This weekend we headed to Surry for the second BC Cup of the season, the Junkyard Dog XC. After running into some transportation issues en route, Dawn Berg and I decided to ride the 30k to the hotel Friday night and then pre-ride the course in the morning before the race. What should have been a 1.5 hour spin turned into 3 hours of trying to find our hotel and riding to the wrong side of Surrey with our race gear on our backs...fun stuff!
Once I finally got to see the course on Saturday I got pretty excited about the race, the course was relatively flat with some short climbs, several tricky wet bridges, logs, rough technical sections, and buff, twisty singletrack. With the exception of a major hill, the race had a great mix of everything!
To start the race off the Pro-Elite Men and Women headed out 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the categories on the 6km road loop to spread everyone out before the singletrack. The race started off with everyone clipping in and heading off at a steady pace out onto the road, no messy mass start this week! The steady pace continued until 2km before the singletrack when the men started surging forward, the women did everything they could to hang on, but some got weeded out when the group went around a sharp corner and through some doubletrack. Dawn Berg, Stacey Spencer, and I held on, but as soon as we took a sharp 180 degree turn into a one person chute and then back onto the road I lost hold of the group. They entered the singletrack ahead of me by 30 seconds with the next group of women following Dawn and Stacey by about a minute.
Once we got into the singletrack and trees the technical skills started rearranging the racing pattern. It was hard to pass in many sections and a group of about 50 Elite Women and Masters men got held up trying to pass. Once we were on the loose it was full on pushing to maintain our positions without holding anyone else up and continued like that through the race. It was a great test of technical and aerobic skill as there was little time for recovery on the course.
I felt surprisingly good after our surprise 3 hour workout the day before, but didn't have the acceleration or focus I was hoping for. I felt great technically and am feeling better on the hardtail every race. My shoulder (still sore from the crash in Merritt) got a little sore towards the end of the race, but is definitely recovering well and should be ready to go for the Test of Metal next weekend. After two BC Cups it looks like it should be an exciting series on the Men's and Women's sides!
As the race shook itself out, the top 5 Elite Women and men went as follows:
Elite Women:
1. Dawn Berg
2. Melanie Vaughn
3. Christy Love
4. Joele Guynup
5. Linda Robichaud
Elite Men:
1. Ryan Taylor
2. Dwayne Kress
3. Drew Mackenzie
4. Kevin Calhoun
5. Tom Skinner
Once I finally got to see the course on Saturday I got pretty excited about the race, the course was relatively flat with some short climbs, several tricky wet bridges, logs, rough technical sections, and buff, twisty singletrack. With the exception of a major hill, the race had a great mix of everything!
To start the race off the Pro-Elite Men and Women headed out 2 minutes ahead of the rest of the categories on the 6km road loop to spread everyone out before the singletrack. The race started off with everyone clipping in and heading off at a steady pace out onto the road, no messy mass start this week! The steady pace continued until 2km before the singletrack when the men started surging forward, the women did everything they could to hang on, but some got weeded out when the group went around a sharp corner and through some doubletrack. Dawn Berg, Stacey Spencer, and I held on, but as soon as we took a sharp 180 degree turn into a one person chute and then back onto the road I lost hold of the group. They entered the singletrack ahead of me by 30 seconds with the next group of women following Dawn and Stacey by about a minute.
Once we got into the singletrack and trees the technical skills started rearranging the racing pattern. It was hard to pass in many sections and a group of about 50 Elite Women and Masters men got held up trying to pass. Once we were on the loose it was full on pushing to maintain our positions without holding anyone else up and continued like that through the race. It was a great test of technical and aerobic skill as there was little time for recovery on the course.
I felt surprisingly good after our surprise 3 hour workout the day before, but didn't have the acceleration or focus I was hoping for. I felt great technically and am feeling better on the hardtail every race. My shoulder (still sore from the crash in Merritt) got a little sore towards the end of the race, but is definitely recovering well and should be ready to go for the Test of Metal next weekend. After two BC Cups it looks like it should be an exciting series on the Men's and Women's sides!
As the race shook itself out, the top 5 Elite Women and men went as follows:
Elite Women:
1. Dawn Berg
2. Melanie Vaughn
3. Christy Love
4. Joele Guynup
5. Linda Robichaud
Elite Men:
1. Ryan Taylor
2. Dwayne Kress
3. Drew Mackenzie
4. Kevin Calhoun
5. Tom Skinner
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