Mont Sainte Anne World Cup

This may be a first in the life of the CSD blog, (Did CSD blog exist when Jamie was at the top of the world?), a world cup race report. It still blows my mind to think that I raced a world cup, several times while I was training on the course I just thought wow this is like as good as it gets for mountain bike racing, this is it!
So, I left Halifax at around noon on Wednesday July 22 and flew to Montreal and then after a short layover got on a Dash 8 to Quebec City. When I arrived I knew I was early so I took advantage of the free internet. The team manager showed up at around four and we were off to Mont Sainte Anne. The van was packed solid, it was full of race supplies, loads of front derailleurs and we had three bikes in boxes strapped to the roof. We later arrived at MSA with all of our bikes; nothing fell off, and got settled into our condo. We had a condo with just junior men in it; it consisted of Mitch Bailey, Tyler Alison, Evan Guthrie, Nicholas Tremblay, Antoine Caron and I. It was good crew and everyone got along during the stay. Thursday morning we had a meeting and the National Team clothing was distributed and then we went to the course, the coaches and managers want to create more of a team atmosphere on the MTB team so we warm up as a group together. All 20 or so of us went for a thirty minute warm up ride. Today I was to do the bulk of my riding on the course and really get a feel for it. We worked together as a team on our laps to try and figure out the best lines. Coaches were out on the course in key sections giving us feedback, which was really good. I did three laps all together and each lap I liked the course more and more. The course is a little different from previous years, the riding starts on the right side of the mountain instead of the left and there is a new tech downhill added. All the other features like the gravel road climb, the switch back climb and the connecting technical sections have all been preserved. It was a sick course, and it really suited our good technical riders, which was everyone because we’re from Canada. After seeing the course I felt really good about it. After the ride we got cleaned up, ate and then went to the waterfall that is below the mountain to get a cold bath. While we were there we found a few waterfalls and we figured we could jump off one of them. The terrain in there was epic; it was like nothing I’ve ever seen before, cooler than a canyon I was in when I was in Switzerland. So after we checked out the depth I started things off and did the jump. (Check the video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9tiStRO83c Three others followed me and made the jump including a girl, Reb B. We then rolled home and ate and chilled. The next day was similar, did a warm up as a group and I did a couple laps and focused on a few key sections and dialed them in. Again I felt great about the course. After the training we went down to the waterfall for a cold bath, the legs felt great after this. Finally on the last day of training before the race I did one steady lap to just to feel really good about the course and then I did some activation sprints on the road to prep my legs. The night back at the cabin was pretty good ate a huge chicken and pasta meal and rested the legs.
The next day was race day, this is where it gets exciting, our race was at 9h 00 so we all woke up at around 6h 00 to get some food into us. There were 26 riders registered and there were racers from New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Australia, Canada and a few other countries. We rolled up to the race area about an hour and a half before the start and we were told by our coach to do a psyche out lap of the race area, in formation, riding by all the teams tents. This was fun and it must have worked. Then we checked out the start loop and got our transponders put on our bikes. Some warmed up on trainers and I warmed up on the road beside the mountain, I had a solid warm up with some good efforts on the hills. The start was going to be fast so I had to make sure I was ready. The called us to the staging area at ten to nine and then they called us to the line. I was the eleventh one called to the line so I was the first one in the second row. As soon as everyone got to the line they called one minute to start and I still had my vest and arm warmers on and I didn’t have my glove on. So I frantically got all that stuff off and my gloves on when he called fifteen seconds to start, it was close. The start was really fast and I had to make up places before headed into the woods. There were almost a few crashes in front of me and I think someone went down behind me, definitely one of the craziest starts I’ve done. Canada had a great start with Evan, Mitch and Tyler in the top three with a Kiwi thrown in there while me and Antoine were stuck behind an Aussie and a Mexican. After a little section of single track Antoine managed to get by the two of them but there wasn’t any room for me. On the next downhill left hander I took the Mexican on the inside and pushed him out of the corner, best passing strategy ever. Then I got by the Aussie on the next section and now there was 5 Canadians in the top 6 so we were in good shape. I was feeling really good and I went really well up the first two climbs. I then caught Tyler who was having some troubles, he has asthma and his lungs were bleeding after the start so he ended up pulling out of the race. I was now in fifth place and I could see forth in some sections. On the first technical rock section I had a little crash but I got it over with early and I didn’t have any more problems. One the next few laps I felt really good and everywhere on the lap there were people yelling go Canada or go Andrew, people I didn’t even know. It was awesome; it made you want to go as hard as possible. Another highlight of the race was when you came down the technical rock section and the crowd of more than a hundred went crazy for you. It made me want to go faster and smoother every time because the better you did it the louder the crowd got. On another note Bruce and Daisy were there as my Nova Scotia home town and I could pick them out of the crowd every lap and that was really nice. So the race stayed the same until the last lap when I caught up to Mitch who had had a serious crash in the rock section. When I passed him on the last climb he gave me a friendly push and I was off towards the finish. The last few sections of the course were the best; my position had been decided so I just rolled the sections with a huge smile on my face really happy about what I had just done. So I ended up forth in my first World Cup MTB race and my team mates won the race and got third so it was a really good day for Canada. It was only the top three on the podium so I didn’t get a podium picture but I’m sure I can at next weeks race in Bromont.
I’m in Bromont now and I rode the race course yesterday and I’m going to ride it in a few hours again. I’m looking forward to Randy and Enid coming up to see my race on Sunday and I’m hoping they get some serious cheering hard wear ready; cow bell NS flag etc. I would also like to thank those who have helped my to get this far; my family, friends, my coach Andrew Feen, CSD, Kona, Terry Tomlin and Oakley and everyone else at home cheering me on.

