News From Matt!

This year Matt Hadley of Penniac, NB, just outside of Fredericton, joined Xprezo's Professional Mountain Bike Team. Previously he rode with Rocky Mountain. As you'll read below, Matt is doing very well! He sent me this update earlier in the week and was happy to let me publish it. Along with the updates we're getting from the Tour de Guadelopue this is just one more fine example of our Maritime riders throwing down!

Well done Matt, and thank you kindly for the update. Please, keep them coming!

Hi All,

I had such a great race on the weekend that it motivated me to write a news update! I raced the Bromont world cup this weekend, and finished 22nd, my best international result ever.

The race was super muddy and very technical. I had a good start and was able to maintain my position on the first few laps, and move up through the racers laps 2-4. It had rained all week, and the trail was new, so the mud was deep and plentiful. However, for our race it stopped raining, and the mud thickened to the texture of peanut butter, which made it very hard to ride. There were 2 sections where we had to run up climbs for 1 minute or so, and when you do that for 6 laps pushing a mud coated bike it gets very tiring.

On the last 2 laps I cramped really hard in both quads, and had to pedal a little easier to make it up the climb. I lost 4 positions on that lap, and was so tired I had trouble hanging onto the bars. I finished 22, coated in mud, and completely drained. A sure sign I pushed myself to the limit!

The rest of the season has gone really well too. I switched to a new team, XPREZO. They hand make excellent bikes in Bromont, Quebec. Everything is cut, machined, welded and assembled right there in a garage.

In other results this season I finished 4th overall in the Canada Cup series, 13th at Nationals (with a mechanical), and 28th at the Mount Saint Anne World Cup. My next race is the TransRockies, an epic 7 day stage race in the Rockies, starting Sunday. You can check out the Xprezo website for stories about it, or Pedalmag.com or Canadiancyclist.com for results and photos.

Thank you all for your support,

Matt

Matt Hadley
Xprezo Mountain Bike Team

Posted by O9man at August 6, 2008 10:32 PM

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