BC Bike Race Day 3

The Danish guy Erik who was at Andalucia recognized me, which I thought was funny that I didn't blend to the anonymous masses for him there. He said he'd never done this one before, but will definitely be back. I think he's like 6th, doing well. But the trails are blowing his mind, he's been so excited every day that we get hours on end like that.

Dinner was again completely awesome. They're doing very west coast natural healthy, I really like it. Although I forgot to bring hot sauce.

Happy birthday Jon! Maybe one of these years we can throw a birthday for you out here again... if a singletrack buffet is appropriate for a guy like you?!

I'm hanging out with the Hugo and Matt (Xprezo) a bunch, and therefore exposed to more Francias than usual. They're all awesome. Coincidentally today too the volunteer handing out the sleeping mats has been swimming intermittently in her bikini between tent assignment duties. She's upping the admiration of Quebecois among the racing population, and the tent tag/mat lineup is experiencing more loitering than usual.

Today's motto - don't screw up!

Hot at start, and long gravel climb, singletrack interlude, second singletrack is long and counts. Again, I'm starting in second group. Guys drill it, and I'm trying to balance staying in a group vs. riding with my brain/experience for rest of day. I sit in, and guys fire off bullets to get into the first singletrack first. Ok. I cruise along, enjoying the shade. We pop out to the road, I eat and drink, and the group is just hammering. We round the right sweeper, go by the lake, I put my gloves back on (first climb they were too hot), and I know the corner to miles of singletrack is right ahead. One guy snakes me on the way in, I tell him good job, did he know it was coming? He said he was just lucky, but said he was riding too hard and pulled over. Bam! Next hour was mostly solo. Awesome, all to myself. Shady, techy, mild grades, just motored. Cruised through aid 1, solo mostly to aid 2, got one bottle. Nobody around me on the gravel climb until near the top two guys blew by like I was standing still. Road turns left onto flat traverse and they basically coast, I guess they just hammer climbs.

I save some energy for the anti-flow part at the end, would have accelerated if those guys pushed, but knew the energy sap part was coming. Spent as much as I could, it's a full body section - weight, unweight, up and over, acute turn, pedal, repeat in some combo for probably 20 minutes. Try to maintain finesse. Feel decent.

Today's enduro's have pink wire flags most tough turns which helps, my glasses are a bit dark in the woods. The times on the enduros are impressive - there's climbing in all of them and to be posting good times you have to really push those instead of my just coasting descending. Plus you have to just be way better of course.

I caught Trish after enduro 2, got out to road, and shortly caught second place girl on the road. Said hi, she didn't say anything, and got on my wheel. Now of course I couldn't hold my deadgoat head high by aiding Trish's competition, so on the first road roller I burnt a match I otherwise wouldn't have to blow her off. Trish did awesome, another 3rd, and not back as much from 2nd today.

Cruised in... for 24th at about 2:30 for time, with another 4 spots in about the next 50 seconds. Yay! Feels good riding bikes like that, that's a solid day for me. Body is coming around.

Matt moved into 3d in GC with another steady performance, great for him.