- [Christina] Great day for a great day,
wow, lungs hurt.
(Coughs)
- [Christina] Whoa, we're gonna die.
- All right folks, you know the saying, rock what you got.
And I've never batted an eyelash at bringing my Enduro bike
to the local cross country races 'cause for me,
it's primarily about the downhill.
Springtime here in Whistler and that means Toonie time.
Now, why is it called a Toonie you might wonder?
Well it used to cost just $2 Canadian to enter.
And every week, hundreds of us local racers would line
up for the gnarly suffer fest Cross-Country race.
Now, unfortunately for me,
I could not find a single friend to join me
on this savage Cross-Country lap today.
So therefore I'm gonna do it by myself.
Gonna use it as a little training challenge
because I have not done a race in a very long time now.
I think some of you can kind of relate to that.
I'm gonna go out there on the Enduro bike.
I'm gonna give it my all,
try my hardest on those uphill climbs,
upload my time to Trailforks and earn that
little badge of honor and my free beer too.
After that, I'm gonna patiently wait for a couple of days
and see if any other women can come upload a faster time.
If they do, then it's back out
to the Cross-Country course for me.
But if needed, I've got a secret weapon.
It's the very first virtual Toonie race of the year.
And, coincidentally, it's sponsored by Pinkbike, Trailforks
and the Whistler brewery.
So I thought it'd be quite rude to miss out on this one.
All right, wish me luck because my lungs hurt already
and it's cold out.
(bright upbeat music)
Bike is ready.
Got my route uploaded to my little computer there.
It's kind of a wiggly course, I'm not going to lie,
so it's going to be a little confusing at times I think.
We're basically going all the way up there
and then just climbing forever.
And we're off.
Follow route.
How good, brand new trail!
Oh
(panting)
I don't know if it's the GoPro or why,
but it's hard to breathe.
All right, loosen the hands,
the grip.
(breathes out)
I can never be a Cross-Country racer.
This is (beep).
(groans)
Oh
(clears throat)
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah baby, Slash is happy now.
Oh, but wait, there's more climbing.
(groans)
(sniffs)
It was fun there for a sec wasn't it.
Oh god.
(breathes out)
(sniffs)
Finish!
(cheers)
Um,
yeah,
I don't think that was terrible.
25 minutes roughly,
I'm gonna go upload my time
and get a more accurate answer.
We'll report back.
How do I feel? I feel like (beep),
um, I don't know if that chocolate fudge thing
was the best idea.
I felt pretty sick the whole way.
And then I thought I'd throw a curve ball
and cause it's so hot slash cold.
Didn't wear a chamois, but I wore these undershorts
and they just kind of like dug into my stomach
where the fudge thing was sitting and
um, so yeah,
I am glad I put a few extra PSI
in those tires though, because it definitely helps
for the rolling resistance and stuff.
(bright upbeat music)
All right it's Friday morning.
It's the final day to head out
and do the virtual Toonie course.
I uploaded my time for my race the other day
and I've been watching over the last couple of days
and somehow, my Enduro time is still winning.
To keep the challenge alive, I've gone out
and found the fastest time
on this track in the past month.
Wanting to keep it honest, there's some new trails there so.
Fastest time on the track in the last month,
that's actually my girlfriend, Chloe,
who's a crazy fit cross country rider.
And I wanna beat Chloe's time now.
So if I know her, she was definitely out there
on a really pimped out Cross-Country bike.
So I think it's time to bring out that secret weapon.
(intimidating music)
I feel a lot better.
I'm a lot fresher.
Let's get some water in us.
Never ridden this bike before I've got an hour ago.
Super smart, I think I'll just take it on a
30 minute suffer fest of a Cross-Country lap.
And we're off.
Oh my god.
(tires on gravel)
(panting)
Oh this bit of trail is very tiring.
(breathes out)
(groans)
Whipped Cream.
(panting)
two big climbs down,
we're almost somewhere.
(panting)
Ow.
(panting)
Oh.
More.
Very.
Steep.
Punchy.
Owie.
(breaths)
Almost at the finish.
Oh my god my foot just clipped.
Ow.
Ah screw it.
(cheers)
Overall I felt, like I had to really be on it
with the bike and the line choice.
I couldn't, I couldn't be as lazy
as I am on my Enduro bike with the grippy tires
especially because it was so slippery today.
So I had to like, even those tight switchbacks
going uphill like, really had to focus
and put the tires where I wanted them to go.
Definitely didn't feel as confident on the downhill
but at the end of the trail it was, it was pretty fun.
We were having some moments, I caught a little air,
my Garmin told me so.
Yeah, I'm excited to see the times.
Let's go check it out.
Okay, now that I can breathe, got some warm layers on
let's check those results.
Okie dokie,
so my time in comparison
to the top time set on this course, this month.
Is actually two seconds quicker!
That's kinda crazy.
Am I, am I a cross country racer?
Did that just happen?
I think there's something to be said about the right tool
for the job or right bike for the course in this case.
And as far as racing goes, win or lose,
I have made some of my best friends
and best memories out on the race courses
just suffering with people that you've only just met.
Hope you guys liked this video
and if you enjoyed my heavy mouth breathing
then make sure to subscribe
'cause there's more where that came from.
(bright upbeat music)