With yesterday came the conclusion of the only marathon-format mountain bike series in Ontario. Turnout appeared to be the largest of the five races and a quick glance upon arrival revealed many familiar faces, including a handful of speedy and ambitious types from the upper ranks of the OCup. This type of event tends to have the racers spread out pretty quickly no matter who you are, so more people = less lonely riding.
The pace off the start was pretty conservative - bottle rocket impressions were kept to a minimum and conversation was had. Jamie went off the front and, soon after, a group of five churned along after him to keep the gap in check.
We were in a good groove and flew down a sandy downhill into a clearing. I don't think anyone was expecting to see Jamie and a couple of riders doing the shorter course standing around. They had some difficulty finding the next section of trail and we joined them in their search. We eventually sorted things out and got back on course.
At the first feed zone Rob and I decided to transform things into a spirited ride after going off course and losing a lot of time. Some topics of conversation: The 'yutes', and my ability to find ruts and crash while riding both downhill and uphill. Stuck together for the last two thirds of the race and rode a lot of singletrack that seemed to be going downhill for a lot longer than I thought was possible at Mansfield. Very nice.
Rode together through some cruel course routing (i.e. down a big hill and then turn 180 degrees and grind back up again) until the last 250 meters. Three corners to go and I spent too much time in the first one. Rob took the lead and I latched on through the penultimate bend. Figured he was taking the ideal curve onto the finish straight, so it was a late apex for me so I could have a clear shot at the line. Managed to get close, but seeing as this involved neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, close doesn't quite cut it. I don't get to sprint to the finish very often, and I get a kick out of it everytime.
This talk of sprinting reminds me: I'm crossing my fingers in hopes of having short track XC return to Ontario. The 20 minutes of pinning it is really intense and isn't accompanied with the dread of having to keep the effort up for an entire cross country event. And I get to use my elbows more.
At the Tour, there is generally a throng of photographers stationed on the road rather close to the finish. Today there was a single photographer and an pile of bikes. The result is the same: Photos, and dodge 'em.
Check the 2010 calendar for more of these events. They're low key, a bit of an adventure, and a good challenge.
Some may have some questions about the picture below and I will try to address some of them now. The trophy is not as small as it appears. The three of us are, in fact, abnormally large.
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