Eager Beaver 
from the front (close enough anyway)
Leave it to the beaver to make for the toughest race of the year. Here’s a review of what I saw…straight to the action!
Who’s here, Owen Clark, Yehor, Josh Tyers, Lucas Goertz, Nick Diniz, to name a few. At the line I see Anton, Connor Wilson and few Real Deal guys. Can already predict that Owen and Yehor will get a gap on the 2nd big climb, but will a good chase group be able to bring it back??
Compared to last year the start was much faster, however the 2 first climbs that split the race where ridden slower. Maybe tailwind had something to do with it? Same wind direction as last year but think it was stronger.
After 1st climb and 1st rolling road (very fast) lead group was 7. Started the 2nd long, painful climb and Owen, Yehor and Josh got away right away. I rode the climb with Nick and Lucas pushing too big of a gear I believe. We lost 2 including last years winner Connor who hasn’t been racing bikes much this year. He tried solo to catch our group for 20min or so but no luck thanks to Nick’s pace. Young Josh (u17 national champ this year in almost everything) came back to us not being able to hold the wheels of Owen/Yehor.
So we were a group of 4 until Lucas has seatpost trouble causing a stop. Down to 3 but still flying, I can sence im the weaker link tho, not feeling too great, but holding on ok.
At about 55km in Nick has a front tire issue and forced to stop. Did I mention this guy rode to the race from Toronto and still rode home too, 300km day. However his race was basically over and finished 17th.
So now just Josh and I. I took a stupid but hard fall when I missed a right turn and we crossed wheels. No damage to bike and up quickly and back in action. Got a laugh when Josh asked if the crash was his fault lol, no just cross eyed.
Getting low on fuel and starting to cramp up on the left leg our pace was definitely slowing, but everyone was at this point. Except Owen Clark lol.
The last real long off road climb was coming up and I basically knew Josh was going to go away there, like ride away from me and he did. Its survival from there, 20km left, a lot of heart and talking to the bike to get you to the finish. No one in sight behind so at least there’s no threat of having to race another rider to the finish. Finished 4th overall, 1st in my age group by a large margin. Owen ended up winning almost 10 min ahead for Yehor. Josh 3rd 2min better then me.
Shout out to Lucas for fighting to 5th out sprinting another rider in a battle over the last 5km. Shout out to Vance Lai for completing his first real gravel race ha. ! 30th overall 7th age group. Rolie Springall 2nd 60+ 
! And all the other WCC riders that completed this hard race. WCC took home the SS crown too. Vance must had said about 8 times after the race, " dude, that was really hard" and I can hear him saying, " OMG" about 50x in the race.
MTB is back on the menu now for a few weeks. Im traveling up to the Sue for Marathon Nats next weekend so stay tuned.
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Awesome report Dan, and congratulations on your finish! Congrats also to @Rolie_Springall and @chris_karley Good stuff.
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That was a great performance Dan! The wind, heat, and climbs made for a really demanding race. Lucas said you going really hard and kept a high pace. Apparently that made for a really fun race 
Although he ended up cracking at the end which seems like par for course.
Great job landing a top-5 overall with a that competition. And have fun at the Sue!
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I wont say he cracked! 5th and out riding a guy through the Mansfield finish. Segment time through there was just shy of Owen’s time. Solid ride after having to stop and fix his seat post.
