There was the Hardwood Ocup/Canada Cup promoted by Pulse Racing. By most accounts the course was simpler this year. This may have had something to do with the deluge of weather on the Saturday (rain, hail?, tornadoes??....there were tornado warnings...). However, the course included Boneshaker...and Boneshaker has always scared the hell out of me in any condition. Kudos to all who participated and to the podium steppers. A big True Grit yahoo to Seth...taking second place. Seth is tearing up the OCup circuit this year!!
Also going on this weekend, was this...
Which is where I was...(I was not at the above said OCup)...
For 75kms of sweet Turkey Point single track for 5 hours of riding time in the 40 degree heat!! We started 58 riders strong...
Some of the BicycleWorks crew was out!!
There were trails for all level of riders...and there were all types of mountain bikes!
Wardy on 29+ dropbar!
Duke went full fatbike!
48 riders finished the ride...including this weirdo on a rigid single speed...
moi...at the finish...
there were even guys in kilts...
Nooo!! Don't look up!!!
It was an awesome event! Membership has it's privileges!! So well run and organized!
Thank you to the small group of volunteers who worked all day in the heat to keep us safe at road crossings, keep us watered at water stops, fed at lunch, and at the finish BBQ! (really, it was the same small group racing ahead to all of the necessary points all day long! Not really sure how they pulled that off!). And thank you to Burning Kiln Winery for donating the Sparkling Wine for the champagne BBQ finish!
Actually, one of the best parts to the day was that Lois joined me for this one...sort of! The Turkey Point/Port Dover area has many worthy sites including wineries. So Lois dropped me off at the start, and met me at the finish but enjoyed the day touring the local wineries and cideries?? in the area!!
One of Lois' discoveries...
If you missed this...you missed a good one...plan for it for next year!!
So how do you follow up a 75km mountain bike trail Saturday??
Well by getting dragged out by Blaze on Sunday for a 50km Lake to Lake trail ride...reminiscent of the old Lake to Lake mountain bike race from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. Another 3 hours in even more heat than Saturday on trails that were a bit of a challenge on the single speed. There was great fun rocky single track on the Hood trails to start the ride! Then there were extended periods of gravel along the Welland Canal struggling/spinning on the single speed to keep up to the geared Energy Cycling Club riders (all exceptionally good riders!) on their geared bikes. (AlD who is a memeber of ECC planned and hosted the ride.) Then we were into several kms struggling through 4 foot tall prairie grass that had overgrown on the trail!!
In fact we discovered a new tribe living out in that grass!! A 3 foot tall group of people called the Fahkarwee...at least that is what they seemed to call themselves. They kept yelling to us as they jumped up in the 4 foot tall grass, "We're (Where??) the Fahkarwee!!"....as we rode by...
Then there were more kms of amazing, flowy single track to finish the ride!!
Then weekend recovery in Al's pool!! Thanks Al!!
Anyways...this was a great ride to finish out the weekend...and great training for what is coming up...which is...??
Stay posted!!
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