Today the start was at the Fernie Resort. We drove up as the checkout was early and there was no option for late checkout. Quick warm-up if I can even call it a that, then line up to start. Once again the women was in the back. Really not an issue as it starts with a few km of pretty steep double track climbing which sorts the field out. Tried to stay with Sandra and Mical up the climb and not have too many guys in between us when entering Verboten. The plan didn't work great off the start as the pace was super hard and I had to settle in my own, Mical did the same, not a big gap though, and as we came close to the top I felt ok to close it up a little bit, but still had a few guys to deal with on the decent. Some of them (wont mention names, but GC with a goat jersey) took care of that them self by laying flat on their face for me...:) While others, well, one, seemed to not get it and refused to admit he was a little slower, by the time it open up to double track I saw no one in front, got passed the guy and started chasing, my chase pace wasn't fast enough, a few guys but never saw Sandra, she was on fire. The next section of trail was just a hard tail nightmare, and I regretted being lazy and not going with the FS, next time.
Then a short climb up to power line to enter some fun new trail (Lizzard?), did part of it before a sharp left (that was probably the first spot of confusion of the day for some) to climb up to powerline again, did lower part of Project9, and then a sharp left again (second area of confusion) to hook on to the new trail (Lizzard?). The trail is a fun gradually going down, great way to connect some of the fun trails on this side. If dry they would be super fast, today, a little slick to say the least. Rode by my self through all of these sections. Hit the road, had a snack while cruising down to enter the next climb up Stove. Didn't have a great climb, it was slick and got into my "nap" mode since I'd seen nobody for a while. On the top of the climb a group of guys came from behind, woke me up, so back to racing. Got to the power line, then down DemBones and through Fernie campground.
Cross the river to do some of the trails I don't know all the names of; stumpy maybe, happy Gilmore a little bit.... in the end we climbed some slick muddy fun trails up and got to ride Old Goad over to Gorbi. It is such a fun trail, but pretty slick today. Hit Gorbi and passed a couple of guys that should not be there, they asked if I had got lost, I didn't think I had been lost, so figured they must have missed the Lizzard turns and moved on. Up Gorbi , I belive I could see Mical and a few guys back down, so no time to chill. Kept going further up, part on double track cat tracks, some single track moving towards the resort trails. And this is when most people had some confusion today. The first part was simple, but as you came down some of the DH trails under the lift, you could see flags pretty much on every trail option, I noticed the same flags I'd seen on the trail on the cat road so I kept flying down the road, but then all of a sudden I saw none. I stopped an looked back and no one else came down. I saw a few racers in the distant riding down some switch back DH trails, so I figured I was off course and climbed back up the road. I even told another guy to not bother going down, so he just chose the first trail and went for it. I climb up to the same spot and went in on some fun trail with lots of puncher. Back on a cat road again, looked for markers, non to be seen, so picked a trail that looked fun and thought, what the heck - just have fun, and so I did... great little trail, some boards, bridges and fun features, short but sweet and totally off course.
Came to the finish from behind it pretty much, saw a bunch of Goats at the finish and they just smiled. Guess everyone had a way of making it down the mountain, might not all the same way, but we all made it down with a smile - sort of....
Hang out, cleaned up, packed up and headed down for some Happy Cow ice cream!
All in all a good weekend of riding, the race has a little growing to do but a good way to promote Fernie as a riding destination.
Happy Riding!
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| The regular admire bike and coffee rest before stages... |
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| Master packing! |
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| Mical and the pup (Laila) after a day of racing... |
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| couldn't leave town without a stop at the Happy Cow!! |
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| OH Yeah! Happy Cow ice cream (and beer for the euro traveler... ) |
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