Mont Tremblant Canada Cup Weekend

My race weekend started of with an alarm blaring at 3:30am on Thursday. It was time to wake up and drive to SFO (my mom was nice enough to take me) for my 7:00am flight to Montreal, Quebec. I dragged myself out of bed, chugged a cup of coffee, and got in the car. I was excited for my trip but dreading the long day of travel I was getting myself into. We arrived at the airport and hugged goodbye. I got through the usual airport hurdles of security and customs fairly quickly which allowed me to get to my gate pretty early. I decided to look for some breakfast but, because it was still before 6:00am, every restaurant and store in the terminal was closed. I ate some trail mix to hold me over until they opened and eventually was able to get another cup of coffee and a muffin. At this point it was time to board my flight. I walked down the aisle, to my seat in the exit row. Plenty of legroom!

We went speeding down the runway towards the water, taking off just in time as we always do. The flight was fairly uneventful, lots of sleeping and some work. It landed on time and I navigated my way through the French filled airport. I got my bags, and more importantly my bike, quickly and went outside to call an uber to the bus station. There were a lot of people waiting and it took about 45 minutes for one to come get me which was frustrating but gave me some time to sit and relax. The drive to the station was a little over 30 minutes, allowing me to arrive just in time to catch my bus. The bus trip was about three hours through the beautiful province of Quebec. I watched the forest filled scenery fly by as we followed the highway. When I arrived at the bus stop it was time to take my bike out of the bike bag and put it back together (Nick Lando’s “Rally Kia” was too small to fit the bike in the bag). It was a bit challenging due to it being about 9:00pm and dark. When he arrived to pick me up, Xander Sugarman and Daniel Johnson were also in the car, making for a tight squeeze for my luggage and me.

After being picked up we went to the grocery store to pick up some essentials for the week: lots of pasta, turkey, cheese, and bread. There are no breakfast foods because I brought enough pancake mix for the few days I would be there. By the time we got to the house it was about 10:00pm and I was pretty tired and hungry due to not having time to eat enough while traveling. I ate a very late dinner and hung out with the boys in the living room then hit the sack around 1:00am.

The next morning we all woke up around 10:00am and made breakfast. The mechanic, Jerome Alix, that was hired for us arrived at 11:00am to meet us and ask us about our bike set up, race times, and bottle feeds for the race. He is by far the most thorough mechanic I have ever had the pleasure of working with, which made me feel more “pro” than ever. After this we went out for a course recon.

It started out with a short section through the village which took us down some stairs, over some wooden obstacles, and up another set of stairs that had boards over them to make them more easily rideable. This pointed us straight up a fireroad that we veered right off of after a couple hundred feet onto the grass where we traversed a steep ski slope. There was still some snow on the slope just above where we were riding! This brought us back onto the fireroad where we went through the only tech and feed zone on course. As we followed the fireroad up we split off of it again into a short singletrack loop with a steep, loose climb and an off camber descent that popped you out back on the fireroad next to where you left it. After this the fireroad continued for some more time until we reached the singletrack. We continued to climb up the rocky and rooty trail. Throughout this were some really cool north shore style bridges. We continued on this until the trail let out onto yet another fireroad. This one was short and steep and led up to more rocky, rooty singletrack. This continued to climb for a little bit before we finally hit the first main descent on course. This was filled with tight, loamy switchbacks with a couple berms. It was still a quick descent and you pointed back uphill right after it. The course then crossed a fire road. At the beginning of the singletrack on the other side were a couple of elevated rock bridges that you had to navigate yourself over. These were followed by some more man made sections of trail including a cool switchback north shore style bridge around a tree that was elevated a few feet off the ground. The course pointed downhill for a few short seconds before a short climb up a rock face with snowmelt running down it. We crossed one more bridge before entering the final short, steep climb on course. After this it was all downhill to the finish. There were a few corners then a big, high speed rock face descent that sent you flying into some smaller rocks. This would be the most likely spot to puncture on course. The course now popped back onto the ski slope with some sketchy off camber corners leading right to the finish line. I did three laps of this before heading back to the condo.

That night I did some stretching and rolling out. As the only junior staying in the condo, I was assigned making dinner for the four of us. I made all of the pasta, and cut up a rotisserie chicken to mix in with the sauce. I ate a bunch of it, then chilled for a while, watching a fixie criterium race that we could see from our balcony. At around 9:30 I decided to make some pancakes. After eating the pancakes it was after 9:00pm so I decided it was about time to go to bed.

