Part two of the first Edmonton race weekend saw way more people (in my race at least). The course went backwards compared to Jim Horner the previous day. This was good for me because it meant we had a non-technical climb right after the start, and that’s something I’m pretty decent at. It also meant that the switchbacks we’d been climbing on Saturday were now a descent. I’m never super great at these kinds of things and in the pre-ride lots of people were testing and re-testing the lines1. After one wipeout when I was trying to cut it too close, I settled on unclipping my inside foot and dabbing a touch as I went around the steepest part. The best part of this feature was that it would be at the end of the lap so it wouldn’t be a huge mass of riders hitting it at the same time.

My race went well. I got up with the front group on the initial climb, lost a few places on the flatter sections and then maintained my spot. A couple of the guys I chased on Saturday were now chasing me for most of the race, which I did not enjoy. In the end the one I was most worried about (who I’d just barely beaten at WNW a few days previously) got gapped and I could do my last lap pretty calmly. There was also a U15 kid on my tail in the first 3(?) laps but I lost him when he faded.

The other great thing ERTC did was organize $5 handups. There’s a spot on the course where you have to climb a steep hill and turn at the top. The proper way to do it is to cut to the inside to make the corner less sharp and the climb less steep. But in the spirit of ‘cross they had a person in a bee costume posted at the outside of the corner with $5 bills for racers who took that much worse line to grab. I skipped it my first couple of laps but once I had a bit of a gap on my chasers in lap 3 I decided to go for it. I did manage to grab it without stopping or wiping out or getting passed, which I was proud of myself for. It took a while to get access to my pocket to tuck the money away but I did.

In the end I didn’t crack the top 5 (which is my dreamy goal for a race this season), but stayed nice and mid-pack with my 10th.

results

Podia

Open Women

  1. Shantel KOENIG2
  2. Emma SCOTT
  3. Jay SMITH

Open Men

  1. Sean GERMAINE3
  2. Ryan MACLEAN4
  3. Jack PURDY

Expert Men

  1. Brendan CARDIFF5
  2. Quinten MACKLEM6
  3. Randy PERRY7

Sport Women

  1. Daniella BREWSTER
  2. Anna EGGERS8
  3. Emily YOUNG9

Sport Men

  1. Ryan ARYCHUK10 Eton KOHLENBERG Craig VERMETTE

Novice Men

  1. Jett FENTON11
  2. Aiden SANDMAIER12
  3. Timothy UTTING

Quinten MACKLEM2 2. Emmett MACKLEM 3. Evan KINDZIERSKI

my results

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  1. One of the women I was talking with decided just to run it and not risk the wipeout at all. ↩︎

  2. Second place the day before. ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Third place the day before. ↩︎

  4. Third place in 2023. ↩︎

  5. VCC woo! ↩︎

  6. First place Novice Men in 2023. ↩︎

  7. Third place the day before and in 2023. ↩︎

  8. First place the day before. ↩︎

  9. Second place the day before. ↩︎

  10. First place the day before, second place in 2023. ↩︎

  11. Earned promotion up to Sport Men, with his second win (in a row, following JHGP) in Novice. ↩︎

  12. Second place the day before. ↩︎