The "other" side

June 6 - Took another crack at that ‘other’ riding discipline (mountain biking) this weekend. This time it was O-Cup #4 in Midland, ON. A great race put on by Chico Racing and the folks at Mountainview Ski & MTB Centre. I missed out racing there last year and the only thing I really remembered from Provincials held there in ‘08 was stopping in the feedzone part way through the race to put armies on (who gets cold during a race in August!?). Poor memory aside, the 2010 Mountainview course was a lot of fun. Technical. Tough. The switchback single-track climbing made even more difficult with the wet conditions last week. Throw in some flat twisty stuff, a wee rock garden and some technical fast descents to round it out. The 1:30pm start was very fortunate with the weather with the rains stopping well before it was time to warm-up—only slick and greasy trails to contend with.

Despite a minor hotel ‘malfunction’ on Friday night when we arrived into Midland around midnight, the weekend sorted itself out and ran quite smoothly. Pre-ride quickly reminded me that mountain biking is more then just fitness – technical skills can be a big factor when the conditions call for it. Rob hitting the dirt about 5 mins into the pre-ride was a good reminder of that! First pre-ride lap was pretty slow with lots of thoughts of ‘holy cow, I could really wreck myself taking this stuff at speed’. But alas, another reminder: speed is your friend (most of the time!) with pre-ride lap number two and getting the ‘feeling’ of mountain biking again (having spent all week on my time trial bike in prep for the Gatineau UCI events coming up Jun 12 & 13th).

With pre-riding done, bikes cleaned and prepped for race day we headed off to “Mom’s” for dinner. Woah, I was FULL. Rob was in search for some ‘race-cream’ so we toured Midland, walking off dinner and checking out some pretty neat stuff – million dollar boats at the marina; snapping turtles, trumpeter swans (didn’t actually see these guys) and bullfrogs at the Wye Marsh; and one final stop to satisfy Rob’s craving, then back to the hotel for sleep.

Race morning was unrushed. Nice because I was pretty groggy from getting a full 9-hrs of sleep (and still being full from dinner – what do they call it, a ‘meat coma’??). Regular pre-race routine. To the startline on time (always a good thing). Super cheers from fellow teammate Sarah who was on site to support Codey and who lent a helping hand to Rob and me (thanks Sarah!). As usual, last off the line (man, I’ve got to work on that!) but thankfully NOT last up the start loop hill. Lots of bobbling going on. I did all I could to stay upright and keep the momentum moving forward. It seemed to work as I continued to move forward and make up spots. I did a bit of a cheeky move getting around the two Sue’s but I heard them say they were ok, so through the trees and forward I went and didn’t look back (well ok maybe a couple of times to see who was behind me but the course did allow for much of that – so much concentration needed to stay upright). Final lap was almost easier to ride with much less traffic on the trails. Came across the line to a smiling Sarah and Rob saying that only Emily and Amanda finishing so far. Timer Al slipped me a print out of the results and indeed, 3rd place! Yippee.

Time to head back to the road for a little while now.

Not sure that I would recommend racing on a full belly of all-you-can-eat roast beef buffet. Maybe it was the pound of pickled beets….should stick to just regular pickles! Looking forward to a few weekends of Ottawa-bound racing and ‘home time’ getting out for some long fun training rides. - Tricia K.