Day 7 and Beyond

Ok yes I was slack and not posting the final Day 7 of BC Bike Race! It was a short and sweet day and just as fun as the rest. We were sent off in waves today and we were in the first wave - perfect, with a climb up to mid station on Whistler mountain gave us a lead from the rest of the waves and a clean run down Crank It Up Trail with no congestion. Over to lost lake trails with a 10min enduro section - so much fun! We crossed the line with huge smiles on our faces and held on to our first place win overall. Time for a dip in the lake, some good food and of course some well deserved beverages. HUGE thanks to John Henry Bikes for keeping my bike in top condition and finely tuned pre-race, during the race, and all the months leading up to it! Also HUGE thanks to Norco Bikes for keeping me on the most up to date high performance Phaser 1 XC Race bike - this thing didn't skip a beat all week or all year! And now I have the absolute pleasure of parting with this bike to get myself on the latest Norco Sight 1 with 140mm travel and dropper seat post .... oh no its trouble now!! I can't contain my excitement to ride this thing and it will get christened in the Whistler Bike Park tomorrow (or is that a bad idea ;) prepping for Whistler Crankworx Enduro next week. All you guys rock, thank you so much for the support over the past 3 years!

Day 6 BC Bike Race Squamish

Well got to bed a little too late last night after the flight off grouse, then dinner, then repacking for the final 2 days then a full body massage (oh boy did that feel sensational!).

Up early to drive to Squamish (after Todd cooked me pancakes and eggs - thanks Todd!), I was feeling tied and thought maybe my body got tricked going home thinking that all this riding was finally over!  But the day ended up being unreal!  I knew this course extremely well and I remember suffering on it very badly last time I did BC Bike race back in 2009.  But today I felt the opposite.  It was like I hadn't been racing the last 6 days ... what?? I don't get it - but will take it. Felt strong and the course was so much fun. The sun was shining the trails were in amazing condition and there was a beer garden at the finish line!  What more could you ask for!

We came in 3hrs 23mins today, about 15mins faster then we thought we would and extended our lead with the yellow jersey even more.  Wendy has about a 45 second lead overall for the females over me for the enduro timed downhill sections so will have to see how today's times shape up with one last day tomorrow - but it looks like she might take the win on this - such great competition to have her to battle with!!
Oh today was funny - the first timed downhill - a guy jumped right in front of me before it started - so I think, ok he must be fast and didn't want to be behind me - and well he was pretty good for the first part, but I was on his wheel for a while then asked to pass several times, towards the bottoms after some hasseling and loosing valuable time of not being able to go faster being stuck behind him, he finally lets me by. We get to the bottom and I look back to kinda say - what the heck was that not letting me past and his comment was 'I didn't want to get past by a girl'!!!  Well at least he was honest ;)  He was pretty chill and said nice riding and then apologized when I said I was trying to take first place female and he was holding me up, but I still laugh that he actually didn't want to let me past because he didn't want to get chicked!!

Pics for the day are still to come.

Day 5 BCBR Sunshine Coast

Today was going to be a shorter day - yippee!
40kms and 3hrs 15'ish mins.  I know the trails in this area pretty well and I also knew the last 10kms decent into the finish line pretty well - we just had to get past all the climbing to get to this descent!!

Roll out start and we start climbing pretty much immediately.  Wasn't quite strong enough and we got pushed a little too far to back.  But we kept the climbing legs pushing as much as they could and was actually enjoying the trails we were on for the climb.  Feeling pretty good and the motivation was high knowing we had 28km less distance then yesterday!  So we hit the final 7-10km descent that took us right to the finish line at the ferry terminal.  We were aiming to catch the earliest ferry possible as this took us back to mainland and meant I could go spend the night back home in my own bed!  The last timed enduro descent started at the top of the last downhill - we kick it off not knowing how long the timed section would be and I look up and see a trail lined with riders ahead of me .... shit....I was going to get caught behind way too many people on this one. I try my best to slowly get by them one by one and probably pass around 15-20 people. But this timed section was never going to end!!!  I finally get out in front of the pack and have a NZ chick on my wheel, she was loving following me down since I knew the trail and she could follow my lines - we yahoo'd and cheered at the fun of the trail and chat along as we make our way down.  We reach the bottom and yep that was the end of the timed section .... holey long one!  23mins long in fact. Would love to have known what time I could have done with a clear trail of no other riders on it!  We made the 12.30pm ferry and was stoked to see that the bike mechanics were able to shuttle my vehicle to the finish line for me, so we were straight on the ferry to head home.

