STAGE 1: Castlegar
The start went up a fire road, and the first minute of the ride started quickly, not xco quick, but 400 watts average for the first minute quick. I managed to sit on as the front group got strung out by the likes of Rob, Peter, and Quinton. Two guys ahead of me is where the gap started to form, and I didn’t panic and stayed on the wheel of the guy ahead of me at a comfortable pace just above the threshold. When he faded, I found myself at the front of a fairly small group, and I wanted to follow a wheel since I had calculated the first climb would take me about an hour to summit from the start. I backed off a little and waited for a couple of guys to go around, and I jumped on their wheel for the rest of the run to the single track. They slowly pulled us away from the rest of the riders behind, and we went into the single track as a group of three. The first guy must have overcooked it a bit and faded pretty hard in the steeper single track and let me and the other guy pass before disappearing out of sight a few switchbacks later. I was more than happy to follow the second guy’s wheel as I needed a little recovery time. It was pretty manageable at this point, and I was happy that he brought me up to a group of two before he faded and let me pass; like the first guy, he disappeared pretty quickly behind. The next guy in front of me brought me past another couple of riders that we easily went by and left behind. But then it got really steep around a few corners, and that’s when I realized he was riding a single speed, and now it got steep enough he had to get off and run. It didn’t take too much longer for that not to work for him, and I was now alone riding 35 minutes into the climb. At about the 45-minute mark, I slowly started reeling in another rider ahead of me. It took a long time for me to make contact and get past. We had a brief exchange, and he mentioned he was quicker on the downs, so I said just try to stay with me, and I will let you drop in first. We were already at 57 minutes at this point, and so I didn’t think there would be much more to go. A few minutes later, we emerged from the single track and onto more uphill fire road. He went by, and I entered the first descent and hit the lap key 1:09. The extra 9 minutes were the hardest part of the race for me.
The first descent (Grandflowium) had a lot going on – it was fast, loose, had good trail work and was narrow. It took a while to descend and it was very long. Racing down this trail for the first time felt pretty intense. It was actually a lot of fun, and with a trail bike and grippy tires, it could be a real blast. I lost two positions on the descent, which wasn’t bad for me, and later gained one back from a rider with a flat tire right after it. The second climb up another fire road was steep, and even though it was short, it was quite challenging after descending for 10 minutes. We dropped into the bottom of a double black trail, which was steep but generally manageable. Then we took a fire road that led us to the final descent of dirty deeds, a fairly steep trail essentially made of sand. The very steep sections had bypasses, which I took and I’m pretty sure they were harder than the chutes. It was so loose, and the tight downhill corners were just full-on sliding on the XC bike. Then out at the bottom, across the road, and through the finish line.
Time: 1:54:27
Distance: 23.95 km
Avg Heart Rate: 181 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 196 bpm
Normalized Power: 239 W
Place: 12 th
STAGE 2: Nelson
The second stage started with an immediate short steep fire road ascent that turned into an even steeper, loose double track. It was easy to go too hard here, so I just focused on maintaining my position and trying to get to the single track climb without going too deep. Ahead was another day of an hour-long single track climb; this one was more technical than yesterday’s, although it had short flat and even downhill sections, it featured steep uphill sections as well. I was riding well and making a few passes throughout the bottom half of the climb, and for the top half, I settled in with a group of four, including the leader of the women’s elite field. It was good to settle in with this group and not try to go any faster on my own, as I need to stay consistent to make it through the week. The top of the climb had a gravel false flat that allowed me to onboard fuel and hydrate before dropping into the first descent of the day. It was loose and chunky, but nothing like the previous day.
At the end of the first downhill there was a surprise to me; the fire road climb was tough since I didn’t expect it to be there. The second descent was supposed to be a blue trail, but if it is, it’s the darkest of the blue trails available. It was steep, loose, and chunky, but the speeds were pretty high, getting up to 40kph on my head unit. This section had the timed descent in it, and I can proudly say that I was not passed on any descent today. The final climb, which was a repeat of the double track at the start, was absolutely brutal. I turned the corner uphill, and two pedal strokes later I cramped and had to unclip; it was too steep to get started again, and the cramping didn’t help. I ran the bike for 30 seconds up the hill to a slightly flatter section and turned the bike sideways to the hill to get started. I immediately took a gel to help with the cramps and soldiered on. We turned down the final big burmed, large table-top, machine-built flow trail to the finish. A slightly faster day than yesterday but only just.
