BC Bike Race Day 3

This morning was a bus ride then ferry ride to Powell River - we raced after noon as the ferry was late. 

I had not too bad of a start. Led out through town by cop cars so we did parade speed till the steepest piece of pavement in town when the cop pulled off. Ouch. Fine on that hill, but a half hour later quickly went backwards. Probably the sawdust/oatmeal on the ferry just sat in my belly as I had no energy after what was stored in my legs was gone. Instead of tail end of chase group I was surounded by the middle area who'd slip rear tires over half the roots and call "root" every time we crossed a root. We essentially rode roots for 3h non-stop - I wasn't perky with energy so this wasn't all that fun as it was pretty repetitive. Just sort of coasted along with a couple meter gap so I could slow up and navigate stuff while guys hopped on and off.

The course was created by the mossy chunder monster, I think he looks like oscar the grouch. We rode peat and roots that had no flow in any direction for hours. Squishy peat that took energy non stop. I'm not a fan, but usually I can ride it decently fast as it's flat-ish and technical. Not so much today.

At aid station two I felt better and moved to the gap between the riders who could do this all day long and those that couldn't. Nice to have some space and just pluck away at the kilometers. Rode down the stairs to some wood bridge then noticed on the other side some guy was tending to his partner's cut face from presumably the bridge gone wrong.

Sounds like Pat blew a valve and/or tire just 6 min in and "restarted" riding behind the sweepers. That's tough.

Caught a few groups in the last 5k of gravel and road, then rode in alone from 2k out as the whole rotational draft thing sort of stopped at my turn.

Maybe since I have only ridden bikes for 2 days at a time since Portugal, day 3 was just a surprise to me? Hmmm... or I'm just in poor shape.

Handfords are fast as always - Matt has really brushed up his fitness.

It's kinda funny how fun 3h of biking cool trails is day after day, but how polar opposite it is from the action on observatori.ca which is say magnitudes more colorful and trying.