Tripleshot Cycling

Tell me, where are those lazy and silly people (read as 'clever and very sensible') who missed out on THIS much fun today????

Tripleshot!





Race report: mud, then more mud and some rain and mud.

Come on guys -- you can do better. Explain the blood. Explain Roland's grimace. Let's hear about Geoff's first race. I can't believe they made you ride in a freshly manured field...

Have you ever bought a jar of natural peanut butter? You know, the kind that separates as it sits on the shelf? When you open the jar you have to stir it up so that the oil mixes with the butter and makes it kinda smooth and edible. Keep the image of that texture in your mind, and whenever it says “mud” in here, insert that image. And imagine that your jar of peanut butter goes four feet deep.

So I thought I would enter a cross race this weekend. Seems like it could be fun, I’ve spend a lot of time on a mountain bike and I’ve been riding with Triple Shot sorta regular, so I figured that I could give it a go. Roland seemed really keen to have people come out and always gives rave reviews of the races – sounds like fun, right? To give the appropriate background, I’ve never entered a bike race in my life before. Well, there was that one time that I entered the 24 hours of Adrenaline ten years ago, but I was asked to join the team by a girl who is now my wife, so the agenda was entirely different.

I borrowed a jersey so I could fly the easter egg with pride, borrowed a bike from the guys at Oak Bay (though I wondered what their smug grins were about when I told them I was going to do a cross race), bought my license from Cycling BC and I’m good to go. Given the amount of rain leading up to Saturday, the speculation was that there would be some mud on the course. Listening to the rain coming down early yesterday, ya, you could pretty much guarantee that there would be some mud to deal with.

I entered the Intermediate race as Roland suggested that would be a good place to start. There were about 25 or 30 of us and as we pre-rode the course just before the start of our race, the truly heinous nature of what lay in store for us became apparent. The first river crossing caused a bit of a back-up as people tried to figure out if they could ride across this thing without getting their feet wet. Ha! That’s funny! Little did we know…

So the race starts and we go twisting through a grass pasture, under what appears to be a gallows constructed in the middle of the field, over a few barriers and into the woods. I’m feeling okay at this point, middle to late pack, legs are okay, bike is okay – let’s go. Twists through the trees, loamy but not wet, out onto a really slick little “road” at the edge of a corn field that is pretty muddy. Stay in the middle, keep spinning as the mud makes the tread on my tires completely useless. Up into the grass again, around the outside and into a stretch of ankle deep mud, run for 50 meters, through the ditch, up the other side, spin along the top of a muddy berm as the cows bellow at us, just in case you forgot that you are on a farm. Up and down a packed corn field, short stretch along a muddy road, off-camber into a grass field, twist and turn through, back onto the road, up onto another muddy berm, off-camber off the berm (great place to watch people bail) up the muddy road and THEN, into the cornfield from hell! Maybe two hundred or so meters of mud, mud, muddy mud. Post-holing up to your knees in mud, shouldering your bike and falling forward up to your elbows in mud, tape your shoes on so you don’t spend the rest of your life looking through the mud for them mud. Thick, gooey, make sculptures out of it mud. I watched a guy in front of me bury his wheel past the hub into the mud as he went over and super-manned face first into it. I didn’t see him again so either he abandoned or he’s still in there. So you get through that, back into the grassy field and ride over the two-level gallows and across the finish line. Good for you! Now do it three more times.

My goals changed each lap – “okay, catch that guy in front of you!” Then, “maybe when I’m in the trees and no one’s around I can let the air out of a tire, call it a flat and end this misery.” Then, “Okay, there’s one guy left behind you – there’s no f***ing way he’s passing you!” As I head into the woods for my last lap, who’s that crossing the finish line? It’s Roland! Hey, if you’re racing intermediate, what the hell am I doing in this race with you? Totally sandbagged! Welcome to bike racing.

Having said all that, I can’t wait to do it again. Judging by the photos above, when I grow up, I wanna be just like Roland!

Sandbagging report:

Saturday - Geoff Pendrel (retired pro downhiller and brother of Olympian Catherine Pendrel) asked me what category I race. I told him intermediate and he said he'd race intermediate as well. I accused him of being a sandbagger, but he claimed he's retired, and no longer all that fast. I was sceptical.

On the warm up lap, I tried to avoid running through the creek, I wanted to a keep my feet dry. We discussed if it would be better to run or ride through the creek. The course seemed ok, if not a little muddy.

Once the race started, it quickly changed, the course quickly disintegrated. The corn field became un-runable, with knee deep sink holes. The road sections became slick with mud, it was impossible to ride straight. The wheel just spun if I tried to pedal hard. It was chaos. It was a running race with sections of riding. I did manage to take the lead briefly on lap three, but got a little to excited, and crashed shortly after, taking too much speed into a corner and dropped back to 3rd.
I was still 3rd on the final lap going into the corn field. Right on the wheel of #1 & #2. Mud running isn't my strength and I couldn't stay with them. I finished 3rd about 20 seconds back, I was happy with that.

Sunday - The rain was gone. The sun was peeking out and the course appeared to be free of mud. But that was just a trick, the mud was hiding under the grass. As soon as we started racing it appeared, making the course very slick. Another good start and I was 5th going into the first climb. As we descended on the grass, people in front of my just fell over going into the corners letting me move up to 3rd. On the 2nd lap I attacked on the climb, opening a gap and taking the lead. Gain ground on climbs, lose it on the technical sections is my standard operating procedure. So, I pushed hard on the decent, taking huge risks in the corners and it seemed to work. I'd opened a decent sized gap, but I didn't want to ease up. I needed every second I could get, as I knew it was going be impossible to ride a mistake free race. As the race progressed the course changed, the grass disappeared and it was replaced by slick mud. Corners became impossible. On lap 4 alone, I crashed 4 times. Rita yelled that my gap was 45 seconds. I figured I should ease up slightly and try and make it home in one piece. Covered in mud, my bar tape hanging off, bloody leg - I looked rough. I managed to keep it upright for the last two laps. My first victory in 4 seasons (18 races) of cyclocross. And yes, I will be moving up to expert next season.

f**kin' eh Roland!

and you even got your finish line celebration down this time.

Roland in the woods.


One of the many crashes.


Geoff Pendrel who was chasing Roland. The tapes show you how twisty the course was.


Here, Roland had built up a huge lead already. I saw him crashing twice within a couple of minutes.


A well deserved victory for Roland!


After about 20min of recovery time, I could smile again. It was only my second race in the women's category, which is WAY longer than the beginner's one. And it felt like I had still mud stuck to my legs from yesterday.

My favourites from today:

Awesome Roland - way to go!

My race summary:

Saturday:

On the 1.5 laps I dropped my chain twice, crashed once and got a flat (who gets a flat on a course consisting entirely of mud???) I stood in the pits for a while hoping Roland would bring me his wheel, but eventually Jen rode past and offered me her spare tube & pump so I actually changed my tube during the race. That's a first! I lost probably 1.5 laps in the pits, then finished up the last lap with 1 more chain drop and 1 more crash. Good times. Alison Sydor won.

Sunday:

Up up up, slip slide splash. repeat. Alison won again.

Great stories. Great photos. Great results. Thanks for sharing!

I think my fave shot is of Jen going downhill, eyes closed, trying to click her ruby slippers together, saying "There's no place like home."

Exceptional reporting everyone. And a big CHAPEAU to Roland for the bullet. Well done all. The photos are incredible - the OBB guy stuck to his THIGHS in mud seems to tell an epic story.