The BC bike race had been on our minds since before the creation of RADBIKE and was an event that myself and Eric were stoked to have an opportunity to be a part of. Having said that, it was hands down one of the craziest experiences of our lives, for good and bad.
We packed up every thing we could possibly think of to pack in our little trailer(thanks Brent) and headed off to meet a bunch of techs at obsession Bike Shop we didn’t know and en experience never to forget.
It all started of with a journey to Vancouver where the race would begin, but what’s a road trip without a day of biking or two?
Our first stop on the trip landed us in Revelstoke to ride as much of martha creek as possible, we dropped the trailer at the bottom and drove until we hit snow. It was raining(big surprise for revy), but we did a few runs and had a blast in the mud and rain, only to be greeted by some sun as we finished up.
The next stop on the adventure brought us to Silverstar resort, conveniently on their opening day.
We were accompanied by a good friend Aaron Brown and the three of us ripped up perfectly tacky trails in the sun with out a line up the whole day.
A great start to our adventure.
The next day we packed up our bikes and our gear and drove to Vancouver to meet the team!
Having only had a brief intro to the guys we would spend the next 7days and nights with, we headed to the pre-course location in North Van to cheer on our racers John,Tannis, Drew, Hugh and Scott, and get up to par with the setup program of our mobile shop.
Beware of the garbage monsters that hung around mechanics.
We had a good first day(mellow)and then we headed towards our first of 4 ferries, horse shoe bay here we come. We arrived in Nanimo in good time. We set up and felt like we had it all dialed, then the problems came……Generators were already dying and the load of bikes we were to fix was late, the precedence had been set.
Day- 1- Nanimo. This was the only day that the racers started and finished and slept in the same town. We headed down to the race start and dished out any last minute air or help racers needed Then saw them off with style courtesy of Fraser’s mean air guitar.
Eli and Fraser stoked about the wicked repair of a broken seat stay from the first day. (the repair lasted all week)
A common sight at each nights set up was the competitors village.
Eric and Fraser keepin spirits up.
The racers came in within a few hours and the onslaught of busted bikes began! after a full afternoon and evening of bike repairs we packed up in the late hours of the night. after but a few hours of sleep we were up and on the move to cumberland to setup for the next round.
Day2 – Cumberland. We had a few hours to kill so we decided to do a hike a bike and try out the Cumberland DCDH trail. It seemed like a good idea, but after an hour of hiking in 30 degree humindity we definitely changed our minds, on the way down we ran into a few kinds who showed us that we had gone way,way past the trail…DOAH.
It was a well earned 2 minutes of downhill…..
just as we arrived back, all the bikes started to roll in……..we fixed about half the bikes then had to pack up and headed to our 2nd ferrie of the journey. we all tried to rest knowing that we still had60-70 bikes to fix still that evening.
Eric contemplating what we have gotten ourselves into.
Day3 – Powell River to Earls Cove. The setup here was our first night setup completely in the dark. Once setup we started hammering away at the work ahead. We got through the bikes by about 5 in the morning which gave us a decent nights sleep of 3 hrs.
morning view.
Powell River also gave us a nice mixture of bike and art.
Eric catching a few extra zzz’s at breakfast before packing up the shop.
When we did awake, we were greeted by an office view that people would kill for, our shop was on the beach looking out over the water. And once again, it was time to pack up and move on to the next ferry #3 and the next stage.
An all too common sight from this race.
Day4 – Earls Cove to Sechelt. Our office at Earls Cove was not as breathtaking as the last, we were set up in the parking lot of the ferry terminal getting poured on by rain. We set up in the night once again and hammered away at bikes late into the morning. We took a 3 hr sleep break in shifts, we were lucky and on the first shift. awoken with a few hours before race start we dove right into fork services, loosing small parts on the ground and a wonderful lefty migration that turned into a full service that was completed only minutes before the race. But not before the lefty decided to hit me right in the head! The loud twang the fork made against my head stopped everyone in their tracks as they waited for me to flip out…..i didn’t, but am left with a mark to remember that moment the rest of my life. Doah! To add to my luck, a small cut on my elbow had been aggravated by a knock on something. my arm had swelled to 2-3 times its size(think popeye). A growing concern due to the 10 or so hours of sleep we had had up to this pint.
We packed up and drove to Sechelt. While the rest of the team set up shop i took quick detour to the hospital to receive some quality antibiotics to calm my popeye syndrome. The sun was shining bright for the day of bike repairs. which came in masses.
Now that we were halfway through the race we started to run out of parts, James from Obsession helped with that by riding his bike with burly full of our requested parts from North Van to Sechelt. This wasn’t enough though, so we sent a runner on the sherpa bike to get some tires and a XX derailleur.
The Sherpa (note the 400$ derailleur being carried in the water bottle cage, only a mechanic would treat an item like this)
Clutch keeping us going food wise in style.
Day5 – Sechelt -to Langdale Ferry terminal. Once again, it was wake up in the morning to rain…..A team meeting was called by James. We all huddled around in the rain after we took down the tents(good idea) and did what we could to keep our spirits up.
Eli making sure that everyone stayed safe in Sechelt.
We then headed to the Langdale ferry terminal, which would be the location of our Canada Day celebration, which consisted of the exact same thing we had done every day for the race, Beers and bike repairs. Oh goode, Canada day in a parking lot. We boarded our last ferry that evening and headed to Squamish.
A pile of broken bikes waiting for their band aides(epoxy). Every frame repair we had done on this trip lasted the whole race for each rider!Success!
Day6 – Squamish. A morning setup without pressure was a nice change to our schedule. After clutch made sure we were fed, we rounded up as many bikes as we could and went for a tech DH run in Squamish. The road up to the trails was not your normal shuttle run. once we saw that the riders were heading up the same road as us, whoever wasn’t driving proceeded to hang of the vehicles and cheered the racers on, quite the sight. We ended up doing the 19th hole to the brand new trail Half Nelson which was great, other then the fact we were so run down no one rode well. But tons of fun and good to get out and hang with the team while not working. Eric’s new Turner also ended up with its first crash and broken parts, which Fraser was deeply apologetic about. After the ride it was back to the grind.
Squamish was our earliest night of the week, thank god. we finished up around 2, packed up and relaxed over a few beers.
Day7 – Whistler. Morning came all too quick, but we knew the end was near, off to Whistler we went. Our instructions and the racers instructions were mixed up and the bikes and us were setup at the upper blackcomb parking lot, while the riders were down at the base of the gondola…….craziness ensued as racers were scrambling to get up there and get their bike before race start. Thankfully everyone got to the start line on time…barely.
Now that we were done up top we cheered on the racers in Rad Bike style, with a bang!
the rest of the gang was at village base to box up bikes.
All that was left to do was go and tear up whistler for a few days to clear our minds and reward ourselves.
Me on Captin Safety, Rock slab.
Eric rippin it up.
Fraser getting Cam setup to ride bikes with mom(kate). BMX with a child seat!Tech steez!
Pedals joined in the spirit of Rad Bike
We met up with some friends Curtis and Jenna in Whistler( who let us use their couch and floor, thanks guys) for some biking and whiffle golf.
The BC bike race was a blast, horrible, funny, and everything in between.
Thanks to James and Matt at Obsession Bikes, Mark, Eli, Steve, Fraser, Leigh, Darryl(grom helper), Clutch for keeping us fed, and to the random techs that helped us in Sechelt and Squamish, and to any one i missed that helped make this trip possible or bearable.
