Phast Wednesday

Phast Wednesday race series is much like the Phat ones but on the harder, tech tracks.  This one was Joyride to Sheyler to Lower Canadian Open.  It may sound funny, but I’ve never actually ridden Canadian Open so it was a stacked practice schedule of two runs to race time.  I’m coaching Summer Gravity Camps for the next couple weeks so I didn’t have time to get in more than that.  Oh well.  It worked.  I won, but would have liked to know where I was going!

Bucky, Shelly and I

I actually had to get off my bike and move it around one corner, which was a little embarrassing . . . I narrowly beat Bucky, who is making a comeback by the way.  We pooled our winnings together ($9!!) and bought a drink to share.

If you're lucky like Tristian, you may win a jacket like this from the draw prizes

Val Di Sole day 1 practice.

First 2 runs were dry and then, you guessed it, it started raining. It rained all day and has now just stopped. Not too many people were riding cuz the weather is expected to be sunny till the end of the weekend. I say, who knows, and went back up in the wet for a run to see what to expect if it does stay wet.

The track is REALLY rough and technical and is now, like I said, one massive mess of roots and ruts. Crazy sketchy in the wet. There are still some dry sections in the woods because it hasn’t rained here in a while but cut spikes were still in order , some people were running them in the dry this morning already. I personally think they felt kind of horrendous on all the roots and rocks but were amazing in the steep sections when you need some controlled braking action. It’s scary to let go on this track because, for one, you cant see much it’s that rough, and two, theres all sorts of buried roots and rocks still waiting to come out, you can’t trust what you’re riding on. Oh geez.

Well now I’m bored back in the hotel, dum da dum, doo da doo. Strands fav verse is playing….”masseltoff!” And I wonder whats for dinner tonight…. more meat, cheese and bread perhaps?

Maybe I’ll go mail Max a postcard.

Val Di Sole track walk day.

Well the weather here in Italy is Scorchio so far, would be nice if it stayed that way for once for us.

Hung out with TIT a bit today, had some laughs, tarded, got heckled by weird Italian men. Ew.

The track is super dusty and loamy, looks rad and a few changes form the Worlds track to make it more flowy. Not one jump on the track though, pretty dissapointed but there is this fly off thing at the bottom that might claim a few casualties. You couldn’t really look at too much out there today because it is going to change so much. Basically it is going to be one massive root the whole way down. They are going to come out of every nook and cranny. There are a few pretty damn steep sections, if the weather gets wet, it is going to be gnarly. So we will see.

Because it is a triple event(DH, 4X and XC)practice for us starts tomorrow, qualifying friday, some more practice Saturday and then race Sunday.

Can’t wait to ride tomorrow.

Champery World Cup-the #7 streak continues.

It started out dry and ended up a mess of mud, ruts and hang on for dear life moments. It was a rough weekend for me, actually, with a chronic mechanical problem that kept me from any quality practice.

Besides that, I was loving the track on day one, it was steep but dry and the jumps were amazing. Florian and I were the only chicks jumping the big doubles at the botttom, they were fast and big and you had to time each one perfectly to make the next. I loved it!

Unfortunately, as it typically does at World Cups, it rained. Hard. The track turned into a battle field and the jumps, for the girls and most of the guys, were out of the question. It was now survival mode. I qualified 8th with 3 crashes and an out of the tape moment. I think only 2 girls stayed on the whole way down.

Race day was a little drier but the damage to the track was done. The drier conditions were better for visibility but stickier to ride in so keeping momentum and traction was really hard because full spikes were balled up 10 seconds in. It was a fight to make it down the track and just to keep from falling off. I managed to do that in my race run though and I was happy with that, it was so physically demanding!. I had a few major moments and a few ride the rear tire sessions but I didn’t actually fully come off. That put me into, you guessed it, 7th place! Again! It’s getting kind of creepy.

It was a weird race, didn’t really feel like one. Like I said, it was survival mode. But it’s behind us now and Val Di Sole is next so lets hope for some dry weather!

