2024 BC Bike Race Route Announced
PRESS RELEASE: BC Bike Race
BC Bike Race the “Ultimate Singletrack Experience” is excited to announce the finalization of the 2024 route, its 18th year in the making.
New for 2024 the BC Bike Race returns to Victoria after a 17-year hiatus. From the provincial capital, the racers will meander up the Vancouver Island Coast to Cumberland. Along the way, the participants will visit the legendary trails of Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, Cumberland, and Campbell River, with some new routes being set and some classics remaining.
 | “We want to give our racers the best possible experience, so we work hard to improve each year. Based on racer feedback, we’ve created some new options and brought back some old favourites for 2024.” |
Victoria's Hartland Mountain Bike Park
Victoria was the host for the original 2007 BC Bike Race and returns to the fold with nearly two decades’ worth of trail development managed by SIMBS (South Island Mountain Bike Society). Victoria as a third basecamp will add both a new riding area to the route and enable the participants to enjoy this historic Canadian town before beginning the journey of a lifetime.
Island Views.
Some Tech Gnar.
Victoria has deep history of producing amazing world class athletes: from home growns such as Andreas Hestler and Ryder Hesjedal to the mass migration of talent including Catharine Pendrel, Geoff Kabush, Max Plaxton, Seamus McGrath, Lesley Tomlinson, Andrew L’Esperance, Hailey Smith, Carter Nieuwesteeg and Peter Disera. It’s no question the quality of the singletrack will be equal to the calibre of athletes who have honed their world class skills, and tuned their engines here.
| “We’re over the moon to showcase the incredible trails and land we get to call home here. From technical descents to flowy single-track, arbutus bluffs to rocky terrain, switchbacked smooth climbs to tricky punches, riders are really in for a little bit of everything and a lot of fun!” |
Nanaimo serves up a magical buffet of subtle flavours
The Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, Cumberland, and Campbell River all return as mainstays in the second annual Vancouver Island edition. With trail inventories measuring in the hundreds of kilometers per community, balancing a week’s worth of daily adventures will be a pleasure and a privilege for the BCBR course directors. Distances, elevations, and other details will be coming soon.
Cowichan Valley Arbutus Trees
Maple Mountian Amazing woodwork
Cumberland singletrack
Campbell River inside the Green Room.
Each year with small changes, a new community or a new signature trail, the overall course seeks to balance a smorgasbord of experiences. It is each year’s unique combination of communities that creates that season’s flavour and like the Tour de France that flavour is only experienced by the participants of that year’s event.
The 7-day Journey:
July 1: Ride Victoria – Registration & Prologue
July 2: Ride Victoria
July 3: Ride Cowichan Valley
July 4: Ride Nanaimo
July 5: Ride Cumberland
July 6: Ride Campbell River
July 7: Ride Cumberland
We will have 3 basecamps this year: Victoria, Crofton and Cumberland.
Vancouver Island and stage locations.
Crofton Base Camp in the Cowichan Valley.
Good Vibes
The Main Street of Cumberland comes alive.
Achievement complete.
THE COMMUNITIES & THE CLUBS OF VANCOUVER ISLAND:
Visit Victoria – SIMBS (South Island Mountain Bike Society)
Cowichan Valley, Crofton – CTSS (Cowichan Trail Stewardship Society)
Nanaimo – NMBC (Nanaimo Mountain Bike Club)
Cumberland (Comox Valley) – UROC (United Riders of Cumberland)
Campbell River - RCCC (River City Cycle Club)
Vancouver Island and stage locations.
ABOUT THE BC BIKE RACE:
BC Bike Race, the ‘Ultimate Singletrack Experience’ is a seven(7) day mountain bike stage race that has been fondly referred to as "My best week on a Bike". Taking place in the legendary mountain bike destination of British Columbia. For 18 years this event, whether race or ride has hosted annually 33 different countries to a Mountain Bike Extravaganza. - British Columbia has the largest inventory of purpose built singletrack in the world - come and enjoy this amazing experience.
Website: BC BIKE RACE
Stay tuned for the distance and elevation details, as the next few weeks unfold – plan your ‘Big Adventure’ for 2024, come join the BC Bike Race.
Photo Credit: Dave Silver /Margus Riga / Jens Klett / BC Bike Race
Author Info:
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I manage and work on the United Riders of Cumberland trail crew and have done for five years and I can honestly say the effect the BC bike race has on our trails is nothing more than minimal, the trails are still awesome, hardly an issue and this year’s post-race repairs list comprised of one bridge on Grunt and Grind! Cumberland has seen an ex potential rise in users over the last years while the trails are holding up strong and honestly just keep getting better. A mere 600 people enjoying the trails in one race weekend is no different to any other summer day in Cumberland and or any of the surrounding networks on the Island. Think Hornby Island for a minute!
