September 11, 2025Twentytwentyfive was a short ‘cross season in Alberta. We were down a couple of ABA Cup races in Edmonton (no Tubs on Tubs or Velocity CX), the Canmore races were cancelled, and provincials were early and it all felt a little lessened.
Wednesday Worlds
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This year I thought ahead and planned out my ‘cross seaon at work so I wouldn’t have to miss any of the Wednesday Worlds nights. I just like them for the camaraderie and the feeling that I am part of a community of weirdos riding around too hard in an inefficient manner.
August 21, 2025 The summer is almost done and I haven’t updated this site in ages. But that is okay. I’m fine with not having written. Really and truly.
This year I haven’t biked as much as I did last year. Part of that is because I’ve started volunteering once a week at Bike Edmonton, which takes up time. Part of it is just being tired, and demoralized for being slow. I took up the mantle of Mountain Bike representative for VCC which meant I missed a few ftt races riding alone in capilanopark instead. When I did get in a couple of races, I was oh so slow, even though I worked so hard. I didn’t make it out to the good mountain biking at all this summer. I didn’t ride to work as much as I wanted. Just generally a blah kind of year.
November 1, 2024 The cyclocross season starts in September for us in Edmonton. Some years we’ve (apparently) had snow right for the first races. There are kind of three aspects to the season for me. A bunch of training, the casual races and the sanctioned Alberta Cup races.
Training is training. I ride up and down hills and in parks.
Wednesday Night Worlds
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Much like the Fat Tire Tuesday races, Edmonton has a series of $5 cx races in ‘cross season. The A group starts a minute before the B group which starts a minute before the C group and everyone races for about 25 minutes.
October 20, 2024 cx,
races,
strathcona science park,
aba cx cup,
edmonton,
tubs on tubs,
prw,
race reports,
provincials,
masters,
junior Race Info
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Provincials!
Another race in Argyll Park and this was a fun one. The runup pictured above was super steep and I was so happy we were going up it. A few years ago this was a downhill section and one person broke a collarbone. I ran down it that year because I am not a confident descender at the best of times.
October 19, 2024 Race Info
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This was the race put on by our club so I went out to do at least a bit of help with the setup on the Friday night. Because last year our race got smoked out, people got half price entry for this year. And socks!
My race was forgettable because on the very first lap there was an off-camber bit and my tire went flat[^1]. I hadn’t brought anything to the pit to keep myself going, so I put it up on my shoulder and ran for a couple of kilometres until I got back to the finish line and withdrew from the race.
September 22, 2024 Race Info
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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 lines. 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.
September 21, 2024 Race Info
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The Jim Horner Grand Prix of Cyclo-cross was my first Edmonton race of the season, and it went well. Unlike last year we had clear skies with no Air Quality warnings so all the races happened.
Being in Novice Men, I had an early start while the grass was still dewy and wet. The course opened with a bunch of twisty turns including an uphill off-camber thing (see the picture above of the Sport Men tackling it). I did that switchback okay in practice, but on the opening lap I totally wiped out, delaying a bunch of people behind me. Once that was out of the way though, I had a good race. I was following some people and eventually passed them. I couldn’t quite get in touch with the leaders of the race but I had a pretty good run.
June 29, 2024 Race Info
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I hadn’t planned on racing Pigeon Lake this year. I’d been waiting on my race fee reimbursement before entering the Stieda Classic again, but that came kind of late. A couple of people from my club mentioned that since I’m a bit better climber than a big powerful guy, I might find Pigeon Lake more suitable. I debated a bunch, but I’m glad I tried it out.
May 30, 2024 This week I’ve had some good rides. There was the Velocity social ride last Saturday in which I risked going with the fast group and I did not die. I was not the fastest in that group and I was working hard, but it went pretty well. It was my second fastest time for 50k.
I’ve been to both the (uncancelled) Fat Tire Tuesday races down in Terwillegar park and have been very slow on my mountain bike. I do tend to prefer riding that bike for the joy of movement rather than pushing pushing pushing myself, but it’s a good non-comfort-zone kind of experience. And getting smoked by teenagers gives me good practice for the cyclocross season.
May 30, 2024 Fat Tire Tuesday is a cross-country mountain bike race series in Edmonton. In 2024, all the races are happening at Terwillegar park. The races cost $5 and you can enter in three categories (the fastest do 4 laps, the slower people do 3 laps and the slowest only do 2). There’s a point structure and a group on Strava where the news of race results/cancellations happen.
Further reading of my personal responses with the races can be found under the ftt tag or in my season summaries below: