XFusion BC Cup - Cross Country Race - May 23 2010

[Katie]

I won a race!

I almost didn't enter the race, but thought "whatever - I'll just enter and see how it goes". I entered Citizen Beginner but at the last moment switched to the Citizen Intermediate category, and ended up winning the Citizen Intermediate category

The other people who should have been on the podium had already gone home. It was lonely up there by myself.

Roland fought a hard battle in the stacked Masters 30-39 category, and Glenowyn came 3rd in her first race in the "Pro/Elite" category. They both had nearly 1200m of climbing in their race!

[Josh.E]

awesome.

nicely done

[Rolf]

Nice! Kudos all round, guys.

[Roland]

This was my first BC Cup race and I really didn't know what to expect. I was racing Masters 30-39 which got me a front row start. The race started with a brutal climb, 300 meters in about 2.5 km. I've always thought I could climb, but these guys rode me off their wheel in about the first 500 meters. I found myself in a group with some of the older masters and we paced each up the hill.

Once at the top, the course plunged down the downhill course, which was in poor condition after two days of downhill racing. The course then flattened out to some fun single track and the in was back up the hill. Repeat 4 times.

The older masters were only doing 3 laps, so I was on my own for the 4th climb. I struggled up the hill for the last time, way off the pace. I finished last, about 30 minutes behind the winner, in a time of 2:09. This race attracted different class of rider, guys who finish Top 5 in expert on the island were in the back half of the back.

Some stats from the race:
1200 meters climbing in 22km.
35% of the course was steeper than 12%
21% was between 6% and 12%

This race showed me I'm not quite ready for Test of Metal in less than a month.

[Roland]

Ouch:

[Rita]

Awesome job everyone, especially our ladies!!

[Rolf]

Good god, Roland. We did 750m of climbing today out past Sooke. And my legs feel like they want to detach and go hide in the basement in protest. I can't imagine what you describe...

[Rita]

Good god, Roland. We did 750m of climbing today out past Sooke.

Is that really all we did today?
Btw, we had a great ride this morning and were pulled by Shawn and Rumon for almost all of the way. I like our new riders Thanks also goes to Dave and Barton who liked some of the hills so much that they repeated them in order to give me or Jeremy company.

[EricS]

Well done Roland and Katie,

I did the 3 lap citizen race which avoided the last (and hardest) part of the climb. Much more civilized.

My son Logan won the UCI U15 race which made dad proud.

Have you done the Test of Metal before? Logan and I did it last year (and will again this year) and it was fun. You will do fine. It's about 1200m up but over 67km. My goal is beat Max Plaxton's time of 2.5 hours (times 2). Cheakamus Challenge is also a great race: Squamish to Whistler, 2000m of upness. Fun!