Saturday 26th July
Stage One
West Bragg Creek
40km
1800m elevation
It was an early start to get to the race venue and sign in
and the nerves were really kicking in by the 9am roll out to some ACDC in the
background. Up the gravel track to
start I was riding ok, not used to racing, fast starts got me breathing hard
but I was well positioned with one girl just ahead and feeling ok. Once we hit the single track I was
wishing I was further back as I was constantly pulling over and letting fast
riders past. I tried to keep up
through the trees and going a little too fast bashed one and landed hard on my
shoulder. I worried I’d done
serious damage and after checking myself and bike over and letting another few
dozen past I got going again with a different attitude to look after self and
bike a little more! Climbing up I
was feeling pretty strong but kept slipping or getting stumped by the endless
roots and scooting along I was loosing more places, catching up then getting
stuck. The climbs were so steep I’m
not sure I’ve the strength in my legs yet to fully appreciate the 11
speed. From the top we rode the
Ace of Spades times descent. As
the race was more spread out I only stopped a few times to let people through
and by the bottom I was able to catch back up and really enjoyed getting into
that hard race zone on a final very rideable climb. I got all competitive at the top and was determined to have
no one catch back up for the final 5km.
The descent was fast and flowy,
rooty as usual but even I felt like I was going fast and finished
without having to pull over. I
ended up 4th woman, only a few minutes off the podium so was a bit
annoyed I was so polite in letting everyone through. Tomorrow’s route is said
to be ‘bluff hugging’ whatever
that is and is a ‘rocky and rooty trail with short punchy climbs’. Umm should be interesting!!
 |
| Our home for the trip |
Stage Two
Nipika
38km
1100m elevation
We set of today in groups of 10, one minute apart as we were
straight onto the single track.
Though I started well I lost my nerve after nearly going over the bars
on a sudden drop half way down a steep descent. I stayed upright but it knocked my confidence and I battled
after that to ride the technical parts.
I always say in a race I have so much energy that is just mental energy
and once that gets used up I start to lose confidence and momentum. I stopped at the midway feed for some
coke and that seemed to lift me up a lot plus the trails were more flowy the
second half and gradually I caught and passed a lot of riders. I came in 4th woman and
joined the rest of the finishers in the nearby lake, the perfect recovery.
Stage Three
Radium
47km
1300m elevation
Last night we found a lovely campsite by a river with lots
of sprinklers and grass, a relief from the heat that is following us. I had been looking forward to getting
to Radium to go to the Hot Springs but once here ice cream and freezing river
were much more welcome!! I had a great
race today despite breakfast cereal sitting heavy from sleeping late. I set off in batch B 5 minutes after
the top 3 girls so was able to ride my own pace. My energy seemed to last the whole way today, I had no dips
and the course was perfect, lots of fast flowing single track, a good gravel
road mid way to make up time then lots of punchy steep climbs and descents near
the end where I still felt full of beans, helped by the fact I caught up Jodie
so knew I was in 3rd. She took some holding onto as she is such a fast descender
but eventually I got through on a climb.
Both the other girls had lost some time due to some malicious local
sending riders the wrong way, Matt got lost 4 times and ended up with a 2 hour
time penalty and it affected the lead men too. Once I was at the point I had hesitated too but by then the
problem was been sorted. In the
end they gave me 1st place for the stage and won a bar of soap for my
efforts!
 |
| Feeling a little short! |
Stage Four
Golden
“Welcome to Canada”
30km 1400m elevation
The only thing that suited me on today’s ride was the 5km
sprint up the first gravel road and even that in hindsight led to my for coming
problems!! Turning off that well
up the group we were straight into the day’s timed descent. I pulled over at the top and let
Michel (Cyclocross champion) pass straight away and a string of men before
starting to ride the loose steep trail.
Trouble was no sooner did I start riding did I get the sliding of back
wheels behind as more guys flew down behind me. I’d pull over again, off the line, unclip and let more past
so I never got into a steady rhythm and starting again on the steep parts was
impossible till in the end I got pretty annoyed with myself really for not
having the skills to go faster and be able to ride anything that suddenly
sprung up. Finally at the bottom after
a lot of walking and some humor from a rider shouting ‘welcome to Canada’ I was
so far down the field and with already 10km of the 30km day over there was no
way I was going to pull anything back plus we were straight into a single track
climb so there was no pass room anyway.
With no race motivation left I struggled to ride things I would have
flown straight over if I was still in amongst the riders I’d been around and at
the end of the stage felt less like a mountain biker than ever before. It took me twice as long to get down
that endura section than the leading ladies and my knee wasn’t too happy about
the running either!
The finish line was next to a gorgeous fast flowing freezing
cold river and the best part of the day was sitting on the rocks soaking our
legs while chatting to other riders.
That night we got the luxury of an unwanted hotel bed, which was a
relief, as the campsite we’d found was on stony ground, had no showers, just a
muddy lake and was midge hell. The
hotel wasn’t the best, live music just below, no aircon with 27 degrees outside
even at night, lights that didn’t work but had a bed and sheets, which was
complete luxury!!
Stage Five
Golden
60km
1400m elevation
Both Matt and me were pretty glad for the extra 10km added
onto the stage and looking forward to the smooth trails that lay ahead. It didn’t disappoint and it was
ours and a lot of rider’s favorite stage.
I was riding a lot faster on the smooth trails and keeping up with the
front two girls focusing only on the wheel in front and trusting their line
completely. My saddle over one
bump tilted back slightly then on another bump really went back so I was riding
with the tip really high in the air making it one uncomfortable ride. I didn’t have the right Allen key for
it and it was a long while before anyone passed that was willing to stop and lend
me one. Though it ruined the
enjoyment of 15 km or so I was soon back going once I’d adjusted it and feeling
good and a lot more comfortable!!
I got back into 3rd place and went as hard as I could. My breathing sounded terrible, I guess that’s
the 5 months off feeling, my mind is stronger than my lungs but I was riding
along nicely and trying to put enough time in the bag for the endure section at
the end. That was also a nice
descent and I came in along the road in 3rd place and very happy
with the whole day quickly forgetting even the dodgy saddle episode and for
once relaxing on a real bed for the afternoon even if it was baking hot!
 |
| One of the many views I didn't see! |
Stage Six
Revelstoke
47km
1700m elevation
There was some confusion about start times today as we went
into Pacific Time. It felt odd to
just change the clocks back from just driving a few hours, it would be like
driving from the East to the Lakes and loosing an hour. All it meant really was an even hotter
roll out at 10.30 that was really 11.30 to our bodies! Up the road out of town we were soon in
the shade zipping through forest.
The single track was really flowing and smooth and I held my position
well until it became more rooty and hard going later on. I slipped back to 4th but despite
making a real meal of a newly felled rooted area I held that position (also
finishing 4th on GC) and made it down the endura section in 9th
place out of the woman, my best so far even though by then I hadn’t eaten much
at all, the ‘short day’ a lot longer than we anticipated and was wobbling
around more than normal!!
That evening we had a real feast in true Canadian style, its
been a short race week with only 17 hours of racing but now its over that post
race tiredness crept up no doubt at all from all the concentration and nervous
energy, I’m guessing of those 17 hours, 15 of them were on singletrack. What a great week, nice people,
challenging but highly satisfying race days and perfect blue-sky days.
 |
| Start line for the last stage |
Thankyou to the organisers for a brilliant week of a whole mixture of fun/terrifying trails and thanks so much to Jamie White, Jammer for been our
director sportive/skills coach/camp experience extraordinaire even though you
did increase my stress levels disappearing into the forest for the day and
found us Canadian’s biggest mozzy populated camp site. I guess I equaled that one by finding
the worlds noisiest campsite pitch next to the main train line!! Thanks also to Rob Fawcett without whom
this adventure wouldn’t have happened, to Matt Page for fellow Brit
companionship and to my sponsors Asrin, Cyclefunatic of Durbanville and 32Gi.
 |
| 'Master of many trades' Jammer |
No comments:
Post a Comment