BC Bike race, 28th June – 4th of July,
So. How did it go, what was it like?
In the previous two years the race had much more forestry road riding in the first three days, which was why I thought I’d be able to cope with the technical riding alright and have enough time to get used to riding roots and rocks. But the closer race day came, the more changes were made to the race – you guess it, they wanted to make it the ULTIMATE singletrack experience. And that’s what it was! This race is less of a ‘we ride from A to B to C to D’ kinda thing, it’s more a ‘we ride as much singletrack as possible at point A, then transport you to point B and ride as much singletrack as we can there, then we move you to point C…’ and you get the picture! This was bad news for me, but someone wanted a challenge right?
The race course was amazing. I never knew how much singletrack you can hide in a place. It went on and on and on, some days I was just looking forward to ride on forestry roads to get a break…for example on Day 2 we rode the first 40k’s exclusively on singletrack, oh hang on, I lie…there were about 5ks on the road riding through Nainaimo…it was mindbobbling at times. The terrain? Rough for me or anyone who was not Canadian. Julie always said, nothing in NZ can prepare you for what you’ll get to ride here, and on Day 1 I knew what she meant. Loads of up and downy tracks over roots, loads of lifting your bike (via riding or pushing) over uphill roots, tricky turns and twists, riding up rocks, riding down rocks and some rather steep shit…The organisers also made a lot of new tracks for this race, which was their payback to the local biking communities, but it also meant we rode a lot of real fresh trails, which, on a long day, can be a pain in the A. But there were also plenty of wicked old trails, flowy and just like back home! Needless to say I really enjoyed those!
And every day was different. None of the courses were the same and you never got bored.
And how did our race go?
Day 1 –
Day 2 –
Day 3 –
Day 4 – The
Day 5 – The sunshine coast part II, 55km. This day started with 2 flats at the beginning of the ride, on the road section - we lost the bunch big time and had to play a bit of catch up so that they don't pull us of the course as it was road closure through the public area...day 4 caught up on us that day, Julie was the first to bonk and the first half of the day was rather slow for her...once she came right, I decided to not be happy with the heat anymore and bonked! Talk about ping pong! I was about ready to throw up and pass out by the time the last aid station came round and we made it home somehow...
Day 6 – Squamish, 50km. This was the Test of Metal course and somehow we both managed to recover well after low energy day, even funnier was that we both felt better than on any of the days. People started to look rather tired around us and we felt it on the uphills when we started to leave the usual groupetto behind.
Day 7 – WHISTLER! 30km. As with Day 6, we were feeling on fire. We both rode stronger than on any of the days, I rode up hills I would have usually walked up and felt fine! The day started with a major climb, but we didn’t really care. We had a blast and screamed down the downhills and buzzed up the uphills. We were almost sad that the race was over and that we wouldn’t see the trusty volunteers at our Aid stations that had been such a relief every time we reached them!
The ups of the race?
Riding with Julie. She’s the best person I could have done this with. Sorry Julz that I was so slow at the beginning…
Riding with likeminded people around you. We’ve made so many friends, there were no egos out there (well, we didn’t hang out with the pro’s…) and it was a wholloda fun riding with a bunch of people that get the same buzz out of riding your bike for hours without end!
The singletracks. Who would have thought, but I started enjoying it!
The volunteers and aid stations. Social bunnies as we are we made friends with them, from day 3 on we just rolled into Aidstation 2 and our bikes were taken care of, water bottles and hydra packs were filled up for us and we got our special peanut butter sandwich handed to us! Talk about luxury treatment, you only get that when you’re at the back!
Tent city. Despite the snoring that went on in some of the neighbouring tents on some days it was such a great atmosphere, which you totally missed out on if you’d stayed in RV’s or hotels…go budget, have fun!
The Kick Arse Coffee. Yea, coffee man was THE man. Not having a good coffee in the morning almost stressed me out more than riding scary singletrack stuff – but there was no need to stress, coffee was served every day as soon as we got up! Good coffee!
Beers. There was always beer.
Being sponsored by Ryders Eyewear. Thanks to Brent I am now travelling light with 8 pairs of sunnies!
The downs?
The singletracks…yes, you can get sick of singletrack…
The transporting. We spent a lot of time in busses and on ferries in order to get to our starting point each day. Meant the mornings were a bit busy and hectic and starting times were late.
Day Zero. Have I ever stood in a line longer than on that day??? Hope they get this sorted for next year. If you go – be there early!
The non-existent after party. Apparently huge in previous years, but due to loss of sponsors and the economics, that was one of the things to go first. Meant we never really got to say good bye to some of the friends we made over the week.
The lack of bears. All hyped up, and nothing seen! Not even my favourite banana slugs were out!
Lessons learned?
Never listen to volunteers about a) what the track is going to be like or b) how much longer it will take you. They generally told you that there’s some really cool flowy downhill singletrack coming up, but ALWAYS forgot to mention that we had to ride through some tough shit or uphill for flipping yonks before we got to the downhill! And if they say, you’re there in 20min, it’ll take you at least an hour!
Take spare screws for your cleats. Nuff said.
Skills rule over fitness in this race. Knowing how to ride these Canadian trails or having good MTB skills is way more important than being superfit. If you don’t have the skills, you need persistence or just be dumb enough to try and ride the stuff!
All in all, a wicked wicked race. Go and do it! Even a MTB dumbo like me can enjoy this!
Big thanks to everyone who got me there – Ryders Eyewear, Peak Fuel, Em’s Powercookies, R&B Consultancy and Paul from Tricoach.co.nz
A huge thanks to everyone who has dipped in and supported limbs4all, the charity I chose to support during this race – every donation is greatly appreciated and will help someone to get back on their feet, literally.
And finally, a monster thanks to Julie for riding with me for 7 days!
And for Julie’s view on things, look at
