The Adventures of Matt Hadley

World Championships

2011-09-07T05:36:00.000-07:00

Training ride with the team

So after the Val Di Sole world cup the Canadian team traveled to Champery Switzerland. We took the train there and it was neat going through the twisty mountain passes and lots of tunnels, and other times it was very hot and sweaty sitting on the train. Eventually we got to Champery and head coach Dan met us with pizza - which were very well received by everyone as we had mostly missed dinner.

Training in Champery went very well, I did quite a bit of riding with Derek, and one day we climbed mountain roads for 2hrs and more climbing on cow trail/singletrack and got clear up to the French border on the ridge of the mountains! It was pretty neat and we made sure to step across the cattle fence into France for a bit. From there I talked to some locals and we found an awesome singletrack descent that took us most of the way back the race course.

The french border

During the week I logged lots of time on the race course, and felt pretty comfortable with it. This race course started out with a gradual paved/gravel climb for about 3min, then a 4 foot drop/launch, followed by about 4min of flat double track and rooty singletrack, that kicked up into a very steep 2min gravel climb and a fun rooty descent to the finish.

All week it would rain on and off and the course was always somewhat wet, which was fine by me as I tend to do better in the wet. Race day the weather forecast was afternoon showers, so none of us really knew whether or not to run mud tires. I went with an intermediate tire and it seemed pretty good.

Saturday morning the girls raced, and it was very exciting to see my wife have her best international result finishing 31^st, and to see fellow NB native Catharine Pendrel WIN World Champs!!!

The guys raced at 4:30, which is indeed pretty late but it put us closer to prime time TV, so I guess that is a good thing. I had a decent start this time, with 120 guys ripping up the pavement at 50km/hr. I avoided all the crashes and ripped around the start loop in about 80^th place and then we went into the end of the lap up the steep gravel climb. This was ok, and I tried to hold my own position, at the top it was a complete bottle neck and we were all off our bikes as 100 of us tried to shove our way though basically a door-way sized space.

From there on it was typical world cup racing, meaning that you exit a piece of singletrack and then sprint as hard as you can to pass or hold off the other racers around you and then dive into the singletrack very blown and try and ride smooth, but really you bounce around everywhere because you can’t see straight. Really, if you just imagine monteal traffic that is how we race – floor it, brake hard – maybe crash into each other, floor it again. We would for sure go faster if we could just TT, but that is not what world cup racing is all about – unless you are winning. I did have a few sweet singletrack passes, there was one wide rooty flat section were 4 of us were riding, dude 1 went way right, and 2 and 3 went left and right and I found some really good traction and shot right up the middle and passed all 3 of them, it was kinda fun to do.

On lap 4 I had moved up a few positions and was in the 70’s somewhere and had just pulled off a sweet pass on a sketchy root drop downhill, I think I was having too much fun and got a bit out of control and BAM, I smoked a tree with my handlebar and head. I got up and kept moving and though I had broken the brake lever clean off but it was just twisted out of sight, so I was able to muscle it back up. I did however rip the hydraulic hose off my fork lockout which means that the fork was now rigid. Anyway, I figured I could still do it and rode the drop just fine, some of the singletrack was a bit rough and bumpy but I managed. Finishing that lap I got pulled by the commisare for being 80% back of the leaders. It was unfortunate as I was the guy 3sec in front of me made it though, and as it had started to rain I was actually riding better than earlier in the race.

Overall I was not super happy with my race, I always like to improve and I don’t feel like this Worlds was as good a race as last year, but I guess we can’t be our best all of the time.

It was a great trip though, awesome to have my brother and his wife show up, as Sarah is studying with a Swiss professor for 2 months and they were able to come cheer. Many thanks to the Canadian National team and Xprezo for all the race help and support.

Yes, the Subaru Justy still exists in Europe - lots of clearance and 4x4!

Val Di Sole

2011-08-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I raced the Val Di Sole World Cup. It went way better than I expected considering my “wicked” (sarcasm intended) lead up during the week before.

We left Canmore in a torrential downpour and drove to the Calgary airport Monday afternoon, hopped on the plane after the lightning left and flew to Toronto and then Zurich. From Zurich we took the train towards Val di Sole Italy and finished off our 36hrs of travel with a van ride to our accommodations. We had a sweet hotel about 200m from the race course, with really cool blackout blinds on the windows so I can sleep in, and windows that are hinged in a way to switch between doors and open (but locked) window.

So it seemed like Tuesday just did not even exist, and Wednesday we went for a ride. Catherine and I did a warmup on the bike path and I was talking to her ( I think she was listening) and a bee or wasp flew into my mouth and stung me between my teeth and lip. I kept riding and did a lap of the race course, but during the lap I basically started drooling. The right side of my face went numb and then started to swell up quite a bit. Eventually I found some Benadryl and ice and the swelling stopped.

This is me with the fat lip, fat face, swolled eye, and a "bird beak", yeah, I felt awesome...

The next day I woke up with a tight throat and wasn’t sure if it was a further reaction to the sting or a cold. I went training and had a decent day but the then the cold got worse. Friday I felt pretty bad at times and Saturday was race day. For my warmup I started a hard effort and promptly went to the side of the road and hacked up some nice lung butter, after that I was ok and felt a bit better for the next warmup efforts.

I had a decent call up for the race in 67/120 guys, so I was pretty excited about that. However, right after the gun went off Bury Stander who was on the front line broke his chain and caused a massive crash, so basically I came to a dead stop because I decided not to run over this guy’s head that was in my way, so I got through the crash and then was off. Anyway, I rallied together and rode a pretty slow first lap because there were so many people trying to get into the singletrack at the same time, we would do max effort sprints and then stand still until we could fit through. Then on lap 2 I was able to open it up a bit more and I felt pretty good. This course consisted of about 5 climbs of 20sec to 1min that were super steep and I was able to stand and power up them and pick off a 1 ride on most of them, so it was fun to move up and pass people all race. I consistently passed about 10 riders per lap to finish 76^th, so it was an ok day. I am actually happy with my race all things considered, and am looking forward to world champs in 2 weeks, knowing that I can be way faster than right now by just getting healthy, - and I hear it is a fun race course that should suit me well technically.

Catherine had a great race, she rode really well for the first 4 laps and then blew up a bit and lost 7 spots, finishing 39 – which is still her best European world cup ever so that is exciting for her too. We are off to Champery Switzerland Tuesday to prep on the Worlds course.

TransRockies

2011-08-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

This year I raced TR3, the three day version of TransRockies. It was a super competitive field with top racers from Canada and the USA. And best of all it was all on sweet Fernie Singletrack.

Steff, Magi, Catherine, and I all stayed with Marni and Andre's place - many thanks for putting up with our mess and smelly bike clothes.

Day 1 was a time trial and I went out second. I had decent legs but nothing amazing, Barry Wicks was my 2 min man and he caught up to me, so then I stuck with him and finished up 4th. Day 2 was a much better day, I had way better legs and felt pretty good. We were in a lead group of 6 and were directed the wrong way by a course marshall, we rode up the hill for about 6min and then blasted back down, apparently another 20 people did the same thing but did a loop, so it didn't really matter since all of the top 30 got lost. From there we had to pass a ton of people and eventually caught my wife who was leading everybody at that point! On the big climb Neal attacked and Max went with him, and Steff and I rode our own pace. We did a good climb and then bombed down Porky Blue, a crazy steep 1000m vertical descent down into the valley. Steff and I then worked together until the finish where we had decided to wait until the end to sprint. I lead out and the finish straight was longer then I expected, so I started too early and he came around to get 3rd and I was 4th. Catherine had a great day and won the women's, by enough to take the overall.

Today for day 3 I had good legs again and pushed pretty hard. The group split up on the first climb and I was in 3rd in no-mans land. I rode there all day for the 5x350m climbs and descents of the day. At one point I caught Neal who was fixing a flat and I passed him, he was about 30sec behind me and then I put some decent time into him before the finish to finish up 2nd on the day and 3rd overall.

I'm very happy with my ride and now am excited to head to Europe to race world cup finals in Italy and World Champs in Switzerland. Thanks a lot to Xprezo Boraso for the great bikes and support for this year.

Racing

2011-08-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

So, I've been racing my bike all over the place these last few weeks.

After Ste Anne was Windham World cup, I had a great race there and finished 9min back from the leader and 41st, 3rd canadian. From there we flew out of Albany NY on a tiny plane and all our bikes were lost for 4 days.

The next weekend was Nationals, and I had another good ride, not as good as at the world cup but decent none the less. I felt pretty good and duked it out with Morka for the last 3 laps. It was super fun because we went so hard and fast, but he got me at the end and I was 6th.

Next up was Edmonton Canada Cup, this one was a bit crazy. It had poured rain all week and then the sun came out the day of the race, so we had the worst of all worlds. The mud was so thick and sticky that we had to run about 1km per 6km lap. The running was so slippery that you had to dig the toe spikes or heel spikes in to run on flat. I had a good race and finished up 3rd, with enough points to win the overall Canada Cup series!!! Catherine won her race and won the overall- so we are the fastest married mtb couple in Canada! Big thanks to Terry and Dianne who let us stay at their place, fed us great food, and brought the whole family out to cheer us on!

Hot racing!

