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Stage 4: Cumberland Update

Ah, Canada Day – the holiday where “you can do anything” for one day. Maybe that’s not the holiday’s real motto, but it is certainly the experience that BC Bike Race organizers would like to create on this day for their participants.

How’s this for the start of the fourth day of epic mountain biking and a celebration of west coast Canada? A 4:30am wake-up call as pre-cursor to watching the remnants of a beautiful sunrise over the Georiga Straight while waiting to board the first BC Ferries crossing of the day. Then chowing on breakfast while admiring the view of the coastal areas off the bow.

A quick road transport to the next ferry terminal, Saltery Bay, leaves racers mingling with other racers as they grow comfortable with the riders in their own “pack” each day. One more scenic sailing down the coastal area ultimately leads to the final transfer destination for the day – Earls Cove ferry terminal – which is a popular and inspirational BC Bike Race start line…

For six BCBR participants whose shuttle driver accidentally missed the early morning ferry by 15 minutes, it might seem that BCBR really can do anything. In missing the ferry, those teams would not make the start line in time; however, their shuttle driver did treat them all to a very Canadian Tim Horton’s breakfast to take the edge off. Meanwhile, Harbour Air, presenting sponsor of BC Bike Race, freed one charter floatplane and flew it to the Comox harbour to pick up the anxious racers and carry them directly to the Earls Cove start line ahead of the rest of the racers.

Once the ferry docked, riders arrived at the quaint landing in Earls Cove where the familiar Bear on Bike start/finish arch stood waiting, along with 360 bikes ready to ride. With racers seeded in the starting chute, the course director, Rod Camposano, shared trail insights and highlights. Those who know Rod knew it would be a relentlessly hilly day.

All eyes would be on Open Men local favourite Kris Sneddon and his partner Barry Wicks as well as the remaining top 3 teams, Jamis/Santa Cruz, DCM and Trek. With the history that these teams have built in just 3 days, they are creating a considerable buzz. However, the real focal point of today’s battle is the fact that Sneddon grew up in this area and even helped to build some of the trail network that riders would experience. It was time to find out how much advantage knowing the trails like the back of your hand actually can bring.

For the majority of the race, Team Kona lead the group through all of the singletrack but always had Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard stuck on their rear wheels, even as they ripped through some incredible sections at ‘mach chicken.’ In the end, Team Kona would take the stage in 3:27:46 and retain their GC leade, with Team Jamis / Stanta Cruz right behind in 3:28:04.

A propos - homegrown Canadian boy wins stage at home on Canada Day.

South Africa’s Team DCM, in the process of securing their third place position over Trek, is proving to be incredibly strong on the climbs, but less technically. Although they do claim to have observed an increase in technical accuracy as each day advances.

The big question at the finish line was what happened for Kona to gap out Seamus and Chris in the very last ten minutes of the race.

Sneddon recappped the competition, “Well it was mostly just givin’er as fast as we could in the singletrack. There are also a couple of corners where if you don’t really know the course, then you are afraid to go too fast around. It’s just too scary. We just got a little bit of a gap, and I think they probbly hit their brakes a little bit on stuff like that and we slowly spread it out a little bit. But trust me, we were going scary fast. It was sort of a chance we took and it would be pretty easy to go off the bike. We were full out, full throttle and you don’t want to be breaking the bike. We don’t really want to do it.”

The Solo Men’s cat is heating up right now, too, as current GC leader, Colin Kerr, blasted across the Sechelt finish line in 3:43:13; unbeknownst to Colin, until too late, Ruedi Schnyer snuck up in stealth mode to close the gap and cross the finish line in 3:43:11. Next across was Kevin Calhoun, in 3:49:20, with early stage winner, Tony HOGG, crossing approximately seven minutes later. This will be a close contest throughout the remaining three stages this week.

With a few little change ups here and there, the finish board is starting to come to life!

Next up for these intrepid adventurers: Sechelt unto itself! Enjoy!

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Day 1: North Vancouver Update

The tempest that unleashed high winds and heavy rainfall onto the Vancouver area on Saturday night did nothing to ease the pre-race jitters building among the almost 400 racers set to roll up to this morning’s start line of the 2009 BC Bike Race.

Already anxious about the legendary, and often deemed “gnarly” North Shore singletrack, racers arrived at the North Vancouver starting chute to find dark clouds lifting and the sun working hard to shine through.

With the impressive BC Bike Race logoed arch looming high above them, the mix of elite and weekend warrior mountain bikers were an impressive sight as they waited for the third annual race to get underway.

At 10am sharp, the wait was over, the start gun fired and the pack worked its way up the 3 kilometer residential road climb up to the trailhead. The sight of mountain bikers is nothing new for inhabitants of this North Vancouver neighbourhood - they’re blessed with living within spitting distance of some of the best riding around, so cyclists come with the territory. Until today, though, residents hadn’t seen anywhere near this many riders spinning down their streets. It was an impressive site worthy of the onlookers’ applause and cheers.

