BC Bike Race: Day 5

Distance: 24.75 miles
Elevation: 4193 ft
Time: 6 hours
Difficulty: Medium-Hard. Hard mostly due to the fact that we’ve had a full 4 days before this.
Theme of the Day: Only in British Columbia can 25 miles take 6 hours to ride!

Today was actually an early morning start - 8:00am! Most mornings we have had some sort of shuttle to take to get to our starting point, but today we started in exactly the place we finished the night before. We woke to a light drizzle outside, but like many of the morning’s before, we figured it would just pass. So after breakfast we went back to the RV to stay dry and get ready for our ride. And when walking back to the RV after breakfast, we had heard they were pushing the start back to 8:15 from 8:00. It was 7:45, so we had plenty of time…or so we thought. At 8:00 we saw racers lined up in the starting shoot, and at 8:05, they were gone! We missed the start! So we all gathered our stuff as quick as we could and took off for the start line! Quite a rush to start the morning!

So unlike the 15 minutes of rain yesterday, today it rained most of the day. Fortunately, it was really only a drizzle all day, but enough to get everyone pretty wet. And then, as if we weren’t wet enough, there was a knee-high creek crossing about 5k into the race. Most people were pretty put out by the rain and the creek crossing. I, on the other hand, just rolled with it. It was still fairly warm out, so I never felt too cold, and the creek crossing was just down right fun! I smiled the whole way across. But that could be as it really only was knee high on me…the girl next to me had water most of the way up her thigh.

The morning was mostly filled with climbing - some on the road, some on the trails. As with most days, the stuff on the trail varied. Some of it was completely rideable, and some was just so steep and loose, you just had to walk it. And some of the trail that would have been rideable otherwise, became walking sections due to the rain which had made the rocks and roots wet and slippery. But unlike yesterday, I was surrounded by other riders, so when hiking it, we all chatted and kept each other company.

The finish today was 10K of solid downhill, on trail that was almost completely rideable. A few steep/loose sections that I chose to walk down versus chancing it, but otherwise, smooth sailing. Every night when the course designers preview the course for the next day they all talk about “sweet, flowy singletrack” - I think this was really the first section of this we’ve hit all week! It was a great ride down until I got down to about 3K left to the finish. There was a straight, downhill grade, I had put it into my big chain ring and was picking up speed. Then that pesky log got in the way and I suddenly found myself splayed out on the forest floor, gasping for air. I’ve never really had the air knocked out of me before, but for about 20-30 seconds, I was definitely feeling it. After I did a quick body scan to make sure nothing was broken or bleeding, I got back up and headed to the finish line. I soon saw the 2K to go sign, and charged on home.

I got back to the finish with 10 minutes to spare before the next ferry loaded…the boys were very happy. We would have had to wait around another 3 hours for the next one. I can honestly say I had a fun day out there today. And I am looking forward to an afternoon of relaxing. Most days I finished up around 6 or 7pm…leaving little time for anything else other than a shower and some dinner before pouring myself into bed. Today I get to hang out a little with the gang, enjoy a little fro-yo as my post ride treat, leisurely write my blog post, etc. Still planning to head to bed early tonight as we still have a fairly early morning tomorrow - 9am start time - which we will not miss!