Red Cross

I was going into this race with a ton of confidence. I had ridden one of my best races ever and gotten enough points for my upgrade. A couple of us were told that they were 99% sure we’d be able to race in the Expert race the next day….so I prepped the next day to race in Expert. I got to the race site a little late but left just enough time just in case something happened and I would have to race in Sport again. Once again the race was at the same site as the previous day and once again it was on the pretty much the same course, only backwards. The only difference was the two run-ups were eliminated for a 2 barrier set into a short run-up.

I got down to the race site and strolled over to registration when Chris comes out and tells me that we have to race in Sport again. I was a little annoyed as we were receiving mixed messages from officials...but I didn’t want to waste time arguing as I was now running late for my start. I was sort of half-expecting this but I now had only left myself 45 minutes to get changed, get my spare wheels to the pit, pre-ride and stretch. I was only able to do barely get a one lap pre-ride in, which was essentially my warm-up and a very quick stretch.

I got to the start and did the one thing you should never ever do before a race. I decided I was in too easy of a gear to sprint out so I changed my bike into a harder gear to go for the hole shot. I was pretty focused today and didn’t chat nearly as much as usual. The whistle blew and my gear was way too hard and I trouble finding my pedal with three quarters of the field flying right by me. When I finally clipped in, I was near the back of the field going into the hairpin turn.

I was able to start passing lots of people in the first lap but on the longer steep single track sections I got stuck behind riders who couldn’t make it all the way up and had to stop to dismount. Because it was pretty tight I couldn’t ride around them so I had to dismount and run around them in the deep grass. The dismount into the barriers was right hand hairpin which really messed me up. I lost a lot of momentum and had lots of trouble clearing the barriers.

Around 3rd lap in I had caught up to Thomas. I went by him and tagged him on the back telling him to grab my wheel and we could work together to move up the field. 4th lap in I could see Mark up ahead…so I decided to grab onto his wheel. Mark and I changed position a couple of times as I would attack and then he would counter-attack in every chance he got. It was awesome. Then I had caught up to rider who had apparently been lapped so I grabbed on to his wheel and Mark timed his attack perfectly and was able to gap me going into the steep climb as I had gotten stuck behind a slower rider. I was able to catch up again and then attacked again.

Last lap Mark and I continued to battle it out, a rider flew by us…but I thought it was a lapped rider so I chose not to chase him down. On the last power section, I caught up to Chris Coleman who I had raced against the day before. I grabbed onto his wheel and was trying to set up an attack going into the last power section. Chris was going really hard and I had a tough time hanging on. We got the hairpin and I didn’t want to crash him out so I laid off the gas to try and out sprint him to the line. We got the finishing straight and we both sprinted hard for the finish line…Chris had just a little bit more left in the tank and beat me to the finish.

Result: 4th

Because of my start, I had no idea where I was most of the race. I didn’t really believe Craig when he was yelling at me that I was closing in on 2nd place during the last lap, I thought I was much further back then that. There were 40 riders in all and I think I was in 30th place in the first 200m of the race. I was really happy I was able to claw my way back up the field and once again finish in the prize money. In some ways I felt this race was just as good as yesterday…I had a lot of fun battling it out with Mark for 2 laps and having a sprint battle at the end of the race.

All in all, it was weekend of great racing on great courses with some awesome weather. This would probably be my last trip up to Edmonton for the year so glad for all the good times and awesome company.

Photo Credits: Ken Hurd