This year, the nationals course is actually quite close to home - at Hardwood Ski and Bike which is just north of Barrie, Ontario! This is a top-notch facility that is home to a great development program, and as the name suggests, it is a year round facility with skiing in the winter. The trails here are taken care of and built by the Glenn (who doesn't need an introduction on the cycling scene), and are ridden and raced every week by a plethora of riders and range of age/skill levels. Glenn put lots of thought and effort into building the perfect nationals course, and the Elite (which at this level is almost synonymous with pro) course is full of action. The course is a 6km loop that doubles back on itself a lot, with tons of challenging obstacles, making this an incredibly spectator friendly and action-packed course; either the riders are climbing a hill or riding a technical section. The size of obstacles and technical toughness of these features however is leaving a lot of riders with mental blocks.
Personally, I was having some serious problems with these obstacles, and it affected me more than one would think. The features in question are two rocks that are big kickers that are about 2.5 feet tall. When I say kicker, I mean basically wedges that ramp you up that you have no choice but to jump off of. These are big features, but I knew that I had the skills to ride them. So why not? Why couldn't I just take the leap? The first one is the scariest, a really steep rock that pitches you right into the trees, but I should be able to get it. The fact that I wouldn't even try was bothering me and my affected my confidence deeply. I was simply disappointed with myself, which is a way I can't be before a race. Between these rocks and my burnt out state of fitness I was in a serious slump. In order to overcome these obstacles (which I knew were only in my mind) I just rode my bike through some of the faster and more technical sections, slowly boosting my confidence and handling skills back up.
We also set up a driveway ramp to all work together on these skills
But finally I got it
Getting over these obstacles was all that I needed to get me into shape mentally for the biggest race of my year, tomorrow!
This year has been quite a summer for me, if anyone has followed my blog lately it probably won't come as a surprise to hear that I had been a little nervous before my last race; the Canada Cup in Sudbury. Canada Cup racing is certainly a whole other step above any other racing that I do, the competition is fierce and people come early from across the nation to practice the course. These are the nation's top athletes, olympians, world cup racers, and the french. The aggression in the riders in races like these frightens me sometimes, and given how tired I am these days, I decided to get to Sudbury as early as I could. I arrived at Sudbury Thursday morning, set up camp (a friend of the family actually got me my own apartment). I'm lucky to have some great friends in town (the Wolfpack), and got out for plenty of riding on course.
The course itself is an amazing one, 6 km laps with tons of rock, one very punishing climb, and TONS of blueberries.
I was well prepared for the race in most every way, though admittedly a bit tired. The race start was chaos; 70 riders, with people jostling to have the best position. As one might expect, there was a big pile up probably 10 seconds into the race. My poor friend Matt's bike went flying about 10 feet into the air and everyone got jammed up. As I passed the the carnage I saw Matt looking around, dirty, bloody and confused looking for his bike. Of course I yelled at him where his bike is and seeing if he's ok but I doubt he heard. The usual pileups and bottlenecks happened in the first couple of pieces of trail but soon I was able to ride my pace. I wasn't moving quickly, but I ignored this in my head, refusing to think of how overtired I was feeling, but instead focusing on my strengths. As it turned out, my technical ability was gaining time through the descents and singletrack, but just wasn't enough to make up for my physical form. Though it was a 70 rider start, I raced the race on my own, wishing I had people to pace with. I fought a hard race, remembering a meaningful compliment that I received before the race
"You'll be fine Chris, I've seen you before, you're a fighter"
I fought my way indeed, and even when my bike started giving me troubles I was off, fixing it and back on board. But when it rains, it pours and unfortunately my bike began to act like a fixed-gear or a fly wheel and I could no longer coast. I tried my best to take apart the hub on the side of the trail, desperate to finish the race but with no luck. I was told though that I fought a great race, apparently always looking strong while coming through spectator areas, and I never really felt alone riding the course because of all of the spectators yelling my name/sponsors/race number.
steaming in for some water in the feed zone
I was lucky to race before my girlfriend this week and had a great time watching her and my friends race after me. We had practiced the course together and she was riding impeccably well - absolutely geared for a win! It was fantastic to see her coming through strongly every lap, and Tori took the senior expert women's field by over 12 minutes! All wasn't lost that day as I got to share the joy of a win with her and eat blueberries while watching it happen!