And with the paved start conveniently spreading out the pack, the first riders dropped in to the much anticipated Mt Seymour singletrack. More climbs awaited as racers grunted up Old Buck and the Baden Powell trails to hit their first technical descent of the day – Severed Trail. Through the really technical sections, some racers found themselves running off their bike more than riding on, but with seven full days of riding ahead, it makes sense not to risk crashing on something outside their comfort zone.

From Severed, the course drew racers through Bridle Path and Bottle Top after which they made their way over to Fromme Mt. More leg burning climbs lead to the top of Pipeline trail – another local classic with plenty of stunning man-made bridges and berms that are incredibly flowy for those who are in the groove. The roots, rocks, bridges and drops of the North Vancouver mountains made for a helluva welcome carpet for the BCBR participants.

During Saturday’s press conference in Vancouver, the banter among the top three men’s teams hinted at the battle that was to come this week. Day One did not disappoint. Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard (Jamis/ Santa Cruz) said they were here for redemption and their aggressive attack on the North Shore course secured their first Stage win of the week in a mere 1:35:14.

Last year’s overall winners, Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks (Kona), and year one winners Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk (Trek/VW) rode practically within arm’s length of each other for much of the course as they put constant pressure on the lead team. More than halfway through, Trek/VW’s Schalk took a tough fall on the Pipeline trail for which he later required stitches in his top lip. That opened the door for the Kona team to put some time between them, as Kona finished in 1:36.29.

Trek/VW’s misfortune today reminded those of us at last year’s finish line that Eatough and Schalk are an incredibly determined team. On opening day last year, Eatough suffered a huge mechanical issue in the first circuit of the day. Trek/VW had to push to the limit in order to claw their way back to the lead pack from being more than 30 minutes behind the last rider on course. Eatough’s strategy was simple, “You have to keep going, no matter what happens.” One year to the day later, Schalk delivered on that strategy too, bloodied face and all, as Trek/VW rallied back to a 1:38:57 finish.

Without a doubt, the competition in this category is absolutely sizzling!

The top Team of 2 Open Women was no surprise today, as Catharine Pendrel & Katerina Nash (Luna Chix) were hot on the heels of the best male riders. They blazed across the finish line in 1:50:07 with rivals Alison Sydor and Lea Davison (RockyMountain) almost 8 minutes behind. Oak Bay Bikes’ Lisa Ludwig and Dawn Anderson rounded out the top three in 2:11:11.

Canadian Olympian Catharine Pendrel, in her first multi-stage event, commented on the Team Luna Chix strategy going into seven days of racing with a technical North Shore start. “Katerina and I are both competent descenders so we knew we could gain some ground there. We didn’t want to kill ourselves on the first day, but we had pre-ridden Severed, which helped. Pipeline was completely new for both of us, but I have a fearless teammate. We just pushed forward and started picking off the guys – it was a lot of fun.”

Being top female athletes in an event like BC Bike Race means racing primarily with male teams on the course. But Pendrel was quick to point out that Team Luna Chix were in great company, “Something good for women to know out there is that the guys have been awesome – they are really cool about passing. The atmosphere out there is really great!”

There might well be another tight battle underway out in the field this week. While Colin Kerr (Team Kerr) posted a blistering 1:39:46 to take top Solo Open Men, Kevin Calhoun (RMB – Different Bikes), Tony Hogg (Hoggy R&R Sport NZ) and Andreas Hestler (Team Hestler) battled hard for the next three spots. Calhoun came in at 1:43:00 with Hodd and Hestler 2 and 5 seconds behind him. This will be another category to watch!

Other notable category highlights include favourites Georgia Gould and Ryan Trebone (Team Gould) nabbing top spot in the Open Mixed category posting a 1:50:46 for the day. North Vancouver local, Megan Rose (Team Rose) claimed the yellow jersey for Solo Open Women with a solid 2:12:52. Roger Bartels (Norcal Bike Sport) secured top spot in Solo Men 40+ with 1:49:38 for the day and the women’s equivalent going to Lisa McBain (Power to Be) in 2:51:17.

Veterans 80+ winners, Normon Thibault and Peter Stevenson (Frontrunners-Experience Cycle) crossed the finish line with a 1:57:59 time. Thibault is last year’s runaway Open Mixed category winner, which he claimed with his wife, xc racer extraordinaire Wendy Simms. This year Thibault decided to make more of a mark on BC Bike Race by designing the new Stage 2 course that’s on tap for tomorrow.

Finally, rounding out the day’s results is Veterans 100+ winners, Francois Amyot and Daniel Auclair (Zootallures) with a solid lead in 2:13:39 and Team of 3 or more going to Chris Brown, Scott Darling, Bill Darling and Francis Sutherland (Sports Insurance) in 2:53:13.

So it seems that despite the anxious build up before the race, Stage One proved to be more fun than most riders knew what to do with. Course marshals saw endless smiles on racers’ faces, and the finish line was crowded with tired but happy riders who couldn’t believe how much fun they had on the “gnarly” North Shore.

Next up Stage Two: Nanaimo to Parksville. Riders will be treated to a BC Ferries crossing from the mainland to Vancouver Island, where they will gear up and hop on their bikes to race from the Nanaimo ferry terminal to the Parksville beachfront. Only in BC does mountain bike stage racing come in sexy packaging like this!