Let's start off with a video recap of our super awesome group ride post relay nationals last weekend:Click Here
After that the national team project I am taking part in started Monday in Mont-St-Anne, Quebec. Legendary for it's tough World Cup course and 22 straight years hosting the World Cup or World Championships. With water falls, lakes, trees, mountains and such it is a just a great place to have a world cup.
I was also fortunate enough to be present for the announcement of the men's and women's Olympic mountain bike team in St-Anne. It was great to see past Olympians and the new deserving soon to be Olympians. Rooming with Mr Max Plaxton this week and it was great to be around him for a few days before the 'official' announcement. He also killed it this weekend with a career high 5th! As well as doing a bunch of bicycle riding on course this week with Catharine Pendrel. Congrats to Emily Batty and Geoff Kabush, well deserved.
Did lot's of creekin' before the race:
Race day came and I was pretty excited to just race my bicycle. Sainte Anne is probably my favourite course in the world and is pretty special to me as it's where I won my first mountain bike National Championships as a junior as well as winning a junior World Cup.
Race reports can be found here:
Our race took off at an early 9 am. Which called for a 5:45 wake to consume some water, coffee and breakfast. It was already balmy at 7 am and by 7:30 we I made my way to the venue my skin was getting moist from this humid eastern weather. Joined up with the many different spandex wearing cyclists. We started and then we went hard for 1.5 hrs and then we finished. I finished in 13th. It was just another bike race, things went well and I felt decent but had a pretty solid thinking head which helped me ride well. Crushed the technical descents on my Rocky Mountain Vertex 990 RSL. Bike was fast and light and can handle descending faster than guys on full suspensions..Sick? yah I know! I actually rode fast up the hills against them skinny Europeans which was quite nice. Things always seem easier when your feeling good and/or have a good race. I wouldn't say I had the best legs ever but I was just excited to race bikes and go fast on the best course on our home turf. I also had my bike working great thanks to our team mechanics and a fully functioning body thanks to our physio and some great motivation from the coaches. I think I also rode slightly faster because of all the people cheering me on the hills! Thank you. It's funny how all the excuses from the top Euro riders are all about "jet lag" and when we go to Europe 2-4 times a year they don't think about that for us..but once a year to North America for them is sometimes too tough. It was tough enough that Olympic favorites in the elite men's and women's races opted not to come over. Lame. I was pretty damn excited to cut my time in half on my deficit to leader compared to last year. It was great that almost all the top-10 in the World Cup standing's for under-23 men were here. Enough about my race.
If your into Strava, check out the race: http://app.strava.com/rides/11632182
And today's super sick DHing on the big hill: http://app.strava.com/rides/11632441
Plaxton killed it, Pendrel killed it, Marc-Antoine-Nadeau killed, Frederique Trudel killed it, Micayla Gatto killed it..Canada is going well on the podium this weekend.
Video and photo updates also on http://www.cyclingdirt.org/video/643603
Today, since my bike team is awesome, I was fortunate enough to use a Rocky Mountain Slayer and do some downhill shuttling on the mountain. Probably the best post race recovery ride ever! GoPro footage coming soon to a computer near you..Or right to your computer.
Time for some more creekin' and a cold brew to cap a great weekend thanks to Cycling Canada and all my support from Rocky Mountain, The Bike Barn, my family and friends.
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