CANADIAN NATIONAL MTB CHAMPIONSHIPS

Mucky. That is the only word to describe CDN Nationals this year. After a week of rain, the Mt Washington race course was mucky and it was cold. 8C! Mid July - where the hell was summer?!? My tan sucks. Now I consider myself a bit of a mudder so I was OK with the conditions but it was a bit ridiculous come race day. I had a good start, hitting the opening climb top 5 but it was pretty much unrideable for us XXs (and even most of the XYs although Norm claims he rode it lap 2). I saw powerhouse Marie Helen Premont jump off only a quarter of the way up the first climb and start running so that was my cue to give up on my slow inching forward motion and put my mad CX skillz to work. Although I haven't really been running since March, there are not a huge group of mountain bikers that run so I considered it "advantage Wendy". Until I saw Xterra World Champ Melanie McQuaid (Natures Path - Orbea) rocket past me. I figured she was putting in more running miles than I was. But on the technical descents my Hei Hei supreme and Maxxis Advantage tires were ripping through the mucky singletrack quite nicely. Melanie is a fighter so we battled back and forth the first lap. I should have been smarter and saved my energy because by the time we hit the second climb of the first lap I was pretty fried and Amanda Sin (3 Rox Racing) passed me as I fumbled up the climb. I pulled myself together at the start of lap 2 so when Sandra Walers (XO Felt) tried to pass me up the second climb, I jumped off my bike and "ran" my long legs up the hill to get my buffer back.



The "good" thing about pushing your bike up a steep muddy hill is that things are pretty slow going so 1. you can see where your competitors are (Premont, Catharien Pendrel (Norco) and Kiara Bisaro (Opus) were no where to be seen while Sin and McQuaid looked closer than they actually were) and 2. your super fan club can get a good long look at you suffering. Since I live only an hour and a half from the venue some friends came out to cheer me on in the pouring rain. Hard core. Did I mention it was only 8C? I might not have been winning the race but I definitely had the best cheer squad. Catharine Pendrel told me after the race that a little girl kept asking her "where's Wendy?? is Wendy coming soon??" whenever she climbed past. Yeah! Score one for me. There were also (soggy) foam fingers scattered about the race course cheering me on which I love!

My second lap was pretty good after I collected myself together and recovered from the first lap. I was riding the descents really well and was making time there but losing time on the climbs (until I started to run). I started to reel in McQuaid and was within 5 seconds of her but she pulled away again. I thought that might be it for me but my super fan club was screaming at me so I couldnt let them down. I was making time on Melanie again in the final lap so I started to gear up for the catch. This time I had to be smarter. Don't use up ALL my energy in the catch so I could gap her a bit. I like to think of it as "catch and release". I rode a section she had to run and opened up a small gap. But she kept coming back like a zombie. Everyone was yelling at me and I was SO close to the finish. I dug deep and held it together to stay ahead oh her. I rode the rock garden section perfectly while I could hear McQuaid behind me bobble and start running. That was enough for me to take off and finish the race in 5th. Not a podium but it felt like a podium effort to claw out that 5th place finis so I was pretty happy. Its been a long rough season with not a lot of energy for clawing. It was good to feel like I was racing again. Unfortunately 5th was not enough to get me a spot to Worlds for Canada (they are only taking a team of 3) so the disappointment came later.

Thanks to all my friends and family who came out to cheer me on and support me. It made the difference. I wish I could bring you to ALL my races!

HOME SWEET HOME

After a long haul out of the country and then 2 weeks in "la belle province" it has been pretty nice to just putter around home again. Dont get me wrong, I DO love traveling all over the world to check out new places but sometimes you just need a dose of home to recharge. Riding with Norm on my favourite trails, walks with Marty at the beach and catching up with friends and family always puts me back in a good head space. This dose at home has been especially good because I just started my year off from work. Wahoo! Now I can add things like: sleeping in, rides in the MIDDLE of the day in the sun, hot tubs after rides in the MIDDLE of the day and cooking good food after rides in the MIDDLE of the day to my list of rechargers. It is going to be one sweet year off. Sure I will have more time to train but I think I am more excited about having time to rest and recover.

