Yesterday I attended the Tour of Elgin Mountain Bike Race. This event is put on by the Elgin Eco Association every fall and is also known as Atlantic Canada toughest mountain bike race. The race offers a challenge for all type of riders with a 20km, 40km, 80km and for the first time a 120km course.
Woke up bright and early at 5:45 a.m. and went over all my gear to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. At 6:30 I headed into town to pickup my friends Renee and Cat and we hit the road around 7:00 a.m. We got to Elgin around 8:30 a.m. just in time to see the 120km group leave the start line. We went into the local fire hall to register and they gave us 2 meal tickets. One for breakfast before the race, and one for supper after the race. So a group of us headed to the local hall for a delicious breakfast of Ham, Eggs, Hash Brown, and Toast.
After breakfast, it had started drizzling, and it was now time to get ready for my 80km race that started at 10:00 a.m. I did all my pre race preparations, packed everything into my Camelbak and waited for the race to start. Just as we started to line up for the start, the first group of 120km riders completed their first 40km loop in about 1 hour 30 minutes. A few minutes after the first group left, a second group of 120km riders showed up.
80km Group Lining Up
Me and my friend Yves ready for the 80km race
The 80km course consisted of two 40km loops, and each loop started and finished at the start finish line. At 10:01 a.m. our group of 80km riders set off. The first loop consisted of a 620 feet climb in the first 3.2 km so it got your heart pumping in no time. After 10km we had already climbed 850 feet since the start of the race and finally the course was starting to level off. We slowly start descending towards the start finish line to complete our first 40km loop. Having studied the course before hand, I was very happy after I got the first 10km out of the way. The race was going great and I was feeling pretty good and really having fun out there. That all changed at the 25km mark when I suddenly noticed that my front suspension had completely stopped working. My fork was totally locked out and had no travel what so ever. I tried to play with the lock out lever, but nothing I did seem to fix the problem, so it looked like I was going to be doing the remaining 55km old school with a fully rigid bike.
About 32km into the race, I was flying down this hill following this other rider and as soon as we both got to the bottom of the hill, we both got instant flats at the same time. So we proceeded to start changing our tires, and the rider in front of me found a 2” spike in his tire. I never found a spike, but I’m thinking we both ran over the same thing. It took me about 3 minutes to change my flat and I got going again. I couldn’t believe how quickly I had cooled off from being stopped for such a short time. It took me a good 15 minutes afterward to get warmed up again. I finally completed my first loop and made it back to the start finish line. I changed my bottles, wiped my face with a dirty rag full of Pedro’s Bike Lust, ate a banana and I was on my way again.
The second loop started off with a 5.5km paved section of road along this beautiful river which would have been quite an enjoyable ride but by the start of my second loop, it was raining harder. At the end of the 5.5km road ride, we made a sharp left turn and started another grueling climb. It consisted of 570 feet climb up this 3.3km muddy double track road. The climb was quite challenging and got even worst about halfway up when a guy on a dual purpose dirt bike passed me and proceeded to spin up the entire trail ahead of me making it even more slippery. Once to the top, the course leveled off for a bit and for the next 9.2km’s we proceeded to descent 750 feet. I was now 55km into my race having done the last 30km’s with no front suspension, but I was still feeling great and having fun. During the race, my diet consisted of Rocktane Gel every 45 minutes and lots of Hammer Perpetuem in my bottles . It was my first time using Perpetuem, and I came away very impressed with it. I never bonked the entire race and didn’t feel the need to eat until the end of the race.
At the 55km mark, we started another grueling 800 feet climb up this 4.5km trail and I was beginning to see a pattern develop. Go up one hill, go down said hill, go up another hill, go down said hill over and over again. At the last feeding station, they told me that I only had about 15km’s to go and that was encouraging but suddenly another problem suddenly developed. I had so much sand in my biking short, that when I moved on my seat, the sand acted like sand paper on my butt. You can imagine my happiness when I came across this clear water stream. I proceeded to take one of my empty water bottles, filled it with cold water and pour it down my shorts to wash out all the sand. I repeated this process about 10 times until I had gotten all the sand out of my shorts. The other solution would have been to remove my short and sit in the stream, but I was worried that someone else might come along at any minute.
By this time, the sky had really opened up and it was now pouring rain and the trails got quite slick. We had another couple of descents to do and by this time both front and rear brakes were barely working. You can imagine my relief when I finally hit a big dirt road. I knew the end was near and figured it would be an easy pedal back to the start finish line. So I started pedaling down this dirt road and suddenly things started getting very familiar. I quickly realized that I had done some atving in this area the previous summer and I quickly realized what was coming up. I thought to myself “You’ve got to be kidding me” and “These people are just cruel” I had quickly remembered that a huge final climb was coming up. I kept on pedaling towards the stop sign praying that the course would turn left or right to bypass the hill, but as I expected, the course kept going straight up the hill. The final climb consisted of 750 feet climb up this 4km muddy dirt road.
I told myself that I was almost done and started up the hill. About 1km into the climb, I finally felt an empty feeling in my stomach and had to stop to eat a banana and 2 Vanilla flavored Stinger Waffles. As I’m eating my final waffle, Kelly Murray one of the two women doing the 120km course was making her way up the climb also. We proceeded to do the next km of the climb together and suddenly my rear calf started cramping up so I had to stop for a break but Kelly just kept on climbing all the way to the top. Just before I had stopped, I had noticed another rider walking up the hill about 100 feet in front of us. When I got going again, I quickly realized that this other rider was my friend Cat who was doing the 40km course. I caught up to her and we proceeded to walk the final 2km up the hill. We finally made it to the top and I knew that it was going to be a very fast decent back to the start finish line.
After just over 7 hours and 85km, I finally made it across the finish line, wet, tired, muddy but I still had a big smile on my face. Even with all the rain, mud, broken fork, flat tire, and barely working brakes, by the end it was still the most fun I’ve ever had on a mountain bike. With the type of conditions we encountered during the race, I know I would have never completed the 120km course, so it was a wise decision to only do the 80km course this year. I now feel better prepared for next year and with better conditions, a better bike, and a bit more training, I now feel comfortable that I could do the 120km course.
Tired, Wet, and Muddy after the 80km race but still smiling.
After having gotten cleaned up, we all headed to the local hall for a nice supper that consisted of Ham, Beans, Potato Scallops, Bread and Pickles. They handed out awards, draw prizes and medals to the folks who finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in various categories. I found out I had won a jar of Brown Sugar Chow as a draw prize, and that I had finished in 2nd place in the 80km D Cat (Citizen). I got a nice silver medal and a nice bottle of maple syrup for a local producer in Elgin.
Proudly showing off my silver medal and maple syrup
The Tour of Elgin was quite an adventure and threw all sorts of challenges at the riders who participated, but I’m really looking forward to next year’s event and hopefully I’ll be able to attempt the 120km course. This conclude the Mountain Bike Racing season for 2011 and it was a great racing season overall.
