Elliot Lake Report

Man am I ever happy that I made the trip up to the middle of nowhere for a weekend of racing. Even if there was no racing this weekend would have been great, because we did things right and stayed up at the Wilderness Lodge, 45mins north of Elliot lake.

The drive up went quite smooth, except for a long delay on the 400, because a lane was closed, for no reason. No big deal, I just had to go a bit faster to make the lost time up. We stopped in P-sound for an hour long ride, and our attempts to find a road near water turned into Le Tour de Dead Ends. The highlight of this ride was taking the road machine onto the Canadian Shield and tearing up some rock lines through the forest. Justin has some pics of that.

We made it to Elliot Lake around 7, then drove the road course, but kept going about 20mins past the turn around to arrive at thee Wilderness lodge. This place was beautiful. Its on the tip of a big lake, with a small beach, and nothing but Wilderness to see in the distance. Just big hills with cliffs and thick forest. The cabins are old, and a kinda run down, but it was clean and had everything we needed. Full kitchen, BBQ, table, couch, beads, deck, you name it. We put a lasagna in the oven then went for a swim. It was a little cool, but perfect once you got in. After mow'n down a large amount of everything, we fished for a bit, but had no luck. Shortly after the sun went down, the bats came out. These things freak me out a bit, cause they seem to like flying full speed straight at my face and then dodging me at the last second. It happened three times... Justin assured me that they were simply flying all wacky to catch bugs.

Saturday we woke up to rain, but I was fine with that. It would make the crit more interesting. We fueled up on oats, pancakes, eggs, bagels and bananas and got to the crit early enough to chill, watch the juniors, cheer on Noah, walk the course, and warm up. Warming up in the rain is no fun, but at least your ready for it when the race starts. We lined up, and as soon it started the pack stretched out very long and I found myself way too far back for comfort. I worked hard to move up, but when I got close to the front, the winning move was already clear. Guys were slipping and sliding all over the course, and I saw about 4 crashes unfold right in front of me. Nothing bad, just slide outs. I hung out in the chase group, and did a bit of work to prevent us from being lapped by the 5 leaders. We were going good, but some guys were taking the turns way to slow, and I think that was where we lost our time. In the end we almost caught the leaders, bringing the gap down to 5 seconds with 2 laps to go. There was some confusion in our group as some thought they were a dropped group, so our chase was disrupted, and they pulled away to a 11 second gap. Coming into the sprint I was near the back of our group, and had to start my sprint at the bottom of the hill. At the top I was leading and held off the others to take 7th. I was happy with that, but if we caught the leaders, that would have been a great finish.

Of course the sun came out after the crit finished, and it turned into a nice afternoon. I had 4 hours to kill before my start of the hill climb. We hung out around the crit start, cleaned our bikes, talked to other racers, ate and rested. We drove over to the hill and I did a 45 minute warm up. I felt like shit when I first started pedaling, but after the warm up I was ready to go. I was third last to start, with Ed Veal and Darko Ficko to chase me down. My TT started well. My plan was to get my heart rate up to 170 right away, and hold it there, with spikes to 180 on the steep parts and at the end. I was closing in on my minute man, pushing the big ring up the first pitch. When it got steeper, I decided to drop to the 39t to avoid grinding, and then disaster struck. I dropped my chain. I tried the shift into the big ring to get it on, and that failed. I ran out of momentum and had dismount. When pedaling and shifting it would not go on. I flipped my bike over and got my hands dirty manually re installing my chain. By the time it was on. Veal had gone by, but I was determined to pass him back. I caught back up to him, and followed him for a bit, then he put in a big dig and I could barely hold on. I was no longer in my mental zone knowing that I lost a minute+, and that even if I had the ride of my life, my time would still suck. I let Veal go, and I didn't pour everything into my effort. My anger was all that kept me moving along. On a slight downhill I put it back into the big ring, and my chain obviously dropped again when I shifted back down. This time I turned around to used the downhill for momentum while I shifted back to the big ring. I turned back up than cruised the last 200m to the top. I'm just going to forget about that one. It was totally my fault. I never fine tuned my front derailleur when I installed my new crank, because it seemed fine. With the Oval rings, it has to be perfect to work properly. Also, I was not shifting properly, as I was in big ring and big cog both times before the shift that caused the chain drop. Big big should be avoided, but with a double crank, the chainline is acceptable. I am going to put a chain catch on all my bikes. They look dorky, but after this disaster I realized how valuable they can be. 1/8th of a turn on the low limit had my shifting fixed for the next days road race.


After the hill climb we had to go to the meeting to discuss the road race course. Some questions were answered and Max's parents were recruited as our feeders. Then, it was back to the Wilderness lodge. About half way there I realized that I had forgotten to get gas. I would make it to the lodge for sure, but would I make it back to Elliot lake?

