Hey All,
I just got back from competing in the Pan Am Championships in Santiago, Chile for the Canadian National team.
Catharine Pendrel and I left snowy cold Kamloops after a week of preparing in our heat chamber. (For our heat chamber we rode the trainer in a plastic walled off area where we cranked the furnace and the space heater to get the temperature up to 33deg C, yeah it was as bad as it sounds). We flew for 18 hours of travel before arriving in Santiago with the rest of the team. There we went through customs, where apparently I had a small bag of raisins I had forgotten about. I guess it is a bad idea to bring any fruit, vegetable, or seed into the country, because the customs agents proceeded to take the raisins, my passport, and me into a back room where they weighed the raisins, and fined me that amount (200g) in US $! Those were the most expensive raisins that I have never eaten!
Following this hour long procedure I was finally able to get outside into the beautiful sunny, dry weather. We drove with all our bikes and gear out of Santiago and east up into the Andes to the small mountain village of Parve. The mountain road we were on was quite crazy. It tops anything I have been on in North America or Europe for the length (40km), number of switchbacks (46) and just how narrow, off camber, and tight those switchbacks were. It took us about 1hr to get up it, where we were then delivered to an awesome little house, complete with excellent hosts and cooks Alexis and Cathy.
The next few days were filled with figuring out the location, race course, and logistics of our area. Thank goodness that Catharine and Max could both speak Spanish! On Day 2 we drove down to the race course. It was about 40min down the mountain from the 2800m we were staying at, to the course at an elevation of 1000m, however, our 2hr ride took 5hrs just due to logistics and the nice “relaxed” South American pace of life.
The course was pretty good, it consisted of many 1min climbs and two longer 4min climbs, and then lots of off Camber singletrack, that was exceptionally loose with ruts in it. It was actually quite challenging to ride, and there was one downhill that I think maybe only one racer rode during the race, as it was steep, with corners, rutted, and you really couldn’t slow down with so much “loose over hardpack”. On my first practice lap I crashed here (went straight into a bush), and during the week just about every racer had a few scratches here and there from unexpected falls on the loose terrain.
Race day was a nice sunny 32deg, (just like every other day). We sent all the bikes with the team mechanic and manager Jerome Sanfracon and Steve Lund, as that way we knew they would get there safely and on time. However, it was not so easy for us, as our bus never showed up, and now we didn’t have bikes to ride down the hill. After a while though we were able to convince one of our hosts to drive us all the way down to the race course!!
The race was scheduled to be 7 laps, which we worked out to be around 2:15 for the winning time, which we all thought was too long for a race that early in the season in such a hot climate. However there was nothing we could do about it, so I just planned on racing a little slower to be able to last long enough. I had a good start and paced what I thought was maintainable for the first few laps. I was riding in the 30’s with 3 Chilean guys, and we were steadily moving up as people blew. The crowds and cheering (for the Chilean’s) were phenomenal, and the course was quite fun to race. From the one downhill that we ran, my shoes got filled with pea sized sharp rocks that went under the arch of my foot, and then there was another loose uphill that we ran where they really, really hurt. I also crashed into one thorn bush while avoiding a rider, and got my arm cut up with 100 or so scratches and 20 thorns left imbedded in it. I was able to brush most of them out with my gloves.
By about lap 4 I started to fade a bit, basically it is still very early in the season and I don’t have full race form yet. Lap 4 and 5 were a bit slower, and at the end of lap 6 I got pulled and finished in 19th place. Overall I was expecting a bit more, however it was still a success as I got a ton of UCI points.
Catharine had an excellent race and easily won by nearly 5min. Emily also won the U23 category, and Derek had a great race to place 6th in the men’s category.
The day after the race, a group of us did an amazing ride, on single track all the way to the bottom of switchback 1. It was 13km with 1300m of descending. Thankfully Steve (who was getting really good at driving the mountain road) picked us up at the bottom. We then proceeded to pack up and head to the airport for a 22hour travel day for me back to Kamloops, where it is now sunny and a manageable 10deg!
My next race will be Sea Otter Classic on April 18-19. Hope all is well! Many thanks to my sponsor Xprezo for providing great bikes hand made in Bromont, Canada.
