Again another delayed blog and again I apologize. The weekend after the Canada Cup in Mont Tremblant marked the first round of the American North-West series - the Fluid Ride Cup which was held in Whistler May 29-30. While most of the west coast racers that went to Tremblant chose to stay out east and race the high-proflie US Open, I thought it would be in my best interest to fly back and race the Fluid Ride as they would be awarding UCI points. After a whirl win week with flying back from Quebec, working for the three days I was back in town I left for Whistler on Friday morning. As soon as I got there I ran into the Marshall's whose youngest boy, Chayse, is a good buddy of mine and and a top junior rider. I reggied for the race and did laps with Chayse. It was towards the end of the day and I was following Chayse on the upper part of the course and he had one of the biggest crashes I have ever seen. He was in a lot of pain - we rode B-Line down and I took him to the hospital. Slight separated shoulder and a concussion. Chayse's parents Cathi and Trevor were kind enough to let me stay with them at there hotel. I rode by myself on Saturday morning and really found my rhythm. Saturday night they had a seeding run which I rode at about 80% with mild pedaling. . . 12 seconds back. I knew I had more in the tank and could really push on the pedaling sections but I felt that being down 12 seconds was too much to make up and I was a little concerned. Through a series of fortunate/unfortunate events, Chayse and I where given the 'sweeper' run of the downhill course. In whistler they give out 'sweeper' cards at the end of the day to make sure there are no injured riders left on the mountain. We jumped at the opportunity because we both felt that 12 seconds was a little off the pace. We took our time and compared lines. Towards the bottom we tried a new line in one the the corners and I ended up SMASHING my hand on a tree. I had smashed the same hand a few weeks prior up at Harper and this time I felt like I needed to get it looked at. I went to the hospital and had x-rays, not broken but defiantly extremely sore, swollen and bruised; they made me a small plaster cast. Sunday, Sunday Sunday - race day. I did two practice runs in the morning and felt good, however, I knew I would really have to let off the brakes and put my big boy pants on. WORST RACE RUN EVER!!!! I haven't rode that bad in a race run in a really, really long time. Lots of mistakes and once off the bike, 20 seconds back, 16th place, no UCI points. Frustrating, extremely extremely frustrating. There should be a couple seconds grace for those riders who have to pay for everything, work a full-time job, plan and organize their trips and still find time to train. Going back to Kamloops to reassess my situation.
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