North Shore Bike Fest

So this last weekend saw the North Shore Bike Fest DH go down on Mt. Seymour. It was held on Neds, which is armoured (think cobblestone path) in between all the roots, so basically we were riding on either rock or wood for 90% of the trail. Combine the trail surface with rain and you have a tech setting for a race. Despite the race’s anti-Kamloops nature, it was a ton of fun to ride and even more fun to put a race run together on. One of my main process goals coming in was to find lines that would allow me to link sections without braking. It was an interesting challenge to say the least, and my lines had me riding all over the trail up on stumps, trees, rocks... whatever I could find that would allow me to straighten out sections and carry speed. I had a ton of fun in training with a couple of the kids I am coaching, working in depth to put together our runs. They are putting it together piece by piece so I am excited to see what they can achieve in the near future.

I felt confident coming in to my race run that I could really open it up and achieve a good result. I was a little worried about my back with the rough track and the high-speed drop to flat in the middle, but I decided I would just put it behind me and lay it all down. My first section went really well with my bike felt absolutely spot on. I consciously thought to myself coming through a rough section early on that my suspension felt absolutely perfect - thank you Manitou. Mid-way down the trail there was a tech chutey rockbed section that was a bit faster and steeper with a bit of a twisty armoured staircase feel to it. It was the dominant section that I had been working to no-brake due to its crucial position above a flatter tech section with some s-corners and then the dreaded 6 ft drop to flat. Carrying speed out of it was crucial, so in practice I was airing into the staircase, cutting the first two corners inside, drifting outside around some gnarly boulders and slippery roots, diving inside on a massive, slippery exposed tree / root and then hammering into the s-corners. I came into it faster than I had in practice, nailed the first 2 corners without braking, drifted outside perfectly on the third and then got a little loose which forced me to hit the exposed root high, taking my back wheel out sideways and forcing me to slide off the trail downside on the wrong side of the next tree. I jumped off my bike, lifted it back up on to the trail and got back on the hammers, but the damage was done. The rest of the run was a bit wild but for the most part went pretty well. At the very bottom there was a long section where most of the crowd was watching from with a couple tech corners and a finish line gap. The corner before the last jump had a tech inside line where you had to snipe between a stump and a rock to hit some roots and kind of hip turn off a tree. When I hit the tree I got bucked off my pedals and did a no footed seat bounce that excited the crowd quite a bit, but after I found my pedals I still was able to get speed for the gap and hammer through the bottom corners to the finish.

The weekend was a ton of fun putting together my race, hanging out with friends, coaching my racers and being a part of the atmosphere. I was a bit disappointed with the results of my off-trail excursion, but I am feeling confident and more motivated than ever coming into the next race. Fuel for the fire. I cannot wait.

J