Book of Chad

Powell River is a bit of a stretch for being part of the Island Cup XC Series, but a welcome one as a group of locals always seems to make it over for the XC and the CX events. I spent a few weeks working and riding in Powell River in 2021 and really liked the trails here. It was my first XC race, and I was looking forward to it since I had just come off some hard training weeks, and this was finally a de-load week, so I would be fresher than I have been for any other race this year. The course itself seemed a bit crazy; it was full of technical climbing and double track and fire-road descents. However, to mix it up, there was also a really great fast flow and jump trail. They were still building the flyover that allowed us to cross paths in one section.

The next morning Lindsay and I rode the roughly 40-minute ride up from our campsite in town to the new parking lot and meeting area. We met up with Max and Juan, who had not arrived in time for a full pre-ride lap. We took them up to the start loop and down the what would be the first fast descent and would also serve as the final descent every lap thereafter. We got back just in time for the rider briefing to start and afterwards the entire group rode together to the beginning of the starting loop. We were definitely missing a few of the real fast guys that stayed on the island and didn’t make the trip over. I found myself up on the front row on the far left side with Max on the opposite side of the line.

At the start I completely missed my pedal, my foot slammed right into the ground. It only delayed me a brief moment as I was back on top of the pedals and powering forward. In only a few pedal strokes I was in the top 3 going up the hill when all of a sudden Max just ripped it. I remember saying “bye Max” out loud. It was truly incredible how much of a gap he formed in a matter of seconds. When we reached the sharp turn into the decent it was lined out nicely and I sat around 4th wheel. Through the finish line to start the first real lap everyone was behaving well. Shortly after we entered the connector trail, as I let the gap go a bit ahead of me, I caught a glimpse of someone falling into a left-hand corner and immediately the person behind them crashing over top of them. I arrived on the scene under full brake and still managed to hit one of the bikes as the guys were trying to get untangled. I came to a full stop, and when they were back on their bike, I was able to get going again right back on their tail. I saw Max off the trail on the left side right after that corner, seemingly fixing a mechanical with his bike. After the race, I found out he had crashed alone in that same corner. A group of 5 of us came back together and were lined out on the double track with me in 4th wheel when I heard Loic say, “that’s enough of that,” and come from behind me to pass our whole group. We entered the climb up lower civil disobedience. I’m going to stop it there, whoever’s idea this was clearly didn’t actually race the race and is a very evil person, you know who you are. The technical climb with absolutely no passing for roughly 5 minutes of the lap was reasonably easy for me behind the group of 3 ahead of me. I was able to stick behind them and lower my pace and heart rate well. We kept the procession for quite a while through the lap, which was just fine by me. The only interruption was Max coming trundling through and past our bunch back on his way to the front. I finished the first lap with a normalized power of 281w, and it seemed like being fresh for once was working amazingly.

Starting the second lap, I had let the group of 3 go a bit, and they were not quite in sight as I went through the line. I was slowed down in the connector trail by catching one of the riders who was almost stopped. I asked him if he had just crashed, and he said yes, so I replied that he shouldn’t do that because it isn’t fast. The group of four of us was back together again on the technical climb up lower civil disobedience; the rider in front of me made a mistake, and we were both off our bikes running. It took a while to remount, and it happened a couple more times. By the time we got to the top of the climb, the running had caught up to me, and I lost the wheel again. I took a moment on the run into paranoid climb to eat a gel and take a drink at the best place on the course to get fuel in. On the climb, Brett had caught up to me, and I gave him a fair pass before going into the descent of lower fairies wear boots. I was feeling strong and metering my effort to be consistent, so this lap was a more reasonable normalized power of 260w.

I entered the final lap with the plan of duplicating my second lap, except maybe the having to get off and run parts, and now that I had found space on the course, I was expecting to have a good lap. Just a couple of corners into the lap, I finally was able to go at full speed through the connector, and the left-hand corner claimed me. I hit the ground with the left side of my head, face, and shoulder. I was stunned and a bit winded, I got back up and hopped on my bike and started pedaling frantically, the only problem was my chain had come off in the crash. I got off and had a hard time getting it all back together with the chain catcher in the way. During the just over 2 minutes from the moment I crashed to the moment I was able to get going again, I had only lost two positions. Derek arrived right on my back wheel as I was moving again, and I told him I just crashed hard. He asked if I was okay and I remember telling him, “not really, I think I have a concussion and a broken collarbone.” He went past me, and I took his wheel as I tried to get my head straight. I had a hard time on the technical climb as I had broken my fork lockout, and it was stuck in the fully locked-out mode, which I realized it would be for the rest of the race. Derek let me pass on the technical climb as he was on a single speed. We were together until the end of the second climb up retrograde, and then I had made a gap going into the final section. As we entered the last climb, we passed the search and rescue team, and I asked to see a medic at the finish line. I did the final climb and headed into the last main descent. A young guy had caught me going into the final stretch, and with my fork locked out, I was having a really hard time in the fast descent. I made a mistake in a corner and pulled to the right, telling him to pass on the left, and that’s the position I would finish the race.

As I went over the finish line and a search and rescue guy came up to me and said, “Chad,” I said, "Yes," and he shook my hand. Then he asked my name, and I said, "You just said it like you knew me." Turns out we were both Chad, and that was pretty confusing for my battered brain. They arranged a ride for me with Miles to the hospital. I wasn’t really chatty; however, I really appreciated the ride, company, and safekeeping of my bike. After some X-rays and some wound cleaning, I was released with a small fracture on my collarbone as well as a bruised head and cheek.

Time: 1:30:19
Distance: 24.4 km
Avg Heart Rate: 183 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 195 bpm
Normalized Power: 265 W
Place: 10 th