The Canada Cups: For the Canada Cups this year the level of competition seems higher than ever. Basically all but 3 of the best riders in Canada were at these early season Canada Cups, and there were quite a few US riders, and even a guy from Germany. The Canada Cups this year also attracted the attention of the producers from a new website called Cyclingdirt.org. They do lots of video interviews and even a video clip of us racing.
Tremblant May 23rd
The most recent race I did was Tremblant Canada Cup last weekend . The weather was atypical for Quebec in the spring, with no rain and mid twenty (Deg C) weather. Consequently the course was the driest I’ve raced it in the past 5 years or so. The organisers had also added quite a bit of gravel, which made it a lot faster but also less technical (and I like technical courses).
Race day dawned bright and clear, I had a good warm up and rolled up to the start line feeling very relaxed (in fact there is a picture of me with a huge yawn happening). I had a good start and was third into the singletrack, following Derek Zandstra and Julien Fillinon. We rode together like this for half of the first lap (mostly a climb) and then I passed Julien at the top of the climb and closed the small gap that had opened up to Derek. At the bottom of the descent we worked together, trading pulls so each one could get a little rest. Mid way through the 2nd lap Derek put in a little surge and I decided not to go with it, as I didn’t think I could hold that pace for the whole race. I tried to catch him on the descent (which is a super fun rooty technical descent that takes about 5min), and by the bottom I was 10sec behind. I chased hard that lap, and was pretty close as we went through the feed zone for the start of the 3rd. On the 3rd and 4th, I rode well, I was by myself, and just tried to ride everything as fast as possible at a sustainable effort. On lap 5 I looked back at one point and saw Andrew Watson was about 35sec behind me. Last weekend he caught me at the end of the race, and I really didn’t want that to happen this time, so I put the hammer down and rode really well for the last 2 laps. By the time I crossed the finish line on lap 6 I was in 2nd 1.5min ahead of 3rd.
I was super happy with my race and how I am consistently riding a lot faster than last year. Here is a video interview from after the race in Tremblant.
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235078-canada-cup-2-mt-tremblant/181262-matthew-hadley-post-race-canada-cup-2
Tremblant May 23rd
The most recent race I did was Tremblant Canada Cup last weekend . The weather was atypical for Quebec in the spring, with no rain and mid twenty (Deg C) weather. Consequently the course was the driest I’ve raced it in the past 5 years or so. The organisers had also added quite a bit of gravel, which made it a lot faster but also less technical (and I like technical courses).
Race day dawned bright and clear, I had a good warm up and rolled up to the start line feeling very relaxed (in fact there is a picture of me with a huge yawn happening). I had a good start and was third into the singletrack, following Derek Zandstra and Julien Fillinon. We rode together like this for half of the first lap (mostly a climb) and then I passed Julien at the top of the climb and closed the small gap that had opened up to Derek. At the bottom of the descent we worked together, trading pulls so each one could get a little rest. Mid way through the 2nd lap Derek put in a little surge and I decided not to go with it, as I didn’t think I could hold that pace for the whole race. I tried to catch him on the descent (which is a super fun rooty technical descent that takes about 5min), and by the bottom I was 10sec behind. I chased hard that lap, and was pretty close as we went through the feed zone for the start of the 3rd. On the 3rd and 4th, I rode well, I was by myself, and just tried to ride everything as fast as possible at a sustainable effort. On lap 5 I looked back at one point and saw Andrew Watson was about 35sec behind me. Last weekend he caught me at the end of the race, and I really didn’t want that to happen this time, so I put the hammer down and rode really well for the last 2 laps. By the time I crossed the finish line on lap 6 I was in 2nd 1.5min ahead of 3rd.
I was super happy with my race and how I am consistently riding a lot faster than last year. Here is a video interview from after the race in Tremblant.
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235078-canada-cup-2-mt-tremblant/181262-matthew-hadley-post-race-canada-cup-2
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