The second stop to our journey was Sun Peaks for the BC/Canada Cup race, which was also the Canadian National Champs race. I had high hopes for this one after crashing last year on my first ever DH race and ending up 17th. I knew the course was fast and rough and that’s how I liked it. Or so I thought…

We drove to Sun Peaks the day after Panorama and thanks to a very generous friend, stayed in a massive condo with more than enough room for the other riders who we were traveling with us to come stay. Caleb and I went out to ride for a day before the course closed to get a peak at what had changed and to start practicing. We thought the course was pretty much the same as it was last year, until the first day of official practice showed that the course actually started below the first two really steep fast sections, which was a bit of a disappointment. The top of the course was steep, but relatively flowy with lots of berms. It got less steep and more wide open towards the middle and bottom of the course, with only one slightly technical section with two tricky berms.

I felt quite confident after the first day of practice that I could do well if I put a good run together. Again, the second day of practice brought on a lot more riders which resulted in race course really taking a beating. It hadn’t rained for quite a while and everything was starting to get really dusty. It was impossible to follow your team mate down even 50-100 feet back because the dust lingered in the air due to no wind. After riding all year in wet and rainy conditions, I wasn’t comfortable riding in the unpredictable silt and marbley rocks that coated every inch of the course. My confidence was slowly going away.

My seeding time was average. I did all my lines cautiously  and didn’t pedal extremely hard. I thought I could pull at least 5-10 seconds back in my race run if I hit everything full speed and pedaled my legs off. My hands were still feeling good and I was ready to lay it down on Sunday.

By the time of race morning, the course was absolutely destroyed. Moving into Jr. Expert, my race time was a lot later and after a lot more riders than in my previous category, which meant that the course would get beat up even more.

I had no idea how much until my actual run. It started off well out of the gate and I could really feel like I was putting down a lot of intensity. That feeling quickly vanished after the first corner when I saw the big dust filled holes created by all of the other riders braking. It felt like I couldn’t get back into race mode after that. My wheels were all over the place and I was going way slower than I wanted to. I began to tense up and rode the technical section even more cautious than in my seeding run. In the end, I pulled off the exact same time in my race run that I got in my seeding run. A huge disappointment.

Due to the schedule of the BC Cup series this year, we decided that it would be cheaper and easier to stay on the road for the month of July and not come back to Vancouver between every race. There was a BC or Canada Cup race four weekends in a row. A few friends of ours, Caleb, Mom, and I traveled to Panorama, Sunpeaks, Silver Star, and Kicking Horse to see how much damage we could inflict.

Panorama would be the first race where I could meet up with my team for the first time. Although all of us weren’t racing, it was still our first race as a team. I walked the track on Thursday night and I had no idea what to expect. It started out with some small (way too small) jumps and berms out in the open, and then got more and more technical as it went in and out of the trees. It looked pretty average for a race course, but one thing that bugged me was this awkward uphill section near the end. It was a brand new section where they cut out trees with grass still growing where we were suppose to be riding until it came to a drop right after a 45% rock filled corner. Then it was over a jump, through some uncut trail and sprinting the fire road to the end.

Practice was ok the first day and I felt slow because I had never ridden the course and was still finding lines. Since it wasn’t a very big race, the track was staying relatively packed and not too dusty and blown out because there were only 100 or so riders. Day two was a different story. More and more people were showing up and it got hot. The open sections and berms started to get powdery and blown out. Luckily for us, It rained on Saturday night. Unfortunately, it got slippery in the trees and I had a little crash that twisted my ankle. I didn’t notice the pain until later, so that wasn’t a big deal other than blowing my confidence.

My race run came around and everything was going alright. As usual, I got nervous and went a bit slower than I had practiced which actually wasn’t such a bad thing because the course had deteriorated quite a bit. I was having an average run up until the fire road. Upon exiting from the newly cut out trail, my front wheel slipped out and before I could do anything, I was on the dirt. After getting tangled in my bike and trying to get up as quickly as I could, I wanted to make the best effort that I could to make it to the finish line. Being in my lowest gear on flat ground didn’t help that much and I entered the finish arena quite defeated, braking before the line.

Did I learn anything? I’m not so sure about this race. I had the fitness and the strength to do well on it, but somehow couldn’t make my lines work too well. I still have no idea how I slipped out in a place where I had been fine all up until my race run. Overall, it wasn’t a very good weekend, but it was still good to meet my team and ride with friends that I haven’t seen for months.