Reach the Beach Report

So my family came over for a visit after Reach the Beach and the following weeks were filled with non-online activities so now it's about time to get back to this.

Reach the Beach was a nice race. First 20km on gravel roads and then hitting the soft sand on the ATV trails. I never really noticed how slow and soft the sand was while riding those trails on an ATV. On a bike though...that sand was a killer. Good thing though because otherwise the flat course would have been pretty easy.

How the race unfolded. At the start of the first sand section, me Paddy and Dave D got away from the bunch. Maybe 5km later Dave got dropped for some reason. Then we just rode what felt like forever towards Grand Beach. I had to chase back Paddy once after a short break, but that wasn't too bad. Bad thing were the run up and the creek crossing some 15-20km from the finish. Those two obstacles seemed to freeze my legs and Paddy got away. I didn't really have a chance against him because there was one last run up just 2-3km before the finish and he would have dropped me there for sure. So at the end I lost bit over 3 minutes to Paddy and Dave came in some 5 minutes after me.

I'm trying to publish a GPS map/file of this at some point, but iPhone app isn't that easy to play with.

And after my family flew back home to Finland, I did Manitoba Provincial Road Race again. It was bit frustrating race again. I started having massive cramps after 40km and had to deal with those for a while. On the last lap I attacked away from what was left of the race and no one came with me or tried to chase. So there I was, with massive cramps and couldn't believe that the others just let me go. I was unable to ride hard at all because the cramps hit once I tried to give it some gas. Oh well...I guess I'll get another plate on the trophy and that's pretty cool.

Now it's off to a 'cross season. After my somewhat non existent road season, I'll start training for 'cross and hoping to do Jim Horton GP and Nationals double in Edmonton in October. I have no idea how fast the guys are going but I'm pretty sure they are pretty fast.

Next weekend MTB provincials on Saturday and Muddy Waters 100 on Sunday. I'll put my MTB cassette back on my Anthem for sure, the climbs are steep at Birch.