One cool race I had to pass up because I was in Quebec doing the world cups was the first ever BC bike race - a seven day mountain bike stage race from Victoria to Whistler. BUT lucky for me Andreas Hestler who was helping organize/promote the race asked me if I wanted to do a "guest stage" of the race and hand out awards. Hmmm lets see, ride some fun west coast trails, with no pressure of racing, in the hot summer sun, in the MIDDLE of the week, to chat with people and check out the event. Tough choice. I signed up for the Squamish to Whistler stage because I would have some turnaround time at home after Quebec and I knew the trails would be super fun. I partnered up with Lesley Tomlinson (Rocky Mountain Haywood) and Karen Eller (Scott) for the day. I rarely get to mountain bike with girls so it was a blast riding with them, although I did feel a bit guilty about passing people that had 5 days of riding in their legs.....The organizers took great care of me with a big loot bag, dinner and some awesome riding. Definitely a race I will have to add to the list. So many....

Another "local" race I got to do was the Padden Mountain Pedal - a classic race that has been running for 15 years. In fact, it was one of my first year pro races. I remember it well because the crazy organizer (Mark Peterson my Kona Les Gets manager) had us line up one deep across this field and sprint for a narrow opening to see who won the hole shot $$. It was nutty for the girls race and absolutely chaotic for the men. He resurrected the start format for this years race. I had a blast racing some great single track, having fun with the twisty, flowy trails that would never be found on world cup courses (not up to code....). It helped me remember why I race mountain bikes. Its so easy to get caught up in all the world cup hype with points and selection criteria and start getting down on yourself but riding some super fun trails at a grassroots event brings it all back into perspective. Now I am not getting soft on you but I have had a frustrating year of racing and I think I just needed to remember the fun side of racing again. So with a couple weeks at home recharging I am set for Nationals - bring it on!

SHIMANO

Since I have been traveling the globe racing these world cup races I have to say that Shimano has been there to help me out at every venue. Robert in europe made sure my Kula Supreme was dialed in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. And the Shimano Canada boys have been awesome here in Quebec. Ben, Joe, Mark and the rest of the crew have set my feet up and the Hei Hei Supreme is totally fired up and ready to race on a REAL mountain bike course. Thanks to the crew for being so supportive while I have been far from home. You rock!

Je me souviens

Je me souviens is on every Quebec license plate. I am not sure exactly what it means historically but literally it means "I remember". Just sitting here in St Felicien a couple days out from the second Canadian world cup race. I was in Mt St Anne for a week with my parents acting as support crew and then Norm met us for the St Felicien race so its as close to "home" as I have been in awhile.

I have been having an awesome visit with Lizzie & Geo (my parents). Every year they come and support me at Mt St Anne and every year Geo says he wants to try paragliding. He talks to the paragliders about the wind conditions, the weather conditions and everything else aeronautical (he is a pilot). BUT every year he chickens out and says that he doesnt have time or the weather isnt good. So for fathers day I just said "get yourself organized - we are going paragliding".





He didnt have time to object. We got him hooked up and he took off from the backside of Mt St Anne. My mom said it was the first time she had ever seen him give up control to a total stranger. If you know Geo, you know every move he makes is calculated (the risk, the time, the benefit, the cost etc). But he LOVED it!! Noone else was flying that day because the wind was so strong but the tandem wing was big enough to tame the strong winds. It took them ahile to get back down as a result but it meant Geo could log more time in his flight log book.




We also went whale watching after the race. I have always wantde to see a Beluga whale. I was born in Churchill where I always heard stories about polar bears and belugas and narwhales so I had to check them out if they were so close. I guess tons of whales come into the St Lawrence to feed, including the elusive Blue whale. So we signed up for a zodiac trip and went to check it out. We were not disappointed. ~3o whales were feeding out in the St Lawrence near Tadoussac and we saw three different species: Fin whale (bigger than two school buses - second biggest whale in teh world next to teh Blue), Minke whale (bigger than 2 minivans) and some Belugas. The Belugas are protected so we couldnt get very close but the Fin and Minke were feeding close to us so we could really get a sense of just how enormous these critters were. It was a very cool experience.

