XC Nationals

This past weekend my team mate Kris Sneddon and I took our stab at the Canadian XC Nationals.  The weather was sunny, the Rockies were as beautiful as ever and the race course was one of the best we ever raced.   Nice work Matt Hadley for the trail building and the Cyclmeisters club out of Calgary for putting on a great event!  

The course was a tough 6.8 km loop with a mix of climbs, fast decents, a pump track and the ever famous steep decents called the Laundry chute and Devonian drop.  It was a selective course which was going to bring out the best in all of Canada’s top riders.  Kris had been battling a sickness since winning BCBR last wknd and had been off the bike for the week and coughing up a storm.  Somehow he still fond a way to put down a solid effort and rode a steady race to come in 10th.  I was feeling fast coming into the day and rode within 30 seconds of the top 5 for the first 3 laps before fading a little, flatting, and eventually coming in 12th on the day.    All in all it was a decent day even though the cards didn’t quite play out the way we may have been hoping for.

Right now in Canada there are 3 very fast riders (Plaxton, Kabush and Zandstra) and then there is a group of about 10 of us that battle for 4th-13 positions.   With XC races now striving to be 1.5 hrs long it makes for some very fast and close racing.  I’m a little skeptical of short races like this as they hurt alot.  They hurt as much as a 24 hr race, only it condences all the hurt into a 1.5 hr window.   There is only room for a handful of these efforts a yr but it does keep the race schedule interesting.

Right now we are up in Jasper, watching the tour, riding big miles, eating bigger plates of food and living the life of a couple kings.

Thanks Leighton and Lynda Poidevin for putting us up this past weekend!