Island Cup Series Final - Yolanda Lehton

Island Cup Series Final – Hartland 19 June 2016

This was the Island Cup Series Finale and despite six hours of driving to and from Victoria, it was very well attended by the Comox community. Over a quarter of the racers were from the valley!
We were rewarded for making the trek with fantastic sunny dry weather, great trails with good traction and some excellent podium placements. This course was the shortest but most technical of the race series.
Team Trail Bicycles had a great turn out on the podium. Eva Leikemoser took second place for beginner women and had the most accumulated points to take the series title for Island Cup Beginner Women.
In beginner men, Ian Lehton placed first. Since he was tied for points for the Island Cup, the series title was decided by today’s race winner. Ian took the series title for Island Cup Beginner Men!
Hudson Webser also had an exciting race placing fifth today. He needed his foot race skills as much his mountain biking ones after putting a good ding in his rim and flatting. Hudson placed third in the series Beginner Men and received one of the very cool new medals!
Malcolm placed sixth today Beginner Men after helping his new little friend along when they got off the course and she fell. What a gentleman!
Anja Leikemoser finished first in her category of the Island Cup Series, U19 Intermediate Women!

Thank you so much to all our sponsors for helping us put together such a strong 2016 race team. Sew What, I Sew, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, Western One, Riverway Dental Inc., Wedler Engineering LLP, Airport Service and Mini-Storage, and Trail Bicycles

The Kelowna Classic XC by Erik Ashton

The Kelowna Classic XC by Erik Ashton

The Kelowna Classic XC was a wicked one. With rain up until a few hours before the loud “go!”, the course was the tackiest you can possibly get in the okanagan. The course was a quick road climb bottleneck into a smooth singletrack, switchback climb. When you got to the top of the singletrack climb, you go into a quick passing opportunity for a 15 second doubletrack. Then comes the first of the two fast, flowy, punchy descents. This first section included two drops, (one mandatory) and the other you can ride around. After the first descent, there was a flat smooth double track that went on for roughly .7 of a km. It then split in two. Going left was an extra two km for the masters, U17, U19, Elite, and so on. That continuation took you up a steep doubletrack climb into an overgrown descent. My route however, was for the U13 and U15 boys and that was a continued double track which led into the second descent. The second part was only 1.3 km but it was more steep which involved an off camber rock garden section which put a few in the bush! From there it was a quick overgrown section which led to the lap point. At the lap point you could take a hard left into a 200m sprint to the finish line or continue through. My race was a very fun one. We had three laps and I was off like a rocket but unfortunately, as soon as I got to the singletrack, I got a slow leak in my tire! The climb did not involve much rocks and roots so I kept climbing until I got to the quick double track section to get some co2 in my tire. It worked ok, but I was off my bike for over a minute! When I got back on, I was in 4th place and passed 3rd and 2nd over time. I was gaining on my competition who was then about 10 seconds ahead when the final sprint came. I only made up a few seconds, but not quite enough for the pass. After my race I was satisfied and we had a good burger with some drinks! We then had our podium which was 1st place with Team Devo Leaf Rogers, 2nd place Trail Bicycles Cycling Team Erik Ashton and 3rd place Trail Bicycles Cycling Team Jake Yells! 

Thanks so much to Trail Bicycles, Sew What, I Sew, Riverway Dental Inc., Airport Service and Mini-Storage, Western One Rentals and Sales, Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, Wedler Engineering LLP, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd. that made this happen!
- Erik Ashton

