Both events offer 80-90km of pavement, chipseal, gravel and sketchy ATV/farming roads. The plan is to video both events this season.
In preparation for the riguors of the upcoming classics in 3 week’s time, I visited a buddy from the Brockville area for a nice 90km outing. Despite only having the North, East and West as available riding terrain (south being the St Lawrence river), Brockville and area has hundreds of kilometers of sweet backcountry roads to offer.
Vid and map of the ride below. Map’s GPX & TCX files are also available.
Yeah, not much has been added to Ottawa Velo this winter but the cycling hasn’t stopped.
This winter FAT BIKES have appeared to really gain in popularity. Bikes shops throughout North America reported brisk sales. Salsa’s brand new $1500 USD turn-key Mukluk was sold out before winter even settled in. I managed to rent one from Phat Moose for a weekend and had a blast!
So where can you ride a Fatbike in Ottawa?
Greenbelt trails
Downhill ski runs such as Mont-Ste-Marie and all other runs not offering night skiing
Skidoo trails
Kanata Lakes trail network
Gatineau Park snowshoe/ski trails
Note that some of these ‘trails’ have user restrictions or licence requirements. At the very least, please be respectful to other users and if possible, discrete (ie: night ride).
I’ve enjoyed renting the Mukluk much so that I’ve gone ahead and purchased a similar but more blinged out ‘Fatback’ Fat Bike. This baby should not only open up a lot of winter riding options, but spring-fall bushwacking outings as well.
This week’s stop of the Eastern Ontario CX series was the second of back-back weekends at the Renfrew Fairgrounds.
We were greeted with cold temps, like -7 degrees Celsius cold. The ground was rock-hard, so most of the grassy sections were *really* bumpy. For that reason, the stem-mounted helmet cam video quality was pretty brutal in sections. I’ve actually cut out a good 1/2 of the lap simply because it was unwatchable.
Despite the weather and conditions, the race was super fun.
Jr & I took the weekend off from CX for our annual trip to Rays Indoor MTB park. With hunting season currently active in Ontario & Quebec and the usual lousy weather this time of the year (or anytime during the winter for that matter), Rays in Cleveland is nice alternative for your MTB needs. It’s a long, but do-able 8.5 hour drive from Ottawa (via Niagara).
The facility was originally a WWII parachute factory and is now an 110,000 square foot MTB/BMX playground throughout the winter months. Every summer Rays closes up to revamp some 20% of its existing layout and improve their facilities.
With a drive that long you’re going to want to ride there at least 2 days. Rays has an agreement with the local Holiday Inn Express for only $65/USD per night + taxes. Great deal and it’s only a 5 min drive away. There’s also a cheap but good restaurant (Somer’s) next door for breakfast.
The stem-mount helmet cam made for some interesting footage on the numerous rollers but it’s enough to give you a good idea of just some of the stuff that’s out there.
This week was not without some drama. After 20 years of allowing cyclocross racing in city parks, the city of Ottawa decided without warning to pull the cyclocross permits mid-season and without the means to an appeal. It is rather shocking that their reason is due to the damage to the grass/terrain. There’s no doubt that the grass does get chewed up but by spring the signs of a race pretty much disappear. That’s the neat thing about grass… it grows back.
Probably the most disappointing aspect of all of this is that OttawaVelo.com is designed to showcase the abundance of amazing cycling in the Ottawa area – that is until the city and NCC get involved…
Regardless, Bob & Ian were able to get the race setup out of town. Almonte is a beautiful area with rolling hills and GREAT gravel roads (location of the spring classic Paris-Roubaix). The course is a lot of fun with plenty of elevation and lots of terrain to play with. All the rain during the week really made for some muddy conditions and it took me 2 hours to wash mine & Jr’s bike afterwards.
Now that my lungs & legs are slowly starting to awaken after a year off from racing, this first lap is a little closer to the front.
I have to say I’m happy about finally putting a cyclocross (CX) event on the site. OttawaVelo.com is meant to include all of the best cycling in Ottawa, not just MTB. This should be the first of many such postings.
