RACE STAGE 6/7

Thanks for tuning in, and sorry this report is so tardy. We suffered no connectivity in Whistler at our hotel and then high-tailed it home after the race. Stages 6 and 7 were not so good for us at the BC Bike Race anyway…

Stage 6 Squamish to Whistler

Another picture perfect day (too bad the camera batteries died before we finally finished). Bear and I woke up high on our result from yesterday and ready to race well again. Unfortunately with 4 minutes to start we discovered a seeping cut in his front tire. No worries–a frantic trip back to the car and quick wheel change we made the start! Glad to have Caroll here in support again. I attached a photo at the start.

The race got of with many miles of deteriorating road conditions that gave way to rocky hike-a-biking. This is my my weakness for sure, and soon I was dangling about 30 seconds back. Then while riding the edge of a scenic cliff over the Cheakamus river gorge, disaster struck. A piece of wire attaching some screen to the cliff face caught my chainring and sent me over the bars and into the ground. With no warning and traveling about 15mph I landed hard on my chest with my right hand tucked underneath. Definitely stunning!

Anyway, after straightening my controls (my thighs had slammed the bars knocking them out of whack), and determining that my heart was indeed still beating I was back on the bike. Luckily Bear had noticed my absence and was waiting. At that point my hand was in bad shape and noticeably swelling in the glove. However, I have broken that hand before, and it only seemed badly bruised. My chest was sore and I was a little worried about some internal injury. We pressed on and continued to ride in 4th position until disaster #2 struck on a trail rightfully named Trash. I was ahead and Bear was not coming. Turns out he had suffered his second broken freehub of the week. Only this time we had many miles of singletrack both up and down to go. Not good.

Needless to say we were in trouble. Bear took off his chain and coasted the descents while I tried my best to push or pull him through the flats. On the climbs we would reinstall the chain and he would ride fixie until the trail determined otherwise. This led to many near misses and very dangerous situations given the ridiculousness of the trails we were riding. Technical was an understatement, and our skills would have been stretched to the limit without the crash and mechanical. Team after team passed us and we finally finished lucky to be without time penalties and alive.

Stage 7 Whistler to Whistler TTT

The first team time trial on and MTB! Wow these trails are ill… After getting a great pep talk from the race medical coordinator (something about broken ribs, colapsed lungs and possible death), we started off. The course designer was sure it would take the fastest teams more than two hours to complete this 25k stage. Of course this inspired the leaders (Trek VW) to ride like maniacs and crush this prediction by over a half hour! Congrats to them, Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk are really classy guys and deserved to kill the rest of us at every stage of this race…

For me it was simply survival. The course would have been hard enough without a bruised hand and broken rib. There must have been hundreds of roots, rocks and other trail junk to ride over and the at times the course doubled back on itself in ways that I can only describe as brutally annoying. Some of the locals told us then didn’t even ride most of these trails because they were just to slow and punishing. We were impressed by the ambition of the trail designers, though, and certain sections were definitely out of sight! However, the course was very dangerous in places and being hurt and trail/blind made it not so fun.

Bear and I perservered and finished about 20 minutes down on the day. Good to maintain 5th overall on GC, but we were left wondering what might have been minus all the tough love this week. In the end it was a great sampler of undoubtably one of the best riding destinations in the world. Hopefully you all enjoyed following our journey and can make it up to ride these trails someday.

Thanks to all of our sponsors for making this possible and thanks to BCBR to throwing a decent party. While the event was not without its flaws, some of this could be attributed to first year issues. The race didn’t compete with TransAlp for climbing or distance, but definitely dished out a different kind of punishment. It was an honor to ride together and grab a decent result.

Until next time, thanks again!

Over,
Evan and Bear