2008 Mountain Bike Season Update # 5 - Bromont Canada Cup/Quebec Cup DH

Last weekend me and Andrew headed up for the Canada Cup in Bromont, which I have been Stoked about for weeks now with the DH course layed out basically the same as the World Cup course comming to Bromont later in the season.

«The new downhill course, already under construction, will be created in a hostile environment filled with rocky outcroppings, wooded sections and abrupt descents. Many tight corners, jumps and other obstacles will follow one another to create a course with a difficulty level that even the most hardy downhill kamikazes can scarcely imagine.»

Here's a few pics from walking the course Friday

Well the course was sick and had pretty much everything you'd want in a DH course. The top section was part of an existing run (Boomerang for those of you who have been to Bromont before), with some fast singletrack strewn with rocks and roots to rip through, shooting out to a smooth slightly off camber rock face. The second sections was the tech rock section that saw a lot of bodies laying across the course, and was wicked when you tied together a clean run through it. Then the bottom third of the course was flat out, with some nice berms, a few new singletrack sections that seemed to change a little with every run ending with a gap to flat landing just before the finish. The bottom sections needs a little work before the world cup to add a little more excitement in my opinion but the course was a perfect run for the season opener. One of the highlights was watching the top 20 Pro riders rip the tech section, with the UCI points so important a lot of the top Pros from Canada and a few from the States made it out to tear the course a part. It's unbelievable how fast these guys can ride and how smooth and in control they are riding on the edge. The run that stole show for me was Steve Smith (even if he finished 2nd by 2 seconds because he bailed in the wide open bottom portion he was definitely the fastest man on the hill). Anyone who watched him rip through the tech section we where at was astounded as he killed a line the way no one else did all weekend. Airing the entry to the section, and flying through the rock sections like I would never have thought possible. I think Andrew summed it up with "Holy S$%t that was retarded."

Rob and JP from the team where rippin' all weekend. I think you are going to see these kids on a lot of O-Cup podiums this year and wouldn't be surprised if either made it on podium at Tremblant either. JP killed his race run riding on the edge, rolling the rock steps on his front wheel barely holding on and finished 7th, 4 seconds off the podium and about 2/10ths of a second out of the top five. (check out the video of him riding the front wheel out through the steps down, the crowd loved the recovery as they all though he was done for.) Rob was also killing it all weekend and finished 15th in tough field but had to dab a foot at the bottom of the off camber rock face to berm costing him 5 to 10 seconds which would have put him right with JP in that tight 5th to 10th spot. Watch out for him at Tremblant as I think he might have something to prove.

So how was my weekend. Well all in all wicked, Friday around lunch walked the course and was getting pumped, but Friday afternoons practices runs went terrible. First I put on a 38tooth Chainring for the weekend but my bash guard wasn't large enough to prevent my chain from bouncing off, and it came off 2 or 3 times per run (once in the fast bottom section which resulted in a painful bail at who knows how many KM's per hour and some nice purple bruises on my thighs). The chain issue made the first day frustrating, and to top it off a mistake in the tech section pierced my rear brake line resulting in a loss of brake fluid and my seat. So that night saw us track down an E-Thirteen chain guide and Selle Italia seat at Intersport. Installation of the E-thirteen took a little fabricating to clear the swingarm as they didn't have an SRS wide but we got it on in dark under the tent by the campsite. A new day and on run one a flat on the front tire. I'm thinking here we go again, but the rest of the day went better and ended with a few good runs and dinner combined with a couple pitchers instead of bike maintenance. Saturday also saw Andrew rip the XC course finishing 6th after 5 laps around a course with a stupid climb up the ski hill and some tech rock sections. Looks like Andrews finally coming into his own this season after a few rough starts.

Race Day, I'm feeling a little tired from two night sleeping in tents and some not so smooth practice sessions, but I'm looking forward to lining up. Around 9:30 up the lift for the mandatory practice run and hopefully to set the stage for a good day and I bail in the tech section ripping my shifter off the bars and this is starting to look like the start of my Kelso race. Thankfully the guys set up beside us, had a spare X.9 Shifter they hooked me up with and I scrambled up to the lift to hit one full practice run before the race, and to my relief it went smooth. I felt that if I could do the same on my race run with a little more pedaling, it would have got me the results I wanted. So now with some time to kill I figured I'd hike up and meet Andrew in the tech section to watch a few of the pros in the Jr. Ex/Pro only practice. Unexpectedly at this point I witness a bad crash by one of the Elite girls, and ended up involved in a back boarding situation due to my Ski Patrol experience. I want to give a pat on the Back to the Safety Crew at the race as they did a spectacular job tending to the situation. It makes you feel better lining up to race, as we all know the risk we are taking that if something does go wrong the right people and equipment is there. I usually wouldn't comment on this but everything turned out reasonably well thanks to her protective gear. If you can read French visit her site http://www.marieevemarcotte.com/index.html to get the story from her perspective. She's one tough girl and I can't wait to see her ripping up the course in the near future.

Up the lift for my run and it went well but not great. It was clean, no falls, no feet coming off the pedals, but I'd guess my last practise run was about 5 to 10 seconds faster and I should have been able to shave that 5 to 10 seconds off my race run. My time of 3:43 saw me come in at 40th out of I believe 65 riders (58 who finished) which is about where I thought I'd place however I was hopping to place closer to the middle of the pack for my first Q-Cup race i.e. top thirty in this large field. All weekend I felt best about the top section but after a few hard bails in the practice runs I was little shaky off the start and lost some time through that sections before I settled down. I would have been happier with a time around 3:33 to 3:35 but hey that's racing. If you can't get focused and push yourself on your one race run you won't be seeing the results you wanted. However the race run and the weekend was still awesome, with support and cheering all the way down and the end of my run felt good as I caught the rider who left ahead of me at the bottom of the course and felt good about how I rode the bottom third of the course. Now it's back to work for 3 days and off to Tremblant Canada Cup/Q-Cup #2 (I've had a few questions about which pics are of me since we're all geared up, I'm in the last two above)

I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures from thedave on DHRACER.COM who had some great shots giving you a good feel for most of the course.