Mountain Bike O-Cup #1

Stevens Racing p/b The Cyclery took to the dirt this past weekend with Mel Bunn and myself (Tricia K.) racing in the first Plastiglas Ontario Cup of the season, an event hosted by ChicoRacing.

Mel, making her debut to the O-Cup scene, took her place at the start line in the 11:30am Senior Expert race (without the benefit of a pre-ride of the course the day before). She rode like a champ and had a steady solid effort for second place!

On my new 2010 Stevens Scope (a thing of beauty...) I took my place at the start line of the 1:30pm Senior Elite race, albeit it a bit trepidatiously and not really expecting too much. This had an obvious affect on the start - I was off the pace (aka last off the line!) right away. That's ok - didn't panic.

Fairly quickly I was able to catch and pass a couple of riders in the first big-ring double track section and then passed a couple more in the next laps. Objective of the day was to keep a steady pace throughout the race with strong 3rd and 4th lap times. Mission accomplished. Fun, fast, dusty course with a few tests of the legs on some short but steep technical climbs. Bike was superb. It was great to see three Stevens jerseys out there (Trish and Mel racing - and Rachel who did a 4hr road ride from Waterloo to watch the races!). Next up, O-Cup #2 at Albion Hills. -- Tricia K.