The past few weeks in review.........

Ontario Cup #4 - Albion Hills

Albion Hills, O-Cup #4 brought my team mate Erin Vicary across the border for her first O-Cup race! It's been a couple years that I have been bugging her to come race on this side of the border and my persistence paid off! She got a great Canadian welcome from friends, fellow racers and even the promoters got their fair share of jokes on my American team mate! It was a great weekend of camping, racing and hanging out! I felt like I found some intensity in my race and was pleased with my 4th place finish! For Erin's perspective on the weekend check out the team blog!

(June 10-12, 2011 - O-Cup #4 - Jay, Erin, Pak, Kim and myself..... never a dull moment at camp!)

Subaru Cup - Wisconsin

Our  journey to Wisconsin brought us through 4 states in 9 hours of driving!  The van packed to the roof, Jay would do all the driving as Steve, Erin and myself would fall in and out of sleep as we travelled through the night leaving at 1:30 in the morning on June 24, 2011.  Needless to say, it was a night of restless sleep, of very little sleep!  Morning light broke as we passed through Chicago and took in the great Chicago skyline.  Lots of laughs in our tired state, including the one of Erin's UCI license picture (below)!  That's not photo shopped and no your computer screen is not fuzzy, that's Erin's over ambitious laminating/heating skills.  So unrecognizable that even the OCA the week before (Albion) could not stop laughing at it! 

We arrived at LuWiSoMo Campground (10 minutes from the venue, Mt. Morris) and set up our tent city!  After a quick bite to eat Steve, Erin and myself headed over to the venue to sign in and pre-ride the course.

The course was similar to last year's course.  Tight and twisty single track that went up and down, some technical sections with lots of rocks and roots and some open climbs.  I really liked the course and after 2 laps I started to feel some flow.  We headed back to camp where we planned to chill the rest of the night.  Night came rather quick for me.  We had supper and I was tired..... So at around 6:30 pm I thought I would take a little nap.  Well that turned out to be my bed time because I slept until the next morning.  Our pro women's race was on Saturday @ 12:30.  I went through my normal race morning routine, including my shut down, quiet, impatient state...... Nerves! 

 

Erin and I put in a good warm up and my legs felt pretty good as we headed to the starting area.  Call up was totally not in my favour.  It was done by UCI points, USAC points, WORS series points and then whoever is left.  I fell in the later category, meaning I believe I was called up maybe 33rd of 35 racers.  The top USA racers, a couple of ladies from Mexico and Ontario's/Canada's Emily Batty were amongst the front line!  The course started with an open wide switchback climb up the front of the ski hill.  The climb lasted just over 2 minutes and then we dropped into the first stitch of singletrack.  Here's where problem number one was.  The group climbed together and then bottled necked at the singletrack.  Being at the back of the group I was left standing there motionless as we waited for the middle of the pack to clear the slick little climb in the opening singletrack.  So much time lost just waiting.  Once I got through,, there were 2 sections that offered options for you to take.  Option #1 was a bit more technical than option #2 but #1 was the faster line to take.  As I came up to the first option, I took the faster route which gained me a couple of spots!  I pedalled through to the next little slick climb and once again racers were off their bikes and backed up.  So off and running once again.  At the top came our second set of options.  Again Option #1 was quicker, you had to ride a boulder and avoid a tree in the middle of the trail but that was the line to take.  I made the right hand turn to take the boulder route but I still hadn't gotten my foot clipped in from the quick run..... As I came over the back side of the boulder my foot slipped off my pedal, I nose wheelied down the face of the rock, clipped my handlebar on the tree and I was launched off my bike.  All the spots I had gained by taking the options were soon lost.  I got back on my bike only to realize my chain was off.  I was now in last place and I had a fight in my hands!  This all happened within the first 10 minutes of my 1st lap.  I found flow for lap #2, #3 and #4 and was passing riders.  I gained 15 spots, came around to start my last lap and got pulled!  I was so bummed!  I was determined and fought hard to make up time and felt like I was still gaining on riders in front of me.  Georgia Gould (Luna) took 1st and Emily Batty (Subaru/Trek) came in 2nd.  Erin was dealing with a sprained thumb and didn't feel great out there and pulled herself from the race after lap #1.  The fans were amazing and lined the course at every turn.  They were loud and sooo motivating!!

After our race was over we got to be the cheering section for our teammate Steve Dempsey, who raced in the pro men's category at 3:30 pm.  The course is not only awesome to ride/race but it is also a great spectators course.  Steve finished mid pack but I really think he had the best fans..... us!!  Racing done, we headed back to camp for some food and "beverages".  We had a friendly game of "mini putt"..... Let's just say I should stick to biking!!  We woke up the next morning and went out for a ride to spin the legs before making the trip back home.  No matter where we were, on bike, walking, golfing, sitting in the van........ Steve made a point to keep up with his daily flexing (as seen in the pics below)!!

We had such a fun weekend.  It's always great to have my team mates by my side!!

Cheers,

Sue