deadgoat supercross 2023

September 9, 2023

Race Info #

• Tech Guide
• Location: Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary - Cochrane
• Course: stravalink¹

It looks like this was a hot and windy race.

Results #

• ABA Results
• CrossResults

Expert Men #

1. Scott DESMARAIS
2. Emile VOGEL-NAKAMURA
3. Spencer POOTZ

Novice Men #

1. Joel DYCK
2. Karol SIARKA
3. Quinten MACKLEM

Open Men #

1. Andrew DAVIDSON
2. Shawn BUNNIN
3. Mark KNOLL

Open Women #

1. Sidney MCGILL
2. Ella MYERS
3. Nico KNOLL

Sport Men #

1. Larix HALLETT
2. Patrick MCCRADY
3. Nigel BAINES

Sport Women #

1. Avree COLLING
2. Hazel ROBERTS
3. Hilary BUCKLEY

My Results #

• Did not race.

Read More #

• Peloton CX race

velocity cross 2023 - smoked out

September 3, 2023

Race Info #

• Tech Guide
• Location: Strathcona Science Park
• Course: stravalink (shared with Tubs on Tubs)

Sidney McGill was going to be racing in the Open Men category and I was really excited to see her, and to race in the Novice Men, but by 7am the AQHI was over 10 and no one wanted to get blacklung for a race (also the Alberta Bicycle Association won’t let you do anything if the index is over 7). It sucked, but there wasn’t anything else to do about it.

tubs on tubs supercalifragilisticexpialidocius prestige 2023

September 2, 2023

Race Info #

• Tech Guide
• Location: Strathcona Science Park
• Course: stravalink

Tubs on Tubs Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius Prestige was the race that was going to open up the 2023 ABA CX season. And it did for the Novice Men, Sport Men and Sport Women categories, but sadly, the AQHI hit 11 and the afternoon races had to be cancelled (along with the next day’s entire Velocity CX Race).

But I got my race in, and it was really fun! I was fighting for a good position at the beginning and because I was pushing too hard on the off-camber turns, I wiped out a bit in the long grass. Then coming out of the big downhill I cut the corner a little too close and got caught up in the course tape, which cost me time.

midweek racing

August 31, 2023

As part of my season preparations I decided to at least try the midweek cx racing that goes on in Edmonton. It’s a bit weird because it’s so casual and hard to find information about. There are people asking questions in the Alberta CX Facebook group and you get a response with a screenshot from somewhere(?) giving a schedule. It seems that the people who know, know.

And holy crap did a lot of people know about it last night!

preparing for a season

August 29, 2023

The Alberta Bicycle Association Cyclo-cross Cup begins this weekend with the Tubs on Tubs race and the Velocity CX and I am excited.

These races take place at Strathcona Science Park, which is a five minute ride from my house, so it’s my closest thing to a “home” race and where I do most of my ripping around on grass to practice ‘crossing. The other day I was out there and saw someone else also riding around on the grass and flagged her down. Turned out she was one of the race organizers planning out the course.

'cross is coming (2023 edition)

August 24, 2023

It is August and ‘Cross is Coming¹. I’m getting excited because cyclocross² is for whatever reason my favourite kind of bike racing.

I say “for whatever reason” because it doesn’t seem intuitive to me that this would be my favourite. I’m not a big powerful rider pushing massive watts. I fall over a lot riding around on rough terrain. I don’t like being cold and wet.

But yet, when I did my first cyclocross race I enjoyed it. I came back last year to do more. And even though I’m in the slowest category racing against kids and old guys, I really like it. I feel exhausted at the end of a race but I want to do it again.

velocity criterium 2023

July 9, 2023

Our club put on a criterium and in my effort to try out a few different kinds of racing (despite being a slowpoke) I entered. I rode in the Citizen class again because that’s the type of license I got for the season. This time there were three riders instead of two at the Stieda race earlier. The other guys (despite being in Citizen where all genders can enter, we were all dudes) had raced the day before with the iGregari SugarBoddy Criterium, which was on the same course but in the opposite direction.

go team optimism

May 30, 2023

I joined a cycling club in 2023 and we have a coach. I have never had a coach before. I haven’t ever really done sports so I don’t know what a coach is supposed to do. But Kevin seems earnest and nice and is trying so hard to be helpful.

Before this season’s first race he held a racers’ meeting to go over the course using veloviewer and to talk about tactics and what we should be doing before a race. I was at work that night, so I asked if he’d be able to record it and he did. He talked about wind directions and planning and prep and where to attack the group if we had the legs.

stieda classic 2023

May 27, 2023

We only had two people in my category for this race. The category being Citizen, which is supposed to be a mixed gender, less intense beginner kind of racing. The other guy, Keith, was also part of my cycling club but he said he was only in this class by mistake. He was confused and could probably have been in the Mens’ Category 4. But there we were.

We got to start with the Women Cat 4 group which was awesome. They pushed me hard and did all the work so I just had to hang with the bunch. And I did. I went the fastest I’d ever done 40km.

bike racing season 2022

November 12, 2022

I rode cyclocross races in 2022 but they didn’t feel like cyclocross. They aren’t muddy and cold¹. Part of that was due to the boiling frog that we are as a planet but part of that is due to living in Edmonton, where we don’t really get shoulder seasons. The abrupt floompf of winter that happened on November 2 starts fatbike season, not a time for racing in mud, like in Europe (or even Victoria, which is where the Canadian nationals are going to be happening in November).