Suffer Spring Summer Solstice

I know it's pretty surprising but this was going to be my first ABA XC race for the year, all my other starts were either marathon races or road races. Despite not having my road rash fully healed and still having bandages on my arms...I needed to get back out and race again. I had originally planned on racing the crit in Banff the day before...but since I hadn't done a road race or big group ride since my crash, I decided against it as I stil didn't feel fully comfortable racing in a pack at high speeds especially on a notoriously sketchy course.

As I had been caught in a hail storm during the pre-ride the day before...I expected the course to be pretty muddy...but it was really nice outside and the course usually dries up pretty fast so I wasn't too worried about the course conditions. What really worried me, were the guys I was going to be racing against. All these guys had done several of the ABA XC races and all of them had shown huge gains over last year.  Major threats for me were the usual culprits, Ken, Mark and Sam. I had yet to beat Ken in a race and I knew that he is riding really strong this year (and I called him out at the end of the season last year...haha). Mark is an awesome technical rider and always does well in technical dowhill courses. Sam and I have always finished really close in results last year and he looked to be riding really well this year.

Needless to say, I was a lot more nervous then I may have let on at the start of the race, although I do find myself a little more relaxed at starts then I used to be...but I was surrounded by all these fast guys...so I seeded myself right up at the front in the hopes of being able to keep up.

Don't let the smile fool you - I'm getting ready to SUFFER!

The race started and I went out hard...but tried to reel it in a bit as I knew that the first climb was relentless and a major risk on this course is going out too hard and then blowing up on the climb. I found Ken's wheel pretty quickly and kept him in my sights to keep a good pace. I gained a few spots on the initial climb where I was able to pass Sam and Sheldon. We did a descent into a pool of mud and because I couldn't remember the line (and coming out the race clean with a clean bike was pretty much done with), I decided to plow straight throught to gain a couple spots. My front wheel pretty much disappeared into the mud and so I had to put my foot down to try and get my bike out. My leg went straight down into the mud and I was in knee deep mud struggling to push my bike out. Luckily the pool of mud was before the creek crossing which was pretty deep too...so I was able to wash off a lot of the mud from my bike (and shoes). Now came the first big climb...and I was now starting to pass guys that had blown up or didn't have the legs ready for the climb. I knew I had made my way into the top 5 and could see the race leaders in front of me. I had passed both Ken and Mark who both told me to keep givin' er which really helped me to keep pushing.

After grabbing onto a wheel, I winded through the single track climb (my favorite part of the course) and then sped along the connector to the second big climb. I power up the climb and was hanging onto the wheel of another rider (which turned out to be the guy in third place). I stayed with him until the first switchback descent which is where he, despite my best efforts, gapped me almost instantly. I rode within myself as I know that crashing can pretty much kill your race if you aren't confident in taking the decents fast. I couldn't hear any riders behind me so I just kept my own pace. There was one big climb remaining where I figured I could make up lost time.

Sulpher Spring Descent

Near the end of the switchback descents, my front wheel got caught in a rut and I bailed into the grass...the exact same place where I had bailed yesterday during the pre-ride. I was a pretty soft landing but the rider in 5th gained a place on me. I got up and pushed hard to close the gap before the first climb. During the one of the power climbs, I ended up passing him as he had dropped his chain. Then it was time for the 3rd and hardest climb.

Because of the rain the day before the climb was tackier then usual which made the first part of the climb a little bit easier. I zig-zagged my way up but took a bad line tat the steepest part and ended up having to dismount and run the last little bit. The rider who had passed me had caught up but I was slowly opening the gap on the climb. I could once again see the rider in 3rd so I tried to climb in a harder gear to try and close in on him but he got away from me again on the descent.

As I went down the final descent the rider behind me once again caught up and passed me...now I was just hoping to try and hold onto my position. After the descent it was time for the long flat single track to the finish line. I popped my chain into the big ring and hammered for the finish. I checked behind me and couldn't see a rider but that didn't mean I would let up. I crossed the finish line and was pretty happy about how the race went.

Result: 5th

My best rsult in a race so far. It seems that on a fitness level, I'm really feeling much stronger in races then last year and finally starting to feel all my hours of training come through. It was also a great day for my teammates as well with Mark, Ken and I all finishing up in the top 8.  

Lyndon finishing up a true mountain bike race

Photo Credits: Carthy Chan, Earl Nolan, Ken Hurd 

Pigeon Lake Road Race

The day started out great and  was I was feeling pretty good. Despite having a rough week at work, I was trying to forget about it all and try to have fun during the race. It was a super nice day outside and the wind seemed to be pretty calm. For once it wasn't so bad waiting aroudn for the start. When we got called to the start, I moved myself as far to the front as I could. Sometimes it feels like your starting position is one of the most critical things in racing…but sometimes it seems you have to prove yourself to self-seed yourself at the front. After a few instructions we all rolled out on a neutral start. As we rolled out of the parking lot I got cut off by a lot of riders so went pretty far back in the pack just getting out onto the road.