Here is a link to some photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99692&id=504197111&l=4b3ff30ca0
I just got back from competing in the Pan Am Championships in Santiago, Chile for the Canadian National team.
Catharine Pendrel and I left snowy cold Kamloops after a week of preparing in our heat chamber. (For our heat chamber we rode the trainer in a plastic walled off area where we cranked the furnace and the space heater to get the temperature up to 33deg C, yeah it was as bad as it sounds). We flew for 18 hours of travel before arriving in Santiago with the rest of the team. There we went through customs, where apparently I had a small bag of raisins I had forgotten about. I guess it is a bad idea to bring any fruit, vegetable, or seed into the country, because the customs agents proceeded to take the raisins, my passport, and me into a back room where they weighed the raisins, and fined me that amount (200g) in US $! Those were the most expensive raisins that I have never eaten!
Following this hour long procedure I was finally able to get outside into the beautiful sunny, dry weather. We drove with all our bikes and gear out of Santiago and east up into the Andes to the small mountain village of Parve. The mountain road we were on was quite crazy. It tops anything I have been on in North America or Europe for the length (40km), number of switchbacks (46) and just how narrow, off camber, and tight those switchbacks were. It took us about 1hr to get up it, where we were then delivered to an awesome little house, complete with excellent hosts and cooks Alexis and Cathy.
The next few days were filled with figuring out the location, race course, and logistics of our area. Thank goodness that Catharine and Max could both speak Spanish! On Day 2 we drove down to the race course. It was about 40min down the mountain from the 2800m we were staying at, to the course at an elevation of 1000m, however, our 2hr ride took 5hrs just due to logistics and the nice “relaxed” South American pace of life.
The course was pretty good, it consisted of many 1min climbs and two longer 4min climbs, and then lots of off Camber singletrack, that was exceptionally loose with ruts in it. It was actually quite challenging to ride, and there was one downhill that I think maybe only one racer rode during the race, as it was steep, with corners, rutted, and you really couldn’t slow down with so much “loose over hardpack”. On my first practice lap I crashed here (went straight into a bush), and during the week just about every racer had a few scratches here and there from unexpected falls on the loose terrain.
Race day was a nice sunny 32deg, (just like every other day). We sent all the bikes with the team mechanic and manager Jerome Sanfracon and Steve Lund, as that way we knew they would get there safely and on time. However, it was not so easy for us, as our bus never showed up, and now we didn’t have bikes to ride down the hill. After a while though we were able to convince one of our hosts to drive us all the way down to the race course!!
The race was scheduled to be 7 laps, which we worked out to be around 2:15 for the winning time, which we all thought was too long for a race that early in the season in such a hot climate. However there was nothing we could do about it, so I just planned on racing a little slower to be able to last long enough. I had a good start and paced what I thought was maintainable for the first few laps. I was riding in the 30’s with 3 Chilean guys, and we were steadily moving up as people blew. The crowds and cheering (for the Chilean’s) were phenomenal, and the course was quite fun to race. From the one downhill that we ran, my shoes got filled with pea sized sharp rocks that went under the arch of my foot, and then there was another loose uphill that we ran where they really, really hurt. I also crashed into one thorn bush while avoiding a rider, and got my arm cut up with 100 or so scratches and 20 thorns left imbedded in it. I was able to brush most of them out with my gloves.
By about lap 4 I started to fade a bit, basically it is still very early in the season and I don’t have full race form yet. Lap 4 and 5 were a bit slower, and at the end of lap 6 I got pulled and finished in 19th place. Overall I was expecting a bit more, however it was still a success as I got a ton of UCI points.
Catharine had an excellent race and easily won by nearly 5min. Emily also won the U23 category, and Derek had a great race to place 6th in the men’s category.
The day after the race, a group of us did an amazing ride, on single track all the way to the bottom of switchback 1. It was 13km with 1300m of descending. Thankfully Steve (who was getting really good at driving the mountain road) picked us up at the bottom. We then proceeded to pack up and head to the airport for a 22hour travel day for me back to Kamloops, where it is now sunny and a manageable 10deg!
My next race will be Sea Otter Classic on April 18-19. Hope all is well! Many thanks to my sponsor Xprezo for providing great bikes hand made in Bromont, Canada.
Here is a link to some photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99692&id=504197111&l=4b3ff30ca0
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