Wolfpack racing throws down with some big time results, local boys know it best!
Also U of G favorite up on the podium Will "the Shermanator" Clarke killing it!
Keep posted for more updates, the nationals XC eliminator is tomorrow, I've taken time right off the bike this week to hopefully get some rejuvenation in my legs and body - time to prepare for nationals!
Honourable mention to my car for rolling over 100000 this weekend!
is half a million too much to ask for?
Summer 2013 has been an eventful and fun time, I've pushed myself to new challenges in more ways than just racing. In terms of races, I have had a great time camping out on the courses with my friends for the weekend (both at the Ontario Cup (broke my bike this weekend) and at the 24 hour race (which my team won)). Most recently I was pitted against extreme fatigue to finish a 60 km mountain bike marathon race in which I was stung by wasps twice on the shoulder, once on the lip, once just below my eye. This particular race was the breaking point for me it seemed as I had been working and riding and not sleeping well for the preceding weeks, I didn't know how I could keep my pedals turning. Another detail that compounded the issue was my losing a bottle on the second lap in 34 degree weather. I always say that I would rather finish dead last than not finish a race, and this one was pushing me hard, in the end, the real reason that I was able to finish the race is because I thought of all the support that I get. What I really mean by this is that every time that I'm in a tough place in a race, or thinking of whether to train or not in the rain, or whatever else may it be, I think of my blog, and the people that read this and send me messages. It shows a lot of support that you are just looking at this right now, and some of the private messages that I have gotten really mean a lot to me.
Looking confident on the start line
Not the same look on my face after the race
This brings me to the other bit that I alluded to above - I've been busy off the race course as well. Thursdays I spend riding with some really talented kids from the Collingwood area at Duntroon Highlands (which is also an Ontario Cup course). These guys rock! Thanks to Jen and Noelle for getting this program going and letting me tag along - I seriously enjoy coming and helping the kids to work on their bike skills. We practice different types obstacles and abilities, it is really inspiring to watch these kids try things that frighten them and watching them overcome these obstacles reminds me really what it's all about.
Lastly, the real way I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone recently is by taking some advice that was given to me - to do motivational speaking in some capacity. I went to a highschool in Vaughn and was incredibly well received by both the students and the teachers, while I made did two fifty minute presentations to over a hundred students on cycling, perseverance, and goal setting. I look forward to seeing where this goes in the future.
This weekend and the coming week are the two biggest races that I've got planned for the season; Canada Cup up in Sudbury, ON and Nationals at Hardwood Hills (north of Orillia). I am comfortable on the Canada Cup course in Sudbury, and have a great handle on most of the nationals course (though I've got some work to do still). Wish me luck!
Things certainly have changed a lot since the first Ontario Cup, and I mean big lifestyle changes; I am now a farmer! I work on a farm doing site cleanup (so not your conventional farming), which involves any mix of things to moving heavy metal and crates, fence removal, digging, and most importantly, driving things like backhoes and tractors. I’m now living in a chalet on the side of Talisman Resort, and my road bike is basically being ignored because of the abundance of trails and dirt roads (and SERIOUS escarpment hills). This means that my life is basically perfect, though training after working or working after training has been tough – but I just try to work hard and ride harder!
For me, the race started Thursday as my girlfriend Tori and I went to help out in building a new trail section for the Ontario Cup, appropriately named the “Exit Wound”. With less than 10 volunteers and a day of work, we had carved the craziest trail though the side of the hill complete with berms, drops (for the expert/elite categories only). The video below is a group of us riding the lap before the race, skip forward to about 10 minutes to check out the gnarly new stuff (though the whole video is pretty awesome, big props to Scotty Toucanlife for throwing it together so quickly)! In addition to helping out with trail building Thursday, I helped the race crew Friday, made some good friends while I was at it, and got out for a great dinner in Creemore (my first date with Sean Rupple, pretty special!).
