Specilized TAJ BC Bike Race.

Destination: 2008 BC Bike Race
Date: June 28th – July 4th 2009
Location: 7 days, 9 towns across BC
Duration: 500kms, 24-56 hours (took us 40 hours average jo style)
Cost: Approx $2250 + / - per person
Discipline: Mountain biking & Hiking with a mountain bike.
Rating 10 / 10
Group Recommendation: You have to compete with a partner. Chose that partner well, because some teams clearly didn’t and it greatly influenced their outcome.

Description:
TAJ BC Bike Race Day 0.

As the saying goes, you have to be good to be lucky and you have to be lucky to be good. Such was the case yesterday morning when (during an innocent conversation with Dianne Wood), Rich found us a ride right to the start line on Vancouver Island. It wasn’t that we weren’t prepared, it was that our plan required extreme sacrifice on the part of our good friend Justine who would have had to drive the F350 to and from the island on the first sunny long weekend of the year!

Day 0 is one of the most important race days of any event. It is this day where the instructions are given, accommodations are confirmed and strategies are formed. We arrived early and missed the hurry up and wait that usually corresponds with the last minute AAA frenzy. The best thing about Rich as a race partner is that he’s pretty coolio so we don’t end up driving each other crazy when there’s no need.

As we moved through the lines, it was clear to see Dean and the BCBR team, had done a great job ensuring everything was TITE! He’s come a long way since the days of Sea2Summit and I’m always amazed by the great support network of friends and colleagues that volunteers their time to help out – Great job here Dean!

An equipment check, quick nap and we found ourselves at the press conference where a host of national and international performers was profiled. Although we are nowhere near interested in being at the front of the field, it was great for us to see some of the sport’s best on display in an event we were going to be in. Gets the adrenalin started. We would run into some friends, get ready for dinner and be treated to a great meal at Shawnigan Lake School.




After dinner, it’s back to our dorm rooms where we will prep for tomorrows 89km stage 1 cycle. The gear has been minimized in order to streamline our riding, avocado’s are the choice of whole foods (no taste, packed with nutrients, & easily digestible!). Sure they may not look awesome to someone riding by wondering what the hell you are eating – but they work – beginning & end.




We are carbo pro’d to the nines, absorbing elete in our sleep, synched up, charged up and pumped up for the early morning breakfast and day 1 (of 7) bike ride across beautiful BC back country. Stay tuned… as we will post daily exerts of our riding advernture!


Day 1. Shawnigan Lake to Lake Cowichan
Distance 89km
Weather 33 degrees at peak temp.
Performance: 6:40min



The first day of the race was an interesting start to this event. Up early after a cold night (no sheets or blankets!) breakfast and a final pack of our bags we headed to the start line. The start shoot was packed full with just under 500 riders and bikes. Today was an open seeding – meaning on our first day, it was a free for all at the start. The blast of the gun and we began a couple loops of Shawnigan Lakes’ campus. It was a tight start, lots of bumping during the mass start. Within 10 minutes the fleet of riders were behind the campus in a farmer’s field of fresh cut hay. That hay was stuck in riders bikes and many teams were literally stuck with the hay immobilizing their bikes.


The beginning of the day was relatively flat but tough with many sharp inclines through the forest. Lots of hike-a-bike sections and crowded areas as everyone had lots of energy for their first day. Within the first couple hours we encountered all types of terrain. Everything was good with no crashes or mechanicals.
Roughly half way through this stage we began an endless climb to over 800 feet. We were helpless against the beating sun during this portion of the day. At the top we hit our second aid station. Splashing water on our faces, eating oranges and refilling our hydration packs we took off for our final 40+km of that day.

We rode hard and traded off leading each other. We are a good team that seems to complement each other – I enjoy the pain of endurance sport and Matt eats technical terrain with a smile. A slight error in fuelling and hydration hurt Matt a bit, but with minimal drama, he pushed forward and completed the stage with style.
Next step – recovery drink, a 10min ice bath, food and sleep.

