BC Bike Race Day 5

We kicked off the day with a nice low key morning in Sechelt. The breakfast was tasty even though the Canadian breakfast burrito is drastically different than the New Mexican version. The race today was “shortened” from “38km” to “30km”. Due to a sketchy river crossing that was too high due to the snowmelt.

The day started off with the usual largely road, uphill rollout. Following pavement we were greeted by a long dirt road climb that at times was very steep. Entering the singletrack was nice and things were fairly spaced out. While riding in the singletrack I noticed that things slowed down significantly and noticed that there was a rider down on the trail. It turns out that the rider down was a girl named Brooke who was racing the women’s solo race and had wrecked pretty hard. She was in need of medical attention and was very shook up from her wreck. Myself and a number of other riders stayed with her until medical help arrived in the form of two awesome medics from Whistler. We walked Brooke out about 1km carrying her on a stretcher. After about an hour of helping her and getting passed by pretty much everyone in the entire race we started on our merry way again. The trail continued to undulate up and down with some fun sections and really fun bridges. Climbing seemed to go on forever, but we were rewarded with a sweet downhill descending into Langsdale. The downhill was super fun with lots of steep flowy sections. Coming into Langdale we were sent into a fun dry riverbed full of wet rocks and fun sketchiness. Wet, cold rain was falling steadily when I crossed the finish line, but fortunately showers were waiting. Unfortunately I forgot to bring underwear, clean socks, or a towel. But I did have a t-shirt, shorts and raincoat. I showered, dried myself off with the t-shirt and wore just shorts, shoes and a raincoat onto the ferry and bus ride. Very creepy, but hilarious and only slightly uncomfortable.


Due to many unforeseen circumstances and the fact that my legs are tired of riding bikes I ended up on the late ferry ride from Langsdale to Horseshoe Bay and then a pretty stinky bus ride from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish. Arriving in Squamish the clouds were clearing and it was a very beautiful drive in. The massage upon arrival was awesome since some pesky trickster put a baseball sized knot in my shoulder.


Life at the BC Bike Race is good and is turning into an experiment into just how much punishment my legs can take and the trail can dish out. The trails are sweet and the people both running the race and participating are awesome. I have met some great people and ridden some wicked trails. Squamish promises to be another punishing but rewarding day in the saddle.

On another note I found out that Brooke was released from the hospital and is safe at home in Whistler tonight.