Thursday, July 5, 2012

The locals are friendly and so are the Sasquatch

I was impressed in both Campbell River and Powell River at the locals that came out to watch the start of the race, in the rain.

I give a shout out to all the volunteers in this race. in Campbell River alone it took 72 volunteers to organize the course.

"Slurp" - that's the sound of the Campbell River day. It was so muddy that it was a slog to get through. I love the trails in Campbell River, they are rooty and loamy. I was a bit nervous at the start of the day, as I had raced in the area before when it was wet and it was so slippery I was afraid I would hurt myself. Well, today I didn't have to worry. The mud filled in the gaps and made it slurpy rather than slippery.


Many racers on the trail were surprised by the Saquatch on the trail, but I was happy to see under the mask it was a friendly face of Brent Martin of Ryders Eyeware, giving riders a boost up the hill.

My race partner Phil was a Champion, pulling me up the hill at the start, and again at the end of the day into the headwind along the road into the finish. It was a long day, but good.


I found my favorite downhill ever in Powell River, Day 3. In this race, there are timed sections of downhill, like mini races in the race.

The race director was riding that day, and ended up dropping into the downhill right behind me for the fun DH. By the time I got to the downhill it had a few hundred riders ahead of me, so it was soft, and I was able to surf all the way down, or as the race director described it like swimming.

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