CODY SHIMIZU

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

Finally after a long cold winter I had the chance to get out of cold Edmonton and ride some dirt in Victoria, It was great to be back again, riding in the warm, humid, West coast. Fortunately the first day we were there, the weather was nice enough to give us some sunshine, it was nice to be back on the bike without having to wear 5 layers to protect me from the elements. The first ride at Hartland, I had forgotten how technical the Island was, and that combined with riding on dirt for the first time in months made my technical feeling very sloppy. There was a lot more walking than I had hoped for. By the second day I was feeling a lot better, and my technical skills were coming back, my new XTR 11 speed drive train worked flawlessly in the wet, and mud of Victoria. At this camp we also had the opportunity to ride the Canada Cup course at Bear Mountain. It was nice to be able to have a general idea of the course which I would be racing on in around 3 weeks. The course was a good mix of slow technical trails as well as fast, flow, fun trails. Although there was a little more pavement/double track than Id like. The next few days we spent time at the Hartland bike park, sessioning a few technical sections where we refined our line choices, and body positions. This was nice to be able to work on the basics and refine my riding to gain more “Free Speed”. By the end we went to a feature called “Megarock” on the trail called Who`s Your Daddy the drop was a good arm length higher than my head.

On the second last day it had been raining all night and all day, the trails that we have been riding days earlier became practically rivers, there were pools of water that were up to the hub of my bike. Although it was a wet cold ride, it was still one of the best rides of the trip, as we tried to find the trail called Legends, we ended up going to the edge of Hartland and doing loops which lead to a small river. On the very last day we had the chance to ride with Jordie Lunn and we got to work on our jumping at the Bear Mountain Bike Park.

It was an awesome time to get away from Edmonton and ride some dirt for a while, and to be able to ride the Canada Cup Course before the race in a few weeks.