2025 COURSE INFO
STAGE 1 – PROLOGUE
COWICHAN VALLEY – JUNE 30
TOTAL DISTANCE: ~20km
ELEVATION: ~500m
Today is about warming up your legs and body and making sure your equipment is ready for the week. While it’s shorter, Day 1 is also a way to settle the nerves and seed the athletes appropriately.
STAGE 2
COWICHAN VALLEY – JULY 1
TOTAL DISTANCE: ~30km
ELEVATION: ~700m
Day 2 will dive deep into Mount Tzouhalem. Route description coming soon.
STAGE 3
COWICHAN VALLEY – JULY 2
TOTAL DISTANCE: ~40km
ELEVATION: ~1,000m
Day 3 will send racers on a sweet journey up Maple Mountain. Route description coming soon.
STAGE 4
NANAIMO – JULY 3
TOTAL DISTANCE: 36.7km
ELEVATION: 953m
With an abundance of trails, Nanaimo has been a staple mountain bike location on the mid-island for decades. You will get to sample 3 distinct riding zones today. Heading into the Abyss first, you will notice the giant slab of granite. Circling around this landmark, you will enjoy trails like “Nookie”, “Diggler” and “Hootenanny”. Making your way to south Mount Benson via “Chicken Dinner”, your first sustained descent, “Gatekeeper”, is mind numbingly fun. After more goodness here it’s up and over towards Westwood Lake, highlighted by “The Other Cheek”, “Pink Unicorn” and a ton of other sweet trails to finish your day.
STAGE 5
CUMBERLAND – JULY 4
TOTAL DISTANCE: 38.5km
ELEVATION: 1,261m
Starting in Cumberland you will make your way up a short section of gravel double track to spread out the field. Then it’s onto Sobo no Michi, a masterpiece of a purpose-built climbing trail, which will get you to the upper trail network. From here it’s mostly down with the occasional punchy climb to connect some of the best trails the network has to offer. “Furtherburger”, “Race Rocks”, “Felicia”, “Field of Dreams” and “Woodcutter” are only a few gems of the day. Once you get to the top of Nikkie Mountain you’ll be descending all the way back to the village of Cumberland.
STAGE 6
CAMPBELL RIVER – JULY 5
TOTAL DISTANCE: 44.9km
ELEVATION: 736m
Today’s stage is a classic epic XC ride. Around 45km of up and down through the phenomenal second-growth forest of the Snowden Demonstration Forest and Elk Falls Provincial Park. The course immerses you in the green room all day on a sliver of brown trail as you skirt alongside remote lakes and out onto open rocky bluffs. Some highlights of the day will be “Jabberwocky”, “Rotary Rock and Roll”, and “Dean Martin”.
STAGE 7
CUMBERLAND – JULY 6
TOTAL DISTANCE: 31km
ELEVATION: 893m
Your final stage of the BC Bike Race! This is a shorter course that takes in some of the best descending Cumberland has to offer. After climbing “Sobo no Michi” you will be hitting over 2km of “Vanilla”, the trail that’s on everybody’s ride plan. From here, a gravel road climb will get you to almost 5km of mostly descending. Starting on the slightly spicier “Blockhead” and “Bear Buns”, onto some high-speed riding down the local favorites, “Scat”, “Brat”, and “Bonestorm” before crossing the finish line to celebrate your week and accomplishments.