It’s been several years since I last raced CX but I knew that this event would still be a quality outing. Bob & Ian have been putting on fantastic tours/races for years (Paris Roubaix in the spring, and Cyclocross in the Fall). If you’re visiting the Ottawa area, or just happen to be a local, be sure to check this series (http://www.cyclocross.org) because the people are great and the competition is stiff.
I managed to ‘MacGyver’ a new mount for my ContourHD onto my stem which I think works better than the helmet mount. There’s still some playing to be done with actual recorder settings but I’m pleased with how my first attempt with this setup turned out. Below you’ll see a recording of the entire first lap of ‘Master B’ race including some close riding and a few spills. Enjoy!
I finally had a chance to check out the infamous Ganaraska this past weekend… but not without a good brain fart from yours truely.
The plan was for myself and Jr. to race in the 15km event. Total trip from Ottawa was about 3 hours. Unfortunately the lady at the main entrance had some bad news… the race was the day before, on Saturday. D’oH!
Regardless, we rode the 15km loop which was still flagged. Jr rode the 15km loop in a respectable 1:09.
Comparisons with Ganaraska could be made with Limerick Forest. It’s got a whole lot more elevation, but the terrain and singletrack is pretty similar.
One ding for Ganaraska is that the singletrack sections we rode were fairly short. That’s not a bad feature for racing (lots of opportunities to pass the slower technical riders) but for those who are looking for a casual ride with endless flow you’ll be constantly looking for the tree markers to know where to go next. Having said that, the markers are excellent and at no point did we feel lost.
I managed to get some video but I appologize for the quality (used SD rather than the usual HD quality).
Just came back from the MTB Worlds at Mont Ste Anne. Arguably the best sporting weekend I’ve ever attended, and that includes F1, Golf, Tennis, Tour de France, etc…
Probably the bet word to sum up the weekend was accessibility.
Day 1
The family and I left Ottawa at 7:30 and were at Mont Ste (~40 past Quebec city) before 2PM. Not bad with 2 kids.
Once there, I was like a kid in a candy store. The vendor area was extensive and accessible. I had some great in-depth geek talks with Felt, Rocky Mountain, Scott, SRAM.
I also managed to get my picture with Geoff Kabush (Canadian XC champion in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010), about 40 min before the start of the Elite XC race.
Five minutes before the XC start, I was able to walk over to the staging area. I was literally 2 feet away from the top ten ranked MTB riders in the world. I could observe their final warm-up routine, their interaction with coaches and other riders, and the exact equipment/bling they were going to use for the race. Once again, amazing accessibility.
After a furious start, we were able to easily get out to the XC course and watch the riders. The biggest time gap was only about 10 minutes the first couple of laps (providing just enough time to stake out another view point on the trail) and eventually the riders were spread out enough to provide a steady stream of entertainment for the duration of the race. Rider #4 Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos, aka ‘Mustach Man’ was the evetual winner and Geoff Kabush finished strong in 8th.
After the race, we were able to leave and return to our hotel in Quebec city in only 45 min. In only 2.5 hours we saw so much. Perfect!
Day 2
Giddy for more, Riley and I returned to Ste Anne on Sunday wondering if it could get any better. Weather was very inconsistent with sun and rain.
We immediately went to watch the Trials. Having watched the Junior 20” Trials the day before and being quite impressed, the 26” blew us away. These guys were covering some HUGE gaps.
At several points we were only a couple of feet away from the competitors, crazy close. You could really see & hear their intensity. You just can’t get that close to the action in other sports.
After an hour + of trials, we went to watch the DH. I was surprised how entertaining it was. The amount of fans in the woods was impressive, lots of various national flags and cow bells. A DH racer passed every couple of minutes which was perfect amount of time to move locations to see something different. The crowds at the bottom were very large & vocal.
Day 2 finished in 2.5 hours, and again we saw so much. We were back in Quebec city to walk the extensive old city in less than 1 hour.
The entire MTB experience was so positive that I’m looking to make plans to visit the 2011 World Championships next year in Switzerland. This time we’ll be bringing bikes to ride ourselves.
