#$%!!

Not again. Another race, another shitty result.

The Summer solstice is a two lap affair on the wonderful Sulfur Springs trails. We had some new singletrack in a couple of places this year, great setup as usual. The weather was amazing, 18C when I got up this morning.

Had a decent sleep, but I had a feeling I would be sucking wind today. A word to the wise, hanging out in a closed stadium full of dope smoking Megadeth and Slayer fans the night before a race is not great preparation. But they fucking rocked, so I went anyway.

Showed up late (as usual) and checked in quickly. Got my gear on and rode back to the starting area. Chatted up a bunch of the racers and got ready to go. We were off and I was ok to start. We had a good pace, not too many spots to bottleneck early. Then we hit the climbs. And my motor just flat out quit. Again. Just like Stony Plain. Fuck. After the second steep one, I was already walking. Nothing in the tank. I just kept thinking DNF. After struggling up (loved the new Pneuma singletrack portion) it was finally time to go down. Felt sketchy as hell, had some new tires I don't totally trust yet. Had too much air in them as well, but I always ride them like that as I hate flatting.

Pedalled, pushed up the rest of the climbs and headed for the start/finish area. I had actually passed 3 people at this point (one of them had a flat). I talked myself out of quitting and went for lap two. Felt much better this time around. Maybe I need to get there early and warm up or something. 1/3 of the way through, I started getting lapped by the experts. Gabor grunted past me on the steep climb right after you cross Moose Mtn fireroad. My knees hurt just watching him kill it up there with his single speed.

Finished ok, but I had a feeling I was at the back of the pack. Got the confirmation later that yes, out of all the finishers I was again dead last. It's tough trying to train for racing and being a Dad at the same time. I need to figure out some better ways to utilize my riding time.

On the good side, got to chat with a ton of people afterward. Dallas was there and had a few tales about the RAW. Paul Phillips and I had a great chat, looks like I have a team to ride with in the 24 Hour. Met Trev Williams (good to see you back on the bike), Jon Nutbown and Tim Heemskerk as well. And all of my Deadgoat pals (the ones who aren't tat the BC Bike Race) were out in full force.

Not a bad way to spend the day, still upset about the result, though.

Giver6er?

Another day, another tough race. I’ve been looking forward to racing this one again. The inaugural 8 hour giver8er was a huge success. What could be more fun than 8 hours on a great course?

I should have known. The day started poorly. Had a terrible sleep, Julia was up a few times and was very vocal. Even poor David woke up because she was too noisy. I dragged myself out of bed and had a quick shower. I had most of my stuff organized from the day before, which was good. Had a quick and uneventful drive to the course.

Registered in the tent and got my number plate. Looked like it was going to be a very nice day, just like last year’s event. I set up my food in the solo pit area and headed to the starting area.

After a few minutes, the field was off. We had a bit of a bottleneck at the start going up a short climb. I wasn’t in any hurry, pacing myself for a long day in the saddle. We wound up the hill and entered the singletrack. This course has a ton of it, not a lot of room to pass.

I was doing quite well until I did something very uncharacteristic: I crashed. On a portion of the trail that wasn’t even overly technical. Shit. Someone directly behind me stopped to make sure I was ok (thanks!) I had done an over the bars hands first landing. I stil can’t believe my wrists are ok. My bike, unfortunately, was not.

The brake lever was toast, I had no way to fix it. My knee was bleeding and sore as well. Great. I timidly finished off my lap and headed to the COP bike shop to see if they could help me. No luck. I jumped into the truck and headed down to Bow Cycle.

The bad news: no ORO brake products in stock. Good news: he was going to try to Macgyver a fix. It took over an hour, but he finally got it running and I raced back to COP.

I knocked off a few more laps in the afternoon, turning the Giver8er into the Giver6er. My two hour break did nothing for my body. I felt sluggish and tired almost the entire afternoon. Happy I got to finish, but disappointed in the result. I was well on my way to a good 10 or 11 lap finish before I bit it.