Time: 1:43:18
Distance: 21.64 km
Avg Heart Rate: 178 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 193 bpm
Normalized Power: 233 W
Place: 11 th
STAGE 3: Nelson
Today’s stage started with a challenging 5 km fire road climb that led to a steep 2 km of single-track climbing. The first 3.5 km of the fire road climb, I was really riding at my limits and pushing hard. Then, as it leveled off a bit, a small group of three formed fifteen feet ahead of me and started to pull away. I had a big gap behind me and a big gap ahead of me going into the single track. In the single track, I connected with a few others as I passed a couple and had one rider pass me. The first descent was reasonably short compared to those of the previous days, and once it was done, we found ourselves going up again.
This time, the longest climb of the day awaited, and it sure was a slog. 11 km of climbing, where the first 2.9 km brought you 367 meters closer to God. This second climb took me an hour and ten minutes to complete, and I was alone for almost the whole time, except for right near the top when I caught a rider and made the pass with only a few minutes of climbing left to go. The first part of the descent was a bit up and down before it dropped down into fast, tree-covered, good soil. This section was very fast, and I reached a maximum speed of 45.3 kph. It was going pretty well for me here, right up until I hit a prairie dog or whatever they call them around here. My fork collapsed immediately, taking up 120mm of the hit. However, I don’t think the little guy is going to be getting up from that one. Moment of Silence…the course turned sharply into a steeper, loamy run that was quite a bit of fun before heading onto a fire road descent to redo the initial single track climb and first descent.
After this descent, we went down a fire road and entered the final single-track section that was as fast as you could handle before a sprint through a grass field to the finish.
Time: 2:41:00
Distance: 32.6 km
Avg Heart Rate: 171 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 188 bpm
Normalized Power: 226 W
Place: 11 th
STAGE 4: Kaslo
Today started off with a “neutral” road section of 2 km uphill. Thinking this would be a great way to warm up, I didn’t do any pre-warm up. Man, was I mistaken. We went full gas from the start and were shortly climbing out of the saddle at over 500 watts. Apparently, the lead vehicle just went as fast as Rob wanted to go. The whole race was immediately shattered to pieces, and I tried to settle into a group and not completely blow up. Once the road section was over, we hit steep single track climbing, and 20 minutes after the start gun had gone off, I had averaged 280 watts and had to settle into the rest of the race. The first section of the single track consisted of two peaks to get over with a short descent between them. The second peak that marked the top of this section came at 11 km in, followed by steep, loose, and fast descending, half of which was on the edge of a pretty long fall on the left side of the trail.
The second climb is also the longest, and I thought it was going to be a real struggle. It started quite steep with switchbacks, but as the climb continued, it got less steep and started to come into my realm. I was really flying up the climb and had started passing the short course riders very quickly. It’s pretty cool to see the speed differential between the long course riders I was riding with and the short course riders that were having a good time. This section of long straights with switchback corners allowed me to really put the hurt in the true mountain bikers that I was quickly shedding on the climb. The last section of the climb we came out on fire road, and it started fast and then started getting steeper towards the top. Although I suffered as it got steeper, the damage had already been done. The descent went forever, and I think it might be the longest descent I have ever done. Unlike everything else I have experienced so far in this race, this section was a flowy jump trail. Finally, something I could really enjoy. As I descended back to earth, I encountered the same short course riders, since they didn’t go as far on the climb and dropped in further down the slope. This was challenging for me and probably pretty annoying for them, but everyone was pretty good about it. The final run to the line was on FSR, so I just kept my head down and pedaled hard to it. The finish line came up all of a sudden, and no one really expected it to be there since we still had a few kms to the end according to our head units. The last section was road descent back to town and was untimed.
