Mountainview 9 Hour

Mountainvew is my home track and this had me really motivated to do well. It's a smaller event but that doesn't mean the level of riders is small. Heather had me going out with a new plan. I was to back things down in the beginning of the race. I'm notorious for going out full blast and usually leading the division.

I was feeling great at the start. Normal routine, chatting it up with everyone at the start line.

Thomas gave me the number 1 target plate. Thanks. I won this event last year but I knew this year it would not be a cake walk. Mark Summers of the Misfit crowd was in the field. There were a few other riders there that I was unsure of. Yep it was going to be a long day.

Time to go to work.

Everything felt great. I kept my pace under control. The first lap was fast but I did not push that hard. Got into my rhythm on the 2nd lap. This was the pace I was going to stay at for the race.

Mark came into sight and was running about the same lap times as I was. He would catch me on the climbs. I would back things down going up while he had no choice but to muscle that single speed. I would put distance on him in the singletrack. It played like this for about 3 hours.

I started to feel a bit weird. The legs were there and the pace was the same but I just new something was off. Keep pedalling. I caught up with Brent from Velocity. As we went through section of singletrack I lost focus for half a second and had the bike come out from under me. Smashed my knee into the bar. Got back up, cursed a bit and continued.

Next couple hours were pretty consistent. Same lap times but I continued to feel some weird things. My abs and stomach began to get sore along with some internal stuff below that. Climbing started to get a little uncomfortable, not in the legs but when I got my hearrate up. I was also having a hard time getting fluids in along with food.


Coming into the last couple hours I was feeling like absolute hell. I was battling myself to go back out for each lap. My energy level started to drop but my whole front area was getting to me. Mark was about 10 minutes ahead of me at this point but I had a lap and some time on 3rd place. I got off the bike and sat down for a full 10 minutes.

I knew then I wouldn't catch Mark. I also knew I had to get back on the bike. I battled every lap. I really slowed down hoping I could just get around the course. Every lap I would stop for a minute or two and try and get a gel in. Brien, who was in third was able to get on the same lap as me. I still had time to play with though.

Last lap came around and I rode as hard as I could. As I came into the timing area I confirmed that Brien was in 3rd and that I had about 25 minutes on him. No chance for him to catch me, I'm done. Thank god!!!

No more than 5 minutes afterwards I'm throwing up. I saw some interesting things in it. What does Sustained Energy look like when it's partly digested? This is where I started to think. I've used it before with out problems but today was strange. Once I disposed of my stomach contents I was able to stand up straight. I still had some gurgling happening but felt 500% better.

I'm going to do a little research into mixtures with gels etc. Of course Hammer says that you should mix with their gels.

All said in done I finished one lap down from Mark. It was a tough 18 laps. This was definitely the hardest course for solo's. There was no real rest on the whole course. The one very very short section of hard packed double track was it. I was wishing for my full suspension a few times during the race.


We couldn't lay down for the podium photo

The tag team winners.

The 4 person team. The winners were a very stacked team of Provincial Team members along with National Champion Mitch Bailey

Mitch had the fasted lap of the event.

I'm happy that I was able to push through. I'm disappointed that I didn't get a chance to test the race plan. I really would have like to battle things out with Mark later in the race. The fall 8 hour?

Today is a day of refueling and recovery. Also need to get the hardtail tuned up. It's a 24 hour race next weekend. I'm happy to be playing on a person team.

Thanks to Mom for keeping me moving, Thomas and the Wood family for another kick ass event. For all those that missed it, Provincial Championships are in a few weeks along with Race the Night.