BC Bike Race day 7

We started in Creekside at Whistler, same place I stayed last year when I was here. After a few hundred meters on pavement, we started climbing the mountain. Talk about a hard start!

I was climbing well today by my standards, with teams that were dropping me all week. It was steep, I think it was 500m of vertical in 6km if I remember right, with a mini downhill in the middle. I kept an eye on Jon a few riders up and did what I could for the uphill TT.

After that it was a steep switchback descent. I wiped out on a log, no idea why, no damage done though. Halfway down the descent there was a particular ditch that was deeper and sharper, I bottomed out my tire, fork, wrists and elbows. Saw it last second and thought in that split second that this could the "the one" that turns out really ugly. Made it though.

Lots of nice singletrack, bridges, roots, rocks, etc. After a few optional drop off lines (I think I've done a lot of stress testing beyond what the carbon Scalpel might be made for this week - can't say enough good about it) my rear tire was low, burped a little air out at one point. When I CO2'd it I think I bent the valve stem a bit, so it kept leaking periodically. Had to stop 5 times during the remainder to keep topping it up.

I didn't know a 47km "short" stage could be so hard - even the organizers mis judged it a bit thinking the leaders would be in a half an hour earlier than they were. Winning time was around 3 hours. We were around 3:30. No idea how we finished up, but I can't recall ever being pinned at redline for 3.5 hours that hard before, I'm going to sleep like a zombie tonight.

Pat and Andy finished 2nd today and by finish line timing, appear to be now 2nd in the GC by only a minute or two. In a lot of ways I'm impressed they even made it to the end, as I've never seen Pat as hurting as he was a few days earlier this week. It goes without saying that 100% effort went into todays stage especially, they aren't the kind of guys that leave anything on the table. Their competition was flying today, they passed Jon and I three times and finished ahead of us (the whole stopping for air ordeal had us jockeying).

Trish and Craig rolled in looking well spent - Trish left enough energy on the course that she had to go for some alone time in the field before chatting with everyone. I keep kidding with Trish that I'm proud to know someone famous like her, even if the circle that recognizes her impressive athleticism is somewhat small...

Being the slower partner is a hard task on all of "us". Max redline all week would still be "insufficient" if the goal was to be as fast as our significant other. But the goal is really to make it through with what you've got, as a team. The three teams I had windows into this week looked like they did a fantastic job of being real teams and doing just that. Faster partner has to be the helper, facilitator and motivator. Slower partner has to be "boss" by dictating the pace and riding to their limit but without cracking - and they're the only one who can navigate that fine line.

Jon had his breathing under control enough this week to say a lot of helpful things... I suspect (hope) he knew my limited verbal responses were more a result of not being able to interrupt the oxygen delivery system and still hold the pace than lack of appreciation. It's just like people clapping at the side of the course, for those few seconds of passing that can be the most helpful thing on earth.

This should help my fitness for the season, noting like volume and intensity crammed into one week. I'm also happy to say that in the highest density spurt of highly technical riding I've ever done, I don't have so much as a single scrape to show for it, other than the ones from bushes at the side of the trail. I'm healthier than when I started. Also, the ultra-light Scaplel's only mechanical was needing a little more air in the tire on the last day, after 7 days of riding where a lot of it was probably a bit above the bike's true design goals.

Great race, a true mountain biker's evernt!

BC Bike Race day 6

Rained a little last night, nice as it kept the dust down today. The wake up call came an hour early, once I figured that out I went back to sleep. I was super tired, so instead of breakfast I slept an extra 45 mins, had a boost, water, and a baked potato I kept from dinner last night. My body seemed really glad for the extra REM sleep.

We started climbing right out of the start, which strung the pack out nicely. I had planned for a conservative start, which translates a little loosely from the usual "conservative" definition. I got right up to max and kept it there for only about 15 mins... sweet to redline right away. I wore a deadgoat ninja jersey today and it worked - Jon shoulder checked and looked right at me 4 times, then turned to Pat and Andy and asked if they'd seen Erik around. I've never been so stealthy on someone's wheel before. Everyone was trying to hole shot for a skinny bridge through mud so it wouldn't get backed up, but 2k of pavement climb and another couple of doubletrack made it a non issue.

Trails today were beautiful again - much of the Test of Metal course and the Gear Jammer courses. Great shaded singletrack, steep technical decents, nice flowing burmed corner section to rail. One big gravel road climb I survived, 5 miles I think, though it's easy to feel like your climbing is inferior when Jon's making it look effortless hanging around at my pace.

Long fast downhill after that gave way to technical singletrack. After checkpoint 2 we went out for another 10k loop in the woods of more great technical singletrack. Finished through a little residential then 2k of path around a park. Some guys rocketed past us on the residential but we wound it up for a short steep climb plus the last 2k and had a big gap open again at the finish.

Swam in the pool, ate pizza, massaged, and ready for another day.

Pat had a rough start again but things turned part way through, they started feeling better on the big climb. He's talkative after the race whereas yesterday he was in the hurting place.

Trish and Craig had another solid day, Trish rode with Pat for a little.

My back is totally fine, legs feel ok (zero soreness at start today vs yesterday I started sore), my biggest problem in life at this point is that some gel pack blew up in my feed bag and everything I own is sticky, so really things aren't too bad.

