Starting with a weekend in Montreal, I decided to do Laval and Blainville of the Quebec series, close enough to drive down and back each day, gas was proving cheaper than hotel.. I guess.. tougher recovery though. Laval was near identical to last year. Weather was a couple of degrees warmer, but really windy and the odd cloud spitting. The course was very similar, a couple of small changes, no snow pile(thank you), fast and good! Good race, still not on form but feeling better, a decent fourth place. Blainville was a "new to me" race, good course, rain over night, lots of sand (hard packed however) damp ground, technical power course. Probably best suited to day 1 of a weekend or a single race (that is based on my form however.) Feeling previous day a bit, but alright. Course was good fast, and worth riding aggressive. A final lap flub, and broken spoke knocked me down a spot to finish 5th.
The next week, we'd pack up the fam and head off to Barrie, for the Baseball Cross. It would be a good chance to visit some friends that we'd not seen in a while. The course was worth the trip also! I'd take a shot in the senior field. Original goal was top ten, based on feelings that morning, I'd be happy with not getting lapped! The course as said, was awesome, flat, really fast, hang loose and rail corners, unfortunate for me, no legs.. poor result, 'nuff said!
Next up was an "unconventional double". Saturday I packed up and headed to Cowansville Quebec for the final round of the series there. Sunday was Quebec provincials, but I would opt out to race Cornwall. The drive to Cowansville felt nice, I had good feelings during the drive and was feeling like something nice might happen, first podium of the year maybe? Got in and registered, not a super warmup, it was cold and cloudy (6deg) kind of how I like it. The course was great, fast technical, lots of focus and accelerations. I took the holeshot, and went hard early. The first two laps I had one rider with me, we had ~10sec gap, by the end of lap two, I was alone, with the chase group behind. They would max out at 5 riders, and never more than 15 seconds away. By midway things were really clicking, and with 3 laps to go I was feeling like a win was very doable. Two to go, one of the chasing riders would bridge up, and I started to doubt. Then as with most of the race I was putting time in on the incline sections so pushed hard on the quick ups at the end of lap two, and then really pushed the incline on the final lap, putting the distance back to about 10 seconds. For the final lap all I could think of was push, don't mess up, and don't go home without winning! A solid race, and very nice to leave Quebec with a win! After a slow start and some poor results, it was certainly redemption!
Another long drive home, quick clean up, and up early the next morning to pack up the family for a Eastern Ontario series race in Cornwall. Doubles are tough, even harder in non-same town, and ridiculous hard with a 2pm start followed by and 11am start. I prefer a ~24 hour time gap.. The previous day's effort was felt for sure. Weather was nice though, 8deg and sunny. A good hard course, fast and turny, I felt good but not up to the previous day. A solid race non-the-less. 5th master. Happy.
Next week is nationals, I'm skipping for family stuff, so likely some training days, and then back at it for the rest of Nov! Next time I'll try to be more thorough, and less catch up.
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