Time: 2:22:17
Distance: 37.04 km
Avg Heart Rate: 169 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 184 bpm
Normalized Power: 239 W
Place: 9 th
STAGE 5: New Denver
Today’s stage was a road race, gravel race, and a mountain bike race all in one. We started behind the vehicle again for another neutral start, but fool me once. Today I was ready to go, and when we rounded the corner onto the highway, it was full gas. 7 km in 13 and a half minutes at a normalized power of 289 W is what it took me to lead the third group around the corner and onto the gravel. This section was 4.5 km and was great for my confidence as I started to drop the pure mountain bikers out of the group and catch those ahead. Then, an awful noise started coming from my rear wheel. At first, I thought it was loose spokes chattering, and when I couldn’t see anything, I surmised that maybe it was an issue with my cassette lock ring. Either way, there was nothing I could really do about it other than worry for the rest of the ride, so that’s what I did. As it switched into machine-built climbing trail, it continued to feel really good to put those around me into the red. Then, it started to get steeper, and one of the riders who managed to keep close passed me, and I started to have a taste of my own medicine. As we went through the switchbacks, I could see and hear the other riders that I dropped earlier clawing their way back. Having someone’s wheel to follow during this time was really crucial for me; if I was alone, I am sure I would have slid back into the chasing group. Instead, as it leveled off again, I pulled around and returned the favor. It then became gravel again, and I walked away slowly again. The final part of the climb was forested single track that seemed to go on a little too long for my legs. An hour and forty minutes after the start, I was at the top of the climb and on my way down with a normalized power of 258 W.
The descent had an awful lot of pedaling in it that I just didn’t expect. I had a really hard time finding any flow today, and it was difficult to keep the motivation up. The rider I spent most of the climb with had now caught me right after the time descent. On the gravel section before the final descent, I was leading him; however, I offered him to go ahead as it was inevitable that he would want to pass me, and this was the least invasive way of getting that done. The final descent was bumpy, loose, and dusty and did not reflect its name “butter.” The time was taken at the bottom, and we regrouped for a neutral (really this time) 8 km roll back to the starting area to finish the day.
When we got back, I found that I had indeed broken a spoke on my rear wheel and it just kinda hung in there the whole race. I had brought extra spokes, rim tape, and sealant, which I handed over to the race mechanics and received a working bike back a couple of hours later.
Time: 2:19:51
Distance: 38.9 km
Avg Heart Rate: 169 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 184 bpm
Normalized Power: 241 W
Place: 9 th
STAGE 6: Nakusp
The last day and it wasn’t going to be any easier today. The start immediately went straight into a steep fire road climb that leveled out after the first corner briefly before pitching up even steeper. The 1.7 km intro climb was a real burner after 5 days of climbing. The equally short downhill section was flowy and fast, a rather enjoyable break from what was about to come. We started climbing singletrack and climbing and climbing. The climb trail here was amazing; it wasn’t too steep, and the shade from the trees was welcomed. I really pressed the pedals today as the GC was fairly tight surrounding my position, and a couple of positions could be had either way with just a minute. I really emptied the tank on this climb and did my best-ever mountain bike 60 and 90-minute power records. I found myself not with the same people I had been climbing with all week long, and instead, I had moved forward from them.
At the top of the climb, the trail went flat and then slowly got steeper to ease me into it. This was probably my favorite descent of the week, and it seemed to go on forever. Unlike yesterday, there was not a whole lot of pedaling required. There was one incident for me where I took a right-hand bend at high speed, and my rear tire got off the side of the course, causing me to unclip and slide down the trail. Luckily, the rear tire clipped a tree and flung me and the bike into the right direction for the upcoming left-hand berm. In total, it was 23 minutes of descending without a break. The final section had a finishing loop that climbed the same climbing trail we did for the long climb but only for 11 minutes, finishing with a flowy jump trail and through the line to complete the final day.
Time: 2:17:17
Distance: 30.42 km
Avg Heart Rate: 167 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 184 bpm
Normalized Power: 253 W
Place: 8 th
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