We arrived in Canmore a week ago today, and I can safety say that this place is a mecca for anyone who loves the outdoors. Canmore is about 1hr out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and sits at around 1400metres. Everywhere you look, east, west, all the eye can see is sheer mountain tops.
The reason I am in Canmore is to race at the world championships for solo 24hr mountain bike racing. The course is located at the nordic centre which has seen it's fair share of quality events, in winter it hosts a xc ski/biathlon event nearly every weekend and has even hosted world cup mountain bike race, some aussie won it! I hear he is pretty good roadie now!The course is brutal, brutal climbs, technical descents, but does have some good crusing fire trail where we will be able eat/drink. It shares no similarities to any Australia 24hr course! The descents are rough, rooty and off-camber, it rained last night and the level of technical difficulty increased, slip slinding away! The best way to ride it is fast and don't brake, fly over the top of all the wet roots. Someone WILL hurt themselves, touch wood it won't be me. It's around 20km loop, with a feed zone at 10km. Get this the total elevation gain per lap is 2100ft (around 700m). The winner will be lucky to hit 400km.
The altitude has affected my performance slighty, I should be firing on all cyclinders come Saturday, I definately woundn't wanted to arrive any later, and feel for those are only arriving now.
I will be racing age group, I am quietly confident that I will do well in my category. I will also be pushing for a top result in overall placings. The Yeti 575 is the bike of choice and I have tweaked it for the big outing.
Have a massage today to loosen up a bit, and then race in 2 days. Bring it on. I didn't come here to play scrabble!
Andy