2011-07-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend I raced the Mount Saint Anne world cup. I've often had good races here as it is a nice technical course and I like technical, however this year it was not to be. I have been working trail building in Canmore at the Nordic Centre, and it has been cold there all spring. We had snow 2 weeks ago, and consequently I have zero heat adaptaition. I was hoping that I would be fine - since the forecast for Quebec was for rain and cold weather, but race day was beautiful and sunny - and cooking like a wet sauna.

I had a good start to the race with 3rd Canadian call up, and made use of it to hold my position up the first climb. Then in the woods there were a few sections of trail were there were two singletrack options, and I made a few good choices and passed a ton of people (I rode down the chicken line beside Beatrice and passed about 10 folks who were walking it). So first lap was in the books as a good one and I was happy because it felt like i really hadn't gone that hard but was in a great position, then on lap 2 I let a few people past and headed up the gravel climb and WHAM! That is where I felt like death, it felt like I had lighter fluid poured on my arms and lit on fire - I wasn't even sweating - just burning up. Eventually I got back into the shade and felt a little better and the rest of the lap was ok. Then lap 3 and 4 I just felt terrible and really wanted to lie in the creek at the top of the race course, I savoured the few drops of cold water that splashed up on my legs - indeed the memory of it is still glorious! Anyway, I kept going and dumped lots of water on myself at the feed/tech zone and eventually I got pulled by the commisaire for riding too slowly, but I was happy about it because that was enough suffering for one day.

So this week I have been trying to ride at the hottest time of the day to get adapted for the Windham world cup next weekend. Hopefully that one goes better!

Can you see the flames on my arms?

Running Scared

2011-05-29T17:09:00.000-07:00

So today I raced the Baie Saint Paul Canada Cup. It was a real mud race - I'd actually call it a running race.

I had first call up again which was kind of cool, and then hung out in the rain for a while until the gun went off. I had a good start and got into the singletrack 1st, with Marty Lazarski on my wheel. It was technical muddy rocky singletrack right off the bat, and we were able to ride it and everyone else ran it so we got a gap immediately. Marty and I pushed pretty hard right then and got a 10 sec gap. Marty led for a bit and then I passed him back halfway up the singletrack climb. By the top I had at least 5sec on Marty, and rode the descent fairly well and came through the lap with about a 20sec lead.

On the second lap it was getting harder to ride - all the 350 or so riders on the race course were just churning the mud into pig slop, in some places it was 6inch deep peanut butter thickness mud, and in other areas it was thin soupy mud that was hub deep. As the race went on the course got more and more destroyed and it got slower. I was being stubborn and riding as much as possible but I was actually just spinning a lot. There was a lot of trail where I would grab the trees on either side of the trail and pull myself forward.

Catherine running through some sloppy mud.

So eventually when I heard the split times and the chasers were getting closer I knew I had to pick it up. So for lap 3-4-5 I ended up running a ridiculous amount. Now anyone who knows me knows I don't like running, but I had to get'er done and just ran. I was able to stay out front for the whole race and hold on for the win.

Very excited about it and now it is 2 for 2. Catherine wore out her brake pads pretty early on and didn't have the best race to finish 3rd - still a respectable result though.

My mom and I at the end- muddy and happy.

Last weekend I raced Tremblant - it was a great race as well. I had a good start and entered the single 2nd wheel. There was a big group of us and we rode together for the first lap and then Kris Sneddon took the lead and I hopped on his wheel, and Cam joined us. I had good climbing legs and got into the singletrack first and with my Xprezo Sub 5 full suspension I was able to open up a good gap on the downhill. I soft pedaled the pavement at the bottom though, as I didn't want to work too hard yet, and then attacked when I got into the singletrack and on the final climb I was able to open up my gap and then open it up even more on the downhill. This time I pedaled really hard across the open road section and held my gap and grew it until the finish - coming in for the win!

So what was really cool about this race is that Catherine also won, so that meant we were both the Canada Cup leaders, so we got up on the podium together with our red leaders jerseys. At this point Ricky yelled KISS, we want a KISS so Catherine obliged and gave me a quick one right on the podium!

Pan Ams

2011-04-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

So I had a great trip to Colombia for the weekend. Everything was great except for my race.

I flew down on thursday - had a nice early start at 3:20 AM, and got into Bogota Colombia at 10PM. There we were met by one of the organizers with a big cube van and a bus. We headed off to our hotel by Chia with an armed escort at our side. Got into the hotel at midnight and had a great sleep.

Friday we build our bikes in the sun. It was amazing! We could stand around in shorts and a T shirt and soak up the warmth and energy from the sun. So nice after a rainy winter in Victoria. Friday was a bit of a long day - we rode over to the race course but weren't allowed to pre-ride until 4pm. When we did get on the race course it was really fun. Basically it had a long climb/long descent, with a few variations in between. Some of the climbing was super steep, and pre-riding it was difficult not to go too hard. The trails more technical than most south american race courses and were lots of fun to ride. After the pre-ride we rode home with a police escort (we followed him but he didn't know where our hotel was so we ended up riding around quite a bit extra).

Saturday a few of us rode over, did a lap, and then rode back. This time we had the route dialed and it only took 30min.

Sunday was race day and it dawned bright and sunny. This was supposed to be the rainy season in Colombia, with temperatures from 10 - 20 deg C, so it was mostly a nice surprise to have 28deg and sun. I say mostly because I did not do any heat adaptation before flying down, and preforming at my best when going from 5deg to 20 and rain is no problem, but 30deg is hard to adapt to. But, on the plus side it sure makes clean up and travel home a lot easier to not have muddy clothes!

For the race we had a pretty good field of competitors - with all the top South Americans on their best form, and a full squad from the US. I had a great start and was in about 10th going through the start loop, then we went up a short hill and past the feed tech zone, then up another short steep hill. I thought that I would be able to handle this effort, but in these first 5mins of racing I completely did myself in. I guess I forgot to mention that we were racing at 2550meters of elevation, and this means one can not recover nearly as well from anaerobic efforts. For the rest of the lap, and then the next 3 I crawled around the race course. I think I would have been better off to stop on the side and take a breather for 10min and then get back in the race. Put it this way - my race laps were slower than some of my pre-ride laps, when I just relaxed up the climbs. I guess I only just stuck it out because I don't quit races and wanted to finish. By lap 5 and 6 I had a little bit of speed back and was able to pass a few people.

In general I was pretty disappointed with my race, I don't feel that I came anywhere close to what I was capable of, and am annoyed that I had to relearn all about pacing at altitude. It was amazing just how slow I went. I guess the lessons learned are that I was too eager just to "pin it to win it"I need to remember to race with "brain over brawn".

Post race some of us rode back to the hotel, and that monsoon that was supposed to happen all week hit. It was incredible how hard it rained for about 10 min, enough so that we couldn't see more than 100m and was bouncing up off the pavement thick enough to look like a fountain.

This Castle at the race course was owned by the drug lords of the area back in the day. Now it is a public museaum. Even though we had a police escort at times we all felt very safe traveling in Bogota.

Island Cup #1

2011-03-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday I did the first race of the year. I had to travel all of 35min from my door, so I couldn't really turn it down. It is part of a great series here on the Island; they are very grass roots races, 10$ entry fee, draw prizes, and good times for all.

The race started out with a good climb and king of the mountain got a cookie, so I made sure to lead it out on lap one. By lap 2 I had a solid lead and was getting a little bored and made a mistake and flatted. I had some serious issues with trying to get the valve stem out (it was on my winter bike and had corroded on there after not being touched for 3 years or so), so I had the world's slowest flat change of about 5min (Thanks to the spectator for 'helping me find a pump' on the ground). By the time I was back in the race I was in 6th, however, this made the rest of the race super fun, as I was catching people and really got to pin it. On lap 3 I passed back up to 3rd, and at the start of lap 4 got up to 2nd. For the rest of the lap I chased super hard and almost caught Steve Noble. I ended up finishing 2nd, 3 seconds behind...

Now, the really sweet thing about this race is that Kate Scallion had made cookies for medals. Since I got 2, I did share one with the kid who had bonked and was standing next to me during awards and was drooling. I had to eat the other one to fuel my ride home. Not to worry though, I still got my cookie quota, as Catherine had a great race and won two cookies, and I ate most of hers when she was at work. Awww, tough life hunh?

Maybe I'll make her some cookies sometime...

How sharp are your knives?

2011-03-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

So the other day I decided to sharpen our kitchen knives. To test how sharp they are I always try and cut a few hairs off my arm with them, but, since my legs were so hairy I just shaved my legs instead! Yep, the knives are nice and sharp now and my legs are smooth!

Don't try this at home, but if you do, you have to get the angle right and you just slide the knife along (like a razor) DON'T whatever you do saw back and forth with it!!!

Training

2011-02-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

So, yes it has been a long time since I have updated. It is not as if there was nothing to write about, indeed, it has been quite the opposite – I have been too busy doing exciting things to update – so here goes.

My Xprezo winter bike with full fenders - Jordan river road ride

Jan - Feb

For Jan and Feb we have been riding our bikes tons. It might be nice to be able to ride outside this much, but man is it hard on equipment with all the rain. I can go through a set of road brake pads in 5 rides (now I bought a different compound).

We had a national team training camp here in Feb. We had Sandra and Jean Ann (now my Xprezo team mates) and Catharine P all staying at our place, so it was a full house. I really enjoyed the camp, and did about 22hrs of riding with Max, Cory, and Sneddon.

