Originally Posted by
cavernmech
The Canada Cup at Hardwood was freakin' hard. It seemed like we were always climbing...awesome for me on my S.S.
They put in just about every tough technical section they have there. The hard climbs were almost always followed by a sketchy downhill chute filled with drop-off's and slick rooty awesomeness. Crashes and mechanicals were in abundance...Barry went down really hard right in front of me on one of the techy chutes. I could swear I
felt him hit the ground when he went down....a couple of cracked ribs for him but he kept going and finished like a trooper. Wes had a couple of spills including blowing his tire off the rim on the BMX berms. He too finished like a champ. This was one of the harder races I have done. As I was sitting on the line awaiting the start I contemplated letting my team-mate Matt (who is leading the series in S.S.) pass me so I wouldn't have to do the last lap. I did the full race though finishing a not so spectacular 19th out of 19....still good for points though
In fact I think most of the team managed to make the points. My bed felt extra good last night.
Make that 3 proper spills (and some other small ones that don't warrant mentioning). First one near the end of lap 1 when I landed funny on one of the dirt jumps (couldn't help but launch myself
). Then on the last lap I went over the bars in the boneshaker downhill and then later on the same lap my bike went out from under be after riding up on top of that big off-camber boulder. And yeah, my tire blew off the rim after the bad landing on lap 1. I definitely provided entertainment for the spectators. I couldn't get my bars nice and straight again after that first crash either, which didn't help.
edit: I also tried to body-check a tree that jumped into my path on Saturday and have a couple nice scrapes/bruises from that on my forearm/shoulder, too.
It's unfortunate because I was feeling pretty good through the first lap until that happened. Then I got passed by most of the field while I fixed my bike. I just rode the rest of the race with the old guys with a smile on my face.
I finished 12 out of 12, but I think there were like 6 or 8 DNFs in my category too. That race was crazy technical, but a ton of fun, especially when I could keep both wheels on the ground and spinning!
On the crappy side of things I can't find my Garmin bike computer. I know I had it after the race, but I'm not sure where the last place I saw it was. I'm hoping it turns up eventually, but I'm all unpacked and I haven't seen it yet.