Island Cup Marathon Cumberland - June 11th by Kieran Nilsen

Island Cup Marathon Cumberland - June 11th by Kieran Nilsen

Back in Kamloops, Carter and I were debating whether we should do a team of two, or a team of four in the upcoming 12 hours of Cumberland. The 12 hours of Cumberland is a marathon race involving teams of either two, 4 or solo. The idea is to do as many laps of a 7.5 km course in 12 hours as possible. As we debated whether to do two or four, Carter said, ‘’why don’t we do it solo?’’ I said yes, we convinced our parents and soon enough it was Friday evening, and we were signed up to ride our bikes alone for twelve hours straight. Our family camped in our trailer at the venue on Friday night. Greg from Bibliotaco gave me the biggest burrito I had ever seen and I made some last minute checks to make sure all was well on the bike. After a very poor and nervous sleep that night I woke up an hour and a half before the start of the race.
I woke up that morning, buttered up my different chamois, and headed down to pick up my race plate. After breakfast of oatmeal we set off at 8:00 am. We were showing off, pulling wheelies and drifting corners for a whole two hours. When we found out we were at three hours, we began to realize how long of a day it was going to be. At four hours Carter started to feel nauseous. At five hours I started to weave and wander off the trail. At the six hour mark we got the best advice ever given to us. Stop. Get a real meal. Just as that was the best advice ever, it was the best decision ever. With a burger and a few Red Bull in our stomachs, we head back out feeling awesome. Just as before, our condition slowly deteriorated up until hour ten. We pedalled slowly through, finding out we still had two hours left go. We managed to get in two more laps before finally calling it quits at just over eleven hours. All in all it was an amazing experience. I pushed myself harder than I ever have before and am stoked to be able to say I completed the 12 Hours of Cumberland. Our other teams placed amazingly with our boys’ team crushing the kid’s category and our mixt team coming fourth. So happy with how the event turned out and super excited for when next year rolls around.
A Big Thank You to our sponsors: Sew What, I Sew, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, Western One Rentals and Sales, Riverway Dental Inc., Wedler Engineering LLP, Airport Service and Mini-Storage, Trail Bicycles

BC Enduro Series - Kamloops - June 4th by Kieran Nilsen

BC Enduro Series​ Race Report, Kamloops BC, June 4th
by Kieran Nilsen

We left on Friday afternoon to head out to Kamloops for my third BC Enduro series stop this year. By now I had the race process a little more figured out. It was about not just being fast, but being consistent. That was my goal. Practice on Saturday did not go too well. We rode stage three first as it was the easiest to access then hiked up to stage one. A ways down stage one I ended up taking a pretty bad crashes resulting in a crushed helmet and a very broken derailleur. I slowly made my way down to the car and waited for Carter to finish up practice so we could go to the bike shop. After finally getting all my stuff figured out we headed back to the venue later on that day. I managed to get in all the stages for practice except for the last one and was exhausted after a long stressful day.
That next morning I packed up all my stuff, help load the bikes onto the truck and we took off to the race. I rode pretty clean but also pretty conservatively. I definitely could’ve pushed myself a little more on stage one but sometimes that’s how racing goes. Stage two was fast except for the mistake I made near the top where I went off track completely and ended up in a meadow. One thing that I forgot to remember was all the blind corners in that stage. Stage three was fast and flowy and I had a couple sketchy moments but it went pretty smooth. Stage four was a slalom course going down the ski run. I was a little nervous and changed over to flat pedals so I could throw my foot out whenever. It went pretty smooth considering I hadn’t ridden it yet. All in all I had an amazing day hanging out with friends and riding bikes.

A Big Thank You to our sponsors: Sew What, I Sew​, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd.​, Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor​, Riverway Dental Inc.​, Western One Rentals. And Sales​, Wedler Engineering LLP​, Airport Service and Mini-Storage​, Trail Bicycles​

Race report Canada Cup #3 and 4 by Emily Johnston

:

