The Robbie Report is a weekly feature on MTBracenews.com. Robbie Squire is the 2008 Junior National Champion and the newest member of the US National Team. Just two years ago Squire was racing as a Sport. In '08, his first year and only year as a Junior Expert, Robbie won the Junior National Championship. In '09 his first year in the senior ranks, the Utah resident will be racing with the U.S. National Under-23 Team. Each week Robbie will share his experiences with us. Join in as the 19 year-old Junior National Champion and first year Pro travels across the United States and Europe racing his bike and living out a once in a lifetime opportunity.

This last weekend was the Mount St. Anne World Cup in Canada. It was the first of two World Cups in Canada and the site for the 2010 world championships. The course was by far the most technical course I’ve ridden all year. It was a dramatic change from the previous weekends national championships course and a good experience in the mud. The area was fairly damp when I arrived but seemed to be drying out as it got closer and closer to the race. I was worried if switching to mud tires was a bad decision until the day before the race. It poured rain right up to and through the entire race.

The course contained many roots and odd angled rocks that were fairly difficult to ride when dry and once the rain everything was slippery. The most exciting part of the course was a very steep and narrow rock garden that was a do or die section. If you fell on this part you were most likely going to be taken out by the medical staff. Leading up to the race it dumped rain, which made everything nice and slippery for the men’s race. Even with the rain this was by far my favorite course of the year and I hope that the next few races I do are analogous. The field was 107 deep and yours truly was bringing up the rear. It’s funny that if I had finished dead last in this race I would have still had a better finish (number wise) than in the European world cups.
The start was faster than I had expected but I was soon able to move up and gaining a better position. Despite the wide-open route used for the start of the race things backed up as the race went into the singletrack. Not only did the singletrack require that racers slow down and be a bit cautious; it was also too small for everyone who was trying to get to the front. The race bottlenecked and I ended up standing around and walking quite a bit on the first lap.

I felt really good on the climbs during the race and wasn’t losing any positions but once I hit the technical muddy singletrack sections I might as well have been walking because I spent so much time fumbling on little sections. I was able to ride the sections twice but for the majority of the race I didn’t represent a professional mountain biker (not in my mind at least).

I ended up finishing 55th, which I’m pretty happy with and I know that I can do much better. The race was a tough reminder of how to race in the rain but I think I held my own on the descents and the really slippery stuff, as I’ve been told it just takes time.

After the race I traveled with the US National team down to Bromont, Canada, for the next world cup. The race is on Sunday so I have all week to check out the riding here. So far I’ve found a mountain bike park that is run by the Bromont ski resort and has numerous downhill trails that are a lot of fun.

Although I’m only 50 miles from the U.S. this place feels more like France than America. Everyone here speaks French and the culture is French. Due to the proximity to the U.S. there are a lot more familiar things in the grocery stores and along the sides of the roads here but the area has a distinct European feel. From the rooms and bathrooms to the European racing teams that are staying at the same hotel there are many similarities. The geographic layout is also very reminiscent of Europe; there are hills but no mountains and mostly small winding roads through the forest.

This is the second race in the 4 weekends of racing that are going on and my fourth world cup of the year. I’m heading out to ride the course tomorrow so I’ll get a good feeling for whether it is a course that’ll suit me or if it will be a little more interesting.