Edmonton was a top-notch weekend in my books. With the temperatures hitting -5 to -8 with wind chill on race days, snowy course and technical features made this a perfect course for my liking. Coming off the mtb scene, I've been trying to rest a lot and get over the season worth of fatigue before heading into Edmonton, which meant more days off each week then days on the bike. Which turned out perfect, I just needed to "try" and maintain form but be well rested. Came into the race on Saturday hoping for the win, I knew I had some good legs still and just had to play it smart. Got the holeshot and then going into the first s turn I was going way to fast and slid sideways into the tape and stakes, which lost me the front, so I had to chance for a minute to get back up to Daivd Larson and Simon Lambert-Lemay. Once I got up there I went to the front and drove it, and was making sure that the rest of the field would not catch us three. The other guys didn't seem to want to work too much, and I didn't want to get caught so I rode the front for a couple laps, and just tried to be really smooth and conserve enough energy for when one of the two attacked. Larson finally fell a couple seconds back so I looked and Simon and said "We got him, lets go!" So I attacked and we got a bigger gap and then Simon went down on one of the snow covered icy corners. So I attacked again and just put my head down and rode my own race from there to the finish. There was a group of 3 chasing me but I was able to stay on my bike the whole time, and made sure I wasn't making mistakes, and the three of them were having a bit of trouble I guess in the corners, chasing hard and ice is a tough one to mix together. Once I got a comfortable 30 sec ish gap I just tried to maintain and make no mistakes that would cost me the race. I was able to roll down the straight away for year #2 in Edmonton with the hands in the air and that National Champ title in my hands. Rocky Mountain had a wicked day out there taking Elite Women with Alison Sydor, Elite men with Geoff Kabush, and U23 men with myself!
Sunday's UCI Jim Horner cyclo-cross race was interesting, making the transistion from Junior to Espoir for Saturday, then for Sunday I am now offcially and Elite racer. I was now up against Mr Geoff Kabush. I was started 2nd last row of like 6 or 7 I believe, so I made a huge effort on the start to make it into the top 10 before the open course became narrow, that I did was riding within the top 7 I think the first lap and a half, until I went down pretty good, sliding like 15 feet down a hill and dropping the chain on my bike, and twisting my hood that was now pointing sideways and not forward. 3 little groups now passed me, I chased hard through the first one, then went blew apart the 2nd group and took 1 rider with me and didn't make it back into the first chase group I was in. I was now battling for a top-10 finish. Taking everything out of the tank I could. Came through in 9th I think in the end, only about 45 sec behind one of the guys that I was first originally with. Was pretty happy with the comeback and 115 bones I made. It was also snowing enough to cover the tracks of all the riders each lap. Kabush once again was able to take the W along with Sydor, its seems as though with this race, if you win Saturday then your bound to win Sunday.
Luckily I had my Dr Vie Sports bars to keep me fueled in those conditions, needed lots of energy to battle the below 0 temperatures.
My last season in Junior was great, had a wicked time and couldn't have asked for a better year, other than maybe not breaking my handlebar at the World Championships...haha. Anyway bon voyage Junior, Elite and Espoir here I come!
Photos, Thanks to Rob Jones at CanadianCyclist.com
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