2010 Coulee Cruiser

I almost didn't make the 7+ hr drive down to Lethbridge for the XC season opener, but decided to go for it in the end. I broke up the drive by staying in Calgary for both Friday and Saturday night with Nadine's parents. Being in Calgary also gave me lots of opportunity to hang out with friends and have bit of a social life again. Staying up late the night before the race wasn't the best idea, but I was well rested that week and it helped me relax.

I was pumped when I got to Lethbridge and saw that the course was in decent shape, as I was expecting it to be a big mud pit. I hung around watching the youth and novice racers loop the course while chatting with teammates and other racers for a little while.

The Expert men started a couple minutes behind the Elite's around 1:30. I had miss heard the race organizer, I thought I heard something like"I'll give you a 30 second warning before you start", but what he said was "you start within the next 30 seconds". I was not ready when he said go, and got stuck near the back of the group. Luckily I was positioned on the left side the racers and we had a quick sharp left turn which allowed me to move up a couple spots. I moved in just behind Ryan Correy in the middle of the pack as we ascended the first climb. Not long after that most of us were caught in a tangle where I was stopped dead, but luckily I didn't unclip and some how I was able to ride out of the mess in 4th place. I attacked on the next small climb and was in 3rd place, and was amazed that I could be in that position after such a bad start. After the first big climb Simon Williams (Speed Theory) had the lead with Jonathan Benskin (Hardcore Racing) in a close second and then I rounded out the top three. The three of us would stay in the top three for the remainder of the race, but we did move around a bit. on the next big climb I attacked and passed Jonathan for second and a bit later I tried to pass Simon, but picked a bad line and had to back off. Nearing the end of our first lap on a sharp hairpin turn I got my drivetrain tangled in some brush and could not peddle, while I was removing the bush Jonathan regained second and at some point soon after took the lead (I didn't see the pass). I worked hard to catch up to Simon and made my move to pass him on the same hill I passed Jonathan earlier in the race. I spent the rest of the race trying to real Jonathan in and did eventually catch him on that last lap, but without any more passing opportunities it was to late. I was just under 4 seconds behind him with a time of 1:12:28.1 (Jonathan was 1:12.24.2 and Simon was 1:12:56.4).

I was extremely happy with my result, not only was it my first podium in Expert, I also believe it was fast enough to qualify for one of my podiums that I will need to upgrade to Elite. Apart from the results I felt great and that I could have kept that pace going for a longer race. My next race is in Edmonton for the Perogy XC, it is a much longer race at about 40 km compared to the 24 km we did in Lethbridge.

Thank you Headwinds Cycling Club for putting on a great race!