2018 – A Season in Review:
Even though I’m up to my eyeballs trying to complete my final year engineering design project, I still really wanted to put out something reflecting on the 2018 season. So here it is, a multi-part extravaganza.
Part 1: The brief, yet long, race overview:
Feb. 25th: Banyoles, Spain
This was an HC event, also known as the early season World Champs, as all of the heavy hitters showed up. It was necessary for us to go to this event to get some race legs before heading to Stellenbosch, South Africa for the early season World Cup. It was a fun trip! I finally got to visit Girona, tour around Europe with my brother Quinton and girlfriend Nicola, and I got my race legs tuned up for the World Cup.
Photo: Nicola Wenn
March 10th: Stellenbosch World Cup, South Africa
Quinton and I headed to the bottom of the world 2 weeks out from this World Cup to try to acclimatize to the heat. This place had some great riding, cool trails (although very hot) and a wicked AirBnB. I can see why the Euros love going to Cape Town area for their winter training – they almost have trails as good as Canada. I had a reasonable race considering most of my preparation for this race came from the trainer.
Photo: A fan
March 31st: Bear Mountain, Victoria, BC
The opening Canada Cup came after a very hectic two weeks at school since returning from South Africa. That two weeks was the only time I had back in class before leaving for the semester, because as you’ll see, we were on the road for quite a bit after this race. Honestly, I had a great race in Bear if you disregard the two front flats I had. Still managed 3rd.
Photo: Kevin Light
April 7th: Fontana, California
After Vic we headed down to LA for some good weather. Fontana is always one of my favourite California races because although the venue is odd, the course is bomb. Still rolling off that high in Victoria, I managed my first US Cup podium with 3rd.
The short track on the Sunday however did not go as great.
Photo: Kenny Wehn
April 12th: Bonelli Park, California
To this day, I have not had a race at Bonelli where I felt like I was on top of it and in control, and this year was no exception. I crept up to my best result on this course, but man it was hot, dusty, and brutal. It also took me a while to pee after getting selected for drug testing.
The short track was fun. I went for the first lap prime but Blevins was on another level.
April 21st: Sea Otter, Monterey, California
Sea Otter is a week of events and adventure and is always a cool, but tiring experience. This year I finally landed a podium spot in the XCO. To be honest, things in the short track were looking very promising, but the sand pit took out the Norco train on the last lap. Regardless, Sea Otter brought a 5th place in the XCO and a feature in Mountain Bike Action. Boom!
Photo: Tom Richards
May 20th: Albstadt World Cup, Germany
After some time at home followed by a big camp in Kamloops, BC with coach Keith and Catherine Pendrel as training partners, it was time for more World Cup racing. Albstadt, although one of the tamest courses, is by far one of the scariest in my opinion, especially when wet. This year however, wet was an understatement. The rock is like ice when wet and the dirt is a thick, sticky sludge that likes to pack up your tires and weigh your bike down. If this was cyclo-cross we would be pitting once a lap. Despite the conditions, it ended up being best World Cup of the season with a 28thfinish. I was riding well although cautious, but fast and clean.
Photo: Andy Vathis
May 27th: Nove Mesto Na Morave World Cup, Czech Republic
My favourite World Cup venue and course, NMNM does not disappoint unless of course you have sub-par legs. My legs felt good, but I wasn’t able to repeat a top 30 like at Albstadt. Crowds were epic as usual.
Photo: Andy Vathis
June 10th: Horseshoe Valley, ON
This local Canada Cup, 500m down the road from me is one of my favourite courses with my best track record. I had won this race 3 times in a row, but this year I had a mechanical off the line. I got back on course just in front of the junior field that started 2 minutes behind us. I managed to beat my way through the elite field up to 5th, finishing 2 minutes and change down on the lead. So close to making it 4 wins in a row, but that’s racing.
Photo: Nicola Wenn
June 17th: Hardwood Ski & Bike, ON
Hardwood, the other half of the local Canada Cups, this one 5km from my house, was not so good. I think the effort from Horseshoe really hung around, so I was only able to salvage 4th at this one, but Quinton held it down with the win!
A Disera Story: Episode 003 shows the home race action
By: Right Brain Creative – Matt Evered
July 7th: Val di Sole World Cup, Italy
Well, this one was a mess. Our bikes didn’t arrive until 2 days before the race, and I was a little spun. The race did not go well, and was the first time I’d been pulled in 4 years. And the worst part was that it wouldn’t be the last time this year.
Photo: Andy Vathis
July 14th: Vallnord World Cup, Andorra
I love Andorra. The views are awesome and the course is pretty epic. You have to take a gondola up 700m to get to the base of the course. So you’re racing on the top of a mountain on a shale, loamy, rough course with way too much climbing. I managed a on-par race.
