XC aching

XC8 was a slug fest this year which saw over a 1000 feet of vertical climbing per lap, coupled with no real recovery sections (downhills don't really count because you can't sit and spin), making this year's event a very tough challenge. you can tell that paddy has benefited from the move to lethbridge (altitude and hills to climb) and is riding really strong finishing first in the singie speed category. dave persevered and put in another gutsy effort to finish third behind pat doyle and and paddy. i managed 7 laps in 7.5 hours (i think) which i was happy with considering the difficulty of the course that had anywhere from 5-8 hike-a-bikes per lap depending on the will and leg power, in fact a lot of the gear heads out there were pushing it also. greg had a really good race and there was a great manitoba contingent at this year's event: allan r, shawn z, mike k, bill a, seema, and young luc (am i missing someone?). photos and results will be up soon.