The day wasn't over just yet though. Got home, unpacked, cleaned bike, got bike all tuned up and ready to go for the last 2 days at John Henry Bikes (thanks Dave), did laundry and then was straight up to Grouse to see my man and get a beautiful paraglide in ;)  What a day!

Pics from the day:

Day 4 BCBR Earls Cove to Sechelt

Well this was the day I was dreading. It was long, it was double the climbing elevation of the past 3 days, and there was not much single track or shade in the trees!

Ok in saying that, I have to say, the crew on the sunshine coast sure have put a lot of work into building more trails and connecting the fire roads throughout the day compared to what it was like 3 years ago.  But it didn't make it any less of a slog then before. It was pure climbing all day long and steep climbing!  We went into the day with the moto of relaxing a bit and just getting through it.  I actually stopped at the feedzones and enjoyed the food and just ticked the legs along to get the day over with as pain free as possible.  4hrs and 40mins later our day was over and I was glad it was.  I was even more excited to see the burger stand at the finish line!

The enduro's for the day where good. First one super quick of just over 1min long and Wendy and I were 1 sec apart in times. The second was super fun at the beginning but a really tough hammer with some uphills and really long. A 10min max effort in the middle of a 4hr+ day was hard on the body! Wendy got me by 20secs and I had one half a crash and sliced my knuckles and forearms against some sharp rocks - but all was good and it was a better alternative to doing that then flying off the steep bankment on the other side of the trail!

Pics for the day from Dave Silver:

Day 3 BCBR Powell River

Ok day 6 is over but its time to back track and try and remember some exciting points of the last 3 days that I failed to post!

I heard some great stories about trails in Powell River and it was my first experience mountain biking here.  We got the ferry over the night before everyone else and stayed at the campground right were the race was going to start. Because everyone else was getting the morning ferry, it was going to be a late race start of 12.45pm....this meant we were already there and we got to sleep in ;)

It rained all night long and into the morning and finally stop around 10.30am and hallalula the sun came out - it was such an amazing feeling!  So we got off the start line with another police escort through the community of Powell River - everyone was out in full force with the cow bells cheering us on lining the streets with cheers - it was fantastic. As soon as we hit the trail, we were straight in mud and covered head to toe within 10mins (but at least the sun was shining right!!).

We had a good start, but somehow ended up being stuck behind about a group of 20 riders bumper to bumper on the fun flowy single track. We sat back for about 15mins thinking we would come to a section to pass - but it just kept going and going. Ok we had enough and decided to make a move and slowly made our way through the large group of riders and got a break off the front.  We then hit the first feedzone and into a 7km dirt road climb. Moving at a pretty good pace, we come to the last few km's where the first timed downhill section was about to be - we hit some rough big rocky dirt road section that sucked the energy from you and I glance back to see I am leading a train of about 10 people behind us - the guys we had managed to pass in the single track had caught us back on the climb ....shit ... they can't get back in front of us just before the single track started again, so I try to pin it as much as I could to keep them behind us - and well we were blessed to the road turn a little narrower and flatten out a little to get the edge over them hit the first enduro timed descent before them.  I was second female overall on this one back 15secs from Wendy Sims.  We continue on to what was the most unbelievable day of riding and amazing trails and no big climbs (this was my kinda day).  The next timed enduro downhill was super tough with a bunch of uphill and I managed to get Wendy back by 4 seconds.
We crossed the finish line with smiling faces and satisfied after an amazing day of riding. We were still sitting comfortably in first place - woohoo!

Some pics from the photographers from the day thanks Dave Silver

Day 2 BCBR Campbell River

What a day! I woke up to the pouring rain at 3am and it didn't stop.  I guess this was going to be to our advantage since we are from South-west BC and use to the wet muddy slippery trials!  

