Hi

I was planning on entering the BC bike race next year but at about £1600 for a week I am not sure I can justify the cost.

So I was wondering, is it worth it?

If it isn’t I was wondering what sort of similar style events are there that are better value for money. I have always fancied it but don’t think I can justify the price. Preferably somewhere more exotic than the UK.

This one is free to enter, has a set route, ends at a brewery and you can do it again the next day.

http://www.ferniebrewing.com/trail-ale#

Fernie also has other superb trails, food, ice cream, beer and even more superb trails.

You can ride down from Calgary (mostly on the TD route) and there are lots of places to stay.

The fbc one looks fun, Fernie is a great town. we did hyperventilation one year on singletrack 6, day one climb number one, I was blowing out my arse for ages and then realised we hadn’t even reached the climb proper. One of the guys riding with us also threw up his breakfast burrito on that climb 🙂
You could look at some of the South Africa races, Sani2c wine2whales etc, tend to be more xc and easier than bc or st6 but rsa is much cheaper than Canada and good for mountain biking, no jet lag from uk either.

Take a look at Poland. Beskidy MTB (4 days) or Sudety MTB (6 days).

Much cheaper, both entry, travel and accommodation.
Steep climbing with technical, rocky descents.

There’s a reason BCBR is often at the top of must-do event lists. I did it in 2017 – yes it’s worth it. Proper bucket-list trip with an extra 3 days playing in Whistler at the end. It is heinously expensive when you’ve factored in flights (Air Transat were cheapest and excellent), digs in Vancouver prior to starting, plus anything you do after the race. The entry fee does include a lot of ferry trips which would be costly (think cross-channel ferry sized boats). I think I’d avoid the meal package if I did it again, $500 was ambitious for just-ok food. Most places we stopped had easily-accessible food options in town.
Hands down THE best riding I’ve ever done, or ever expect to do. Without being too hysterical about it, if I found out tomorrow I couldn’t ride anymore, I’d take a bit of comfort in knowing I’d been there and done that.
Got to meet and ride with lovely bike people from all over the world, it was just a brilliant experience. Sell a kidney and do it.

Starts at $1000 CAN.

https://quebecsingletrack.com/en/registration

I’m stating the bleeding obvious, but it’s a long XC race. So looking at the Squamish stage for example, there is an absolute butt load of access road and filler to get to the distance that they want the stage to be. It’s not that the course is bad but you could just come here and do a much better ride at a more chilled pace covering better trails and probably a third of the distance in a day. If you are wanting a race experience and / or an easy to follow package that gets you places then I’ve not heard anything bad about the BCBR, but there’s better trail riding experiences to be had IMHO.

I’ve not long got back from the 2019 edition and have done some previous editions. Yes – it is expensive with flights, accommodation, transfers, food etc.

The event this year had seven stages plus a prologue on Day zero.

We had countless transfers by ferry or coach and I was fortunate enough to get a seaplane ride as well.

As to the stages, days 1 – 3 were all on Vancouver Island this year with a mix of Singletrack and fire road. And the Singletrack is of excellent quality keeping you on your toes with a variety of flowing and technical trails.

Day 4 took in a day at Powell River which gives you a lot of roots and some fantastic loam trails.

days 5&6 move down the Sunshine Coast from Earls Cove to Sechelt and then on to Langdale. Again mixing up fire road and some fantastic Singletrack trails the last section down to Langdale is a proper highlight.

Day 7 saw us in Squamish for a great day and some great Singletrack. Finishing 5th in 100plus pairs so fairly pleased with that.

The race is well organised, well put together, well supported with a. Host of ‘freebies’ included – luggage, sunglasses, jacket, towel, finishers t shirt and belt buckle.

Feed stations are well supplied including at the finish. And on course support is also first class with medical and technical support at feedstations and roving bike and motorcycle support.

Expensive – yes, delivering value from a 7 day stage race – sure.

Others to look at: Singletrack6 – at higher altitude than BCBR and more technical.
Pisgah Stage Race – good fun, single location, so lower cost and a little closer in North Carolina. Also very technical and will include quite a lot of walking.
Trans Sylvania Epic – looks like fun.
Quebec Singletrack Experience – should be good.
Breck Epic. – gets good reviews but very high so will be tough.

Lots of Euro options also appearing now so worth a look. 4 Islands, Sudety etc.