It’s that time of year again…ski season is ending and summer is starting. A sure sign of the changeover is the annual pilgrimage to Comox for the Snow to Surf race.

Following a first ever podium position last year, and the intro of a fast kayaker to the team there were high expectations. But then again, Jacek had never ridden a proper race bike before, Angie hadn’t left her desk for weeks, I was racing on giant powder skis, Nikki was coming off night shift and we had kayakers in the canoe, anything could happen!

With our bike guide absent on Saturday we went and got horribly lost in the Cumberland trails, but managed to have lots of fun in the process. After a stop for ice cream at the chocolate shop Andy and Lina took the canoe out to learn where the course went and make sure the boat didn’t sink like previous years:

Next morning we started up in the cloud on the mountain. I struggled a bit on the run, but had a pretty good ski and came in to hand off to Nikki somewhere around 20th place:

The reduced drag of Nikki’s new haircut gave her an extra burst of speed, so fast that we missed her coming in, but she had gained a couple of spots and handed off to Kala for the run. Hard to tell if that’s a smile or a grimace a minute or two post-race:

Kala tries to hitch a lift from the passing truck:

Clearly have too much fun:

Coming into the handover in the rain:

The next leg had changed from previous years so Angie got an all off-road leg, and a bonus couple of km, rather than the usual run down the road.

Waiting to start the Mountain Bike leg, Marc (Cap’n) Power had his race face on:

Stretching. Next year he’ll have the rollers out for warm up I’m sure:

In comes Angie:

Marc hammers out of the start…he still got beat by a 15 year old girl, but we won’t say anything…

Some navigational difficulties caused us to miss Marc handing over to Johnny for the kayak leg. Apparently Marc gained quite a few places, as did Johnny, powering past a couple before they even got up to speed.

Round in Cumberland Jacek came past in about 10th overall, surrounded by bobble-head time trialists with skin suits and carbon wheels.

Luckily, Jacek is a freak of nature and arrived at the final changeover in (we think) 13th, perhaps because he couldn’t actually reach the bike’s brake levers!

Down at the Canoe put-in, the sun finally came out:

Andy waits for Lina to arrive:

Here she comes:

And there they go:

Off to a fast start down the channel:

Lina looks determined:

A happy Jacek with Nikki and chief logistician Darcy:

Round at the finish there was a close fight for 8th spot overall:

With a sigh of relief we see Andy and Lina round the point in a non-sinking canoe:

Lina goes for the slam-dunk on the finishing bell (she can’t resist a photographer!):

Team Fig Rolls (minus Marc who had to shoot off to Nanaimo for his course) at the finish line:

Nikki refuels with the official team food:

At this point we thought we had finished about 15th, and probably 3rd in the Open Mixed, but after checking (and double checking) the results board, we had actually come 12th overall, and won the category! Whoohoo!

Edible medals and a real trophy:

Too bad our captain had to miss his moment of glory!

If we are going to keep this up, next year we might have to get some personal training: