I recently returned from my first ever World Cup level Triathlon, which took place in the small resort town of Huatulco, Mexico. Located in the South of Mexico I knew going in it was going to be a scorcher, so for the two weeks leading up to the race I set up my downstairs bathroom as an impromptu heat chamber. After a number of sessions in 35 degrees I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the heat and gained more confidence leading into the race.

I arrived six days before the race to leave enough time to become acclimatized to the temperature, but it still wasn’t enough! Eventually you just give up trying to stay cool and just embrace the heat and stickiness that comes with 35-40 degree temperatures and 100% humidity. Overall though, in the lead up to the race I started feeling sharper and confident knowing I had done as much as I could to succeed in the tough conditions.

I jumped into the water at 10:45AM with 60 other guys, all looking to have a good position to the first swim turn. After the first loop which involved a cap removal and goggle disintegration (took an elbow to the left eye and the goggles just collapsed like they were made from sand) I found myself about 20M back from the front pack. I turned it on for the next 200m and caught on to the back end of the main pack.

Going into the race the bike was a big worry of mine, I had never raced this calibre of athletes before and with the tough conditions of the hills, heat and humidity I thought I could potentially wind up in a “reverse breakaway” position. Much to my surprise I was quite comfortable in the pack and even managed to lead the group up the hill (which was about 400m and 24%!). Although I was feeling quite hot on the last couple of laps I was pretty stoked to stay in the whole time.

After the ecstasy of the ride, the agony of the run set in. The heat started to get to me and my legs were pretty fried, thankfully they had plenty of water/ice on each loop to keep us cool. I was able to come back a bit on the second 5k but it still wasn’t anything special.

I finished up my first World Cup in 34th place, mostly happy that I was able to finish at all.

My next scheduled race is the Edmonton World Cup on July 8th. In the meantime I will be putting in a solid block of training to build into the summer which will include some criterium racing over at Newton Heights and Caleb Pike, and with the nice weather upon us it is definitely easy to get excited for the next phase.

Cheers,
Matt

Congrats Matt, good luck in Edmonton and we’ll see you at Newton & Caleb Pike!

Highlight number one of my Saturday May 12th was racing the 2012 edition of the Ore Crusher. Highlight number two, in case you were wondering, was watching Pretty in Pink for the first time. I’d never ridden in Squamish before but had heard only good things. The place definitely lived up to its self-billing as the Outdoor Recreation Capitol of the World. The course itself was three long loops of super fast and super flat trails with some spicy false flat road sections. It was definitely a big ring only course. I broke my rear axle on lap one trying to be fancy, and the wheel wobble that resulted led to some shifting issues and caused me further problems getting power through the back wheel. My number one power-to-the-back-wheel-problem: chicken legs. Finished the race nonetheless, and am now solidly primed for the Test of Metal come June. Thanks to OBB for the continued support.

Nice work Geoff and good luck at the Test of Metal next month!

• Wednesday, May 30th, 2012:
  1. CAMOSUN COLLEGE LANSDOWNE CAMPUS
  2. OAK BAY MUNICIPAL HALL
• Friday, June 1st, 2012:
  1. SELKIRK TRESTLE NORTH (BBQ!)

We’ll post more info as we work out the details! See you out there!

Kona bikes are available only at our Nanaimo location, but they’ve been firing these out the door pretty regularly. The Operator is a great option if you’re looking for a new gravity rig this year. MSRP is $3199 CAD.

Check it out here, and see if you can recognize any local spots/trails in there!

Congrats to OBB rider Tom Skinner for winning this year’s Hammerfest XC. Here’s his race report:

Hammerfest is the longest running MTB race on Vancouver Island, and this past Sunday was the fourth round of the Island Cup Series, held in Parksville on a super tough course. The weather was perfect, and it was actually the first time this year where I was overheating wearing full shorts. The course started out with a long fireroad climb that alternated between long gradual ups, and steeper lose pitches. Once riders turned into the woods, the trail continued to climb all the way to the top of the mountain, and then descended back down through tight bumpy singletrack for the second half of the lap. The course was pretty much like doing hill repeats; 15 min up, then 15 min of technical singletrack coming back down.

Up the climb on the first lap it took a while for riders to settle down and get into a rhythm. As per usual, some riders ripped it off the start hoping to get ahead by the first singletrack section, but I managed to enter the singletrack first with Carter Hovey on my wheel, and we had a bit of a gap to third place. As the climb got steeper and a little more technical, I managed to get a bit of a gap over Carter that stretched throughout the race. A couple times over the next three laps I thought I heard Carter chasing me down in the woods, but as I started to descend for the last time I could see behind me and realized that I just needed to pick smooth (non-rocky, non-flat-getting) lines to the finish. I’m not sure what other people thought as I crossed the line, but I laughed out loud to myself as I did ‘the canoe’ victory salute. If you don’t know what this is, I will gladly show it to anyone on a group ride.

Oak Bay riders had solid finishes in other categories as well, as Karen Trueman and Gwenowyn Carlson came 1-2 in the Expert Women’s race, and Geoff Homer placed 5th after losing a fight with a couple trees on the last lap.

The organizers of the race definitely did an amazing job putting everything together, and I really liked how they started the youth race 5 min before the expert race (although on a different course), so that all of the experts could cheer as loud as they could for the up-and-coming racers. Really cool atmosphere.

Anyways, just wanted to thank Oak Bay Bikes and Norco for their continued support in helping me get to these races, so that I can keep on having a great time, on great trails, with great people.

Thanks!

Nice work Tom!

Our Victoria Specialized Demo Day was yesterday. We got lots of Saturday Ride folks onto test bikes and fed them full of donuts & coffee; then we set up at Red Barn Markets on West Saanich, shuttled folks up to Hartland to try mountain bikes, and fed them full of hot dogs, burgers, and brownies. Everyone ate well, rode awesome bikes, and had a great day.

More photos on our Facebook: Gallery 1, Gallery 2.

• 40% OFF ALL WINTER CLOTHING!
• 25% OFF ALL ACCESSORIES WITH PURCHASE OF ANY BIKE (including SALE bikes)!
• 10% – 30% OFF ALL 2011 & OLDER BIKES!
• TONS MORE IN-STORE BLOWOUTS AND SPECIALS!

These deals will last until Sunday, April 29th, but stock is limited on a lot of this stuff so come check it out!