With just two days to go until the start of the 2011 BC Bike Race, event organisers have unveiled a brand new concept to determine the “fastest singletrack rider” in the field.
Two stages of the seven day race will feature the Rocky Mountain “Love the Ride” hotspots, which will have chip-timed sections of singletrack to determine the fastest rider across those sections of the course. The event’s marketing director, Andreas Hestler, said the 2-8km timed sections had been introduced to add an extra element of competition to the event.
“With a number of DH celebrities racing, including Brian Lopes of Team Oakley/Ibis, Mark Weir and Jason Moeschler of Team WTB/Cannodale, and Katrina Strand of Team Dakine, we thought this would be a great way to highlight a different set of skills,” said Hestler.
“While we expect a battle royal at the front for the overall title, the chip-timed sections will be a whole different animal!”
More famous faces for the BC field
Organisers have also confirmed that Canadian Olympic and World Cup downhill skiier Manny Osbourne Paradis in the field. Paradis will partner with Greg McDougall and has been using mountain-biking to recuperate from an anterior cruciate ligament tear and broken fibula he suffered in a high speed crash in Chamonix, France in January.
“I’m really excited to be doing BCBR with such a talented athlete,” said McDougall. “Manny is rehabbing a knee injury sustained in the World Cup downhill circuit last winter, which probably won’t make him any easier to keep up with.
“I’ve known Manny since he was a little kid and we started mountain biking together when the sport was just getting going. This is the fourth year that I’ve participated in the race and it’s an awesome experience that just keeps getting better and better.”
Canada’s first dual Olympian and three-time Olympic gold medallist, Pierre Harvey, will also participate in the BC Bike Race for the first time. An inductee of the Canadian cycling Hall of Fame, Harvey competed in nordic skiing at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, before backing up five months later to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics as a cyclist.
The BC Bike Race begins on Saturday and runs from July 2-9. For a full list of the 450 competitors who will compete in the event please click here.