When not riding our bikes we are probably eating food, but when we get to do something else, we have been having a lot of bonfires. Or, as Cater calls them, ‘burns’. This last weekend we had a big ‘burn’, since it had rained all week and we had a ton of brush we started it with the propane tiger torch, which works really well. At one point we even got out the leaf blower our and that really got the flames twice as high!

Ride food, mine is on the left, home made muffin, energy bar, rolled apple pastry, baked potato, and a sandwich, then I have a granola bar in my seat bag for emergencies.

2011-02-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

Catherine, digging to the ground - 4meters and not there yet.

Dec

For our December “vacation”, Catherine and I went up to Mt Washington to play in the snow. They had the most snow anywhere in the world at that point – with 5 meters on the ground. We arrived in a blizzard and snowshoed out into the back country navigating on instinct (since we couldn’t see anything and there were no signs). We made it where we were planning, it was super hard going as the powder hadn’t settled at all yet, so each snowshoe step was HIP HEIGHT! We dug a snow cave to sleep in, and Catherine dug to timbuck two to try and find ground. She dug 4m (measured with my avy probe) and still didn’t hit ground.

Wading through the snow on day 2

The next day we went for a hike to the top of Mt Brooks. Again, it was super hard snowshoeing, and took us 4hrs round trip. It was blizzard conditions so we couldn’t see anything from the top. Day 3 was super clear, and we decided to take an easy jaunt up to the ridge to get a view. The going was so easy in our packed track that we hiked clear back to the top, took in the amazing 360 views, and then hiked back down, all in 1.5hrs. Then we loaded up our gear and hauled it out back to the car.

At the top, for the 2nd time
Yes, that is snow, green trees and grass, ocean, green trees, and then Mountains on the mainland that you see - a whole lot of different Climates there.

Mt Brooks as we were leaving the area

The next 2 days we did a ton of xc skiing – had to get in our fix for the winter since there is no snow here in Vic.

Panorama

2011-02-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

Oct-Dec

A few days after our wedding I headed to Panorama to design an XC mountain bike race course. It was definitely challenging work, as they didn’t want to build too much new trail, wanted to keep most of the DH park trails open during the race, and I wanted it to be fun challenging singletrack with a double tech/feed zone that was appropriate speed and near the middle of the race course. But, I got it all figured out and am looking forward to racing the Canada Cup there in August.

A feature to be built in the new Canada Cup race course

After Panorama I packed up the last load of our belongings from Kamloops and headed to Vic to see my Wife. Yikes, yes it does sound crazy to say that word! She was already working (as an intern in the exercise physiology lab at the Canadian Sport Centre Pacific), so I decided it was time to get a real job too. My landlord and retired MTB racer Carter Hovey helped me find a job, and 2 weeks later I was a working man.

I think I was a bit disillusioned with what my work was going to be. The last 3 carpentry jobs I had were more skill related – I got to build and fix houses, even do finish carpentry, whereas on this job I mostly just carried wood! I was helping frame a super fancy house with 5 different angled roves, concrete floors upstairs and lots of other crazy details to it. The worst day was when I carried the rafters which were 24foot long 2x10`s that were wet Douglas fir up the hill and into the house. I calculated that each one weighed about 110lbs, and that day I carried about three thousand pounds, yes that is 3 tons.

I stuck the job out until late December, and then quit. I was getting super tired from the physical labour as well as training lots.

Our Wedding

2011-02-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

Oct 16

So Catherine Vipond and I got married! It was pretty much a perfect wedding for us. We were up on Harper mountain at a rustic DH ski lodge in Kamloops BC. There was a very light dusting of snow on the ground and we had a bright sunny day so it was an incredible setting. We did our ceremony outside with a beautiful view out over the valley. Then we had dinner, the dance, and most importantly we roasted marshmellows over the fireplace inside. It was a great time, awesome to get to see all the friends and family who could make it, and just a super relaxed happy vibe from everyone.

Newly Wed's!

Where would we be without a bicycle?

Sept-Oct

2011-02-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Sept-Oct
This fall I also got addicted to salmon fishing. The Adams River had the largest salmon run of Sockeye salmon since 1913 – so there were tons of fish. Brad, a good friend of mine and owner of Taboo Cycles, took me out salmon fishing a few times. It is actual “sport” fishing, and the fish aren’t really biting at that time of year – they might strike from aggression. So how you catch them is you put a lead ball on your line, and then off that ball you tie a 10foot line with the hook on the end. You cast it way up the river and as the current bounces the ball down river on the bottom, your line passes through the mouth of the salmon that is breathing on the bottom of the river, and if you can feel it you give a big YANK and you’ve got the fish hooked! I caught a few on my own, but Brad was a real pro at it, and he let me reel in and keep some of his fish. They were delicious!
Cleaning and filleting a few fish!

These are the Sockeye just before spawning in the Adams river, we did not fish here

September

2011-02-21T12:10:00.001-08:00

September
So this fall I had the most amazing Stag party, or we should really call it a “Ram”. A whole group of us from the cycling scene headed out to Hornby Island with a Ram Danny S had got from a farmer. We butchered it out there and roasted it on a spit over a massive fire. We also ate tons of oysters from the beach, and put in some good days of riding on the trails there.

There was a bulldozer pile of stumps and brush from clearing the land, and one evening we got the jeep out and drug some stumps from the pile and 8 of us picked up these massive Douglas fir stumps and threw them on the fire. It was an awesome fire , so big we could sit 15 feet back with our shirts off on a 5deg day!

Roasting the Ram over our small fire

World Championships

2010-09-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Worlds!!!

The 2010 Mountain bike World Championships were in Mount Sainte Anne this year, and they were amazing. The whole event was super cool. The expo was massive with tons of bike teams, countries, and vendors represented, and the race course was very well laid out for spectators and racers alike.

During the week it had been super dry and dusty, and we had good preparation training on it and staying in the condos with the national team. The night before our race it rained quite a bit, and really it just helped the course – knocked the dust down and made it tackier.

The women’s race went off at 11, and I watched the first ½ of it. It was very exciting with Catherine V having a very good ride in the mid 30’s before fading a bit on the last lap to 42nd, and Catharine P having an awesome ride, leading for lap 2 and then fighting back and forth with the top 5 and ending up 4th.

I had to leave from watching their race to get kitted up to race at 2. I had a good warmup and then spun to the starting pens. The fans there were awesome, with tons of friends from NB and all over providing support before the race. Then we were called up individually, and rode up through the crowd, who just loved it and gave huge cheers.

When the gun went off I had a good start and moved up well. There were 3 pileups in the first 1km, and I was able to mostly avoid them and move up. I got into the woods in a pretty good position, and did some running and riding to try and hold my position and move up more. I rode/ran the rocky downhill (there were so many people), and then at the bottom I launched off a rock to pass someone and landed heavily on my back tire and heard a big BRAAAP. I had burped my tire, and it was down to about 10-15psi. There was enough in there that I could ride a bit, so I kept going and rode up the switchback climb. As I was riding I was thinking what I should do, and because it was just burped I figured it should hold air. So I reached back and ripped my CO2 off my seat post, screwed the head on while riding (I had awesome traction at 15psi), and then at the top of the climb I jumped off and put the CO2 on. I didn’t lose much time, but because it was at the start of the race I lost a lot of positions. From them on it was all about being patient and passing when I could. I think it really took me another full lap to clear traffic, and then I felt pretty good and was laying down very competitive lap times.

The most impressive thing about worlds was the crowd. There were so many spectators, I think it was estimated between 40-70 thousand! And the thing about racing in Canada, is that 69,000 of them ALL cheered for the Canadians!!! As Elizabeth put it, you could stand at the bottom of the hill and tell where all 7 of the Canadians were just by listening to the crowd!

It was incredible, there were sections lined 4 deep with spectators, and here I couldn’t make out a single word, it was just a wall of sound. Other sections in the woods I could tell where some of the super fans from NB and the Maritimes were. There was even a section where Jamie Lamb and Barry Carswell had put up a full size bed sheet sign with “GO Allez Hadley Canada” written on it. This definitely brought a grin to my face everytime.

I was definitely motivated by this crowd, and pushed as hard as I could. I steadily moved up all race, and made it onto the last lap without getting pulled. On the last lap I almost caught Raph, and finished 10sec behind him in 45th place and was only 2min back of Derek and Max. Kabush had a very good race and finished 8th.

So now I am back out west and racing the Revelstoke hill climb this Sunday. It is a 27km paved mountain road, with a ton of switchbacks and a very constant 6% grade. Should be fun, I’m trying for the record and to beat Kika by 5min!!!

Many thanks to all the Maritimers who made it up, I heard you out there and pushed harder for it. Thanks also to my parents and Catherine’s parents for your help throughout the season and leading up to the race, and many thanks to everyone at Xprezo for all the support – it has been a great season!

Windham World cup finals

2010-08-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

So Catherine and I made the drive down from her cottage in Gatineau in 2 parts. We stopped along the way and tented one night, it was nice and relaxing, although it did rain in the morning and we ate breakfast under a tree. The next day we drove to Windham and did a few laps of the course, it was super muddy and kind of soupy.

That night we camped again at a very sketchy campground, the worst I have ever been at. We ended up just getting a site in the back woods and showering in the creek, and we had steak over the camp fire, so it was fun. Oh, and it rained all night. Then we moved into a motel and it quit raining - ironic hunh?

