Canada Cup 3 race report-Hardwood Hills

This one doesn't even deserve a video blog...

another DNF, seems like there's starting to be a pattern here. The start went pretty well and I was starting to find my groove once we all got moving again after the first bottleneck. Got to the top of Bone Shaker and missed the left hand route and ended up going right as there was a rider to my left. As I started to turn the front wheel in the transition from the first part to the second, my tire hit a nasty rock and got punctured twice. I ran the second part and at the bottom of the double track climb I inflated the tire and shook the sealant around. If I knew the puncture was so close to the bead I probably could've gotten it sealed. I shook the tire thinking that it was near the bottom of the tire where the tread was. Air leaked out and I was outta air. Since my spare wheel set was stolen back in Tremblant and my new one in in the mail as I type I couldn't do a wheel swap. I was too far away from the tech zone any ways for that too work. About 3km and 10 or so minutes in and my race was over.

I watched the rest of the race and looked at the bone shaker trying to figure out which rock had punctured my tire. They are looked smooth to me. I rode the Bone Shaker multiple times in the pre ride and had no issues, extremely frustrating to flat on the first run down. I didn't even make it to skid rock during the race, practised that during pre ride and had it down smoothly, but never got to use it.

I contemplated heading out for a road ride today since it was so nice out, but opted for a relaxing evening with Amanda. We don't get too many Sunday evenings to hang out and I needed some rest.

Tomorrow I'll head out on the road bike, and hit a few rollers a little harder then originally planned, then head to the gym. Tuesday I'll be a Kelso for a few hours with the race at the end. Thursday I'm planning on driving out to Albion instead of Kelso to pre ride the course for the weekend. That paired up with a Saturday pre ride and I should have the course nailed pretty good. Albion isn't technical by any means so I hopefully won't have any mechanical issues.

Frustrating day to say the least, but my fatigue level is starting to drop with each week, so I'm hoping by this weekend I'll be 100% again. It's been a few months since I've actually raced with a full tank so it'l be nice to get that back.

off to fix the tire