Albion Hills and Niagara Classic

First Post!

My name is Stephen Meyer. I grew up in Dorchester (near London), and now I am in mechanical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton. I have been racing road and track for about 3 years now.

I did my first mountain bike race ever last Sunday, and it was quite an experience, to say the least. I have been on a mountain bike 3 times in the past 5 years, only doing this race in the hopes of qualifying for Team Ontario for the Canada Summer Games. I borrowed my dad's Trek 8500. It is still a really nice bike despite being almost 10 years old. In the very first lap, after a fast, dry downhill, I hit some thick mud, and launched myself into a pond next to the trail. I ended up in water up to my neck. I decided to call it quits after two laps when the leaders started to lap me. I am glad I did the race, but I'm not sure if I will do another this year. I will just stick with the mountain bike on fun/recovery days.

Yesterday was the Niagara Classic. This course is extremely selective, with the most recognisable feature of the loop being the big climb to the finish. It was pretty cold on race day, and very windy. This resulted in some serious gutter action on the back stretch, causing one crash that I narrowly missed. I ended up getting dropped from the group on the ninth time up the hill, out often. I ended up four minutes behind the peloton, fifteen minutes behind the leaders. This put me in 34th place (out of 34 finishers and 65 starters haha).

I'm not sure yet what my next race is, but here's to flatter races to come!