Riding the BC Bike Race

What could be better than going on a week long trip where all you have to do is ride your bike from pint A to point B, then chill, eat lots, and sleep? Answer: doing it twice in one year.



Doing the Cape with Greg was awesome and now I was going to ride single track with Mical. Oh the joys of life.



Mical and I have never really rode together. Once in Fernie 3 years ago and some road rides, then her killer hill sets at Edworthy, but no real MTB rides. She has a very busy schedule once racing starts and is hardly in town. We decided to go out and do Baldy and Chief Hector and get to see how we ride together in prep for the BCBR.



It was raining and we had just done the Canada Cup in Canmore the day before. We had run near exact times for the 3 lap race and knew that we were aerobically the same, but what of all the subtle little things in one's personality that could come out in a 7 day event. Well, we knew we would be okay after the first uphill and downhill. On the way up were riding the same and Mical had no problem stopping for me so I could have my M&Ms. She galdy poached all the good colours and was off up the hill again. We stopped at the top of Baldy, enjoyed the low lying clouds, the moist air, and the fact there was no one else around. Mical lead the way down and we soon discovered that I would be trying hard to hold her wheel for a week. We were both yahooing and weeeing all the way down the trail. We stopped to see if a couple of riders we came upon were okay and they were laughing at us because they could hear our exclamations of joy all the way down the mountain. Yep, for this single track odyssey we were going on Fun was number 1.



Our goals were to have fun, ride hard, podium and the dream goal was to win.

Day 1 start chute discussing strategy or ice cream, I can't remember.

Day 1-North Shore

Talk about being nervous. I am riding with a National athlete against other National athletes and Olympians. We knew we had to have a good start and hammer hard until the first choke point just so we would not be backed up.


Here is my heart rate profile, speed and altitude for the first 12 minutes of the race. My max heart rate is 171 bpm and I have not seen my HR in the mid 160s all year. Yep, it was an average of 167 bpm and the pace was 20 kph uphill!!. You can see the choke point where we had a 20 second break then a short down before heading up Old Buck.

North Shore riding is unbelievable. I thought Mical and I would be okay as we are both good descenders. There is a large difference between riding the north shore and racing it. I ended up running most of it because it was faster then trying to pick my way down. I had the leg out, stomach on seat, ass way back style and still couldn't pull it together.

We had a great day and ended up 2nd.

YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeOPu2he8Uo it is 8 minutes long but you get the idea. Whoever took the video is a great rider.



Day 2-Naniamo to Parksville.

Started riding the "Abyss" which was awesome. lots of rock step ups and descents to start but then it turned a little soft and loamy. It was hard to ride as you couldn't see the roots so every bump was reactionary and slowly tired out your arms and back. Didn't think I would really look forward to the road but when we came out we both sighed with relief. We picked up a good pace line with DeadGoats Devin and Eric and hammered out some good turns at the front. The boys in the pace line were starting to fade but didn't want to get "chicked" ( my new favorite saying as told to me my Leah Davidson) as Mical was doing her share at the front and we kept the pace high. Into Parkville for a night on the beach.

Now this may sound pleasant but it was one of the detriments for us the next day. The dinner was not exceptional and had little in the way of carbs. The wind was so strong that the tent tried to eat both of us. It blow the sides in and covered my head and Micals feet. The next morning's breakfast, Day 3, was eggs, sausage, ham and greasy has browns. Not the best racers food.



Day 3-Cumberland

After the lumberjacks breakfast we took the buses to Cumberland for some wicked riding. Starting in town we headed for the dump road and the Forbidden Plateau. We were riding strong but got stuck behind a Masters riders that slowed us down in the single track. We popped out on the road with the Luna Chicks, Rocky MT ladies, the leading Master team, and us. We drove a mean pace line and I was able to head up front and tow the line for a while. Probably one of the coolest things ever!!!!!!! We took the road to the big climb of the day which was 45 minutes long. The down hill was excellent but we still had to make it back to the trail network behind Cumberlnad and the infamous Space Nugget run. I knew we were close and kept encouraging Mical that it would be worth it. We bared down and got the climbs done.

Beware of the Muntain Reggan- Micals friend ended up way out on the course, was hidden by some bushes and as we passed yelled "GO Mical!" No big deal except I never saw him and by the time he yelled Mical was passed and I was right beside him. I nearly filled my chamois I was so startled.



