"Bell's Belles" Part 1..............................

Tree Farm Relay 2010

Wow, what a weekend, where do I begin? I had been looking forward to this weekend for a couple of weeks. The weekend forecast was threatening to ruin my plans but to no avail!! So here’s how things played out……………

Friday night I packed things up, clothes, H2O bottles, nutritional stuff, bike bag, bike, and all the things biking that goes with it!! Yep, it was a biking weekend of sorts!! But this was a weekend that would also mark the return to racing of my teammate Erin Vicary!!!

I woke up at 5:00 Sat. morning to get to Erin’s house for 7:00 am. It was overcast and the weather looked grim. As I got closer to the Canadian/USA border there was a big rainbow in the west. Early morning rainbow perhaps could only mean good luck?!? As I got closer to Erin’s it was raining……but the excitement of what we were going to be doing could not be dampened!! You see, a couple of weeks ago Erin was asked to race at the Tree Farm Relay with the Dark Horse racing team and the invite was also extended to me. With 2 spots needing to be filled on 2 separate Dark Horse teams, Erin and I jumped at the opportunity.

We got to the venue in Walled Lake around 8:15 am. No rain just cloudy and the temp. was warm. The event was about riding/racing and even more importantly, having fun!! Erin and I were doing the first 2 laps for our teams. Each lap was about 10 miles. It was a Lemans start, a short run (after 4 kids, hmmm) down the hill to where we had put our bikes. I had never ridin' there before so other than getting a quick description of the course I would just ‘literally’ go with the ‘flow’! The announcer counted down and we were off. Not in a crazy explosive kind of way by no means. It was a slow jog to the bike because I just wanted to stay upright!! I got to my bike safely and headed out to the trails! Considering all the rain that had been dumped on the course in the days and hours leading up to the event, the course was in good shape. Obviously mud was expected and muddy and slippery it was…. but it was all very much rideable. It was tight and twisty and about 95% single track. Soooo much fun to ride. Kudos to all the hard working trail maintenance folk! Job super well done!! I finished up my 2 laps and passed the baton (lei) off to Andrea (one of my teammates for the day). My bike was muddy and my white kit was, well, polka-dotted!! Erin finished up her laps, upright and smiling!! Her first race back, a success!!

We chilled the day, under the DH tent, saw cloudy skies, rain and finally clear skies but the one thing that stayed consistent was the spirit of this awesome sport and the excitement of every rider. The day was capped off with awards, Erin and her team took the win. Thanks to the Dark Horse girls for including me. It was great meeting new people and catching up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. I had a blast!! Erin and I decided to head out around 4:30pm.

We went back to her place, where I would also being staying the night because our weekend of racing had only just begun.

We washed our bikes, Erin made a delicious supper, chatted and by 10:30 pm, we were both ready to crash for the night!! I settled in my cozy bed and within 10 minutes was out like a light, dreaming of what fun tomorrow will bring!!

Cheers,

Sue