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If you like mtb and are ever up in The Soo, definitely visit the Hiawatha Highlands, but might be a good idea to run inserts in your tires or atleast tires with some meat on them! The rocks are sharp and they are plenty. Hiawatha was the venue for the marathon race Saturday and O-Cup race Sunday. The XCM for master categories was 2 laps totalling 60km. Elite was 90km…felt bad for some of those guys..what a day. The course was about 80% single track, tough punchy trail too. However there were losts of flowy downhill and jumps to have fun with. Usually when you see marathon races on TV theres lots of double track/road mixed in to eat up kms.
I drove up Thursday morning, perfect weather forecasted for the weekend and a place to say at my in-laws just 12mins from the venue. Just did 1 full practice lap on this day as its a 2 hour ride, and within 30min I started thinking of all the stuff I forgot or should have brought. Including: better set up wheels with inserts, new valve stems, a velve tool!, sealant, spare Co2. I mean at least I had spare wheels, tire and brake pads! In the end it was that clogged valve stem that really hurt me.
Lots of the day left I tried fishing the pond onsite, nice spot but no luck. Off to the in-laws for pasta.
Friday, didnt feel a full lap was needed so just practiced the O-cup course and took a ride up to Trout Lake scoping fishing spot. Its all private/no parking everywhere. Found a beautiful little stream and caugh a few baby rainbows. Then drove to Whitefish Island under the bridge to the US and rode the bike around there with the fishing rod in hand.
The race, 11am start. Pete Glassford and Kyle Fry are here 35-44 age group. Relief knowing they aren’t in my category. For my group local boys Jan and Dusty seem to be my competition, mostly because they are local. Jan has won most of the master o-cups this year but my lap times in elite are typically 1-2 min faster. Game plan follow Pete and Kyle.
Kyle Fry is an unknown to me but hes the master National champ in mtb 2025, gravel and xcm so…yeah a long distance specialist. Plus, he looks about 25 yrs old so must be 36.
2km into the race, Kyle leading then Pete and myself. Theres a guy just hanging on then no one in sight lol. We drop that guy in the next 3-4 kms so it just us 3. Pace is ok and the track is racing better at practice. Maybe 15km in Pete takes the lead feeling that Kyle’s technical skills are lacking. He gets a quick 3 sec gap. Kyle seemed to just let me by and I hit the gas to bridge to Pete. He was absolutely ripping this flowy section that lead down to the real only double track (rocky double track with the odd puddle). When I say ripping I got the KOM for this section 15sec faster the the elite winner.
Still flying on the double track Pete made a mistake and crashed hard on one of the wet areas. I stayed straight taking the wet line and avoided him. Checking behind me he looked to be up and back on. But, into the next trail system he was no where to be seen. I carried on with a good pace. Soon catching and passing Haley Smith and then the odd elite rides who were contemplating their decisions to do this lol. There were 2 trails that had A and B lines, the A lines weren’t all that hard but higher risk for wrecking a tire. I got through ok but didnt sound great and the last rocky section before the trail smooth out my rear got soft, I was soon riding on about 10psi. Stopped to put air in and oh guess what my co2 was no good, plus the valve was clogged. Thus began the 8km slow ride to the tech zone. I must of had a huge lead because Pete finally caught me with 1.5km left in the lap followed closely by Kyle. (Pete had lost his battery in the crash, went back to find it). I got my new wheel put on and off for lap 2. What the heck is that sound…oh great the cassette is very loose on this wheel, while it is what it is. Low gears made no noise so help me spin a bit more. Uneventful 2nd lap. Caught Kyle quickly and he let me by sounded like he was bonking. Not much to say about this guy, he quit! Dont believe bike trouble or injury. I heard he came for a jersey or nothing, all the way from BC and was here all week training.
Didn’t see Pete again he put up a fast last lap. My 2nd lap was faster then lap 1 obviously. Lap 1 was a 1hr38min but I think I would of been 1hr33 good to 3rd best lap of the race.
And thats it, won the race 17min ahead of 2nd in my age group. Awards were at a pub that evening which was ok, but missed the group photo. Bummer that no one could have noticed wait Dan isnt here let me go get him 30’ away on the padio.
O-cup was another nice day, but another 5km slow ride with a flat. Very same spot on lap 3 of 4. I used the same wheel I had trouble with before so my fault completely. There were only 2 of us in the elite race so all in all didn’t matter. Our race was moved up to noon due to the low turnout which was great so everyone could head home hours sooner.
Thanks to all the helped me in the pits, its stressful going to these races with no support but I’ve been doing it long enough to not get worked up over it. There’s always people to help with KWCA and friends.
Lesson learned as aways but everything turned out good in the end. As I think back im very lucky my wheel did hold air just enough to be able to ride so I didnt have to run it in.
There were lots of others not so lucky.
Provincials is next, last mtb of the season then full cx mode.
Series points leader should be locked up for elite mtb!!
