80, 120 and a Belt Buckle.

Every fall the Elgin Eco Association holds an event called The Tour of Elgin aka the toughest mountain bike race in Atlantic Canada. This is a mountain bike marathon race that in the past consisted of a 20km, 40km and 80km course. This year, to make things a tad more interesting, the event organizers have decided to add a 120km distance.


WHAT? A 120KM MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE!!! Why would someone in their right mind ever want to attempt such a thing? Well I can tell you why. It's called A BELT BUCKLE

Yes you read that correctly, a belt buckle. The organizers have decided to give out a pretty sweet belt buckle to the first 25 finishers of the 120km race. What might a person do with such a belt buckle? I have no idea, but a lot of people seem to want one really really bad and here lies the problem.

I'm one of those person. As of right now I'm planning on doing the 80km course which consist of two 40km loops but I haven't pre-registered for the event. In this make belief scenario that I've been having for the last 2 weeks in my mind, I'll show up in Elgin next Saturday morning on a beautiful sunny day that will be perfect for mountain biking and they will only have 24 crazy people registered for the 120km event and they will need 1 more crazy person to make it 25 and for some strange reason I'd end up volunteering for an additional 40km just to make sure they can give away all those belt buckles. We wouldn't want them to go bad before next years event? Right?

I've never done 80km's on a mountain bike in my life, let alone 120km. I've never done the Elgin 80 before, but I've done quite a bit of atving in the Elgin area and have seen some of the hills in the area. Looking at the course map, I see that the course will be traversing a lot of those same hills. Then why on earth would I even think about doing 120km. One reason and one reason only

THE BELT BUCKLE

Stay tune to find out how things go next weekend.

For more information on "The Tour of Elgin"

http://www.fundyflyingsquirrel.com/eea/Pages/events.html

To pre-register for the event visit:

http://www.atlanticchip.ca/events/details.php?show=741

Course Map

Event Sponsors:

Outdoor Elements in Sussex
The Radical Edge in Fredericton
Bikes + Beans in Saint John
Fit Works in Moncton
Giant Tiger in Fredericton
Consolvo Bikes in Moncton
East Coast Wheels in Fredericton
Marysville Place Bike Club in Fredericton

4 Hour of French Fort Cove, September 18th, 2011

Every fall, the Miramichi Mountain Bike Club host an awesome event in Miramichi, New Brunswick called the 4 Hour of French Fort Cove Mountain Bike Race.

This event was held last Sunday @ the beautiful French Fort Cove park. This race is a 4 hour endurance race that can be done solo or as a team. The race starts at 11:00 a.m. and you have to do as many laps as you can within 4 hours. It should also be noted that you can start your last lap anytime before 2:59 p.m.

French Fort Cove offers a variety of mountain bike trails for all skill levels and this year they designed a new 12km course that was a lot of fun. The course consisted of a mix of beginner/intermediate single and double track trails that offered some nice challenges that consisted of rocks, roots and a bit of mud.

Because Miramichi is 2 hours away from Fredericton, me and 4 friends decided to head down to Miramichi the night before and stay at my parent's place. We got there Saturday night, cooked a giant pot of pasta and had lots of laughes.

Me and my buddy Matt decided that we would be doing it as a team together and we called our team RockVortex. We took the first part of my bike's name Rockhopper and the name of Matt's Rocky Mountain Vortex to create our team name. When doing the race as a team, it works like relay. One rider starts the race while the second one waits at the start finish line. Once the first rider completed his first lap, the second rider takes off for the teams second lap while the first rider takes a break. When the second rider returns, the first rider takes off for the teams third lap and so on. So we showed up at French Fort Cove on a cool beautiful sunny morning and started talking strategies for the race. We figured that we should be able to do 45 minutes lap, so we figured it was best to let Matt go first. Our thinking was that Matt was a faster rider than me, so if I came in from our fourth lap and we needed a quick 5th lap to allow us to start our 6th lap before 2:59, it would be best to have Matt try and do a quick lap.

So the race started and Matt set off on our first lap while I tried and stay warm and loose at the start finish line. Our 45 minute per lap time was quickly crush when it took the real fast riders 41 minutes to complete a single lap. Managing to complete 6 laps in 4 hours was going to be a real challenge. Matt came across the start/finish line in about 47 minutes. Our team was running in 5th place out of 14 teams, so Matt had done an excellent job on his first lap. When I started our teams second lap, the 4th place team was about 2 minutes in front of me. About 7 minutes into my first lap, I passed the 4th place team rider and tried to put a gap on the rider. When I got to the start finish line, our team was now running in 4th place and had managed to put a gap of about 4 minutes on the 5th place team.

