Portland USGP's

It is freezing out, and I'm sniffling with a nose as red as rudolf's--the weekend before American Cross Nationals! It started Friday morning with a sore throat, by the time we boarded the ferry it had moved into my sinuses, and on the drive down to Portland my head was pounding and my sinuses were threatening to explode from all the pressure. No point in staying home to be miserable though....especially when it was actually supposed to be DRY and SUNNY in Portland!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed down for a quick pre-ride of the course. Saw some of the huge Victoria crew that had headed down for the weekend--broken bikes and mud galore forecasted a traditional Portland race--despite the lack of rain. Rode the course, it was slimy mud on top of frozen ground--like trying to walk on wet ice, and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and get ready for my 1:45pm start.

By the time I got back down to the race course riders were coming off their races with still-launderable jerseys and rideable bikes. The wind had picked up, fog had backed off, and it became a clean course, hard packed and FAST with the odd exception.

The start was a long sketchy drag race with a long road stretch to get everyone up to full speed, into a boggy section, a crash up front allowed me to run past quite a few girls after a slow start, back onto the road and I was by myself in no-man's-land between two groups of girls. I rode with Megan Farris for a bit, but with 3 laps to go started to fade to cross the line in 25th, not an amazing result, but I did have fun on the course...though my race was lackluster.

Day two I opted to relax rather than head out for a morning pre-ride. Got dressed a bit early, warmed up, then headed out for a lap of the course. The wind overnight had dried the boggy bits into a rock-hard with deep ruts from wheels the day before. I had a better start along the drag strip and went into the grass right behind Kelli Emmett.

Settled into a group with a bunch of girls I didn't recognize. Was having tons of fun railing corners and hammering in some of the long straightaways and moved up into 16th. The legs were feeling great, and then my rear tubular started losing air. With 2 laps to go I thought I would be ok, but then, around a fast swooping corner, slid 5 feet, kept it upright, but had to ride carefully around corners to keep my tire on and myself upright. Rode in for 23rd place, up from the day before, but I would have loved a result that reflected the race I had.

Now it is time to make a decision about nationals...to go or not to go. Hopefully my cold will hurry up and disappear so that Drew and I can head to Bend on Friday!

Provincial Championships

The BC Season is officially over. No more Island Cups, no more BC Cups. Only two weekends left of racing in this season then a 3 month break before mountain bike season starts again--and that all sounds great to me...Contrary to Sunday's post, Saturday's race (BC Cup Finals) WAS exciting for Drew and he took an early lead in the race and kept extending it (until a few good crashed in the last lap brought the fear of approaching competitors) to claim the win for the day. Absent Tyler Trace won the series overall.

Provincial Finals, after the tape has been taken down

Sunday's race was in North Vancouver. It was a technical course with some solid mud sections, technical, slippery turns, and fast straight-aways. At the start, Alison, Jean Ann, and I battled for the hole-shot with Alison taking it into the first corner. Jean Ann grabbed onto her wheel, but I got bogged down in the mud and a small gap formed. Behind me Stacey Hutton and Sandra Walters were right on my wheel ready for me to make a mistake. I did on the backside of the course first lap where I put a knee down and struggled to get back up. Sandra jumped in front and took the lead of our group.

Women's Provincial Podium

Sandra and I battled with Stacey barely a wheel away until Sandra attacked decisively and left Stacey and I to battle it out the rest of the race. After attacking and getting in front of me for half a lap Stacey slipped on an ugly corner and got caught up in the course tape. It was enough to get me a solid gap and I kept on the gas to cross the finish line in 4th, with Stacey in 5th--Props to Stacey who just got into cross this year and has been racing with the master's women!

Men's Provincial Podium

In the men's race, Evan Guthrie took a decisive lead. Craig Richey ended up in second, Dan McDonald in third, and Drew in fourth after 2 flats (luckily we had spare wheels!). Because we raced at the same time as the men, I don't have a more specific race report than that...

Over the barriers at Shawnigan Lake School

But...as promised here are photos. They aren't all from this weekend (the two podium shots are, but the race shots are courtesy Regan Pringle and are from Island Cup Finals at Shawnigan Lake School).

Now...I have ANOTHER day completely off...so I should get going and do some scavaging for groceries, some cleaning, and some book reading!

