Kamloops Race the Ranch 2010 - BC cup #1 - Day 2 - RACE DAY

Race day.

It's when the whole weekend and all the training culminates into a 3 minute test of the mind and body. To be honest, I don't really take racing very seriously until I am on course. I don't really train apart from riding a fair bit, I don't collect UCI points in the quest for World Cup glory and I certainly don't have any sponsors to please apart from my lovely wife.

Given the wacky weather we'd had yesterday the course was tacky in the morning and then dry come race time but without the typical powder dust that Kamloops is famous for.

The course this year was in amazing shape due to the work put in by the course designer Wayne Parsons. We've know each other for years in a round about way. In fact, I bought my Devinci Ollie from him a few years ago. When I spoke with Wayne, he said how he did all he could with the terrain to make the course technical and sustainable for future races. I must say I was impressed.


My race run was okay, but I royally screwed up several sections. I crapped the bed on the top flat sections and then messed up the rock face a bit giving the crowd that gathered a good show of how to drift and monster truck your bike on the razors edge of control down a nasty rock section. Due to my "line adjustment" on the rock face I ended up having to ride around the road gap because I was simply unable to line it up. The rest of the course went fairly well. I hit all the jumps that I'd been hitting in practice and flew over and through the rock section at the bottom.

Here I am mid way down course.

Rob and I have an ongoing joke called 7 seconds. Rob is getting faster in Kamloops. I used to beat him by 10+ seconds in races but last year I only edged him out by 7 seconds and yet again this year it was 7 seconds. I told him that when he beats me, I retire from racing. I vow to ensure that will never happen.

After our race, Rob and I locked up our bikes and headed on course to spectate and heckle the rest of the riders. I brought my cowbells that I had during the 2010 Olympics so I was there to have a good time and make a lot of noise. We soon had a bit of a rowdy crowd around us watching the race at a gap jump. Good times for sure.

Johnny mooning Daryl from PinkBike

Some dude throwing out some style.

At the end of the day I placed 5th in class and no spills during the weekend. I had some shoulda, woulda coulda thoughts right after the race but in the end I did the best I could. Hopefully next year I'll be back for some more fun in Kamloops.