Sun Peaks DH Finals and Provincial Champs

So this weekend was the BC Cup and Canada Cup DH Finals and the Provincial DH Championships at Sun Peaks. For me this represented the last series race for me and the wrap up of the 09 race season. Coming straight from Crankworx I coached a couple days straight at the hill and then set up a couple chill days to get some much needed rest. My roommate Katy’s dad was a first aid attendant at the hill for the xc and dh, so her parents got a condo at the hill for the weekend which Katy, her friend Candace and I also stayed at. Friday night I arrived at the hill and decided to save training for Saturday to conserve energy and wait for the course to break in. We made a huge feast and then proceeded to have a short but super fun evening out consisting of slaying the pool table and dance floor before calling it early. Saturday I did 4 runs to get up to speed in the loose sections, and by the end of the day the upper sections had deteriorated into super deep powder chutes filled with big holes. I saved most of my practice energy for visualization, and by the end of the day felt quite solid on the bike and in good form. That night we again had a big feast and then went into the village to partake in the Café party at Bottoms and the last race of the year celebrations. The Dunbar boys were holding their 16” BMX slalom race at the bottom of the chair with about 50 spectators cheering loud enough to be heard across the village. As soon as I heard they were hosting it I was in. The course they set up consisted of pylons, jumps, flat corners in gravel, burms and a stepdown, all to be completed in the darkness, on a 16” kids BMX, heckled and cheered on by the crowd and at varying levels of sobriety. The timing was accomplished with a freelap system and all the names and times were written with marker on a box. My first run was super fun and qualified me for the super final. My second one was super quick and might have been in the running for the win if I didn’t explode out of the last corner and faceplant before slowly getting up and dragging the bike to the finish line. I ended up only a couple seconds back, but big smiles all round.

After the race I hit the village again and had a super fun night with the girls, the Café crew and a couple of the Dunbar guys. In the morning I banged off two training runs and felt super good. The course was getting BEAT! In the upper section the dust was so deep that your tires floated on top instead of breaking through to the dirt. Pretty interesting sensation indeed. The holes were also getting super bad, but I polished my lines to make the most of the track and felt confident. I spent the rest of the day prepping my bike, visualizing a ton and then staying super chill and hanging out in the village with Candace. A bunch of my family and a couple of my friends also came up to watch, so before I left the village to get prepped I had an extended good luck hug session. It is super cool to feel so supported by your community.