Cross on the Rocks Finals: Shawnigan Lake

So, I wrote this last Monday (as in, almost a week ago) but then it sat in my "drafts box" waiting for me to affix photos...It is now the next Sunday, another race over, and there are no photos affixed...go figure. So, I am releasing this, with a quick note that yesterday's BC Cup finals were not overly exciting, although Jean Ann is super strong, the Master's women have all gotten so much faster though the year....and I didn't feel like racing. It is the morning before Provincial Championships and I am making sure that I am ready to race today. I am also putting this out there with the promise that THERE WILL BE PHOTOS THIS WEEK!

So....remember this is from Monday, and read on about the AWESOME island cup from last weekend!

Today, after a weekend of almost-but-not rain, the sky has finally opened up into a dull pattering of rain. Not overly disappointing since it is my day off...completely. No rides, no work, no races. So....what do I do when I have a day completely to myself? Well, (I won't keep you in suspense any longer...) I cleaned my bike, bought new runners, built a book shelf for our suite, rearranged the living room to accomodate the shelf, swept, did dishes, scrubbed my stove...and yes, I know how jealous you all are! Now I'll give you a quick weekend race report and fold some laundry---oh the excitement!

This weekend Drew and I drove up to Shawnigan Lake School for the final (and my first!) Island Cup series race. First off....Shawnigan Lake School (SLS) does not suck, is not ugly, and does not have lackluster grounds. It is a beautiful and phenomenal spot for a cross course. The drive took us about 35 minutes and didn't include a ferry--probably the closest race I have done this year!

The call up for the start line included tons of local island girls, new to the island Mical Dyck, and Alison Sydor. It is pretty exciting to be living in an area that--at local level races--the caliber of women riders is so high. Off the start was a nice long fire road that took a left turn into a stretch of soggy, muddy, off-camber grass that was questionable each lap--sometimes rideable, sometimes barely runable--depending on the lines from people in front of you and your ability to see straight. From there the course ducked into a super-fast-rocks-hidden-in-puddles-to-eat-your-wheels descent that ended in a super-fun, swoopy singletrack section of forest. Back out into the open and onto a quick fire road descent before ducking into some trees for a quick whoop-de-whoop and then into the open for a long stair run up. After the stairs was a quick flat section before climbing back up almost to the start/finish area before turning off for another section of the climb through the trees. After the climb the torture didn't stop as the course turned onto flat, soggy, rough fields before descending back down, over some barriers, through the finish area and back out onto the course.

Alison took an early lead and I jumped onto Mical's wheel to see how long I could hold on. It turned out not very long as they dumped me heading into the first descent. Alison held a strong lead throughout the race until double or triple flatting (not sure exactly what all went down...) to give Mical the lead. I caught sight of Alison in the last 300 meters of the race, but was way too far back to get more than a glimpse of her fancy National Champion Maxxis skinsuit.

My real competition throughout the race was Barry Rempel--one of the master's men. After catching up to him (the master's men had a 1 minute head start) we rode together for the rest of the race...I would pass him on the climbs, he would dump me on the descents. The last lap had me gasping and giggling as we came into the stair runup together. I ran as fast as I could (he had an obvious advantage with his much longer legs) and we reached the top together, but I won the front position (or Barrie was a gentleman....) and headed up the final climbs ahead of him to just barely beat him to the line.

After clean up and draw prizes we headed back home for dinner and a movie and then hockey for Drew. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon....

Next weekend we are off to Vancouver for BC Cup Finals and Provincial Championships. Weekend after we'll be down in Portland for the USGP's and then (finally!) down to Bend, Oregon for American Nationals--the biggest and last race of my 2009 season!

Blog? What Blog?

For anyone wondering....blogs apparently don't write themselves, laundry doesn't wash, dry, and fold itself, and my house hasn't figured out how to sweep, mop, do dishes and dust either. Boo urns.

I was riding the other day cursing all of these things and wishing that I was not an elite cyclist but a pro cyclist....those mythical, speedy beings that get paid to ride their bikes, go to races, and train...but then I went to work, had twenty-some-million things to do and wondered how I could give up these days that seem to flash before my eyes in endless "wish lists" of things I would like to get done.

But I'm pretty sure you didn't check this blog for my post-interval-mid-glass-of-wine ramblings...

