The rain stopped though as we arrived Canmore, and I don't think it rained at all during the race. It was four laps of some pretty fun trails, though muddy, and some sections got pretty bad into the race. The start didn't feel like last year, but still pretty hard pace off the start, with Catherine Vipond and Pepper ahead of Katy and my self. Pepper on something that looked like a bike, but nothing I'd ever seen before, single speed and caliper breaks and all steel! We lost Pepper when it got to the major climbing and we also lost Catherine though in the other direction. As we started descending I sort of thought maybe pre-ride is a good thing in these short races, as I rode it like a clums and couldn't get any rhythm going. Though besides technically i was riding pretty bad, I felt OK into the 3rd lap, probably finally getting warmed up, pulled in after 4 laps in 2nd place so very happy with that. Katy lost her front break so she fell a little bit behind, but still not far, Trish had a strong day a few minutes behind me and of course Catherine took home the win a few min ahead of me. Good day all in all, and didn't feel too bad after, until I had sad down for supper and trying to get up again!!
Today the weather looked great! After the first lap, on a slightly longer course, including Georgetown climb, my technical ability seem to have come back. I started to trust the bike a bit more and really enjoyed the ride. It took a lap or two for the legs to sort them selves out, but during that time it helped to have Marg Fedyna fly by on the climbs to motivate me to push a bit harder. Somewhere in the beginning of the race, a couple of laps in maybe, a short, but heavy rain fall came through. It made for some pretty slick trail and I lost sight of Marg on the decent. I got comfortable in my own pace, maybe a bit too much so, as out of nowhere came Margie Smith. And she looked strong. This was start of lap five, which in my head I'd decided was my last one, I felt done! So I thought I'd just let her fly up the hill and be happy to be in second. Though, what kind of racer am I? so this other voice in my head took over and said, hang on as long as you can at least! so I did. At the end of the lap I decided to do an attempt on making a small gap to the finish to ensure first in, just in case for some reason we both did not finish a sixth lap. She didn't respond to it, so I crossed first and the clock said 1:11 left, so I had to go out for another. I slowed down and figured I'd be hanging on her wheel again, but I didn't see her coming, and figured I'll just give it what I have (which wasn't much at that point, other than adrenaline from almost being done!). Managed to hold her off and took first, very happy with that, as the few first laps my head was all about quitting, then it was all about 5 laps and that it... so I'm happy I was able to push that extra bit that I haven't been able to do before. Happy to see lots of people out, and a good representation from the female population! Good weekend put on by the Spin Sisters and CycleMeister (or something like that)....
Now I'm looking forward to a rest day.
Happy Riding!
Awesome racing Kate!
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