Its been a while since I've left a race with a check that had my name on it. Thanks to a solid performance on a trusty set-up, I made it into the money at the first ever Tour de King.
so this race was supposed to be very similar to the Paris to Ancaster, but with a bit more singletrack. That's what I was expecting anyway, so using the cross-bike with a tubeless set-up was a no brainer. The field looked split about 50/50 between cross and MTB. I was surprised to see quite a few people bring both bikes to the start, and make the decision just before. Bad idea in my opinion.....you need to be confident and ready to shred your set-up days before a race.
So the race start was neutralized for a about a km, then we hit a bit of trail and some doubletrack. as soon as we hit the singletrack Derek and Tyson took off on their MTB's as I expected. I was with Anton who was also on a cross bike, and we tried to go quick through the trails but it wasn't really happening. I thought they would be short lived, and we would come out on the road soon, but they kept going and going. Fun trails, but very difficult on a cx bike. I lost Anton after he crashed and was alone in 3rd for a while. I saw him coming when we where finally on the road again, but he never caught up till I stopped at a confusing turn on the trail. We figured it out, and were going again through another long section of trail. Once out on the road again we shared pulls and were humming along at a solid pace, but the next trail come too quickly. This section is where Anton flatted, leaving me alone for the rest of the race.
From there on, I just hammered the road sections and kept it smooth and steady on the trails. I had a flat on one trail, a puncture in my rear tires sidewall that the Stans could not seal while moving, so I stopped, filled it with co2, and played with the wheel for a while till the Stans plugged it up. Luckily it held, and no one caught me. I went a little harder to rebuild my gap, but I was hurting bad! The cross bike really beats you up on those trails..
Seeing the finish was a big relief cause I'm not sure I could've gone much longer. Third was secured, and all that was left to do was eat a great bbq and drink free beer!
It was a great event, of course, being run by Chico, and for a first time, with awful weather the turnout was impressive. Will do this one again for sure, probably on an mtb though.
Big thanks to Miss Dundas for driving me back to my car at the start, and my mom for waking me up in the morning after sleeping through my alarm.
