BCBR Day 2

Stage 2 - Powell River. 51km, 765m D+ 

BC Bike Race is more than just a race. It's pretty much the best summer camp you can imagine...at least for me! 

After the first day in Cumberland, we took the ferry to Powell River where our basecamp for the night was in a park facing the Pacific Ocean. Everyday, once the race is over, people from the event (racers, volunteer and crew alike) are hanging out outside, chatting, swimming, relaxing or visiting the cute little towns we get to visit. All the towns we visit through the race are extremely welcoming and Powell River is no exception; as racers were walking out of the ferry to the campsite last night, hundreds of locals from the community were outside to cheer and welcome us. It was quite the parade! 

Stage 2 promised to be quite different from Day 1; the course was not climbing as much and subsequently wasn't descending as much. Instead, we were treated to rolling terrain and lots of singletracks covered in roots and trails twisting through mossy trees and loamy forest. It was very pretty and fun! 

Here's how the race panned out for me: 

• Start. My strategy was to try to get in front and go fast from the gun. It started on pavement and those strong guys offer a good wind shelter and "free" speed. 
• "It's so dusty I don't see anything. No worries, just trust that guy you've never met in front of you."
• After about 20 min, I have a little gap on other girls. 
• Turn around and see Katka is coming.
• We ride together for a while.
• Take a second to look up: "Wow! So pretty! Looks like an enchanted forest". 
• Keep riding behind Katka in the trail. She's going fast. "Phew, this is hard. Doing good Magh!"
• A bit later... "Ahh!" I crashed.
• Jump back on the bike and start chasing. try to break "Crap I can't find my brake." 
• Stop and fix my break. Get back on bike and can't see Katka. 
• "Oh well, guess I'm riding by myself for the rest of the day". 
• "Wait a minute...If it was Katerina, she would totally find a way to catch up to me. Maybe I can do it too." 
• Chase mode.
• 30 min later: "OMG I see a yellow jersey!"  Catch up to yellow jersey. It's a master man. 
• Keep chasing. "OMG, another yellow jersey and that is definitely Katka!" 
• Ride together until the finish. in my mind "Hmm okay. I'll try to get her on the sprint." 
• 1 km to go. I prepare for the sprint... Then Katka says: "Hey, you take this one. You deserve it." 
• Me: Really?! Okay, I guess I won't argue with that. Thank you :) 

After the race, we ate some snacks from the finishing tent and then I ate some more snacks that Dave had prepared for me. We got changed in our swimming suit pretty quickly and jumped in the ocean to cool off and relax from the race. It was awesome and felt like a true summer camp!  

Our day finished with another beautiful ferry ride and we are now at a campsite in Earls Cove; chilling, stretching, eating dinner and relaxing until tomorrow. Also, David is baking a cake and it smells awesome in the RV. Day 3 waits for us with one of the toughest and longest stage of the week - can't wait! 

Cheers! 

BCBR tent city at Powell River

Every night, there is a yoga session at Basecamp

Chasing

Post race ocean swim! 

Beautiful ferry ride

Nap time. 

Good night! 

BCBR Stage 1

Stage 1: Cumberland - 44.8km, 1054m D+

Exactly one week ago, Dave and I were talking during our ride and we thought maybe it could be cool to go out to BC and train there before Nationals. Immediately, I remembered that Troy Wells had told me that Benjamin Sonntag (fellow Clif Bar athlete) was injured and that his BC Bike Race registration might be up for grabs.

So after a couple of calls, thanks to Clif Bar, Ben and BCBR organization’s generosity, I was in for the race! That night, Dave and I modified our Nationals flights, rented an RV, and on Monday, we were in the plane heading for our second BC Bike Race. It was a last call, but I couldn't have been happier to be back at this incredible 7 days stage race event. 

The first stage of the race saw us starting in beautiful Cumberland. When I raced in 2014 as a team with Catharine Pendrel, Cumberland had been one of my favorite stages. This year’s course was a bit different, but in my opinion, it was even better than I remembered...or maybe I am just able to enjoy the technical trails better than I was 3 years ago? 

On the start line this morning, the atmosphere was electric as all 600+ riders were getting ready and feeling excited to start the stage race. I wasn’t nervous at all, but I was definitely excited and fired up to get things started and to see what the trails would be like!

