Port Alberni - March 21

[Roland]

As much fun as riding around a 2km loop 20 times sounded, I opted to go race mountain bikes in Port Alberni instead.

I was the only Easter Egg in the race. No team mates to block for me. I also raced in the appropriate category for my skill level.

Alberni Valley Riders built a bunch of new trails for the race. Unfortunately after days of rain, the new trails were soft and muddy. What wasn't soft was rooty. It was a very hard and technical course. Lots of steep descents on to skinny wet bridges over creaks. Tight twists, deep mud.

I managed to crash within the first 400 meters of the course. The fireroad narrowed and went over a concreate pipe. I didn't see it coming, hit it funny and went over the bars. Things got better after that and I got into a groove on the climb. The decent was very tricky. I fell off a lot. Lap one took an hour, and by the end I was cooked. I started a shorter lap two, but I just didn't have it. I was also completely on my own, which makes it hard to keep pushing. I think I lost one or two more positions and finished 11th.

Home town favourite Glenowyn raced well in the expert women. Katie unfortunately broke a chain early on.

Here are my race stats: http://connect.garmin.com/player/27698495

[Josh.E]

luckily for us, it was a 2.6km loop

Nice work. I'm just happy you didn't break or dislocate anything.

[Katie]

Well it turns out that while it's possibly the funnest bike around, the Slayer is not the best choice for a cross country race... A tad heavy, a tad bouncy, and a tad relaxed.

After sliding through mud on tires that felt more like skates in dire need of sharpening, and winding up a rooty hill, my chain broke for no reason at all. Having never fixed a chain before (though I did get to watch Roland fix the chain on my other mountain bike when it broke on Thursday), it took me >20mins to get it very nearly reassembled, at which point the friendly neighbourhood cameraman wandered past and lent a hand.

The second half of my race was downhill, then muddy twisty flats. The downhills were a blast on the Slayer - it was like the bike came to life as soon as it saw a downhill. The downhills didn't seem to last long enough, but in the world of cross country you don't seem to get more downhill without first doing more uphill, and since I was not willing to do that, I was suddenly content with the amount of downhill that I got. The muddy flats were not so lively. The Slayer got a lot of pushes as I slogged through slippery mud on foot, which I am pretty sure was faster than pedaling.

My race was only 1 lap, but it took me FOREVER to finish. I won some awesome sugoi waterproof socks as a draw prize, and fixed my first chain, so not a complete disaster.

[glenowyn]

It is so encouraging reading this forum. Reading Rolfs post last night I was happy that people do care about races. My brother had helped builld the new trails for the race course and clean up the older trails. He had been worrying that because they were new and if the rain came people wouldn't like them. They are beautiful trails and make the woods feel really nice. New sections of downhill switchbacks on an exposed bank. I was glad to hear later that, one of the corners which is tight my brother had avoided riding for the first couple of days. It was hard to commit to pointing the front tire down it
In the expert category the big names were Matt Hadley, Catherine Vipond (Norco),Sandra Walters(Local Ride), and Mical Dyk,(Trek). It was a field of 8 women, I think is the most ever. I was surprised with how casual I felt during the start of the race. I thought I should change something but slowly as we climbed up the hill I started picking people off. The marshals were great and I would hear my name being called out and than " Thats my girl" even though I didn't know who was saying it. The climbs felt strong and the sinlge track felt strong. I ended up fourth and was happy to get an honourable mention. It felt so much better with less effort than when I have beenstruggling at the back

[Roland]

A couple photos from the race:

Glen:


Me: