Race Weekend in the Foothills

The Provincial XC race was pretty sweet on the weekend. Thanks to Crazy Larry, the Froehler family and all the other volunteers that showed up things went off pretty smoothly. Having a black bear with her cubs on course chasing racers the day before the race added to the weekend although it seemed a little dangerous so I called the fish and game warden to chase them away. He showed up 26 hrs later, sunday evening as we cleaned up the course. He walked the course with a rifle trying to find the bears. I’m pretty sure he was probably off duty and actually hunting as the last racers had gone home 3 hrs before and nobody is probably gonna ride the course again until next yrs race.

As for the race the local Freewheel Jasper team did pretty good as Loni Klettle won the Elite Womans Race and I won the Elite Mens race. Andrew Bovard was second in Master Sport, Derek Anderson was third in Seniore sport and Angus Jenkins won the U15 Novice mens race. All and all not bad day for the small town of Jasper. Being the race organizer I didn’t think I was going to get to race but thanks to all the helping hands I was able to hop on my bike at the last minute. Cody Canning kept things close for a couple laps before I gapped him on the climbs as I was pretty motivated to get my first Provincial Jersey. Pretty stoked to be able to win a race so close to home and have the chance to wear the Provincial colours next yr!

After the race Crazy Larry kept everyone entertained giving away swag and tossing out comments from left field that only he could think of. Sunday night Larry and Brian Bain stayed at my house. We were all bagged but Larry iniated a midnight game of glow in the dark frissbee with a bunch of 15 yr old girls in the middle of the street and then a strobe light dance in my living room (without the 15 yr old girls). Spending the weekend with Crazy Larry was memorable to say the least. On Monday he set off from Jasper with a 50 lb backpack on his way to Banff with a random lady from Australia. They were hoping to make it there by Tuesday morning. Haven’t heard from them yet but I’m sure they made it or are out there swinging off a bridge somewhere along the way.

One of Crazy Larrys many dreams is to be able to bike to races across the province to announce at them. If anyone has any ideas to how we can get him a decent bike to do this let me know as he is a great guy with a heart of gold and the ability to make a chess match between two 85 yr old blind men more exciting then any superbowl or world series game. Crazy Larry will be at next yr’s event as we hope to fill the weekend with a xc race, night crit, marathon race, midnight game of glow in the dark ultimate frizzbie and dancing Costa Rican girls!