had a less successful race;her hamstring injury was really painful during the race. She decided to pull out of the race and continue to focus on recovery instead.
This was her first DNF in over 15 years of MTB racing – impressive.
Cory Wallace, FreeWheel Cycle and their volunteers did an excellent job organizing the weekend. Crazy Larry rocked the mike and the kids hammered the FREE kids race.
Next is some fun riding in Fernie then Bow80….
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