Canada Cup #2, Mt. Tremblant

Epic racing around the world. Epic was this whole weekend for me. Things started off pretty bad, but in the end it will be a weekend I can look back in a positive and and a smile on my face.

After not racing 2 weekends in a row and just doing some smaller races while training hard before, I was itching to race again. I felt really good in training and knew I was going real good at the moment. I picked Canada Cup #2 and UCI C1 race in Mont Tremblant, 90min north of Montreal. It was basically a race on the way to europe where I will race the next 2 weeks. 

Things didn’t really started out too well. I missed my Montreal connection in Denver and needed to find a way to Montreal on that day. After checking in at the United customer service my only option was to take a flight which will get me into Montreal after midnight. Once there, there was me, but no bike and no bag. After all the paper work I stayed the night in Montreal and went to bed a 2am. Not so nice after getting up at 5am!

Next day I drove up to Mont Tremblant. Pretty shitty feeling to go to a race with nothing. I registered and felt like I need to do something. I could borrow a demo bike from the Norco guys. Big thanks to them! So I preriding german tourist style. Flat pedals, running shoes, baggy shorts and a sweater. I took it easy and it was not like training. I didn’t wanted to sweat too much, that were my only cloth I had. Some guys know that german sweat stinks! The course was super nice, long steady climbs and sweet technical descents. One of the best courses I have ever ridden!

So I was trying to figure out what happens in the worst case, which means I wouldn’t get my stuff in time. I could race the Norco bike. Troy Wells would let me rock the Cliff Bar kit and had extra eggbeaters. Shoes, ok, I can figure that out in the morning….

I went to bed early. I felt the long day before. At 11pm somebody knocked at the door and took me out of sleep. The reception lady gave me a phone. It’s hard to understand english for me when I’m half asleep! From what I heard my bags will come in between 1:30 to 2:30 am. Bad thing I needed to be up, since the reception is closed at that time. So at 2am my bags came in. Man, did I slept well afterwards. I can rock the Monavie kit and ride me beloved Scalpel!

Next morning was busy getting the bike build up. I warmed up for a long time, since I needed my body to wake up. I felt really tired after lacking sleep the last 2 days. At least I lined up with my own bike, so things were good!

The race got underway with more than 80 elite men starting, great to see such a big field. I felt ok at the start moving into the Top 10. But somehow I had a hard time to find the line on the downhills, I lacked concentration, I guess my body rather wanted to sleep. I lost a lot of time on the descents all day. But my legs got better with each lap and I climbed myself in the Top5. Going into the last lap I moved up to 4th and that’s was also how I finished with 3rd place in sight! My secret weapon of the day was Monavie EMV. I had some it with me on the last 2 laps, and man that stuff works great. My legs turned well and I started to descent better too. It helped me to concentrate better and all of the sudden I could hit “the line” and not the rock next too it!

This gave a good amount of UCI points and some sweet CAN dollars. But more important, I know I trained well the last weeks and with a better race preparation I feel ready to rock the Monavie Colors in europe!

Ben