Ontario! Yes! June the first to June the thirteenth was the awesomest mountain bike camp ever! First off I was in Barrie Ontario, second I was riding my bike, and thirdly I was riding my bike more. It was sooooooooo much fun. The first Canada cup race was in horseshoe ski resort, we stayed at the georgian residence just outside of Barrie. The race course at horseshoe was great, the bottom section was pretty flat with some short punchy ups and downs then you climbed up the ski hill a little, down the most technical section of the course and through the finish line! My coaches were Mike and Tara, thanks so much I loved my time there and learned tons. One of the great things about getting to go to this camp was getting to know new people. Everyone on the team was super fun and super supportive, I also got to meet a couple people from the Quebec team and from team USA. All of the people I met were super nice (and if they were racing) really great competition and great sportsmen. (If they were cheering) they were super supportive and everyone was always willing to help. Race number one horseshoe sweet, I was racing minime or u15 and we had a 8:30 am start. I had a awesome start and managed to get a good lead off the bat, we did two laps with a total of 8 kilometres and around 38 minutes. After the race I met Emily Batty and got to tag along on her warm up. The next day we all went to canadas wonderland for a rest day, wow! It was really big and really cool. The next race venu was Hardwood. This was probably my favorite xc course of all time. It has everything, fast climbing, flat technical sections, fast flat sections and best of all it had jumps!!!!!!!!!:) That made the course really advantageous for the more technically inclined riders and during the race it gave you something to look forward to. Sadly in the A course (cadet/u17) you don’t get to ride all of them but the ones you do get to ride are so great. This race I got an upgrade to u17 which made my day! I was so stoked and fortunately for me I will get to race U17(cadet) again in St Felicien which is in July. My race had a 11:30 am start and we started with the masters women so it was a packed start line. I got second row but no call up,(pushed my way through the crowd.) My start in this race wasn’t very good, after the first part of the hill climb I was mid pack. I managed to get into the trail in third for u17, then someone passed me and I was in fourth. Lucky for me on a technical section I managed to pass second and third who took the ride around (go big or go home!) On the descent I managed to get a bit of a gap. Thanks enduro boys! On lap two I managed to start to close in on first but I couldn’t catch her! It was a great race, super close with great competition. Damn, two weeks are up, great to be back riding in cumberland though and super excited for provincials in a couple weeks, nationals (Baie st Paul) and St Felicien. Thanks to cycling bc and their sponsors, thanks Jeff and trail bikes for all the support, I had a great time and am super excited for summer, ride bikes everyday! Thanks mum and dad for sending me there and thanks Mike, Tara and the team for helping me out down there!

BC Enduro Series Williams Lake race report: Sunday, May 22nd by Kieran Nilson

Heading out to my second BC enduro this season was super exciting. The plan was to leave Thursday, catch the ferry and stay overnight in whistler. That next morning my dad shuttled Carter and I up creek side so we could do a lap of BC’s trail; one of my favorite DH trails. It’s normally bike park access only but not if you know where to go! Haha! After the ride we cleaned up, ate breakfast and hit the Duffy Lake road. 

We drove through the whole day finally arriving at Williams Lake after about a six hours drive from whistler. We had time to climb up and practice stage 1. Williams Lake was fast and flowy with lots of pedalling. We totally passed out that night. The next day, the plan was to go and get Carter’s bike fixed at the shred shed, then head out for practice. We practiced from 11:30 to 8:00pm eventually meeting up with a good friend Elliot Jamieson. All the stages were super-fast and fun except for stage 3. Having handlebars roughly half the width of the standard size would’ve been ideal to do the many, many tight trees we had to thread through. 

The skies were clear for the race the following day. We packed our stuff up, and rode down to the racer meeting to pick up our plates and chips. Luckily, we were allowed to shuttle up to stage 1 as it was going to be a hot day. My dad gave Bobby, a friend we met at practice, Elliot, Carter and I a ride up near the top but stopping so we could pedal the last bit to get in a warmup. I had a pretty good stage one and two, riding fast and riding clean. Stage three didn’t go as well do to some crashing, but I still didn’t end up placing to bad. Stage four I rode reasonably well with a couple mistakes taking poor line choices.
My day was going pretty well all the way up until stage five, where I ended up crashing and ripping out my front brake line. Stage five also happened to be the steepest of them all and I was completely unable to ride the stage. I had to run/slide my way down the stage before timing out. I lost three minutes. 

Despite that mechanical, I ended up placing eighth out of twelve which wasn’t so bad I guess. Other than stage three, I was less than 5 seconds behind Carter so I would’ve placed third or fourth. I was super stoked to see Carter take the win. All in all, Williams Lake enduro was a pretty successful weekend and I’m stoked to head out to Kamloops in a week.

A Big Thank You to our sponsors: Sew What, I Sew, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, WesternOne, Riverway Dental Inc.. Airport Service and Mini-Storage, Trail Bicycles, Wedler Engineering LLP

https://www.facebook.com/dean.nilsen/videos/10154104938712457/

Cumberland Coal Classic 2016

Coal Classic Marathon  -  By Ian Lehton, 12

This was my first marathon race and certainly won't be my last.  For those who do not know what a cross country mountain bike marathon race is, Marathon XC (XCM) is held on a course that is 60 km or more in length and does not cover the same section of trail more than once. In BC however, an exception has been made to allow races over 45 km in length to be defined as Marathon.