The Pass? Conquered.

CSD Gets Paid in Men's and Women's Events
The Closely Associated Press
7 July, 2009

Be they mountain stages of The Tour, Iron Man events or launchings of NASA's Endeavour, perhaps anything that must begin as early as 9:00am is destined to be monumental. Hub Cycle's inaugural endurance mountain bike race—Conquer the Pass—threw riders across 100km of blueberry fields, snowmobile and ATV trails, access roads and singletrack. Like Leif Ericson or Chris Maccandless surveying a new-to-them continent or psyche-scape, ashen-faced riders peered over mud-speckled number plates; each new horizon offered a new materialization of epic, prompting an effect last paralleled by the first data stream sent from the Lunar Rover.

CSD brought a sizable swat team to the battlefield: The Old Man, The Grallerz, Fresh Ben, Quadz, Da Burge, Marty, Ant'ny, D-ral, French Connec, and Chops. Notably absent was MAC-10, who reportedly got nervous of the prior weeks' rainfall and found a bachelor party to attend, excusing him from admitting to his fear of slippery rockies and rooties.

As per usual, CSD created their usual scene by pulling in and blaring the sound of asinine youth throughout the parking lot. Once kitted, second Camelbaks were taken to one of the awesome volunteers who drove them out to the 45km marker. With 5+ hours on the pain train in prospect, a variety of fuel management strategies were adopted. Chops hit Cytomax for the first 45km, accompanied down the hatch by 5 gels, before switching to 2 liters of straight coke/3 more gels for the final 55. Other riders rocked a mixture of Powerbars and electrolyte capsules. It was reported to the press that Lazza actually raced without water, relying on spray from the monster full suspension bikes ahead to hydrate. In place of H2O, he had a bladder filled with norepinephrine complete with a cerebrospinal shunt to his brain stem. This prototype Camelbak proved to have side effects particularly antagonistic to Ol' Marty, some of which nearly caught air off the dose-response curve—slamming Marty perilously close to a lethal dose. Lazza: Not to be Fucked With.

The riders started with a fire truck lead out provided by Wentworth's Conor Scallion. Brad Cameron drove the lead moto, having which was a first for Atlantic Canadian racing. With 4km of dirt road under their wheels, the pack burst into the forest with a blast of Conor's horn. Lazza grabbed the race by the vas deferens and stomped the first 400 meters of washed-out climbing in his old school xtr 46 tooth big ring. His effort crushed a pre-school's worth of KOM dreams, as only TT, Marty and Chops remained in contact. Chops screamed in vain for our favorite fireman, yelling out that it was 400 kelvin up at the front and that he needs to bring up another oxygen tank, but he'd decided not to contest the summit's $100 prime and was out of earshot. (He'd later take a wrong turn, and himself out of contention.) Soon the group dramatically lost some elevation, while TT gained steam. The Old Man blew past Chops and Lazza on a scree covered double-track descent, making use of every millimeter of his Stakh's suspension—a theme that would continually replay.

