BC Bike Race Day 7 and wrapup thoughts

Whistler's day 7 is very much like a cross country race - lots of climbing, less gnarly technical than other days, and fast overall.

We start with a 30 minute climb, and just a few minutes in we're hike-a-biking up some steep gravel pitch. I took this as my one opportunity to walk up to Craig and Shawn this week to say hi. We were flying on the descent, passed a few teams who'd yield after hearing how quick we came up from behind on the switchback descents. Fun times.

About half way into the stage, we came around an easy smooth corner in the single track, and the guy in front of me braked quite a bit. I jammed mine on to avoid bumping him, and the combination of having my wheel turned and the sudden braking burped the air out of my front tire. Darn. Tried airing it up, but needed a tube as the tire bead had too much soil and pine needles in it.

We lost a few minutes, but picked much of it up again by increasing our pace. Lots of little power climbs, fun singletrack, etc.

We saw nobody ahead of us or behind us at the end, so took the last 1.5km downhill pretty easy, no sense having something easily avoidable happen.

We ended up 12th for the week, which is good for us, especially given a few mishap stops along the way. Speaking from the side of the equation that I can - I had fun this week, enjoyed the riding, and enjoyed riding with Devin. We didn't try to wrap used inner tubes around each others necks in the middle of the night, so I guess that's evidence of a positive partner experience. Having the gang there is icing on the cake too always.

Tori was second for the week, and Craig and Shawn 7th. Pat and Geoff were second.

This race is a true mountain bike race moreso than any I've done. This can't be won on pure aerobic capacity alone, you need to be able to ride a mountain bike nimbly on challenging terrain. Regardless of anyone's finishing position, we all feel like we've come out of this a better mountain biker. Smoother, faster, and able to ride more difficult terrain without hesitation. I love it. There's no better singletrack experience I've had packed into 7 days of riding than this event.

Race Organization:

I mean this as constructive observation from the eyes of a guy who's seen quite a few of these things, especially since this is a high price bracket race. The basics here are covered. Absolutely unparalleled course, although I'm surprised at how much it has been shortened overall - this is more like multi day long-ish XC racing than a typical "stage race", and there were a few course marking issues. One spot in particular could have had a marshall - when you have the potential to easily cut off a large portion of the course... probably should keep everyone going the right way. Markings were good enough to keep me on course the whole time at least. Good race aid stations, good start and end camps. Bike washes were good and a non-issue. Bike transport/security were good and a non-issue.

There was a lot of change in other items, moreso than I've seen in a year over year normal race change before. Sign in on day 0 was long and crowded. Legal waivers can be done online, and racers can print off barcode pages from their computers afer all their info is collected - other races run this way so you just show up with a piece of paper to scan by the organizers - collecting handwritten info is redundant and unnecessary in this day and age. The Costa Ricans at La Ruta have excellent sign on procedure - you're in and out with all your swag, race bag, registration items and so forth in mere minutes, including any extras, not 2-3 hours. This should be standard practice at races of this size (and cost).

Basics like timing and awards were off - this is a third year event and this should be nailed now, no questions asked. Right times, right podiums, and for crying out loud, some of the overall podiums for the week weren't recognized and their rightful trophies given to the stage 7 podium... are you kidding me? This is a stage race. Lowest cumulative time over a week wins. Who cares about day 7 times, I thought the racers were going to riot until they started getting it right half way through. That still meant some had no recourse. Some exchanged trophies to their rightful owners on their own... cheers to them.

Logistics of this one are tough by nature, which has added difficulty of booking massages that jive with race finish, dinner and transportation. More accurate info on the logistics allows better informed bookings so people don't lose their spots or miss things. Racers understand economic cycles and the need to have a race be economically viable - school busses over highway coaches makes sense. One leader jersey style so all categories look the same which cuts back on number of jersey sizes printed makes sense. Only one shower truck which seemed to need operator attention somewhat continually to run vs. two reliable trucks last year is something most people wouldn't want to see happen again. Those trucks were "nicer" inside in some ways, but really, the other two truck, 5-6 stall ones were clean, hot, uninterrupted water, and were therefore better overall.

Food changed a bit, last year was excellent, this year was good. Put salt out - we're sweating under 30C+ days... it was hard to find. Two meals were cut out - day zero dinner (or was this an optional add on last year?) and the final banquet were cut. Very light overall on photos/slideshows/race briefings by anything other than voice. I'm mixed on this - it's neat to see what can be done with google earth at some of the other races, but really it's just get out and ride. But cutting both the prepared racecourse book out and the daily course briefings was a bit harsh - keep at least one. Most people want to know where they're going and how long it'll be. I acknowledge the course queue sheets - they were good most days but a few (one at least, maybe 2) were quite off.

A finishers t-shirt? Standard and missed on that one.

These events are costly for racers and costly to organize - a tough proposition, and perfection isn't attainable. However it's fair for someone paying these kind of entry fees to expect a few more of the basics to be executed better. That's a few thoughts, hopefully they're constructive. Organizations grow, have economic conditions both internal (they're funding structures) and external (general economy and people's willingness to pay), but generally, improvement should be seen year over year in the basics.

I'm generally price insensitive on these - all the above aren't issues if you come in fast each stage. The price of admission for me is worth it just for the riding alone - it'd be impossibel to replicate such quality and quantity of exposure in 7 days otherwise.