7 Days in Canada

Looking Back

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 09:51:00 -0600

well, at the end of the race, Team Bikeparts.com finished 14th place at 29hours, 38min. here are some other race stats i have been thinking of...

42,000 calories burned
$3000 spent
330 miles raced
29hours, 38mins raced
8 crashes
4 ferry rides
2 tubes
2 islands
1 broken deraileur hanger

i am sitting on a bus that is leaving Whistler and heading south to Vancouver. my trip is over. as i think back to the last week of riding and racing, i am filled with lots of emotions; joy, wonder, excitement, nervousness, frustration, awe, soreness, exhaustion, relief, honor, and pain. Tate and i raced on dirt, pavement, mud, moss, wood, logs, bridges, single track, double track, no track, logging roads, paths, and highways.

it was an experience of a lifetime. i look forward to possibly doing similar events like La Ruta in Costa Rica, Cape Epic in South Africa, or Trans Alps sometime in the future.

i want to thank,
my family for the love, understanding and endless support
Tate for being a laid back partner and a good person to follow on the descents
John Polli and the crew at bikeparts.com/Peak Cycles for putting up with the 'annoying racers' and helping us get the gear we need.
Ethan at Maverick for always helping us make sure our bikes are working smoothly
Molly for taking care of the cats and the FISH! ;)
any friend i have ever ridden with!

Whistler

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 09:40:59 -0600

Today we got to sleep in... woke up at 7:00am. After milling around the hotel room, we got some breakfast and retrieved our bike boxes and started thinking about packing for the trip home. Before we actually got to packing , Tate and I wanted to go play on the downhill runs at Whistler Mtn. We rented some big downhill bikes and pads and headed up the lift. Tate and I had a blast tearing down the big jumps, drops and ramps. At one point there were 2 downhillers riding back up the trail, and that doesn’t happen very often, but there were also saying “bear, bear, bear!” There are TONS of black bears in the area. Although we never got to see them, we definitely saw tons of their poop! A couple runs later, it even started raining and we were able to keep riding, it didn’t get freezing cold either. They also don’t close down the lifts as quickly as they do in Colorado and the lifts even run until 8:00pm at night! So, you can easily have a nice long day playing on the bikes! Check out the photo page for a couple more picts of the day.

Day 7

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 09:43:39 -0600

Happy 4th! Wake up call was at 6:00. We ate and got ready to grab the 8:00am bus. It was going to drop us of south of Whistler and the 47km course was going to take is into town. It was chilly as we waited for the start. By now you know most the guys who you have been racing against (Canadians, Swedish, Costa Rican and Aussie) so we all trade war stories from the previous days stage. Todays race was a little shorter but started straight uphill, the first 10km(7miles) was similar but steeper then the Winter Park hill climb! So, I took off with the big boys and Tate gave it everything he had. We got to the top, catching a team that doesn’t descend very well, so Tate timed the pass perfectly and we blasted down the long descent! We caught and passed several teams and I could tell Tate was riding hard, he had 2 very small crashes but we kept on rocking! We had the fire inside of us, and after 7 days, few teams could hold on with us. We kept passing groups and had a great time taking advantage of the ramps, log berms and bridges as we rode the km. We caught and passed Nat Ross and the Fisher team in the tight technical trees.

I rode this log bridge in the middle of the race, only to realize the consequences of the fall after I got to the other side. ;)
photo taken from http://www.monaviecannondale.com/

But they came around us on one of the paved sections of the course, darn 29'rs! ;) We put our heads down and gave it everything we had! We didn’t even stop at the last feed station! We finished seconds behind the Fisher guys and kept everyone else away! Our time today was 3hours 22minutes and 11th for the day!!! It feels so good to finish strong and leave with a great last day of racing. Tate rode real hard today and I was so happy to have had a chance to race in BC with him! In the end, we finished 14th of 95teams in our class with a time of 29hours and 38minutes.

Love you mom! I did it!!! :)

John Polli, thanks for your help racing and I hope we have made the bike shop proud! ;) 

Tomorrow will be a day of rest... But as I stare out my hotel window at all the jumps on Whistler Mtn are calling me! ;) I may have to rent a Downhill bike and have fun on the World Class trails for a couple hours!