As we rolled down past the Start/Finish we followed the lead motorcycle until he signalled the race was on. The motorcycle didn’t seem to really know the course because he decided to go straight onto a gravel road…and caused a ton of confusion in the pack with some people turning and some people going straight. After finally getting the turn and the pack sorted out….the race was on. I was still pretty far back in the pack and there wasn’t much room for movement as the pack took up the entire lane of the road. Centre rule violation was extremely strict with several riders getting DQ’d during the race so it was pretty dicey to try and gain positions along the left side of the pack and on the right side there was gravel on the shoulder which made that pretty sketch as well.

The pack was pretty sketchy to be honest. There was a lot of slowing down, braking, tempo changes and almost no attacks. On the second major turn we finally had a decent chance to shake up the pack a little. I found on the left side of the pack and moved up to the front of the group. Then 5 of us formed a paceline and tried to accelerate away from the pack. A rider pulled through to do a pull and pretty much stopped pedalling. Right away our paceline was shut down and the pack absorbed us back in. We went through the next turn and I could see a climb in the distance, nothing too selective but probably a good chance to drop a few riders. I was up front and stayed with the lead group as we paced up the hill, all in our big rings. I felt pretty strong going up the hill and stayed to my game plan to not spend too much time at the front if I could prevent it.

Going into second lap, a few riders started passing me and I was getting worried about getting dropped so I looked back to see the size of the pack. It turns out that we dropped about half the riders on the hill so the pack was now a lot smaller…and I was still in the lead pack. Despite the smaller number, it was still almost impossible to get to the front and the pace was still all over the place. I don’t think I’ve braked so much in a road race! Every chance I got I would move up a little further in the pack so I would keep myself in position at the front. We went up the hill again and we all stayed together. I thought I would be able to gain get up to the front as the finish was on an uphill, but riders were all across the road so I had to soft pedal up the hill as there was no room to move. We got to the second last turn of the course where we turned off the loop to proceed towards the finish line. Now the pack was getting faster as we were all fighting for position. I went into my drops and started looking for a way to move up. I backed off a little to let the pack thin out a bit when all of sudden I hear the sound of screeching metal and I see a bike go up in the air. I slammed on my brakes but before I know it a rider is on the ground right in front of my bike. I try to look for an exit but I was going too fast and my wheels had locked up so I ended up running into the rider. I got thrown off my bike and soon as I was sliding/rolling on pavement. As I was lying ont he ground, I looked and watched another rider hit the same rider I just hit and go flying off his bike as well.

I got up off the gorund fairly quickly and did a quick mental check of my body. Everything appeared to be working but I could also sense a little bit a road rash. I looked around to see riders, bikes and waterbottles everywhere. I looked around for my bike which was thrown about 10 meters in front of me and did a quick check to se if it was all one piece. After I looked around and found both my waterbottles. I hopped on the bike and noticed the seat was twisted. I banged it back straight, got on yelled back that I was OK and TT'd for the finish line by myself. At this point I was less concerned about finishing the race then I was to try and get back to the community hall to get first aid. I had road rash down both my arms, knees and my hands had been cut up a little. As I crossed the finish line, I noticed my shorts and my jersey were ripped up pretty badly as well.

After the race, I was glad I was able to at least finish the race but not even sure why I even bothered. I felt bad for the guys that were pretty badly injured but I needed to get back to look after myself as I had blood everywhere and needed to get it treated ASAP. After getting medical attention, I was noticeably angry about the whole incident. We were only a few kms from the finish line and I was in the lead pack. I felt great and thought I had a good chance of placing well which completely changed in a split second. This was a pretty important race for me and it seemed like everything was going so well that it took a while for me to realize there was nothing I could do and it was just unfortunate circumstance.

Looking back, I think I'm actually pretty lucky. With the exception of my computer screen cracking on my computer and my seat ripping, there was virtually no damage to my bike. I had some pretty severe road rash on my arms and sore shoulder, but that's about it as far as injuries go. To my knowledge there were 7 guys involved in the crash. 2 guys had very serious injuries and there were quite a few wrecked bikes.

Here is a very well written race report by a a member of Team Fiera

http://fieraraceteam.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/pigeon-lake-rr-road-rash/

Hopefully Simmon has a speedy recovery and isn't deterred from racing again.

After going to the clinic and diagnosed with first and second degree burns, I decided to take a week off the bike to heal and get my mind back in the right zone again. The crash is by far one of the scariest things I have been involved during my time racing, I've been fortunate to have avoided these up until now...but the saying has always been that it's a "when" not an "if" and road racing especially in the aptly named "Crash 5" category.

Next major road event for me is the Tour de Bowness Stage Race which is just over a month away.

