True North Cycles Racing Team

It was long and muddy…cheers!

You know it’s been a while since the last race when you’ve forgotten the password to post your race report. I figured I’d break the ice on the race reports for this year.

It was a nice day, not as muddy as the other years…but definitely very windy – a good challenge. I didn’t feel very strong for this race, but it was a great feeling to be back on the 29er again – I love that bike!

And that’s it really…nothing really eventful.

Unfortunately I missed Mansfield, but heard the course was a lot of fun. Look forward to being back up and at it soon! Many fun races are coming up and I don’t want to miss out on the action!

I wish all the team much success in the upcoming race season!

Photo by Nadine Dunk.

Best of luck to all True North Cycles racing team members at Iron CX this weekend!

Mari Evans took a bunch of good shots (see photos) of True North Cycles team members at the Ontario CX #3 race held in Guelph and hosted by the Speed River Cycling Club.  Thanks Mari!

if you are interested in reading about the Crank the Shield, check out my blog.  Saves me from re-typing (or cut and pasting)!

The True North Cycles racing team placed 10th overall in the 2008 XC Club Standings for the Ontario Mountain Biking Race Series.  Congratulations to the team!

A bit of a tough day, but some great riding all the same, boys! Here’s hoping for a re-try next season…

Here’s my belated account of the 24 hrs of Hot August Nights.

For the second year in a row, Richard Jackson and I (Drew Graham) geared up for a tag team effort at 24hr of Hot August Nights.  I don’t know if it’s the time of year or if this race draws a slightly different cross-section of the mountain bike racing crowd, but in my limited 24hr racing experience this race has the advantage of feeling a little more laid back than Solstice.  Richard and I fished 4^th at this race in 2007 and were setting our sights on the podium this year.

Saturday broke hot and humid, but the forecast appeared to be the driest I could remember all summer, so I wasn’t complaining.  We followed our plan of doubling up on our laps during the daylight hours, which meant about 1:45-2 hours of riding at a time.  I lead out for laps 1+2 and handed off to Richard for 3+4.  On laps 5+6 the heat and humidity started to affect me and despite my adherence to what I considered to be a appropriate plan of salt and caloric intake, my quads were beginning to cramp.  After handing off to Richard for laps 7+8, our support crew Nadine and Jennie proceeded to force feed me – which is exactly what the doctor ordered.  I’d been drinking enough, but I think I’d been under-eating slightly up to that point in the race and wasn’t taking in enough calories or salt.  Dave Beer happened to be at the site when I came off the course and wisely recommended upping my electrolyte supplementation about 2-3-fold which made my quads much happier.

Then the wheels began to fall off, so to speak.  Richard came through at the end of lap 7 having washed out on a sandy corner and his left shoulder was not in good shape.  He was in a lot of pain and would have to at least rest for a while if he could even continue riding.  I quickly got ready and hopped on my bike for lap 8.  When I got back to the site, Richard was in a sling and it was pretty evident that he was done.  We made a decision to take a 1 hour break, get me set up with lights and an easier gear – I’d been running 32:18 on my brand new True North 29er and dropped down to 32:20 (my quads also liked this).  I did two more laps and stopped around midnight for some sleep.  Initially I had briefly contemplated seeing how long I’d be able to go on my own but came to the conclusion that I wasn’t prepared for a solo-like effort, either in my training leading up to the event or in the pace I had been riding for my first two double laps.  I got up again around 5:00, ate, suited up and got back on the bike for two more laps that brought me through dawn (in true archetypal fashion, I really wanted to ride into dawn) and into the full sun of morning.  We had dropped down from 1^st in our category (when I began lap 8 ) to 7^th (when I finished out 13^th and final lap at around 8:15 a.m.) and at that point I knew we were done.  For a while I felt as though we failed, but in reality these are the cards that were dealt to us and we played our hand out.  I am not disappointed with our race, and will use the experience to fuel the fire in future events.

Now I look forward to my last mountain biking race of the season, Iron Cross on October 12^th (100km of racing, over 1800 m of climbing, one gear!  What more could I ask for?), and I’ve begun incorporating some running into my training in preparation for the Philadelphia Marathon November 23^rd.

True North Cycles is featured in the Guelph Mercury today! Here is a link to the online version of the article.