On Saturday it rained harder than I have ever seen before in Calgary so Erik, Devin and Myself did what any sound-minded person would do in such a situation – go Mountain Bike Racing!
The morning started totally awesome when I awoke to complete numbness in my left leg. I’ve been battling a sciatic nerve pinch/slipped disc/alien abduction trauma/(insert diagnosis here) for the last week, and things didn’t seem to be getting better. But at least we had two days of Canmore racing in store, and Claire joining us for some good times at Chateau Sirois.
I really love my job, so much that I am even racing with my employer’s name on my back this year. But I maintain my mantra: “the worst race is better than the best day at the office”. This was pretty much what got me to the start line Saturday, because Canmore had rained heavily and we after a comedy of errors (for which I will accept up to and not more than 50% of the blame) we arrived at the race 25 minutes before start. It didn’t rain during the race and even in the peanut butter mud I was having an awesome time – I am really enjoying the downhills this year after spending more time remembering how to ride a MTB.
After the race Erik declared “I survived!” Devin and I declared “Let’s get drunk!” unfortunately we forgot how MTB racing reduces you to a pathetic excuse of a man and all we managed was half a six-pack (between us)
Sunday I awoke numbness-free and pumped to have my organs ground, hopefully for the purposes of some type of Borscht.
Nordic centre trails were in awesome, super fast, no-brakes conditions. (For the first two laps - Then it rained and we rode peanut butter again.)The course was artfully crafted to maximize your chances of getting messed-up through the combination of Laundry Chutes/Eye Dropper/Devonian Drop/Ass Whooper.
I saw a bear. It was real furry and looked like it meant business (see photo). Everyone was losing their minds on the trail. I subconsciously counted how many nearby people I could ride faster than, and felt my odds of being bear food were small.
One lap after it started to rain my saddle/chamois got so slimy from tire spray on the pump track. I had no choice but to dismount and drag my chamois along some grass to clean it off. A lucky bystander saw this and I am pretty sure it made his day.
On the last lap I got tangled up with an ERTC guy. Really sorry about that if you read this. I was honestly cramping so bad I was afraid to slow down. Maybe next time we can rehearse the sequence of events pre-race.
Shawn you could defend yourself from bear food by doing odd things like wiping your chamois in the grass - it'd trip out the bear.
ReplyDeleteIt was great watching Cops with you guys on Saturday night. I didn't feel like we were really doing a bike race road trip until then.
1) the blog is back - yeah!
ReplyDelete2) Nice work in the race. It sounds like you are fully committed to the MTB this year and getting some very solid results!