Canada Cup/Ontario Cup #2: Horseshoe ~ Well, That's Bike Racing!


Today I raced the Canada Cup at Horseshoe, which has always been my favourite place to race since I love hills. I had been training hard in the weeks leading up to this race and have definitely gained both speed and skills. I was ready to go head-to-head with Nicole once again.

Saturday morning my dad, younger sister and I headed up to pre-ride the course. While my dad went for a lap with my sister, I headed out by myself to do my typical three laps: one lap slow to learn the trails, one lap faster at race pace, and my last lap with my dad in case he had any wisdom to pass on to me.



On my second lap I took a rock garden too fast and with too much confidence. I went over my bars and hit the ground hard. My bike cartwheeled over me—apparently it looked pretty epic... it didn’t feel epic, though. I landed mostly on my left shoulder with my face to the ground and my stomach on a big flat rock. I got up slowly and sat on the ground for a while—to catch my breath and evaluate what kind of condition my body was in. The first thing I did was put my arms over my head to check for a broken collar bone. My collarbone wasn’t broken but my left arm was somewhat limp—it took a lot of effort to move it. By that time there were people around me, picking my bike up and helping me stand and get off the course. I told them I was fine and I rolled my bike down to the car where I cleaned myself off, sat down so that I would stop feeling dizzy, and tried to eat something since I felt sick.

I iced my arm for about two hours after that and then decided that I was good to head out for another lap with my dad. My arm wasn’t supporting me very well and the ride was rough. Every little bump in the trail hurt a lot. I almost didn’t finish the lap, but I gritted my teeth and pushed through it.
That evening I headed to the ER just to confirm that nothing was seriously injured especially since I couldn’t fully straighten or bend my arm. 




They took x-rays and confirmed that nothing was obviously broken. The doctor said I could use my arm if I felt that I was able to... so of course, I still raced ;)

Fast forward to today: I kept moving my arm to try and regain my full range of motion, and I took some Advil to reduce the swelling. Then, I raced.
Man, those girls start off fast! My legs felt strong but my arm couldn’t take all the bumps as fast as I would’ve liked, so I dropped towards the back of the pack. It was interesting to see the race from a different perspective, since I’m often at the front. I took the opportunity to cheer on the other girls and I fell into a rhythm of taking the single track easy and pounding it up the hills. I came 7th out of 8 and was just under 3 minutes back from the leader which I'm happy with, considering how much pain I was in. Check out the full results here.
Overall, I had a lot of fun. I didn’t finish with the race result that I went into the weekend hoping for, but I learned a lot from my crash. I learned that, although my legs are getting a lot faster, my skills aren’t quite at the level that I sometimes think they are, so I have to be careful not to get overconfident. I also learned to push my limits and have fun no matter what!

Crashing is never ideal, but it’s part of the reality of the sport. We all have good days (where we feel superhuman) and bad days (where everything hurts and we don’t think we can keep going). As my dad would say: “That’s bike racing!”



What my arm looks like now:




















The Super Fast Sister:
Although I may not have had the best race, my 10 year old sister, Lydia, raced the citizen category and came second! 



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