Day 6

Thu, 3 Jul 2008 09:23:41 -0600

Today was nice because we got to sleep in until 7:00, no ferry rides or bus trips today! I instantly woke and sent a Happy Birthday text message to my sister Erika! ;) Although, there were 3-4 little rain storms in the early morning which put the already humid weather to 130% humidity! The race started well in a cool and calm group but quickly the paved hills through the towns neighbor hoods strung out the pack. I made a jump ahead in the group and Tate said to hold back...

Day 5

Wed, 2 Jul 2008 09:13:07 -0600

Today we continued riding on an island called Sunshine Coast. There were long climbs but they also led to long descents! Tate held in and we rode really well together! We saw a couple of the faster teams have troubles, so that gave us more inspiration to fly down the swooping and flowing descents! We finished the 64km course at 4hours 1minute in 6th place for the day!!!! Hoot, hoot!!!!! That's candaian for " yee haw"! ;) The good finish moved us up to 12th overall!  There are 2 days left. Tomorrow is another 60+km day with more sweet singletrack and steep climbs, just how we like it!

Jason Sagers photo taken from http://www.monaviecannondale.com/

After the race, we took another ferry to the main land and a bus up to Squamish. The bus ride was pretty cool, as I sat in the back of the bus, I looked around... Sitting behind me were two guys we have been racing from Switzerland, next to us were two Costa Ricans, infront of us were two Aussies and a couple rows ahead was Tinker. Its not every day you get on a bus like that!

Check out Tates GPS of Day 5s race here

Day 4

Tue, 1 Jul 2008 08:41:23 -0600

Happy Canada Day, eh! Today was awesome! It did start with a 4:30am wake upcall for the bus ride to the ferry to another ferry. One the first ferry ride, all the racers were invited to the top of the ferry for a group photo by helicopter.

We arrived in the Sunshine Coast and started the race at 11:00. Todays stage was shorter, 62km and easily had the most single track of any day so far. This was by far some of the sweestest trails I have ever riden. My legs were very tight at the start, but Tate and I did a great job staying with the lead group as we ride out of town. There were some steep climbs that made us work, but Tate became a new rider every time we hit the tight single track racing with vigor and energy! We finished the day in 10th place finishing in 3hours 35minutes!!!!!!! We only moved up to17th place overall, but there is about 8 minutes between us and 15th... We will see how stage 5 treats us! ;)

Day 3

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:11:31 -0600

so, today was the day Tate and I had been waiting for, lots of tight, twisty and technical single track and a "shorter" course of 83km, (50+miles) . we had a pretty early start, 8:00am. so we were up before 6:00am getting ready and eating. then race started through town with another police escort, pretty cool! then right into single track. as i was towards the front of the pack, tate was right on my heels staying close. we busted out on some steep logging roads for a short climb, then down. we got in a nice chain of guys and we were all working together on the rolling terrain. we took a steep descent down to a river crossing, see photo! the other side was just as steep. tate was putting in a good pace and we dropped a group of guys that were with us and caught onto Jimi Mortensons group. tate and jimi were speeding down some descents trying to show each other up. we hit another river crossing and we powered some more logging roads until we got about an hour from the finish. from there it was some brand new single track, mixed with older trails that were awesome! every pedal stroke had to be perfectly placed and every movement of the handle bar/front wheel also had to be perfect. i was crossing a classic, narrow BC bike bridge that was about 40 feet long, and hit my handle bar on a tree and it slammed down onto the bridge and then off 4'-5' to the forest floor below. i cant believe i didn't get too hurt in the crash... tate and i kept taking turns leading the fun trails and finally rolled into the finish at 4:19minutes. placing to come soon!

Wake up call on Day 4 is at 4:30am... we have one bus and 2 ferrys to catch before we even start the race... wish us good night! :)

Check out Tate’s GPS of Day 3s race here.

