24 Hour Race

On Friday June 25^th some of the team headed up to Albion Hills Conservation Area of the annual 24 Hour of Summer Solstice. Two Wheel Express entered a team into the 6-10 person category. We had 7 people on our team being Simon, Jamie, Danielle, Corey, Duane, Samantha and Nathan. Along with our many loyal fans!

Arriving the day before the race started, most of us went out for a ride on the 17 km lap. After getting back from our rides, we settled down for the evening with supper and then sitting around the camp fire that kept going all weekend, courtesy of Nathan. We set up 4 tents, our team trailer and 3 Kenda tents up in our little camp site to accommodate to our total of 14 people.

Although Saturday’s forecast was calling for rain, when we all woke up there wasn’t any rain. All of us were hoping that the rain would hold off for the weekend and there wouldn’t be a replay of last years 12 hour race, cut short due to the mud. Unfortunately, the rain came, and the start of the race was delayed from 12 pm to start at 2 pm.

When it was about time to start the race, the rain had finally stopped and held off for the rest of the weekend. Everyone gathered around to watch the huge start of all the racers go off at once. Simon started for the Two Wheel Express team, pulling a solid lap, on the course that was not too muddy and kept getting better with each lap! Jamie followed Simon, pulling another fast lap, easily putting the team into first place. Danielle went next, followed by Duane and Corey. Finally after waiting quite a while Samantha and Nathan got their turn to do their laps, and after everyone on the team got a lap in, the first place position was still held.

After Simon went out for his second lap, the night laps started. Danielle and Samantha successfully completed their first night laps ever, and had a good time! The fog of the night making the night laps a little more difficult to see with our lights and all the roots a little more slippery, the added a little more danger and caution to the night laps.

The next morning, as 12 pm kept creeping closer and closer, our riders were getting more and more tired, due to a combination of hard racing and lack of sleep. Everyone on the team completed 3 laps with the exception of Simon, Jamie and Corey who completed 4. In total, Two Wheel Express completed 24 laps in the 22 hours that the race ran, and finished in first place. Way to go team!

Next race is Buckwallow, O-Cup #5!

By Samantha Wagler

Lake to Lake Classic

1st of all happy belated Fathers day to all them Dad's out there!

While most of the Two Wheel express gang decided to pre-ride the 24Hour of summer solstice race course on Sunday, Jamie and I raced the ever so famous Lake to Lake Classic.

Great day of. One Scott Scale 40 check, team gear and food check, one Jamie Wagler w. team "bus" ON TIME. check.

On our way we pick up Danny Souter and with. a non eventful drive we get down to the start line. With a good warm-up we line at the front rows and at 11am sharp off we go. Jamie takes the front lead while myself not so comfortable in a pack take the left side 4 rows down. Good spot plenty of space, crash free. U'd think. Not even 2 minutes into it.SNAP! Come around 2 guys on the ground and 5 more untangling their bikes. Not good, sprint to catch the main pack were in a good position entering the double track. a few "on your left-on your right's" and I'm chasing the front pack.

Hey i can see a Two Wheel Express Jersey, greeeeat see if I can bridge it. Lock out the Reba,full gas into a headwind with at least 15 people behind me easy task. Not so much. Thought some people might take some pulls but it’s a race, I forgot. Enter the ATV trails and that was some fun, trying to take the best line and keeping your speed was a task even four yours truly, but the Scott was up for the rough ride and "we" managed to lose some competition. Lost track of the leaders at this point. Ride your race. Halfway thru' and i came upon some great volunteers cheering and passing out water. Thank you, your support is appreciated.

Some great flowing single track down by St. Catherine’s which I rode mainly alone, eventually catching riders and riding over some epic mud bogs. Yes, one so epic it nearly "consumed" my bike (top tube deep). Last part of the race was spent hammering as hard as i could knowing that if you want a good finish it has to be under the 2hr mark. Jamie made that in 1h51min pulling of a 3rd place sprint that looked a la Mark Cavendish. Yours truly had a not so shabby 29th place overall, in 2hr05min.Happy.Will I be back? Absolutely.

Overall. a well organized race, good post race food, 9 out of 10 for course marking(yupp I almost got lost),congrats to Danny Souter for winning it (again) and thanks to chocolate milk. (nom nom)

It was a grrrreat day.

by Zoltan Pop

Two Wheel Express rides with Caledon Hills Club

So we have a couple weeks break between Ontario Cup mountain bike races now, so time to do block training for a lot of us! We got invited up to ride some trails up by Caledon Hills, Ontario by the crew from Caledon Hills race crew! This was a little weekly road trip with a drive of little over an hour one way, but hey why not! So we showed up had a little meet a great while splitting up into two groups and went off to shred some trails, discovering some new terrain and a new bonding experience with another great cycling team! By the end we gained a lot better technical skills as the trails they showed us were nestled in the escarpment with lots of rock face and off camber climbs and descents. It’s a poor situation as well were they had over 30km of trails and now is dwindled down to 10km tops. Only the young guys went to this area of trails, which was a mountain biker’s worst nightmare to see these beautiful trails just get ripped apart by logging. But to finish this on a good note I think anyone in the Caledon Hills area should most definitely check out their shop! Don Coats is an outstanding guy with a solid crew backing him up!

The following week was Hydro cut time to show the Caledon Hills team our little gold mine. After a delayed start time, do to traffic and the Caledon Hills shop getting bombarded last minute; we were off like stallions galloping on a majestic carpet ride with three split groups. One strictly girls with Danielle, Samantha (two wheel express) showing the Caledon girls Jenn and Shannon. Then it was the young guns and experienced guys with a little age behind them, in the other two groups. It was quite enjoyed by all, as we are all getting more comfortable with one another and our riding skills, along with joking amongst one another! By the end of the night we all arrived back in the parking lot to grab some high quality recovery drink in chocolate milk with a snack of cookies!...mmmhhm so yummy in my tummy!

These past two weeks of riding with another cycling group was a great experience to meet new people with the same passion for the sport and also to not just be strangers at races no more! An interesting note on the Caledon Hills Cycling club is that they are one of the largest clubs in Canada with 357 riders.

By Corey Hakkers