This event on Vancouver Island in British Columbia has been on my radar for a few years with its focus on racing on technical single track for seven straight days! The first stage started off with a relatively short 17-mile ride, but only 5 miles of this was timed, consisting of a twisty single-track climb and then a mostly flow trail descent with lots of berms. I finished 3rd out of the 93 riders in the 50+ Men’s group, but the winner was nearly a minute faster, so I knew it would be a tough week ahead.
Stage 2 was again in the Maple Mountain trail network, so I felt more familiar with the course layout and terrain. Based on the previous day’s results, they split us into groups and I was able to start in the first group, which meant there was less traffic to contend with on the course. I climbed well and finished 2nd on the day, but our race leader put another two minutes on me.
Stages 3 and 4 were in new areas on the island at Mount Tzouhalem and then Nanaimo, which both featured more than 3000 feet of climbing in just less than 20 miles. I was holding my own on the climbing except for towards the end of the stages where I would make small mistakes on the rocks/roots and lose time. I finished 2nd and 4th on these stages and was solidly in 2nd place overall with a 7-minute gap to 3rd.
It all came unravelled for me on stage 5 where a non-fixable bike issue meant a long walk and a course shortcut to get to the Shimano neutral service zone. A new wheel allowed me to finish the stage, but I was now out of the GC even though I was still allowed to start the final two stages.
Stages 6 and 7 were also 4th-place finishes for me as the fatigue of seven days of racing had caught up with me. My nutrition strategy of about 100 grams/carbs per hour was working, and I was supplementing my drink mix with extra sodium, which seemed to help prevent cramping. But I enjoyed the amazing B.C. trail networks and tried to work on my descending and tech skills.
The race promoters have posted brief video summaries of each of the stages, so if anyone would like to see the terrain, please check them out here
Next year’s event is moving to May, so feel free to hit me up for any advice if you are interested in going!
– Chris
