BCBR is Finished!

7 days of riding through BC "ultimate single track experience" came to an end on saturday up in Whistler. What a great week! We started in Vancouver moving up to the island, down the sunshine coast, then finishing the last 2 days in Squamish and Whistler. Each day was on avg. 60 km ranging in 2.5- 4.5 hr of riding time. Shorter days in my opinion yet once you added on the early wake up calls, 4 ferries, plenty of bus rides and travel in between the stages I was totally trashed when I got back home on the night of day 5. I was so happy to be able to spend the last 2 nights in my own bed. I started the race off sitting in a comfortable 5th place. There was a strong women's field so I was totally content to be sitting in the top 5. As the week went on there was a good few of us that jumped around positions in the stages. Depending on the coarse of the day you quickly learned each other strengths; the roadies from the technical descenders. In the end I finished 6th and was happy to be in the top 10. I came into the race knowing that this is only the beginning of my season and looked at it as a great training race for the 24 hours and adventure races later this summer. I managed to not have one single mechanical on the coarse and walked away in one piece with all body parts intact. BC bike race is one of the more technical stage races that I've heard of. Day 0 in the Prolog someone already broke their frame. I had one crash which projected me off my bike at high speed 7 feet in the air the girl behind claimed I was flying. It was one of those hidden peddle catchers in the bushes. I lost my big toenail on that one.

All in all it was a great week meeting great people and catching up with old friends riding some awesome BC trails. Solo racing was a good experience to push yourself on your own and having to completely rely on yourself. But racing with the right partner seemed to be a much more enjoyable experience. To share the laughs, spills, the wahhoooo's down sweet trails and to have someone to push you just a little harder can make it all the more fulfilling. BCBR has something great going on here and I would totally recommend this race to anyone. Especially people not from Canada. I truly think that Canada is the real mecca for mountain biking and this race highlights some of the best riding in the world! Check out www.bcbikerace.com for more information. I road the Specialized Era for the whole race and loved it. It's really a great bike for me. I saw other women on Safire's or other 5+ inches of travel bikes and I think I would do the same next time. It has some great descents on it that having a little bit more travel would have made it even better! Now it's back to work tomorrow and time to recover and get ready for 24 hours of Adrenaline Canadian Nationals in only a few weeks. Scary thought that in these 7 days of riding I never even broke 24 hours of riding. I'm reminded of how bad my but is about to hurt again.