One adventure after another...

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

Strengths and Weaknesses

So I have figured out a weakness: I'm not so hot at keeping up with the blogging (or the training responses). The last 6 months since my initial blog were busy with working full time, training as much as possible, pretending to have a life with my non-cycling friends, spending a few days at home for the holidays in California with the family, and moving into a new place in January.

Currently, the new place is great and we added a cat. Training went well and I am starting to actually feel fit in races (although I am starting to realize that "fitness" is really just the ability to go faster and suffer more). The family is good and I am ready for another visit....although that will have to wait until after XC season. The shop is crazy busy, but I realized how much I like being able to work in a place with great people and try to make sure everybody loves their bikes as much as I love mine.

The race season has already started with a few early-season island cups in Port Alberni, Cumberland, and Parksville. The island cups always dish out tough, technical courses that are good for toughening up after all the winter road miles. These races are tons of fun with varied age groups, abilities, and terrain--definitely a fantastic way to get race training in (and without a ferry ride too!)

I was also on an all girls team for Snow to Surf. Drew raves about his team last year and all the fun they had, so I tried it out. We had a great weekend (thanks to Willie and Barb our sponsors from Pink Truck Onsite) full of food, great team mates, and awesome racing. "Pink Truck Onsite" women's team finished first in the women's category (even after some rudder problems with the kayak) and 22nd overall.

Finally, after all the casual pre-season races it was time for the first BC Cup in Merrit last weekend. Merritt is always a great race that is well organized with a wicked downhill. This year started out a bit rough with a crash off the start line, but I picked myself up and finished 4th overall after over 2.5 hours of grueling singletrack climbs and screaming descents....all the ingredients to an awesome cross-country race!

This weekend we headed up to explore the trails in Campbell River's Snowden Forest by doing the first lap of the Campbell River XC Marathon 50k. The course was awesome with fast groomed singletrack; slow rocky and rooty sections; steep, technical descents; and a casual, supportive organizing team. The race started at 8am (which means Drew and I were still sleepy-eyed from the drive up and post-drive beer from the night before), and also meant that by the time I woke up all the way the first lap was over and we were headed home (we opted for the 25km single loop for a solid workout and an early trip back home).

So, I guess, my recent weaknesses have been coffee to get me through the busy schedule of race season, post race Dairy Queen, and Blogging, while my strengths have been pushing through some tough races, cramming as much fun and excitement into everyday as I can, and working on the aforementioned weaknesses.....watch out, this blogging could become addicting!