OCup #2 Highlands Nordic - Review from Afar

So 23degrees, sunny, blue skies, green grass...a pleasure to be alive on God's earth (or whoever claims to own it these days...).

Oooops, sorry...a little latent Metis issues coming out already.  Anyways...those were the weather conditions when Clarky (not Scotty...too obvious), TheMexican, and I whipped up to Highlands Nordic near Duntroon, Ontario to pre-ride the OCup#2 course last Friday.

And the course was great fun...with plenty of challenges!  The first half was almost all climbing...including some technical single track requiring bike handling skills over rocks and steep switchbacks.  The last half included fast fun descents...including requiring bike maneuvering skills over rocks, rock drops, rock gardens, and pump track style single track.  All a huge, fun challenge!!  Normally, I would be so looking forward to such a race; even if I was sure to get my butt whipped by my competition in the Expert category.

It was such a fun course, I totally enjoyed the pre-ride...but my injured ribs didn't.  They punched back at me up every climb...but mostly they screamed through every tech bit that required upper body movement for maneuvering skills, and every drop.  Just doing a second pre-ride lap with Oggie proved to be highly uncomfortable (not the riding with Oggie part...the maneuvering the ribs part).  So, I knew I would have to do alot of ignoring of discomfort, and take a naproxen or two, in order to give my all for 4 full laps...which is what I knew I would have to do just to avoid coming in DFL in my too competitive category.

And then I considered the weather forecast for the weekend.  Oh no!!  Cold...and wet!!  Not just a little cold and wet...up to 10mm of rain and snow!!  Now, that could spell disaster for me.  The ribs are starting to heal (f'n slowly!!) so just a simple innocuous (good word, eh??) slip and fall could be a major setback...add the potential on this course, with plenty of rocks, a long always slippy rooty section with wood bridges, and dirt switchbacks...when wet could be a disaster in my case.  If I was uninjured none of it would be an issue...but now I was a bit concerned...

Sorry...too old of a reference?  Maybe this will help...

And unfortunately, I do not have Life Alert...

Anyways, given Environment Canada's proclivity (good word, eh??) for accuracy in their weather forecasting I thought I would wait to see what actually came at us before making any decisions...

And then it came...in buckets...Friday night and all day Saturday.  10mm...then snow...

After being on and off the fence, hemming and hawing, listing and yawing all day Saturday...I made the call to pull the plug.  As much as I detest giving up, and struggling all day to not consider myself a quitter...I determined this was the smartest thing to do.

And it turns out it was...

This was the scene at Highlands ...

And for the early Junior start....

And it didn't get much better by the time the Sport categories got going...

This is what so many of the bikes ended up looking like...

This is Jody's bike...a $500+ repair???

 And many slippy sections required special concentration...like MarkR here (look at that face!!)

And in fact, much of the course soon became unrideable due to the mud.  Many racers DNF'd or chose to run it...as Clarky shows us here...of course a Scotsman is used to running through the mud so it's not really fair...even in his wool tights (don't even ask about the kilt!!)

As much as SeanOfSuperfly and his crew at SuperflyRacing adapted the course to the conditions...I'm afraid mother nature won out on this day.

And although the snow disappeared by the time the Expert and Elite categories got going, the course was soft and chewed up...

Notice mtbmeister's back wheel disappearing in the mud...

Surprised Oggie was actually smiling at this point...or is it a grimace??

If it was a smile I don't think it lasted too long...I think he soon looked like this guy...

Actually, I think the only way SeanOfSuperfly got riders to continue was to convince them this was going on somewhere down the course....

Sorry, that was, perhaps, a bit too gratuitous??

Anyways...kudos to anyone who showed up to this event, under the conditions, bigger kudos to all who finished...and huge kudos to all podium finishers...including these amazing ladies!!

Jenn&Karen

See, now some might consider that a little gratuitous too??  Could be worse...I could have posted something like this...

Only that wouldn't be proper...unless maybe I also posted a pic of the new RiotOnRacing race kit...

Could be worse...I could have posted an old pic of me...

Yikes!!  Yeah...anyways, I have gotten way, way off track again...

For more, and much more appropriate and professional pics of the race....check at ApexRacePhotography, on hand to catch all of the action at the muddiest OCup ever!

Thank you to everyone who supplied me with pics and stories of the race...because as you know, I wasn't there...missing some prime writing material...and a real test of character...and again, props to all endured this thing!!

And thank you to osteo, mtb'er/osteopath/physical sports therapist extraordinaire for introducing me to Spidertech tape and how to properly apply it.  It is helping to speed up my recovery!

And yes the ribs are healing...and I'm working to maintain...so now, off to do some fun hill repeats in anticipation of what is to come...

Which is what exactly??

Stay posted!!