Today was race day, I had a decent start and then moved up the whole race. Lap 1 and 2 I didn't feel the best but kept pushing, I had to out sprint riders to get into the singletrack first, so that took a lot of effort and I couldn't ride the top of the descent super well, but by lap 3 I had it figured out and rode the climb really well and then could catch and pass riders on the descent. It was full on NASCAR passing, but super fun. There were 4 sections on the descent I could pass, 3 on small uphills and 1 where I would out sprint someone from singletrack down a grass descent and then nab them into the next corner. Definately did some 2 wheel slides.

There were tons of flat tires. Lots of people were clobbering rocks on the descent and flatting. On Lap 5 Derek came out of the tech zone at the same time as me, and we rode a lap together and did the descent with Mike Broderick, so it was fun because all 3 of us were about the same speed, and we closed a big gap to the rider in front of us and majorly gapped the group behind us. For lap 6 I was able to pass Derek at the top of the climb and get into the singletrack first. I rode it really well and closed the gap to two other riders. I passed one of them on the descent and the 3 of us were in single file with me in the lead coming out of the last corner. I waited a bit and carried more momentum through a ditch and sprinted hard to take 38th place. Definately my best world cup this year, and my best result at a stacked field. For the record I was top Canadian, and 3rd North American!!!

Catherine Vipond (catherinevipond.weebly.com) had a good race for 42, and Catharine Pendrel (cpendrel.blogspot.com) had a great one for 1st, and 1st overall! Good race for team Valleyview house.

Bromont Canada Cup

2010-08-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

So the Bromont Canada Cup went really well for me. I was feeling good all week and I think racing just the three days at TransRockies did wonders for my legs. I know from racing the 7 day version in the past it was always 3 weeks before I felt good again, but with just 3 days of racing I was ready to go 5 days later.

This year we raced the exact same course at Bromont, however, it felt as far from the same course as imaginable. Where last year there was deep and slow mud everywhere, this year we flew through those sections and pulled off lap times way faster than the World Cup winner. I kind of missed the added technical element of a wet race, but at the same time it is a lot nicer not to have to totally overhaul the my mtb and scrub the mud spots out of all the clothing.

For the race we had an awesome field. There were top racers from Britan, USA, New Zealand, Australia, and of course Canada. I had a great start in the top 10 and moved up to 5th by the top of the climb. We stayed together for the first lap and then up the climb on lap 2 Liam and Derek upped the pace a bit and got away. Watson tried to follow and I wasn’t far behind. On lap 3 I rode by myself and then for lap 4 Cam and Raph caught up to me. Raph put in an attack on the climb and he only got 5sec on me, and by mid way thorough lap 5 I had closed the gap to him by really railing a few sections of singletrack. I was feeling great starting lap 6 and attacked Raph through the start finish and then held the pace up the climb. I had 40 seconds on him by the top and was told Watson wasn’t far ahead. I chased hard but never saw Watson, ... until I came around a corner and saw him lying on the ground where he had crashed at the marshal station. He was in a lot of pain and had brused his quad quite badly. I was sorry to beat him in this way, as he really had a stupid crash on the easiest part of the trail, but I’m not complaining with 3rd.

Big thanks to my parents, Catherine’s parents, and Eric Alain, Terry, Josee, Hugo, Ava, and Luca from Xprezo for all the help on the weekend!

Catherine and I are now at her cottage in Gatineau area, enjoying the bike riding and water sports. Next up is the Windham World Cup on the 28th.

TransRockies

2010-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

This year I got to race Transrockies for the Canadian National team, as a project to help Canadians get the most points possible so we can qualify more men for the Olympics. For TR I was working for Max to help him get points, and get a few myself along the way.

Kate Scallion picked me up in Kamloops and we drove the rest of the way to Fernie together. The race started in Fernie and the full 7 day version went clear to Canmore. I only raced the 3 day version, called TR3.
nical singletrack called ‘Hyperventilation’ for 35min. I was quite proud of myself for only dabbing once. It summited at the top of a small mountain and then we dove down the fun decent. I rode as fast as I could and didn’t catch anyone or get caught. I had a pretty good ride and finished 4th.

For Day 2
For day 1 we did a 31km time trial loop in Fernie. It rained all night and half way through the morning. By the time I started at 1:30 it had stopped raining and the sun was out. The first 5km was a soupy gravel road with a hub deep puddle, so you got good and wet to start. From there we climbed steep, slick, and tech we started as a big pack, and for whatever reason I didn’t have very good legs. We started pretty hard with two old Czech racers pulling us along up the gradual climb at 35km/hr. Eventually I felt that the pace was too high and that I would really pay for it later, so I dropped off and rode my own pace. The lead group opened up quite a gap over the 30km climb. On the last 5km it was a singletrack climb and I was able to catch and pass the Czech guys. On the steep sketchy descent I caught one other guy, but from there I had to ride the whole 40km of rolling logging road by myself. It kind of sucked, but I kept pushing because I didn’t want to have a terrible result on the GC. I lost quite a bit of time in the GC, and finished 6th on the day.

Day 3 we started in Elkford, I felt pretty good and since I was supposed to be working for Max I thought I’d actually do some work. I set the pace and pulled the whole group on the rolling gravel/mud road for 26km. Along the way I chased down a few attacks and eventually Max went with an attack from Corey so then I sat on while Adam Craig pulled trying to chase them down. Just before the check point, Marty’s rear derailleur was making an awful racket, and it looked to me like the chain was off the top pulley by the cassette, so I told Marty to “Pedal backwards” and ‘crunch pop bang”, there went his derailleur. I felt really bad, however I found out later that the cage was probably broken before hand, so it wasn’t actually my bad advice. But, in the future, I won’t tell anyone to pedal backward! They had to make it a singlespeed to run all the steep up hills and ride the gradual stuff.

From checkpoint 2 I still felt pretty good so I pushed hard on the singletrack. I caught Adam Craig and the New Mexican racer who was only 30sec behind me in the GC. For the next 5km we climbed a super steep, somewhat muddy, and REALLY overgrown mining road. I rode maybe 50% and the rest it was so steep and overgrown that I pushed with my head behind my handlebars to protect it from the alders bushes. 40min of this was more than enough, and then we got above the tree line. Form there we kept on climbing, and climbing, and climbed some more. There was another big hike-a-bike section before we arrived on the top of the continental divide. It was a beautiful view looking all around at the tops of barren mountains with a few glaciers.

On the descent I was able to drop the Kona guys and caught Corey when he had a flat. At this point I was the 2nd rider on the trail, with only Max ahead. However I was pretty tired and on one of the 5 creek crossings I wrapped my chain around the pedal axle, so I had to stop and fix that. Shortly afterwards Corey caught and passed me. I finished 3rd on the day, and was very happy with it. I was far enough ahead of Carl Decker that I moved up to 4th overall in the GC.

This Sunday I am racing the Bromont Canada Cup, so hopefully I am recovered by then.

Nationals

2010-07-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Nationals!!

I had an awesome race at nationals this year! Probably my best race since nationals last year – and probably even better than that.

In the morning both Cathe/arines had good races. Pendrel rode away from the field and won solidly, and Vipond had a very good race to hang onto 4th. It was pretty exciting to watch their races on the live webcast and then I caught the finish in person.

My race I started a bit slower than sometimes – I knew from the Alberta Cup I did here in Canmore last month that I really suffered from starting too hard. This race I was in about 10-15th into the singletrack climb on the first lap, and guys were already starting to pop halfway up the first climb. I got on Craig’s wheel (blue competition cycles) through the road section and we worked together a bit, then on the climb I got ahead and away.

I rode a good lap 2 and then on lap 3 Cory Wallace (kona) caught up to me and we worked together a bit – he made me suffer on a few of the false flats but I figured I could suffer though it and stuck on. By the climb I was feeling good again – Cory and I were trying to close the gap to a group of 3 with Marty, Eric, and and Kris – they had been dangling out front at 15-25seconds all race. Lap 4 we caught Marty right near the end of it when he popped off the train, and then starting lap 5 I thought to myself “man do my legs feel good” and that it was the time to go for it – commit 100%. So I cranked those afterburners on and ripped up the climb, I dropped Corey by the “eye dropper”, a drop back into the stadium that I built last year with a pick axe. Then I motored up the dbl track climb and caught Eric at the start of the singletrack climb, he was pretty blown at that point and I was just flying up the climb. I felt really good and could see Kris not that far ahead (maybe 10s at this point), I thought to myself 5th is pretty good, I’ll be happy with that, but I kept chasing hard anyway. I hadn’t closed the gap on the climb and didn’t close it descending the “laundry chutes”, but then climbing the next gradual singletrack Keith yelled to me that it was only 8sec and that I could get him – oh, and I had tons of fans including the super fans from Kamloops, so that was motivating too. So I chased hard and could see Kris before the next corner and thought that he looked like he was hurting, over the top I closed a bit and then along the rooty flat section I closed quite a bit more, by the actual descent into Shorty Chutes I took a few of my sweet lines jumping rocks and roots and just sprinted to get in the draft for the fast ski trail descent, Kris pulled hard in the singletrack hoping I’d make a mistake, but I was on fire at this point, I felt really good and when we hit the final open ski trail to the finish I sat on his wheel and then put out an amazing sprint to take 4th!

Needless to say I am super excited and completely out did my expectations of what I was capable of at nationals this year. Also of note, Catharine Pendrel won the elite women’s making us the Fastest MTB House in Canada, and Catherine Vipond and I were both 4th so we are the Fastest Mtb Couple in Canada!