• Start.
• Fire road climb for the first 12km. I go in front, Katka follows. "Hmm I'm feeling good!" "But let's not go too hard too early Magh." 
• We reach the top. Katka and I have a gap on the third girl.
• Hit the first couple singletrack descents.
• Next 30 min: Can’t stop smiling. “These are some of the coolest trails I’ve ever ridden!”
• People are cheering. It’s awesome.
• Still riding with Katka. Thinking to myself: “This is fun”.
• We hit a section where we are surrounded by tall purple flowers and have gorgeous views of snowy mountain peaks. Katka says: “This place is gorgeous”.
• I secretly want to stop and take a picture of her riding through this magnificent scenery. Instead, I just take it in and keep riding. 
• About 10km to go, we hit a flat-ish, super rooty and twisty section… I have a hard time keeping up. "I am being pretty bad at this right now". 
• Thinking to myself how I can do this better. “Try to use your body Magh. Look ahead, pump with your arms and legs. Katerina has so much flow, try to imitate her”.
• Can’t figure that section out. Lose sight of Katka. Mess up a few times.
• Finally come out of that section. See her a couple hundred meters ahead on the climb.
• “Try to catch up!” Gap stays the same.
• She beats me by about 2-3 mins.

Finishing second to Katerina is starting to become a familiar thing this season! However, a few months ago, I couldn’t even keep up with her for just a couple minutes on the mountain bike. She is quite a ripper in the trails and obviously, she is super strong, so it’s always a privilege (and pretty fun) when I get to ride/race with her.  We had a really great day!

Dave is not racing, so he went on a ride with our friend Mical Dyck and when I got back to the RV, he had prepared a recovery shake and delicious lunch. Yeah, he’s a keeper! I jumped in the shower, headed to the podium and we drove to the ferry where we got to soak our legs in the ocean before departure.

We are now on the ferry to Powell River where another sets of beautiful trails await us tomorrow for stage 2. I can't wait! 

Cheers. 

Woot! 

Doesn't that make you want to go ride? 

Riding sweet trails! 

Dave and I were super happy to see our good friends Mical and Reagan while in Cumberland. 

Hanging out at BaseCamp in Cumberland. 

David is preparing my bike at BaseCamp the night before the race. I chose the full suspension with a dropper post for this stage race as most trails are pretty rugged. The rear suspension is a back saver ;) 

Ocean ice bath while waiting for the ferry. 

I think ferries are cool. 

I should drink more beer

Chugging a beer when you are out of breath at the finish of an hour long race is hard. But that's exactly what you have to do to win the Blitz race in Bend, OR. Your time doesn't stop until that beer is empty and there is big money on the line, so you better drink fast! 

That race takes place in Bend and it's on an invite-only basis. Only about 20 women and 20 men take part in the race. We start in a parking lot at the top of a trailhead and race all the way down to a golf course where a table with glasses of local Deschutes Brewery beer awaits you. Hundreds of people line up the golf course and the atmosphere is quite spectacular, especially considering that it all happens on a Wednesday night. 

Inside the main race, there are other competitions that are all worth 500$ to whoever wins them:

• The Hole Shot which is awarded to the first person to enter the single track after the start; 
• The Speed Trap goes to the fastest person passing on a stretch of pavement towards the end (they have a speed radar to calculate that); 
• The biggest jump goes to the person who gets the most air on the last jump on the golf course;
• The Arm Wrestling competition: Once the race is over, all the racers gather on a stage for an arm wrestling tournament. 

That being said, you have to pick your battles. I was going for the overall race and the hole shot. 

From the gun, you have to do a lap of the parking lot before entering the trail. I was in front of the pack and in great position to get the hole shot, until Joanna Peterson took an inside line to cut in front of me and get the hole shot!  I was quite surprised by that. I had seen that line, but didn't think it was super legit, so I went for the real entrance of the singletrack and she outsmarted me to take the first 500$ of the night. I got "enduroed". It won't happen again! We all had a good laugh about that afterwards!

