Vino Sip Yo Provincials - Fun and Happy!

I'd like to thank the Happy Fun Racing people for their work to step up and run the provincials last weekend.  It's a big job to run a race, and to do it last minute is hard and stressful too!  Great job!  I love their attitude and philosophy, reminding us why we do this.

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

Survey. Speak up if you like the Fall Classic, or watching kids ride bikes!

MCA is asking you to speak your mind regarding a variety of questions.   Click here to go to the survey.  

I especially encourage all readers to consider the question of Adult and Kids race scheduling.  If you are affected by this directly like I have been (you race and have kids who race), you need to make suggestions now.  I know some adults did not race this year because they couldn't make it work with the scheduling (eg Birds Hill on Saturday for kids, and Brandon on Sunday for adults).  I would love to hear from you if that if describes you.  Even if you don't care about when the kids race, you must care about the future of the sport.  I think the kids benefit from seeing you hulking lycra clad athletes having fun, joking around, and giving it your all on the course time after time.  This is their connection to what racing can be.  Not just a kids activity, but a venue for fun, friendship, and healthy competition. 

I would like to suggest this for a scheduling solution, and if you agree, tell the MCA:
Kids races should combine the Youth Cup with KOM races as they did this year.  These races should be combined with the Adult Cup races, either on the same day and same location, or at least the same weekend and same location. 

At Tinker Creek this weekend, the only way to make a kids race happen was to create a new kid's course.  Some of us buckled down and did it.  In most cases it wouldn't take as much to allow kids and adults to race on the same day.  Parents - speak up, and also help the organizers!

This year was a real test of resolve, but we made it to every cup race.  I hope more families can do it next year!

Tinker Creek race report

Where does a guy start describing an event like today's Back 40 race at
Tinker Creek?

For me, it starts with gratitude.

First, the land. It's draped with slim ribbons of trails, gracefully
dipping, diving, stretching and relaxing. The trails allow us a window
into the forest, from the sunny ridges of meadow to the deep dark
places, wet, quiet, cool. What a privilege to travel in the haunt of
deer, beaver, cougar, and all manner of birds. The heights, depths,
waterways, meadows and don't forget the animals are all part of a
God-given thrill ride that we can access by foot, observe from a
vehicle, or dip, dive and speed through on a bicycle. Thanks!

What about access? There was quite a buzz several years ago in the
Tinker Creek clubhouse/shop over the newly accessible Loeppky Quarter.
News of trail ideas came in bits and pieces from the local gurus James,
Gord, and others. It became known as the Big Loeppky. In the second
half of the race course today all the racers would have seen some of the
Loeppkys smiling and cheering us on. They were the happy looking guys
that looked like brothers (they are). Also, if you enjoyed the high
speed meadow thrill ride and subsequent climb through beautiful dappled
forest, you need to thank the Stoesz family. They were there today too,
brimming with delight at the spectacle of this great land use.

Pushing 40? Try 60!

I don't follow the Tour very closely, but have spent the last couple of evenings catching up on some of the action via bikesnobnyc and other Bicycling.com features.  Chris Horner is an American rider, born 12 days after I was, who is hoping for a podium finish in the tour this year.  "Pushing 40, and Getting Faster" is the title of a recent interview. 

This was inspiring.  But wait.

Today's honorary trailhero is a guy from the Kildonans named Arvid Loewen.  He just crossed our continent in Guiness Record time, under 14 days.  And for a cause.  He's raising money for an African hero to orphans - Charles Mulli.  Read up on this - and donate!

You don't get to sleep much when you're on this kind of mission trip.

National Treasure

There are lots of thing our country does well.  Parks, education, wilderness. 
But maybe you don't know about the official National Treasure list. I have a few nominations.

Kids with enough guts to learn to ride a unicycle.

In flip flops...

The clown probably won't be on the list.

Strawberries are a treasure, especially when filling a cherub's hand.

A good full suspension mountain bike is not a national treasure.   But it is a segue into my main nomination.

