xc8

last weekend the poosher and i headed out to xc8 for eight hours of joy and pain on the fabulous course at buffalo pound provincial park. we left the city at about 3 pm and headed west

(yet another car window view of the prairies as we speed by)

7 hour later we arrived and promptly set up the tent and had a pint of the good stuff

the morning was cool and we woke up to find a slew of other manitobans had made the trip (dave, seema (sp?), corey smith, shawn zayak, mike kuczer, shane lindsay, and others). it was at about this time that the karma that the poosher was going to experience the rest of the day made itself apparent. at the very first wednesday night race of the season someone left a nice cycling vest at the race site, tom picked it up and carried it around for the next 5 races. since no one claimed it, tom thought he had some nice trail swag for himself. of course the first time he wore it (this weeked) shane identifies the vest as his and tom gives it back - which is not so bad, but tom felt embarrassed. that behind him, tom got ready for the race and just prior to the start did a warm up climb on the hill which was the at the start of the race. anticipating a long day the poosher had selected some tunes for his ipod shuffle and clipped it on to his jersey. he did not turn it on for the warm-up so he did not notice that it had come off during his warm up some where on the hill - where it still lies as i write this post. with the embarrassment of the vest and missing shuffle behind him the poosher settled into the race. on his third lap tom was pushing the pace and attacking a downhill section which was fairly straightforward except for a few bumps and at times a high sided rutted main path - well this got the better of him. as he describes it he knew he was in trouble even before he got in trouble, and the trouble was there was nothing he could do about it. tom caught the rut at a bad angle and slammed hard into the ground, breaking his catlike helmet. it was right after this that i came upon him and he was pretty banged up and shaken. we discussed whether i should go get the medic, but tom said he felt okay enough to ride out - his race and weekend were done.

(morning of the race)

the race course at buffalo pound was excellent, much like birch, but with some really fast twisty flowing single track descents - what a blast and one of the better coursed i have ridden. i was riding the 29er with a 32X20 set up which was find for the the first 4 hours, after that i wish i had 22 cog for the back, because the climbing started to take its toll. the last 4 laps that i completed were hard as the climbs and bumpy descents (i also like to punish myself by riding a rigid fork) added up. i managed 10 laps and think i finished 7th overall which i was pleased with. dave finished with 11 laps and corey had an excellent race and finished in 6th with 10 laps just ahead of me. seema rocked with 8 laps and managed to make the podium with a third place finish, where she got a medal, prizes, and cheap champagne to spray over the crowd - cool.

following the race the poosher and i packed up and headed back to winnipeg, arriving at 3:30 in the morning; a long day, but well worth it (tom may disagree).