mountain bike musings

Monday, July 04, 2011

Day Two





Another great day on the trail. Phil and I took a bus to the ocean-side town of Campbell River (known as the Salmon Capitol of the World- 1.14 million salmon migrate by annually). Base camp was set up on a bucolic waterfront park, overlooking a marina of sailing and Orca whale-watching vessels and a range of snow-capped coastal mountains. We got our bikes and took care of race rituals and nerves. Again, 450-bikers lined up under the black inflated start/finish line and the music was pumping. The mayor blew the horn, setting the peleton loose on the main drag, which was soon humming along at 22 mph.

After 7 km of pavement and gravel, we entered the woods for some gorgeous flowy, singletrack. Although today's forest felt prehistoric with tall ferns brushing my helmet and fallen log trunks covered in thick moss, I associated many sections of trail with familiar ground in Vermont. In my head, I was linking all my favorite trails. At times I was on TNT at Millstone (rooty) or Bear's Run of the Stowe Town Loops (fast switchback)s. Other times, I was coming down Cyclone (rock drops) at the top of Dana Hill or I was doing the woods side of the Catamount Outdoor Center Wednesday night race. Although there were a few bottlenecks, my "pod" was soon moving smoothly and at times we were humming along in the big ring.

As amazing as the trails are the people riding them. Each day, I've found myself with compatible riding partners, oftentimes from other countries (22 are represented with 50% of the racers being Canadian). Yesterday, I spent the good part of the race with a guy from Santiago, Chile (he had some good South American race suggestions). On the morning shuttle, I talked to a couple from Venezuela (they said the government owns 90% of the land and often closes trails and shuts down races). Phil and I sat next to a guy from the UK (originally from Zimbabwe) at dinner (he just started cycling in February)! I washed my bike next to a man from Munich, Germany who lives close to the alps, but said the trails are nothing like this (the altitude is all there, but they ride lots of fire roads). And, on and on. Given it is Fourth of July today, it is neat to feel patriotic in a different way.

Anyway..the race. So, the first aid station came and went, leading me to a lengthy & tough technical section that I'll describe as alpine-type-zone-which-quickly-turned-to-wet-slippery-rainforest. Evidently it is always wet well into summer from the mountain's snowmelt. Like yesterday's descent, it required focus as each root and trail was slippery and moss-covered ledge was slick. There were lots of drops and descents where you could not see the roll out - had to trust your bike and ability. I was with a group of about 6 or 7 and the pressure was on not to mess up. In the end, I slipped out and had to let them all pass, but felt alot more relaxed and therefore, was more efficient. The last section was dreamy - fast, flowing and downhill, with lots of whoop-de-doos. The trail designers had a timed segment of this section, so when I passed the line where my chip beeped, it was fun to push it as much as I could.

In the end, I was third again in the women's solo epic masters category in 3:13, so I got to stand on the podium! Phil also had a great race today finishing 8th in the men's solo epic masters category in 2:43.

After the race, we Facetimed my parents and Austin and Carson who were enjoying a beautiful evening in Vermont. We heard about parades, pancakes and the bike path from my parents while the boys did "drive-bys" to my dad's iPad as they ran around outside. It was great to see them!

A few days before we left, we watched the mountain bike movie, Follow Me, with Austin and Carson. There was great footage of the Sunshine Coast, where we ride tomorrow. We'll take the ferry to the town of Powell River, where we'll be treated with 50Km (32 miles) of singletrack with a total elevation gain of 1070 m (3500 feet).

Come back for more!

1 Comments:

Blogger Alex Geller said...

Sounds like one epic adventure for the both of you! Just reading this is giving me the bug to sign up next year! One question. Seems like the terrain is an ever changing variable. Do you guys have multiple tires to deal with mud, vs hardpack or DH?

12:05 PM  

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