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Friday 18 July 2014

Sudbury OCup Race Review

So, last weekend was my first attempt at an O'Cup race (the Ontario Cup is the Ontario Cycling Association's race series).  This race was #5 in the series, and just happened to be the Canada Cup....held in Sudbury.

I carpooled with Blaze and misconceptionz up to Sudbury on Saturday (the race was on Sunday).  The trip up was OK until misconceptionz admitted to having a redheaded stepchild.





Sorry, misconceptionz if I have outted you here, especially if Mrs.conceptionz didn't know.  Perhaps you should introduce Mrs.conceptionz to the child's mother...





Right turn Clyde...

Actually the most worrisome part of the ride up was when misconceptionz sang Akinyele's "Put it in your mouth"...

After that I just shut off until we got to Sudbury.

We went directly to CptSydor's parents house (CptSydor's parents live in Sudbury, and I was staying there for the weekend), where we were all invited for dinner.

CptSydor's family are some of the nicest people in the world...not really sure how CptSydor came from this very genuine, down to earth, friendly origin...

Anyways, supper went well until Blaze decided to model his new racing kit...






Yes...that is an Angry Birds Onezie...don't ask...you don't want to know...

Anyways let's get to the race...

The course itself was an abundance of technical rock...this is Sudbury after all; the heart of the Canadian Shield.  Sharp crags, that can easily tear out a sidewall and end up with a flat tire.  Sharp punchy rock face climbs to suck the life out of the legs, and the air out of the lungs.  Some twisty single track, to connect the rock bits, and enough double track to allow for passing...but all of it very bumpy and rough...to beat the heck out of the shoulders, hands and back.  The race (for my category) was 3 laps of about 7+ kms.

The competition was very tough.  The thing with OCup races is that everyone is a dedicated racer.  Everyone trains hard, everyone is competitive...striving to do well to earn OCup points in order to move up in categories, and to win overall standings.  For these competitors, the fun is in the competition, about improving and getting faster; not only faster than you are, but faster than the competition.

So bang.  My category was off!  I passed some, I got passed...through the course, heart rate red lining the entire time.  Came through the feed zone 10 - 12 minutes into lap one, CptSydor was there cheering me on.  (CptSydor's category raced later in the afternoon).  Then on through the end of the first lap in about 31 minutes.

Lap 2.  Through the feed-zone, CptSydor there again....and someone called 'Go Riot!'  I couldn't see who it was....who else would have been cheering for me??  Blaze and misconceptionz were out on the course...they had started several minutes ahead of me in another category.  

Well I did have a few fans show up...



And Emily came out to watch me...






Yeah right...

Anyways...I continued, finishing lap 2 in 35 minutes.  Through the start finish again someone cheered me on...what??  It was Blaze...why was he not racing??  Turned out he blew out a sidewall and flatted out, finishing his race prematurely.

This is Blaze in a race he actually got to race in...




Out I went for my third and final lap...through the feed-zone...I was hurting.  An hour and a half of redlining, and the course was beating the heck out of me.  Got about 500 meters from the finish and there was misconceptionz running with his bike...a flat back tire.  "Get your slow ass out of the way!", I called.  He attempted a laugh, while trying not to cough up a lung running with his bike.  I finished off my lap, and the race....I was wiped out...and my hands and back were screaming at me.  Total race time, 1hr42mins...solidly mid-pack in my category.  I was hoping for better, but really, I was happy to survive.

misconceptionz finished his race, running his bike across the finish line.  (He ended up running the final 4kms!!).

This was him on the course before the flat...



Once I changed out of my racing gear I had to get ready for CptSydor's race, as I was operating his feed station.  CptSydor had a descent race.  He out-sprinted ApexNeil in the last 100m or so to the finish, and he finished in front of Oggie, which was a bit of motivation for him.  He too was wiped and depleted at the finish line.

Oggie finished, then comforted Jeff.





Yeah....I just threw up a little in my mouth too...

Then they basked in the afterglow...





Is this Oggie and Cpt during the full supermoon??





Anyways...other notes of note at this O'Cup:

Louda won her category.




JeffS won his category.




Well done, eh!!! 

The next O'Cup race is this weekend July 20th.  It is Canadian National Championship, and a preview of the course to be used for the 2015 PanAm games.  Good luck to all participating!

In the meantime I have plenty of work to do in order to get better and faster.

I am still too damn heavy...









Perhaps!

So there ya go.  My first OCup race in the bag...I survived...will there be more??

Stay posted!!





Friday 11 July 2014

SubstanceProjects Humbler Race Review and Other Humbling Stuff

Last Saturday, 7am me, Fig, and NewfieSteve pile in with  VVagabond for the drive up to Northumberland Forest for 'The Humbler'; a 60km Mountain Bike race...third race in SubstanceProjects XC Marathon Mountain Bike Race series, run by DanOfSubstance.

What's great about Dan's races?  They are fun, unpretentious, run by Dan and his family, and on trails we don't normally get to ride; and they are challenging. Racing a mountain bike for 60 kms is not a normal everyday occurrence, and it is a challenge not only to compete, but to simply complete.  Which means the competition is stiff...because the hard core MTBers come out for the challenge.  (The race is two loops of 30 kms, which means there is also a 30 km half marathon option for those working their way up to the full 60 km challenge.)

Other racers attending included EnglishJim, Giant, Oggie and about 135 others.

So, bang....the race started at a serious pace...Giant, Oggie, and a plethora of others pull in front of me off the start.  I wasn't feeling it on this day...the pace was more than I felt I could handle for 60kms so I settled into my marathon pace.  Fig pulled on ahead, while NewfieSteve settled in behind me.

