Headed out the Big Sky Country for MTB Nationals.... flew into Calgary to spend a few days with some friends (Les and Dan and their 3 riding kids) and drove out to Canmore to pre-ride, watch and then race ... it's such nice country out there... we forget that "Mountain" Biking can sometimes include "Mountains"....
Looking back at the Canmore Nordic Center... getting ready to race and making sure the legs felt as good as they could... Although on ANY ride at altitude it felt like someone stole my climbing legs.... lungs are busting and panting but my heart is barely at race-pace.... yikes....
The course was great.... some "back and forth for the crowd" garbage at the start but that has to be done.. and then a LONG climb up some singletrack..... i was at first upset that they cut out The Oven section... but was very glad they did while racing... it's a very steep and tough end to a tough climb..... and then some really technical and fun descents coming back down.... a bit hard to navigate after cracking yourself on the climb but that's part of it.....
I had 2 former Olympic Cross Country skiers in my field.... who live and train at altitude.... yikes... and they started it off pretty tough.... i was sitting about 5th wheels on the rolling start and saw a split happening..... "Gotta get on that Barnes.... get around this guy and find that wheel".... "Here we go..."..... "Uh Oh..... why can't i go any faster? I guess i'll just get back in the line again..." That's my best way to explain what altitude does to you.... but those guys were killing it anyways... would have been tough to hang with them....So basically i was sitting in the group of 4th, 5th and 6th.... 1 guy was standing all the climbs and was predictably going to blow up... another guy was riding the climbs well but not that impressive in the singletrack..... so at best i would have been 4th... worst would have been 5th.... but then something happened to change the whole day for me.... and i DON'T REMEMBER IT!!!!!
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