BSP Road Trip

Last weekend I spent in beautiful Baie St. Paul, Quebec. I arrived home last Monday from Europe and was picked up at the airport by Kaesy. It's so nice having someone waiting for you at the airport. We had almost three whole days together, which was really nice. On Thursday I dropped Kaesy off at the airport and I continued on to BSP. It was a fun solo road trip. I cranked the tunes, sang, and just spent time thinking and looking out the window. I really enjoyed it. After arriving on Friday I went for a ride around town and to the water. It was really nice and refreshing to smell the ocean.

The race went okay and I finished 3rd. It wasn't the best race but also not the worst. I made some mistakes I will hopefully learn from, and did some stuff well that I can be happy about. After quickly packing up, I was on the road again. This time with Peter Glassford as a travel partner and with the goal of an early morning arrival at home. The drive went fast, with good conversation, music, and Tim Horton's espresso (super happy about this!). We made it home at 2:30 Monday morning. Still time for a good night's sleep with the bonus of waking up at home in my own bed.

Now it's time for some vegetable growing and home stuff for a couple of weeks. This Sunday is the Trek Store Canada Cup at Hardwood Ski and Bike. It's awesome to have a race an hour from home. Also taking place on Saturday at Hardwood is the Fast and Female MTB event. Fast and Female is an awesome organization promoting girl's participation in sports. It's going to be a fun weekend of mountain biking!

A quote I really like:
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight." - Jim Rohn

La Bresse World Cup #4

Yesterday was the 4th World Cup of the season. Hard to believe it's only May. The race was in La Bresse, France. When Scott-3 Rox Racing arrived on Tuesday it was raining, snowing, hailing, and not very warm. The weather improved, and by race day it was warm and sunny. It rained both Friday and Saturday before the race making the course slick and muddy in places. This suited me and I enjoyed riding in the slippery conditions.

I just finished reading the Hunger Games Trilogy and to get pumped for this race, I used the Hunger Games for motivation. Yesterday I was Katniss Everdeen. I was hunting down those in front of me and trying not to get hunted by those behind. It was a fun game to play in the race. I had a pretty poor start, getting caught up and ending up way back after the start loop. From there I focused on going forward and tried to ride every bit of the course as fast as possible. I really liked the course and had so much fun on the technical sections. What I love about racing, is the reward of how fast you can ride stuff that you didn't think you could, or should. I moved up steadily throughout the race finishing in 30th. It's my best World Cup finish of the season, so I'm happy with that.

Beautiful rainbow on the drive from Prague yesterday. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but believe me, it was nice. Maybe the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. Getting settled in, so far nice sunny, warm day.

Ontario Cup # 1 - First win of the season

www.lazarskiphoto.com

What a perfect day! Although it was on the chilly side, the sun was shining and the trails were awesome. Early Tuesday morning I drove past Mansfield on my way home from the airport in a snowstorm, so it was really impressive how great the conditions were.

On Saturday I helped coach the kids Learn-to-race Clinic and had so much fun getting shown up at cat walks! The enthusiasm of the kids is always so inspiring and infectious. A good reminder that the main thing about mountain biking is FUN!

The race Sunday started out fast. I started in the back (3rd row, which is awesome that there were that many women racing!), so it took me a few surges to get to the front. By the top of the first climb I was sitting in 2nd following Cindy Montambault (CVM 2 VALS)  into the first single track. She was riding really strong and attacking every hill and out of every corner. I had a hard time following her accelerations and she got a gap over the first lap. Starting the 2nd lap I had her in my sights on the long climb after the feed zone and I could see that I was closing in. I worked my way up to her and decided to attack before a steep single track climb. I was able to get a gap there and it held for the remainder of the race. I had so much fun out there riding. It was great to see so many friends that I haven't seen for a few months.

The Scott-3 Rox Team had a great day with Marc-Antoine Nadon taking the win in the Junior Men's category and Tyson Wagler finishing 4th in the Elite Men's field. Also congratulations to my pre-riding partners Michelle Cordy (HBCC/Ellsworth) and Greg Marshall (HBCC) who finished 1st in Master Expert Women and 7th in the Master Expert Men.

Check out related stories here:
http://pedalmag.com/?p=156229
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=23936

 

A picture from the short track this past weekend at Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. I finished  13th in both the short track and cross country.

Mountain biking is so fun!

We've now had a chance to ride in both Dupont and Pisgah areas. Both so good. I'd say Dupont is more fun and Pisgah is more adventurous.

I'd heard about the Farlow Gap trail in Pisgah Forest and that it is really rocky and technical, so I wanted to check that out. It involved a pretty long climb to the top, which was exciting because I knew that would involve a long downhill. The trail did not disappoint. The first part was a steep downhill with lots of rocks. It was one of those sections that when you get to the end of it you're excited because it was so awesome, but also because you made it through unscathed! From there it was still mostly downhill, but with some steep climbs after stream crossings. It was a beautiful trail. My only regret was not taking my GoPro camera. Maybe I'll just have to do it again before I leave. I honestly can't say enough how much I love my Scott Scale 29er. The bike is truly awesome.

On the farm this week, two baby goats arrived. They are so cute and fuzzy. The lambs are growing quickly and are so cute to see running around after their mom in the pasture. I'm also now obsessed with reading The Hunger Games. It's so good and consuming. I had dreams last night of running through the forest trying to evade death.

We're staying on a small farm outside of Brevard, NC. There are chickens, roosters, goats, sheep, horses, cats, and dogs. Yesterday one of the sheep had babies and I got to hold one of her babies! It was so beautiful and adorable. The mom didn't want anything to do with the 3rd baby, so it needs to be bottle fed and taken care of by the farmers. Right now that one lives in the house. The other two lambs are running around in the pasture with the mom. It's all pretty cool to see. The other sheep are due anytime as well as two of the goats, so I hope we get to see more babies while we're here.

We're right between Dupont State Forest and Pisgah National Forest. Both awesome riding areas.

The trails are really well built, maintained and marked. There's a lot of attention to detail, with little wall rides built with stones, berms, and natural rock drops and step-ups. The trails have a good mix of climbing, descending and great flow. Overall just super awesome fun riding.

The Hunger Games was filmed in Dupont Forest and the neighbouring towns. I need to finish the book so I can go see the movie while I'm here.