Wow, Hardwood can actually get muddy! Who knew? After almost 2 months of super dry conditions, no one really expected it to be a wet race (at least I didn't). Fortunately the rain held off for most of the weekend and we even had a little sunshine here and there. The Hardwood Canada Cup is the biggest XC race in Ontario, with over 700 racers and many more spectators. This year it was also the last of the Canada Cup races for 2012.
The weekend started off with a youth preride with Trek Canada team and Emily Batty (Subaru-Trek). We had an awesome turnout with almost 40 kids joining in on the fun! After the preride we headed to the Subaru tent to sign "autographs" and give out Subaru cow bells to all our supporters.
 |
| Almost 40 kids joined in on the Trek Canada preride! |
Once again Sunday rolled around quickly and just as I started my warmup, the rain started coming down. The first few laps were fairly dry, but as the race went on the rain didn't let up and the course started to get interesting. There were a few super slippery spots in the singletrack, but the Bontrager 29.1 tires turned out to be a perfect choice, giving me some much needed traction, but not slowing me down on the hardpack sections. The Superfly 29er was also a great bike for the course, flowing easily over the rock piles and down "boneshaker." I had a strong race to finish 6th in elite and 2nd U23. Emily Batty took the win (on her Superfly), beating the Canada Cup series winner Sandra Walter by just under 3 minutes.
A huge thank you to Trek and Subaru for the great support over the weekend, and to all the fans who toughed it out in the pouring rain to cheer us on! I knew our home crowd was hardcore!
No comments:
Post a Comment