Ponytails and Racing Trails

This past weekend I raced the Epic 8 Hour race at Mansfield Outdoor Centre on a two person tag team with my long time friend, Grant Stewart (Rock and Road). We've both trained together over the years and, if I do say so myself, have both gotten quite fast... Although he's always managed to be slightly faster than me, which is infuriating. Anyways, this weekend was the first time in a long time that we've actually ridden together instead of against each other. The idea of an 8 Hour is that you ride for all 8 hours and take turns doing laps on a 10 km mountain bike course. The goal is to have your team do as many laps as they can in 8 hours, and the team that does the most laps in the least time, wins! Sounds fun? Well think again… At least that’s what I was thinking on lap five. Grant started off the race for us pulling a quick 26 minute lap and then I took the timing chip from him and headed out on my first lap. My legs took a little while to warm up but partway through...

All winter I have been riding long hard miles with my dad and, when I complained, he would constantly remind me that the hard work would pay off in the spring. And, as much as I hate to admit it, he was right. Our winter training--consisting of long, hard road miles on the fat bikes in frustratingly cold weather--has definitely helped me enter the race season strong. This past weekend I raced the first mtb Ontario Cup race of the season at Woodnewton in Uxbridge. Driving to the race Sunday morning I was definitely nervous but also super excited. The day before I had ridden the course and it was smooth and had a lot of awesome flow to it. My Giant bike was also in perfect racing condition. Me on the other hand... my legs and skills were soon put to the test! This year is also my first year racing on the Giant Toronto Pb Liv race team--an all women's team focused on getting more women into cycling and really supporting female athletes--and so I went into this race with a team of fa...