A Canada Cup Course
World Cup Courses
Super fast, lots of climbing, flows from section to section, with boards over rocks to keep the pace up. Knee deep swamp? 4.5 km rock gardens? 40-min Elite laps?
Just saying...
Other Reports:
Hell, A Swamp Donkey Lover, Falcon Down and a late entry Swamp Donkey or Falcon Down?, From the desk of Bruce.., Damage Inventory?
Your point is clearly made.
ReplyDeleteI loved the race anyway, because I got to run through swamps and laugh with lots of people. Oh, and fix flats and use my pump quite a bit.
How's the calf?
Race was fun, bog was 'funner', calf sucks.
ReplyDeleteFor a short while I thought that MTB racing was fun. That Falcon crap certainly took care of that.
ReplyDeleteThis shit is hilarious! For every Birch, Hardwood Hills, Houffalize there is a Mont St. Anne, Fort William, and Falcon Lake. The point is the best MOUNTAIN BIKE racers can race on all terrain. Julian Absalon comes to mind, that dude kicks on everything. However, the lap length for the conditions was clearly an issue and we have had an unusually wet month for this time of year which makes for an unfortunate event. I would think that the organizers could have come up with a slightly less water logged course that was shorter and you guys could have just run more laps.
ReplyDeleteYour kinda missing the point. This is XCO, and we have MOUNTAIN BIKER events too, and even have swamp donkey style adventure races for people who want to slog it out. There are clear standards for XCO that we have hashed over and over and over. Absolon is the best but not in any way a MOUNTAIN BIKER, you have to to the north shore. This is not a test of who can ride the most. We call that 'trails' this is a combo of fitness and skill, not only fitness, or only skill. At this level the emphasis need to be on fun, and more fun. There will always be a few who love to get down and dirty (myself included) but most people are just not interested in trashing bb's and replacing new rubber every time they race.
ReplyDeleteGood point everyone, lets just ride dry ski trails instead. birch to hilly, grand beach has a rock garden, bur oak has no passing, falcon is susceptible to precipitation, morden has a gravel road. we live in the flattest, worst mtbing location in the world and nothing we have pleases you people. Believe it or not i rode falcon that morning, locked out on a hard tale, it was fine. And i'm as technically competent as pre-teen roadie on a rigid 29er ss. In Olympia cycle and ski there is a photo of a race at falcon where people are doing a creek crossing (in an xco event) where the water is 3 1/2 feet high.They rode the same tec. singletrack we did sunday and have for the last 15+ years. guess what, its been worse! The B&B organizers did a fantastic job of promoting, running, marshaling & marking the course, despite the 3 straight weeks of rain. Mont saint anne, worlds course for 2010, take the rocks we rode, then put them on a mountain w/ 45deg of off camber. it will run, same course, rain or shine.
ReplyDeleteGnarfu!k
Dear Me such belligerence. Everything pleases ‘me’, and no one is dissing of the geography, but the race is not about me and my likes and dislikes. If ever there was an intentional red herring this is it. Many people ride Falcon on a ss speed… rigid or otherwise. big deal. Non sequitur. “I” have been racing for 15 years and have done every Falcon event in that time, and we have NEVER waded through a bog. The only bog was a monster and no one to this day has said “you should bring back the monster”. As for the World cup… that was a man made 20-meter rock section with a dual speed line that a pre-teen roadie on a rigid 29er ss could ride after three straight weeks of rain. That tizzy bitzzy decent was 1% of the course not 75%. I am glad you enjoyed the course, I guess the little sport rider that went to the hospital must have enjoy it all that much more. I imagine those beginners who ran their bike through rock gardens for 2-hours must have had the best of times. Courses need to be constructed for the average crappy rider, not the fearless huckster.
ReplyDeleteGnarfu!k
so what next time, cancel the race? everything was to wet to ride, including the road. no alternative course was really going to be better. whats worse walking up every hill at birch, we've seen many people do that or over rocks, whats the difference. i road with two provincial team roadies who have never raced a mtb race before and sure they had trouble, but they road most of it, and had fun. that little sport rider Ari did love it, he cut his leg in the pre lap, and refused to miss the race because he loved it. the organizers deserve a little more credit, not only did they successfully organize a kick ass Super-d and four cross race, and kids of mud, and cx race, but the did change the course from the original due to water.
ReplyDeleteGnarfu!k
It was a nice try however, I feel that the race organizers definately favoured a certain type if rider in this course. Here are some things I feel they need to inprove in the future:
ReplyDelete1 Conflicting info on the web vs. poster
2 One hour late start.
3 Markers hard to see due to the nature of the course
4 Lap too long given the condition
5 Course did not meet the UCI standards of lap time and terrain
6 It should have been called 'Swamp Donkey' race, not a UCI sanctioned MTB race.
Just once i'd like to see a race that actually meets everyones criteria... too bad chcuk norris doesn't put on mtb races. :/
ReplyDeleteLuk your funny, Tristan your ranting rather then discussing the issue and arguing from the specific to the general ta boot... which is also funny but sad.
ReplyDeleteSwamp donkey...sorry...falcon, the 100 km individual time trial of xc racing. I love both equally.
ReplyDeleteWe can clearly recall riding through bogs at Falcon races in the biathlon range, during cup races, just before the bridge...well past hub deep. Good times! Don't miss the black flies.
ReplyDeletePaddy and Naomi
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ReplyDeletecan also recall races there where the temps hovered around +35C, and folks got to ride in ambulances due to heat stroke(July 14, 2002)...plus there's a thing that is called an
ReplyDeleteinternet wayback machine (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://cycling.mb.ca) that can check facts like attendance...if you don't like the way the courses are set up, then maybe it's time to start organizing races yourself.
Paddy and Naomi
cough! minaki cough!
ReplyDeleteHub deep? We are talking about 'knee deep' here! :) Good times.
ReplyDeletewell of course and I do but others not so much.
ReplyDeletePeople need to chill out and not take this discussion so personally. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think this discussion was a chance for people to express their opinion of the race and hopefully come up with some suggestion to give to the organizers for future improvement. Being open to constructive criticism is a sign of intelligence
ReplyDeleteenough said. Lets bring this one to a close.
ReplyDeleteconstructive criticism....kinda sounds like military intelligence, esp when it's posted anonymously.
ReplyDeletethis post was doomed to fail from the go get.
OK then, lets consider that silliness the last word.
ReplyDelete