As promised, October is here and it is time to embark upon our in-house off-road race series.
Over the next four Wednesdays, we will be having races on the single track trails on the U de M side of the mountain.
Race #1 will be on the lower loop, clockwise in direction and 12 laps in duration. We will include the upper technical portion in this race to make things interesting. It will be a mass start from the gravel flats, starting with the men first and then the women 2 minutes later.
Scoring will be by cumulative time behind the lead position and lowest cumulative time over the four race series will be the winner.
We will award a spiffy red long-sleeved MEC jersey to the top male and female racers.
Can we make accommodations for those of us not 100% comfortable with the upper technical section (I may be alone here, but nonetheless…) but still would like to race/ride on those Wednesdays?
I don’t care about the points or prizes or whatever, but maybe we can make an alternate B race that would consist of just the lower loop? I know it’s not very challenging, but the upper part it a bit too challenging…
Thoughts?
If not, I can help out with the time keeping, photo-taking…
monika: I would be happy to work with you on the upper technical bits so that you feel more comfortable with them. there really isn’t anything up there that you can’t ride.
l guess you will be riding on sunday? I will be in Maine then for ECCC, so… let me know when is good.
I would love some help in improving! Last time your hints were very useful!
I was planning on hitting the trails next time with some gear (if I can borrow some from Seb) and my seat dropped by 2". That should help both my confidence and my balance.
I can’t ride this Wednesday (MTB is in Ottawa till the Saturday) but I will go on the weekend.
My schedule might be a bit more flexible than yours, so why don’t you suggest a time that works for you next week and we’ll go from there.
hey monika,
just let me know when you are about to practice that and i’ll join to practice my stuff and give you the pads. Would you need anything else?
Just to clarify, when I say upper technical portion, I do not mean the trails on the top side of the hill. The technical portion on the lower trail is a parallel section of trail that is about 50m further up the hill beside the main trail near the end. It has a few drops and 2 logs to roll over, both easy as long as you relax and keep your momentum up. Barring that, all obstacles are easy to carry the bike over/down.
So we meet at the gym at 5:30 and head over, or do we meet at 5:30 on the mountain?
Or do we meet earlier?
Seb if you read this, and if you’re coming tomorrow, and if you don’t mind, can you bring your shin guards and the knee protection that you have so that I can use them? Unless you’re using them than that’s ok don’t worry about it.
Ok, I think that I will go earlier for this ride, at like 4:30 pm. I cannot see that well in the dark ( -6.0 prescription and all…) so after I can stick around and help with timing, photos, etc.
Anyone want to go a bit early with me and warm up before the race? We’d meet at the gym as per usual.
Seb I’m so sorry!! Some stuff went horribly wrong in the lab and I had to do damage control to restart everything for tomorrow. I was in the lab till after 6:00 pm!! I was very upset, I got new tires and everything and still no chance to try them out!!
If it’s decent on the weekend, how’s about a ride on Sunday? Unless we go to the ECCC, I’m very interested in that btw…
I’m sorry again Seb, I feel awful but research (saddly…) takes priority over riding since I have to graduate…
