Race Report: XC Season Review
Words: Terry McKall / Captions: mostly Parker
Starting way, way back in March, when the woods were still cold and wet, Parker and I have been roaming around the Pacific Northwest representing Broad Street Cycles anywhere there was a start line and dirt. The goal for the season was simple: hit as many races as possible, see what happened. Our main objectives were to be Island Cup series and the Test of Metal series, and then as many other races as we could fit in around that. With the season finishing last week at JABR in Squamish, we thought it’d be a good time to look back over the season before we fully switched gears to Cyclocross this fall. So here’s what happened, or what remember of it, how we remember it.
Huge thanks to Broad Street Cycles for helping support me through this very long, busy season of racing! The Felt Nine 3 has been awesome all year, and made a big difference in my ability to get involved in these races, and to occasionally end up at the sharp end of the race.
We kicked off the season with a trip to the multi-sport relay race the Dirty Duo in North Vancouver, on the infamous ‘shore’ trails. Parker signed up at the last minute, bringing in current Canadian Mountain Running National Champion, Chessa as his runner. The duo destroyed the competition, winning the overall with the fastest time of the day. I survived the North Shore on my hard tail XC bike, winning in my mind.
Next up was a trio of Island Cup races: Victoria Hartland, Hammerfest, and Cumberland. I had a great start to the season, taking the first two wins before falling to Cory Wallace in Cumberland. Parker was never far behind, finishing 3rd in brutally cold conditions at Victoria, and 2nd at Hammerfest. Pro City also hosted a series of weekday fun races on the Hartland trails, including a poker ride and a very strategic egg hunt.
Then it was over to the mainland for the Junkyard Dog in Surrey, where CyclingBC attempted to revive the BC Cup series after a decade or so hiatus. The event was really fun: it had a beer garden, and fast winding trails. Hopefully more people show up next year, but the small field did make room for me to sneak onto the extended podium in 4th. Heading back to the Island, Parker picked up another 2nd place at the Island Cup in Nanaimo.
The Test of Metal series starts off with OreCrusher, a shorter loop course in the valley. I had a solid race, happily slotting just inside the top 10 to finish 8th. Parker was hot on my heels, but liked the course he stayed out for an extra one and a half laps instead of going in to the finish area. A bold move, but one only rewarded with a DNF. Our TOM series seemed to vary between these sets of three letters: fun and DNF. More on that later.
Parker returned to the Island to win the 2nd annual Coal Town Classic Marathon in Cumberland. It’s awesome to have a proper marathon type XC race on the island, and even better to have one on Cumberland’s incredible trails. Bonus: this year there was no torrential downpour! And Parker won!
Sticking to the Marathon XC theme for a bit, we hopped back on the boats to close out May in Pemberton at the NIMBY 50. NIMBY is easily one of the hardest courses and probably my favorite course to race on. It is what mountain bike racing should be: minimal fire road, long climbs almost entirely on singletrack, technically demanding both up and downhill, and very physically demanding. Plus it’s in Pemberton, with the race starting and finishing in the shadow of Mt Currie. Rob Parkin joined us and the Dodge City crew on this trip, and finished in an impressive 7th place. I finished off in 12th, and Parker edged inside the top 20 to finish 18th. Then we missed multiple ferries sitting around on the grass enjoying post-race beer and free food, and missed the Island Cup finals in Campbell River.
I think there was a couple weeks off (read: road racing) then the festivities returned to the Islands happiest town, Cumberland, for the 12th annual 12 Hours of Cumberland race. Parker and I teamed up with the chiropractic duo of Derek Vinge and Clay Ward to tackle the 4 man relay. More on that here.
Test of Metal in Squamish was one of the big races we were both stoked to race, and in 2015 TOM was celebrating it’s 20th anniversary. We joined up with Raph and Cody, packed into the Russ Hays van, and headed back on the boats, again, to Squamish. We found pizza, murals, and the best motel in the area, then met up with 800 of our closest friends to race 67-ish KM on Squamish’s trails and roads. Cody had a very solid 7th, I followed a while back finishing in a lucky #13th. Parker and Raph weren’t far behind, both pushing through a couple falls on course.
The next weekend was BC Provincial Championships in Whistler on the Lost Lake trail’s. I met up with Greg and Emilie from Dodge City and, again, boarded BC Ferries for the scenic cruise over to Horseshoe Bay, and onward into the heart of a heatwave crushing Whistler at the time. Huge thanks go to Tristan from Trail Bikes in Courtenay for staying in the heat after his Jr’s had raced (very very successfully) and helping keeping our trio hydrated as temperatures hit the high 30’sC. Trek Red Truck’s Craig Ritchie rode away with the win, but I was very stoked to hold on for 2nd place!
Parker and I returned to Squamish again for Gearjammer in mid-July for Gearjammer, possibly the most fun in the Test of Metal series. After a great day of pre-riding parts of the course and exploring some of Squamish’s less frequented trails, I ‘decided’ to ditch the suggested course and keep exploring on my own. This option was not recognized by the organizers, and led to our 2nd DNF in the series. Parker had a much better day, riding his way into a huge 5th place on only his 3rd ride on his new Yeti ASR C.
After a couple weeks off, I headed down to Oakridge for the Cascade Cream Puff 100 mile race. This was totally different than anything I’d done before, but went really well. More on that here, but safe to say Oakridge’s trails are pretty incredible!
JABR / Canada Cup Whistler weekend. uhhh… we’ll just pretend that one didn’t happen. 1/2 of us barely remember it anyway.
