Falcon pre-ride fun
On Sunday, Jane wanted to go to Steinbach to visit her mom with the kids, didn’t think they needed me around, so I took off to do some riding at Falcon Lake. The guys at Bikes and Beyond are putting on a bunch of races there next weekend. Super D (kinda like a moderate/long downhill), 4cross, KOM XC on Saturday and Cup Race 3 XC on Sunday. John at B&B said the cup course was marked and I had the map in hand, so I thought I’d check it out.
There is just no other place anything like Falcon that we get to race in Manitoba. The rocks are always challenging and it takes more than just fitness to race well there. It always takes me 10-15 minutes to get used to riding the rocks again, no different this time. It was my first ride on my 29er on such terrain, it worked really well, the Raven tires I had on worked way better than I expected.
The course is about as flat as you could make a course there. 2 or 3 long rocky singletrack sections, couple sections of gravel roads. Many sections totally underwater, specially the few sections of grassy doubletrack. This course is long – took me well over 35 minutes on my second lap, not full out, but close enough, probably like a lap 3 pace. So if you’re going, prepare for a long one.
Did manage to crash once and give my new bike a whole lotta character with a couple of decent scratches. Sure glad it’s a cheap frame…
All in all, awesome fun day at Falcon. Even got to chat with some of the Downhill guys who will be racing there next weekend. They didn’t seem to like the wet conditions at all and even seemed surprised by it… I didn’t ask if they had been to Falcon before.
June 10th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Water at Falcon – recipe for fun! I raced that course last year on my Crow/Raven tires and loved them. Except for on the wet grass. There it felt like riding on ice. It was good overall. Even in the deep water and especially on the rocks. They clung tenaciously.
What are you riding now? 29er what?
Linc