Last weekend, I took part in the Dairy Capital Stampede in Woodstock. It is a 6-hour XC race that can be raced as a team or individually. I decided to race it with my brother as a team of two, as it is his only chance to race this year, and it also served as a chance to test out some setup changes before racing the Fall Epic 8 Hour in a few weeks.
I started out the relay and positioned us well in the race at the end of lap two. The first two laps were fairly uneventful, and there wasn’t too much passing happening on the trails once people settled into their pace.
After my brother’s first two laps, we roughly maintained our position, with the people behind us catching up. However, it made for a good second stint for me, as there was some back and forth, but ultimately I made a small attack on a climb and dropped them for the final time. I was able to build us a bit of a gap to the other team by the end of this stint, and my brother was able to stay in front of them for his second stint as well.
My third stint was nothing special, mostly just focusing on staying smooth and nursing some cramping issues. Overall, I was happy with my pacing, with minimal lap-time changes throughout the race, even with some fatigue and having to get by lapped individuals on later laps.
We officially came 2nd on the day for the two-person team, but there were some questions about the results for the team that placed 1st, as we had completed nine laps about 20 minutes faster than they had, but they were credited with a three-second lap after that, which seems a bit suspect. But it is what it is, and at the very least, coming away with another podium for the year isn’t anything to get too worked up over.
