Canada Cup - Hardwood Hills

Pre-Rode on the Friday night, what a difference it made. Was able to learn the course and also discover that my bike had some major drive train issues. During the day on Sat. I had Charles work on it and he did a great job.

Had pasta two nights before plus lunch and dinner the day before. Drank lots of water two days leading up. Morning of had fruit and yogurt and granola, then a little bit of coffee and half a scone.

Packed and prepared everything the night before, which worked out perfect, didn’t forget anything!

Warmed up on the trainer for about 20 mins escalated my heart to 160, then rode around really light for another 5 to 10. Got to the start with 15mins to go,. I just went right to the front and got a good position. A guy started to talk to me, recognized me from Kelso – turns out he was a guy that I was passing (at Kelso) after my flat – he wouldn’t get out of the way and eventually crashed big time “remember me?!” he was quite happy to talk to me. J

Anyway, the start at Hardwood is false flats to a climb. Takes about 3-4 mins to get to the first set of single track. When the start went the pace was just silly, everyone was basically sprinting. I stayed focused and settled into about 10th place, letting the hammer heads burn out (I was hoping they wouldn’t be able to hold the pace). I held steady and sure enough they all started to back off and I made my way up to 2nd place. Stayed with this guy until just before the single track and then took him.

I was quite pleased with this start, much better than the 8hr start.

From here I just stayed focused on riding smooth and not pushing too hard. Over the course of the first lap I had opened up about a 30 to 45 second lead on 2nd place. I kept catching glimpse of him through the forest – kept me motivated to keep pushing. During the second lap I felt strong and consistent. At the end of the 2nd lap I felt that I could have sustained another lap at that same pace.

Overall this race went like clockwork, I stuck to my plan for prep and racing and everything worked out perfectly. I think I could probably been faster if I was riding with faster people (would have pushed me more – hard to say how much difference this would have made). Overall I’m really happy with how things went. J

Time:
1hr 15mins
Max HR – 180
Ave HR – 168 (ranged from 166 to 174 typically)


What did I learn in this race?

1. Pre-riding and stick to your plan always
2. Always stay focused and ride your own race, give your best performance possible, can’t ask for anything more than that
   
   This wraps up the first 3 O-cups in which I won all 3. Up to this point I didn’t think about this at all (focused on up coming races). But now when I look back I’m really happy with how I preformed at each of the races. Now it’s time to play with the big boys, it’s certainly going to be a challenge. Based on my previous times at Kelso and Hardwood I think I’m going to be top 10 or 12. It is certainly going to make me a better and faster rider – looking forward to the challenge.