See Blog Name Above

This last year would refer to the 'Black Holes' bit in the Blog name. I will try to get back to this with a bit more frequency - Even more than once a year? - why yes, but why not? Anyway over the next couple I will try to update the bike racing situation for those that are clamouring for news.

Mansfield O-cup #1
Disaster. Totally sick. As in a virus - not as in 'Totally awesome'. 15 minutes back of the leaders. Disaster. Should probably have stayed home except that there was a flat out ripping double track downhill that was worth the price of admission.

Woodnewton O-cup #2
Skipped it. Still sick. Yup, the virus thing. Don't think that I missed much as I heard it was a deluge and too much of the course was over grass. How about some singletrack instead of some one's lawn.

Hardwood Hills O-cup #3 / Canada Cup
This is where things have started to get back on track although it was a very shaky lead up on the week before. To elaborate I was basically over the sickness - yes same one - and felt like my fitness was coming around. I had recently started riding on a tubeless setup that I was putting to the test on the Wednesday night race before the big weekend. This is where I was initiated to the limitations of the Stan's setup with low pressure in non UST rims.

While going pretty fast down some double track with a nice roller in it, I got a bit of air and kicked the back end out a little. Upon landing I heard this super loud BRRAAAPP sound and found myself with almost no pressure left at all in the back tire. This was awkward but I made it back to the car and pumped it up again and it felt OK. Unbeknownst to me there was some dirt trapped between the rim bead and side wall of the tire which caused to to slowly lose air over the next lap. I found out going down a trail called coffee run where I lost pressure again through the tire burping as I was pushing hard over a rough rooty section. Back to the car for more air. I then did the race and everything felt basically OK but when I went out for a last bit of a lap on the Canada Cup course I came to an awkward spot that has a little root drop that doesn't have a great run up and an off camber landing with a weird root in the middle. I was going too slow so I tried to half wheelie drop it but ended up sort of doing a bit of a table top nose dive right into the root on the landing. The front tire jack knifed and exploded off the rim, and I hit the deck pretty hard in a shower of Stan's sealant. Great way to prepare for the race.

After the disaster that was the C - Cup last year, I sort of figured that this might be an omen that I should cut my losses and not even show up on the Sunday. However, my lovely wife Jodi let me get back out on the Friday before so that I could attempt to reclaim my mojo. It went much better and I figured out a couple sections of the course that were very advantageous relative to how I had been riding it previously, and yes, there were tubes back in both tires. I would still like to try the tubeless set up more but I think I will wait until I have some proper rims and run a little more pressure.

So on the Sunday race day it went pretty well and I enjoyed the course better than last year. It was still strenuous and a little technical but there wasn't quite as much gut busting technical climbing and it was a little more fun and flowy over all. I have found a picture below which was part of a super fun bit that went down some really fast double track into single track and over a couple wide A-frame planks where you could get a bit of air.



I ended up finishing 10th overall which I was pretty happy with and best of all my race wasn't limited by cramping legs which is where they all ended last year. It seems that the Hammer Nutrition product called Perpetuum is working pretty well for me so I will likely stick with that for the foreseeable future.

In the next couple days I will try to get together a report on Albion hills which was an awesome race.