Day 4-Cumberland to Seschelt

The dreaded 4:30am wake up call. This starts our 6.5 hour logistical trek to the start line. It is not bad but it does knock you down a notch on the day and it showed. We tried to sleep on the ferry and buses but it was too brief and not solid. There was a lot of power lines today and it felt very much like a Trans Rockies day. Our team had a moment and we needed to re-group and re-evaluate. We had been going hard for 4 days and were fading ever so slightly. We were in third and could not chase back on. Goal number one: have fun, so we reeled it in for a few minutes, ate, drank, talked and made it to Aid 2. We could just see 2nd place and knew that we were not doing that bad despite the challenges. The day did not get better but it did not get worse. Well, except at the end we were finally having some fun, zooming down hill jumping logs even the ones that were there to stop us and turn us. We went off track, lost 2-3 minutes and had the 3rd place team pass us while we were lost to get 4th on the day. That hurt a little and we quietly went about our recovery rituals.



Day 5 Seschelt to Langdale

We knew this was going to be a fun day and we had a 31 minute lead on 3rd place. We decided to get a good start then settle in to a good pace and loose strategic time to avoid a blow up. It was a long technical day both up and down and the pace was great.

I did start to get a little poopy this day as it became quite apparent that Mical was the better descender. I could keep up but had to keep pedaling back on, using my engine to gain the speed. Watching Mical descent has made me better as well. She is very smooth, chooses good lines, and rarely makes mistakes. By the time we made it to the end of the day it was almost all down hill, fast flowy, and fun. Deadgoats Pat and Geoff were on our tail and by the time we hit the road they lit it up and beat us to the finish by seconds. It is a lot of fun racing people you know.

We lost 2 minutes to the Cannondale-Monavie team of Sue Butler and Brian Alders but we were good with that and still held a 31 minute lead on them.

Third on the Day but still Second overall!!!!

Day 6 Squamish

The riding was incredible!!! We used the same strategies as Day 5 and went for the start and settled into our on pace. It is amazing how tired you get riding nothing but single track.

High lights:
- robs corners-over 50 left, right berms
-Psuedo Tsuga-great drops and corners
-Power House Plunge-after 5 days of technical riding it was over before we knew it
-watching Ryan Leach do his thing

We gave up 2 more minutes to Cannondale-Monavie but that was part of the plan. It was hotter and we expected to catch them on the down hills but they were riding well and we only saw them in the beginning of the day.

Day 7-Whistler

I was so nervous sitting in the start chute. I had to battle the voice in my head that was worried about wiping out, mechanicals, getting lost, anything to do with losing our 29 minutes lead over third. We were over an hour out of first so that didn't look good but Mical always the positive one kept saying " you never know", maybe a stage win? Nope but we should have got an award for effort.
The start was straight up the ski hill and then the cat track. It was not the best course off the start as they had us climb the cat track to descend the cat track. We finally got in the single track and were right behind 3rd. We marked them and stayed as close as possible on the uphills and gain time back on the downs.
We were riding together with them until just after the Aid station.

To quote Mical's blog " On one of the steep gravel climbs Sue spun out and I heard the voices in my head.. "She's walking it, you can walk it too, we've got enough of a lead"....but I liked the voice that said "F&*% it, I'm riding this thing". Jeff was determined not to get "chicked" and as soon as we crested the hill we both grabbed a couple of gears and started givin er."

Well that was the turning point, we were racing from out front and had clear lines on the down hills. We gave it everything on the ups. Soon they were out of sight but we still kept driving it. Mical and I had a talk on Day 4 about what is worth it and what isn't and how that statement can motivate you to great results. That is all we kept saying as we rode in the red zone for the rest of the day. "It is World Cup racing, it is worth it" and by golly we were flying. the course took us way below the start line and 5 km more then the profile said. I even messed with my own partner when I said this should be the last climb. When it was apparent that it wasn't Mical firmly stated"Don't ever tell me that again". We laugh about it now, thank goodness.

The finally climb was 2 km on steep road. We sounded terrible, huffing and puffing and blowing the top off. As we crested the top of the pavement I told Mical to bring us home only to have her jam on the brakes as we had to climb a stair case to get to the single track. Mical summed it up great with " WTF"..

Once on the single track we knew we had second on the day and second over all. What a rush. Down to the finish line where John and Gloria (Dee's parents), and Jay awaited us. Alana, my wife was there also and surprised us the night before by flying in for the finish.
Happy to be done!!!


The first order of business was a shower then to the bar for a cool cider.

The awards were surprisingly quick and it was really surreal to be up on the podium with 5 pro athletes.



I have the hardware and memories of a fantastic race. I just found out that it is almost $1000 cheaper if we sign up now for next year. It must have been a good race as I am giving it serious thought.