Day trippin'

Kris and I were based out of Solothurn with the super cool Schneitter family but we managed to get in a few day trips to check out the area. We went to Bern, home of the Bernese Mountain dog (NOT the BurMese mountain dog from BURMA as the owners so often scoff at me - yeah thats you Dave and Erin!). Bern was great for shopping but lots of construction going on. Great chocolate shops so I had to taste test to make sure I could bring home the very best for Norm and the Malaspina Biology crew....it was research!

We also did a day trip to Nyon on lake Geneva to visit Myriam Saugy. I had never actually met Myriam but I had heard a lot about her from Norm and Stefan. Myriam is a Swiss marathon MTB racer who just came 2nd at the 8 day Cape Epic in South Africa. She gave us a great tour of the local trails. We had a 4 hour ride up the Jura mountains and then hit a restaurant at the top for a drink. Its pretty cool that you can stop for a drink in the middle of a 4 hr mountain bike ride! Myriam had this local dairy drink that is bright red, tastes like pop and is carbonated - wierd. Her English is great so we actually learned a lot about the area as we rode past black fighting cows, alpine meadows, and looked for a clear view of the Alps in the distance. Afterwards we went into town and checked out the festivals, Lake Geneva and tasted the local ice creams - Chocolate Delire (CRAZY CHOCOLATE!). How could I resist?

Champerey

We were sad to say goodbye to Prisca and Eddy but it was time to move on to another race. Well rested and well fed we took off for Champery. It is a cool little town nestled in the snow covered mountains in the French part of Switzerland. Not quite at "altitude" but pretty damn close. Lots of roads that lead UP if you should so desire to go higher. We are staying in a chalet with Sandra Walters and Catharine Pendrel with lots of other Canadians close by. The course is great. Lots of singletrack, lots of places to pass and one crazy steep climb. Its pretty rooty which reminds me of BC. I was having some problems with my shifting after Offenburg but Robert and the crew from Shimano and Paul Walton from the Kona downhill team helped me out so I am set. The Kula supreme is dialed, my body is well rested, I love the course and I am ready to rip it up. Its time to start racing....wish me luck.

Biology geek

So even when I am away traveling for bike races I can never seem to lose my biology geek side. This trip was no different. I stopped mid-climb to look at HUGE land snails that are found only on the mountain behind the Scheitters house (Weissenstein). I learned about a local frog that carries its eggs on its back from the neighbors. I poked and prodded a big hedgehog (iegle in german) on the side of the road that had been hit by a car. We chased a chamois (deer-like animal) on our bikes until it bounded away into the woods. I tried to get close to this group of HUGE eagles? hawks? hunting in a local field. I caught a toad one day on the climb up Weissenstein. I heard about the local ticks in Solothurn that carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease and cause tick borne encephalitis (TBE). Good stuff.

So its been awhile since I have updated this blog. I like to think its because I have been so busy but in reality its because a long string of crappy races have made it hard to be motivated to write race reports. Since I am here in Switzerland for the first time I am going to start with the good and work backwards...

The Schneitters
The 2007 Swiss U23 National champion Nathalie Schneitter has super supportive parents! They have been our homestay parents for a few days now and they have been SO good to us! Priska feeds us, does our laundry and makes sure our bikes are taken care of by the Swiss national team mechanic. Eddie makes sure we get seconds, we always have a glass of wine in our hand and offers to cut our hair (although we haven^t made it to his salon yet) Both of them put up with our TOTAL lack of german. As typical North americans we dont know any language other than english and a "petit peu" of french. Morons..... To someone who knows all three languages it must be hilarious listening to our mish mash of words. BUT we seem to understand enough to get by. And just to be sure they invite neighbors and family over that know some English to make sure its clear. The Schneitters are SO supportive of Nathalie its awesome to listen to them brag about her even though we dont know EXACTLY what they are saying its obvious. Last night they brought out her 2004 junior world champion medal and rainbow striped jersey which was pretty damn impressive. And for someone so young with such a long list of accomplishments and parents that dote on her, Nathalie is a totally cool chiquita.

