Canal Dayz

Yesterday was the Canal Days MTB race, taking place on Port Colborne's amazing HOOD trails. I had been looking forward to this race sine discovering the trails back in February during the Frostbike. I guess these trails are well suited to me as I love riding them and always look forward to the next singletrak section. They have a similar riding style to Buckwallow, where smooth and steady is fast. No long climbs, but loads of short punchy ones. The terrain is unique to Niagara with some cool surfaces to ride on. There is the usual Niagara clay, but a good chunk of the trails have this shale like rock, with lots of exposed roots, and bigger rocks to.

I arrived at the venue with almost 2hrs to get ready, and decided to ride a lap for a warm up. I just took it easy and focused on being smooth. After that I did some efforts on the Canal path so that I would be ready to go right from the gun. I did just that and sprinted down the starting stretch hoping to have a small gap going into the first tail. I saw Etzl had me covered, so I backed off a bit allowed him and Tom to lead. Tom went really slow on the first trail, on purpose I guess so that he could calm the pace down. Etzl and I passed him on the double track, then I took the lead for the next trail, to find that my rear tire was flat. Crap! No idea ho this happened, must have burped some air on the first trail, but I kept calm, grabbed my CO2, then pulled over, shot it in, then I was back up and running only seconds later, and only 5ish spots down. I hammered past those guys very quickly to catch JH by Cliffhanger. It was only Etzl ahead of him, and Justin was able to close the gap for me. Awesome riding!

I passed Etzl on the trail before Mud Lake, and after hammering through there I had a comfy gap. From there I just did my own thing and rode as smooth as possible. Later in the second lap my lower back was getting tense making me a bit little lazy when it came to going hard. I didn't make myself suffer like I would if there were spots to gain, but I prevented my pace from slowing. There were quite a few lapped riders to get by near the end, but they were all great about it, getting right off the trail and cheering me on. Thank You!!

In the end Etzl secured second, and Justin rolled in third. These guys were on their game and riding very well. Congrats on getting on the box with me.

On the woman's side, Tanya Hanham came all the way from Ottawa to take that victory. Congrats on that one!!

The post race patio party at the Funky Monkey was a good time. Food was great and many freebies where being thrown around.

The turnout for the event was very solid, and I'm sure it will continue to grow, and soon be nearly Squeezer sized. Thanks a million to all the Shorthills crew and volunteers who made this event happen. The amount of work that goes into this event really makes it stand out. I look forward to trying to defend my title at the Frostbike and this for years to come.


So its looking like I will be racing at Elliot lake in two weeks. This means three big weekends in a row, with road provincials in an MTB o-cup sandwich. Haven't quite figured out how I will bring my A game to all 3, it will be interesting........