Bit curious really. Who on here has an entry and how is the training going? Any aims, objectives, questions etc.

For me, yes, going, second time, definitely looking forward to it, could be better prepared but certainly fit enough to get around.

Excited – oh yes.

Sweamrs and I are doing it as a pair. Training is going well for sweamrs but I’m currently nursuring a dislocated thumb :oops:. Hopefully the splint comes off next Wednesday and then we’ve got a week long MTB camp booked to give us a bump in fitness.

Objective is to finish and have fun with no illusions about doing well. (Oh and ride all the rock slabs on Ruperts in Squamish) Despite training for this since November I’m well aware there are some seriously fast people who do this.

I’m on a Ibis HD3 and sweamrs is on a BlurLTc so we’re very much in the winch and plummet category of riding at the best of times.

Broken thumb – oh dear. Good luck with your training week.

I managed to break my 5th metacarpal over the Easter Break but the time off the bike was pretty limited thankfully as I was on the road bike after a week and back on the mtb after about 3.

My race partner this year is different to last but still very fit and able to put me in a box unless I am very careful and communicate a lot. The slabs in Squamish that they put in the course are pretty exciting but for me it was some of the stuff in North Van that properly tested my mettle – doing these things in a race is a lot different to the stand, look at it, watch someone else do it then make a decision, take three practice runs into it and then finally ride it that most of us do by habit.

Agreed on North Van. I’m wondering how the (new) time trial format for that stage will work. I’m still riding currently as well. The doctor said not to do anything stupid…. it’s a question of perspective at that point. 😀

So sweamrs and I made it though a very wet BCBR 8) We apparently had more rain than the previous 5 times combined.

Some random thoughts if people search for this and other threads.

When there are 2 options for ferries make every effort to get on the earliest one even if it means skipping showers / not washing bikes. Ferries get delayed etc and especially on day 2 the second ferry (which we weren’t on) got in very late.

If you’re going for meal plans then Plan A (the earliest) are allowed in Plans B & C but not the other way round. I’m an early riser and sweamrs struggles with breakfast so we went for Plan A to allow us to digest fully pre-race start each day and found it worked out fine.

Despite it being “the ultimate singletrack experience” there is a lot of forest road climbing especially on days 3 & 4.

Endurance is good but a lot of the trails are quite tech and require short burst of power to get any flow. Sweamrs had plenty of endurance but lacked power and so struggled with punchy climbs / moves.

They have a habit of putting the most techy trails at the end of the day which can be quite demoralizing if you’re tired.

Breakfast / Dinner is fantastic. On trail food at aid stations is average. If you’re towards the back plan for only 2 meals / day. If you’re near the front it’s a long time to dinner and a couple of the campsites aren’t near food so pack a few bars etc or recovery drinks (we did the later)

The Holiday Inn in North Vancouver is a good spot for pre-race as they were doing pick-up of bags from there which avoided a schlep.

Line-ups (queues in Canadian) are a feature of the trip.

Would I do it again? Probably not. The best days for me where North Van, Squamish and Whistler and as I live in Calgary those are easy(ier) for me to get to than others. Campbell river had some good singletrack but it was a mud fest and it’s a long way to get to. I also wonder whether Singletrack6 actually has more singletrack as a % than BCBR.