We arrived at the Brandon Hills wilderness area early enough to register and preride both the kids and the adult courses. We were running the course in reverse (counter clock) compared to how I've raced it before, and I really liked the change. This changed many of the short and nasty climbs into short technical downhills. Most of the climbing was fairly gradual and not too techy.
Generally the course was very tight (no 28" bars!) and quite flowing. Especially the latter half of the course, I just loved the rise and fall, the curves, with a few handlebar grabbing tight squeezes thrown in to test your depth perception and nerves. The vegetation was looking decidedly fall-like due to the dry summer, and thus a little easier to see around corners. That helped keep speeds up.
I toyed with the idea of renaming the race something with the words Poison Ivy but decided it would make a great course and fun day sound too dangerous to the public. I didn't actually contract any symptoms of the itchy rash, so the anagram generator I found online helped me with a more relaxing and evocative name. On the other hand, the closest I got to Vino sipping was some nasty strong orange Gatorade. Maybe In Ivy, Oops Provincials would be more apropos.
The staging was a bit of a surprise. We were congregating in the traditional funnel area to await the call when the commissaires told us to go up the trail a bit. So we all turned south and followed Kevin Braun and Paul Benson. And they kept going. We, all 50(?) of us played a little mystery follow the leader up the fire road, like a tentative stuffed-lycra train. I think I was not alone in thinking Kevin and Paul were playing an August Fool's joke on us all. It turned out that they started us up there, about 1000 meters before the finish area, on a curvy gradual downhill wide enough for passing and fast enough for sweating.
The staging order and releasing of groups went smoothly but I was disappointed in the way they broke us up by category/age. I wanted to race with my comp buddies (Paul, Pierre, Russell, James, and others), but we are spread out between the ages of 22 to 50, so we were released at three different times. So the test was to try to catch the guys in the group preceding your own. Too bad. I wanted a rematch with Paul since he and I were so close last year (and by lap times, it would have been similar this year). I would suggested staging in the usual Comp/Expert/Elite grouping, and separating the age/category winners afterwards.
The race itself was a test of internal motivation for me, since I wasn't battling for position with the usual comers. I had to find ways to push myself into the barf zone, which I didn't really achieve this time. Pushing at the edges of performance, going past the comfortable zone is a challenge for me. I think there is a mental game in this that I haven't even close to mastered. I like having a scary tree-trunk legged man trying to catch me or leave me in his dust to make me work harder.
I was proud of the kids too. They did great and Tristan is on the rebound from a summer of less than stellar health. Good to see him sweating and puffing again. Paulos is unlicensed, so no race, but I can't wait to see him laying it down again. He is one intense young racer. Jaydi soloed in the U11 girls cat this time.
Thanks to Grandma Daisy for the photos!
results
