Metal Report
The ToM started with a stopover in Lethbridge to visit Paddy and do some pre Test of Metal riding on the trails in coulees in Lethbridge. I was lucky enough to arrive on a day with no wind and no rain. Riding in windy conditions is always a factor in Lethbridge, rain, not so much, except for this year. Apparently they have had has much as we have in Winnipeg. On the way to the trails we met Johnny Friesen, a Tinker Creek Cycle alumni and now resident of Lethbridge - talk about coincidence. John decided to join us and we headed off to the trails
John putting away his iPod and getting ready to join the ride
Paddy and John quickly decided upon the trails and the torture fest was on. A couple of things were quickly observed trying to follow these two guys around: the lack of hills or training on the hills we have in Manitoba is evident when one tries to follow those who have them in their backyard, the second thing that is obvious Winnipeg at 781 feet of elevation and Lethbridge at 2983 feet of elevation puts you even farther behind the 8-ball.
Paddy showing me where I am about to die
I sure do envy those who have natural training ground is their back yard - if you want to develop power and stamina these will definitely help the cause
After Lethbridge it was off to Vancouver. I arrived on Wednesday and headed out to Squamish on Thursday. Squamish is 60+ km north of Vancouver and takes about 40 minutes to get there - after you have spent an hour trying to get out of the city (Winnipeg does not know true traffic jams). I hooked up with Mike Truelove, a super nice guy and the man who built three bike for us (two for me and one for Laura). I stayed with Mike the last time I did the race and after some time reacquainting we headed out on trails which started with the pre-requisite road climb.
Everything is super green, tall and so different than Manitoba
Mike (yes, he is not on one of his bikes, preferring to ride the double squish - and for good reason)
The amount of climbing you do is quickly evident as soon as you take a peek over the side of the road, veering of the road or trail is never a good idea.
We quickly found some trail and headed for some of the more technical part of the race course. The plan was to do the sections that gave me the most fits (technical wise - there was going to be no way for accounting for the lack of climbing prep this year)
Along the way we stopped by a new bridge that they were building. This bridge was a part of the course and they had been working on it for several weeks. This is how it looked just a day and half before the race - they finished it at 5:00PM on Friday.
These people are serious about their bridges (as far as I know this was done with donated time and materials)
After the bridge visit it was off to the Powerhouse Plunge the part of the trail that nearly made me cry the first time I tried it. This year I wanted to get a little practice time on it in hopes that it would help make me experience on it a little better, so in we went…
Entrance to the Powerhouse Plunge
The trail is littered with these types of bridges - wide enough an easy to ride
More bridges
There are plenty of switchbacks that go on for quite some ways and drop significantly in a short distance
It is the roots and rocks that get to you
More bridges with the rooty and rockly lead in
This time through I was more than successful making it through with only one minor fall (more a cause of me thinking toomuch and not letting the bike go) and only one bail when I failed to head Mike’s advice (stupid me)
The other fun thing about doing a fun ride is taking time to stop and look at the scenery. These shots were taking from a bridge that is on the course.
This is from one side of the bridge
And this is on the other side. The waterfall drops 20 feet and apparently some kayakers do the drop. Mike says that water is so cold that when you dump or roll you have a three minute slurpee headache.
How did the race go - well both good and bad. In the Test of Metal you seed yourself by how fast you thing you will finish the course. I put myself in the 3.5 to 3.75 hour slot, but was hoping that I would finish quicker than that. The race begins with a 22 minute climb all on asphalt and then you start into the off road sections
Before I get started, ToM is considered a “road race” by the real mountain bikers in Squamish. Why is this? I guess, because there are a lot of straight road and trail climbs on the course and not an equal amount of technical climbs and descents.When I went to registration on Friday night one woman asked if I was a roadie because I said I enjoyed this race - ouch.
The first descent was a skree/gravel double track which took me 8 minutes to complete. Only problem was it should have been shorter than that. I washed out a sweeping left hand corner doing about 4o+ kmph. Luckily no one was right on my ass as I would have been ridden over like some old worn out root from a giant west coast cedar. All you hear when you bite it is “rider down!” as riders pass you left and right. I quickly got up and dusted myself off and did a quick once over of my bike. Everything seemed fine except that my left bar end was pointing down. When I grabbed the grip it spun freely -weird. I quickly dug out my multi tool, thinking that I needed to tighten my grip as it had spun, only problem was that I did not have a hex key that fit the lock grip. Not wanting to waste anymore time as 30+ riders passed me as I was trying to fix my grip I hopped back on my bike and continued.
The downhill was followed by a long climb. Now having grown accustomed to using the bar ends during climbs it was more than annoying having to climb with your left grip rotating like a motorcycle throttle. After about 10 minutes I said to hell with it and just pulled it off. The whole grip came off very easily and I just stuck it in my back pocket and rode the rest of the race (3 hours) grabbing the bare bar. Grabbing the bare bar was annoying because one, it was narrow, and two, it was slippery - but that is the way it was meant to be.
The other issue that came to bear as a result of the crash was that my left leg was kind of chewed up. It really did not hurt that much, but there was a good mixture of blood, dirt and torn shorts.
The rest of the race went okay all things considered. I managed all but one climb at the end, even 9 mile which took 51 minutes of basically straight climbing with one 2 minute descent in the middle. 9 mile is an interesting climb, basically I stayed in 34X34 the whole time, most are in granny gear. Going around one corner following a rather steep pitch, just to to see that the ascent continued at the same grade, I heard one of the few single speeders on the course cry out “Oh come-on now”- it is always a little bit of a shock to do this climb for the first time.
Following 9 mile you head into a long section of downhills, some crazy fast and some gentle, this is when you throw the Powerhouse Plunge at you, now this is just insane. You’re wasted and they expect you to ride the most technical part of the race - lovely. Let’s just say that the stuff I cleared two days earlier was not so easy to negotiate following3 hours of hard riding. This was extenuated during one rather spastic bail right in front of a photographer who snapped about 30 pictures as I tried to bail off of my bike like some three legged lama - “Cash shot!” he said to me - thanks.
I limped into the finish line 3 hours and 40 minute later. A little slower than I wanted, but not bad considering my crash at the beginning. As soon as I crossed the finish line I went to the medic to get my wounds cleaned and attended. The left leg was pretty scrapped up, but it was nothing compared to my left hip which was worse than it felt during the race. 30 minutes later they finished cleaning my wound on the hip. It took them 4 scrub pads and a lot of soap and water to clean it up. There was some pretty vigorous scrubbing going on. Once it was done they suggested that I go to emergency to have it looked at by a doctor to make sure that everything was clean and that I was good to go, so following the race I drove to the hospital to have a second opinion. Seems like the first aid did a good enough job and I was sent on my way after a quick look over.
Go here to see the extent of the hamburger leg and hip)
When I got back to the place where I am staying in Vancouver I took apart my grip and bar end to discover that I snapped the end of the bar off - no wonder it spun so freely.
Some stats:
- 67km coverd (my computer has it at 60km)
- 3:35 minutes of riding time
- 16.6 kmph average speed
- 56 kmph top speed (would be faster on a double squish)
- 2296 meters climbed
- 4213 calories burned (I think the computer might be off on this)
- 2:29:45 it took Geoff Kabush to ride the same course
