Well it’s been a few weeks since the last update after the two Quebec races. I must say I miss the bigger hills and technical terrain coming back to Ontario. Quickly bringing you up to date the last two weeks still saw me as involved as ever in the MTB scene, even without the racing. I completed the NCCP Level 1 Technical program (now I have to do the Theory so I can get certified), participation in the Kelso build day, and a weekend with some social rides as a little break from racing with the next few weeks going to be jammed with Racing. As we just finished Kelso DH # 2, next weekend is the 24 Hrs Summer Solstice, followed by the Horseshoe DH Race before the little mid-summer 2 week lull in my race season hits.
Last weekend the Ontario Cup Downhill racing returned to Kelso for race # 2 over the weekend on a brand new course, and the consensus is it was the best Kelso DH course yet, with a great mix of a flowing top section, into a wide open section with a nice step down, and then a small gap, into a fun tight section that some last minute rain as the race runs started made an interesting area with a lot carnage going on. As always A great job was done by Pete and his crew once again. Now if we can only find a way to double Kelso’s vertical we’d be golden. Maybe we could do a new all mountain race, starting at the top of the 
extreme trail ending with that new DH run step down and all. It would be a lot of fun to compete in an race format that would let Ontario’s DH and XC riders go head to head. Hhmm or cmaybe a collaboration between Pete and Chico and we could throw a challenge out to find the best overall mountain biker with a 20ish KM XC race on Saturday followed by a DH race Sunday, and the winner could be determined by a scoring system based on points assigned on your time spread from the first place rider in both races to find out who’s Ontario’s best overall mountain biker. I personally think a few DH Riders may just come out on top.
Enough with all that how was the racing? Well Great! Practice saw some great weather, not to much trail congestion and a lot of fun riding. For myself some good practice runs and things where looking good. I couldn’t wait to get going down the course on my race run hoping for an improvement on the last race. But a little twist was thrown in as Mother Nature dropped a 15 minute Thunderstorm down on us, to make things a little more interesting. My race run was a little disappointing however. After the start I came into the first berm funny ending up with my feet backwards, not a big time killer but awkward, the rest of the top section went smooth, the fire road and gaps golden, then coming into the tight wood sections still solid a little dab as I sciked myself out worrying it maybe be slippery from the rain, then coming into the next section I unclipped a pedal somehow dogging the trees at the top and did the steep and the drop with one foot unclipped, resulting in a little bobble at the bottom, slipping out a little. Determined to keep a good run tried to clip back in on time while getting and get in 
a couple pedal strokes as I commited to try and clear the double over the log in hopes of salvaging my run, but no luck clipping in under pressure forcing me to roll threw the sections terribly with no flow coming essentially to a stop and totally losing it mentally threw till the end. If I only took the time to clip in instead of scramble after the drop and I easily would have shaved 5 + seconds off my time. The up side is I know if I tie together a good run I can hit the top ten. I still finished 18 out of a field of 35 riders and it was a fun weekend regardless. The rest of the poisonfrog boys did well with a few personal best and almost everyone else finishing in the top 10.
The other sport class riders Grant and Trevor finished top 5 and top 10 respectively putting Grant in # 1 overall in Senior Sport with a 4th and 5th places (while fighting through a shoulder injury), look for him on a few podiums in the near future. Ben ripped it up in Junior Sport with his best finish ever at 5th. JP bailed and still only finished about a second out of 1st taking second 
place. Watch for JP and Rob to be chasing each other for the top spot on the rest of the Jr. Ex. podiums this year. Jeremy ripped it up, with a time of 1:17 getting a solid third in Masters discovering bronze medals serve as good beer bottle openers, Kristen was one step off the podium, Chad ripped a good run, and Moose well?? Whatever did happen to mosse no one saw him after his run as he disappeared quickly? Well, that’s it for now and I’m looking forward to Horseshoe!
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