Matt took off for our third team lap and I was hoping  he would be able to maintain our gap on the 5th place team. About 45 minutes after Matt had started his lap, I got ready for him to round the corner. About 2 minutes later, the rider from the 5th place team rounded the corner. He had somehow managed to pass Matt out on the course. I waited and about 5 minutes later Matt came around the corner. Turns out he had gotten a flat tire. I took off for our 4th team lap and tried my best to catch up to the 4th place team. I had an awesome lap and felt like I was really flying through the course. I never managed to catch the 4th place team and when I got to the start/finish line, I found out I had done a 50 minute lap. My second lap felt much quicker than my first lap, but it ended up being almost 3 minutes slower. By the time I got back from our 4th lap, it was now 2:20 p.m. and I knew there was no change that Matt would be able to complete our 5th lap before the 2:59 cut off, so I knew that my day was done. Matt went out for our 5th lap and we completed  our 5 laps in 4 hours and 11 minutes. So we missed our cut off by 12 minutes but we still had a great day of racing. Our team finished in 5th place, 4 minutes out of 4th place.

Overall it was a great day of racing and everyone seemed to have fun. This will be another event that I'll be looking forward too in 2012.

Me and my buddy Chris Foster waiting on our team members to complete their first laps.

Rockwood Park XC Mountain Bike Race, September 11th, 2011

On September 11th, I participated in the Rockwood Park XC Mountain Bike Race in Saint John. This was my first time doing this race, but me and a group of friend had gone down to Rockwood Park in late July to pre-ride most of the course.

When doing a race, if possible I always like to pre ride the course ahead of time. I find that it allows me to get a general feel for the course and also helps me in my decision when it comes to choosing which class to race in.

The race course was 8.5km in lenght and I had pre ridden about 4km's of it ahead of this. This particular race offered 4 different classes. They had a kids class, C class, B class and A class.  C class was 1 lap of the course, B class was 2 laps of the course and A class was 3 laps of the course. I decided to register for the B class since I felt that this would be the group of riders that I would be competitive with.

So on a cool sunny September morning, me and 4 friends set off at 7:00 a.m. for the 1 hour drive to Saint John from Fredericton. We got to the race course around 8:30 a.m. and it was quite chilly. But once the sun came out, it got quite comfy and it turned out to be an excellent day for an XC Mountain Bike Race.

The A, B, and C class races were scheduled to start at 10:15, so after doing all our preparations, a small group of us including my buddy Alex and Matt decided to do a small warm up ride about 30 minutes before the race. I was looking forward to doing a small warm up ride since it would allow me to ride the start section of the race course which we hadn't covered on our pre ride back in late July.

So we set off as a group from the start line for our warm up ride, and the course started with a nice little climb that lasted for about 2 minutes. Once you finished the climb, you turned left went through this nice technical rooty section before hitting a nice flowly double track trail with a couple of nice jumps and obstacles. This brought you out to a power line which consisted of another little climb before doing a hard left onto a trail called It's Gotta Go.

It's Gotta Go is a trail that we had pre ridden in late July and I knew that this trail was quite lengthy and didn't loop back out to the start finish area. So I decided to turn around and ride back to the start finish line. My buddies Matt and Alex decided to keep going on It's Gotta Go.

So by the time I got back to the start finish line, it was about 15 minutes before the start of the race and they announced that we should start lining up since we would be having the pre race meeting in about 5 minutes. So I lined up at the start finish line and kept looking for my buddies Matt and Alex to come around the corner at any second. 10 minutes before the race, still no Matt or Alex. About 5 minutes before the race, I see a couple of other riders who had gone out on the warm up ride show up, but still no sign of Matt and Alex. I started worrying that they were going to miss the start of the race. About 3 minutes before the race, both Alex and Matt showed up and you could see that they were in a panic. Turns out Matt had gone over the bars on his warm up ride and Alex has gotten a flat tire. Alex was racing in the A Class and Matt was racing in the B Class with me. By the time both of them made it to the start finish line, the A class group had already taken off 30 seconds before hand and the B Class was about to set off. Alex took off right away trying to catch up with the A class guys, and our B Class wasn't far behind him.

 So it was finally time for our group to set off, and as soon as we set off I settled in mid pack. We started up the first climb and there was this guys ahead of me who was struggling a bit, but there wasn't really any place to pass him, so I just stayed on his rear wheel and figured I'd pass him just after that technical rooty section that was coming up.

Just as we got to the technical section, the struggling rider ahead of me proceeded to perform an endo right in front of me and I just managed to miss him. Once we hit the flowy double track before the power line, things calmed down and I got into the race. I had a pretty good pace and proceeded to pass a couple of riders before we hit the narrower single track stuff that included It's Gotta Go, Rocky Rd and Lolly Pop. These trails are quite narrow, rocky and have lots of roots, so it's difficult to pass so a bunch of us just got together and rode through it all.

When racing, I don't like holding up people, so I try and move out of the way as soon as possible. Towards the end of the first lap, I had a couple of riders behind me, and I asked them if they wanted to go bye, and they said nope that I was setting a good pace and that they would let me know if they wanted to go bye.

