I was so happy this race wasn’t taking place in Argyll Park this year. I hated the downhill that someone broke a collarbone on last year and lost so much time on it. Capilano Park was near my house and I could practice on it. But I didn’t practice hard enough on wet enough grass, because hoo boy did I not do well on that terrain.

first lap once I was back on my bike1

It doesn’t look like much there, but that grass was really dewy and for me that was tricky doing the turning back up a hill after going down it. Right after the start line there was a steep uphill, then three of these down and ups. Oof. I wiped out in the first uphill and then had trouble clipping back in and by then I was way back from following my benchmark rival.

muddy runup2

As the laps went on and we spread out it was better. I liked the course apart from those slippy down and ups. I shouldered my bike for the runups and even managed to navigate a bad hairpin fairly successfully 3/5 of the laps. That didn’t stop me from being exhausted coming up the slippy hill trying to maintain traction. My kid was there cheering for me and I had enough breath to tell him it was my “I want to go home” lap.

wanna go home climb3

By the last lap I’d passed a few people and was well-ensconced in my 12th place between a couple of ERTC riders. One of them lost time by mishandling the barriers which gave me a bit of a cushion. In the end, despite it sucking, I was sorry I had to work the next day so I’d miss School of Cross, running on the same course.

Later in the day the smoke took over, so the Open Women category had a shortened race, and the Open Men didn’t take to the field, which makes for a disappointing season.

results

Podia

Open Women

  1. Christiane BILODEAU
  2. Shawna DONALDSON
  3. Emma SCOTT

Expert Men

  1. Paulo ALVES
  2. Emile VOGEL-NAKAMURA
  3. Jacob PLAYFAIR

Sport Women

  1. Rachel DUMONT
  2. Kristin BAKER
  3. Sarah WELSH

Sport Men

  1. Jack PURDY
  2. Ethan MCGHAN
  3. Brendan CARDIFF1

Novice Men

  1. Quinten MACKLEM
  2. Evan KINDZIERSKI
  3. Benjamin UTTING

my results

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  1. Back in the mob once I was back on my bike - Photo by Nancy St. Hilaire ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Running up that hill - Photo by Nancy St. Hilaire ↩︎

  3. I wanna go home climb - Photo by Nancy St. Hilaire ↩︎