Having just returned from the trip of a lifetime (well not quite more on that later) I should put together some words of reflection based upon my experience of doing BC Bike Race in 2015. So here they are:

I signed up 12 months in advance (this is a popular race and does seem to fill up quicker every year) to race mixed pairs with the fastest lady I know (Jo) who turned out to be a great race partner. The race is billed as the ultimate Singletrack Experience – there is some fire road but to be honest, if it was all singletrack it would be a killer.

Why BC Bike Race – well billed as the ultimate singletrack experience and with less emphasis on climbing and more on having fun this seemed like a good option and provided an excellent incentive for a full year of getting fit, buying new bikes and regaining / gaining skills and confidence.

Bike – after securing permission (like I really asked) for a new race bike I was looking to get a decent carbon hardtail until it was pointed out that I was faster on my full suspension Specialized Stumpjumper. So I bought a top of the range Specialized Camber Evo and then upgraded it to XTR drive train and some carbon wheels (American Classic Carbonator). The rest is standard. It is worth noting the bike came with a dropper seatpost which I would regard as being almost essential for the event. Some of that singletrack is very steep and rough, the flexibility afforded by a dropper makes it more comfortable and achievable to complete the whole route in the saddle. There is however some walking necessary but a dropper helps to minimise this to the steep climbs and steps that others are walking anyway.

The bike performed flawlessly.

Other kit – the BC Bike Race web pages give you a pretty definitive list of stuff to take. Don’t forget you are going to be camping for a week so a compact sleeping bag, inflatable roll mat (they do give you a foam one which you don’t have to fit in your bag), pillow, towel, washbag, chamois cream (I don’t usually use it bud did need it towards the end), kit for 7 days, I did not bother with baggies preferring lycra for racing (it being cooler and taking up less space), something warm for the evenings, swim shorts etc. The red bag provided is big enough if you are sensible. Bag for dirty kit.

Also be aware that BC Bike Race expects you to carry some mandatory kit including: pressure bandage, whistle, waterproof matches, waterproof jacket and capacity to carry 1.5 litres of water.

Training – on commencing BC Bike Race I was as fit and skilled as I have ever been in well over 20 years of mountain biking. Was I fit enough – yes for getting around, No for keeping up with my very understanding race partner.

So my physical & mental preparation for the event involved losing over a stone, spending a week at a Majorcan training camp, riding both the road bike and the MTB several times a week, entering races and completing them with various degrees of success. This even included a gravity endur which was great fun, the UK Marathon Champs (I learned a lesson there about eating and drinking more), various local XC and Enduro events were also completed.

I should certainly have done more and have come to the conclusion that endurance is my weak point and will be spending more time doing longer rides with a focus on keeping the pace up once past 25km. Longer climbs are also a bit of an issue for me so 2 weeks in Majorca are on the cards for next spring.

I also spent a day working with Tony Doyle at UK Bike Skills to get over a couple of personal hang ups (woodwork & drops).

I additionally spent some considerable time and effort developing my bravery and confidence to the point where many of my previously avoided trail features were conquered including Tim’s triple drop of death on the Surrey Hills and various features at Kirroughtree and Dalbeattie.

So I was pretty well prepared and my performance was significantly ahead of where it would have been at the point in time I entered.

BC Bike Race itself.

The event actually begins a couple of days ahead of the start line with Sign on. You get to sign away your rights via various waiver forms, collect a couple of bags, one for your day kit (which you hand in on the start line and collect at the finish line), another for everything you need through the seven days of the race. So this day minus 1.

Stages (aside for the last one had 2 feed stations and sometimes an additional water stop. These were used a lot and were sponsored by Cliff so bars and gels were available FOC along with water melon, banana, water, electrolites etc.

All stages had gridded starts based upon your finishing time in stage 1 or your best guess finishing time for stage 1. We started every day in the second group but I did almost kill myself to achieve the good result on stage 1. This may have been a mistake but did sort of keep Jo happy.