Many thanks to the good folks at the Nordic centre (Magi in particular) for letting me work here last fall building a lot of the race trails, and for all the support this year.

Next up Keith, Marty and I are doing a sweet road trip including Fernie, Rossland, and Revelstoke, so I might be out of touch for a bit. The girls meanwhile are going to race two world cups in Europe, so we are trying to make them jealous of our sweet riding.

Oh, and at Edmonton last weekend I had a good race finishing 5th - it is a great venue too - being right down town and attracking lots of spectators.

Best EVER

2010-07-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Updates... updates...updates. Well, I’ve had a fantastic few weeks back out west. Catherine and I went on a super cool canoe camping trip to Wells Grey provincial park. We borrowed a canoe from friends Ryan and Tanya, and then were over at a friends place returning a dvd and they suggested we go to Murtle lake, the largest “no- motorized” lake in NA. They also lent us a canoe cart, fishing rod, and some waterproof bags, so we were set.

We loaded up the trusted vibe and with all the gear (of course including bikes) and drove up to Blue River and then 30k in on a dirt road. There we loaded up the canoe on the cart and pushed/pulled it the 2 km into the lake. At this point the skys opened up and we got a bit wet, but it quit raining in time for us to put the canoe in the water and put on a few more layers. We had an excellent paddle out into the “middle” of the lake, and then we started watching the rain clouds move across the mountains, out from the shore, across the water, and finally on us. We got a little wet and were glad for the waterproof bags, and made it to shore without any white caps coming in. We set up camp on a beautiful sandy point with absolutely no one in sight or that we could hear. In fact we couldn’t hear any people noises and with the snow capped mountains around it was super nice. After camp was up and the sun was shining we went out fishing, Catherine got a little bored of me casting and had just fallen asleep when I got a good tug on the line and saw a fish jump, I reeled it in an Catherine woke with a jump to help me land it in the boat. I cleaned the 13” rainbow trout out and we paddled back to the camp site. There we roasted the fish over the camp fire in tinfoil with pesto – it was the BEST EVER!!!.

The next day we had beautiful weather and paddled out, fishing but not catching along the way. We had 3hr road ride to do for training, so we thought we’d go do a nice easy spin on hwy 24 west from Little Fort. Well, were we ever in for a surprise! We had a nice 10 min of flat up the river valley, and then the road veered up the mountain side and we ended up climbing at 8% grade for 17km. It was actually a really nice climb and we quite enjoyed the ride.

The next weekend I drove down to the Bear Mountain BC cup race with Pete, and we stayed with retired racer Ricky Federau. He is now full into chicken farming (for a few hrs a day) and the rest of the time he is just loving life. He mixes it up with kayaking, skiing, mtb and road riding, running, and just about anything else you can think of that is fun outdoors. He also coined the phrase ”best ever”. Anyone that knew Ricky from the race scene would know something awesome was “money”, “cash money”, or maybe even “the best ever”.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed out to the race. There was a pretty good group of us there for the elite field, and Daniel Sessford led the charge up the hill the first time. I was able to get into the singletrack first and got a decent gap on the BC style descent. Then we had a 10min climb and Dan almost caught back up to me but I held him off, rode the descent pretty well lap 2,3, and at the start of lap 4 I saw Ricky was close at the bottom of the descent. I turned the afterburners on and ripped up the climb and shredded the descent to stay ahead for the win. Ricky came in 2nd, with his baggy shorts flying, and the biggest grin on his face possible – exclaiming “it was THE BEST RACE EVER!!!”

Speaking of best ever – I’ve been eating fresh carrots from our garden, and I got my new Xprezo SUB 5 with XX – both of which are the best ever!

Iron Lung and Test of Metal

2010-06-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

From Hardwood Catherine and I flew to Kamloops and spent a few days at home before packing up AGAIN and heading to Canmore. I owed the Nordic centre 2 days of work because last fall the weather flipped and went to -27deg C, so there was no point in trying to trail build then. At Canmore we stayed with Magi and Steff and had lots of fun hanging out with them.

There was the “Iron Lung” mtb race happening that weekend on the race course that I designed and helped build. I started a bit hard and had an absolute sufferfest of a race, finishing 2nd to Steff. It was awesome to hear from all the racers how much they loved the race course and neat to see over 375 racers out all having a good time. Unfortunately due to a short sighted matter of pride by a member of the club in charge of national championships, the race course will not be on the course I designed. This is particularly too bad for all the non-elite level racers – those in it just for fun- who had so much fun at the Iron lung and were inspired to bring their friends back for the next race there.

Here's a picture of a rider going off the "eye dropper" into the stadium at Canmore, I build this section with a pick axe.

Check out this post for a shout out on the race course at Canmore.
http://www.canadiancyclist.com/dailynews.php?id=19332

From Canmore we drove back to the loops for a few days, and then on down to Squamish where we stayed with Olivier (a fellow Xprezo racer) and Melanie for the Test of Metal. The Test is a super cool event because everyone from the community gets interested and behind it. This year the 800 spots sold out in 24minutes!!! As an elite I was able to register day of because they want my high profile figure there...

Anyway, I had a decent start and felt pretty good, but going through one dip in the trail my chain somehow jammed with my front derailleur and twisted the derailleur. I rode it for a while and then realized that it was stupid and I was going to catastrophically break my bike, so I stopped and fixed it. It took forever to fix because with the full suspension linkage on my frame it is hard to get an allen key in there, so after 3min or so I was able to go again. I was back in about 35th at this time, and had lots of fun blowing by racers and weaving in and out on the double and singletrack. By the “9 mile” a good climb, I had caught back up to 10-17th place, and then by the top of it I pushed really hard and was up to 6th. I rode the plunge a bit slow as I was starting to get tired but then got it back together and finished strong through crumpet woods to the finish. I ended up 5th in 2:41, not a bad race for 3 min on the side of the trail and then not being able to draft anyone for the race.

An Update....

2010-06-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

So It's been a while and I know I should have updated long ago... but here is a bit of a recap for the last while...

The Houffalize, Belgium World cup was actually a pretty good race. It was somewhat muddy, and had good steep climbs and descents, I had fun and raced hard. We then flew to Oshawa Ontario and spent a few days with Catherine's folks before heading up to their cottage near Gatineau.

From there we went to Baie Saint Paul for the first Canada Cup, I had an ok race, not the best or worst, I cranked the turbos on for the last lap and was able to get ahead of Peter - so that was fun as we had been battling it out all race.

The race at Tremblant was pretty good, every year they make it smoother and easier (which I don't like), and this year it was even dry. We were able to race pretty much the whole thing in Big ring except a climb in the middle. I had lots of fun and used my technical abilities to make up for short falls in fitness and reeled in a few racers by the bottom of the long downhill. At the end I was able to out sprint Peter on the line to take 5th.

During the week we did some intervals on roads near the cottage, it was 35deg and humid, and I was dying in between my 10min intervals so I jumped in the nearby lakes each time for the recovery.

From there it was off to Hardwood, it was pretty hot and I had a decent race but not the best, I ended up 11th, and this time Peter got me...

UK world cup

2010-04-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

So I raced the Dalby forest world cup yesterday. It was the first world cup of the year, so everybody is keen to test their form.

I had great preperation, with lots of time on the course during the week. We have been staying with the Myers in Guisborough, and having a great time learning lots about the UK from them.

Race day dawned with a light rain shower, enough to make Catherine worried but the track didn't actually get wet. Catherine had a great race - she started on the 2nd last row and finished 42 out of 90 or so. Kika had a slow start but moved back up through the field for 6th, so I guess she has good legs too.

My race was a bit crazy. I was on the 8th row or so, and there were another 8 rows of guys packed in behind me. When the gun went there was a crash in the first 50m, I avoided that, and then we hammered at 50km/hr on the flat to a 90deg corner, there was another crash there and I just avoided running over the guy's head with my chainrings, then back up to speed, 90deg left, avoid another crash, and then stand in line to get into the singletrack. All in all it was actually a pretty good start as I avoided the crashes and was just a bit ahead of where you really had to stop and wait.

From there I had a decent first 2 laps with a bit of waiting here and there. By the 3rd lap I was ready to crank it up and actually race, but it was super frustrating because the only places to really pass were on the flats and 2 uphills, and on the flats I just got out gunned by some of the euros - then we would ride the descents slower than I wanted to - and they would sprint up the next climb and I just didn't have the legs to sprint on every open section (like driving a car behind a Saskatchewaner, everytime you get to a passing section it is 140km/hr, and when you are twisting through the mtns it is 60km/hr - ARRRGGGHHH!!) Anyway, I found it hard to race my best, or the fastest way to get around the course. By the end of the 6th lap I was quite tired and faded a bit. I ended up finishing 101st out of 160, so not what I was hoping for but decent none the less.

We are heading to Belgium tomorrow for Houffalize WC next weekend.

Europe

2010-04-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

So, Catherine and I got lucky on this one. We decided to skip Sea Otter and fly to the UK a bit early to do a local race there and get used to the time change. We left Tuesday and got in Wed, and merrily went on our way - oblivious to the fact that volcanic ash was spewing into the sky and flights were getting cancelled.

We hired a car from the manchester airport and they handed us the keys. With a measly 4hrs sleep in me I hopped in and took off on the left side of the road, shifting with my left hand. We quickly got the roundabouts figured out, and headed towards Caistor. We got part way there and had to pull over and sleep for a while, but finally arrived to visit and stay with friends of Catherine's Peter and Mary. She knew them from a year long exchange she did at age 7, so we got to check out where she lived and all the neat little places around her town.