Day 2. Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni
Distance 125km
Weather 34 degrees at peak temp.
Performance : 6:40min.

At 125kms , today was the longest day of the event. Against us was the fact it was one of the hottest days in the province, on our side there was minimal elevation gain throughout the day.

We started with a long roll out getting us up o speed prior to entering onto the logging road that would never end. It was dusty, however as things sorted themselves out, we would find ourselves checking into the first aid station (at 49k) only 6 minutes off the leaders. This… was too fast of a pace to be sustainable or true. In ridiculous fashion, we hurried the aid station and set out with the intention of staying in the peleton we had arrived in. It wasn’t sustainable for myself and by the time we reached the next aid station at 90km’s I was barely hanging on.

Richard was patient and set the tempo for myself but I was off the back and desperately searching for shade and water. Add a few carrots and potatoes, and I could have easily passed for a pot roast because that’s what I felt like. With less than 10k left to go, I found myself off my bike in a complete bonk and after a few unsuccessful attempts at walking / riding / walking and then riding again at very slow tempo – I decided it was time to do what one is supposed to do when they bonk – EAT. It sounds, easy but it’s the last thing you remember to do. I patiently tore through the food we had while sitting at the side of the road watching team after team drive on. I thought about how mad Richard would have been at this point, however my overall well being superceeded any feelings of frustration he may have. We ate, and then pressed onto the 2kms of single track at the end of the event.

As we reflected on the day, it was apparent that I would need to pay much more attention to the intention of fueling properly and frequently if we wanted to be successful in this race. This was the day we should have moved up and it wasn’t because of the fuel oversight. The good and bad thing is that we have 5 more days and many more miles to make it up. This day, was again Richards day.

Day 3. Port Alberni to Cumberland
Distance 80km
Weather 32 degrees at peak temp.
Performance: 6:16min



We had a good start on this day. We got stuck at the back of the mid pack which was a bit challenging when being forced to ride slow in easy terrain. But no worries, beautiful scenery and demanding topography spread the field of riders out quickly.

Today’s ride was taking us over the Beaufort Range into Cumberland and it set us up with 4 big climbs and many technical single track sections.

Some of the logging roads can get steep up there. You are totally taxed and then they send you into technical single track in some very dense forest. This seemed to be the flavor of half of our ride. Very challenging being a 225lb rider I thought as I bounced off trees and onto the forest floor a couple times. Matt as always, very patient and encouraging. Did he know how hard I was working to keep up in those tight trails today? You bet he did and he let me know.

A solid performance today and even a minor crash for Younger (where are your glasses I asked? – gone he replied) no worries as we flew down yet another logging road at speeds up to 65km/hr. BANG, our first flat – 1 shot of booze for Matt of my choice! We make very quick work of that flat.

As we crossed the finish line and performed our post race rituals, we reflected on the great single track and video game like riding we had just experienced. Nice one brotha!

Day 4. Cumberland to Sechelt.
Distance 60km
Weather 30 degrees plus.
Performance : 6:03



After two very smelly ferry transfers we were offloaded at Earl’s Cove and corralled into the starting gates. To our surprise, we had moved back into the B group for starting position which meant we were getting faster as the race went on. It was our mission to continue to be seeded in this group as it really makes up time when we pass through the single track elements on the course.

Because we were under the canopy of the forest a little more as the race proceeded, the exposure aka: “cooking effect” wasn’t as significant of factor as in days past. We had the pace down pat, we had the fueling spot on and we were more confident in the technical aspect of the riding than we had ever been. All good!

After a short climb out of Earls Bay we were hurring up to wait for a granny gear / hike a bike through the forest. This cost us considerable time as the front of the pack moves faster and when you are in the trails going up, passing is difficult. Regardless, everyone was in the same boat as us, so we kept grinding it out.
There were a few creek crossings on this day (wait deep) very cool water, which was just perfect for myself to remain cool, calm and collected. With the little time I would gain on Richard in the technical, I would spend fueling myself to try to keep an eye line on him up the hills. That guy…. for a big guy can climb very well!
The trails in here were beautiful and after hearing about how island riding is some of the best in BC, we could certainly see why. Tomorrow would be even better as we headed to the Langdale terminal and ultimately, over to our own stomping grounds in Squamish.

