September 3, 2023Race Info
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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.
September 2, 2023 Race Info
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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.
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.
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.
November 12, 2022 I rode cyclocross races in 2022 but they didn’t feel like cyclocross. They aren’t muddy and cold. 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).
September 2, 2022 I returned to cyclocross in 2022, and went back to the same race in the same park. I’m not sure if that makes this a classic or not.
I’d tested this course beforehand. My house is just across the river from the “indestructible Strathcona Science Park” so this was where I’d been riding up and down hills and practicing my off-cambers the week before.