Starting the KOM climb only Chops remained on TT's wheel, with Marty and Lazza fighting to regain contact. Neither TT nor Chops knew where the KOM actually was, however it was Chops who reacted first to the sight of Jeff Sims waving the cash in the air like he could sneeze some Gs or cough a stack. (Chops told the press later that he decided he'd go for it with the idea that if his back went out later he'd still have something to show for the day.) TT, for the first time in the collective memory of journalists world-wide, then suggested that he and Chops "take it easy" and "ride social". The polarity of the Earth suddenly reversed, amid the downshifting of the moto. Marty and Lazza soon made it back to the front lines of the War of Attrition.

With the KOM out of the way, the group of four settled into a calm rhythm as they pounded across the blue berry fields. A paceline was established, but a sly Lazza soon began to skip the odd pull—knowing full well that TT would gap him on the descents and that he'd better keep his reserve tank topped up. Like a younger sister tattling on an older sibling, Marty was having none of it. "How long till we have to ream him like Carson?" exclaimed a jubilant Marty as he recalled the Halifax Crit. Chops nearly slipped a disc with laughter, while TT maintained composure/the pace. Lazza took Marty's number, and resumed pulling.

There were three hallmarks to the course: moisture, elevation and rocks. Turning back into the trees, the group tore down a fall-line ATV trail descent. Tubeless tires strummed the tops of wet baby heads, as lines were picked in the macro sense of apexing corners and using the banks of the wash-outs rather than paying heed to individual rim denters. TT lead the pack in what would become one of the defining moments of our reckless pursuit of shred and stoke—catching the moto. Brad looked back just in time to see TT and Chops barreling down on him and had to run clean off the trail to get out of their way.

200 meters after that highlight, however, TT fell victim to his own brutality. He slashed his rear tire and couldn't get it to seal again with his co2. Chops waited for a few minutes but left in pursuit of Lazza and Marty when the co2 couldn't hack it. TT had to wait a reported 17 minutes for a rider to come by with a pump so he could get his spare tube onto the front lines.

Greeting Chops in his chase of Lazza and Marty was an epic climb; it paralleled the Cobequid Pass at the section a few km from the toll—truly steep shit. Chops would later report that he could see the silhouette of Lazza waving violently at Marty as they rolled over the top two-up. At the top of that Atlantic Canadian K2 of a climb the crew rolled under the 104 through massive culvert tunnels, emerging into more blueberry fields. Chops made contact a few minutes later, and the trio began another granite minefield of a descent. Chops, likely needing to recover from his ego shrinking experience of chasing Marty, hit the front and mashed it as soon as it got rough. Martin sprang onto his wheel like a young Simba, only to have an old Scar claw him savagely upside the head, exclaiming "Don't EVER cut me like that again. On these bikes (hardtails) you actually have to ride and pick lines; I can't fuckin' see with you right there. Marty muttered under his breath about owning 4 hardtails and calmed his amygdala down until the next climb...

With the trail angling upwards once again, Marty opened a clip of maximal aerobic power on the washed-out trail, gapping Lazza heavily. Chops resumed control of the front lines and began to forge a cruise-control pace; something sustainable for both himself and Marty, yet fast enough to roll into the 45km check point looking like the tourdefrancers they are.

The check points were another highlight of the race. At 45km their second Camelbaks greeted them in a neat row on the ground, and kids swarmed them with jujubes, orange slices and granola bars. They were the first ones there, and the kids were probably on a sugar high. Lazza showed up a minute or two later, and begged they give an old man 30 seconds. Chops offered some chain lube as a peace offering. Marty burped.