- Kyle

Giver-8-er

I remember I mentioned in a blog entry last year that I couldn’t really dislike enduro events without trying them first. For reasons unknown, I’m actually starting to see the fun in them…maybe it has something to do with being a Deadgoat. I was originally going to do the race solo but then I talked to Justin and he seemed interested in trying the race so we signed up as a 2-man relay team instead as this was going to be more of a fun race for me now as my mountain biking focus seems to be more on enduro this year.

In the week leadin up to the event while helping the team with a little bit of course maintenance and riding the course a few times…it looked like we were going to have the best Giver-8-er conditions ever. Everything was dry and the trail was mint. The next week the forecast just seemed to get worse every day. It was near the end of May and it was raining, snowing and really cold….it felt like what March should have been.

The day before the race just seemed like a recipe for disaster. There was sleet in the morning and the course was extremely muddy. We were still determined to run the race as we were already past the deadline to call it off. Our decision was to eliminate a couple sections of the course as they were going to be either extremely dangerous or bogs. As the conditions seemed to get worse, I was really not looking forward to bringing out my Faze and risk having to replace my barely used drive train. I really wanted to race…but I didn’t think it was worth it to trash my race bike for what was supposed to be a fun race for me.

I now had a few concerns about the race. The first being my partner still wanting to race in the conditions and the second being which bike I wanted to ride. After watching a rider pre-ride the course on his single-speed mountain bike…I talked with a few people on my team and decided that now would probably be a good time to build up my single-speed frame. After finishing up helping the team with the course, I went home to start putting my bike together. After mounting the cranks and wheels, I brought it over to Tim who helped me finish up the build in just over an hour. I took it for a test ride around the block and it seemed good enough to attempt to race the next day.

The next day, conditions were cold but it had stopped raining and snowing for the most part. I brought both my 1X1 and my Prophet bikes with me…just in case I had a mechanical with the single-speed. I met up with Justin and we set up in the team feed zone. Justin started the race as I wasn’t sure about riding a single-speed with a whole ton of people on the course at the same time and I didn’t want to hold people up when I had to get off and walk. We decided to switch off every lap as it was pretty cold and it would give us shorter breaks in the pit. Just enough time to refuel and clean off the bikes.

Justin finished off his first lap and now it was time for my first real ride on a single-speed mountain bike. I took off from the team pits…as fast my legs and 32 X 20 setup would let me. I got to the first hill…and I was totally surprised that I could pedal up with no problems. I continued to climb until the fairly steep rocky climb into the first section of single-track. This is where I decided to dismount and walk as there was still a lot of course and I didn’t know how my legs would hold up. The course was muddy…but not as bad as it could have been. I had to walk a few sections as I would lose traction when I had to stand up to pedal up some steep sections but overall there were only like 3 sections that were really bad.

Each subsequent lap the course was actually drying out and I was also able to pedal up more stuff as I got used to the single-speed bike. Single-speeding was pretty different for me…it tooks me a couple laps to get into it…but honestly…it really take a lot of your mind when you’re not worried about your drivetrain seizing up or ghost shifting. The course is a pretty hard one with lots of short power climbs so it was actually pretty good training for single-speeding technique.

The only thing I didn’t really like about the single-speed is it’s really hard on your back and your arms. At the end of each lap my lower back would get really tight so I had to stretch in between laps. My arms weren’t really that sore…but they were getting a good workout from all the side-to-side motion needed to torque my bike up all the climbs.

As we approached the end of the day, Justin went out for his final lap and warned me that he wasn’t sure if he’d be back in time for me to do one more lap. He had quite a bit of time…but he was getting tired but he still went out to throw down one more lap. I was also pretty tired and was concerned about needing more time than usual to finish my lap. With an hour remaining in the race, Justin came screaming into the lap zone and left me an hour to get my last lap done. I took off on my last lap and was pretty tired but determined to get in a 5th lap so I could tie with my number of laps from the previous year. Even though I was tired, I rode way more stuff then my previous laps as the ground was now really tacky with only a couple really muddy spots. I finished off my laps with some time to go and I was officially completely exhausted.

Although I didn’t do more laps then I did the year before…I’m quite happy that I got 5 laps down with no crashes, mechanicals and my first time on a single-speed bike. Justin also did awesome for his first mountain bike race and also had no major crashes or mechanicals. Perhaps I’ll bring the single-speed out for more ride and try to get a more of a feel for it…my team seems to really enjoy them.

Big thanks to the team for putting on a great event and everyone showing up and soldiering on despite the conditions. Also a big thanks to Tim and Gerry for helping me put together my single-speed bike the day before the race. It was great pulling after every lap and everyone asking me how I like the single-speed. Although I wasn’t in love with it at the start of the race…I really liked how I could just ride it and not have to worry about anything. It was also sufficiently hard…no granny gear to fall back on…so it really tested my limit as to how hard I could push myself to make it up some pretty steep climbs that I really did not want to walk.