The Swiss
As always things in Europe are similar to home but just a little bit different. If there is one thing I would say about the swiss (other than they make GREAT chocolate) is that they are ORGANIZED. Everything has its place and is clean. Oh yeah and they love their cheese. We had a traditional racklette (sp?) our first night here. I love my cheese but I was no match for the swiss. Nathalies brother Micheal wanted to make sure that we knew they didnt eat like this all the time....Apparently they also have to pay a lot for their bike parts. I needed some Shimano brakepads and our Swiss mechanic from Friedlis bike shop ordered them in for us - 89 Swiss Francs for one set!! I think he cut us a deal and gave them to us for cost at 50 swiss francs. Makes us especially thankful that we are sponsored. Thanks Kona - Les Gets!

Solothurn
So we are staying in this great little town near Bern which has some wicked long climbs and steep descents on the mountain bike. Good road riding with kilometers of bike paths. Bikes have their own traffic lights here - now that is acceptance. Wish Nanaimo could get with the program.

Offenburg
I guess I cant avoid the reason I was here. The Offenburg World Cup race was probably one of my favourite courses. It was super technical and rocky and rooty with tons of singletrack. Steep chutes had many terrified in the pre-ride (when it was still dry). I had yet to take my Maxxis Oriflamme semi slicks off so prerode with them knowing full well I needed some more tread for the race - especially if it rained as expected. The legs felt pretty good even though we only arrived Thursday. I think it was the first class sleeping pod I was lucky enough to score on the way over! On the start line it started to sprinkle. My last few races I have been starting fast and fading so I told myself to hold back at the start so I could have energy to ride the fun singletrack. The climbs were technical and not very long so I figured I wanted some juice for this race since it had wendy written all over it. I got the slow start right but that was about it. I moved up from my 73 start position to the mid 40s without much effort but when I tried to start moving up the pack on the first lap I soon recognized that my legs were taking more of a hit than they should have...Climbs I should have been doing in my middle gear had to be in the granny so the backwards movement started. I rode steady but in a world cup that doesnt cut it. It started to pour rain and I got a little renewal of energy as I saw girls struggling in the technical. Girls were on the ground, running the chutes and running the uphill. I myself rode a clean race but apparently when you arent riding very fast its not much of an accomplishment. It still was not enough to move me up much...54th in the end.

So I am here in Switzerland trying to pull together the fitness and strength that I know is lurking there somewhere....I have trained a lot and put in the time so its just a matter of getting it to all come together. When it does watch out....I have some serious ground to make up.....

Firestone NMBS

I knew it wasn't a great sign that I was weighing the pros and cons of actually lining up for the Firestone short track race during my warm up 30mins before the start. I felt like ass and it wasnt the heat. I have been sick on and off for a month now. What should have been a simple cold has become a monster because I had kept training and racing and traveling before I was healthy and now it was biting me in the ass. I hadn't ridden my bike since the Houffalize World cup because I was so tired so my legs felt good but my head and throat and lungs were getting worse - again. I finally had a good start position for the short track so I didnt want to lose that, and I figured I needed to know for sure how I was felling for the XC so I convinced myself to start. At worst I could drop out if I felt horrible.

