This Monday Morning Coffee is mostly about our time at the 6-hour Dairy Capital Stampede MTB relay at The Pines in Woodstock, Ontario.
By Billy Rainford
i had a bit of a different weekend this past one. Instead of going to the first round of the 2024 SMX Playoffs in Charlotte, North Carolina, I teamed up with Tanner Ward to do the 6-Hour Dairy Capital Stampede MTB relay at The Pines in Woodstock, Ontario.
If both me and the #DMXVan were a little younger, I would have gone to NC for the races on Saturday then driven all night to be back in Ontario to join Tanner for the race, but it just wasn’t in the cards. For one, I’m obviously starting to press my luck pushing the van any major distance these days. I mean, how much can I really expect to get out of this thing?! I’m at 430 000 kilometres now! Add to that the age of, well, me, and you’ve got a combination that is just asking for trouble.
As it turns out, Canadian Heartbeat Hot Sauce Team Solitaire Yamaha rider #71 Cole Thompson got into the 2nd moto as an alternate after #33 Jalek Swoll crashed off the start of 250 moto 1. The fact that we had a Canadian out there on the track and I missed it doesn’t sit very well with me.
Here’s a quick look at Cole’s day at zMax Dragway at Charlotte Motor Speedway:
Q – 24th
LCQ – 6th
Moto 1 – DNS
Moto 2 – 21st
Overall – 22nd
MXGP of Turkey
I shot some video of MTB race on Sunday, so I’ll get that edited up and posted as soon as I can today. I put the GoPro on my helmet for a lap, too. The day started off rough, as you’ll see, but got better and better as the clock moved toward the 4pm cutoff time.
Tanner wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to stay past 3, so when I was a little concerned about how we’d do if he did decide to leave early.
When we got there and were checking the air pressure in our tires, the valve stem on Tanner’s rear wheel wouldn’t take air from his pump, so we switched to my pump. It worked but pushed the valve stem into the valve itself! It wasn’t leaking air at first and he was going to run it, but when he tried to top off the pressure, it emptied.
I brought 2 extra tubes with me so I grabbed one and Tanner got to work changing the tube. We only had 20 minutes before the race was set to start, but we wanted him to go first because we figured the way the time would go, he could do one final lap and I would go right after he had to leave and get one last lap in. Because of this, we pushed forward with his wheel.
He got it done and pumped up with time to spare and headed over to the start line with the rest of the riders. It was a cold morning, sitting at around 8C when the race started at 10. The forecast was for strong wind and a high temperature of 16-18. Actually, perfect for a mountain bike race!
I wandered over to the start to shoot a couple phone photos and some video. Tanner put himself near Greg Poisson and the 2 of them were about a third of the way back in the field.
About a minute before the start of the race, I heard someone in the crowd of bikes say, “Someone is starting with a flat tire!” Of course, I had a pretty good idea of who it was…
Yep, Tanner’s rear wheel was losing air quickly. In fact, it was pretty much flat. Too flat to do a lap of a rooted trail, that’s for sure.
He said he’d head back to the pits and pump it up before heading out, but we decided that was a dumb risk and it was best for him to just hop on my bike and to the lap.
Yes, my bike is an XL frame and not what Tanner would buy. He likely rides a medium, but off he went after dropping the post to a good size.
We were way last at this point and Tanner went out and put in a really strong first lap, bringing us all the way up to 8th place by the time he was done.
The story gets even sillier…
While he was out on my bike, I went back to our pits and got to work fixing his.
I always have a spare tube in my little pack, so I grabbed it and pulled off his rear wheel to have it fixed and ready for his next lap.
When I started fitting the tube inside the tire around the rim, I noticed something…it didn’t fit! The tube I’d been taking with me on every MTB ride for the last 2 years was for 26″ wheels not 29! Wow. Now what? I was out of tubes.
Fortunately, a group of 2nd-lap riders like me where walking by and saw my struggles. One guy told me he had an extra tube if I needed it. Yes, please!
I was able to get it put inside the tire and pumped it up. It worked!
I rode it around to make sure it was holding air and made my way up to the transition to be ready for when Tanner came in.
He crossed the finish and into the handoff area and gave me my bike to head out on. After all the chaos to start this event, we were off and running. He must have put in his best lap of the day because we were in the mix after that horrible start!
So, the day goes on and things are going well for us. We spent most of the day in 5th place, not far behind the team ahead of us in 4th. The top 3 riders looked to be out of touch as they were running sub-30:00 laps while we were in the 31-32 range. We pressed on.
I’d never been to The Pines before so I had no idea what the trails were like. The first half of the course was a ton of fun. Fast dirt with some really fun bowl turns. The trail got a little ugly in the second half.
It would be fine if you were just out there to do a lap or two, but we were going to be there all day, so I knew the roots and the couple punchy hills were going to continue to get tougher throughout the day. They did.
Like I said, I shot video and will have that up later…
We kept pushing all day and stayed in 5th, less that 3 minutes behind 4th place.
My 5th lap took me past 3pm when Tanner said he would probably have to leave. As I was riding, I kept asking myself if I could do another lap. I decided I definitely could, but wasn’t sure how fast it would be. I also kept asking myself how I was feeling on that lap and was happy with the reply I was giving myself.
Yes, I was slower than my previous lap but not horribly so. As I approached the finish, I planned to pull off to maybe stretch and get myself ready for one final lap to end the day. To my surprise and great relief, there was Tanner waiting to be tagged into our our final lap! I was pumped!
Any lap that wasn’t completed by the 4:00 cutoff time wouldn’t count and we were getting close!
Tanner crossed the line with 3 1/2 minutes to spare but didn’t look great; you could tell he was hurting. Then he told me he didn’t pack food! Yikes. That must have felt terrible on that last lap. It reminds me of the story I’ve been told about Wyatt Kerr doing it solo in 2023 without the proper food intake and hitting the wall.
Fortunately, I had an extra sandwich in my cooler and some salty chips, so he jumped on those.
It turns out, I had gotten us into 4th place on my last lap and I don’t think his last lap really did anything for us as far as the overall results are concerned because the team that we passed didn’t do an 11th lap anyway. Nobody tell Tanner…🤣
One thing’s for sure, when you do these events and see just how fast the leaders are going, it really gives you some perspective. The top few riders were absolutely flying.
Huge thanks to Tanner for getting us through that early snafu and staying focused. Greg pointed out that I really should have been dressed and ready to go so I could have just jumped in and done the first lap, but that wasn’t what happened. I was happy to be standing around in my sweatpants and hoody while Tanner went out for the first one. Oh well. What can I say, I was never a Boy Scout!
As for my buddy Shawn Reeder who did the solo race, he said he felt great and was able to finish 9th overall with 9 laps in the books. The winner managed to do 11. Crazy.
Greg also has an interesting story after his suspension bolt backed out at the far end of the course and he had to run his bike back to the pits. That couldn’t have felt great.
I was told the numbers were down from a couple years ago. I would definitely do this event again and think it should on any rider’s hit list for the future.
You couldn’t do 6 hours at a hillier place like say Boler Mountain in London but The Pines is the perfect place for this event. I loved it and will return.
I have to admit, I slept in a little this morning after a crappy night’s sleep before the race and then feeling it last night. I’ll get to work on some actual “moto-related” content now, but just wanted to get you through another cup of coffee to start this week.
Next up is the Corduroy Enduro on September 21-22.
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