My main nomination for national treasure today is the trail system near Tinker Creek.  I don't have a picture for it.  There is no way to convey via fiber optics and even the best inertnet (sic) connection the sense of awe, adrenaline, and beauty I experienced today, enhanced by the finest of camaraderie.  I spent nearly three hours on incredible singletrack, much of it new this year.  Sweeping curves, challenging terrain, bridges, landslips, walls of wild rhubarb, berms, off camber turns. 

Kudos to trailmaster Gord and his helpers for their fantastic contributions to trail riding in southern Manitoba.  You have an eye for the lines hidden in the landscape, the exhilaration embedded in the poison ivy, and you made my day.
And a grateful nod to the Trailhero, without whom, well, no dirt to play in, I guess.

I have to mention the riders.  Today we saw somewhere between 15 and 20 people converging on the treasure hidden in these Pembina Hills with bikes (two of them biked from their front step to the trailhead).  And the hardware?  Carbon hardtail 26", full rigid steel 29er, full suspension downhill bikes, and everything in between.  I was riding something new to me too.  But as the ride went on, my eyes opened to the fact that it's not, as Lance said, about the bike.

Today's ride was really about:  re-acquaintances, meeting new people, trying to catch someone, waiting for someone, focusing so hard on the trail that everything else vanished, and goldfinches.  They're really active right now, I noticed.

All of this using the precious, delicate, unyielding, yet ever changing treasure of the trail system.
Thank you!

Warning - bike geek stuff below.
Notice the bike pictured above?  That's not my usual ride.  After talking with Wayne B. (the coolest guy on two wheels) some time ago, I got to thinking.  Would I be faster with a dual suspension bike?  Not long after this, I noticed among Olli's collection of fancy carbon and other mysterious roadie stuff, a full suspension frame and fork (Anthem, 2008) for sale.  In my size. 

So I talked to the seller, it sounded good.  Then I talked to a friend in Winkler who rides the same frame in the same size, and convinced him to let me scientifically test drive his bike.  I took my Norco hardtail (may it rest in peace) and the squishy bike to a variety of terrains that I had predetermined in our coffee table flat city.  Then I timed myself doing short specific rides on each bike.

Comparing them side by side produced no significant differences in most situations when using short (30 - 60 second) interval type tests.  I tested: tight slalom style turns, two different hill climbs, one of which included some rough terrain, and a deeply rutted drainage ditch.  The rutty ride along the ditch was the only one that produced a noticeable discrepancy in the data.  Two seconds faster over a one minute interval.  That's about 3%.

Is 3% on one situational test enough to take the plunge and spend some cash?  I don't know, but it was the harder to measure components of my testing that helped me decide.  The bike felt great.  I felt fast.  There was great ground contact and sense of security.  The roughest parts of a race are where this bike would shine, and I want to go fast everywhere, including the unforgiving, hardtail seat breaking rocks of Falcon Lake.  I realized I had softened on my idealistic "29er single rigid" and was willing to part with some cash to do it.

Almost every single component on the Anthem was swapped directly from my Norco (R.I.P), excepting the seatpost (different dimension) and shifting (bought Gripshift x.9).

First trailride today results in a grade of A-.  Everything is great except for the shifting, which is jumpy at cog 1 and 2.  That's a mechanic problem though, not a bike problem.  It flies!

I'm thankful and having fun.  Thanks Olli and Wayne!

RAMONA'S UPDATE- Wanted : Orange Bike

So it's not orange...

(I've never unwrapped  a new bike before!)

But here it is- my Sette 29er!

And I'm even going tubeless this summer!

And learning to be my own mechanic!

Now to find some childcare and hit the trails already!

(Posted by Ramona)

One down, but one up on the podium...

Tristan was still not feeling up to racing today at Birch with the KOM
crew.
But...
Jaydi flew through the U11 course to gather another first place finish
and the additional honor of series Champion!
Congratulations Jaydi!