The day started out at 5 am in old Guthrie log home in Peachland BC. My brother, father and myself got in the ballin' mini-van and were Vancouver bound. It happend to rain the whole way to Vancouver, but once we hit Langley it stopped. I was excited because the night before I prayed for a muddy muddy race but not rain. That dream came true, and it came along with the best cx course I've ever raced, along with the best organized race of the season. Big shout out to Kevin Calhoun for cooking up and memorable Provincial Cyclo-cross weekend.
Today I decided to do an actual warm up unlike the last few races. I rode a couple laps. Next thing I did was eat one of my Dr Vie Sports bars, the GO bar to be specific and man did it make me go! Then I dedicated myself to 30 min on the trainer. Which really paid off. I was called up first which was nice, because I've been in like the 3rd row for every cross race this year. Apparently it was in order of registration and I didn't register until the morning off. Wicked. Then of course I had miss clipping into my pedal like 3 times in a row at the start, but then I sprinted right back to the front and had more speed than anyone and was able to just float through a mud bog section and then jumped up the 3 set of stairs which opened up a considerable gap, and from that point on I just put my head down and thought about getting a whopper in Chiliwack on the way home. I made a few mistakes throughout the race, like trying to ride the run-ups. So once the gap shrunk I was hit it dam hard for two laps to open it up again, and then I had a buffer to play with incase some problems occurred. Which in the last two laps my gears were dying out me and slowly stopping the nice crisp shifts and turned to ugly jumping shifts, had to be careful. Didn't want to snap a chain. So I played it safe and rode the last couple laps as smooth as possible. Came through the hands high and 5 pounds of mud on my body. Today was not the day for a cool down. So I just stayed in my dirty shamois for another half hour until the awards were done. Which I won a wicked Lezyne pump, $125 bones, provincial champ jersey, gold medal, a pound of beans and best of all a gallon of beer. And since I'm of age...they still gave me the beer. And of course I won't drink it because I will give it to my dad..
Photos: John Irvine
Photos: Bicycle Radio
