BC Bike Race

Very cool.

There were a lot of Elements in the race, but Andreas Hestler was on an Altitude 90 and Alison Sydor was riding her Vertex Team hardtail.

The weather looked sweet for a race. Nice to see the 2 different Rocky Mountain teams out there.
Rockyuphill, any idea where Hestler finished on the Altitude?

Yep... Hestler finished 4th in Solo Men at 1:43:05 behind Colin Kerr and Kevin Calhoun (on Elements) but apparently he had to stop every 20 minutes to pump up his rear tire. That kept dropping him back near the Luna Chix gals who came in around 1:50, he'd get the tire pumped up and take off into the distance again. There was at least one other Altitude 90 in the race and at least one or two Altitude 50 aluminium bikes that I saw go by on the trail, there were a lot of privateers on Rockys.

http://www.bcbikerace.com/assets/downloads/SoloMenOpen.pdf

http://www.bcbikerace.com/assets/downloads/2WmnOpen.pdf

hah - some of the bib shorts crowds didn't care much for BC XC. http://www.velonews.com/article/93926/bc-bike-race-day-1-into-the-deep-end

Severed Dick was part of the Hell of the North race when we had to do 4 laps of it. Pipeline has been part of the twoonie race course series.

Wait'll they get to Squamish and Whistler... Powerhouse Plunge will likely take as many victims as Severed and Pipeline (as it does for the out of towners in the Test of Metal). This definitely ain't the Trans Rockies or Trans Alps.

And yet XC riders like Catharine Pendrel and Katrina Nash ripped it up, they were on 'Dre's tail while he was pumping up his rear tire. They were only 7 minutes behind Dre. Pendrel's 2:50 time for the Test of Metal was pretty impressive too.

“Yeah, today was a bit much,” Khalsa said. “It’s great for locals who can scope out the trails. I understand (organizers) want to show off the North Shore, but I’d rather spend the day riding my bike. I had to walk down most of the downhills.”

The Race Organizers should buy this person some Bar Streamers and Spokey-Dokes to cheer him up.

I'm thinking catherine shouldn't be too worried about this stuff. When I raced the Kamloops and Kelowna crowd were all pretty decent at dh technical. I'm sure someone who can handle uncomfortable bum won't be too fazed by Pipeline.

It would always be the same Vancouver guys would make a bit of time (but not much) at the downhills but the okanagan Interior crowd trained a lot of road and would get most of us in the flats and then we'd be even on the uphills.

To get upgrade points BC guys would go down to the WA area races and clean up. I am told this has changed now and the us racers are much more competitive then previously. Of course this applies only to hacks in expert and Pro/ semi-pro. The UCI and national level races were a totally different gig.

I want to do BC BIke Race next year
I sure hope the organizers ignore Mr. Velonews and Khalsa
It would be a shame if they dumbed it down

rod - you did it one year right? There was too much logging road that year if i recall. A more technical course would reward you. Maybe put in a Lower Oilcan climb - although most people would just run that.

Hi Lee
yes I did BCBR in 2007, less logging road than 2008

technical climbs only work for me if everyone is either old school, all-mtn, or a typical Shore rider - if a rider calls out "riding" then the walkers jump out of the way. That really benefitted me in the North Shore Epic, but good trail manners are not typical of the "train on the road and only ride trails when racing" set

LeeL said:

hah - some of the bib shorts crowds didn't care much for BC XC. http://www.velonews.com/article/93926/bc-bike-race-day-1-into-the-deep-end

Severed Dick was part of the Hell of the North race when we had to do 4 laps of it. Pipeline has been part of the twoonie race course series.

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I wouldn't really call Pipeline a "monster downhill"

gbvan said:

I wouldn't really call Pipeline a "monster downhill"

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Compared to XC race courses in San Diego it would be.

Wow, mad props to Colin Kerr who took the solo men category with a sizable margin over 2nd place and Kevin Calhoun finished 4th overall, both riding Elements.

http://www.bcbikerace.com/assets/downloads/SoloMenOpen.pdf

Alison Sydor and Lea Davison finished 2nd overall in Open Women's behind the Luna Chix

http://www.bcbikerace.com/assets/downloads/2WmnOpen.pdf

I heard some rumours that next year's BC Bike Race is all on the Mainland, no ferry trips needed. Be interesting to see what develops there.

LeeL said:

I'm thinking catherine shouldn't be too worried about this stuff. When I raced the Kamloops and Kelowna crowd were all pretty decent at dh technical. I'm sure someone who can handle uncomfortable bum won't be too fazed by Pipeline.

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Catharine is pretty good at that stuff, remember she learned to ride with Eric Goss and Geoff Pendrel. Her teamate (Katerina) on the otherhand is crazy fast on that stuff. You see her ride and you would think that she grew up riding the shore.

Catharine said one interesting thing about mixed races (male and female) is that guys who can climb with her can't descend with her. Her and Katerina were constantly having to deal with slower traffic on the descents.

Completely different then a world cup where anybody who can climb fast also has the descending skills to match.

LMN said:

Completely different then a world cup where anybody who can climb fast also has the descending skills to match.

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Maybe not everyone, Kabush complained about being held up by slow descenders at Mont Sainte Anne last year.

rockyuphill said:

Maybe not everyone, Kabush complained about being held up by slow descenders at Mont Sainte Anne last year.

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True but Kabush races world cups different then anybody else. His conversative pacing strategy often puts him back in the field early in the race.

Thanks for sharing the sweet photos RUH. I wish we had races like that in California