My strategy is to race as fast as I can without burning up all my energy by pacing.

Sunday's marathon race was hot which made it hurt a lot and you needed lots of water before, during and after the race.  Luc from the Trail Bicycles shop helped keep cool by having a dip in each lake he passed on the course!

I signed up and finished the 30 km race.  However even though I was tired, I really wanted to try the longer leg, the full course.  With the help of other racers, lots of breaks in the shade I rode the whole course including climbing over 1200 meters.

There were two food stations with watermelon, oranges, bananas, cookies and cola.

Trail Bicycles rode to some great results including sweeping the U18 women's 30 km podium, with Anja and Eva crossing the finish line together with their and mom Katie.  What a ride!

The U18 men's 50 km podium was packed with trail Bicycles' Jake 1st and Ian 3rd.

Other honorable mentions are Tristan from the shop placing 10th, and Dave N. being the quickest dad.  Thanks so much to our sponsors, volunteers and congratulations to all the finishers on this very hot day.    

Official Sponsors for 2016

• Sew What I Sew
• Wedler Engineering
• Riverway Dental Inc.
• Eatmore Sprouts and Greens Ltd.
• Western One
• Royal LePage - Rob Nygren
• Airport Auto Service
• Trail Bicycles

Team race report Mount Prevost Enduro - Stevie Smith Tribute

Trail Bicycles team race report Mount Prevost Enduro - Stevie Smith tribute 

The day started out with an awesome surprise, getting shuttled to the beginning of the first stage by Kieren`s and Carter`s dad`s – thank you. The fast boys just jumped into the trail and I looked at it and thought what am I doing here - It was a freaky start so I walked down the jump and rolled into the trail. I survived the pre-ride! 
Then there were mustaches, a moment of silence and the mass start with a screaming chain saw - then the crazy climb started. I was glad to be part of the ride but boy it was one of my hardest rides ever. My dad said it did not rain at the bottom but it was wet and cold at the top. I need to get more prepared as waiting for my turn I got so cold I could not feel my hands! 
But then there was the downhill. I need to work on that also. I told my dad I am better at cross country when I passed him after the stage 1 but I kept going. The second stage was the funnest but I bailed and bailed hard. I got back up and kept going and to my surprise I came in third for beginner men. I also got an awesome chainsaw trophy that is sitting on my bookshelf for being the youngest rider. 
I never met Stevie but have watched lots of his videos of him riding and talking, so it was cool to be part of a remembrance for him and the fundraiser to help support this awesome sport. 
Race results: Tristan Geisel 15th expert men Kieren Nilsen 6th intermediate men Hudson Webster 3rd beginner men With our good friend: Carter woods from DCC 1st intermediate men It was a hard day of racing but fun. Good job all who came out. 
Thank you to Collin Wilson - Vancouver Island Cup Series Thank you to all our sponsors: Sew What, I Sew, Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, Western One, Riverway Dental Inc., Wedler Engineering LLP, Airport Service and Mini-Storage
Hudson Webster Photo link: https://www.facebook.com/chris.webster.37604/media_set?set=a.2132561200301717.1073741859.100006435739796&type=3&pnref=story

~Hudson Webster~

Fraser Valley Enduro Race Report!

Sunday, May 18th!

A Big Thank You to our sponsors: Sew What, I Sew,
Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., Rob Nygren Royal Lepage Realtor, Western One, Riverway Dental Inc., Wedler Engineering LLP, Airport Service and Mini-Storage, and Trail Bicycles

Heading out to my first BC enduro in a few years had me a little nervous. The last BC enduro I went to was during my first year of racing for Trail Bicycles. That was in Kelowna. We stayed with my grandparents in Naramata then drove out to practice and to race day. At the end of practice I had one word going through my mind; SCARY. The race was a blast and I had a few sketchy moments but at the end I was thinking about how I wanted to race more. Last summer, I never made it out to any of the BC enduros due to my lack of planning and organizing. I raced the island cup series which are always a blast but I still wanted to race the BC series. I was stoked to find out I would make it to Fraser valley and most of the rest of the series.