Had a great time riding the course over the next couple of days with lots of buds, and got to feeling really comfortable and confident for Sunday's race, which is 90% of the battle. The day of the race came, and I felt calm, prepared, and showed up earlier than usual so that Tori could ride (she races in a separate race two hours earlier than my own). The first kink in the day arose when I was told that Tori would be finishing in a minute, what kind of guy would I be if I went off to do my warmup and didn't spare a minute? Besides, I love to watch her ride, and to cheer her through races! Unfortunately though, I missed her finish, missed my warmup, and nearly missed my race start. This lead to an incredibly poor start for me, and to those who don't know the Mansfield race course - it's a massive unforgiving hill.
Tori, going too fast for a camera to even catch properly (Jim Cassell Photo)
What should have been a confident race quickly descended into a panicked effort not to be the last man up the hill, and an embarrassing start for me. The laps were around 25minute laps for me, with two massive climbs, totaling in 200m of ascent per lap (times 5 laps makes 1km of total gain, which is insane for an Ontario Cup). My legs took about 2/3 of the lap to really warm up and have the blood flowing through them, and I was racing recklessly for the fist lap and a half, desperately trying to gain back positions that I had lost in my poor start. As I passed my buddy Mark Winfield who said I was having the race of my life, but soon reminded me to focus my riding (thanks dude!).
I continued into my third lap at a good pace, always hoping to catch more riders up ahead, but setting my own pace. In the elite section of the race course however, things turned for the worse. This section goes down the side of a steep hill with two log drops, followed by a berm and a rolling jump, then a 90 degree corner that shoots down an 8 foot rolling drop, and a double up root drop next to a tree.
Coming into the double up roots (Jim Cassel Photo)
The course by this time was getting rutted and I was still trying to work my way through the pack, carving my way and pushing hard into corners. Unfortunately I pushed too hard into the corner before the massive roller, and the tire "burped". Because I run tires without tubes on the inside (which gives you the advantage of more traction due to lower pressures), they can come off the rim, losing all of their air. This unfortunately happened to me just as I was going through the spectator area at the biggest drop, at which time I went OTB (Over The Bars). According to the kids that were watching I flew over the tape on the side of the course, somehow not even touching it, and had to scramble to get my bike, re inflate the tire, and hope that it holds air.
Less than 3 minutes later my tire was flat again, and I only had one shot of CO2 left to try to inflate it; things are looking grim. I took my time this time, inflating the tire with a CO2 canister and trying to spread the inner liquid latex solution of my tire around to clog the potential holes. By this time I had lost significant ground, and figured that my tires wouldn't hold air anymore anyway. But I have an old motto, I'd rather be DFL than have a DNF (rather Dead Freaking Last than Did Not Finish), so I chugged on, cautiously, on my iffy front tire. The best part about losing ground in a race at least is that you're passing people again, which sure feels good! This particular course was one that as I passed riders, they would ride behind me and gain momentum either by staying out of the wind in the wider trails, or almost getting sucked through the trails at my speed riding closely behind and following my lines. Either way there were many gentlemen who thanked me for letting them ride my tail, but who I dropped once the big hills came by. I felt great the whole day of the race, and didn't let myself be too bothered by the unfortunate events. I rode into a solid 18th place, actually my best yet Ontario Cup result!
Keeping it clean through the finish line turns
Blowing a kiss to my lovely girlfriend across the finish line.
Because in the end, this matters the most.
By the way, Tori had an outstanding race, coming in 3rd place in her category, and she's talking more and more about upgrading to the elite category and racing in the 1:30 race too!
Weird name for a bike race, right? Why name a bike race the “Long
Sock Classic”? Is it because only those with long socks are allowed to race? If
so, how long must these socks be? Well, as anybody who has ever visited the
Ganaraska Forest knows, there is a good reason for long socks. This venue is
home to a thriving population of poison ivy, so in your complimentary race
package is a set of excessively long bike socks, sweet!
The race itself is a 2 lap, 65km mountain bike race that
spans the sandy, hilly acres of Ganaraska Forest, just south of Peterborough, Ontario.
