After looking at the weather for Kicking Horse and seeing rain I was sort of excited. I had never raced in the mud before and I thought I would be good at it since that all I ride in all winter.
The first day of practice was pretty good. It was like I thought it would be, wet but not muddy. The new sections were interesting and I thought they would be quite hard, especially come race time. I was feeling pretty good and excited for Sunday.
Saturday practice was where it all went wrong. It was pouring rain, windy, and 3 degrees at the top of the mountain. As soon as I got off the gondola on my first run, I got soaked. It wouldn’t have been as bad, but there was a 10+ minute ride down a fire road to get to the top of the course. I was freezing cold and wet by the time I got to the start. Like most riders, I only got 2 practice runs in on Saturday. The mud was so thick and sticky that you couldn’t tell what bike or what rider was coming down if you looked up the course from the bottom.
Sunday practice actually went pretty well it was warmer and the course was starting to get a little better. I was starting to feel more confident.
Unfortunately, an hour before my race run the rain started coming down and the course ended up being the same way it was on Saturday’s practice. I ended up 2nd once again.
