Sir Sam's OCup report and Pics

Sorry for the delay... just realized that i didn't post a Report!!
So last weekend was the 3rd OCup in the series at Sir Sam's... and we were all expecting a good long climb and some fun technical singletrack... and we were not disappointed!!
After winding our way up the ski hill on some pretty cool switchbacks... we were treated to some hammering at the top before some wild chute descents that lead to yet another tough climb....
As was expected... Rob and I were off the front before the end of the 1st lap and were dealing with lapped riders and tight trails... made it tough for both of us to get away / get a gap... so we exchanged the lead a couple times over the next 2 laps...

on the way up the ski hill the 3rd time... i took the lead with hopes of charging and testing Rob's legs.... but continued to be thwarted with lapped riders.... at the top of the climb on the last lap, Rob saw an opportunity to take the lead back, and the door was closed for me to regain the lead - it would have to come down to a finishing sprint - again!!

"Come On Barnes... stay close and we can get around him..." ... "Darn... another rider to get around...".... "Ok ... after this corner..." ... "What? Another rider?" ... "Hey... there's the finish line!" ... "Arghhh... not enough Real Estate... 2nd again!!"
So 2nd again by a bike length.... but a great battle.... Not to brag but it's always interesting to see how many "younger" riders we can catch throughout the race and how our times compare at the end....

The kids were also racing Sir Sams.... and both had great races!!  Luke had a poor start but worked his way up through the group on the tight trails (not an easy job) to finish in 7th spot ... great effort and quite happy with his finish ... one of these days he will get all the aspects of racing to come together on the same day and it will be a great show!!

Jake "The Beast" has learned from his time at Hardwood that you need a strong start so you don't get held back by slower riders in the singletrack... and hammered his first climb to give him a great chance at moving up.... funny that he finished in 11th spot (only 4sec back from 10th).... he stopped to help another competitor fix his chain and then let the other rider get back on the trail first... passed him again but then went to the Finish chute, was confused and swerved back to the Lap chute and then back again to the Finish chute... only to be re-passed by the chain-dropping competitor!!!!  Ahhhh... that's racing!!!

Thanks Jeff Shikaze for the great pics - this is one of my favorites!!

we have a couple weeks off now before we make the trip to Sudbury for the next Canada Cup and then it's time for Nationals.... so it's a big couple weeks of training!!