So I proceeded to complete my first lap in 43 minutes. On the start of the second lap I was feeling great and ridding much better. About halfway through my second lap, I caught up to my buddy Matt who was running along his bike. Turns out he had gotten a flat but only had a spare tube. He had no CO2 cartridge or pump. I stopped to assist him and offered him the use of my CO2 cartridge but he refused to take it since he would feel bad if I flatted later on and didn't have a way to inflate my tire. He told me to keep going and that he would find someone with a pump. While stopped to assist Matt, I got passed by the 2 riders who had been following me since midway of the first lap, so I put my head down and decided to see if I could catch up.

About 3/4 of the way through my second lap I could see the 2 riders ahead of me but they were about 1 to 2 minute ahead of me so I knew I wasn't going to be able to catch them.

I ended up completing my second lap in about 47 minutes finishing in 12th place out of 31 riders in B Class. My buddy Matt managed to find someone with a pump just after I left him and he ended up in 16th place, 5 minutes behind me.

After the race, Boston Pizza was giving away free pasta to all the racers and they proceeded to give out the awards and prizes. I ended up winning a red commuting light that will come in quite handy during our group night rides.

Overall it was an awesome day and I'm really looking forward to doing this event next year once again.

Where oh where could my Halo be?

Earlier this summer, I discovered this incredible thing called a Halo Headband . This is a headband has a small rubber strip that stops sweat from getting into your eyes. My buddy Yves had purchased one of these and he had been raving about it's performance.

So I went ahead and purchased one and I must say that Yves was right. This little piece of fabric was incredible. No more sweat in the eyes, no more foggy glasses due to sweat. I was really happy with my purchase.

In early July, my beloved Halo Headband disapeared. I searched everywhere but it was nowhere to be found. I returned to where I had purchased my original one and they only had 1 blue one in stock. I decided to hold off buying it and to keep looking for mine. Surely it would show up one of these days when I wasn't looking for it.

After a couple sans Halo rides, I gave in and decided it was time to replace my Halo, no matter what the color was. So I once again returned to the original place of purchase and quickly found out they had sold the last remaining blue Halo. I was then informed that it might be awhile before they got anymore in stock.

So after suffering through several more rides without my Halo, I finally broke down and purchased a replacement one. I ended up ordering one online from Jensonusa.com . I placed my order on a Thursday, and my package was promptly delivered the following Monday. Talk about fast service and shipping from the US. I figured since I was ordering one, I might as well order a spare so that I'm not left Haloless in the future. My buddy Yves also wanted a spare, so I ended up ordering 3 in total.

I'm really looking forward to my next ride now.

Group Rides + Social Media + Mountain Biking = A Whole Lot of Fun

Having set out on my new adventure with my newly purchased  bike, I faced 2 big challenges.

- First I needed to find places to ride.
- Second I needed to find other riders to ride with.

I quickly realized that meeting other riders would allow me to explore and discover new riding places. So I went to my local bike shop (Savage Bike Center) here in Fredericton and inquired about group rides. I was informed by Todd the shop's mechanic that they hosted a weekly Wednesday night group ride leaving from the store at 6:00 p.m. He explained that to me that the rides are usually split up into 2 groups (Beginner/Slower Riders & Intermediate/Faster Riders) and that we either leave from the store or we drive to the trail head.

Armed with this information, I then set out on the internet to do a bit of researched to try and gather as much information as possible about the mountain bike scene in Fredericton.

On Facebook, I discovered a group called Mountain Bike Fredericton. This seemed right up my alley so I joined the group and I've met some great people, attended some great group rides, discovered some incredible local trails and I've had a bunch of fun.

After talking to several other local mountain bikers, we all seem to agree that the mountain bike scene has really exploded in the Fredericton area. I personally believe that the weekly group rides and the ever increasing popularity of social media has allowed local riders to meet up together and has ended up solving my 2 biggest challenges.

I have now met a large number of riding buddies and I've probably gotten a change to ride 80 out of the over 100km's of single track trails in the city.

All this would of never been possible without Savages and Facebook.


Savage's Bicycle Center
Savage's Wednesday Night Facebook Group
Mountain Bike Fredericton Facebook Group

It's been a great summer

Welcome to my new blog about Mountain Biking in New Brunswick. I plan on using this blog to allow me to post pictures, videos, maps, provide general information and try and keep everyone up to date on what's going on in the Mountain Bike scene here in New Brunswick.

Having lived in Fredericton since the summer of 1997, a few years ago I decided to start mountain biking once again. I used to mountain bike in my younger days, but kind of got out of the sport in my late teens before going away to college.

As a mountain bike enthusiast, Fredericton is a great city to live in since it offers over 80 km's of multi-use trails and over 100 km of dedicated single track mountain bike trails. Yes you've read that correctly, Fredericton has over 100 km's of single track mountain bike trails.

My biggest problem was trying to find all these mystery trails I kept hearing about in our area.

So this past summer I decided to get serious. I went out and purchased a 2011 Specialized Rockhopper Mountain Bike and decided that it was time to start exploring. With my trusty GPS, Digital Camera, and my Helmet Cam, I pedaled right into it and I haven't looked back.