So just got back from Whistler and I am super stoked. The trip was amazing, being surrounded throughout with tons of racing, friends and the biking community. Crankworx, for all its faults of lineups, crowds and busyness never fails to amaze me with how many people from different walks it brings together. I saw so many people I haven't seen in forever, and so many people I didn't expect to see, it was a treat indeed.
Seeing as the Duffy lake was closed with the Lilloet fire earlier in the week, I arranged to stay in Vancouver Tuesday night on my way to Whis to hang out with my cousin. I haven't seen her in far to long, and the combination of close family, all her friends and a bunch of schenanegans made for a hilarious night.
Wednesday I awoke far too early to drive my cuz downtown to school, and then make the voyage to Whistler. With my limited budget Wednesday was a rest day for me so I hung out, took care of registration, watched the Air DH and checked out all next years goods displayed throughout the village. All of Giant’s new bikes were on there and they pretty much rocked my world. Despite the fact they were offering free demos, with my race coming up I chose to wait and spend the week focusing on the race on my own bike. By the end of the day I was eager to ride, to say the least. I stayed the week with a bunch of juniors I am coaching, and sleeping in the living room exposed to their relentless practical jokes necessitated barricading in my sleeping area so they couldn’t get to me.
Thursday I awoke unscathed and jonesing to get a peek at the Canadian Open course, which I heard was fast, gnarly, super tech and full of serious jumps. I talked to a number of friends, and a few of which who race pro, who dropped out when they saw it. The trail, designed by Tyler Morland, did not disappoint and promised to be right up my alley once I got up to speed. The track was quick even in the tech sections, and extremely fast in the wide open sections. The course was constantly turning over the steep, undulating terrain, with tech commitment moves all the way down. The ground was a pretty equal mix of rock slab, roots and dirt, and the challenging nature of the terrain was compounded by the fact it had been raining all week, so the mud covered rocks and roots made for a fair bit of gleeful surfing. There were also 7 large gap jumps in it, ranging from 20 something to 40 something foot gaps, with around routes on all of them for those unable to hit them. The bottom section remained closed as it came through the boneyard at two points, but was the best finish section I have seen. It was super spectator friendly, completely wide open with a good mix of bermed, flat corners and fall away corners, a hip step down, a big double through the trees, a road gap and a huge finish line jump. Trail builders at Sun Peaks and elsewhere take note; this is a how to design a race track. As I had two days to train I took my time learning the course and memorizing how every line linked together to ride the course as fast as possible. My other big focus was rest so I kept it down to three training runs and one play run, and by the end of the day I had figured out all the mandatory sniper lines and teed up all but the biggest jump.
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