I’d like to thank all of my sponsors and my team for their support. Being a privateer for so long, I know what a difference it makes to have a team behind you. I couldn’t be this consistent without it! I dedicate this 7 streak to you

last corner-photo from www.canadiancyclist.com

Champery World Cup Quali Day.

Oh boy. So it’s been monsooning on and off since last night after I posted yesterdays update. This morning, practice was delayed as they didn’t know if the helicopter could fly with the fog and I think it’s a rule here in Switzerland that if the heli can’t fly, then no practice. They have to be able to get injured people off the mountain. We were assured that everything was a go and that fresh medical crews were on standby….gee thanks. Riders started coming down absolutley covered in mud and complaining of no visibility. I saw lots of goggles on handlebars instead of on eyeballs.

I’ve been having a really rough time with a mechanical problem I’ve been experiencing, we just can’t seem to get things working right. It’s really frustrating because I haven’t been able to have one decent practice run yet. It’s also really scary and doesn’t help the confidence that much.

So today was a challenge. It was peanut butter, ruts, feet off, untidy, out of control, ridiculous! I am mostly soooooooo bummed about one thing. We were unable to jump the big jumps at the bottom due to the thick mud, cross ruts everywhere on take offs and landings, not even half the guys were jumping them! So I couldn’t even use my advantage to an advantage. Not that it really would have helped because I had 3 crashes in qualifying haha, ridiculous. But the jumps were rad!!!! Now they are just a death wish for us girls.

So I qualified 8th and thats actually not too bad since things haven’t been exactly ideal. I think 2 girls managed to stay on their bikes, everyone else had at least one off. Micayla managed to qualify 16th after crashing in pretty much every corner. It’s gnarly out there, didn’t feel like a race. If someone asked me to give them a tip for riding down this track in the condition it’s in, I don’t know what I’d say…..just close your eyes? It’s still raining pretty hard so we’ll see how it goes tomorrrow.

Wish us luck.

Claire.

Bike Magazine Photo Annual

Stoked to open up Bike Mag and see this photo.  Chris Van Dine, Max and me by Ian Hylands.  Max is LOVING it!

Pano CCN Style

 I also just got home from Panorama BC. I was there for 2 weeks with CCN teammates Taylor Smith and Jamie Hill as well as my partner in crime Bryden Rigets. Our home away from home was the quite comfortable CCN trailer which we parked in the upper parking lot on the mountain, a very convenient place to be! We were there for two races: the Canadian National Championships and the second race in the Canada Cup series.

 The riding there was a lot different than that on the North Shore – lots of hard packed dirt covered with piles of dust, some wide open fast sections, and only a few roots and rocks. The course itself was fun and had a good mix of riding – fast bits with lots of ever growing braking bumps, a good pedally section in the middle, and a couple of technical areas to round it all out. Being so dry the course didn’t stand up too well with all the riding and just kept getting rougher and rougher.

putting the "train" in training

I did quite a few practice runs for the Nationals and totally underestimated how rough it was – by seeding my arms were pretty spent, and by race run I had even less. My seeding run was decent and I finished 3^rd after Micayla and Casey Brown. Race run was another story though, as I couldn’t stick most of my lines and hit a tree hard enough to spit me off my bike. I was rather disappointed with my result – 8^th, but that’s how it goes sometimes! I just helps to fuel the inner fire to do better next time! Congrats to Micayla who slayed it and won!!

 The Canada Cup the following weekend was much more satisfying for me as I learned from my previous mistakes and took it a bit easier during practice. I also felt better in general on the course – more relaxed and fluid on my bike, and spent a bit more time in specific sections of the course rather than doing top to bottom runs. I managed to get a run in with fellow Canadian DH girl Becca which is always good fun!

My race run went relatively smooth and felt worlds better than my race run the previous weekend. I had a blast and finished 2^nd after Miranda, and as a little bonus I went faster than I had so far that entire trip! I have a little cycling computer attached to my bike, just a simple road bike one that shows speed, distance, and time. Up till my race run the fastest I’d gone was 53.4km/hr, and in my race run I managed to get up to 55.5km/hr!