The next morning I woke up at 9:30am and made myself more pancakes for breakfast. I then went on a thirty 30 minute spin with Xander on some roads near our condo. When we got back it was 11:30 - time for me to eat my big meal! This consisted of, you guessed it, even more pancakes. After I finished eating I lounged around the condo and chatted with the others. We watched “durianrider” for some laughs before I got into my race kit and heading out for warm up. I found a bike path to do some efforts on with some flowy singletrack running alongside it. This allowed me to get my legs ready for the race and make sure I wasn’t going to feel sketchy on the bike when it really counted.

I rolled up to staging with about 15 minutes until the race and most of the racers were already there. I saw a bunch of guys in the Team USA kits and started to feels some nerves, but I just tried to focus on the mindset I had been using for the previous two races - just go out, have fun, and the results will come. They started calling us up and I noticed that it was only going to be six people wide instead of the usual eight. This meant that instead of being in the third row I was in the fourth row. The race referee gave us our pre race instructions then said we had one minute to the start. After a minute of agonizing, antsy waiting, we were off.

Less than three seconds into the race there was a crash in the front row, taking out my Bear Development Teammate Paul Fabian (racing for Team USA). I got caught behind it for a few seconds but was able to squeeze between the crashed riders and the barrier. By the time I got around them I was probably 15 seconds off of the back of the group. I sprinted as hard as I could to get back and was able to quickly. I moved through the pack and was sitting within the top ten. The pace was super high and I was suffering a lot just to stay in the group, but I knew that I had to stay up there. We got into the first singletrack section and the group got a bit bunched up but the pace was still high. We sped between trees and over roots and rocks until we hit the next fireroad. It was an all out sprint up the short punch and then we were back in the singletrack. We were still pushing the pace really hard and then we finally hit the first descent. I was able to hold the wheel of the guys in front of me without taking too many risks or pushing super hard which allowed me to recover. We hit the next climb and the pace went right back to where it was on the previous climb. I held on until the top, hoping that I could recover well on the descent. I got to the bottom still feeling pretty gassed and hoped that the rest of my group was too. I was sitting in ninth place through the finish line.

We hit the climb on the next lap and I was hoping that the pace would not be too fast but it was. I tried to hold on but ended up dropping off of the group. I knew that I would not be able to hold that pace for the remaining three laps and if I tried, would blow up. I let riders pass me on the fireroad. It hurt to watch them ride away from me and was worried I had held the fast pace for too long. All of these thoughts were going through my head, leading to me even contemplating dropping out. I was barely in the top 20 by the top of the climb, which was not at all where I wanted to be. I tried to get my head straight on the descent and stay positive. I caught up to a couple people and passed them which helped my morale a bit. I crossed the line to start my third lap feeling fairly recovered and ready to put the hammer down.

I reached the climb and could see riders up ahead of me. I dug deep and caught up to a group. I sat on the back of it until right before we hit the singletrack when I moved up to the front. I gapped the group on the singletrack climb. In doing so I caught and passed Dylan Fryer (another Bear Development Teammate racing for Team USA). I continued making passes for the rest of the climb until I caught up to a guy on a blue and yellow Trek Top Fuel. I couldn’t get around him before the descent but he was going pretty quick down it so it wasn’t a problem. I was glued to his back wheel until the final climb of the lap where I sprinted around him. I got a gap on the last descent of the lap and went through the finish alone to start my final lap.

When I got to the fireroad climb I saw two Team USA riders up ahead of me and made it my goal to catch them. I did so quickly and blew by them before I hit the singletrack. I passed one more person in the singletrack then saw someone about 30 seconds up on me. I pushed as hard as I could to try to catch him but I couldn't close the gap.

I finished the race in twelfth place; fifth American. I am super stoked on how my race went. Being the fifth placed American at a race that Team USA participated in is an amazing feeling. My legs are finally feeling good and it is the first time all season that I am truly feeling on form. This trip was also a great learning experience. It was my first time flying to a race completely by myself and also my first time racing in another country. I learned a lot about how to travel effectively and what does and doesn’t work for me while traveling. I also got some practice trying to communicate with people who don’t speak english which made the whole experience a real adventure. I can’t wait for my next opportunity to race in Quebec! Now to turn my focus towards my last two UCI races before USA Mountain Bike Nationals in July - Missoula Pro XCT in Montana and the Trek Store Canada Cup in Ontario, Canada!