The race start shot us straight into a corner, then maybe a hundred metres
before being shot into a twisty uphill bit of singletrack. My best buddy Alex Schmidt
led out the race with his series leader jersey, and I was happy to catch his wheel
after the singletrack. The next section was wide trail with lots of gradual
uphill and Alex and I gapped off of the front of the pack. Alex set the pace so
high that I couldn’t keep up, and soon found myself in a group of riders
working with another guy to set the pace while Alex and one other were up
ahead. Things were going well, and I was in front of the train controlling our
pace through singletrack (still in the first 20 minutes of the race) when my
shifting stopped working properly.
Sadly this is the only photo I have of the race, thanks Tori for everything else though!
I was confused, my bike is *perfect* and has had no problems
whatsoever, then I realized it – my rear axel had come loose which meant that
my derailleur had no solid point to pull from.
I had to stop and tighten everything up, by which point the guys that I
was leading through the trail were gone. In my haste to try to catch back lost
ground, I went flying off my bike and over the handlebars – resulting in a cut
bleeding from my knee down to my socks. It was this point that I realized that
though I had lost some ground, I have a long race ahead, and can’t afford to
race and keep falling like that.
The next half lap was spent catching the guys back, with
concerted efforts on all hills and conservative efforts in the technical bits. By
the end of the first lap I was sitting comfortably in 4th. I
maintained this position comfortably throughout the race, keeping a
conservative pace, as it is the first long race this year.
Congratulations to Alex, you beat me fair and square in a
long race!
This weekend was the first Ontario Cup of the season – a very nervous time indeed! The course was amazing with just the right amount of double track to space out the amazing singletrack. The venue was at Woonewton, and elite category is 5 laps with added technical sections; it’s a good thing that I got my new bike! This is the best partner someone could ask for during a race; the new Trek Superfly Elite SL (more on that later).
It was super nice to be back with my buddies that I haven’t seen since last season, and to really flex my legs for the first time this season. After pre-riding the course with the local legend Kelsey Krushel and following team Ontario Coach Mike Garrigan I felt confident in my handling abilities and my new bike.
The race itself was unlike any regular Ontario Cup - stacked category of 52 people, and pretty much a Canada Cup full of Quebecois racers. The start was hairy, I was stuck at the back, and as you could imagine the back of 52 super fast guys flying off into the trails.
The race started out with a sudden burst, and I tried my best to make up because I was frustrated about starting at the back of the pack. I wasn't feeling great, but I thought that was all just me trying to find my race pace again. Unfortunately I was a little wrong. The first lap I threw down the effort that I would have been able to put out on a good day in Arizona, which I paid for dearly. Laps 2 and 3 were rough, I seemed to have no punch to my pedalstroke, and it hurt! Half the way through my third lap I threw the hail Mary - a double espresso caffeinated gel with 50mg of caffeine, just enough to get me through the race!
I had always known that caffeine is a performance enhancer, but man does it have a strong effect on me because I don't drink the stuff. Being my first mountain bike race (and one of my first rides) of the season, I found difficulties handling my bike with the speeds that I had even the day before.
Big congratulations to all the brave riders that went out to the first Ocup, and thanks for the Quebec guys for coming and making our Ontario Cup series a bit more fierce!
Also big ups for Jon Slaughter, who really rode well in his first Ontario Cup since his broken neck (you may remember this post).
Never, Ever sprint with your tongue out like this...However you will win sprints if you do...(Jim Cassel picture)
Barrelling into a rock garden in the lap area, thanks to Lori Bailey for posting online
Great photo thanks to Lori again for posting online.
Spectator section rock garden, this claimed some riders and wheels. (John Fisher photo)
It's always great to see my longtime buddy John cheering me up the hill,
thanks for the photo and giving me something to smile about!
Kelsey's section of the course, gnarly stuff! (John Fisher photo)
No serious, this is the least interesting kickoff to
anybody’s mountain bike race season. Ever. Though it did start out promising...
Ironically due to the ridiculous prolonged winter this year,
the Homage to Ice (kickoff race of the Ontario Marathon Series)
was put off, making it the same weekend as the kickoff to the Eastern OntarioCup series.
Both of these race series are hosted by Dan Marshall, who runs very friendly,
fun races at relatively cheap entry prices (and the Marathons include free food
afterward!), this makes them perfect for early calendar events, or introduction
to racing!
