Friday we arrived in Mt. Tremblant, where it was absolutely pouring rain. The forecast predicted 60mm+ of rain today, and it was certainly living up to the forecast. Unfortunately since Mt. Tremblant is in a National Park they had to close practice early, as the trail erosion would be too much. We didn’t get in any practice today, but we spent a lot of time walking the course finding the smooth lines through the peanut butter texture dirt and slabs of rock. The track looks very challenging, I’m excited to get practicing tomorrow and racing Sunday!
– Nik Dunn
The XC Canada Cup #1 today at Tremblant was a lot of fun and a new experience for me. It was super wet and the dirt turned into deep mud. There was a large portion of trail where we had to run through because the mud was almost a foot deep. The conditions made it interesting and was a good learning experience for the future. A big thank you to all the sponsors and supporters for helping make these experiences possible.
– Austin Reith
Today was the first XC Canada Cup this year, and the second Canada Cup I have ever raced. I really enjoyed the Mont Tremblant course, it had a fair bit of technical riding, and a lot of fun sections. Because it had rained all day yesterday and throughout the night, the course had a ton of mud and puddles. This definitely made the riding slower, but I think that it was advantageous for BC riders as we are used to riding in slick wet conditions. I felt pretty good about my race, though my start did not go exactly as I wanted. I was super confident on the technical sections, and dealing with all the muck. I ended up coming in 9th for Junior Expert Females, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week in Quebec! Thank you so much to all of the people who make trips like these a possibility.
– Jenn McTavish
Today was the first race of the trip at Mt. Tremblant. Overall for me it was a good day. I felt that I raced well and efficient. I capitalized on my BC riding experience and cleaned lots of climbs and rode the decent’s well. I think that coming from BC helped me a lot for riding in the wet roots and rocks. I ended up 6th place in Junior Expert. About 25 seconds away from a podium finish. I hope to improve upon this result at Canada Cup #2 in Baie St. Paul next weekend. The DH race is tomorrow and so far the plan is for the XC’ers to do a recovery ride in the morning and then go and watch the DHers. All in all the camp is going really well and I am excited to continue riding and racing. Thank you to all the Cycling BC sponsors for helping making these training opportunities possible.
– Rhys Verner