Sombrio Girl Claire Buchar still managed to take Nationals with a flat!
Heres how Claire describes her unreal win!

Since like 2003 it seemed like every year at the Canadian National Champs something would go wrong- a flat, a double flat, a front flat to separated shoulder, a broken thumb etc. Well I finally managed to pull it off….but just barely!

 The Nationals were held at le Massif du Sud in Quebec, which by the way is pretty much in the middle of absolute nowhere, so I was pleasantly surprised to find the track amazing. It was fast, technical, rooty and fun. It even had a couple fun jumps on it and it all flowed real nice.

 The weather was on and off rain, typical for Quebec, so there was mud, mud and more mud. It was soooo good though, the track really held up and stayed fast so it was okay.

 I was riding well right from the start. I was just loving it and was riding it like it was dry. My M6 Evo was just carving it up!

 I qualified 21 seconds ahead of  2^nd place and that proves I was riding fast because it’s not like we don’t have fast girls in Canada.

 I was hoping for a win the next day but to my dismay only 1/3^rd of the way down the track I hear the dreaded sound of the flat tire pssssssssssssssss! Yup, I had a rear flat. I couldn’t believe it! But I just absolutely DID NOT give up. I kept pinning it almost as fast as if I didn’t have a flat except for a few jumps I had to miss because I didn’t have the speed I needed and all the pedally bits were real hard and the last sprint to the finish was very slow. I came across the line thinking I had lost. I couldn’t believe it when they said I had won by just 2 seconds! Woohoo! Lesson learned, never give up!

 So there you have it. Finally the Canadian National Champ. Stoked.

 Thanks for all of your support and wish me luck at the next 2 World Cups here in Quebec.

 Claire.