Sunday 12 May 2013

Spring time in the 'Bridge

Spring is one of my favourite times to be in Uxbridge. Everything is coming into bloom, the trails are in mint condition, and the excited air of impending summer vacation has not yet turned to boredom among the university students. While it's been short-lived, my spring in Uxbridge has been one of the best yet!

Right after Sea Otter, I came home to prep for the first OCup of the year, which was in my hometown of Uxbridge! The course is basically in my back yard (only takes ten minutes to ride to the start line... but let's face it, it only takes ten minutes to ride anywhere in Uxbridge), so it was nice to be able to sleep in my own bed on race weekend! On Saturday we raced the first ever Ontario Cup Eliminator, which was pretty fun. A lot of the Quebecers made the trip out for the weekend, so the competition was stiff and it made for some exciting racing. It was good to get some practice in racing an eliminator, seeing as I'll be doing a couple of those in the weeks to come at the world cups! The biggest lesson I learned = the start is KEY.

On Sunday we had the XC race. We couldn't have had better weather, and the course was in PERFECT condition. I felt alright throughout the race, but didn't feel spectacular. Man, the Ontario field is unrelenting! There is no room to have a bad day when you're racing these girls; one misstep and you are overtaken! It's pretty cool that we have such a strong and fast field of women in Ontario, it makes the racing so much more fun. Laura Bietola took the win for the weekend, with Cayley Brooks in 2nd and Sue Haviland in 3rd. I finished a close fourth, with some improvements to make and ground to gain. Big thanks to Havy and Norco for getting me set up for the race season and taking so much time to ensure we were ready to rock over the last two weekends!

The following weekend was the OCA U15 camp at Hardwood Hills. We had over 60 kids (!) come out for a day of riding, skills development and fun. It was so cool to see so many kids on mountain bikes, and especially to have so many girls out.

We bling-ed the girls (and Peter Glassford) out in ribbons for the day
Some interesting techniques were employed for bike limbo
I tried my hand at the bike limbo as well... turns out I can get pretty small for a 5'7" girl on a 29er!
The girls attentively listening to Simmer's advice on how to rip single track. 

This past Thursday night, I headed down to TO to attend the Morning Glory Cycling Club pub night. They are an incredible group who are so supportive of cycling, and I feel honoured to have their support for the 2013 season! It was nice to meet so many people from the club, and I hope they all enjoy the summer on their bikes!

Interspersed among the fun-filled weekends were my little sister's prom (the kid's all grown up!), her 18th birthday, a demo with Norco and Evolution Cycles, a lot of high-quality training, and even some laying on the deck and drowning-chipmunk-saving thrown in there. All in all, it's been an amazing spring so far, with lots of time on the bike and with my family. I feel so lucky to live here and am stoked that I got to have a few solid weeks at home. I'm off to Europe tomorrow for the first two world cups in Germany and Czech Republic and I couldn't be more excited to race my first Euro world cups as a U23!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Excuse the food picture (at least it's not on instagram), but these were DELICIOUS. Think peanut butter cheesecake wrapped in velvety smooth dark chocolate. 

I wish I looked half as good as my sister did at her prom!




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