Rolling away into the second half of the course, Chops slurped on his coke and rode tempo on the front. Lazza decided to roll his own pace and teleported to no man's land. At 60km, with thick forest to our sides and turbines wooshing overhead, a fissure opened in Marty's armor. He popped off Chops' wheel, but was counseled to bridge back up and not turn his back on UNICEF, lest he refuse a free ride to a larger gap on Lazza. He ate and drank up, and didn't let that happen again.

Coming through the start/finish area at 70km, Chops decided to put the hammer down. With 5 km of highway until the next (brutal) climb, Chops strove to make contact with the moto. Marty fell off once the pace lifted, and Chops reported that he heard Bruce Dickenson's voice crooning "I'm runnin' freeee, yeeah, na naah" from his tires as they buzzed on the pave. The course took a right onto a huge dirt road climb that paralleled the ski hill, just 10km further down the valley. It soon turned to snowmobile trail, a transition that was marked by a narrow bridge lined with sharp, rusty, hard to see rebar posts. Chops smashed his arm on one, causing endorphins and expletives to flow at 70 psi. A family in lawn chairs took him by surprise as he cursed that rebar out like Easy E.

Riders in the 30km category had started before the 100k crew made it onto the last section, and jumped off the course in a confused panic, as the roar of the moto shocked them before Chops said "on your left" followed by a "you too man, keep shit real." With one of the most brutally placed and longest climbs of the day behind the Camelbak, the second most brutal streambed descent greeted the field. Think 20 years of ATV-caused erosion, covered only by a diverted Amazon sent by the bike gods for extra lubrication and excitement as it coursed around tire treads and steamed against brake rotors.

Bursting out, saturated, onto a fast banked-corner dirt road descent to the LaFarge gravel pit was most welcome at this point in the race, as any time spent with relaxed hands at 40km/h was making time—riders told themselves that "it can't be long now at this pace". Chops followed Brad out onto the highway and tucked on top of his bar for the 70km/h descent; motor homes crept by; gawking kids squealed. The climb up toward the Hostel followed the highway section. Passing htgir fo yaw, Chops prayed to the gods of high modulus carbon fiber to keep hamstring cramps at bay. The course took a right and dove down the fall-line right before the Hostel, careening through the hardwood over the last baby head section of the day. This took the crew out to a highway, where Brad stopped the moto and yelled "take it home!" to Chops. The last 2km was spent winding through single lane grass paths, manicured by the provincial park to the standards of the PGA Tour. 4:50. 21km/h average speed. Sun-drenched satisfaction.

Chops cleaned his shit up and began to blast Girl Talk (official sound of CSD), and TT rolled in. He'd overtaken Lazza and Marty (who pinched a UST tire—christ allmighty) and made up metric tons of time after his tire slash debacle. Who knows how things would have turned out had he not flatted? Chops remarked that he was feeling great, and was deeply saddened by the misfortune of others. (He's just a sucker for pain and wanted to get pushed harder. —Ed)

Graller Power crushed the women's field by over 50 minutes (with a detour off-course) to balance CSD's load of ice for the haul home. She began snuffing bitches out right at the beginning, as she also snatched up the Queen of the Mountain's $100. Truly a heavyweight performance driven in part by the numero uno on the front of her Era. Randall finished equally stoked on his life, remarking that he'd searched his soul and found reflections of his entire life out there in them hills. Holding your bike above your head? Old School Cool.

Quadz had a vision quest of his own, disconnecting himself from the field in the beginning along with D-ral. Quadz remarked afterwards that it was probably the longest ride of his life, and how killer and surreal it was to be riding stuff at full gas that you'd never consider subjecting your cherished race bike to otherwise. D-Ral was likewise stoked on it, having never done that sort of epic long-haul off-road randonneur shit before. He and his 29er held it down and will be back for more.

In closing, Chops remarked to everyone within earshot that it was a day well, well lived. The definition of quality time. Lying in the sun after the race, the crew discussed the dissolution of the conscious mind in the face of such sustained effort and preoccupation—walls are broken down; back of the head thoughts ebb and flow with the mud, clouds, fork oil and ferns. Hitting kinesthetic potential in the area of evolutionary adaptedness fulfills at the level of the hindbrain.

The stoke afterglow is going to last for days.

Thanks to Bruce, Brad, Daisy, Conor and all the volunteers who made it happen!

-CSD