Going for the hole shot!! Pic by: Steve Henrich 

"WHATTT!!!!" Jojo enduro-ing me! (Nice work Jojo!) Pic by: Steve Henrich

She then moved to the side and let me go in front of her as we entered the first pedalling section of the race. Katka and I quickly got a gap and went found a good system: every time the one leading messed up, the other one would take the lead so we kept the momentum going. It wasn't a planned strategy, but it worked out perfectly as we exchanged the lead a few times. The rest of the race kind of went like this: 

• Katka and I ride into people who are riding up the trails: "AHHHHH!!!"
• Teal catches up to us! "Yeah Teal!!"
• All three of us follow each other into the back-to-back drops section. BAM! "Ouch. Hit my suspension pretty hard. All good though!" 
• We accelerate in the pedalling section and eventually Teal lets us go. 
• Katka messes up. I go in front.
• I hit a pointy rock with my front tire and hear air coming out. I see a splash of Stans and the wheel finally seals. "Crap." I don't think I lost too much air, but then I kind of wash out a little bit in next few turns. "Gotta be careful Magh!" 
• I mess up, Katka goes in front. She messes up, I go in front. Repeat. 
• Suddenly a dog starts riding with us! "AHHH!!" He rides between us for at least a good minute! 
• Thinking to myself: "That trails so fun!" 
• "We are going too fast, I don't think I can drop Katerina." 
• Towards the end. Katerina yells : "I'm not sure if we are on the good trail anymore!" 
• Me: "No we're good! I see some orange markings on the trees!" 
• Little do I know, she is laughing to herself... I later learned that orange paint on trees had nothing to do with course marking. It was for logging purposes. Anyway, we were on the good trail! 
• Exit the trail and hit the pavement. Me: "Let's team up for the speed trap! I'll lead you out!" 
• Katka: "Okay. I'll slingshot around you." 
• We get to the speed trap...
• ..... 
• .....
• Katerina: "Never mind, I'm spun out!" 
• Me: "Me too!"
• I lead on the pavement. "Hmm, I should probably not leave it to the chugging...Katerina must be good at that."
• Still leading on pavement.  "Well that's stupid Magh. No way I can attack if I'm already pulling." Katerina gets around me on the last steep hill. I follow. We jump.  
• "Okay, I'll just follow her and try to relax and calm my breathing before the chugging." 
• "Who knows, I might be good at chugging beer!" Lets relax. Deep breaths. 
• Katka gets off her bike. I get off my bike. We start drinking. One sip: "Oh CRAP! I'm already out of breath. Come on come on hurry up Magh. Just chug it." 
• Looks a Katerina. She's already halfway done. I drank one sip. 
• She pauses to laugh at me. 
• "Come on come on Magh." "ooohh it's coming up my nose"  
• Katerina is done. "Crap I still have half of it left." I finish. "Phewww finally! Now I feel like burping." 
• We hug! "This was the best event EVER!" 
• Katerina: "I knew all these years of drinking would pay off one day!" (By out-chugging me, she won the race and earned 3000$, while I won 2000$ for 2nd place. It was a 1000$ chug-off.) 

The Chug in images. From Steve Henrich. 

We then hung out to watch the other girls and the men come to the finish and exchange race stories. Later that night, there was an arm wrestling tournament, which brought a lot of excitement amongst the racer and the crowd. Geoff Kabush was pretty impressive and won ever single rounds to take the victory. He later said: "I don't understand. I still can't believe I won that!". Meanwhile, Katerina and I both were eliminated in our first rounds. 

All in all, that was one of the best Wednesday nights ever! The mountain community is so fun. That event was a mixe of cross-country, enduro and downhill riders but the chemistry and camaraderie among all of us was quite special. I felt extremely privileged to be there and enjoy this event and share good stories with all these people. 

I really hope to be back next year. Until then, I'll go practice my beer chugging and arm wrestling skills... 

Huge thank you to Erik Eastland and The Blitz crew for putting on such a great event and giving us this amazing opportunity. Also thank you to Ryan who hosted us for a week and Katerina for organizing everything. 

Until next time, Bend! 

Note to self:

Here are some cool places you enjoyed in Bend, Magh. Make sure you hit them up next year! 

• Ocean Roll: The famous local specialty pastry. It's a croissant dough rolled with sugar and cardamom. I got to taste it at the Blackporch coffee. 
• Mother's Juice: Good salads, sandwiches and juices. Great lunch spot. 
• Chow breakfast place: Healthy and delicious breakfast options. 
• Spork: Kind of a healthy and fancy fast food for dinner. You order at the counter amongst many options of rice bowls/salads (I had a Korean bowl with rice, bbq ribs, fried egg, kimchi and veggies) before choosing your table. 
• For my parents: Remember to tell my parents that they should visit Bend. It is beautiful with its many giant conifer trees and snowy mountain peaks in the background. There are many golf courses that mom would enjoy and a lot of amazing trails that dad would love. Downtown is cute with many cute shops and good food!  