I got the BBQ fired up and threw some burgers on and Justin cooked some pasta. After we ate to the point of being completely stuffed, we went for a swim. Then, I caught a decent fish, apparently a large mouth Bass. It was my first cast with this certain bait, and I was unsure how to use it. I asked Justin, "how fast do I real this in?" "Fairly fast" he said, so I sped up a bit, then bam, and that's how you catch the big one kids!

After a mediocre sleep I woke to some shady weather on Sunday. I fried up some pancakes and eggs for breakfast, and ate them with a lot more syrup than the average person would. It was the good stuff though, from Niagara Maples. This enhanced my mood and good me ready to go. We left a little early in case the the other races would delay us, and to get some much needed gas. Doing the 45min drive on empty was exciting; I guess not knowing if we would make it got our adrenaline pumping. We made it, with 1L of gas to spare and we were early enough to watch the Cadet podiums, which St. Catharines dominated. I warmed a little, watched the Juniors finish, then after a brief downpour, our race began.

The pace at the start was fairly chill, other than some surges. Nothing to crazy happened before the first feed, which was a fail for most racers. We came into this feed zone with way to much speed. Why would they put it on a downhill like that? I actually lost fluids in this feed because I tossed a 1/4 bottle to make room for a full one.

Shortly after the feed zone, the big hills began, but the pace remained steady. I was out of water before the turn around, but I kept positive and thought about how much lighter my bike was with no fluids on it. The climb up to the turn around was the biggest in the race, about the size of two escarpments. This is where the winning move formed. I don't recall any insane surges, it was more like we were all climbing at our limit, and the strongest guys pulled away. The peloton was shattered from this selection, but came back together quickly. We kept the pace high heading back to Elliot lake, but the gap to the leaders seemed to be slightly increasing. Making it to feed 2 was a huge relief. I'm not sure I've ever been that thirsty before. Good thing I was able to get two bottles this time.

I don't remember any excitement going down until feed 3. I got one bottle here, 2 would have been better, because I was on course to run out shortly after the turn around. It was during this feed that Bayden took a little slam when his feed bag caught on something or another. Huge props to him for getting right back into the race, that looked like it hurt!

Guys kept attacking, and some went clear for a while. La Bicicletta boys did a lot of work to chase them down, and I mixed it up in the pace line for a bit. We caught them all around the last feed, and then the pace went way down, as the lead group of 5 had 8 minutes on us. I was thankfull that the pace was so slow because I was cramping pretty bad, and was very dehydrated.

We cruised along till the final 2ish km, where the pace ramped up and lead-outs formed for the sprint. I knew I had tones of kick left for the sprint, but was unsure if my legs would seize up or not on they way in. It was very tough to hold my good spot in the pack, because swarms of riders kept coming up the sides, and I would slip back. Before I could do anything about my poor positioning, the finish was in sight and the drag race had begun. All I could do was close in on the leaders. There was not enough road to catch them. Oh well, I was just happy to finish with the peloton, considering that I only lasted 2 of 12 laps at provincials last year.

Unfortunately, Justin broke a spoke and could only do one lap. Big bummer because he was very strong in the first quarter of the race. Max lost the pack before the first turn around when he dropped his chain (it sucks eh buddy), and could not close the gap. It is very respectable that he still finished the whole race with only one other guy to work with.

I loved this course so much. I hope it goes down again next year, but with proper feed zones. That was just retarded.


So post race we did some serious chilling and discussing, while enjoying some beers and mow'n all our leftovers. We got in one last swim, but it was a little to cool out for my likings.

On Monday we took our time heading out, than began the drive home around 11. A big Black bear crossed the road right in front of us only 15 mins into the drive. That was cool. I decided to not stop for a ride along the way as it takes to long to dig the bikes out and get changed. Instead, I made one of the best split decisions of my life. The new plan; go for a hike and swim at Grundy lake Provincial park. I had camped there a few times when I was younger, and remembered the amazing hiking trails, and huge cliffs they have to jump off into Gut Lake. We crushed the Gut lake trail in sub 1hr, despite the map saying it was a 1.5 hr hike. This trail is beautiful, like Buckwallow but not groomed for bikes, so you have to pic your lines carefully.

After the hike we headed over to the cliffs, and before the first jump Justin got attacked by a dog. I was walking ahead of him, and heard him yell "AHH FUCK" I turned about to say chill man there kids around, thinking that he stubbed his toe or something, but saw the parents pulling the dog back. The wound was not to bad, I'm sure it hurt, but no real medical attention was required. We were assured that the dog had its shots, then continued on with our cliff jumps. The big one is known as King Kong, and we did that a couple times before packing it in.

Then it was 5ish more hours of driving back to the armpit of Canada.

That is all
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at MTB provincials this weekend.