Base Camp – this includes tents (put up for you).
Massage and Physio centre (you pay for this but it is good).
Medical – great service but I did not need it.
After race food and refreshments.
Bearzden – sheltered wifi and charging facility with bean bags.
Showers and washrooms (better than you might think although sometime surprisingly cold).
Bike repair – courtesy of Obsession Bikes – they will fix most things for you at reasonable cost.
Bikewash – supported by WD40 – you can even get washing done for you for the price of a charity donation.

Bike transport is good, effective, just trust it. Your bike comes out fine.

Day 0 involves dropping off your kit and your bike, your bike bag and any other luggage that you won’t see until Whistler. You also get a briefing which is very amusing particularly in regard to bears, cougars and chamois cream. We also transferred via big yellow school bus to a ferry terminal and then on to the ferry and another bus to the evenings camp site in the quiet town of Cumberland on Vancouver Island. Tents were already set up, baggage as set out, dinner (provided locally) was nearly ready. All was good. And we were tucked up at night fall awaiting the early morning call for breakfast and racing the next day.

Day 1 started early (earlier for me because somehow I had the wrong time) with breakfast and breaking camp.
We would not be seeing out big bags until the evening in Powell River but would get out day sacks back after racing (hot tip is to keep shower gel, towel and clean clothes in your racer sack).
The race commenced with us gridding ourselves according to how quickly we thought we might be able to get around a 50km ish course up and down a couple of very large climbs and through some of the most challenging singletrack I have ever encountered. This was something of a baptism of fire. The first climb lasted well over 10km, was very exposed (to sun shine and heat), the next couple of climbs gave nothing away either. The descending packed in more Technical Trail Features than it is possible to comprehend, within this first day we encountered elements of trail that seemingly merged the tricky bits of many Scottish trail centres including Laggan, Dalbeattie and Glentress with some of the fun bits from the Surrey Hills or some of the Welsh trail centres.

By the end of the day we were lying in 4th place in the mixed pairs, I had fallen and broken a shifter, Jo had hit a tree, I had experienced cramp in all major muscles below the waist and was feeling truly broken. Jo meanwhile had spent a lot of time waiting for me and encouraging me up the climbs.

I finished the last few km running singlespeed having snapped my gear shifter in a minor accident. The guys from Obsession Bikes were on hand to fix this, a dry front end and bleed my brakes overnight. There were well over 50 people who did not complete the stage – mainly due to the heat.

We transferred in the first group to Powell River camp for 2 nights and enjoyed dinner there. I also had a massage which was ace.

Powell River meant camping adjacent to the beach so queue spectacular sunset and sunrise.

Day 2 – Powell River – a cracking route, 50k not too much climbing but ribbons of tough singletrack saw us drop a little on the day. A great course, that was just very enjoyable and a bit of a break from the previous day. We finished pretty well considering my pace or lack of it.

Having spent the previous night sleeping in pressure tights I had non of the cramping issues I experienced the previous day. I had also invested in a new camelback as I just need to keep drinking and my ability to do this from bottles on tight singletrack was pretty much non-existent.

Day 3- Earls Cove to Sechelt – with an early breakfast and a ferry crossing under our belts we began this first day down the sunshine coast with an 11 am start up a climb from the ferry terminal. This course was again very hot and really quite hilly following down the Sunshine Coast, up some really steep sections and through some glorious singletrack trails. Many found this to be a classically hard day and a long one at 58km.

Sechelt was a great host town, with plenty of space, a local bike shop and sufficient facilities on site.

We finished OK in the race with a time a little over 4 hours which compared favourably with those who took double but were taking things a little less seriously.

Day 4 – Sechelt to Langdale – more sunshine coast trails, more classic singletrack, more baking hot climbs gave us another big day out working hard, climbing hard and finishing broken. We finished in the ferry terminal where there was once again showering and bike washing facilities prior to boarding the ferry for a transfer out to North Vancouver our home for the night.

