BC Bike Race Day 1 - testing the limits of XC

Teresa's cafe seemed so good yesterday that we decided to follow the same routine the is morning.  I was full from sushi last night and ate only half my meal, then it was back upstairs to do final cramming to get everything into our bags without zippers popping.

Busses got us to the start with ample time to get ready and spin our legs.  The first few kilometers were a drag race up a paved climb.  I dread this kind of thing... not always, but I haven't been riding that style much lately.

Pat set the record straight in the start chute: know thyself, know the trail, no prisoners.  The guys around him just had these blank looks on their faces, they didn't know what to say to that.

News flash: when the race organization scares everyone with a "choke point" on the trail, nobody wants to be behind that.  The start was fast.

News flash that's harldy a news flash: Devin climbs like a rocket. 

News flash that's harldy a news flash 2: I'm not a rocket off the start. 

My legs felt like lead, my throat tasted like blood, and my lungs wanted to cough.  I settled into a tempo that was functional and dealt with how the three aforementioned items affected my conscience.  Settled into a pace that was functional, then realized it probably was fine regardless as Mical was right there and Geoff Clark too.  Things started to turn around after the first downhill, gave a little recuperation time and a confidence boost.

Fact:  north shore mountain biking is world class technical.  It's badass fun, if you're up for it.  It's not to be taken for granted, and it's not easy.  Being a competent technical rider from elsewhere gave me a decent shot, but it's pretty unrealistic to show up here and ace it if it isn't your back yard.  Every minute of it was awesome, I love the challenge.  My left bottomed out probably 15x, even when trying my best to keep it half smooth.  The number one cause of volunteered dismounting was wet skinnies.

We blew through the checkstop and started the longer second climb.  Devin rode the climb for two men, literally.  By the top of the climb we passed Alyson Sydor, and when I say "we", I mean Devin's engine passed them on our behalf.  I sincerely thank him for this effort!

They sprinted and passed us back before the singletrack, but Alyson's partner didn't ride the singletrack quite like she does, so after a few minutes we were ahead again.  The number of volunteers out was amazing to guide people over the features, and man was there a lot of awesome trail features.  Rock drops, skinnies, burmed corners, and cobblestone ramps, etc.  Pat even took a "non-recommeded" teeter and ended up temporarily at Geoff's eye level before the teeter dropped. 

Devin and I exited the woods and rode in with Normon Thibeault.  Shawn and Craig were the next spot ahead of us, so even if we felt rough, it couldn't have been that bad of a day.

We checked the results and found we weren't listed, but soon had that fixed as everyone knew we came in with Norm's team.  Thanks timing crew, and thanks Drew Bragg for being the man who knows most of the riders out here. 

Life is good - massage, warm weather, sunshine, and unreal trails, friends all over and a great dinner.

Tori is on the podium today too!