Ponytails and Racing Trails

Last weekend I raced the 24 Hour Summer Solstice. The 24 is a race where teammates take turns doing laps for 24 hours straight. This is a really tough race since you ride all day and all night. The team I put together this year is a team I've been planning since last year's 24 when I decided that I wanted to start my own team with only teen girls. So I started to ask 15 and 16 year old girls I knew if they would want to join my team and I pulled together a team of five of some of the fastest young female mountain bikers in Ontario. The white board before the race Then, one month before the race Kaitlyn Shikaze broke her collar bone and had to drop off the team. I rushed to find someone to take her place and Amanda Kleinikkink, who was just coming back from a broken collar bone, agreed to join us. Then, one week before the race, Amanda rushed to the hospital to have her appendix removed. We worked tirelessly to find another rider with no luck until finally, Meagan Shik...

This past weekend I raced the Canada Cup/Ontario Cup at Hardwood. After taking a lot of time off my bike last week because of my elbow, I wasn't sure how this weekend would go. I went into the race with hopes that I might be able to podium. Pre-riding was a lot of fun. I took the first lap slow to see how my elbow felt as it was still sore. Then I went out for a faster lap with my dad to ask for tips about what the best line was to ride on certain trails. The course was awesome! It was extremely difficult with a lot of steep downhills and drops. I figured out how to ride Boneshaker which is an extremely steep, rocky downhill that many racers struggle with and that many racers crash on. I also rode the Deena's Joyride drop for the first time this year which I was super proud of. Deena's Joyride is a rock drop that you have to get air off of so as not to crash. This drop is followed by a sharp corner with a wooden wall ride which is super fun! (Pictures below) Boneshake...

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 evalu...

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...