Day 1 of my 9 day vacation started with an early morning rise in order to prep myself for the Mount Washington cyclocross race, Top of the Rock Cross, race #2 in the Cross on the Rock series.
Saturday, the morning of the race, as I readied myself, my bike and my gear, the weather was trying to scare all the racers away. The city of Courtenay was being drenched in a downpour. I was somewhat excited about the potential of racing in the mud, but also upset at myself for not packing more...I had packed light, according to the weather forecast I checked Friday morning. The current wet mess was not part of that forecast! I kicked myself for not packing my fleece-lined skin-suit.
My partner and I borrowed my Dad's truck - which was a treat! Heated seats, and a rear space big enough to hold both bikes, without taking the wheels off. We loaded up all our gear, as fast as we could, into the truck and drove up towards the mountain. Luckily, the top of the mountain is about a half hour drive from my island home.
Driving to Mount Washington brought me a feeling of being back at home. When I lived in the Comox Valley, I worked at the mountain for five seasons (4 winters, 1 summer) and spent a lot of my free time snowboarding, hiking and mountain biking in the park. I can thank the instructors and staff at Mount Washington for getting me hooked on mountain biking -- I took a lesson one day, bought a used DH bike right afterwards, and have been riding ever since. So many good memories made up on that mountain!
Approaching the mountain from the Valley, we could see blue sky ahead trying to peak through the clouds. The rain began to lighten up. As we drove up the mountain, we came up into the fog and clouds...then soon, we were above most of the cloud coverage and the rain had stopped. There was a mixture of blue sky and cloud, with a few drops of rain tossed in there for good measure. What a beautiful day! I no longer cared so much about not having the skin-suit with me.
We eyed up the course with delight. There was a mixture of uphill, slippery, off-camber downhill, off-camber traverse, cobblestones, single-track, rutted, bumpy grass, stairs, barriers and pavement. This course was pretty much a mountain biker's dream come true. As I had hoped, the course was wet. There was mud. I had been praying for mud.
The weather on the top of the mountain was ever-changing between cold and windy, to warm and sunny and then back to cold. I switched between wearing a wind breaker, and not wearing one, and then wearing it, and then not. I chose to race in just my jersey, but kind of wished I had arm warmers.
Call-ups were done, based on the first series race of the year (Top of the Rock CX was race #2) and that meant that nearly every woman around me got called up...I was nearly the last one on the line. Hm....that's a lot of people to try and pass!
The whistle blew and we all flew from the start line and up the first hill. Why did they start us on an uphill?? ;)
I tried my best to get in front of as many women as I could, before the first section of the course and the first corners. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to pass too many, because in the first grassy corner, I got held up by someone trying not to fall over, stopped in the apex of the corner. I had to stop. I had to go around her.
Back in the race, I pushed and pushed and rode the corners, the ups and the downs. I flew as fast as I could up the hills, so that I could hold my spot down them. I didn't slip at all on my dismount before the left turn up the stairs and onto the off-camber traverse and right hand corner. I found it easier to run most of the traverse, rather than try to remount on the low side of the hill.
When it came to the slippery, muddy, wet, off-camber, zig-zag downhill section, which led to a grassy traverse and a HUGE muddy-grassy run-up, I chose to run the entire section, rather than ride. Although most folks chose to ride the downhill section, they all had to get off their bikes and run up the next bit, so I had a bit of an advantage. I saved time by dismounting where it was convenient and using all my momentum from the flat section to run up the hill.
Some people rode the course on mountain bikes, and though their hill climbs were a bit less speedy, they seemed to have a great advantage on the downhill and rutted grass sections. Gosh, shock absorption on a cross bike would be amazing!
The last lap bell was rang, and I was so thankful. Although I was having a great time, I was extremely thirsty and starting to feel exhausted on the climbs. The course didn't really have a section where you could recover, so the entire race was spent pushing, pushing and pushing.
I finished the race. Tired. Happy. Muddy.
I had no idea what place I was in, and results didn't appear to be getting posted anywhere anytime soon, so we packed up, said our good-byes and headed back down the hill so that we could catch the ferry that evening and get ready for racing in Port Coquitlam the next day.
You can view my Strava details for this race here: https://www.strava.com/activities/715767119
Full race results can be found here: http://www.crossontherock.com/php/race-results/?raceid=67
