The Life of Evan Guthrie: Windham World Cup Recap 2012

Well, I have just finished off a two month road trip with seven races in eight weekends. Yesterday was World Cup #6 in Windham, New York. A nice small mountain town with a ski hill that put's on a killer venue for a UCI mountain bike World Cup.

Last Monday myself, along with the National Team made the drive from Monte-St-Anne to Place Placid, NY for a night's pit stop and a morning training ride. We stayed right across from the legendary HoJo's(Howard Johnson) restaurant where only two original one's remain in the U.S. After we were stuff on the buffet some went to bed and some went downtown to check things out. Last year we stopped there as well and it just happen to be the 4th of July, which ended up being pretty neat. Morning ride on some local trails was pretty awesome. Afternoon drive to Windham, where we arrived to our favorite accommodation in Windham, the Thompson Hose. With a river next door, pool, shuffle board, mini-put, tennis, breakfasts and dinners it it quite the vacation place. Spent some days riding our bikes on the course, getting a sun tan and resting in the creek/pool. Team Canada spirits were high, as usual, and we were all quietly confident and excited for the race. After a great showing in every category and every discipline last weekend at home in Monte-St-Anne I think everyone wanted to show our nations power one more time.

Personally, my race was alright. Not great but not horrible, the only thing horrible was my start and first lap. It was an interesting start for the race, as we started in the town and rode almost 2 km up to the course and then did the 8-9 min climb. So really we started, race hard and fast up hills for something like 10-12 minutes and then descended back down to the start/finish to finish off four more laps. I believe I came through at the end of the first lap about 35~ isshh, a whole lot worse than last weekend, and just tried to think as positive as possibly and started to push through riders lap by lap. Finished off 23rd, not what I was hoping for after a 13th last weekend. I definitely wasn't climbing as well as last weekend, but hey that's bike racing! No matter what your handed you have to take it and go with it, head up and look forward. Great work by all the Canadians out there! Pretty cool to see how many Canadians were out representing. Whether it be winning the race, finishing top-10 of competing in their first World Cup and taking away experience it was just great to be apart of the weekend.

We all have a fair sized break now to rest, regroup, train and make our selves hurt more than ever in the near weeks. With some heading over to London for a big one later this summer and others just prepping for provincial or local events. Myself, I am really REALLY looking forward to this weekend's Valley First Axel Merckx GrandFondo in Penticton, BC. It will be a great way to have fun, meet people and enjoy the fantastic scenery of the Okanagan Valley.

Today was a fantastic wind down and capped off a great trip. Little food eating followed by some mountain biking on local trails then watching the Downhill World Cup. Super excited to be apart of the crowd when Steve Smith took the lead with only one rider to go, who of which beat Smith's time. But it was pretty cool as usually our venue's are separate or just don't mesh with travel.

Hopefully some good stories throughout the summer as the racing settles down for a while. Looks like the next race with be a 3-day mountain bike stage race in Fernie, BC called TR3.

Big thanks to all who supported me on this trip. Couldn't have done it without the help and support.

Picture update extravaganza below:

Race Report on CanadianCyclist: http://canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=24466

Race Report on PedalMag: http://pedalmag.com/?p=164119&c

Video Reports & Interviews on CyclingDirt: http://www.cyclingdirt.org/