We would finish up in just over 6 hours on this day, with a pretty good overall performance. We could see that we were on route to riding ourselves into shape for the final 3 days of the BCBR. Look out front runners, the big guys are just getting started!

Day 5. Sechelt to Squamish
Distance 65km
Weather 30 degrees at peak temp
Performance: 5:40min

With freshly cleaned riding gear (thanks Diya!) we began at the front of the mid pack. A perfect start to the race kept us ahead of many today. Today we enjoyed 2 big climbs and also go to ride The Rat Race course. A fine selection of flowing dirt terrain and mild climbs throughout the day provided a fast pace stage.




Active logging roads added another challenge today - ladders and bridges provided the icing on the cake as we cruised with strength in our legs. I’m not sure if we were getting faster or our competitors were getting slower, regardless we passed many teams today and confidence was high during some technical sections that I would have never even attempted months prior. Did I just jump from the rocky trail to an off-camber ladder, into the air and landing onto a ramp that shot/dropped me into yet another super technical section of the course? No time to think, I’ve got to think how I am going to reduce my speed before I hit those rocks, turn and fly down a killer moto-style section! Ye haw! I screamed as we crushed another personal victory in the trails. Can you say out of my comfort zone?

I thought we were on the set of Return of the Jedi and was wondering where the ewoks were. I bet they were there watching us, but we couldn’t see them because we were traveling at light speed!
With time to spare, we finished the day, changed and jumped onto the ferry which took us to Horseshoe Bay. We were herded onto school buses and transported to Squamish. 10 bags of ice and some beers made the transition to sleep enjoyable.

Day 6: Squamish.
Distance: 67k
Weather : Overcast
Performance: 5:19



This was our day! The cool weather combined with the short ascent / descent ratio played into our riding style very well today. We started with the Test of Metal Roll out and climbed right into the Gear Jammer. Slow moving pace lines through single track, over wood bridges and across trails made gaining any front running speed challenging, but we stayed patient throughout.

A couple of hours into the day we came upon some of the front running and professional teams from around the world, so we knew we were doing well, this supplied us with the confidence to kick it into a higher gear as we came back into the test of metal course.

There’s a big advantage to knowing what’s coming up next and this enabled us to be mentally & physically prepared for what was around the corner. On our way down the back side of 9 mile Rich blew a flat, 2nd flat (& 2nd shot for him) we fixed it and moved on only to have a repeat flat 2k later, and then another 2k later and then the 4th flat as we exited through crumpet woods 5k before the finish line. This was a little frustrating for both of us as we had started the day so well, however technicals are a part of racing and the fact he had waited on myself for about 2 hours thus far, kept us grounded in reality that any day can be your day…. or not your day.
We climbed up lava dome and dropped into the plunge to the technical home stretch. As we came out of crumpet woods we felt pretty strong and drove hard to the finish. A quick recap of the day with Dean and his team, chin wag with some of the other riders and we were on our way back to the hotel for a shower, ice bath and round 2 of dinner at Pepe & Gringo’s where Richard was offered a prize piece of chocolate cake based on how much cumulative food he was able to digest.

One more sleep and this race was over and I won’t lie – it was getting to be time to put this sucker to bed and move on

Day 7. Whistler (final day)
Distance 47km
Weather 19 degrees at peak temp.
Performance: 4:40min

Up early we very casually ate breakfast and waited for the buses to be prepped to transport us to Whistler. Within 2hrs we were at the start line at the base in creek side. A very short paved loop of the base and we began a straight shot climb up Whistler. At the highest point within that hour we seemed to be eye shot of the top but we turned and began a technical decent of switchbacks and rocky terrain. Looping some gravel trails we were sent back up the mountain and flew back down into the start area to our first aid station. ‘25 done and 25 to go’, yelled one of the aid station managers. What seemed to be fifty oranges went down within seconds and we were out of there. A challenging climb took us around million dollar homes and into the power lines. Rocky and advanced sections took me down a couple times. Ever seen a 6’4” man go down? It hurts and takes lots of energy out of the system. Not to mention a bit of confidence too. Working hard we charged on and made our way to the final aid station. What a tease as this station seemed to be 50meters from the finish line but with one catch, the flags lead us around another corner and away from our final resting spot.

