- The quality and quantity of the single track
is really, really amazing.
- Uh, it's been a pretty unreal experience.
- It's a kind of a cosmopolitan mix of people who
just love to get out into nature.
- There are loads of great mountain bike races
around the world, suit just about anyone.
Many advertise themselves as the biggest or the toughest
but one says it's the ultimate single track adventure
and isn't that what most mountain bikers want?
Sounds good to me.
I had a taste of the BC Bike Race for a day,
back in July and it did not disappoint.
British Columbia is home to some
very well known mountain bike trails.
From the North Shore, or up the road to Squamish,
Whistler and Pemberton.
But the BC Bike Race takes you into what really feels
like wilderness and trails that not many
mountain bikers get to experience.
- The BC Bike Race is like the first mountain bike
thing I ever heard of, like you know,
you hear about little trails and places
but I swear this race was like the first like,
oh there's a race where it's like 7 days and its super hard
and I probably heard about it 10 years ago.
- I mean people always ask me where my favorite
place to ride in the world and I would say BC
and this reasons it.
This race really showcases all the single track I love.
- BC Bike Race is a 7 day mountain bike adventure,
that embodies the spirit of British Columbian
mountain bike culture.
- It's my first time at BC Bike Race,
it's been a bucket list race for sure.
No it's actually a lot better than I hoped.
- BC Bike Race.
It's a legend is what it is and its a dream if you're in to
mountain biking and you're in to single track
and you like riding technical stuff
you've just got to come and do it once.
I was in danger of being the last guy I knew that
hadn't done it, so I had double down
and come out here and get it done.
- I'm not big on the XC stage race stuff
but I knew that it was going to be gnarly enough
to keep me interested 'cause I'm not an engine at all,
like my legs are okay but my techy climb stuff is great,
my descending is great, so this has been really great.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah!
- I mean I wish they had more trails
like this in the world cup for sure.
Over the course of my career I definitely
got much more buffed out trails,
I mean there's features of the world cup
but not as much kind of raw single track
where I really excelled in.
You don't see trails of the world cup getting
as muddy and slick these days so.
But it's kind of gone full circle, when I started
the races used to be longer XCs, 2 and a half hours,
so these stages are really similar
to how it was when I started.
- At the hundreds of races at the highest level
and like, I've never seen an organization like this.
I mean everything is running like a clock.
(country style instrumental)
- 7 days of stage racing, so normally
you do an XC race and it's one day
and you're done but it's 7 days
in a row, in a row like over and over and over
all cumulatively put together for your time
and you camp out, you stay with a bunch of people,
you get on ferries, you get on float planes
and they take you all around, they have great food.
It's kind of like this uh, single track summer camp.
- Trails are world class, you can't get away from it.
They put so much work in and the works obvious
and yet the trails still feel completely
like they've just happened.
They don't look like they've been manufactured or forced.
So it's natural trail but with that kind of
trail centre extensiveness.
♪ country style instrumental ♪
- The average BC bike rider is been shockingly,
is absolutely, 'cause we knew the pros would come,
we knew the single track ninjas would come
'cause they hanker for it.
But the filling at the bottom, where people heard
about a good adventure, good experience,
for some people this is there first
mountain bike race ever.
For some people, they've only been on their
mountain bikes for a couple of years.
They heard this was a great place to learn to mountain bike.
So it's a surprisingly big variety.
Density up here are people who understand the industry,
who are hardcore mountain bikers.
The trickle down is insane but seeing the growth
of mountain biking globally and families
and kids getting into it; it's a kind of a
cosmopolitan mix of people who
just love to get out in to nature.
- [laughs] Wow, super lucky, got to fly from yesterday's
stage end to this stage start in a float plane
which uh, just a total, didn't know it was
going to happen, yeah wow, just super,
what a great day to spend your time, amazing.
- It's definitely a really physical race.
The numbers are pretty sizeable,
that's a 7 day race of course.
Today was the biggest day, almost 60 kilometers,
1600 meters to climb in, but one thing
you'll really notice is the bikes
aren't cross country bikes, they're
"down country", whatever you want to call 'em.
The pro's are riding 120 forks, 100 millimeter rear,
probably bigger tires, wider bar, shorter stems.
600 bikes here, you'll see all sorts
of different bikes, I can see an old clunker over there.
A lot of bigger trail bikes actually but a real mix.
(country style instrumental)
- So that's the BC Bike Race, the tagline is
"the ultimate single track adventure"
and just from my experience and speaking
to everyone here that definitely rings true.
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