BC BIke Race Day 6

BC BIke Race Day 6
Originally uploaded by Steed Cycles

Day 6
July 3, 2008
Squamish to Squamish

I must say that we have been looking forward to these next two days all week. These are our trails! This is our home territory! We know what is coming. We know when to push and when to conserve. We should be at slight advantage to the rest of the field. The track today consists of portions of two classic local races the Test of Metal and the Gearjammer. Today, every single climb will be rewarded with a completely wicked descent.

It rained a little last night and I wondered if the trails might be a bit slick but there was only enough rain to knock the dust down. The race started with a neutral roll out up into Garibaldi Heights. The lead moto pulled out ahead as we hit the road climb up into the heights. This stretched out the field so then when we were released up Mashiter trail. From Mashiter we flew into Tracks from Hell which starts with a board ride of about 100m of 25cm wide plank. This is surrounded on either side by 10 inch deep mud, don’t slip off! I was really afraid of hitting this point and getting stuck in a bottleneck but as luck would have it I was by myself and despite pretty much my max heart rate I managed to stay on the planks.

My best description of this day was that of a feeding frenzy. The intensity of the riders around me was incredible. I have never been involved in a race at this level before. One mistake and you could kiss the podium good bye. Several of the top Masters teams were really starting to show the wear and tear of the week. The Different Bikes crew were continuing to struggle and now the Spike Shooters team in second were showing weakness. This division could still be up for grabs.

We were having a great day absolutely ripping up Skookum and then down IMBA smart, through to Recycle and then down Pseudopsuega when a wrench was thrown our way in terms of a flat tire. Several masters’ teams went through before we could get going again. The rest of the day apparently was going to have to require 105%.

Through the aid station, we headed up the infamous Nine mile hill. We were told later that Andreas Hestler broke from the field on the climb and gapped them as he hit the summit. He finished the day in an incredible time just over 3 hours. For Tim and I, we caught a couple of the teams that had gone through as we fixed our flat and the ride down the Ring Creek Rip into the Powerhouse plunge was totally awesome.

The plunge is extremely technical riding and I usually ride it in the spring when it is very damp and slippery. Today it was dry and pitches that are usually quite scary were easily attacked. It is amazing what 5 days of technical riding can do to your skill level, and lines that I have never considered or even seen before were suddenly visible and achievable. Suffice to say, that I have never come down it so fast in all my life.

I thought that we had gapped out on several of the teams that we had passed on the way up the climb but it appeared that not only had we improved our riding skills, so had every one else. As we blitzed through the aid station I turned around and “Yikes” they were all there. We headed into the climb up Crumpet Woods and again we pinned it, trying to get a gap on the other teams. In the end it was to much, I was just so spent as we came down out of the woods that I was making huge mistakes and eventually crashed several times as my front wheel washed out on a couple of the corners. In the end I think that the top five Masters teams finished within 8 minutes of each other.

What an awesome day!