 My bike felt amazing the entire trip, which was a bit surprising considering how rough the riding was and the amount of bike time I had. Thanks to James at SuspensionWerx for giving it an awesome pre-trip tune up! Also a big thank you to the rest of my sponsors for all they’ve done to keep me out riding on such a sweet set-up! And last but not least special thanks to Phil at CCN for the use of their truck/trailer. We had a great time in our little home!

 

Nationals, Canada Cup Round 2

Just got back from Panorama, BC from racing the National Championships and the Canada Cup round 2.  The National track was a fun and long track. It got blown out so quickly, making big big holes and insanely dusty. I Finished 4th. With stopping to say hi to a tree that I hit during the race, then a flag in my face near the bottom saying that rider is down in front of me. Getting to the bottom and going straight back up for another run with no time to rest. Having to hop right back on my bike to do another race run was so hard, after being mentally and physically done from my first run, my body started grabbing brakes more and just not having the power left.  So I was happy with 4th.

Panorama used the same upper tack with a change in the lower part.  They didn’t work on the track during the week so the massive holes stayed the same just with some dust filling them to make them look like they were gone. It felt like you were riding in sand. I had blown my shock before Nationals and still raced with it.  I found a shock to use for Canada Cup race weekend. The track felt a little better with a working shock. With a few mistakes I finished 5th.

Champery Day 1 Practice.

Well what can i say………hmmmmm it’s steep! There’s been some carnage already, a heli evac about an hour into practice, people walking around with casts and bandages. The line up for the lift is pretty long because they only load 2 bikes, then 2 people, 2 bikes, 2 people, not the most efficient system. Point is, it’s hard to get your runs in, so you need to make the best of your time on the track.

Not the best day for me. Besides hitting all the jumps good, my bike spent most of the day on the bike stand. Yeah, you kind of need brakes for this track. We got a little sprinkle of rain this afternoon and it was actually good for the track because it was so dry and dusty this morning, made for some looseness. Attempted a timed run but bike went straight back on the stand again when I got down, so pretty frustrated. Other than that, it’s hard to slow down and it’ hard to go fast, yeah haven’t quite figured that out yet. Hopefully I can rely on my machine tomorrow and get up to speed. Should be a bit different tomorrow anyway, cuz it’s been raining pretty hard for the last hour and I just heard some thunder!

Talk soon.

pano-RAMA

After the Canadian Nationals we had a week to hang out in Panorama before they hosted Canada Cup #2. So myself and the rest of Cycling B.C. team went to Kicking Horse in Golden to experience another one of B.C.’s amazing Bike Parks. Kicking Horse was definitely a resort I want to go back to. It’s a massive mountain- so massive in fact that it was snowing at the top. Riding in the alpine was amazing- some of the coolest trails I’ve ever ridden! The whole time I just kept thinking of a Dumb and Dumber quote  ”I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this. I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver’s full of sh*t, man.” Well John Denver wasn’t full of it- they were rocky all right.

They made slight changes to the course for the second week of racing- changing the bottom section.  Practice was a lot of fun as I already knew most of the track and learning lines was easy and you could spend most of the time playing around. It was really physically demanding on your upper body as they didn’t do any maintenance and the holes were massive and the course was steep and sandy. After a 2nd at the Nationals I was motivated for a win. I found a good balance of practice and rest and felt strong in my race run, a couple small mishaps but I finished 1st with Danice in 2nd and Rebecca in 5th- CANADIAN DH girls strike…AGAIN.

I’d like to thank Chad Henderen, Dave Hord and Mark Bunyan who coached and babysat Cycling B.C. team for 2 weeks putting up with our crazy shenanigans- there was no shortage of antics I can assure you!  As well as Richard Wooles and all the Cycling B.C. sponsors that made my accommodation, travel and coaching affordable and successful for the trip. Most of all thanks to all of my personal sponsors that make sure I have the best tools for the job.