CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

This was the first race of the season, I have been training indoor during the winter season and was wanting to get outside as much as possible, I rented a Pugsly Ops from Revolution Cycle. It was my first ride on a fat bike so I was super excited about it. It was nice to see the cycling community come together again in the off season, everyone on their fatbikes. I had signed up for the 30km category for the race and I was expecting around 1.5 hours of riding, not knowing what to expect on a fatbike. But right from the start line I struggled to get moving along on the snow. From the start I started about mid pack and was chugging along the snow, after the prologue loop we got to some of the first single track after the foot bridge by Fort Edmonton park that was when I realized, how different winter riding was from mountain biking in the summer. It required different techniques to balance on the packed down trail in the middle of the trail. Physically I was able to keep up with Trevor, but on the trails every 100m I would fall of the trail and would have to reset again, as a watched Trevor nimbly make his way through the trail. After, going back across the footbridge I pushed hard to catch up to the other guys up front. The trails on the other side of the Fort Edmonton Park towards Harelak Park was packed down a lot more, and was a lot of fun, you could really pedal through no problem, even a regular mountain bike would have sufficed. After the trail, the course took us up a climb out of the Harelak park. That is a long climb to the top, and with the fatbike it really hurt, it was a long painful climb and a neat little downhill back to the Alfred Savage Centre. After the first lap I could really feel my legs, they were really hurting, in the back of my mind I had thoughts “I did a good enough job, I’m good, I’m done” but than I dident want to give up so I went out for another lap, hoping that the trail by the Fort Edmonton Footbridge was going to be packed down after all of the riders had gone through. But than when I got to the trail, I was dissapointed by a mushy powdery mess of a trail, and ended up walking about half of the trail, after that was smooth sailing. Every little climb I could feel my legs burning, begging me to stop, I just kept shoving my face with gels and water, but by the last climb my leg just started cramping up, my legs had nothing left in them, I was happy to finish, even though I couldent finish in the top end of the group, but I was happy to be able to complete the race, and I had a blast! Also I got a Merino Cycling Cap from 45NRTH which was the cherry on top of the cake.

Overall I had a lot of fun and learned a few new things, hopefully I am a little more prepared for the next edition of the 45NRTH Fatbike Triple Crown

Thanks to Redbike for hosting the event and its sponsors and volunteers for making this event happen.