Provs Post Race Report

sorry for the delay on the report.... Had to make the long drive to Duntroon 4 times in 2 days for MTB provs... but all turned out well... great course, perfect weather, and had a nice Escort in Mark Batty, who can still rock the fat tires... was invited to Lead out the Kids race.... gotta love the 6 year olds that can lay down the hurt...

GO!! Please note the i didn't get the Hole Shot...

great long power climb that i felt great on, fun flowing singletrack that could be railed, and i attacked half way through the first lap... legs felt awesom so i decided to try it... and opened up a gap pretty quickly....

after a week of rest to heal my strained back (Thanks Dr. Keber!!!) my HR was totally high right from the start... like 15bpm higher than normal, but my perceived level of exertion felt the same... Mark told me that i was just REALLY rested ... i like being REALLY rested...

wrapped up the season with 6 wins out of 6 races (i'm trying to forget about Albion...) and another Series Title....

Post Race Entertainment was Mark borrowing Jake's bike for a game of "Catch Me If You Can"... Mark fell, Jake won...

Time to hit the CX bike!!!

Better than duct tape....

so after a great block of training leading up to MTB provs on the 11th of sept... i came into a small stumbling block... i strained something in my back waterskiing at the cottage!!! "Take a couple days off Barnes... you'll be fine"... "OK... so i took 3 days off and i STILL can't put on my own socks.... we need to fix this..." so i went to visit Dr. Keber at Peak Health and Wellness in Brooklin and had a little treatment and some Kinesio taping done.... made a world of different.... plus a week of rest made for a good pre-ride with Mark Batty on saturday... except for the crash.... i need to take it easy or things are going to start falling off....

All for the kids....

The annual Ride for Karen - a 160km bike ride that raises money to send kids with cancer to 3 camps in the Muskokas - happened on Sept 11 this year... and it celebrated it's 10th anniversary... Kirk and Kris Tobias have tirelessly promoted this great ride to it's amazing size ... over 300 riders raising over $300,000 annually for the kids.... what a great couple guys and a great cause... unfortunately this year i was unable to attend since MTB provincials fell on the same day, but we did our bit to raise money and support a friend of ours down the road (Eric Sirois) as he continues to become involved with cycling and took on the challenge of the 100km route...

we sold snacks at a garage sale and collected empties from part of the neighbourhood... quite successfully i might add... 1 trailer FULL....

plus MORE in the garage.... plus an early run....

raising a grand total of $250 to sponsor Eric for his ride.... thanks to everyone in the area who supported the cause .... the kids are always worth it....

I can say i did it....

The East Coast Open.... potentially a great race and course but tried to do too much on their first go-round.... lots of us XC kids got mixed up on the course and took wrong turns... myself being one of them.... Started off fine with Brent Berger (Lapierre) and climbed hard to the top.... took turns pulling on the rollers under the ski lifts until i took us down the wrong trail... turned out to be O-Chute (a rather infamous DOWNHILL trail).... yeah... we almost died a few times... crazy rock gardens, the Coffin-Drop, Waterfall and a few jumps that made my little full carbon xc bike seem insufficient.... this pic is obviously BEFORE that wrong turn.... so we made our ways down to the start line just in time to see Andrew Watson come across the line with the win (congrats).... but it was great while it lasted!!! for sure a tough course and could be really good with some tweeking...

Congrats also to Cayley Brooks from Trek Canada for her 3rd place wins in both the XC and the Downhill.... that girl's got Skilz....