It has been a week since I got home from the epic of the BC Bike Race. As time moves on I keep soaking in the afterglow of an amazing event that took a tremendous amount of planning from the organizers. It was an expensive event but once you see all the planning and work that go into organizing something on this scale, you begin to wonder how they can even make money. I estimate that there might have been 1 worker/ volunteer per rider for everything that happened pre-race, race, and post race. A big tip of the chapeau to the organizers for doing such a bang up job!
The event was organized as a seven day stage race with everyone referring to Day1-7 as courses and races were talked about. Before all this, there was Day Zero where we checked in, picked up our bags that would server as our suitcases for the week and re-pack those bags with what we were going to need. We then had to drop our packed bags and bikes off so they could be transported over to where we going to spend the night. We got our race briefing where we schooled about bears and cougars...two types of bear: brown & black and what to do if you had an encounter. There were 2 types of cougars...1 was the mountain lion type and the other was often found in Whistler and could be ID'd with a small pox vaccination on the upper arm.
We all caught a ferry on Day Zero to Victoria island where we were then bused to Cumberland where Day 1 would take place the following morning. At this point there had been a lot of travel and everyone was anxious to get to base camp. This routine of ferries and buses would continue throughout the week. Often times it was rushing to get to the ferry terminal where we would sit and wait...then offload in a hurry to either catch a bus or get ready to ride. Give the scale of everything that had to go into planning, I realize that it really could not have happened any other way - to be able to keep 500 riders on track is a feat in itself so the minor annoyance for us racers to wait or be rushed to the start line was just that...a minor annoyance.
The first two days of the event left just about everyone a little rattled. We were thrown into the really technical trail fracas and seemed to be collectively unprepared for what was in store. I had a really low profile tire on the rear and the combo of having an almost 'slick' tire and rooty, rocky sections was enough to shake me up a little...notice I was shaken, but not stirred! I decided to swap out my rear tire and that did wonders for me the rest of the race. My head started to get more confident and I started to trust my tire and remember how to ride the gnar.
This was my first stage race and I learned a lot. I learned that you become mentally fatigued and impressionable over the week...The first two days had everyone wondering aloud whether or not the trail was going to remain the burly or whether things would relent. We clinged on to the hope that the descriptions of buttery smooth and loamy that were used during the race briefings the night prior to race day were the things of mountain bike lore and legend. Of course the organizers were playing us like a one string banjo and must have been chuckling inside as they knew the severity of the terrain.
My bonk day just happened to be on the longest and hottest race day. Everyone seemed to have 1 day along the way that they had to dig extra deep! Days 5 and 6 were the payoff days for having grunted through the prior 4 days. Those 2 days alone made the trip worthwhile.
My goal at the end of day 1 was to stay on the first page of results at the end of the race....My mechanicals and Day 4 bonk dropped me off the first page but I managed to climb back up onto the first page and finished 31st of 88 which I was pretty happy with.
The mechanics that supported us throughout the race were awesome! I still have questions regarding how much they (actually the shop) charged (arm and a leg, or maybe both legs) and the jury is still out on the pricing since I am still waiting on a detailed invoice showing what they worked on and replaced that ended up costing me over $1000 of work!!!! I guess they have a captive audience but their estimates must have either been way off when provided to me, or they made some mistakes. I will hold my final opinion until they can show me the nature of the work they did.
It was amazing to see just how much of an international flavor there was - it was really cool to meet people from all over the world. I look forward to going back to Canada and exploring more of those trails.
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