Paris to Ancaster

Email from Randy

I thought I'd fill you on my race in Canada... obiously you can always check my blog too.

It was a good race for me, but at this point of the year my strength on the flats isn't there and I was getting killed out there on the roads. The race was like 40% roads, 30% dirt road, 10% rail trails, 10% farm fields, 5% forest two-track and 5% steep hills (relief for me.) I was one of few people out on a 26in mountain bike and probably the only one on a full sus. Almost everyone was on cyclocross bikes.

I was at the front in the beginning rail trails, but when it got out onto open road I was dropped by the lead pack. I was in and out of various chase groups only making time when the trail got rough and actually resembled anything even close to mountain bike conditions. There were these killer mud schutes that I totally nailed each time and put a lot of time on people. After getting dropped all day I was able to catch a lot of people again on the last hill which was really long and steep. I finished 34th unofficially.

I went out there with Jason Lummis which was cool. He told me a lot about the ways of the great mi mountain bikers like Quiring and Simonson. As an infamous triple crown crusher, he also gave me some suggestions for being faster on the flats.

All in all, great weekend. Great job to everyone at Yankee. Brent, 9th place is good. I was 9th place there last year, as you know.

-Randy