So John and I loaded up the Saturn Thursday morning and left the 497 by 10am. The route was pretty simple. Take rt 26 up to rt 3 in NH and then cross the boarder in Canaan VT at the pretend boarder crossing. Then its up 55 to 10e right into Bromont. Its about 200miles exact door to door. Burnsy and I stopped in Colebrook NH to exchange some $ since we had to pay for the condo in cash. We figured since the bank was right next to the boarder it wouldn't be hard to exchange the $ into Canadian. Well our teller acted like we were from another planet when we asked for Canadian cash. After the 30 minute set back Burnsy and I were back on the road.

The condo was pretty sweet. It was a one bedroom condo, but the complex was built only 2 years ago so it was still very new. It had underground parking and storage. This was key because it meant we didn't have to keep the bikes in the clean condo, and it  gave us a place to work on the bikes and be out of the elements of the weather. 

Thursday afternoon Burnsy and I went out for a spin to pick up our number plates. The lodge and mountain was empty. It didn't look like anyone had been there since the snow was flying. We started to question if we got our dates right. After talking to an employee of the mountain we found out the race was on the back side of the mountain and it was a 15min ride over to it. So Burnsy and I made the trek over to the race venue. Again the race venue was empty, turns out we couldn't register until Friday. Oh well it was still a good spin.

Friday I was able to get my first look at the course. This was a brand new course. When I say brand new I mean brand new, not old trails made into a course, but brand new cut trails. The course started out with a 1k climb up a ski trail. The climb switch backed its way from one side of the trail to the other. The starting climb was super steep and long! After cresting the top of the climb you made a 180 turn and headed right back down the mountain on a ski trail. At the bottom of the trail it was a quick turn back up the mountain for another steep long climb! The final 2.5k of the course was some sweet tight single track. All in all the course was a short and quick 4.5k.

I was able to get in a few laps Friday morning. I was loving the course. The Mamasita was eating up the single track! I was feeling super confident on the 29inh wheels. I think the 29 hard tail was the perfect bike for the course. 

Friday night was the riders meeting. Turns out the organizers were not able to build the last 4k of the course because of the heavy snow fall this year and end result we were racing on the 4.5k course. They were also sending off Pro Women, Junior X men and Junior X women all at the same time! This was going to make for a very hectic race. To top it off Pro men were doing 8 laps!! And to top that off there were no lap counters, and they were not pulling lapped racers! Wow this was going to be one hectic race...

 Race Day: the morning was laid back, I made my regular breakfast and had my regular warm up. Racers were suppose to line up at 11:45, but at 11:45 no one was there, turns out the start was set back by 30minutes. No worries, everyone was in the same situation as I was. I tried to stay calm and relaxed.

The start was crazy! It was so dry and dusty that it was a huge cloud of dust. The dust was so thick you could barely see what was in front of you. Just imagine red lining your lungs and breathing in all this dust! It was a killer! I just tried to hold my position (which was at the end of the pack) and move forward. After lap one I wasn't sure where I was, but I told myself just pass two racers each lap (14 by the end) and hopefully that would put me somewhere in the 20/30's. Well my plan was working pretty well until lap 7 when someone informed me I was in 16th. What? 16?? No way!! This gave me some extra energy to dig a little deeper and go a little harder. It was hard to tell if I was passing lapped riders or riders in front of me. I was going strong all the way until the end. 200m from the finish line my derailer drop out snapped!! I had to through the Mamasita over my shoulder and run the last 200m! I lost a position or two in the final stretch so that was a little disappointing. But I suppose if something had to break on the bike that was the best time for it to happen. So I was told I crossed the line in 18th! Not to shabby!

When I crossed the finish line Burnsy was there waiting for me.  Turns out Burnsy's bike didn't hold up to well. So there we are the only two Americans at the race with broken bikes. We were in a pickle because we were about 10k from our condo. I was lucky enough to hitch hike a ride back while Burnsy kept a close eye on our dis functional bikes. I picked up a ride with some French only speaking Canadians. It was a little awkward in a quiet car and even more awkward giving directions, but they got me to the condo. I tried giving them a tip, but they wouldn't except the money which is probably a good thing because I don't really have the $ to be tipping random people. 

Well after the race we quickly showered and packed up the Saturn for the drive home. I made it home in a few hours. When we had to cross the boarder to get back into the United States the boarder patrol officer asked us what are our jobs? Well, we could have  given the accurate long answer of we don't really work, and just like to ride our bikes, but I thought that wouldn't go over to well, so I quickly answered "Sir we are both professional cyclist and are coming back from a race at Bromont." For the first time in my life it was easier to answer that I am a pro. The boarder patrol was very impressed with this. After a few quick questions about our bikes we were off! That night I checked online for the results. The online results had me down as 22. Not sure where the mistake was made when I was told 18, but I guess I will have to go by the 22 result, which still isn't bad. Funny thing is that my bib plate was number 22!

So I decided to head up to Tremblant Canada for round #2 of the Canada Cup. Tremblant will also be a UCI 1 event. With my decent result at Bromont this should give me a respectable call up at Tremblant. It will be nice starting on the 2nd row instead of the 5th!

Thanks for reading. I will have a video diary for the next race!