Linnea reports on racing in Toronto:

Kate, Sara and Linnea: ROAD TRIP! Photo by Gord Harris.We loaded up the team sprinter (aka The Fit) and headed west on I-90. Destination: Toronto, Ontario, Canadia.

Turns out the reason Kate travels so much is because she can't find her way home. 20 minutes of driving in concentric circles somewhere near Guelph, Ontario - after nine hours on the road already - and we finally stumbled upon the Harris Hilton, aka the Harris Family Zoo.

During Friday night's dinner, Kate's grandfather made a comment about the small ski hill at Centennial Park, built out of Toronto's trash. "You'll probably be racing up that." Oh no, we reassured him, 'cross doesn’t have sustained climbs…. How wrong we were…

Day one's course featured many hairpin corners and repeats up the ski hill. It was a truly brutal course - the turns were too tight to carry momentum through and to add insult to injury I ate it on the S-turns coming back down the hill on lap 3 and gave up 2 places. Argh! Frustrating… but at least the weather was beautiful.

Sunday’s course was almost the polar opposite – swoopy off-cambers, some punchy climbs and short technical sections.

I got a great start sitting comfortably on 5^th wheel through the hole shot, came ‘round the corner and discovered the barriers had been moved between the time we did warm-up laps and the start of our race. Kate, Linnea and Sara racing in Toronto. Photo by Kim Rutherford.Next time you’re going to pull that trick, Toronto, please inform us on the start line?

Over the barriers, onto the dirt road and toward the first of the punchy climbs whose entrance had to be taken one-by-one, and Pepper Harlton endo’d straight into the embankment. This resulted in a mass of people flying off their bikes, swearing, fighting for places. I managed to muscle my way back to 5^th position for a couple of laps, but then my mental toughness faded a bit and the 2 who had been dangling behind me caught on, pulled through, and a couple of bobbles later, I’d lost contact.

All in all it was a good weekend – great food and hosting with a top notch cheering squad and fantastic weather!

Check out October on Cyclingnews.com:
Linnea leads a group.
Kate battling on the big climb.
Kate in the lead group (before crashing and burning.)