The plan for Mt Vedder, Fraser valley, was to get out and ride stage one on Friday, participate in the junior national team selection camp, and get the rest of the course dialled on Saturday. It was a combination of steep, tech and flow. Race day was long.; very long. We covered roughly 2000m climbing not counting the shuttle. Stage one for me was good, I had a couple of crashes, costing me quite a bit of time, but still came 6^th overall. I was bummed to see Breckin Nowak crash roughly a couple of feet in front of the finish and end up breaking his elbow and having to get stitches in his lip. Stage two was kept a secret because it was a loam trail and they didn’t want it to be ridden out for the race. I had a clean run and finished sixth there as well.  Stage three was a long, 15 minute descent featuring loam, tech and some really loose gravel. I had one major crash where I ended up going over the bars and I ended up dropping my chain twice which was a bit of a bummer. I finished in 10^th place for the third and final stage.

Overall I came 8^th which wasn’t too bad but I certainly could’ve raced better and more consistent.  I am heading to Williams Lake this weekend to race my second BC enduro this season. Looking forward to the rest of the BC and Island Cup endure series and having a successful rest of the season.

-Kieran Nilsen

Duncan/Maple Mountain XC Race By Jake Yells

 

Duncan/Maple Mount XC Race- by Jake Yells     

 

I was so ready for  this race!   Several of the top riders were at other events so I had a really good chance to podium.    This race had a tribute at the start to Steve Smith the Canadian Chainsaw…   We had a moment of silence and then they actually started the race to the sounds of a roaring chainsaw!!!  How cool is that!!

 

The race started similar to the last few with a steep climb up logging road,   you had race through this so that you weren’t stuck trying to pass everyone on the single track climbing sections.     I did ok,   and started to pass folks on the trail.     I had never ridden the Arbutis Ridge trail at Maple Mountain so I didn’t know what to expect.. when we got off the “climbing trail”.. it just kept going up …  right at the top there was an incredibly steep section that very few managed to ride… I jumped off my bike and ran up it and finally started to go down the mountain!!!     There were  a few good rock drops at the start of the descent,  and then there was a crazy steep chicane like area with large sharp rock on it with a tight turn up top.   I rolled down this section and am pretty sure I was leading my division when I heard the dreaded hiss of my tire leaking air. NOOOOOO!!!!

 

I jumped off my bike and started changing my tire as everyone raced past me,     I couldn’t get my tire pressure up and it took forever.   Finally my dad came along and gave me a hand.  By the time I got going I was  way behind.       I raced down as fast as I could and starting ripping up the mountain for lap #2..    Suddenly just as I got going down that crazy chicane my tire started hissing again…   a 2^nd flat tire…      race over for me.. I was really upset and just started walking my bike to the finish.       My dad caught up to me again and tried to help as another racer went by and threw a tube and pump to me, but I was fed up!     But hey, how awesome is it another racer gave me his spare tire and pump though!  That’s what is so great about mountain biking.. everyone wants to help each other.

 

Eventually I crossed the finish line where a lot of the team was waiting and looking concerned because by then a rider had finished and reported that Evan Luksay had crashed and badly hurt his arm.. more bad luck for our team!     We debated going to find him but we knew his dad was still out there racing and would be with him to help.

 

Final results…

On the women’s side Brynn Johnston won the Female Beginner Category with Eva Leikermoser finishing 2^nd.    Emilly Johnston won Intermediate Female.

On the Men’s side,  Hudson Webster was 2^nd in Beginner Male,  I finished 19^th in Intermediate Male (with my dad beating me in 14^th place),

 

 

It was an awesome day of racing, and next time we race on rocky terrain I will make sure my tires are pumped up high!

 

Thanks so much to our awesome sponsors    Airport Auto Service, Trail Bicycles, Western one, Royal Lepage- Rob Nygren, Eatmore Sprouts and Greens Ltd., Riverway Dental, Welder Engineering and Sew What I Sew!!!!