Photo: Andy Vathis
July 21st: Canadian National Championships, Canmore, AB
With some small course changes compared to last year, this year’s course was flat out, very dry, dusty, and loose. I threw down heavy at the beginning and paid for it. It was quite an effort and I was surprised anyone was able to stick it. This hurt me and when Raph Gagne bridged up after the pace cooled off, he quickly ramped it up and got away. Going out on the last lap Raph suffered a flat, and I snuck by with just enough space between us to go on and win Nationals for the second time in the elite category.
Photo: Rob Jones – Canadian Cyclist
August 5th: Kentville, NS
My first time out in Atlantic Canada was this year for the Kentville Canada Cup in Nova Scotia. It was an awesome time and some great racing. The course was super cool, rough, raw and challenging in the wet. The young guns showed us what was up this weekend with Fincham taking the win.
Photo: Disera Racing
August 12th: Mont Sainte Anne World Cup, QC
The epic MSA World Cup is an amazing course – so hard and so gnarly. The best part is that it will be the 2019 Worlds venue. This race was special this year because since the UCI decided to include short track racing in the World Cup schedule, I hadn’t been able to qualify for any until MSA. This was because they only take the top 40 UCI ranked riders for the short track races, and I was the 39th qualifier here. I had some fun with it, but unfortunately I was just off the back of the front group and never really made contact. No front row start for me, but the XCO went well finishing 36th.
Photo: Andy Vathis
August 26th: La Bresse World Cup, France
After MSA we took off to Livigno, Italy for an altitude camp before heading to La Bresse for World Cup finals. Unfortunately, it was another horrid day and capping off the 2018 World Cup season with another good result wasn’t in the cards. I was one of the first riders to be pulled, and what was going through my head will be touched on later. For now, let’s just say it wasn’t great.
Photo: Andy Vathis
September 8th: Lenzerheide World Championships, Switzerland
After La Bresse, the national team hosted a quick altitude camp in Alp d’Huez, France before driving up the Lenzerheide for Worlds. The course doesn’t have too much elevation gain but is super rough, and Worlds was a lot of fun. Team Canada put in a relay team this year, and I was the anchor for the Canadian squad which was a great chance to get a fast lap in on the course. For the XCO a few days later I finished 49th, and although that result may not look great, I was very happy with how I raced. I got caught up in a bunch of crap off the start but had fire to charge. Unfortunately, I then flatted, but was able to charge back. All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went.
Photo: Andy Vathis
October 21st: Dam Cross, Woodstock, ON
This race came about because I decided I was going to race cross nationals and needed to get at least one cross race under my belt before that. I quickly realized I’m going to need to work on some skills as Ontario local Trevor O’Donnell kicked my butt.
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Pete Disera was the only rider to consistently ride the sand at Dam Cross
Video: Rob Jones – Canadian Cyclist
November 3rd: Iceman Cometh Challenge, Traverse City, Michigan
This was my first time every doing Iceman and I had heard so much about it. It was a super awesome event with lots of fun and a great atmosphere. It’s a point-to-point race with a huge participation presence. ~5000 racers complete the route in the morning and hang around at the finish as the pros come into finish mid-afternoon. It is like finishing a World Cup – so loud. I had some solid legs, and tactics almost played out. In the end, I had to settle for 4th.
Photo: Kenny Wehn
November 4th: Silver Goose PanAm Championships, Midland, ON
From Traverse City, MI to Midland, ON, it was a bit of a haul and I did not feel good on Sunday for PanAm Champs. Nonetheless, I threw a leg over my CX bike and tried for the best. Unfortunately, the course had become tacky, and the epic mud from the day before disappeared.
Photo: Disera Racing
November 10th: Canadian Cyclo-Cross National Championships, Peterborough, ON
Believe it or not, this was my first time to Peterborough which was exciting, and the cross racing was pretty good too. I learned how to hop barriers in practice, and then the snow came in and made everything nice and muddy for race day. Perfect! Unfortunately, the cross-specific athletes had way more power than my ‘just trying to finish off school’ self. I still managed a nice 5th place after doing some damage control on the last lap and winning the sprint finish.
Photo: Andy Vathis
November 11th: PTBO CX, Peterborough, ON
Day 2 of the Nationals weekend was another exciting mud fest. The epic off-camber sections were so rowdy. Nothing crazy happened, I got stuck in no man’s land and rode steady for another 5th place finish.
Photo: Andy Vathis
~27 Starts
3 Continents
10 Countries
4 Canada Cups
3 U.S. Cups
2 National Championships
7 World Cups
1 World Championships
Photo: Nicola Wenn