Not sure right now where we finished, I'd guess roughly the same as last few days. We took 3:55 to ride, Hestler and Plaxton won at 3:15. I guess I have to learn to hold 70rpm in my big ring on the climbs.

Talked with a friend from Mexico who did La Ruta last year who was basically asing how someone learns to ride this stuff. Some people have been doing it since kids, some learn this week, and some take paractice.

It's especially worth noting that this race is totally worth doing for mountain bikers, but if you're a roadie convert with no technical skills, you need to brush up. There are a few "green runs" here, but we all follow the same route, and there's also plenty of "black runs" in the race, as some are finding out. TransRockies is a lot more forgiving for the roadie crowd.

Happy Birthday Jon

Doesn't matter how old you ever are, you'll always be the same kid inside having fun on bikes. Every day here riding with you has been a blast, even if the fun was hidden pretty deep inside on those first couple of days. Sorry we couldn't get you that stage win for your birthday ; )

I hope we're riding bikes together till the day we miss the proverbial 90 degree left at the top of the cliff and move on to biking heaven, which is probably out here in BC anyway.

Remind me in 2019 to ask you to come challenge the 80+ category in the BC Bike Race!

BC Bike Race day 5

Fantastic course is an understatement. Started off fast on some crowded climbs, legs were tired from spending energy yesterday, but fine. We were steady but not quite as quick.

Last 13km was downhill singletrack of the technical variety. Jon displayed downhill skills that were hard for many to believe, in addition to some similar uphill skills the other day. Nothing like passing 4 teams walking down a section with loose gravel and drops. They didn't even see him go behind them, they turned around and thought someone had crashed into the woods behind them, but he was already 30m down the trail. That left me in the humorous position of trying to negotiate with them to let me pass so I could catch up to the apparition none of them really even saw go whizzing by.

Saw a spectacular wipeout, guy flew off a ledge. Must have not seen the 90 degree left judging by how airborne he was. He rolled down the hill in starfish mode, probably 5x over. Seemed ok after. Probably ended up 20m down a large ravine ledge.

Tim the singlespeeder extra-ordinaire from La Ruta crashed and dislocated his shoulder.

Pat Doyle, man who doesn't let suffering slow him down, didn't have words at the finish when Jon saw him. Those who know Pat know he's tough as nails, and he's had now two days of having to dig really deep.

Trish took a little spill but is fine.

We kept rubber side down, rode all the skinny's and bridges, and kept an OK but not fantastic pace. No mechanicals thus far either. My leg muscles are a bit sore. The Scalpel is a really well handling downhill bike, I tested the traction limits of the front tire no less than 28 times on the downhill.

Apparently we finished 14th, I'm unsure if that's on the day overall or just open men (couldn't catch Wendy and Norm early on, then Katie Compton and her partner dropped me like a bad habit on the climb after checkstop 2).

I

Day 4 result

Jon just looked it up and seems like we were 13th overall on the day.

BC Bike Race day 4 more

Oops, hit send early.

Worked our way through a lot of the front field on the climb (we started at the back of the A pen as we were screwing around trying to find a pump).

I wasn't rocketing up climbs by any means, but I was making it up the majority of them without dabbing, and people were walking all over.

Trails were great, lots of singletrack. We actually took 4 wrong turns today, but none cost more than 2 mins I'd guess. We passed both Andreas Hestler and Tinker, so I should probably just quit racing now cause I'm sure that'll never happen again (Tinker's partner was cramping, Andreas was waiting for Plaxton but he was way ahead... oops). By about kilometer 50 of 60 we caught Wendy and Norm, which was a TR regular occurance at that point. Tried to rail the singletrack but she's so superior in the technical we couldn't open it up. Jon burped a lot of air out of his front tire on a mix up at one spot on the trail, so we had to stop and I gave him a CO2. We caught and passed the 4 teams that passed us in a couple mins by hammering the shit out of a stretch of gravel road.

Rode hard right to the end. Every pedal stroke all day had power, without a twinge of cramping. Instead of sitting in Jon's draft praying to get my hollow body to the end, I took some pulls. I do,kt even feel like I've worked hard, I've absorbed all kinds of recovery magic foods and feel great.

Last highlight of the day was getting a massage when I saw two race people walk into the finish area with 20 boxes of pizza. I jumped off the table to get my piece. I nearly lost a limb in the frenzy, they were gone in 60 seconds.

It feels so good to be a bike racer rather than a shell of one. On the hot direct sun climbs with no wind I could temperature regulate, vs the other days when I'd just slow to a crawl or pop since I felt like I was roasting alive. Everything I ate went to my quads in 12 minutes, no problems. Every burst on a hill I'd recover from one minute later rather than feeling I'd spent something I'd never get back.

Trish and Craig did good, Pat suffered like Pat hasn't suffered before - hyperventilating and sharp quad pains. Pat pushes so hard though and they only lost a couple minutes to their competitors, which is total coup for having a bad day.

I can't say enough about Jon's patience. He found ways to work and entertain himself last few days, and today was more of what we came for.

BC Bike Race day 4

After waking up at 4:30, doing some bus and two ferries, we lined up to race at 11am. Shortly before I noticed that in transport someone took the liberty of putting as much air pressure in my tires as they could without blowing the bead. Someday people en masse will understand tubeless I'm sure.

Started out conservative, climbing right away.