This weekend we headed to the mainland for 2 cross country races. Actually, a marathon XC race and then a BC Cup cross country. The marathon race was the Nimby Fifty in Pemberton, BC. The course promised a trail with (literally) 101 switchbacks in a singletrack climb, tough descents, and a beer and music filled after party. The XC race was the Surrey Junkyard Dog - a mostly singletrack, fairly flat, fast twisty cross country course.
The Nimby Fifty:
After a fairly stressful and comical day - new house, dryer broke, dyer ordered, dryer picked up, round hole-square peg situation....our new dryer literally wouldn't fit into our laundry room (actually, our old dryer had been dry-walled into the room, so it was difficult and required dis-assembly to be removed) - we made the 4 o'clock ferry. Ferry time is usually relaxing time, but after we headed BACK to Future Shop with our too big dryer and picked out a midget dryer that will actually fit into the room, we had to squeeze as many minutes at work as possible and didn't get bike maintenance done.
We spent the ferry ride changing tires, adjusting hubs, cleaning bikes from the Nanaimo race, and then re-packing the car so that our bikes were inside for the drive. Off the ferry and onto deciding where to get dinner (for the record, I am TERRIBLE at picking out places to eat, but a little picky on where we eat...so overall, very helpful in this situation). Called up our good friends in North Van on a whim and ended up eating and visiting at Burgoo on Lonsdale - amazing food, reasonably priced, and great company!
Onto Squamish for the night and then an early morning drive (after coffee and breaky) to Pemberton in the rain...not boding well for the overall enjoyment of a potentially 3+ hour bike race. Register, chat with the racing buddies that came out of the woodwork for this new race, get dressed in everything I brought with me (still raining+no rainjacket = super pumped Joele) pretend to warm up with about 5 minutes on the bike, decide that I am just getting wet, and find more people to chat with and more "bike maintenance" to do instead of warming up.
The course was epic. The climb was crazy (literally, first climb was over 1 hour long), the descents were heinous...hairy....spine tingling....wrist achingly steep and slippery, and took me just under 3 hours, with about 2.5 hours of climbing and 30 minutes of descending (a little weighty on the climbing time). I'm not sure fun is part of this description...but an experience it was (during the descents all I could think about was "what doesn't kill/injure me, just makes me a better rider....right??) The bonus was that I spent the climb around two super fit, talented riders that climbed like demons and made me long for more travel on the descents....and they were females! Brandi Heisterman (who finished up just behind me in 5th) was super supportive in the final hour of the race and awesome post-race with her enthusiasm!
After awards, a burger and a few pints for Drew, we headed back down to Vancouver for the night. One thing about a new race in a new venue, BC is gorgeous. The drive from Pemberton to North Van ranges from stunning mountain views to lakeside drives, to beautiful ocean and island views. It sucks here.
BC Cup #3: SOURCE Junkyard Dog XC:
The course is almost a hybrid of a cyclocross course and a cross country course (a CX-XC if you will?) There is almost no elevation change, the loops are fairly short at 20-25min/lap, but suspension definitely improves the overall enjoyment of the course. It is 95% fast, flowy, twisty, rooty, stunt-addled singletrack. It is fun, but definitely a different course. It is also smack dab in the middle of Surrey - it is rare that we race cross country within 5 minutes of a Starbucks. I think there were at least 3 Starbucks within a 5km radius of the course.
The trail network is located in a huge recreation facility that includes (based on my quick 5 minute post race spin..and is definitely not limited to) a hockey arena, multiple softball/baseball diamonds, multiple soccer fields, trails for hiking, trails for biking, a skate park, a bmx track, a pool....and I'm sure the list goes on. It is pretty cool to have a venue that covers that many sports!
The race started fast with a sprint for the singletrack. Catherine Short charged ahead with a group of Juniors and disappeared...her Wheaties did their job! Ann Yew and I rode together for the first lap and into the 2nd until I took a fall on a slippery bridge....she put about 30 seconds into me as I got my chain back into place and (after the Nimby 50 the day before) just didn't have the snap to reel her back in. I finished up 3rd, happy with my effort, but wishing that I had actually had the opportunity to ride with Ann for longer. Drew and I restocked our tire selection in the draw prizes, and made a brief podium appearance (only 9 guys this week meant that the men's prizing only went 3 deep, so Drew missed his podium by 1 spot to end up in fourth after having to refill his tire in the last couple laps of the race.
It was then home for me, but off to work for Drew and I spent a relaxing hour and a half in the $10 quiet lounge on the ferry....not a necessity, but so worth it this weekend! Next weekend we are contemplating the North Shore Bike Fest, but after the double header this weekend, we'll have to see how high motivation is - apparently the newly built trails for the race are awesome though!
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