Though I am a mountain biker and not a roadie, I found
myself in an interesting situation this year, in a bit of a line for my new
bike, and I’m actually a mountain biker who doesn’t have a mountain bike year
round. With race season coming quickly, I had to figure out a solution. Luckily
my great buddy Dave always has my back, and hooked me up with this beaut.
Singlespeed (no gears), fully rigid (no shocks), 29er (big
wheels). This would take all I’ve got to race...Let alone race back to back
days, but I’m always up for the challenge (plus with the upcoming Ontario Cup,
I’d better start practising my mountain bike skills!).
Saturday was the day of the infamous Homage to Ice, one of
the tougher bike races, typically marred by bad weather, long climbs, and the
typical difficulties of the first race of the season. The course format is two
25km laps with a feed zone mid way through and one at the lap area, so I did
what any guy with a fantastic girlfriend would do – packed snacks and asked my
girlfriend to feed me. The day itself looked like a nice day, until the snow
came! As I said in the first sentence of this blog writeup though, these are
the least interesting races ever – so I’d better stop embellishing the story.
About 45 minutes into the race, I realized that the only possible thing to go
wrong with a singlespeed fully rigid bike had – the seat was coming off. I
glanced down at my cycling computer and determined that I wasn’t far from the
mid lap feed zone, so I could stop, grab food/drink, and fix my bike with Tori
(my girlfriend). This was a bad idea as it turns out because the feed zone was
far enough away that my seat rattled right off the post before I could get
there. Before this point I was actually holding my own, in 6th
position or so, jamming along some sweet trails, and feeling what it is to be
on a mountain bike again! The seat however left me scrambling and searching
through the leaves to find the pieces of the seat post that hold it on, and my
hands quickly got numb. I kept calm and fixed myself up, but this pitstop cost
me 15 minutes.
All smiles at the startline of the Homage to Ice!
No big deal, best 4/5 races wins the series, and I had
another race to do the next day, so I set myself to joyride pace, and had a
fantastic ride on the amazing course set out by Dan. As I worked my way back
through the ranks (from dead last after the seat incident) I came across a lot
of riders having a great time, including cycling’s proverbial rookie, and U of
G favorite Rookie Dan (no really, look him up on Facebook – first name Rookie,
last name Dan). Big props to Dan for taking such a huge race on (he rode full
marathon length), it was a pleasure to hang and ride with him for a bit, but
after some time with Dan I continued to work my way up through to the next
friend in the race, who happened to be my old boss Dave. I love seeing Dave out
at races because I feel partly responsible for his love with riding. I caught
Dave, shared some food and we complained for a bit together, and then I was off
up the trail once again. The next person I saw was my friend Lara, who is a
total trooper! Lara broke her collarbone last year, and this was the first
mountain bike ride since. When I came up on Lara she said she had gained a ton
of confidence as the race progressed, but it was hurting a lot. We rode
together and I was quite impressed with how well she could handle her bike
downhill, but she needed a break after some time (I made sure to cheer her
across the finish line though!).
Props on Guelph Teammates Alex Schmidt and Alex Lefebvre for
1st and 3rd place respectively! I can’t wait for the next marathon!
Day two presented a technically challenging and shorter
course, through the trails by Kingston. These trails are almost purely rock,
roots, and small bridges over bits of swamp (with a couple of stream
crossings). The terrain was fully of short steep uphills and was twisty enough
that I had some serious trouble getting through on my singlespeed.
Unfortunately, I had the wrong gearing for the race, which made each pedal
stroke very slow, and felt as if I was lifting very heavy weights.
Unfortunately, I was just not geared properly, and the only time that I made
any ground was on straight sections of trail (which meant I only spent 10-15
minutes out of breath). Regardless, Tori had her first race of the season, and
was looking strong! We had a super great time out at the East Ontario Cup and I
can’t wait to do the rest of the races in the series (with my proper new
bike...which I got today!).
Thanks do Dan Marshall for organizing such great races and
fostering a super friendly environment, your race courses are amazing, and so
are the volunteers that help out!
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