Had an interesting weekend. Makes for a good story though. Saturday morning I was up early with my dad packing our Ford van to get ready for the back-to-back CX BC Cup weekend in Vancouver. We were off to a nice start with the great weather and nice coffee's. Then it happend. Right around the halfway point to Merritt the van made 2 weird shifts in a row and then we were like "that doesn't seem right??" so my dad hit the gas for a sec and BAM the tranny blew on us. And it worked out perfectly as it was on a downhill and there was a brake check where we were able to nicely role into. We both had a potty mouth for a couple minutes. Then my dad busted out with Special Gold Visa and got us a free tow back into town. Good thing it was only two of us, because if there was a third they would have been sitting up on the Connector all by them selves. We waited for like 2 hrs until the truck got up there, thought about just doing a ride out there because we weren't going to make it down for day 1. Called and tried to cancel our hotel but it wasn't 24 hrs before. So once we got home I buzzed out for a couple hour ride and did some good efforts to make it seem like I sort of raced that day. Back home showered up and we took the more reliable rice burner down to Vancouver instead. Did I mention our van was American...yah that's why is blew. Bad news was now I didn't have enough room for my spare bike, so I rolled down with 3 spare wheels instead. On our way through Merritt we stopped and watch the Pacific Forrest Rally for a bit. Where my neighbor Mark Jennings-Bates was racing. He is going to be racing the Dakar this fall. Check out his website, http://www.rally4life.org/ he is not only racing but helping fund raise to save thousands of lives!!
Race Day: Vanier Park is a sweet venue, with being on the ocean and have downtown right there, so the specatator side of thing was pretty good. Had a good warm up beforehand on course, they changed the course a bit from last year for better, and with rain a bit the night before it made the first half of the race a little slippery and tougher for the roadies. Got the holeshot and took it into a S turn going sideways and almost took everyone out...my bad. Then Mr Tyler Trace came shooting around a little ways after and hit the gas, strung out the field and slowly just rode. I was able to do that with him last, but it was a suffer fest of me the first half. Then started coming around at the halfway point and no one was too committed to chasing, just short pulls. So I tried my best but was getting tired and not making any ground on T Trace. So then with two laps to go Kevin Calhoun hit the front and I sat behind him and waited until half a lap to go and I attacked just after the set of barriers and right before some twisty stuff. So just had to keep the gas pedal on and not mess up and it would make it hard for everyone to come around. Was able to grab 2nd for year two at this race. Totally different race though. Won $100 bones and a six-pack of muffins. Then made the drive home to have my mom making a amazing dinner.
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