Provincials & EOCX #7
Weekend CX report.
Ontario Championships were set in Renfrew, ON this year 
…na the course was actually pretty dope. I drove up Thursday afternoon to Kempville to stay with my best man and his family in their tiny house. Had a great visit and all but honestly not ideal accommodation for a race weekend lol.
No real spare room, ended up on his camping cot in the office.
They are also loud early morning people, I’m a morning person, but a solo one, you know leave me alone…f off. Like a race morning should be lol.
We also togeather are idiots and will stay up late talking and eating junk…
Still, good company, no cost, had a great visit. Got to play 45min bball Sunday morning with his youngest as a nice warm up to the eocx race.
Renfrew is 80min from Kemptville so bit of a drive. I felt shit all the way up, not hungry, nervous. Didn’t get good food down that morning. Needed to eat on the drive but really didn’t.
Hit the venue, parked off the back side away from the busy lot and all the people. Was a great spot much closer to reg, podium, and a good section of the course. But literally no cars around!
Its a nice park, course looked good from first glance. My cousin was racing at 9am, first cx race ever and he did perfect! Rode way off the back and didn’t stress it. Cool to have him there for me as he stayed for my race at 11a. Took a video at finish.
Lined up for reg right behind Tim McClure. He’s a great guy, my enemy, but turning into racing friend. Got a quick half lap in before the women start. Sections are slick! One area is ice, it’s a shaded ditch. Can’t ride the angle have to go straight on due to the icy slope. Next practice just before our start, and course has changed, not icy anymore, slippy thin mud. Did a lap and my tires were clogged. Crappy.
Went onto the road to clean everything off so I didn’t start with tires full of mud ha. Let a bit more air out and hoped my tire choice didn’t fail me. I kept my warm bibs on, it was overkill but they are so warm and comfortable.
We started last at 11:02, rushed start, no call ups as usually.
Good start…again, but Tim and the Peterborough guy have the lead. Peterborough likes to start fast so let him.
I followed first lap in 3rd. Another Ottawa guy was in the mix too, but you could hear him breathing crazy heavy so knew he was working way too hard to be there. (Tim later told me, he was hoping the breathing was me 
).
Lap 2 I attacked on the climb.
The climb is identical to riding around in Columbia forset…I’ve been know to ride there this fall.
That attacked dropped everyone but Tim, but he wasn’t liking it.
He did come around later on, but kinda sat up. Going into lap 3 he was really stalling, dudes were catching back up and Master B guy we passed were back on. So…yeah I went again. Got a gap maybe towards end of lap 3 and it grew quick. Didn’t know why he’s slowed up, turned out front tire too low, loosing air. He had a pit bike 
. I kept hitting the forest climb hard and power sections up top. The track dried out a lot each lap, perfect, my tires became better and better.
Did the last 2 laps with a fast Master B I couldn’t really pass and drop. Took the MA win, by over a minute lead. 3 years 2nd in this race, dam right I let out good war cry.
Shout out to Jon Barnes, 1st place MB with a 1 sec win after fighting back from a high-speed crash lap 1!
So good to get this race off my chest, I stayed around for the day and watch Calvin Loney race elite, only senior dude to come represent from our cx series. He got 4th overall, huge. Another nutritional error on my part as I’m realizing I’ve had a crap breakfast, raced and then eaten hardly anything, it’s like 4pm, wtf.
Dinner that night though…green beans, potatoes, hot honey chicken, needed that. Sundays plan to race the EOCX race in Dunrobin, about 40min away. Tim will be there too.
EOCX#7
These are like our O cups but for the east riders. They are run more privately, guy that does the timing is the guy that works with the 24 hour mtb race. The registration is a bit different, I signed up for MB as per age group (MA is 30-39) there.
But that put me in the 9am race with guys I would beat easy.
I wanted to be in the 1:30 senior/MA race. Easy switch on their end and I met the organizer at Provincials, he did it on the spot.
Now… the 9am race might have been a good strategy to prep for Nationals 9am start. And the U19 were racing at 9am too, so I would have got smoked just the same.
It was a course just like the Guelph club race we did a few weeks back, more of a climb but same vibe and same overall atmosphere. There’s was literally a huge field we had to power around, on the far side you could look back and see the guys 30sec behind you.
Big field too, fast road guys. I got 2nd row, behind Mathew. I know I’m good lol. Look back and Tim McClure is like 3.5 rows back, kinda dumb.
Good start…again. long fast power sections off the start with a 180 50m in. Tim crashed in that first corner I guess, so never saw him except way behind.
I was in and about 6th to 9th first lap. Settled around 8th. Felt better as race went on, gapped a guy that was definitely a strong road rider named Carson Miles. Caught a young kid on last 1.5 laps, he was cracked.
Finished 7th, would be a M1 win. They have Derrick St John who’s 47 but races elite, he was 3rd on the day.
I was happy with this race, felt faster then Saturday, Hamm was 6th only 30sec ahead of me, he finished 2nd at Provincials elite men. Before the race I warmed up with Tim, lol he told me some funny stuff about his teammate, who has to warm up alone because he gets too nervous lol.
No pictures or podiums from this race, Id take a $35 entry fee over prizes. No rain, started to spit once on the road. Got back to Kitchener just before that storm hit at 10pm.
Driving back Thursday this week, stop over in Kemptville again 
lol, then on to Levis, QB Friday for practice, leading up to Saturdays 9am race. Check out the Forcast, oh please do lol. I have a set of Limus on the way. Spare will set up with Terreno Wet. Spare? Anyone got a spare cx bike you wouldn’t mind going to Nationals size 58 or bigger
Thanks for reading hope you enjoy hearing about the front of the races. Next weekends should good!!
Dan Souter