Ocean roll. 

Troy and Geoff in the finals of the arm wrestling. 

Gâteau à la rhubarbe et au café Barista

C'est la saison de la rhubarbe!!!! Puis, soyons honnêtes, c'est pas mal toujours la saison du café...alors quoi de mieux pour profiter de la saison qu'un gâteau qui combine ces deux ingrédients?! 

J'adore la rhubarbe, et chez nous, quand elle est en saison, on se fait un devoir d'en profiter! 

Hier soir, on avait le goût d'un p'tit quelque chose de sucré, alors on a décidé de faire ce gâteau à la rhubarbe et au café. Nous avons regardé plusieurs recettes en ligne et finalement, nous avons apporté quelques modifications pour arriver à cette recette délicieuse. 

Un parfait mélange de "un peu sucré mais pas trop", une belle touche de fruits sûres et un petit goût de café subtile mais délicieux. Bon appétit! 

P.S
Le goût de café du gâteau ressort encore mieux lorsqu'accompagné d'un bon petit Espresso Macchiato (espresso avec un nuage de mousse de lait), comme collation de milieu d'après-midi. Ces derniers jours, mon café de choix pour l'espresso est le Venezia 1645 de Barista! 

Ingrédients :

•  1 tasse de sucre
•  2 œufs
•  1 tasse de Café liquide (Nous avons utilisé une tasse de Café Barista préparé avec la machine espresso. Et ça a donné un vraiment bon goût de café distingué, subtile et délicieux!)
•  3 tasses de farine
•  2c à thé de bicarbonate de soude
•  2c à thé de cannelle moulue
•  ½ c à thé de sel
•  3 tasses de rhubarbe hachées
•  1.5 tasses de fraises (on a utilisé des fraises congelées)
• ½ tasse de pacanes hachés
• un peu de cassonade pour saupoudrer sur le gâteau

Étapes :

1.  Préchauffer le four à 350F. Graisser le fond d’un pot de 13x9po.
2.  Battre le sucre et les œufs dans un grand bol jusqu’à obtention d’une texture onctueuse.  Ajouter le café et battre encore un peu.
3.  Dans un autre bol, mélanger les ingrédients secs (farine, bicarbonate, cannelle et sel). Incorporer au mélange d’oeufs/sucre/café et battre juste assez pour que le tout soit combiné.
4. Ajouter la rhubarbe et les fraises. Transférer le tout dans le pot à cuisson 13x9 po. Saupoudrer de cassonade et de pacanes.
5. Cuire au four jusqu’à ce que le centre soit cuit. Environ 45-60 min.

Lessons from Grand Junction

There are two ways I could look back at this past weekend.

One would be to focus on my sub-par performance of yesterday, dwell on the fact that I didn’t do as well as I had hoped and have a sour memory of the event.

Or, I could think of all the positive things that happened during the weekend and remember the Grand Junction Off Road as a super fun event.

In the past, I totally would have chosen option one. I would have felt sorry for myself, dwelled on all the things I didn’t do well, and allow that one mediocre day to affect my self-confidence. This is no fun. And in the long run, having this bad attitude after all the bad races takes a toll on your overall motivation and makes you question why you are even doing this if it makes you so miserable.

Nowadays, though, I prefer to choose option number 2. I’m having so much fun doing what I do (racing my bike) and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Of course, I took some time to reflect on the race and tried to figure out what mistakes I made to make sure I can learn for the future. But once that is done, you have to move on. I know I’m not going to change that race by marinating in my sorrows for days. Instead, as I’m sitting in the plane and smiling by myself, I can’t help but to think of all the positive and fun things that happened this weekend...

•  Experiencing Grand Junction's famous "clay" and getting a good dose of laughs: Our Thursday pre-ride turned into an adventure as we got stuck in a snowstorm, which turned the soil into “bentonite” (very thick clay). Katerina and I had to hike while lifting our bikes from the ground because the clay was so thick that it prevented our wheels to turn. We had to stop every 10 meters to clean our bikes with wooden sticks because they became too heavy. It was miserable and hilarious at the same time! 

