DougalB

The event destroying trails is flat out not true, the trails were in great shape this year, as with every year, and having the bike race did not wear the trails any more than a typical busy summer weekend in Cumberland. Cumberland is a high volume, world class trail network and the life cycle of a trail is not determined by one weekend of use. Trails evolve and change all the time, which is part of the trails charm, they get maintained and continue to provide good times what ever the day. Most, if not all trails will outlive you and I and they will be just as rad tomorrow as they are today.

BC bike race coming to Cumberland is a great opportunity for us as a trail building community to showcase our amazing creations to the visitors and trail using public of Vancouver Island and far afield. It’s crazy when people take ownership of our trails and start keyboard wars over folks having a good time. 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.

@aresmasip: You're awesome Ares, Andorra should be proud of your wonderful spirit and your bright happy smile. Congratulations.

Go for it Emmy Lan

So much for acknowledging the trail builders. You're welcome Marzocchi and all.

Wouldn't be surprised if Pat laffey causes some shakeups.

White sux

Seb Kemp just became the coolest guy on earth.