Riding was tough, this day saw me breaking my shoe buckle and the guys from Obsession Bikes rigging my shoe with a toe strap to fix.

Day 5 – North Vancouver – Oosh – this stage got off to a brisk start with some road and cycle track, it also saw a couple of people being over enthusiastic and finding themselves crashing out into a ditch on some cycletrack.

The stage itself included many technical sections and plenty of climbing to sort everyone out. There was also a hellish carry up some very steep steps but this was forgotten through the ribbons of fantastic technical singletrack.

On finishing in North Vancouver we transferred (after a shower) to Squamish again finding bags set out, dinner almost ready and tents erected.

Day 6 – Squamish – starting and finishing in Squamish we were promised a very tough day with 1900m of climbing over 52km. For me this was the hardest day. Despite riding to a lets just finish strategy (the same as North Van) implemented by Jo on the grounds she was keen we both survive the race we worked hard throughout. Climbing solidly and steadily throughout the first couple of climbs I was still wobbling by the last half. Finding that some of the descents had be almost unable to focus. What I can remember is bacon and beer on one climb, some cracking descents and one section that I simply could not focus on.

A very hard but good day on reflection even if I did want to die at various points. We did not finish well.

Day 7 – a very early start for transfer to Whistler for a short but somehow brutal stage around the Olympic village and top MTB destination. 1100m of climbing in a little over 20km. The first off road climb saw many off and walking whilst we made it up the brutally steep fire road before enjoying the first section of singletrack. We later had a tough technical climb and then some very challenging rooty singletrack both up and down taking in part of the famous comfortably numb trail. Feeling strong we passed through the feed zone (the only one today) without stopping to overtake first one then another mixed pair. Finishing strongly in fourth on the last day and sixth overall. Saw me (at least) fairly satisfied with the end result, a finishers belt buckle and T shirt.

We came 6th in Mixed Pairs in the end.

Conclusions – if you want to do well you cannot do enough training. There are some very quick people doing in the BC Bike Race.
Unless you are a camel or a pro you will do well to take a camelback and a bottle (which you refill at the feed stations and empty between them).
A dropper post is a good idea.
You will enjoy descents more if you don’t kill yourself on the climbs.
There will be highs and lows.
This may well be the best thing you ever do on a mountain bike (I have already booked for next year).
Trailbikes work well but so do full suspension race bikes. Hard tails may be a challenge although there were several out on course.
You will miss riding your bike when you get back to work.
Take clean kit for each day. Lycra is the way most people roll.
Wear sun screen. I did and did not get burnt.
Hydrate lots.
Leave your troubles at home.
It is nice when you get to use a toilet and a shower without needing to queue.
Meal Plans are worth the investment – food is great, there sufficient is choice.
Don’t underestimate this event. It is a hard race. Whilst not as climby as some of the euro races the technical nature of the trails makes for a good enough challenge for most racers.
Returning to work sucks.
The North Shore style woodwork trails are not as bad as you might expect. The course misses the really difficult ones.

Thanks for that, it sounds tough. Well done.

enjoyed reading that – well done and thanks for the write up.

Thanks for the write up, been looking at this for years.

Anyone want to run a bike shop for three weeks next summer??

Top effort.

Thanks for writing that, interesting insights.

Did it being a race make it better for you?
By which I mean did you really have more fun than just going to BC and getting some guided riding.
Survival is all very well – but it is a holiday, having spoken to a few people that have done it, it would appeal to me more as a three day race with some time afterward to just do some riding at your own pace.

But then you have signed up for next year.. 🙂

& a good feeling the the level of gnarlieness would be handy please. BPW reds? BPW blacks? Some other benchmark?

Doh1Nut – good question. A guided tour of so many areas may be more enjoyable but less of a challenge. I guess a lot depends on how hard you are going. Some who rode more within themselves had more fun- I guess.

I’m not sure I’d have signed up fora 3 day event.

