The 2012 Team BC XC Canada Cup project left Quebec and headed to Ontario for the 3rd and final round of the Canada Cup XC series, raced June 3, 2012.
The team started the week with a mid-week race at Hardwood Hills to wake up the legs and get a feel for the very dry and dusty conditions that were expected for the weekend. Thursday was another day on the trails, but this time doing multiple laps of a very short, fast and punchy course. 6 km per lap and it was looking like lap times would be sub 20 minutes with our Junior guys scheduled for 4 laps and the U-23/Pros doing 6 laps.
Friday saw the skies darken and the rain pour down all day, but that was a good thing! Course conditions when we pre-rode on Saturday were ideal! No dust, grippy and fast were the trails, the guys were excited to race.
The race got underway on Sunday morning under cloudy skies, but before the end of the first lap the rain started to fall again and the course quickly became as slippery, mucky bike eating monster!
Evan Guthrie had his usual amazing start, finishing lap 1 in a small and elite group of 6 riders that included the likes of World Cup pros Geoff Kabush and Derek Zandstra. The rain however began to slow things down considerably and the lap times were way longer than expected. WEvan was still in contention for a top 5 finish until the final lap when the length of the race took it’s toll. Evan still finished in the money with an 11th place result, 4th U-23 finisher.
Quinn Moberg and Louis Dillon raced the junior event at the same time and in the same challenging, but somewhat “west coast” conditions. Louis unfortunately got caught up in an early race crash and was forced to chase the pack. After working his way back up to mid-pack his bike forgot how to deal with a bit of mud and somehow managed to wrap it’s chain around both chain rings and the crank arm all at the same time. A few minutes in the tech zone to break the chain and get is sorted saw him once again chasing for the rest of the race. In the end a less than memorable result, but a gutsy performance as he put in consistent fast lap times in pursuit.
Quinn got off to a great start and was in a battle for the entire race. Finishing his first lap in 4th position he would spend the rest of the race fighting with the 2 other riders for the podium positions. Quinn ended up in a Canada Cup career best 3rd place at the finish and sets himself up very nicely to challenge for the podium at the National Championships coming up June 15 back in St. Felicien, Quebec.