• The trails in Grand Junction are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G : Katka and I were riding pretty well together and had fun following each other’s lines. Also, the sceneries of the mesa and red canyon were beautiful!
   
• Going for it in the crit: In the Fat Tire crit, I attacked with 4 laps to go and went on a solo breakaway. I ended up being caught by the group with half a lap (about 40 sec) to go, but that set up Katerina perfectly for the win! It was awesome! I was pretty happy about that attack because I normally hesitate way too much before attacking, but this time, I really went for it and it almost stuck. That was a personal win for me...and a real win for the team!

Photo by Bill Freeman. It was fun using our team "numbers" during the crit. 

• Watch and learn - "Ha, that's how you do it": After the race, I watched Geoff Kabush win the men’s crit with a solo breakaway and by watching how he made it stick until the end, I learned how I needed to adjust my technique for next time. 
   
• The Mountain biking community is amazing:  The crowds at the crit in downtown Grand Junction were huge and the atmosphere was vibrant. It’s always enriching to speak and hang out with all these people. Everyone is there to help each other and the camaraderie is great. 
   
•  Grand Junction is a very cool place: We were staying downtown and it was nice to be able to just walk everywhere. The Main Street is very cute and has many cool shops, restaurants and street art. Nice place for a bike race!

Picture from Epic Rides. During the whole weekend, the whole downtown was closed for the bike race and a music festival. 

• Learning from the best and finding our groove: Saturday morning, we had another great pre-ride. Katka and I exchanged the roles of leader/follower and I felt like we kept getting better and faster at riding those fun and challenging trails together. During that pre-ride, we ran into Geoff (Kabush) who also gave me some very good technical pointers and advices for the race. We got to follow him for a few sections and it was eye opening to see his line choices and learn about his approach to the race. The guy has so much experience and he was generous enough to share that knowledge with me - I felt lucky to be able to learn from such accomplished racers. 

I don't have a picture of us pre-riding, because we were too busy pre-riding. So instead, here is a picture of Chris working on my bike :) 

• Sunday morning was the 43 miles backcountry race. Nothing went wrong, I guess I just had an off day…I simply wasn’t able to pedal as hard as I wanted and the other girls were faster. But, there were still many positives aspects to that race:
  •  Stayed relax, breathed well and didn't panic. 
  •  Felt like I was riding the descents pretty well and I was having so much fun doing it!
  •  Kept my head in the game and fought until the end (which paid off because I caught some people towards the end).
  •  Made some good decisions: I really went for it on the last descent and honestly, I don’t think I have ever descended so fast. That was cool. But I guess I over did it since I flatted my rear wheel as I had the 5th girl in sight. (Not the best decision). I kept riding for a few minutes with a soft tire and the traction was actually amazing ahah! But it was becoming softer and softer so I eventually stopped to put some air– that was a good decision, because if I had waited a bit longer, I would’ve had to put a tube and lose even more time.
  • Drinking and nutrition intake was on point! (Thanks to Chris and Myron for the feed!)
  • Katerina won, which is always cool! As usual, she taught me valuable tactical and technical lessons throughout the weekend. 
  •  Ended up 6th, which isn’t too bad considering that in the same conditions, one year ago, I would have "half-given up" and finished way further.

Cool photo by Bill Freeman

Photo by Kenny Wehn. Salty and tired after the race.

In the end, it's always a question of perspective and there are often many ways to looks at things. This more positive mindset allows me to be a lot happier and enjoy the process and the small progress a lot more. The Grand Junction Off Road 2017 will stay in my memory as a great weekend and as I’m going back home, instead of crushing me, these not-so-great results make me extremely motivated to rest, work, and come back better for the next race.

If you have never ridden in Grand Junction, I would suggest adding it to your bucket list of places to visit! Great food, cute town and gorgeous playground for biking, hiking and taking pictures. 

For now, I'm back to the shorter kind of races with a Canada Cup in Baie St-Paul next weekend. Excited for it!

That's not me, it's my friend Serena. But isn't it beautiful?! Photo by Dave McElwaine

At some point during that race, we rode in that canyon. So pretty! Photo by Dave McElwaine