Moving on up...literally!

This week I headed to Burnaby with Drew and Dawn Berg for West Coast Racing's "Cardiac Classic" on Burnaby mountain. This is a new race and course for the BC Cup Series, and quite a new challenge! The course sent racers out on a long climb from the new skills park up to the SFU campus. The climb was long, steady, and steep, steep, steep. It was a great climb to settle into a rhythm and go. The climb was followed by a walking path that went across the top of the climb to connect into singletrack and was a great opportunity to recover before heading into some of the best singletrack of the year! The descent was fast, rough, and suited for 4-5" travel bikes. The burmed corners were super-smooth and there were lots of bridges and logs to keep your head working--definitely not recovery singletrack! From the descent we moved into an open area for passing, more singletrack, a short climb through the feedzone--THANKS to our feed Harrison!!--and then into a rolling singletrack that was filled with roots, logs, and bridges that set you up perfectly for corners. From there racers popped up about 1/3 of the way up the first climb and set out to finish up their laps, then take the somewhat sketchy fire road back to the finish.

The race started nice and steady because everyone was ready for the big climb to shake things out. Going into the 90 degree corner off the start I was last in the women's field, up the first section of fire road I attacked a couple girls and started catching up to Melanie Vaughn. At the beginning of the climb repeated in subsequent laps I passed Melanie and continued spinning up the hill. Dawn Berg, Kristin Johnston, and Joanna Harrington were just out of sight ahead of me.

Going into the singletrack I felt great after the climb and tried to push it as much as possible. I caught up to David Huntley, a fellow islander, and followed him down the descent. In the next open section Melanie attacked up a short climb and went into the next bit of singletrack ahead of me, up the next climb towards the feed zone I attacked and went through the feedzone and into the singletrack ahead of Melanie.

The next two laps I road with a few guys, battling it out and felt great about my climbing and descending. Each lap my smiles on the descents got bigger the better I knew the trail...not too bad considering the climb that came before each descent! Heading down the fire road towards the finish line I got pretty nervous. The fire road is somewhere that you have to let it all out, or lose a lot of time. I lost a lot of time and Melanie caught up to me mid-singletrack, about 300 meters from the end, I stayed on her wheel until the last corner where she came out with more speed and sprinted to the end, I tried to sprint up to her, but didn't have the time or the speed, so I finished the race in 4th--consistent with my BC Cup races this season. Needless to say, I'll be working on fire roads this winter! Ahead of Melanie came Joanna in 1st and Dawn in 2nd.

Post-race, racers got to enjoy a BBQ supplied by the race sponsors and organizers and tons of draw prizes. This was one of the best organized races, with supportive and enthusiastic course marshals, a great course design, great prizes, and a great atmosphere. It definitely lived up to the expectations established by West Coast Racing in their organization of the Vanier Park BC Cup cross race last fall--Thanks again to the organizers for their hard work and a great race!

Next week I am off to Mission for Provincial Championships at Bear Mountain--Another great course! After a weekend of heat, a weekend of altitude, this last weekend of steep climbs, I can't wait to race at another great venue!