First off: Cross-quitlam and Pumpkin Cross. Two more BC Cups, two seconds for me, firsts for Jean Ann, and the loss of Kelly Jones to a shoulder injury from a crash on day 1. I'm pretty sure I was half asleep for Cross-quitlam (apparently legs don't warm themselves up either) and just couldn't hammer with Jean Ann. Pumpkin Cross, everyone was in costumes, I wasn't (three weekends of racing in costumes was a bit daunting for me), and the costume gods came out to haunt me with sand and gravel packing in my shoes. Not clipping in meant that not only did I have to try to hammer with Jean Ann (no easy task) but that I had to catch back up every time I got off the bike (an even harder task). The weekend turned out Ok but not fantastic.

NISCCOTU: Nutcase Inter Continental Singlespeed Cyclocross Championship of the UNIVERSE. Drew and I kept things even by running the same gear (38-17t) and winning our respective gender categories. While Drew slayed, I battled it out with Kristin Magnussen "within hair pulling distance" the entire race. Awesome race with fire works, fire pits, costumes, and the 1km run to start the race off--no, the run was not my favourite part...I was almost DFL...dead....freakin'....last.

SSCXWC09: Just to keep with all of the acronyms--Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships 2009. Drew headed back down to defend his title (which he did quite successfully!) I headed down to try to keep things even in the household (which I did not do as successfully). Drew in his golden speedo and superman costume braved the Portland mud, was victorious through the Thunderdome, and skipped the Stripper bus shortcut (what a good boy!) to defend his title and win a Tony Pereira handmade, custom frame. I braved the mud, managed to slide unscathed through the Thunderdome, DIDN'T come in DFL in the run this time 'round, took advantage of the Stripper Bus shortcut (yes...real female strippers, in a bus...not necessarily a shortcut for the guys who got distracted), to sprint (relative term, we were both spinning out our gears) to the line against Megan Faris. My cousin claimed I won the sprint, which ended up being for 2nd place as Kari Studley took the golden bikini. Results post me in 5th place...but the poor score keepers were not having an easy time in the semi-dark, very muddy, costumed conditions.

That pretty much brings everyone up to speed...we got back to the rock on Monday from Portland to a disastrous house, muddy bikes, and clothes that needed a hosing before heading to the washing machines. Tuesday was a crash course at work for "how-to-wing-it-when-the-shop-is-busy-and-your-brain-has-stopped-working" which went marginally well. Wednesday came a glorious day off. Drew and I made the difficult decision to stay home from the remembrance day ride and put in a solid day of training and house cleaning before he headed off to Vancouver for work.

And now....I am sitting on 1/3 of a chair (Eric the cat has claimed 2/3 of it) with my glass of wine looking forward to my last weekend at home without racing before my last push of the season: Cross on the Rock Finals, BC Cup Finals, Provincial Championships, Portland USGP's, and then (finally) USA Nationals in Bend. After that it will be 2 1/2 glorious weeks at home with family cookin', basketball games, and no formal training in sight! (Though I think we all know I'll be on the bike while at home!)

NISCCOTU Podium 1-4-11th places

Drew looking rather dazzling....

Kristenn Magnussen within "Hair Pulling Distance"The Runup at SSCXWC09--This was about my view....

Toronto UCI Races

Women's start on day 1


Just as a quick update, Drew and I are currently in Toronto after finishing up two days of UCI level races (for the family reading....International Cycling Union races...so races ranked on the world stage).

Saturday's race took place on the side of the ski hill (and I said in August that I wouldn't have to climb anymore hills!) the women did 5 laps, the men did 8ish laps (I'll be honest, I am lazy and we can't remember exactly how many laps he did). The day was painful, but successful with me coming in 9th and Drew coming in in 12th. The course was characterized by the tough climb, a fast descent, and lots of 180 degree turns.
Over the barriers...day 1

Sunday's race was a bit more traditional on rolling terrain with tons of swooping off camber corners and a couple short hard climbs. The day was pretty good with me finishing off in 10th spot and Drew in 18th.

I will (depending on the recurring status of my laziness--and exhaustion) post a more complete race update (or maybe just photos...which I hear are worth a thousand words but mean far less work for my fingers and brain!).
Saturday's course on the side of the ski hill...

Hope everyone's weekends were fantastic! We fly home tomorrow at 4:30 in the afternoon. Although Drew's family has been fantastic to stay with, I am pretty excited for my own bed!