It is what it is. Fun,challenging and hard.

If that’s what floats your boat it could be good.

Gnarlieness rating BPW blacks but without mandated airtime.

In an xc race environment with no opportunity to scope lines etc.

Cheers for that, great writeup

SC – well done to you and your partner.

Excellent write up as well.

Are you doing it alone next year. How hard do you think it is if you raced it without a partner?

Well done Mr S!

There certainly is no such thing as too much training ahead of a stage race…and even then it never feels like you’ve done enough…

See the vid on the ST front page from a few months ago for some tips on carrying if you haven’t already – well worth practicing that too if there’s a significant amount of it.

Thanks for the write up shortcut, sounds like training and saving in equal measures will be require before i attempt this.

Sounds great, always enjoy the picture epics on Pinkbike. One day….maybe if I can somehow wangle a seven day holiday sans family to Canada.

Currently without partner for next year.

It will be no harder solo. Perhaps easier as less keeping up to be done.

To be fair you can get around comfortably with less fitness – just nearer the back!! With much longer days in the saddle!

Great effort, would love to have the minerals to do this

Well done on such a well placed finish sounds exactly how I’d expect it to be.

Considering entering the 2017 event (not enough spare money in the pot to enter now) in a pair, few friends did it this year and said it was the best riding of their life which kind of seals the deal.

I will be entering to complete but I want to shed some excess flab before the fitness training starts properly so that I can atleast be at a fitness point where I will be able to enjoy the event more.

It looked absolutely epic on Facebook.

I reckon it’ll be 2017 before I’m back to full fitness based on how demoralising my fitness had been over the last few rides, it’ll be 2016 before even my base fitness is back to pre arm-breaking levels, I really should dig the road bike out. Plenty of time to start saving anyway!

I would love to do this, can’t afford it for next year though.

By the way, what insurance did you use? Something specifically covering racing?

Great write up. I have looked at this for a number of years and need to pry myself away from the office and family life. It looks like a great challenge and quite different from Tour Divide challenges.

Interesting comments on training – I think fitness and bike skills need to be worked on well in advance as it is easy to underestimate bike fitness and practice – I would need a lot more work on both than anyone above.

I note BC 2016 tickets are on sale, but have not got the cojones to sign up as yet. Maybe 2017 is more realistic.

OtB – I sorted insurance via British Cycling!

Gribble – why put it off another year?? Seize the day!

Was just looking into it myself for next year but funds are lacking. 😥

For some reason my browser isn’t letting me view the pricing page. How much are the entry fees for 2016?

For some reason my browser isn’t letting me view the pricing page. How much are the entry fees for 2016?

The link seems to work form some areas of the site but not others. It’s about £1150 + extras and tax.

My entry came in at £1300 with tax. For this year. Still have to add on meal plan.

Ta – quite expensive since you need to add the cost of getting there.

The browser thing – there was a redirect going on from the link I clicked so it might be going to an old version of the page that no longer exists, i.e. this year’s.

You need to allow £3k to cover entry, flights, hotels, other stuff.

Good read, thanks for posting

Good to hear you enjoyed it,I came along one eve with a certain Fatboy owner, spent a lot of time being comforted by Roger whilst you all waited for me to re seat my lungs!

Enjoyed reading that after watching the PB coverage, thanks for posting. Looks amazing – brilliant effort by you & your partner too.

Just signed up so bookmarking to read this in detail at home 🙂

Done a few multi day events I’d second the Lycra shorts and camlbak approach. I certainly see lots of bottles lost on the trails during events. I also found my garmin useful showing distance completed and amount climbed. Keeps a useful tally on what you have completed and how much you have to go. The heart rate zone readout is useful to keep me at my optimum HR whilst climbing. Stops you putting too much effort in and burning too much energy too quickly. Off to the Trans Rockies single track six day event next week. They look very similar events in terms of format. It was the tent V hotel that swung it for me ??