University Cup Mountain Bike SeriesSept 18, 19, 26 & Oct 3
This fall I've been racing with the University of Guelph Cycling club doing the University Cup race series. What an adventure!
The preface to this post is that I'm a huge newbie when it comes to mountain biking -- and if I had a dollar for every time I crashed or 'hugged' a tree... it would probably pay a month's rent!!
In any case, the U-Cup race series is fun because it involves everyone: from people who are racing for the first time to top Ontario riders. There's tons of camaraderie within and between teams and most events have a BBQ afterward. The series takes place over four weekends in Sept/Oct.
Our first race of the season was at Mansfield and it was actually a bit of a 'stage race', consisting of a 'crit' (like 4X on mtbs), a TT (4k individual-start race) and a regular cross-country race. The crit was pretty cool, 2x300m loops--so it was pure adrenaline.
For the TT and the cross-country race my goal was to ride as smoothly as possible in the single-track and minimize the number of times I had to unclip. Things went pretty well--I took 2nd in each of those races (for an overall 2nd place that weekend).
The next race was at Boler Mountain in London. I had a rough start but worked my way into 2nd by the half-way mark. At that point, I knew there was a train of 3 riders behind me trying to chase me down and so I rode as fast as I could. Apparently that level of fast was faster than my technical skills were ready for, resulting in some pretty funny crashes! ...sliding out and faceplanting into the grass; riding into a tree so hard that my bars twisted 10 degrees right of my front wheel... Needless to say, I did get reeled in and finished 3rd.
Last weekend's race was at Hardwood Hills. For the whole race, I was back-and-forth with a woman from our rival school Queens. I'd gap her on the doubletrack and she'd bring me back on the singletrack. We ended in sprint finish and I just edged her out for 2nd! Definitely one of the toughest races of my season.
For the rest of the mtb season I'll continue to work on handling--cornering in particular. I hope some of this translates back onto the road next summer.
This fall I've been racing with the University of Guelph Cycling club doing the University Cup race series. What an adventure!
The preface to this post is that I'm a huge newbie when it comes to mountain biking -- and if I had a dollar for every time I crashed or 'hugged' a tree... it would probably pay a month's rent!!
In any case, the U-Cup race series is fun because it involves everyone: from people who are racing for the first time to top Ontario riders. There's tons of camaraderie within and between teams and most events have a BBQ afterward. The series takes place over four weekends in Sept/Oct.
Our first race of the season was at Mansfield and it was actually a bit of a 'stage race', consisting of a 'crit' (like 4X on mtbs), a TT (4k individual-start race) and a regular cross-country race. The crit was pretty cool, 2x300m loops--so it was pure adrenaline.
For the TT and the cross-country race my goal was to ride as smoothly as possible in the single-track and minimize the number of times I had to unclip. Things went pretty well--I took 2nd in each of those races (for an overall 2nd place that weekend).
The next race was at Boler Mountain in London. I had a rough start but worked my way into 2nd by the half-way mark. At that point, I knew there was a train of 3 riders behind me trying to chase me down and so I rode as fast as I could. Apparently that level of fast was faster than my technical skills were ready for, resulting in some pretty funny crashes! ...sliding out and faceplanting into the grass; riding into a tree so hard that my bars twisted 10 degrees right of my front wheel... Needless to say, I did get reeled in and finished 3rd.
Last weekend's race was at Hardwood Hills. For the whole race, I was back-and-forth with a woman from our rival school Queens. I'd gap her on the doubletrack and she'd bring me back on the singletrack. We ended in sprint finish and I just edged her out for 2nd! Definitely one of the toughest races of my season.For the rest of the mtb season I'll continue to work on handling--cornering in particular. I hope some of this translates back onto the road next summer.
In other Stevens news, Mel, Tricia and Sophie have been rocking the cx scene--though I'll leave it up to them to fill in the details :)
Happy thanksgiving everyone! I am very thankful for my lovely teammates and our awesome sponsors at The Cyclery.
-- Rachel
-- Rachel
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