Bruce Newton’s Post BC Bike Race Blog
It’s now nearly a year since I got home from riding in the BC Bike Race in Canada and the folks at Bicycle Superstore have asked me to offer my thoughts now that a bit of time has elapsed. Well, one thing I can tell you is I didn’t spent a whole heap of time on the bike for a while after the race finished. In fact, for the first couple of months It hung on the stand in the garage and gathered dust. There were a few reasons for that; firstly, my wife Jane’s injury which had stopped her at the very last minute (like the day before!) coming to the race was far from fixed. So her needs were paramount. The good news there is we’re now over the worst of that. There was also a heap of work that needed to be caught up on. How can 10 days away results in three solid months of weekend overtime? And there was just the simple fact that after 18 months of intense effort – more really – I was not all that fired up about riding. I was more interested in rediscovering the taste of beer, chocolate and even the occasional packet of barbecue chips. Mm chips, yum. But that junk food itch was well and truly scratched by late 2018. Moving the belt out an extra notch (or two) was a reminder that I wasn’t as svelte (ha!) as I had been. And so the Giant Trance started coming out of the shed. Just a few solo rides firstly, pretty basic, for an hour or two....
New for 2019 – A Prologue Stage.
We are excited to introduce a Prologue on Day 0 of the 2019 BC Bike Race. This addition will keep our singletrack-heavy courses flowing as smoothly as possible to ensure an optimal racing experience across the entire General Classification (GC). The Day 0 Prologue course will be in North Vancouver and the sub-4km course is not designed to annihilate your race legs, but instead, to correctly establish your place in the start chute for our first Stage in the Cowichan Valley. It’s a chance to shake out your pre-race nerves and make sure your bike is race-ready while saving your energy for the challenging week that lies ahead. Also new for 2019, daily start chutes will be based on your General Classification at the end of the previous stage. In previous years, we have used Stage 1 to seed racers for the rest of the week after all 600 racers self-seeded into the start chute. This year, the prologue - which will count towards your overall - will seed you correctly for Stage 1. We believe that start times reflecting the GC is important as it provides a better overall experience on the tight trails of the BC Bike Race. We will communicate your place in the GC daily and your correlating start box. We expect that it will keep you pushing yourself each day, and reward you for the efforts made to climb up the GC. Ultimately, we believe this will keep the flow of our entire pack moving more smoothly along the singletrack, eliminate the bottlenecks and allow you to ride hard with the space you need to do so. The only...
BC Bike Race Tire Selection
BC Bike Race is a unique event; it may possibly be the only definitively multi-day trail bike event in the world. What does this mean? While many other events are deemed cross-country, they are carried out on cross-country trails. BC Bike Race is held on a myriad of blue square and black diamond trails. And by its very nature, roots, rocks, and mud abound. As with any travel adventure, barring your own inherent knowledge, stick with what the locals know/do.
Outdoor Magazine: Oh Canada! You Absolute Beauty
“The BC Bike Race is truly a blood-sweat-and-tears MTB Adventure, as Bruce Newton discovers the hard way. Would he do it all again? You bet!” READ...