The last 30min of the day/week was great. A little up and little down…ladders, bridges and teams to pass before we got so close we could hear the announcer at the finish line. I let out a big yell as we turned a corner and a race official was there with a radio as she relayed to the finish that team 82 was making their way in. We emerged from the bushes and ripped the last short downhill. Onto the grass and in through the finish structure we hopped off our bikes and were awarded metals and finisher tee shirts.

Smiles all around and handshakes from many competitors we had been sharing the trails with for almost 40hrs of riding of our first BC Bike Race.

Day 8 : Reflection.

It’s always good (and important) to debrief an event after you are done it, and somewhat rested. It enables you to really think about and appreciate what you’ve been through, what you would do differently and what you would recommend to others.

What we went through.

This was a challenging event. “more challenging than the inaugural year, we want this event to become the tour de france of mountain biking”. The combination of the weather, the technical trail and the length of the course made 7 days… well, very long. Thankfully the combination of our personalities (pretty relaxed) and our riding skill (one better at endurance, the other better at technical) made for a well suited, well balanced attack over the 7 days. I would strongly recommend the hotel option for people wanting to do this event for the main reason that you need sleep and you won’t get much sleep with 300 other people chatting, prepping, snoring in ear shot from yourself.

What we did well.

We ate (post race, slept, and paid close attention to our recovery: ice bath, recovery drink etc) very consistently. We could see this attributed to our better performances late in the event while others were just breaking down. These endurance races require a pre and post race system for prepare and recovering and we nailed those systems without missing a beat. Another thing we did well was not pressure one another. Countless times we would hear team mates squabbling – come on… or berating their team mate in frustration. Not us, really unless you are vying for top 10…. what’s the point. We also adapted well during the event with understanding what we were not doing well fueling, technical nuances etc and making the changes.

What we would do differently.

First, the training would be much more specific to the nature of this event. Because we are avarege jo’s – we have a broad range of interests. Less than 25 days earlier we were both competing in Oliver rocking out a ½ Ironman. One week prior to the BCBR one of us was trying to PB a ½ marathon (off by less than 25 seconds) but the toll those pursuits take on the body is huge. Next time, we will get more specific to this long multi day mountain bike training (if we really had to and wanted to ‘do well’). All in all, to place in the top 50 of our category that included 15 professional teams & riders was not bad at all. With proper training and a focus on placing, we could easily move up in the ranks.

The event itself.

Was VERY WELL executed. We reflected on how much of a logistical challenge it must be to move people around the coast line but the BCBR team executed it brilliantly while making us feel like VIP’s. Each day started on time, delivered what was laid out, and provided the support needed to safely accomplish the task. At no time was there someone who couldn’t answer a question or tend o a need and for the enthusiast or recreational athlete who wants to combine vacation with mountain biking – THIS IS THE VENUE to do just that. You can crush it if you want to or you can take your time and make the realistic cut off’s. You can do all 7 days as 2, or you can combine days in team’s of 4 which is really what makes this a mountain bike race for EVERYBODY.

Max Thanks to the following group who made this event possible.

1. Innovative Fitness (uni’s & travel)
2. Specialized (bikes)
3. Carbo Pro & Elite (Race Fuel – the best)
4. John Henry Bikes and the Obsession Team (kept our bikes in working order)
5. BCBR, Dean Payne – David James – Melissa – Shaun and a KICK ASS support crew!

Next Stop: Seattle to Portland Road Ride.