Race report Canada Cup #3 and 4 by Emily Johnston

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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!