11/23/2025
My final big race of the season was the BC Cup at Big White.
•
Before the main training runs, I did a few laps to get a feel for the bike park, which was completely new to me. I tested the grip on the unfamiliar surface- a kind of powder made of tiny rocks- and realized how rocky the terrain actually was.
•
My first run on the race track completely threw me off. I had never seen so many rocks packed into one trail. It seemed almost impossible to ride fast there. But with every new run I started finding better and better lines, and the track slowly began to grow on me.
•
The real adventure started on finals day. On my first run I made a small mistake and slammed my front wheel into a big rock. It sliced my tire open and basically sent my rim straight to the trash. By the time I rolled down and put on my spare tire, I had lost a lot of time- but I still hoped to squeeze in one more practice lap before the finals. Unfortunately, when I got back up to the top, I realized practice was already over. I missed it by just a couple of minutes. My only option to get a feel for the spare tire and warm up was to ride down through the bike-park tracks, so that’s what I did.
•
All season I had been riding a Maxxis Assegai up front, and by the end of the year the only spare I had left was a Schwalbe Magic Mary- a tire I had never ridden before. So the first run on it felt completely different: cornering, rolling speed, the feedback into my hands- everything was new, and honestly worse than the Assegai.
•
Then it was time for the final run. I decided not to overthink the new tire and just ride like I did during training, focus on having fun, and leave the stress behind.
After my seeding run, I knew a podium was possible. So when I heard my final time- three seconds faster than my seeding- I was really excited. It meant I had a good chance at the podium and that despite the new tire, the weird feeling, and all the chaos earlier, I still managed to put together my fastest run of the whole weekend.
In the end, I finished third- my first podium in Canada in Elite Pro Men. I’m super happy with this result.