Cumberland hosts a variety of over 14 Trail events annually while seeing upwards of 220,000 uses in the network a year. We’re very familiar with high traffic multiuse of our trails. Those numbers are not going away, and our trail network is still world class, standing up to high traffic, major weather events and while the trail builders continue to welcome everyone, including the ‘out of towners’ our trails continue to be a bunch of fun.
Many community members enter the wide variety of events we host annually as well as marquee bike races like BC bike race, which I might add, all those events are very generous contributors to the network for the privilege of using the trails. Mosaic Forest Management and Manulife Forest Management are the main landowners around the Village of Cumberland’s community forest, and they have year on year shown great support for non-motorized recreation on their land, this privilege allows for the management, new trail development, and maintenance our trail network. It also allows us to hold events and gives open access for non-motorized recreation to all the folks wanting to enjoy the trails. That’s pretty special for the existence of the trails and should not be taken for granted.
We achieved a lot of trail preparation with the support of BC bike race funds, and we developed a lot of new aspects to the trail network prior to race and the many events we host, this continues to give us a robust, exciting, stand-up trail network to showcase all year long.
Having marquee events like the Cumby Running race, Dodge City Triathlon, the Devils Ladder Ultra, the Momar, The Perseverance Trail run and races like BC bike race also presents our club the means to seek support for new trail development and on-going maintenance programs. Last year we were able to install four new trails with the support of 4VI (Vancouver Island Tourism) to our network. Blue square trails - New Vanilla & Funky Vanilla, and Black diamond trails Felicia, and the recently finished phase one of Mumbo Jumbo. The continued support that our volunteer trail builder’s give to our network prior to the busy events season in regular maintenance gave us the complete rebuild of Potluck, Thirsty beaver, (both trails are largely cedar bridging which doesn’t erode) Off Broadway, Vanilla, Teapot, Blueprint, and the installation of a brand new climbing trail up to the peak of Nikkei mountain, not forgetting several other great trail improvements and new trails in the network. The trail builders would rather see a busy summer event when the trails are solid and dry as opposed to soft, wet, weather beaten or volatile… believe me, when I say, there’s always a ton more repairs to do to trails when they are repeatedly bashed by inclement weather and high-volume trail use. So, summer events are good for the trails and good to keep us trail building fanatics highly stoked and busy with the sweat equity. After two days of BC Bike race the trail crew, volunteers and local trail builders were flat out celebrating how well our trials held up and it made us proud how revered our trail creations were by the racing contestants. I challenge the keyboard warriors to take that moment away from us.
I’m also the founder and builder of Vancouver Islands worst kept secret of a small trail network in mid island, which is kept off the map and has been for many years. I built and rode that network by myself for some 5yrs before it was discovered by the masses and when they came, the network started to see youtubers get paid large and upwards of 25,000 people ripping my trail creations each year. The trails have hardly changed, but the stoke and the excitement remains consistent of how awesome the trails are. So, again I contest the keyboard warriors how our trail work does not stand up to a one busy weekend and I challenge those not allowing us trail builders the opportunity to showcase our work, hear hoots and hollers in the forest and feel a bit of love for the hard yards and beloved sweat equity that us trail builders give to you in our trail creations.
I look forward to reading the comments and I’m really looking forward to seeing the BC bike race back in Cumberland in 2024.
Thanks for your support and ride on.
Maybe the money you make could be put back into hiring a professional trail crew? Cuz, ya know, the locals ain't get the resources to clean up other people's messes.
Just saying.
I don't mind racing in theory, but don't sign up for a race then brag about how you finished when you rode around every feature on the trail.
“ 2024 COURSE DETAILS COMING SOON”
Wot?
So it's a fact that it does push 600 riders, all at once, into the trail network who are not just riding the trails, but racing them. The trails do get beat pretty hard with little opportunity for repair until much later.
Same thing happens but to a much lesser degree when the Island Cup Enduro and XC series' comes through the various island spots, but those races tend to be in the spring and fall. Also just a third of the riders vs BCBR and mostly locals who are also usually paying their local membership fees and/or volunteer for dig days pre and/or post vs a mass of tourists that come in, mash the trails for a few days and leave.
I don't know what the answer to this is, or if anything can be done about it... and if in the long run, it's still better for the area to host this race... but it does have a significant impact.
This ^ is what I'd support, if I were to consider riding in this event.
Trans BC and other stage race events use a similar format.
Turns out Vancouver Island is the original location of the BC Bike race, and is indeed a part of BC.