I'm barely in the top 20, and I have to ride 15 min on the flat before the pits. After pushing so hard for the first 1:30 hrs, my mental is now down the drain. And after thinking for the rest of my lap what the possibility of scoring any points was.... I pulled off in the pits. I was now on my 4th stop in 5 laps, and second big crash on the same day. After more than 20 years of dominating the FMSQ, the 2009 title is almost gone....  Riding the CEC (Canadian Enduro Championship) out West, I missed a round, and now this is my second race with no points, so ......

SO the ride back home was really painful, really really painful!!!! 

But no time to digest my lost, as I need to help the organisers put on the CEC in Labelle, so Monday was spent planting posts to define the grass track. Tuesday too, while Wednesday was spent working on the bike and loading. Thursday, we set up the Xtreme test and the ribbons for the MX test. Friday, I set up of the rig and finished the “decoration” for the different tracks....

Friday night I was already tired, and my mental was really down, so I joined a few volunteers for a late night beer before going to bed!

I'm good, I will make it - just. Ooops, almost there, a little less wheelspin. Got it now - No, blew it, another 30sec. lost!

Saturday I felt pretty good, I did feel a lot of pressure from being the local favourite, against Canada's best off-road riders. I went off and tried not to make too many mistakes in my own designed layout...   I did a bunch of little ones, but I guess everybody was doing them too, as I finished my 6 hours of riding feeling really good. I wasn't too tired, and the bike was in perfect shape, so I changed the filter and put a new Dunlop in the back, and finally sat down at around 5pm. Then the results came out!!! I was 2nd in E2, 3rd overall - my best result of the season by far!!!!  Karine had a good day too, finishing 2nd, but she was dead. I guess her 3 hrs of riding took its toll....

After a fancy dinner in Mont-Tremblant with The Boss, I decided to keep my new routine up and went back to the volunteers to have a few last beers...

Sunday came and the sun was still shining, I was feeling super, finally landing on the podium gave me wings!!!  At the first extreme test, a guy was stuck on the main trail, so I had to take the easier but longer ”chicken” pass. I managed to lay it down in the trail, then in the enduro test I got stuck up a rock cliff.... The day was going bad. When I got to my pit after lap one, my leg was also hurting from that stupid nerve that keeps bugging me...  I ate a sandwick and took some pain killers, and I was back out for lap 2. This time no mistakes, lap 3 the same, until 5 km from the end. Another stupid flat!!!!! I was in the liaison and had plenty of time to change it. To finish my weekend, there was one more MX test to go. That test was so much fun, I always loved grass tracks and this one was perfect, I had prepared it!!!

So for my last test I was pumped. I gave 150%, when I got to the grass section, the small but really loud crowd was going crazy, and that made me go even crazier. I held the Beamer pinned, using every inch of the track!!!! It was a great way to finish a great weekend!!!  Right after the test, as I was finishing my interview, I called all the pros that were left in the field to come with me for a few lap of fun racing for bragging right... We had a blast, after 6hrs of racing we were out there riding for fun!!!!!!

When the result came up, I was again 2nd, but 4th overall, which gave me 3rd for the weekend!!!!  Finally my goal was achieved, and with another good weekend next week in Barrie (ON) for the last round of the 2009 CEC, I could land on the podium of the E2 class!!!!   

Stay tuned, next weekend will be interesting...

G-Rocks 



Photo Credit : Guy Giroux