Tim Coleman Racing

The usual gong show of Glenn Franks (Angry Dad), Ryan Walters (Emo), Rob Stead (Hoff) and myself met early at the ferry terminal. The goal was to walk on to the ferry, and then about an hour and half later meet up with some friends in Naniamo, who’d give us a ride up to Cumberland. Angry Dad and myself were to meet up with our friend Chris, while Hoff and Emo were catching a ride with another Ryan.

The ferry trip over was fairly uneventful. We were all pretty tired, and there wasn’t any new material for us to make fun of. So we quietly sat, mostly bored, waiting for someone to do something dumb. That didn’t take too long because once we arrived in Naniamo we met up with Ryan and his Taliban-mobile. Ryan drives an unknown (because the badges have all rusted off) 1982 diesel Mercedes. All it needs to fit right into a a middle eastern conflict is some bullet holes.

This gave us great material for the drive up and created much laughter. Thanks for that Ryan. We arrived in Cumberland safely, got changed into our riding gear, and started hiking the course. The race course in Cumberland is really fun. It’s only about 2 minutes descending time, but packs in a good variety of terrain in that short time. The top is a bit flat and pedally with some tricky corners and a couple jumps. As the trail enters the trees the speeds increase, the trail gets steeper, and offers up a series of corners loaded with rocks and roots. A blink of an eye and you’re spat over the finish line with big grin on your face. We hiked the course twice on the Saturday, and retired to laughs and drinks at the Riding Fool Hostel.

If you’re ever planning on doing a riding trip to the Island do yourself a favour and stay in Cumberland at the Riding Fool Hostel … even if it’s just for a night. We all really liked the hostel. It was clean, had great amenities, and the staff were rad. The trails in Cumberland looked awesome, and I’ve heard good things from riders who’ve actually ridden more than just the race course. As per usual we drank a bunch on the Saturday night and had a bit of a party.

Come Sunday we all headed out to the race site. We got in 3 runs in the morning (uplift lines were lengthy), and were all enjoying the course thoroughly. The weather was glorious, and the track was slowly drying out. After practice was chatted with some other buddies, and soon headed up for our race runs. We could see a nasty system of weather moving our way, and luckily Emo, Hoff and I got away before the hail storm came. Some elites weren’t so lucky, and had to race down in near blizzard conditions. I made a couple mistakes on my run that were costly given how short the course was. I felt strong and fast on the bike, but obviously need to work on my consistency and pace to keep up with the faster guys. Once the dust and hail settled the Polartec Team John Henry Bikes Powered by Ethical Bean DH team placed 16th, 17th and 18th with myself on a 2:13, and then Hoff and Emo respectively on 2:15s.

 

2011 Cumberland Island Cup DH Results

Cheers to the gong show for an awesome week-end. There were some epic laughs over chimp frogs, drunken dudes getting off the ferry, sketchy ladies in Cumberland, Jenga, Scrabble, cheeky kids stealing ice cream to name a few. Cheers to Chris for picking us and giving us a ride up and back.

It’ll be a hectic week for me as I prepare for BC Cup # 1 in Kamloops this coming week-end. I don’t believe Emo or Hoff will be joining, but some others from the downillers from Polartec Team John Henry Bikes Powered by Ethical Bean will be coming along. Until then Happy Easter.