Start gun went off and I had good legs so I went into the first corner 3rd. Apparently it was a dustbin behind us so its a good thing I wasn't back there sucking it in. The Luna girls sorted themselves out soon enough and caught us at the start of the second lap. They blew by me so I ended up leading the chase group. I could hear the announcer talking about how Kristin Danielson (Velo Bella - Kona) was having a great ride so I knew she was close behind. She pulled on strong and I hid behind her wee frame for a bit. I tried to give back to KD but made my move a little late as a few other girls were coming on strong. We had a pretty good chase group going but I got antsy when a few girls passed me. I tried to go with them when it narrowed and ended up sliding off a gopher hole and hit the dirt. I got up fast but had lost the chase group. Spent the rest of the race chasing myself but by then my body temp was up, my throat was killing me and I couldn't breath through my nose. Heather Irmiger (Subaru Gary-Fisher) passed me with some authority so I grabbed her wheel and held on to the finish. 10th place in the end I think. Not bad on paper but I felt horrendous afterwards and its only been getting worse.

So I sit here thinking the smartest thing to do is skip the XC tomorrow and concentrate on getting healthy again. Unless I have a miraculous recovery by tomorrow it looks like my first ever DNS. But I am sick of being sick. Its time to kick this and race healthy again.

photos to come.....

The euro report. Written as I am trying to stay awake until a respectable 9:30pm so it might not make sense in some places...

Reality check
Well, it takes a euro world cup to tell you where you really stand in the grand scheme of things. And although its hard on the ego, its always good to do it early in the season so you don't get cocky racing the North American circuit. So Sneddly and I decided to go to Houffalize, Belgium for a euro whoppin' at the world cup opener 1) because the race is legend and 2) to chase some UCI points. It wasn't hard to convince me as I love racing in Belgium - the fans are nutty and the pastries are tasty. Apparently it wasnt hard to convince athletes from 20+ other countries either because there were 250 men and 125 women registered to start.

Belgian sun?
Packing for Belgium was usually easy - be prepared for wet, muddy conditions. But this year they were in the middle of a euro heat wave. It was crazy - sun every day. In Belgium? Kris and I still had our Maxxis Oriflamme slick tires on from Sea Otter with full intention of changing them to knobbies at best, mudders at worst. But after a pre-ride in the dry, dusty conditions we both decided to run them for the race. Many a euro superfan stopped to point and stare at our slick tires as the weekend went on. They are somewhat of an unusual sight here I guess.....

Kona europe
Tom Eijssen from Kona had offered to support us at Houffalize so Kris and I were super pumped when we saw Tom and his girlfriend Nienke setting up the familiar orange tent. A few of the other Kona riders were there as well (Will Bjergpelt, Klara van der Vaart and Bas de Bruin - apologies if I have butchered your name) so it felt comfortable right away. Actually it felt like euro bizarro world where everything was exactly the same, only just a little bit different. If they had frites they would have definitely dipped them in mayo......

16%
I had a decent start position so I can't use that as an excuse...29th out of 125 girls is a great place to be - especially when you are facing a substantial 16% grade hill to spread the field. I had a good start and didn't torch myself up the start hill but I could tell pretty quickly that my legs had one speed only for the day. Unfortunately that speed wasn't crazy fast just steady. Steady is good when you are doing a training ride but steady isnt great when you are racing euro style where every minute is 4-5 places. I was slowly moving backwards to 44th as girls passed me the entire race. Fellow Canadians like Kiara Bisaro and Sandra Walters, and speedy Americans like Georgia Gould and Katerina Nash passed me early on but I also noticed some big names like Laurence LeBoucher (won a world cup cross race a few months ago) suffering with mere mortals like myself. It was a blow to the ego but my brothers training plan was to build towards a long MTB season not rock the first world cup. A smarter plan but I did miss my sassy cross legs....

I shook it off, bought a chocolate croissant and went to watch the mens race with the rest of the 30,000 superfans. Kris pretty much reversed my race. He had a horrible start and was 159th on the start loop but gradually worked his was up to 110th by the second last lap and then picked off 30 faders on his last lap to finish 80th! He looked really strong at the end.

Thanks the Kona Les Gets team - the euro bizzaro world gang this time - Tom, Nienke, Bas and Will. It was awesome having your support so far from home. It is almost 9:30 so I must sign out....