The talk before the race was about how there was no climbing on the course.  It was BS.  While there were only a couple of short, sharp, punchy climbs, there was plenty of long false flats, that had me wondering if I had a flat, or my bottom bracket had seized, or I had immediately gained 20 lbs.  

This is me, in my race garb...




This is me in my regular clothes....





The positive side of these long climbs was that there were several long, flowing, twisty but very fast single track descents.  Huge fun...but you really had to stay aware, as some of the twisty corners were quite sandy, and many racers washed out and crashed....oddly enough, I wasn't one of them!!

About 15 kms in, Steve and I passed Fig on one of these descents, who had just pulled a twig out of his rear derailleur.  Fig rode with us for about 5kms then pulled away never to be seen again.

And so the race went...with Steve on my wheel the entire race...until with about 10kms to go; after one of the short, steep, punchy climbs I looked back and Steve was not there...he had dropped off.  Finally, I saw the finish line...and crossed at 3hrs,38mins (36th place overall; 14th in my category).  And there was Giant eating his post race meal...he had beat me by over 20 minutes...he kicked ass!!  He even, beat Oggie...by 15 seconds...and nobody beats Oggie!!  Ever!!! 

Even Fig beat me on this day...by nine minutes...oh the humility.  Steve rolled in minutes behind me, then VVagabond...then eventually, before the sun set and the earth cooled and the dinosaurs returned EnglishJim finished.

Everybody finished relatively crash-free, mechanical-free followed by a 2 hr drive home, and group recovery food and beverages on the deck.  It was a good day!  Thank you DanOfSubstance!!

How did I follow up on the Sunday??  misconceptionz convinced me to go on a 145km road training ride with the Rock & Road cycle race team.  I was wiped from the race, but it would be a leisurely pace he promised...and no hills...I grudgingly agreed, and got Fig to join.  But as the group gathered, Kyle showed up...an elite OCup racer.  Then JeffS...JeffS has no idea what a leisurely pace is (Jeff and his family went camping in the US last month for a holiday...while they were there Jeff and his daughter entered the New Jersey state MTB championship race just for fun...and they each won their category...they are no longer allowed into the state...).  So I figured I could be in trouble...and I was; it was all I could do to just hold on the entire time...(I think I may have pulled for about 20 seconds); my already depleted legs screaming at me every second.  Our average speed was 31km/hr, with the last 30 kms a 15km/hr slugfest at full effort into a nasty headwind. 

Fig and Hank at BelFontaine...our halfway stop.



misconceptionz selfie, with me and Fig in the background....way, way back in the background...




4hrs45mins later I fell into my garage barely able to walk, or put two words together...lucky to have Lois help me prepare a recovery drink as I sat and gulped it trying not to drool on myself. 

Here are some examples of how I felt...










Yup....I may become narcoleptic...




Oh well, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger...or something...it is better to have loved and lost than how you play the game...a stitch in time means cheaters never prosper.  Thanks misconceptionz...you almost killed me...but yeah, I will do it again next time...regardless of how much I was swearing at you.

Lois got me a new friend this weekend!!






CptSydor appropriately named him SpeedGnome.
So now I have two helpers to assist me with writing this shite...




Anyways, what's next??  This weekend...off to Sudbury to make an attempt at an OCup race.  Talked into it by misconceptionz (again), Blaze, and CptSydor...what could go wrong??  I will let you know.


Stay posted.


Friday 4 July 2014

Remnants of the 24...and The Humbler!!

So...some random memories of the Summer Solstice 24 HR MTB Relay Race that I didn't have the time, wherewithal, or smarts to include in the last post...

CptSydor pulled off a 47 minute lap...smokin fast!

Again, a big thank you to the Rock & Road Cycle Race Team for all of their help during the race!  
Which one of these doesn't belong here....which one of these just isn't the same...



Ted and Neil at Apex Photography took some Awesome pictures...I have a bunch on order...but here are links to a couple of my favourites in the meantime...



Of course podium pics are every racers favourite.

Podium1    


Yeah I know...I'm getting self indulgent, honking my own horn...prideful even...sorry.


Lois warns me against getting too prideful too...





 At least I'm not this guy...






Or this guy....











OK, yes last dude is right...let's move on...

Some more esoteric memories of the race...

The high that comes with being so completely exhausted, at 2 or 3 am, when the body is freezing but the exhausted mind, and the tired body, put you in that warm comfortable dopiness, where you can't put two words together, you can't find your food, or put order to the things you know you have to do before you have to get back on the bike again...so you just sit and get sorted out for 10 minutes or so...

The fireflies...popping out of the grass at night.

The eerie sounds of the bullfrogs, somewhere out on the trails along the water, in the dead, dark of night...

The robins song at 4am...letting you know that dawn is soon to come...(Duke alerted me to this during one of my dopey states I mentioned above).

The joyful relief when you know you are done, and you have given your all...followed by the uncertainty that comes days or even just hours later, when you wonder if you could have done just a little bit more...so you look forward to next year....or even the next race...which just happens to be, tomorrow!!

Yes, tomorrow's race...the next of Dan of Substances XC Marathon series.  Dan has dubbed it 'The Humbler'...which may be appropriate for me.  I am still behind on my training (from my road crash a couple of blog posts back), and not in the shape I would like to be in by now, so some of my faster friends are even more faster than I, and some of my competitive friends are getting faster than me (Steve, Fig, Giant, Jaimie).

Many have asked how my hands are doing.  The skin is almost completely healed, but the bone and soft tissue in the left hand is still stiff and swollen, and the hand gets tired and sore within an hour and a half on the bike.   Oh well, soon it will be good...and I will be back on track.  In time for the Eager Beaver 100 mile MTB race.

For now, tomorrow is the Humbler...race report to follow...

Stay posted!!