After a winter in the south full of racing and training, I travelled back to Canada on April 16th. I returned home to mediocre weather but dry roads and trails! I had a light week of training to recover from a busy race schedule as well as the travel. After a number of off days, I was back in action at the Ontario Spring MTB Championship. The venue is only a 15-minute ride down the road from my house. It features fast and flowy trails with a number of short punchy climbs. It is the venue I won my first race back in 2017 and where I do a great deal of training. Always great to be back.
The local trail crew has put a ton of work in to have the trails in perfect condition for this weekend (shout out to Corey for leading the charge). They added an amazing piece of single track with a nice drop and a number of gap jumps to spruce up the venue!
Race day was Sunday. The forecast was great, but things took a turn as the race started. A cold front blew in and snow started just minutes into the race. I was able to get out an early lead on the first climb and didn't look back. Some fresh legs and local trail knowledge played to my advantage. I was able to put 5 minutes between myself and the second-place rider and ride away for the win. The mag rode great on the high-speed course, taking the edge off the chattery sections of the course while being stiff through all the power-down sections. It was great to connect with the local community and see so many familiar faces after a few months on the road. My next race would be the following Sunday at the Canadian Gravel National Championships!
To prepare for the upcoming drop bar racing I spent a bunch of time on my gravel bike. I focused on spending time in a more aerodynamic position (something that I don’t do much of while preparing for XCO events. I also do some tech work to ensure I would be smooth through the challenging sections of the nationals course!
The first-ever Canadian Gravel National Championships took place on April 30th at the 29th edition of Paris to Ancaster. For those unfamiliar with the event, it is a classic point-to-point race in southern Ontario. It tackles road, gravel, farm paths, rail trail and a lot of MUD. Typically, cyclocross/gravel bikes are the ideal equipment with wide slicks. I rode my cyclocross bike with a 42-tooth chain ring and an 11-32 cassette and 40c Maxxis receptor tires. The only change I would make is running a 2-by front chain ring set up to help on the high-speed road sections of the course. The event is one of the biggest in Canada and attracts athletes from all provinces, Europe, and the USA!
Weather was grim, with rain in the 48 hours leading up to the start and nothing changed for the event. The 8 am start made for a cold and early morning with rain persisting for the duration of the race. The mass start event led to a HUGE group for the first hour. Likely 100 plus riders in the peloton jostling for position, getting sprayed in the face. Survival was the name of the game as there were multiple crashes in the group. As we entered the first off-road section about 30km in, the pace picked up as everyone wanted to be at the front. Positioning was important as the sections often had only 1 fast line and moving forward was difficult. I held my own through multiple sections but unfortunately was caught behind a slow wheel on a muddy single track with roughly 30km to go. I came out of the sections just 15 seconds behind the front group of 10 but was all alone. I fought hard for the next 15 minutes but bled time to the top riders. Eventually, I sat up to recover and allow the 2 riders behind me to get on my wheel so we could work together. From here we rode well together as a group, trading turns and holding off the chasers behind us. With 8km to go one rider bonked. In the final technical sections, I was able to distance the athlete behind me and go solo to the finish line for a tenth-place finish. It was my best finish at Paris to Ancaster and had me in 9th in the first Canadian Gravel Nationals. I now have 3 weeks of uninterrupted training before I dive back into some UCI action, chasing points in preparation for my European block!
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