Epic Racing around the World

Wrap ups. Cheesy music and montage slide shows….what do they leave you with other than drowsiness, a numb rump, and a glazed over look in your eyes?

I’ve often found that it takes a few miles between myself and an accomplishment to truly evaluate the experience….a view is often found from a distance. Looking back at the BC Bike Race will take some time, as currently the view of the forest is obstructed for all the trees….and fatigue, aches, pains, and the pile of laundry that has yet to be sorted through out in the garage.

Waxing nostalgic, what strikes me about the event was the nature of the team format that the race uses. 2 riders per team, and in our case, 3 teams racing, 1 team supporting. That’s a lot of folks, on and off the trail.

Tinker, Ohran, Bart, Sue, Keating, Mitchell, Jamin, Sager….8 of us…some of us rode bikes, others wrenched, others healed broken bodies, but each overlapped over the other and enriched the individual’s experience to blend the week’s team effort into what it was.

There are but a few singular moments of my own from the race. Sure, no one pedaled the bike for me, but the pedaling, that’s been done a million times from here to Istanbul.

Hard work on the bike is all the same.

What I’m carrying back from the Great White North is a camaraderie between my teammates, my competition, and terrain which always seemed dictating our effort and ushering us around like small kittens in the back of a dark garage.

Every day there were battles. Sometimes you’re battling the course, surviving, never conquering. Other times it was battling your partner, hanging on by a thread, or stretching them to their limits. Within those battles were micro-conquests…the teams that would usher in a resurgence of energy and motivation…they’re not beating us! or sometimes the guys you were happy to have escort you around their local rides, as was the case often, since the front group usually was largely comprised of BC local Canadian pros.

The week for me, is a blur of feeding with friends…

Riding with friends…

Helping friends…

Waiting around with friends…

Chasing with friends…

Dorking around with friends…

Sharing fatigue with friends…

Being supported by friends…

Givin’R with friends…

Conquering the unknown (and bizarre) with friends…

Living the simple lifestyle with friends…

And succeeding with friends.

I’ll leave you with this. Its 5:30am and likely you’ve drifted off into the deepest sleep of the night. The tent has finally cooled off, you’ve found the perfect balance of air pressure in the thermarest, and finally that guy two tents over has stopped sleeping.

And then this guy pierces your dreams. Time to make the donuts.

Next up…a little (or a lot) of rest, then the mtb National Championships in Mt Snow, Vermont, and Tinker’s 24 Hour World Solo Title defense in Canmore, Alberta. Back to Canada for us, eh?

I’ll check back in shortly with a break down of what we learned…equipment wise - tires, gearing, suspension setup, fueling, pacing,  and all the little in’s and out’s that you only pick up through experience (and often doing it wrong).