Book of Chad

Qualicum Beach’s Cross on the Commons, to me I a mixed bag of a race. There is everything that can be found in a year’s worth of cross-races compressed into one race. It has something for everyone and the weather makes a difference in who it will suit. This year it would be dry and fast which wouldn’t suit me but there are enough technical parts of the course to give me a chance to do well against my peers.

I received a second-row call-up and slotted in right behind Craig Ritchie, I have raced with Craig a lot now and I know that he is a good starter and is a good wheel to follow into the first section. Last year we entered the technical section as the first two riders with Craig getting the better of me on that occasion. This year when the siren went off Craig hit his pedal and accelerated away with me in tow. Fabian Merino made it in between Craig and me into the first corners and when we entered the wooded section that requires everyone to be in single file I was fourth. Out of the woods and onto the grass straight I moved to one side as this was where the fast guys were going to want to pass me. It was time to settle in and find my pace, so it’s not like I was going to put up a fight.

Through the BMX pump track, I was feeling controlled and happy with my positioning to the guys I was racing. There was a fast right-hand corner on gravel just after the BMX track. I don’t think that two people could get through there side by side however Orien Massey thought he could. It didn’t work and he slammed into me pretty hard. I like Orien a lot, he is crazy fast and super strong, however, he is young and lacks off-road and cross experience. I hope that he learned something here about patience and picking the right time to make a move. There are no hard feelings here and I know he knows that. The good news is that neither of us met the deck the bad news is that I dropped a chain and my left lever moved on my bars. I had to stop and fix my chain and it was surely tangled up It felt like forever to get going again, in reality, it was probably 40 seconds. I got going again and was on the heels of some of the guys I race with often so my loss wasn’t much. That’s when I noticed the left lever was loose, it wasn’t horrible but it was moving around a bit. I was having problems in the corners too but couldn’t quite figure out what was happening. At each corner, I felt I was sliding around and missing my apex. It got worse and worse every corner until I realized I had completely lost the front brake. It took another half lap of sliding around and missing corners to get back to the pits where Russ was waiting with my pit bike.

It was a lot of catch-up from there and I did manage to get back to a few riders and go by all the while I was being perused by Terry Mckall. Terry was doing nearly identical lap times as me, and I could see him catching me in some sections and losing in others. It went on until the last lap where we had separated and the heat was off to the finish. Unfortunately, A charging Evan Russel lapped me and my race was cut short. Looking at the times If it wasn’t for the chain off and mechanical I would not have been lapped. Overall my lap times were consistent and my technical riding was good, I didn’t have the power on the straights but we will get there eventually.

Race: COTR #2
Time: 59:45 Laps: 7 (-1)
Avg Heart Rate: 187
Max Heart Rate: 195
Place: 22nd