From Caistor we drove to Stoke-On-Trent, and did the Midlands XC race. It was a brilliant course and very well put on. I had some good competition with 2 other world cup racers there, but I managed to drop them on the Canadian style rooty section and get enough of a gap to win. Catherine had a little less competition and won by 12 mins, so she worked on how many guys she could pass, and I think she was at about 120 by the end of it.

From Stoke we drove to Guisborough to stay with Rob, Ruth, and Tom. From here it is about 1h to the race site at Dalby, but we have a brilliant set up with Tom being a registered mechanic at a local shop.

We have seen some beautiful countryside - with daffodils lining the road sides in the country, and lots of ancient, as in 1300 castles and a prior. Oh, and I got a Phesant for dinner when I was out on a bike ride.

Yesterday we pre-rode the course at Dalby. There were 7 people riding on the track. It was very quiet and we are super glad that we avoided the 5+day travel fiasco many of our racing friends have and are going through. The course is 100% man made, with every obstical placed just so, and the rest of it quite buff. It will be hard to drop other racers based on technical skills, but it is a lot better than most european courses I have ridden. I think the start will be absoutley chaotic, as it is flat and we will go into singletrack fairly quickly.

Hope all is well across the pond. Theoretically I should be updating quite frequently now as I've got a lot of races lined up in the next month and a bit.

Ox tongue for dinner anyone?

Crazy carpets

2010-02-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

So I've been having a blast this winter. It's not really winter here in Kamloops, with the average temp for the last 3 weeks at +3 deg or so, and all the snow melted from the valley. We are road riding down low and xc skiing up high, so it is an ideal combination. I mean, we have about 10 activities to choose from each day with the trainer rusting in the basement!

The biggest news by far this year is that I got engaged to Catherine Elizabeth Vipond. Yep, that was crazy carpet adventure # 1. Just before Christmas we went for a hike up a local mountain in the Kamloops area, and built a snowman at the top. I wrote the words in the snow (it covered about 75m square), and she said yes! Then we crazy carpeted back down parts of the way, where it was steep enough and didn’t have too many rocks. Definitely got a few bruises on the hips from the rocks.

For Christmas we drove down to Corvallis Oregon and visited with my brother Adam and his girlfriend Sarah and my parents who flew out. We did a sweet road ride up Marry’s peak until we hit snow, and some good mtb rides both there and in Bend. The xc skiing at Mt Bachelor in Bend was awesome, with berms and tabletop jumps built into one of the trails, you could ski it like a bike trail.

Then when we got back home I worked a bit more, (as a finish carpenter = doors, trim, cabinets etc), and looked for the next adventure.

Crazy carpet adventure # 2 originated from xc skiing 80km/week at the Stake Lake ski area. At one point (the absolute furthest from the parking lot), I saw where a large spruce tree had broken off and split length-wise right around a growth ring, forming a piece of wood about 12 feet long and shaped like a canoe or a C. Anyway, I thought it was really cool, and decided to get it to make a vertical display shelving unit for something cool like rocks and bike parts or whatever. So first off I had to build a sled, which involved at least 5 power tools, some scrap wood, and 2 crazy carpets.

Then we drove up to the ski area and parked as close as we could (6km away). Next we skate skied in pulling the sled (it was faster than me on the downhills). When we got to the tree I nailed some wood onto the trunk as lader rungs, and climbed up in my slippery ski boots to cut the piece of wood off. Only part way through my sawblade broke. Then we threw a rope over the top and Catherine was able to break it off and pull the tree down. I trimmed it to length with an axe, and loaded it onto the sled with a 3rd crazy carpet attached to the back because it was so long.

Then picture a very out of control transport truck on icy roads, and that was what I was like pulling it. Very slow pulling 100lbs up hill, and then it would try and pass me on either side on the way down hills, and try and run me over too. Luckily Catherine was able to ski behind holding a rope and snowplow on the downhills so we had a bit of control. It fit in the car from on top of the dash to the back of the trunk. Now we have peeled it and it is drying in the basement.

CC adventure # 3 was just yesterday. Catherine and I drove up near sun peaks, and took a back road, that lead to another back road, and then up a logging road. We drove up 3km in the trusty 2wd vibe, and then we put the chains on and went another 1km up. It was pretty impressive driving up a 20% grade logging road that had snow over ice. Eventually when we got to where it was 10 cm deep snow and 25% we spun out.

From there we snowshoed 5km up the road, and then another 4km with some bushwacking (in 1m deep snow then) to the top of a mountain by Tod mountain. We snowshoe ran back down, and when we got to steep enough parts of the logging road we crazy carpeted. The last section was by far the best (the one we couldn’t make up in the car). It was about 500m at 20-25%, with a fresh 4X4 tire track (they only made it 500m farther than us). For this pitch I dove on the crazy carpet and got up to 35km/hr! Now that doesn’t sound fast for people who ride bikes, but when your face is 5cm off the ground and your ribs and hips are bouncing along with snow flying into your face it’s fast. We both had headaches afterwards, and I have a stiff neck today. There aren't any crazy carpet pictures because how do you hold a camera let alone take a picture in that position at speed.

Hope you’re all having great adventures!

Bow 80 insanity

2009-09-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is a long one but worth the read... the pic is actually from last year at Keystone in much nicer conditions than this year`s race.

So, for some reason I decided to race the bow 80, an epic loop in Kananskis country, near Calgary.

The day started out wrong, with a 4:50 wake up, an hour drive out there in the rain and darkness, and the car thermometer reading 6deg C. I drove out with co-worker Kate Scallion, and we had her sister, Magi's bike in the car too, as Magi had just flown in from NS visiting her mom. When Kate and I pulled into the parking lot at 6:40am, it was raining very hard and still dark. We sort of looked at each other and said, "we could just turn around and go home".

Anyway, we kept getting ready, and I headed out in the rain and blackness into the woods for an early morning bathroom stop. It took me a long time to get all layered up, followed by a 5min ride up to sign in. At registration just as I was leaving Brian Bain (who drove Magi out) rushed in and said Magi couldn't find us. Kate was already looking for her, and I pedaled off looking too. I went down to the car and couldn't find her, and while I was there I quickly strapped my booties on, and then sprinted back to the start at race pace.

I got to the start and the `potential delay` had not happened, and I missed the start by 5min. Anyway, it wasn`t the end of the world and I took off and caught the first stragglers in about 2km. The next 20min was spent with explosive efforts passing tons of people, then slow behind them in singletrack. Then I stopped to take off my headband and a winter jacket (it had stopped raining, was semi day-light now and I was hot). A bunch of people passed me back, but then I re-passed them in a few min. After about 1:20 of riding I had passed about 150 of the 230 racers, and it was much easier going. I had some awesome passes, as in sliding through grass on the inside of corners with one foot out...

Eventually I settled into a slow and steady race pace, just passing a few people here and there. At feed zone 1 I was doing quite well, I ate a bunch of food, and changed from my orange rubber fisherman`s gloves to a winter Louis garneau pair (people were making fun of my orange ones, but they were warm until water ran down the cuff`s)!

Just after FZ1 I knew there was a super steep 1hr granny ring climb, so I stopped in a small creek and pedaled a bunch to clean the mud off my chain (a dude passed me there and got chainsuck while I was cleaning mine, it was kind of funny). So I rode this climb forever, and because I was way back in the field my goal was to ride it clean, which I did. This was quite a feat, as it is super long, very technical, in a race, and wet. Oh, did I mention that from 1900 to 2205m it was snowing! Yep, we had sideways sleeting snow, and 2cm on the ground. It was pretty neat riding, up in the alpine with 5m visibility and snow everywhere except on the trail where it had melted.

Eventually I got to the top of Cox Hill (with only walking the last 10m) said hi to the volunteers (who had inflatable palm trees coated in snow, and gummy bears) zipped up my layers, and blasted down the descent. Now the descent is super fun, pretty fast, rocky, and technical, I had a blast. However, after 5min my metal brake leavers got my wet snow coated hands very cold, and soon they were numb. Another 5min and I got to another volunteer station where I got them to get my coat out of my camel back, put it on me, and zip it up, as my fingers couldn`t do it.

Another 10min of descending and I reached the bottom and blew by a sign that said `last chance to drop our`. I rode by it to fast to really process the info, as I had been contemplating dropping out as I was only at 40km and my body was getting cold. The only reason I did not stop was I was afraid I would have to wait 3hrs or so, and just freeze, besides, I was dreaming of sitting in my car with the heater cranked, (I figured I could get someone else to turn the key as my fingers couldn`t). So I rode, and rode, and rode as hard as I could just to try and warm up. At the lower elevation it was now raining and there was about 4cm of standing water on the trail. By FZ2 I was cold.

I decided to keep going, as I couldn`t really stop. I figure if I stopped and wasn`t in a vehicle I had about 5min before hypothermia set in. So to try and get warm I would swing my arms in circles and run up hills pushing my bike with my forearms. About at this point I got to trail that had all the trees coated in snow, and bent over from the weight of it. So I had to push my way through them and get all the slushy snow dumped on me. Eventually my core temperature was still dropping, and in desperation I stopped and saw that my zipper would pull up another 5cm (with my teeth). After 5 tries I got my head band out of my pocket, and had to push my wrists together to undo the buckle on my helmet. I tried to pick a gel out of my pocket but was unable to at this point. I could have stuck my jackknife into my hand and not felt it, I was numb clear up my forearm. Somehow I hung on and was able to brake a bit when really necessary.

