Levi Harapnuik | Archive

Canadian National Champs Sun Peaks

July 26, 2016

From Panorama, riders headed back to Sun Peaks for the Canadian National Champs race. The talk was on the new track that would be more technical than previous years at Sun Peaks. It didn’t disappoint.

This year, the race course started to the left of the chairlift right from the top. Half of it was already established trail and the other half was brand new so it was always changing. As practice went by, the lines started to get established and the conditions were getting dryer and more slippery.

From the course preview which was over 7 minutes, the course looked to be quite long but the riders weren’t sure if that was because the person doing the course preview was just slow or if the course was actually that long. It turns out, it was the longest track on the circuit with the average time being over six minutes.

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It wasn’t just six minutes of an average DH track, it was an exceptionally rough track. Not overly technical, but really hard on the hands and feet. Most people didn’t even do full runs until their race run or seeding run to save strength for the race.

Sunday came around and the course went from nice and tacky to slightly dusty and slippery with most of the corners being blown out. Coming from Panorama this was an easy transition as riders wouldn’t know exactly what to expect on their race run.

C4 Results

Adam Woodhouse: 1st (Sr. Men)

Stephanie Denroche 1st (Jr. Ex Women)

Daniel Frosse 2nd (Jr. Sport)

Blake Bunting 5th (Jr. Ex)

Adrian Lee 7th (Jr. Sport)

Jacob Stefiuk 9th (Jr. Ex)

Caleb Harapnuik 12th (Jr. Ex)

Alex Auger 21st (Jr. Ex)

Levi Harapnuik 31st (Pro Men)

In Biking, Getting Faster

BC/Canada Cup Round 3 Panorama

July 20, 2016

With a one weekend break, it was off to Panorama for Round 3 of the BC and Canada Cup, so turnouts were expected to be big. The course had some new sections on it and did not disappoint! Everybody was stoked on the changes, except for that there were still the two uphill sections.

Day 1: Practice/Seeding

Practice started out wet with showers going off and on during the day. The infamous “Dollar Sign” stayed mostly dry throughout the day and so did a lot of the root sections in the thicker trees.

Thanks to a small TV and a GoPro, C4 can all discuss lines and go through the track without getting wet!

Come seeding time it was getting a bit wetter, but the course was still holding up nicely. In the later afternoon and during the night, the rain started to come down harder and even the dirt under the thick trees was getting soaked

Day 2: Race Day

Sunday was dry, but the rain from the previous day was still reeking havoc and there were some big holes starting to form in the rock garden half way down the course. No time to change lines, riders just had to plow through them!

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C4 Results:

Adam Woodhouse 1st (Sr. Men)

Daniel Froese 4th (Jr. Sport Men)

Jacob Stefiuk 5th (Jr. Expert)

Joseph Witwicki 6th (U17 Men)

Caleb Harapnuik 9th (Jr. Expert)

Adrian Lee 12th (Jr. Sport Men)

Blake Bunting 18th (Jr. Expert)

Levi Harapnuik 30th (Pro Men)

In Biking, Getting Faster

Riders were only home for three days before making the drive out to Kicking Horse for Round 2 of the BC Cup. Kicking Horse has always been a good course, it’s one of the gnarliest ones on the circuit. Last year, it poured rain on Saturday and Sunday and with temperatures close to 0 degrees at the top, riders weren’t all that keen on getting a lot of practice in. This year was a lot better though.

Nothing but blue skies and smiles today!

Day 1 Practice/Seeding

Due to the mountain being so big, The course starts about 2/3rds down the mountain and you can either ride the fireroad, or a collection of trails to get to it. This could be good or bad, depending on how you thought of it. The ride to the top of the race course could be used to warm up so the first lap of the day could be at a good speed, but mechanicals could happen before riders even got to the course.

The course started out with some rock faces that were out in the open in between tree sections getting longer and steeper as it went. About half way down was where it got a bit less steep, but a lot rougher! Near the bottom were some sprint/pump sections which seem to change every year to try to make it less of a pedal across the mountainside. With it being the longest course on the circuit, riders had to balance the amount of practice they needed with the amount of grip strength required to make it through seeding and race run.

Ducking into the trees into a section where multiple lines were to be seen. But only one or two were race worthy.

Most of the mechanicals this weekend were flat tires. It didn’t matter if you had tubes or were tubeless, punctures still happened. Thankfully it was a relatively cheap race on bike parts for most!

Scrubbing a short stepdown in the final woods section.

Keeping low on a short stepdown in the final woods section.

After seeding wrapped up, the riders studied a GoPro run instead of doing a track walk to get clear on lines. Though it is an individual sport, we still are a team, and there were no “secret” lines held back.