Lindsay Trimble

Lindsay Trimble, known as LT to many of her friends, is an elite DH mountain bike racer. Riding mainly on the North Shore of Vancouver, she lives and works in Burnaby, BC and is on her bike any chance she gets. This season she will be competing in Canada Cups, BC Cups, Canadian National Championships, and the Oregon Enduro Series with the support of Rocky Mountain Bikes and the Bryson Racing Clan. Check in for updates on rides, races and results throughout the season!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Marathon xc'ers are bananas.

This weekend I took a break from the DH bike and headed up to Pemberton for the Nimby Fifty. The race course was about 40 km, and ascended almost 1.4 km of elevation. What?! Good thing I didn't know that when I signed up.

When we got to the race start and started warming up I felt pretty good. That was until after warming up I stopped to put bit of air in my fork aaaaand the valve broke. So I spent the last 20 minutes before the race running around looking for a tool to tighten the inside of my schrader valve of my fork. I didn't even know those came loose! Anyway, Phil Mowatt and the CCN trailer saved the day and I was on the start line moments before the race began. Phew!

The race it's started out pretty smoothly, on a paved road, then on a gravel road, but as the pack thinned out and the switch-backs started I knew I was probably getting in over my head. At one point I remember saying to another racer behind me, "I'm pretty sure we're riding this backwards". He thought that was funny!? One of my favourite parts of the race was when an old(er -don't want to offend anyone) guy passed me in his spandex onesie and a hardtail with a seat higher than my head. As he rode by he kept repeating "Slow and steady, slow and steady..." Haha, I guess it does work. I'm not too sure that he won the race though.

About 2/3rds of the way though the race I had a bit of a crash, which I only vaguely remember. I'm guessing it was because I was getting really tired at that point and was having trouble squeezing my brake levers with adequate force. Anyway I went over the bars descending a rooty section and although my brand new white helmet took the worst of it, my knees started leaking and made for the rather sticky mess pictured below.
Anyway, all's well that ends well. I finished the race in 4 hours flat and finished 3rd in my Senior Women's category. I almost made it to my Acupuncture exam on time, and the grass and dirt stains on my new helmet came off quite nicely with a little Mr Clean Magic Eraser.

Maybe in a few months I'll forget about the switch backs and sign up for another one of these crazy races. To my spandex-clad mountain bike brethren, people say downhilling is crazy, but you guys are bananas.

Pictured below - People lining up for the Sufferfest and me Post-race enjoying sitting on something other than my bike seat.


Monday, May 16, 2011

FVMBA Toonie Race #3

Here are a few photos from the Fraser Valley Mountain Bike Association's most recent toonie race. The course was a 1 km fire road sprint to a whole load single track descent, and a short fire road sprint at the end. It was a really fun course and despite a few minor crashes on the way down I won. I'm doing all of the races on my Rocky Mountain Element, and it's been the perfect bike so far for anything the Fraser Valley has to offer. D'Arcy is back in racing form after a shoulder surgery in December. On Saturday he finished 3rd in his category in the Orecrusher in Squamish despite a hydraulic seatpost malfunction, and finished middle of the pack despite a twisted chain on Sunday.

More details photos and results can be found at www.fvmba.com.






Friday, May 13, 2011

Friday afternoon favourites.

I'm pretty lucky to have a career that affords me the ability to ride my bikes as much as I do. Three days a week I finish work around 1 pm, ride my road bike home, and then hop on my xc bike for a spin while most people still have a few more hours to put in at the office.

Today I left work at noon and headed out to Belcarra for a ride. Something about the fact that it was finally sunny and warm, or maybe that it was a Friday, whatever it was, it felt really good to be in the forest. Belcarra is a neat place to ride because there's trails pretty much everywhere, you can get from the top to the bottom at least 30 different ways, but they're all really fun, and there's lots of big rock faces to ride down... my favourite.

Here are a few shots from my afternoon.