Day 2

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:11:20 -0600

Well, today was a 129km mtb road race and HOT, over 90deg with lots of sun! They say its unusually hot for this area, but I would rather have the heat instead of cold, rain or wind. The race started with a 10km rolling start on pavement and let us on to tons of backwoods logging roads. Who knows where people feel off of the 400 person pack, but Tate and I stuck close to the front with riders like Chris Etough, Tinker and Seamus Mcgrath. After 70km or so the pack was small, 50 riders. Tate and I stilled stayed at the front of the pack until 90km and that's where the top leaders of race pack put it down on a steep climb. We missed one turn that cost us about 4 minutes, but so did 8 other people. Tate and I finished the last of the fire roads and got our wind back in the last 2km of awesome single track. After 129km (80miles), the longest mtb ride I have ever done, we finished at 4:59 hours. Over all, as of Day 2 we are 20th of 97 teams at a time of 10hours, 13min. Tate and I are looking forward to Day 3s racing classic BC trails! :)
Now, as I read this entry, I want to point out that I am not using the metric system to be a Euro -Roadie Douche - Wanna Be, but thats how the race is measured and thats how we have to think about the distances! ;)

Day 1

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:11:08 -0600

It can only get better. Where to start? The start of the race included a couple laps around a local school. That's fun and all, but part of the lap was through a freshly mowed field. The helicopter was filming us ans i felt great! Tate was on my wheel and we were moving up. As I was passing racers, my chain was grabbing the lawn cuttings and it jammed full of grass and broke off my deraileur hanger!!!! Insert lots of loud cuss words! I took the chain off and ran back to the start finish area. I had a back up hanger but it was in my bag in a Uhaul van. I ran to the van and looked inside at the 200 bags that looked like mine, it was literally like finding a needle in a haystack. I don't know if it was The Force or something but the 5th bag I grabbed was tates! We  pulled out the hanger, threw it on the bike any got back in the race. Now about 2 km later, my chain broke! The SRAM chain power link had come undone. Insert more cuss words! Now we are close to the back of 400 riders. We rode as fast and friendly as possible while we passed  people. At one point I was riding a technical section and this guy that was walking it, stepped infront of me, I crashed hard. Then got back on it and caught some other Pros that had a similar start and all 4 of us went the wrong way. As I looked down at my gps to see where we went wrong and my brand new $250 gps was gone!!! Lots more cuss words!! We finally get back on course and through the inexperienced riders and start to race. All that happen in the first 20km, now we had 69km to catch up! I figured it could not get any worse, so i put on a smile After that point Tate and I rode HARD and finished 5hoursm,13min for 89km = 55 miles and 5000 calories.
The funny thing about the day, was my sponsor at the bike shop gave me a $5 bike bell with a little compass on it. At the last minute, I threw it on my bike and it ended up being the most helpful item of the day! I rang that little bell about 100 times as we rode by all the other racers and worked our way through the giant pack of racers! Thanks Polli!!!!
Check out the Tate’s GPS of Day 1s race here.

Day 0

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:10:49 -0600

Today we traveled from Victoria up north to the start of the race via bus. It was real pretty to see the island and still cant believe how many trees there are. it is GREEN!!!
we checked in to the race. it as very quick and we were surprised by the amount of gear we got! a box of honey stinger protein bars, a BC Bike Race jersey, t-shirt, and cycling socks, a cool white Syncros handlebar, a pair of sunglasses and a super nice Dakine luggage bags! we then found our dorm room and proceeded to unpack the bikes and get them ready for the race. tate was building his bike and forgot a "little" bolt that hold the stem to the bike. of course, this wasnt just a normal bolt because of the super nice Maverick forks/stems we have, so tate had to go talk to some mechanics and figure out a way to get it put together. about 20 minutes later he came back with a smile! after that we ate dinner, salmon was served, YUM! and watched the opening presentation. it was really cool to find out how international the race was. there are competitors from Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Swedish and a only a handful of Americans. in all there were 23 countries representing at the BCBR. its really cool to see all the different levels and types of riders setting out to do race! we got back to our dorm and got ready for the first day of racing! :)

Traveling to BC

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:10:35 -0600

I hope I have thought of everything! I have... rebuilt my bike, bought all the extra race supplies I think I may need, packed clothes for the cold and warm, packed all the cables for all the different electrical gadgets I am taking, I printed all the travel information, ridden lots of miles, eaten lots of food, got a massage, slept lots of hours, mowed the yard, shaved the cats, and now all I have to do is get to Vancouver and race! :) - jesse

Getting Ready

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0600