Day 2

First off, 14th place yesterday. We followed that up with a 15th place in Stage 2 from Nanaimo to Parkesville today and we are sitting in 15th in the 2-person open category. The day started with a 20ish minute neutral rollout through the streets of Nanaimo led by a moto escort. It was a bit sketchy as 400 mtb racers bobbed and weaved through city streets and occasionally got hung up at stoplights. We successfully made it out of town to the base of a solid road climb and it was on. The lead pro teams twisted the throttle from the gun and rider after rider was spit out the back. We dangled for awhile trying not to kill ourselves and made into the trails in a reasonable position.

Once on the trails, it was still a pretty hot pace with a big group of riders riding single file. RD and I got separated as he made a few cheeky passes in the 1track that I wasn't able to replicate. There were also a few choose your own adventure sections that involved multiple routes to get to the same place. RD and I took some different lines and at one point I wasn't sure if he was in front or behind me. I pulled over for a bit and let 15 or so riders go by but got restarted after I determined he had to be in front of me. I railed the 1track at a bit of sketchy pace to try to catch back up and was able to reconnect after a few minutes of making some less than desirable passes.

We regrouped and got to work on the next 50km of nearly all 1track. The rest of the race was spent with RD taking the lead and me riding near or at my limit trying to keep him in my sight. The trails required lots of power with steep ups followed by equally steep downs. The last 20 km or so I was starting to feel a bit worked over from muscling the bike around for 3:30 hours. I ate some food and held on to the finish on some local trails in Parkesville. We finished in just over 4 hours pretty spent from the days effort.

Once in base camp, the afternoon and evening has consisted of Eat/drink, clean bikes, shower, eat/drink some more, get massage, eat dinner, fix brakes on bike (turns out the spray bottles at the bike wash are lube not soap, DOH!) and put together a blog post.

Here some pics from the day...


Yeah, we sported the Arrowsmith kits in Nanaimo. We got a lot of: "Hey Robin, you're doing awesome! We don't know you, but you're doing awesome too."

Game face on in the start corral. NOT!

Rolling into the finish to the train whistle. All aboard the Arrowsmith/Mafia train.

RD the Pimp of Singletrack. We found this "fur" coat in our RV spot.

Tomorrow is a solid day of 1track and bit of fireroad. We are going strong, so hopefully we continue as the war of attrition begins in earnest.

Thanks for reading.

Blue Star