Oh yeah, I couldn`t blink right, I don`t know if my eyelids were frozen, or if there was just so much snow and water in them. My Oakleys were super dirty but I kept them on just to keep the big chunks of snow and mud out.

With 15km to go I stopped at a checkpoint and begged for gloves or mitts of any sort. A volunteer, Graham, gave me his bike gloves (which he had to put on my hands) and he got a gel out of my pocket. I weaved off, and the only reason I kept racing was because I couldn`t stop without freezing.

For the last 15k it had stopped raining, and with the head band and dry gloves I came around a bit and was able to finish.

From the finish I dropped my bike, and Mrs Bain took me to the first aid trailer, where I stripped down (my clothes looked like I rolled in a mud lagoon) and sat in a blanket and a sleeping bag for an hr with a bunch of other near hypothermia cases. Brian Bain looked especially bad, and would convulsively shake every 10min or so. The first-aiders were excellent, and even gave us hot chocolate.

After I recovered and a volunteer found my car and drove it up, I got some dry clothes on and went out into the bright sunny day. It turns out Kate and made a very smart decision and stopped at FZ1 when she was too cold to peel a banana, Magi never found her bike and went to work instead (very smart!!!), and 50 or so people finished. I ended up 5th overall and 3rd in my category, and won a big belt buckle. I also won a big Dakine hydration pack, which I gave to the volunteer who lent me his gloves. I am very thankful for his gloves, that I got my booties even if I missed my start, and for all the incredible volunteers that were on the side of the trail covered in snow.

So, the moral of the story is, don`t do a race that you have to wake up before 5am for, and don`t race in the mountains if it is below 10deg with any precipitation.

I am now alive and warm, with the furnace going in my house in Canmore...just me and the mice.

my house

2009-09-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, my house here in Camore has a ton of mice, I caught one eating a power gel, and another one eating my granola!!! The granola was just too much, so I rigged up a live trap with a peanut in the jaws of a pair of pliers, and then a bucket balanced on the plyers, so the mouse ate the peanut and the plyers fell over, and the bucket fell on the mouse. I caught 6 this way and had to drive them at least 2km away so they wouldn't return, that was getting tedious (although I did let a few go downtown - suckers...) So now I finally got some snap traps. Here is a picture of one of the mice getting ready for the snap trap.

Where's Waldo now...

2009-09-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

So post Hadley Challenge bike race I spent a few more days at home. I got put to work clearing trees and cutting firewood, in 3 days we did 20 big hardwoods.

Eventually I flew out west to Kamloops, unpacked, repacked, and headed for Canmore. I am now in Canmore getting paid to build bike trails! Yes, you read that right, I'm finally making money to build trails. There are 4 of us on the crew building IMBA style trails (read wide and easy) with 2 mini excavators (I operated one a few days ago for a few hrs, it was scary how tippy it was going down hills). I am getting to flag and design most of the trails, and layout a new race course for nationals next year.

In my spare time I went for a hike to the top of 2600m Mt Lady McDonald with co-worker Kate Scallion. Then last weekend I did a road race hill climb time trial up Mt Revelstoke. It is a 27km paved road with a very nice grade, and an elevation gain of 1600m. I was super tired the day before the race, but had a decent time trial and was able to hold onto 1st by 30sec or so for a time of 1:15:44.

Tomorrow I race the Bow 80, an 80km mtb race through epic trails in Kanaskis country, lots of it up into the alpine.

NB

2009-09-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Catherine, Adam, Sarah and I all piled into Sarah's truck and drove 12hrs from Windham to Fredericton. It was a miserable drive, and my legs were super cramped from the race, and then sitting on a bench seat in the back of the pickup, but, we got there all in one piece.

The 4 of us hung out with my parents for a few days, and ate great veggies from the amazing garden. We went over to Grand Manan, one of my favorite places anywhere, and had a great time hiking the coastal trails there.

After a few days and an oncoming hurricane, we headed back to Fredericton to help flag the race course for "the Hadley Challenge". This was a 26km point to point race that my dad Eric organised on the trails that Adam and I had build while living at home. The race turned out very well, it was raining a bit, but no one got lost or hurt too badly, and everyone had fun. I won and so did Catherine. For awards, friends of ours made ginger bread men as medals, so they were the best tasting medals of the year!

US Cups

2009-09-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

From Bromont Keith, Kika, and I headed to Mount Snow Vermont. We had a great ride at the kingdom trails on the way. I stayed in a bed and breakfast called the Grey Ghost, which was good, but it had maybe 40 seniors living there, who would have sermons and play bridge (in a very serious way) all day, so I felt a bit like I was in an old folks home. Luckily mid week Sandra came and bailed me out and we got a different place.

After Bromont I had completly worn through my brand new pads, and half way through the back plate of the brake pads, so I replaced them, and somehow in the process I got some air in the system. So I took my bike to the shop there in Mt Snow, and the mechanic worked on them for a bit, then said he didn't have the right syringe, took my bike off the stand, said he couldn't fix it and he squeezed the back brake...SQUIRT!!! A massive jet of fluid shot out and coated my pads and rotor... 3hrs later and a few calls to sram he figured out that he had opened the wrong screw, and broken a seal. Eventually he bled my brake, and it seemed fine, but the next day during the race I got air in it again.

So, my race kind of sucked, I had to pump the brake maybe 15times to get any stopping power, and then keep it dragging to maintain that force. I finished well back in the field.

Post race Peter Glassford and I went to hang out with a good buddy of mine, Ben Moody, in Plymouth NH. Ben used to race xc, but now places top 3 at some of the US DH races. We rode amazing trails at Bens, and had a great time, until I got sick with fod poising. It started at 3am with stomach cramps, and I thought, "oh why did I eat so much" then I went to the bathroom and had explosive direaha, annd at that point figured out that there was more to the situation than met the eye. Another 2hrs of trips to the bathroom, and then finally I puked a few times, and by 6am I was ready for bed. The next day was miserable, Peter drove me 5hrs to Windham NY, and I just sat there with my eyes closed and head in hand not saying much for the whole drive. I think I ate a banana by mid afternoon.

Fortunately I recovered fairly well, and was ready to race 2 days later. I had a good race and steadily moved up through the pack, 2 riders/lap to finish 14th. I rode really well, and had a lot of fun, so I was happy to finish off the last important race of my season this way.
Catherine fed me for this race, and I think she bonked, got heat stroke, and sun burn doing it, so thanks for feeding me! Also, Adam and Sara were there cheering like crazy, so that was good too.

Bromont World Cup

2009-09-19T12:17:00.001-07:00

Bromont World Cup: I had a good race here, not my best of the season but a good one none the less. My knee had been bothering me ever since I crashed on it at Mount Ste Anne, so my training and confidence had both suffered.

Off the gun it was super muddy and there was so much mud flying through the air from everyone's tires that I basically closed my eyes/squinted and rode super hard to get to the climb. I moved well up through the traffic, and had a decent first lap for around 70th place. The race was super muddy, and I consistently moved up a few places each lap. I quite enjoyed riding in the mud, it was super technical, and very hard just to be able to climb many of the features. I finished 45, and was happy with my race. Afterwards I ate watermelon for about 10min, and then hosed off buck naked in front of the first aid building (I had about 1/2 a cm of mud caked everywhere, and there was no way I could get clean otherwise!)

The cottage

2009-08-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Catherine and I went to her cottage by Ottawa for the middle of the week, and had a great time hanging out with her parents. Duncan and I built a shed, and last week when Dan and Brian were there we built a sweet bike jump off a dock into the lake. It was tons of fun.

Mount Sainte Anne World Cup

2009-08-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All. Well the Mount Sainte Anne World cup was pretty crazy. It was fairly difficult conditions, with rain in the womens race in the morning (which my house mate Catharine Pendrel won!!!), and then drying up during the men's race. This meant that there was mud drug by our tires out onto previously clean surfaces, and lots of slick roots in the woods.

It made for fun riding, however the start of the race was a bit of a gongshow, as the orginizers decided we didn't need a start lap, and sent all 105 of us directly into a piece of singletrack where we stood around for 3min or so waiting to ride our bikes. Finally about 1/2 way throught the first lap, and 5min down, we were able to race. I rode fairly well, not my best race of the year, but still decent. I had good legs, but had crashed the day before riding way too fast over a mud coated rock on a corner, and banged up my knee. It bothered me a bit whenever i had to walk (not run) my bike, so that was a bit of a bumber. I still had a decent race to finish one lap down in 56th place, 7th Canadian.

I got a sweet new prototype Xprezo at this World cup, it is bright green, with internal cable routing, 4 inches of travel, and lighter tubing and material removed in various places.

What I do with my spare time

2009-07-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

As a rich bike racer, I decided to build a tower with my recent race winnings. You can see that I race for the money. No glue involved.

Nationals

2009-07-11T18:27:00.000-07:00

This year nationals were held in St Felecien, Quebec, which is about 400km north of Quebec city.

The venue has amazing trails, and a very well designed race course, with 6 over-unders so a spectator can stand in one area and see racers maybe 8x/lap. The course also has a bermed up bike park section and a nice mix of technical singletrack climbing and descending.

