Canmore Canada Cup.... was fast, eh

So race one of the trip has been and gone, and was a bit of a dissapointing day really. To be fair, the feilds were pretty big, and the Canuck riders were all going pretty fast. It was race 5 of the 6 race series. But we were a bit average.

Cabin 22nd in the 45 (ish) deep men's field, and Nic 16th in the womens. Nic's report is below, so my short report goes like this....

.... cruised along at the start, avoiding the initial uphill mad sprint. Being reserved worked as after 5min's I was up to midpack in one long line of riders. Passing frequently I made my first mistake in settling on a particular riders wheel... was slow in the singletrack and by the time we popped into open spaces the rest of the field was nowhere to be seen. I chased hard and almost bridged up to a group of 6-7 riders (that turned out to be about 15-22nd)... before proceeding to make myself look like a road triathlete by dropping bottle in feed zone, running back to get it, tangling chain on my bike, then dropping bottle again with top off.... Big oops. And group gone.

I proceeded to ride the next 3 laps on my own... varing laptime by 20sec over all 3 8.5km remaining laps. So 22nd it was. Not too bad. Could be better.

Nics race...

"The bike is sweet, the rider is searching for 'what happened' at Canmore on Saturday (Canada Cup). 16th, 12min+ down. I have never had an 'off day' and my thoughts on this are that people who pull out the 'not my day' line just did not prepare well, it shouldn't happen.

Not sure if is was something in the air, or lack of air (altitude 1500m) but I didn't fire at Saturday's race. As soon as we hit the second pinch from the start the front end were accelerating away & I seemed to be stuck in first gear...not good. I sat in about midpack and made good time descending...a little too well and crashed hard off one of the many roots. 6-7 riders went past, once I had straightened my stem up & the next 2-laps I spent reeling them in again.It was plain hard work, I felt slow.

The harder I tried my legs threatened to lactate as I was bordering O2 debt with not alot I could do. It was disappointing; I came to race, top-ten at least. Credit to the race leaders though, these girls are going fast with Nationals in 3-weeks, it was a strong field and the 3rd Canada Cup race. I am in an early phase, perhaps not recovered from hours of travel, and a reasonable 10-day training period in Whistler. I am unsure but suspect I succumbed a bit to the altitude difference; it was certainly noticeable in pre-race laps & following the race. Same for everyone though, I am still disappointed.

We travelled down to Vernon Sunday & I have a good week ahead of me. I am feeling strong as I start my interval training. We have changed plans and I think I will race a BC Cup race this Sat in Vancouver to get me straightened out before the Bromont Canada Cup."

This guy turned up and made both Cabin's sideburns and speed look decidedly average


Stan's seals up almost any tire... and when it doesn't, add glitter. We had some issues sealing Nic's race tires, but I bet they look real pretty on the inside now?!