Here we go! BC Bike Race has been one of the races on my bucket list for a long time and I’m finally here. The race really kicked off yesterday with all the racers registering and checking in their bikes for the week ahead. This morning we had quite an entertaining rider briefing before jumping aboard the buses on route to the ferry terminal. The following 2 hours confirmed I never want to go on any form of ‘cruise’, although the scenery was pretty bloody good!
We had a final hour’s bus ride before hitting our destination for the evening in Cumberland. Here the race village was awaiting us, brimming with sponsor’
s tents, merchandise, mechanical support, physio/massage and ‘Tent City’.
In the coming days I will discuss many things that make BC Bike Race unique, from the trails, to the entrants and everything in between. For me the BC Bike Race comes at a strange time in the season. I left Australia in the middle of the national cyclocross series and this has been where my training has been focused. Tomorrow will sort out how my legs will fair over the longer distances but it’s refreshing to come in to a race with no real expectations. I’m sure that will change of the course of the week as I get into the thick of the action.
Highpoint
Definitely the chief safety officer making some pretty serious issues seem funny, like dehydration. He told us that if someone is seriously dehydrated and delusional we must “Get them naked and make them wet.”
Low point
The heat! It’s hot, the forecast is to be 30+ for the full week ahead
Google Says – Cumberland
The village was originally named Union, British Columbia after the Union Coal Company, which was in turn named in honour of the 1871 union of British Columbia with Canada. The town was renamed after Cumberland in Great Britain by James Dunsmuir in 1891.
Once a coal mining city, Cumberland is climbing to its feet and putting on new duds as niche community and dynamic tourist destination. It’s wooing newcomers with colour, character and wide-open spaces for activities such as hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, freshwater fishing, camping, skiing and snowboarding.