It started off as a mass roll out start again, getting soaked within a few minutes from the spray from all the wheels. We hit the first gravel road climb and we tried to stay up in the pack as far as we could before we hit the single track as today was not the day we wanted to get stuck behind people that weren't from this area. But it was perfect race start for 500 people and it spread out pretty quick and the flow kept moving.  I will have to take my words back from yesterday as I think Campbell River is now my favourite over Cumberland. Besides the wet, energy sucking mud and roots, the course was still pretty wicked with pretty much all sweet single track for the full course. I would love to ride this course again in the dry. Times were about 20-30mins slower then last year due to the conditions and slush out there. It really was like a repeat of the Test of Metal race and guess second time around I was a little more mentally prepared.  

The 2 timed downhill sections (Gravity Enudro's) were again on todays course, the first being short and fun and the second being longer and faster and much wetter. My glasses were off and by the time my eyes were filled with mud, I grabbed for my glasses and threw them on, this didn't help matters much and in the end I was riding blind and veered a little too close to the bushes on the side of the trail and did a full endo over the handlebars into the bush. The person behind me rides by and I hear the beeping sounds of the timer that indicates your time stops at the bottom of the timed section. I look up to see I had bailed only 10 meters from the finish….oops!  So I jump up and run across the beeper to get my time stopped! We are on the ferry right now so miss the presentations tonight as everyone else is staying in Campbell River, so will have to wait until tomorrow to see if I still managed to hold on to the overall lead for the Enduro, but I doubt it!  Jim and I won again today for open mixed teams with a time of 3hrs 28mins and we now have a very nice lead on second place which is nice to know!  The top solo men were tight again and 3 of them battled side by side all the way until the final sprint for the finish line. Wish I was there to see them cross it!

We get a very nice sleep in tomorrow (hence why we are getting the ferry tonight). Everyone else gets shuttled to the ferry early tomorrow, then has a 1.5hr ferry crossing before the start gets under way in Powell River at 12.45pm.  We will be camped out at the start line sleeping sound until around 9 or 10am (oh how nice ;)

Here are some great images that Dave Silver the BCBR Photographer as taken from day 0 and day 1 - some stunning shots.

Race Briefing Day 0

Ariel shot of Base Camp and Tent City Cumberland Day 1

Ariel shot of Start Line Day 1

Race Start Day 1

Ariel of race start - dirt road lead out to the trails

Trail action

Fun trails in Cumberland

Start of the one of the Gravity Enduro (timed downhill sections)

BC Bike Race Day 1

BC Bike Race 7 Day mountain bike stage race South-West BC Day 1 Cumberland: 3hrs 14mins Well we had a great start. We lined up at the start line in downtown Cumberland not knowing any of our competition and excited to get out on the trails. There were teams from South Africa, Belgium, Australia, and Canada that all looked like strong contenders. Out of the 500 riders at the start line, there were people from 33 different countries around the world all ready to experience some of the best trails and mountain biking in the world .... the atmosphere and excitement was there! I was racing with a friend Jim this year in the team of 2 open mixed category and we had a great start to the week! We came in first place today. Cumberland was my favourite day in this race when I last did it back in 2009 and I think it will be my favourite again this time, but it is only day 1 and there have been some new locations added since last time I did it. I hear Campbell River has some great riding and that is where we are headed tomorrow. Cumberland has such a great trail network and a bit of everything. We were blessed with the most perfect riding temp weather today - overcast and about 18 degrees. The sun showed its face for about 5 mins and that proved to be much too hot so we were glad for it not to last. I think this is the only time ever that I will pray for no sun for the next 7 days to keep it cooler! But yes I would take sun any day over the pouring rain! So each day they have 2 timed downhill section thats called the 'Gravity Enduro'. And each day the fastest female and the fastest male take the win and are awarded the green race plates for the next day. I knew I had a battle on my hands with Wendy Simms (who is winning the solo women's category) and I managed to take the win today and be the fastest female on the downhill (but only by 4 secs), so I am sure there will be a battle each day between Wendy and I but was stocked to take the title for day 1! Campbell River tomorrow! I will try and add pics and vid later....its time for bed now that the fireworks are over!