[Kris]

Hello from Saskatchewan! A friend and I are thinking of coming out to Winnipeg to do the race at Grand Beach in a couple of weeks. Anyone here who's raced there? What's the course like? Is it worth the trip? How's about conditions, will it still be a total mud pit (like Sask trails!) in April?

Cheers, and thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Paul Doe]

Like Sask. this time of year the weather could be a factor although its beautiful right now. The Grand Beach area is fairly sandy, the course won't be a sand pit but its sandy enough that it drains well and is usually one of the earliest rideable trails.

 

[RayKay]

Hello from Saskatchewan! A friend and I are thinking of coming out to Winnipeg to do the race at Grand Beach in a couple of weeks. Anyone here who's raced there? What's the course like? Is it worth the trip? How's about conditions, will it still be a total mud pit (like Sask trails!) in April?

Cheers, and thanks in advance for any info!

Hey Kris,

I have raced and ridden at Grand Beach many times.

Depending on how they lay out the course it can be very fast as it runs on some cross country ski trails, but they can also incorporate some of the fairly technical sections from the summer games that make it more challenging technically. I would imagine it will probably have a mix of the two though being a Cup Race and going by organizer.

It is a fairly sandy course in areas, so if its wet can make it interesting, heck if its dry there are places it will grab your wheel. There are some areas that are sandy descents where you gotta just plow through the sand On the plus sise, should not be too muddy, and the weather here is beautiful at the moment so it might be reasonably dry overall.

The course does generally have a mix of some longer, slower climbs and a few descents and ranges from single to doubletrack. Overally, Grand Beach is generally a pretty fun course though and one of my favourite places to go and ride for closeness and just generally being a fun course. It's well treed and in a lovely area. I'd say it would be worth coming out for! Turn out should be decent as it is First Cup Race of season though unfortunately it is competing with another larger local even that weekend run through Fort Whyte.

Hope you do come out, and if you have any more questions about GB or any other courses/races in MB I'd be pleased to help out

 

[PaddyH]

hope you guys try your luck again in MB...Brandon and Swan River are wicked close....and they'll be tonnes of folks out...GB had to compete with a Rd TT, a 10km run, some urban "eco" adventure, and a couple of us were in Iowa so I could race across it..hope to see ya in our neck of the woods again.

 

[Kris]

Hi, I forgot about this thread until I got a notice that there was a reply.

Grand Beach was a BLAST! It was a great, great racecourse, perfect mix of double track, single track, some technical climbs, not very many tech decents though. All in all I loved it! My friend and I were disappointed to have to race in the Sport category due to a licencing issue, but we placed well (3, 4), and likely could have finished in the same positions in Expert as my pace was increasing towards the end and I only would have had to maintain my pace to place 3rd in Expert. The race was shorter than those in Sask, all categories were 1 lap shorter although the lap felt slightly longer than we have. The area was beautiful, I love having the opportunity to ride in pine, which we don't have in south Sask.

I'd love to race the Brandon race, but it's on the same weekend as my clubs provincial race at Wascana Trails outside of Regina... and my wife is giving birth to our second child the next day! I'd also like to try the race out at Falcon Lake, I bet that would be a great area to ride.

Cheers to all Manitobans, hope to see you on your home turf again soon, or in Sask. We have some great races here, like the 8 hour endurance race at Buffalo Pound (a fab place to ride!) our club is going to put on in September.

 

[PaddyH]

if you guys go through with your 8hr race, and I would assume you'd have a solo category, I will be there, for sure. No doubt

Falcon lake is a great place to race. Hope to see you guys back out here, racing Expert...perhaps you'll see some of us in your neck of the woods too...assuming there are "woods" in Sask...jk

 

[Kris]

Once we have the details finalized I'll post them here. This is the first year we're attempting something like this, so details are still up in the air. There will be solo and 2 person categories. We're hoping to have a new course designed, hopefully with laps roughly twices as long as those used for the Canada Cup races held there.

Have you ever riden BP? I love it, best place to ride in south sask, longish climbs, great mix of long flowy decents and some new short-steep-arse-on-the-back-wheel decents, lots of singletrack. I'm not sure if we'll be able to incorporate some of the new trails in the course, they are very steep and technical, many people would be put off by them. Hell, there's one trail that I still have not succesfully riden.

 

[PaddyH]

ya, I did the CC's there, once as in Sport(due to licence issues), once as Expert(busted my chain and DNF'd), I actually stopped by BP on the way to K-country/Rockies last year to ride but all the race course trails were grown over, kind of a dissapointment...the first time we drove out to race there, I was impressed by the terrain.