Jun 23, 2009

12 Hours of Cumberland: 4 Horsemen of the Apokalyps take home the Cup


This past weekend I found myself back on the island... I am starting to really enjoy the island this summer (biking, kayaking, good people). Andrew, Paul, Jacek and I comprised the Vancouver contingent and headed over Friday evening to good friends Mark and Nikki up in Comox. A woman's team (Nikki, Joan, Chris and me: 4 Horsemen of the Apokalyps) and a men's team (Andrew, Mark, Paul and Jacek: Fig Rolls Racing) entered the 12 Hours o Cumberland race on Saturday. It was to be my first type of 12/24 hour mountain bike race and what a way to get introduced to this type of racing (great race. I'm nervous as I had such a blast that now am thinking I want to try a 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race Solo.... to be honest I am not too surprised by my thoughts on this (a little surprised that it is 24 hours of just mountain biking, no running or water sports to help me out)... The course was fairly short but in mind perfect. With four people on a12 hr race team it was nice to keep getting laps in. Our laps were from 27min to 40 min long and the fastest guys were around 22 minutes. The course had tons of rooty single track a little log road to bring you to more rooty single track. I was definitely getting the hang of the course by lap 3 and really starting to enjoy it a lot. The ladies were fantastic and we all raced with our home made horse heads on our bikes. Once again I loved my Giant X0 Trance from Steed Cycles! The guys were whooping butt out there but some sneaky strategic passing of the shit bike didn't give them much opportunity to grab it too often and therefore landed a solid second place finish. I managed to sneak in 6 laps and our team delivered a full 20 laps to finish up the day. There was a tasty bbq with yummy home made snacks, I managed to set up a slackline, read some radio stuff, listened to music, hung out and generally had a fantastic day. Bryan from MOMAR brought along a team so it was nice to catch up with him... I definitely recommend this race to anyone who enjoys biking in some fun trails!



Sunday a Forbidden ride was organized by Mark. We rode up the hill (I think I pushed for this more than the shuttle....gotta enjoy the ups). Mark took us down some great new trails. I really enjoyed them as they were a little more flowy for me (not as many stunts or huge rock slabs....) We ended the day by jumping in a beautiful river at the end of the trails. Mark and Andrew caught some big air while the rest of us dried out in the warm sun.





Another fabulous weekend! NO complaints only smiles... Now its all about Sweden and the Yogaslackers!

more pics here form the weekend

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina

No comments: