May 19th, 2014

And a river runs down it

The weather held up its end of the bargain this past weekend here in Tremblant, they had been calling for some rain for a while and it came down nice and steady for about 24 hours. Pre-riding was a little moist but small blocks seemed to still be a good tire for the course.




Fast forward to the morning of the race and one look at the bikes and overhearing the stories from the the earlier races it seemed obvious a tire change was in order. A new addition for the race this year was some new routing in the village as well. With the start located at the bottom near the cabriolet and some new roll overs and a stair set to spice up the village section for spectators and racers. Tremblant is a rarity in that the race is brought to the general public and is highly spectator friendly with the sections through town.




Start was what was to be expected on paved windy course, lots of pinching, shifting and locked wheels but i think most people made it through. Had to get off a couple times and hoof it before joining the course at the old start and got into a chase group that was trailing off by about 50 feet going up the long gravel access road to the first single track.




With a gap to the group in front it didn't bottleneck as bad actually but we soon got our first look at the “course” which had a few little streams and rivers running down some sections. Which created a couple hike a bike sections/try not to step in a deep puddle.




I was feeling good but not great and closing down gaps was a challenge but I was able to pick off a few racers and also try to ride smooth and keep it upright on the big decent. I had young Disera in my sights and was thinking if we could get together we could shake and bake pretty good. But he had other plans and on lap 3 decided it was time to crank it to 11. And he says its my fault we never ride together back home.




Squeezed into the top 15 for a UCI point or two and a couple bucks, tough race but a clean race. Baie st Paul is another good course next weekend so we'll see what I can manage to do there.