Lucky number 2....painful number 3

So...Monday night I stayed up late working away at my little blog here, but decided to wait to post until I could get some photos together to keep things colourful...and then I shut down my computer for the night and headed to some much needed rest after 2 days of hard racing. Apparently the autosave didn't work....so my multi-page blog is lost somewhere in the void of the internet. Being digital I can't say our cat Eric ate it, or that it got dropped in the mud that often pools in our apartment's entryway at this time of year...no, I just tried to mix post-race-fatigue with thinking--which doesn't seem to work out.

So, because now I am feeling lazy I am going to assume (because it is convenient for me at the moment) that most people care about are the colourful photos and maybe a quick race update and don't mind if I skip the verbose race re-cap.

Saturday: Up early for the 7am ferry, headed to New Brighton Beach Park in Vancouver, BC. Beautiful day, amazing course with two sand sections, barriers, lots of off cambers, and just the right amount of straightaways designed for all-out-legs-screaming-with-oxygen-deprivation speed. At the startline were Jean Ann McKirdy--one of the best female technical riders off-road arguably in Canada, Sarah Stewart--who spent her summer doing national team projects in Europe, Kelly Jones--who only races cross and is very good at it, and myself. Although it was a small field, these girls are all amazing competition to race against (I mentally prepared myself for coming in 4th).

Off the line Jean Anne determined the pace, my legs were (shockingly!) able to match it and I settled in around her wheel. Over the barriers the four of us kept together and close with me drifting back behind Sarah Stewart, into the sand pit and through the next technical off-camber bit. I felt strong for the first half of the lap with my lines being quick and efficient, but felt like I was struggling in the sections post-sandpit.

Onto the paved road that passed by the lap point/finish line I was able to bridge up to Jean Anne and hold onto her wheel. The rest of the race passed with Jean Anne, Kelly, and myself taking turns leading and attacking. With three laps to go I thought I had lost Jean Anne and Kelly as my legs were screaming and my head pounding, but on the road I was able to bridge back up to the girls and stick on their wheels. I was dangling as we entered the road heading into the last lap but recovered enough to attack at the lap point and head out into the final lap in front.

Through the barriers I heard a shoe slip on a pedal so I stood up and hammered. Around the off-camber corners I focussed on being fast and smooth knowing that winning the race depended on gaining as much time in the first half of the lap. I got 2/3 of the way through the sand pit and then had to start running, got back on and hammered the straightaway as fast as I could, up the off-camber hill, through more off camber climbs, through the second sand pit and into the final grass before the stretch of road that led to the finish line. Drew was yelling "you've got it, you've got it!" at this point, not taking his word for it, I stood up to finish off the last bit of the course to my first Provincial-level win.

Sunday: No early riser here...at 8am I finally had to drag myself out of bed and to the coffee shop to try to open up my eyelids and calm the panicked exhaustion I was feeling. Rode to the course from where we stayed with Drew to get in a bit of a warm up. The race was at Vanier park, which (for the second day in a row) was right on the water. The course was largely long straight aways followed by multiple 180 degree turns, barriers, or a stair run up. Definitely a course for the strong-legged. (My shaky morning legs were not going to be much help here....) On the startline were the same four of us as Saturday with the addition of Alison Sydor--she has her own Wikipedia page...it does a great job of listing her many accomplishments!

Off the line was fast...I don't remember what happened, but Alison headed into the first corner first followed by Jean Anne, Sarah Stewart, myself and then Kelly Jones. Jean Anne and Alison gapped Sarah and I right away, I tried to battle with Sarah, but she hammered away from me. I rode the rest of the race in 4th in no-man's-land before Kelly caught me in the second to last lap. The B men's leader lapped us with 100m to go and we didn't realize until after crossing the finish line that our race was over, so I finished up in 4th for the day.

All around the weekend went great, this weekend Drew is heading to Edmonton for Canadian Nationals before we both head to Toronto next weekend for the North American Cyclocross Trophy races.

Photo and Updates

Photo is from Starcrossed compliments of Barry Rempel.

For a mid-week update, Drew put on an underground race last night that was super fun. Some awesome twisty trail sections and some fast grassy corners. My legs felt like they had been run through a cheese grator...so I hung out in the back and enjoyed the terrain. Hopefully today I'll be able to get right back at it!