Racing Locally

                                                         

I love it when I get the chance to do races in BC.  Not only because they always offer amazing riding, but I love the atmosphere at the races and seeing all my favourite BC riders. 

This weekend Keith and I headed to Pemberton, BC Friday to pre-ride the Nimby Fifty course we’d race Saturday.   It’s a rugged and demanding course with almost an hour’s worth of singletrack switchback climbing ((100 Switchbacks) followed by some of the gnarliest descending I’ve ever raced…especially when you’re seeing it for the first time in the race which is what I did 2 years ago.  The course then gets hard!  After that you have to tackle World Cup tough climbs to get to the super fun and a little scary No Err descent, ramble on, Mobey Dick and Dark forest.

We had an awesome fast ride and then a delicious dinner with the race organizers Dean, Russ, and Terry as well as their wives and fellow racer (and unofficial Olympic teammate) Max Plaxton.

My race was fun.  I always love riding with the boys, especially being able to joke back and forth with old friends like Ricky Federeau when he goes off course and has to repass you.  An hour plus in I had crested the Nimby and started descending to the first aid station.  I guess I got a little excited about the change in altitude and punctured my tire.  A big air saved the day.  I would have been SUPER Bummed to have missed out on the Red Bull down time!  So a water and air refill and I was on my way again.

Coming into the Red Bull Downtime was pretty cool.  There is a banner set up so you pin it to the entrance and then see what you can do.  I had a good run with only one lay down on the loose trail so was happy with that.  As soon as I got back on BC trails I felt awesome descending.  I just had a bad day in La Bresse.  Like a friend said (actually Brandi that ended up winning), once the granny panties go on they are hard to take off!

From there it was into the feedzone and some tough climbs where I was able to re-pass a bunch of the guys that got ahead of me while I was refilling.  One of the guys walking up a steep pitch said “I’ll see ya on the downhill”.  Had I known he just schooled everyone on the Red Bull Downtime I may not have joked “That sounds like a challenge!”

On the final descent into town I maybe should have dialed it back a bit over a rocky section, but was having too much fun.  And then pssssst.  No more air in my cartridge, tube with a hole in it (mental note check tubes) I was lucky to have friends loan me some supplies to get home as I defended myself from mosquitos and watched about 20 racers go by including eventual race winner Brandi Heisterman.  I tt’d it in with Ted to finish 30 seconds back.

Well I can’t complain about my luck.  I’ve had pretty great luck at World cups, I guess there’s something about a 5 and 5 bike that makes me push the envelope a little more;-)  I may be converted to Dual suspension!  I may even be able to test out Orbea’s newest xc fully design as early as Mont Sainte Anne.  Can’t wait!