I got plate #3, because at the start of nationals I was ranked 3rd overall in the country for UCI points! I had a good start, and was 4th coming through the start loop. I let a few people by and settled in at about 7th. I rode there for lap 1, about 30sec behind the leaders. On lap 2 the leaders opened up the gap a lot more, and I was riding with Jullien Fillion from Quebec. It was great to ride with him, because it really kept me on my game and racing really hard. We would pass each other and try to drop the other lots of times, and on lap 3 he got a bit of a gap on me. However there was a long rooty climb that I was able to catch him on, and then I drafted for a double track section. On lap 4 I attacked him and was feeling really good, and I rode super hard and got a decent gap. By the last lap I was cramping pretty badly and had to dig super deep to stay ahead. For the last descent I was so out of it I was seeing lights, I rode it super sketchily, and hit every rock, root, and tree out there before slowing down and focusing on just finishing the race. I rolled into the line in 6th place, very happy with the way I rode.

Many thanks to everyone for cheering, and to my parents, the Viponds, and XPREZO for support.

Bromont Canada Cup July 6

2009-07-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note here. . . For the Canada Cup here, it rained all week, enough that the ground was super saturated, and then on Sunday (race day) the sun came out turning 80% of the trail into 5 to 10cm thick peanut butter mud. And not peanut butter that has sat out in the sun either, but like it is after you pull it out of you fridge.

Within the first 300m of the course we were already pushing our bikes. I figure i pedaled enough to cover an extra 2 km, it just all went into spinning in the mud. I had a decent race to finish 3rd, so the Xprezo team was happy.

I race nationals next weekend in Saint Felecien Quebec, so that should be a good one.

Edmonton Canada Cup June 13

2009-06-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

So I had a good race on the weekend at Edmonton. We were racing in the river valley smack in downtown, so it was a pretty cool venue with lots of spectators. The course was relatively flat, but lots of fun, with tons of singletrack and most of it was fairly rooty and technical.

I had a good start and never rode in worse than 2nd for the whole race. Tim Heemskerk led for part of the first lap, and then there was this technical root drop into an off camber corner that I thought he might run, and I was planning on riding, so I got in front for it and rode it. Tim ran it and that meant that I got about a 8sec gap on everyone behind me. This was actually a decisive move, as only Tim was able to catch back up and we rode lap 2, 3, and part of 4 together. There were times where we would attack each other to get into a section first or try and drop the other. Probably these efforts weren't the smartest thing, because by lap 4 even though I had dropped Tim, Watson caught me and attacked me super hard on the start climb. I kind of tried to go with him, but couldn't and just rode as smooth and steady as possible to finish 2nd, 1min back and 1min ahead of Tim.

It was a pretty fun race, and I am happy with my consistency and improvement in results compared to last year. I am now ranked 2nd overall in the Canada Cup Series.

Many thanks to the support of Terry and Dianne Jones for the great accommodations and meals during the week. Also thanks to my sponsor XPREZO for making great mountain bikes. Check out more Xprezo news at http://www.xprezo.ca/

Race the Ranch June 6

2009-06-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

So I did the BC cup #2, only because it was 800m from my door. Yep, that's right, I got off my couch 30min before the start and rolled up to the line. It was pretty sweet not to have to travel at all.

The race was 10deg cooler than last year, which means it was only 32deg! I made sure I went hard at the start, because last year I got caught up in a dust cloud and did a somersault into the sage brush. I lead the first lap by about 10sec, and then just kept opening up the gap from there. My dualie was awesome on this course, as there are tons of little bumps from pedaling, almost like washboard from cars. There were some pretty fun sections that I had helped build, one was this near vertical run down into a compression that then sling shot you right back up the hill on the other side. If you hit it too hard your legs would collapse and you'd get all squirrely on the bike. I do believe there were a few crashes there on the weekend.

The course did get super rutted out and dusty. It is just so dry there and a very silty soil. The course actually became a lot more technical as the race went on. It was awesome having some of the local crowd out to cheer us on. Mike, Aaron, and Pete all had me laughing so hard I almost fell off my bike while racing with some of their antics.

Anyway I had a good race here and ended up getting my first win of the season. This is a photo of Evan, who was 2nd. I just wanted to show all the dust.

Back in the Loops

2009-06-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

So I flew back out to kamloops the monday after Hardwood, and it turns out I was on the same flight from Vancouver back as my housemate Catherine Pendrel, so that was nice to have someone to hang out with for part of the trip.

Flying over the mountains reminded me 100% why I moved out west, as they were all snow capped and beautiful. The weather was also gorgeous at 25 to 30deg with sun, unlike 3 to 18 and rain in Onterrible (no Ontario really isn't that bad).

I spent most of the week weeding our garden and playing fetch with our cat Oly (who can now open drawers to find earplugs to play fetch with!!!). The garden had this super nasty vine-type weed that has roots about 45cm under the surface, so I think I'll be dealing with this bugger for a while. I started to bonk a few times while I was weeding, I just got so frustrated at the vine and wanted to get it out that I didn't want to go inside and eat. Maybe I should have drunk more, as it was 35deg and direct sun.

The rest of the time I went riding, and did a wicked ride up on Harper with Keith, Kika, and Evan Guthrie that ended with a swim. The next day I did big 3hr epic with Evan, we had to start at 9 AM as it was so hot that day.

Here is a video of Oly playing fetch www.youtube.com/watch?v=653KT_Kn-Dc

Hardwood Hills Canada Cup May 31

2009-06-16T16:01:00.000-07:00

This was a tough race. It was super flat and not very technical, both of which are my strong points. For race day it was really cold, at 3deg in the morning. I warmed up with my xprezo cycling jacket and then a hoodie on top.

For the race I had a good start in 3rd after a bit, then I slid out on a corner and lost a position, and then a little gap opened up. Hardwood is a hard one to race, as more than anywhere else, every second counts as you really can't close gaps. I rode fairly well for lap 1-3, got caught by Peter Glassford on lap 3-4 and rode with him (which was a good pain train), and then for lap 4-5 I rode with Steff Widmer. Riding with Steff was super fun, as we were railing the singletrack at mach speed (as in 45km/hr) in places, and I was trying to drop Steff or at least not let him pass me, so it was fun to be racing him.

I ended up 7th, and I had rode a good race, it just wasn't my best day or course. Afterwards I indulged in 3 helpings of ice cream, a sausage, a hamburger, a salad, and some pork at a barbecue hosted by Liz Ross and her landlords. It was a pretty fun time.

Mount Tremblant, May 23rd

2009-06-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

Baie Saint Paul May 17th

2009-06-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

This was the first Canada Cup of the year so all the racers want to see who trained extra well or smart (not hard) over the winter, hence there is usually a little nervous energy associated with the first Canada Cup. It was great to see everyone though, and meet up with those friends I hadn’t seen since last race season.

Baie Saint Paul is situated about 90km north east of Quebec City on the Saint Laurence River. I was a little worried as we were driving there and there was still about a foot of snow in the ditch by the ski hill Le Massif, but by the time we lost elevation to the race course it was all dry. The course at Baie was lots of fun, it is very well designed, in that a spectator can watch the riders about 6 times/lap with just walking 300m or so. It is a fairly rocky rooty course, with lots of singletrack climbing. The race organisers in Baie also are very enthusiastic about cycling, and get lots of spectators to come out from the community. They also make sure that all the small details are well organised, like their bike wash, which drained well and had a tent over top in case it was raining.

For the race I had a great start (first off the line) and rode a comfortable pace until we got to the singletrack, where I let a few riders go ahead. Derek rode off the front, and I was in a group of 5 for the first lap. I had a bit more pressure in my tires than I was used to, and on one very easy smooth flat corner that I was railing my front end slid out and I had a light crash. I got up super quick , turned my bars around and chased hard to get back on the group. It was pretty fun actually because it meant that I was racing super hard to catch the group in front of me. Lap 2 I couldn’t see them at a corner, lap 3 I could see them at the corner, and by lap 4 I had closed the gap. As soon as I caught up, Steff Widmer from Rocky Mountain caught a stick in his derailleur and broke it, so unfortunately for him he was out. Then I caught Raphael Gagne and immediately passed him and tried to chase down Julien Fillion who was in 2nd at that point. I put in a big effort on the end of the 4th lap and caught him and rode with him for the end of the 4th and start of 5th. I should have gone by, but sat in, and he dabbed on a technical climb and because I was following so close I lost my momentum and he got away. Shortly after that Andrew Watson caught me, he was riding super well and put a gap into me almost immediately. I think I might have worked a little too hard too early, and faded a bit lap 5. On lap 6 Leni caught me and I had to refocus and dig deep to stay ahead of him. I got a bit of a gap on him at the crucial point at the top of the descent, and rode it into the finish line for 4th place. I was quite happy with my race, but felt I made a few mistakes that cost me some time and positions.

My parents had driven up to Baie, and they were very excited to see me have a good race. It was also great to see them since the last time was in February.

Many thanks for the great support of my team Xprezo, which has been super supportive and helpful at all these races.

Here are some more links to interesting videos from Baie Saint Paul.
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235047-canada-cup-1-baie-saint-paul/180050-matthew-hadley-post-race-canada-cup-1

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235047-canada-cup-1-baie-saint-paul/180391-uncut-bonus-footage-matthew-hadley-climbing

Pan Ams, Chile March 21

2009-06-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

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