TS Cross Fondo

[kdenny]

This past Sunday marked the inaugural Triple Shot Cross Fondo - a fundraiser for TS and their youth development program. The ride was billed as a 40km ride through 'uncharted territory' featuring 'mud, sweat & big grins' - the route was somewhat cloaked in secrecy due to the fact that part of the course would transverse private property - but was basically departing from Bear Mountain, up into the backwoods of Theitis Lake, Hartland mtn bike park, Camosun Interurban campus, back into Francis King park and returning to Bear mtn for the finish - the course had been expanded to cover 50km including some of the previous weekends COTR Bear x-ing circuit, but cut back to the original 40km due to the somewhat damp weather leading up to the event. Around 125 riders were signed up, mainly for the 40km route, there was a shorter 20km option that a few took advantage of. I was really happy to see a good Wheelers turnout - especially ex- Gent's ride alumni - Mazda Michael Stevulak, John Peebles, Sol Kauffman, Andrew Barnes and several other Wheelers that I am sorry not to recognize -

The call up was self seeding into four departure 'waves' spaced 30 seconds apart - I found myself in the back of the first wave of around 25 riders - the usually suspects at the front. A neutral start was lead out for a quick loop around the top of the driving range and then a short punch of a climb sent us down the perfectly graded & bermed Bear Mountain downhill course - very quickly giving us a idea what we were into for the next couple of hours with many riders already at the side of the trail changing tires - From the bottom of the course we flipped onto a old power line cut that had been very recently cleared this trail brought us up to Millstream road - the organizers had arranged for traffic control - so traffic had been stopped allowing us a easy cross on to the tarmac for a short climb to Stewart Mountain road and back on to the dirt. The Millstream section allowed those of us on CX bikes a great chance to grab a few places from those who had somehow figured mountain bikes were a better option - once back on the Power Line track - the mtn bikes quickly caught up - this would be a reoccurring scenario - A quick climb up the power line track brought us to a fast descent along Bellamy Trail and around the bottom of Scafe Hill - from here we entered Goodwin Farms property (fairly important to note that this is private property and absolutely not to be accessed outside of this event) - a few deep and sticky mud tracks lead onto the farmer's fields where trails had been carefully carved out of the grass - for me this section was incredibly energy sapping, slogging through the deep uneven grass - I could only imagine this is what true CX must have been like in the past! A fun CX style course had been set up by the Farm's main barn, back and forths, barriers & lots of sheep poop. This is also where the shorter 20KM course veered off back to the finish line. But for the 40km'rs up onto Munns and into Hartland via Woodbridge rd. Through Hartland we basically hit Second Ave to Shock Treatment and exited using Executive - all CX friendly trails, although the roots and bridge crossing were crazy slippy. A quick pavement reprieve along Prospect & west Saany to Interurban shot us onto the trails around Camosun & PISE - By this time the leaders were far out of my grasp, but a small informal group had formed with Doug Doyle, Corey MacIver & Eric Worm. Crossing the traffic stopped Interurban and up Hector took us to a newly cut trail running under the powerlines, continuing across Prospect and winding back into Francis King Park - I like to spend a fair amount of time back there & was really familiar with the trails, so was able to power up another couple of spots with Corey in the lead - down past the fireball equipped Regan Pringle (best neutral support stop!) the ride spun onto Highland road climbing almost back to Munns, a quick left at the top took us along some very gnarly single track back into Goodwin farms and some more great CX style course set up. By this time I was really starting to feel the sting of the distance but as we passed through the barn we were told there were only 20 riders ahead - a great motivator! Crashing back though the fields, deep mud, and slippery farm tracks across Barker and back into Thetis we started back tracking up the killer ramps along Bellamy trail, and out Lost Lake Road At this point we had started to catch the tail end of the 20km riders - with the end somewhat in sight, the cadence came up as we tried to pick off any rider that was in sight ahead - a boob of a navigation error coming up the gravel Bear mountain access road saw me veer off course slightly, much to the annoyance of several groups of cart driving golfers a quick course adjustment across a green brought me back on track - the finish of the ride saw a nasty, nasty, nasty (did I mention it was nasty?) climb back up to the driving range that took everything I had to keep the pedals turning. I ended up in 24th, finishing in 2:36. Clayton Hiltz took the top spot in 2:10 with Curtis S. and Scotty M. a couple minutes behind - Katie Button (2:25), Emilly Johnston & Mical Dyck made up the woman's podium all coming in seconds apart.

A huge shout out to the organizers - the course was excellent - although using flour on mud roads, in the rain was perhaps not the best course marking material. Neutral support, food stops and even the sideline 'cheerers' that seemed to pop up in the middle of nowhere where all excellent! The after party was a great place for a burger & beer and to chat about how much fun the day had been. See you all out on the road -

K