Nick Emsley

It was 6 days after the Homage to Ice and I was down in Uxbridge pre-riding the first Ontario Cup course of the year. My coach and a bunch of his athletes including myself did 2 laps of the course and got certain sections dialed in. The course was in great shape and it was a blast riding with some friends. The following day I had to go to work and do an 8 hour day on my feet which was tough. That evening I got as much rest as I could and got all of my racing gear ready for the next day. The following morning we got up and headed down to the race. We arrived around 9 in the morning and I got my Mother ready for her race at 10 am. It was great to  watch everyone at 10 am  race and to be able to cheer my Mother on. She had a great race with a 9th place finish. My race was at 1:30 pm so after my Mother was done I got some food and then went and relaxed. I have to say when you are waiting for a time to arrive it seems way longer then it is. Once it was time to do my warm up I h...

It was April 15 and I was up at 5:00 am getting prepared for the first race of the year. On the drive to Mansfield where the race was being held I relaxed and got myself prepared. It had been nice and warm for the previous week and on race day it was cold and raining. But at least I was ready and brought all of my riding gear. It was the first race in the Ontario XC Marathon Series put on by Substance Projects. My coach was there as well as some of my teammates. I was doing the half marathon in preparation for the Ontario Cup which was the following weekend. It did feel a bit weird dong the Half Marathon since I am used to do the full distance. My coach and all of his athletes went and did a warm up just before the race. After the warm up I went and did my final preparations and then headed to the start line. I lined up right behind my coach and on the right of him were my two teammates, Thomas and Scott. The start buzzer went off and the start was hard and fast. After the first few co...

It is April 5th and there is still 18" of snow in my home town of Haliburton. I hope the snow leaves soon since my race season is fast approaching. In preparation for  my race season I was down at my sponsor Frog Cycles installing a new drive train on my bike. I have been using a Shimano XTR 2x10 drive train for 3 years and it was time for an upgrade. There are so many different drive trains in today's market that it can make it very difficult to decide which one to go with. I chose a Shimano XT M8000 1x11 drive train. I picked Shimano since I have rode their drive trains ever since I started into cycling and I really like how they operate. I was tempted to go with XTR but the XT drive train is way cheaper and more durable then XTR. The only main difference between XT and XTR is the weight and that isn't huge. I will also be running a new XT brake system which are great. The levers are very smooth and they grab extremely well. I also just love the new 11 spd ...

Lauf Trail Racer vs Lauf TR Boost Fork For this blog post I am doing a comparison on two mountain bike forks designed and manufactured by Lauf Forks. I am going be reviewing the TR Boost and Trail Racer, they are both great forks and I am going to discuss what the pros and cons are. The first thing that I noticed when I started to ride the TR Boost is that it is one of the stiffest forks that I have ever ridden. Compared to the Trail Racer the Boost fork has better responsiveness in corners and responds to what you want to do immediately. The Trail Racer isn't as stiff laterally as the TR Boost is and you will notice that when you are cornering hard there might be a bit of flex in the Trail Racer compared to none with the TR Boost. The 60mm of travel is the same for both forks so you wont notice any difference with your suspension. Compared to the Lauf Trail Racer which uses a standard 100mm thru axle the Lauf Boost uses a 110mm thru axle. When I received the TR Boost fo...

It was the middle of October and I decided to head down to Mansfield to do the last race of the year. This was my first time at this race so I didn't know what to expect. This race wasn't your standard cross country mountain bike race, it was an ITT. For anyone who doesn't know what ITT means, it is short for Individual Time Trial. I left the starting gate in 3rd, right behind my good friend Luke Hlavenka who started 30 seconds ahead. The course was two laps of 15km in length and was mostly single track. I absolutely loved the course and all of the single track was in amazing shape. The 1st km was very tight and on some corners I had to come to a complete stop and track stand for a few seconds before continuing. The trail opened up and it became a very fast and fun course. There weren't to many big climbs but there were lots of spots to put the power down and fly. With about 3 km to go on the first lap I saw Luke ahead of me and I pushed it hard to catch him by the end ...

On Saturday September 24th I headed down to Hardwood Hills Ski & Bike for the Epic 8 hour race. I was super pumped for this event since it was going to be my first 8 hour. I was competing in the solo under 40 men division so I knew there were going to be lots of competition. The course was a 10km loop which was some of hardwoods best single track and it was very smooth. The race went out very fast and after the first couple of laps I settled into my pace. I had to make sure I was fueling myself well since it was a long race. The last couple of hours was the toughest and I pushed myself and put everything out on the course. At the end of the race which was very hard and challenging I placed 3rd with 15 laps. My teammate Adam Hill who was racing in the 40+ men division did awesome with a win. Considering it was my first 8 hour event I was very pleased with my performance. I had a great time and I am definitely planning on competing in another 8 hour event in the future. On t...

On September 11th I was headed to my local mountain bike venue of Sir Sam's Ski & Ride for the Ontario Cup Mountain Bike Championships. Over the course of a month prior to the event I was training on the course and getting all of my lines dialed in. Sir Sam's has been my home riding venue ever since I started to race so I was super excited to be racing on my home course. Compared to most of the Ontario Cup Races which have been quite rainy, it was a gorgeous day and a perfect temperature to race in. It had rained the night before the race so it made the course just a bit tacky which was great. At 10:30 my Mom was on the start line getting ready to blast off. She was racing in the 30 to 39 woman division and the competition was fierce  . She rode exceptionally well and had her best O-Cup race ever, and as always having a great time doing it. As soon as my Mom was done racing I started to get ready for my race which was at 1:30:00. Once 12:30 arrived I started my 45 minute ...