Day 2

First off, 14th place yesterday. We followed that up with a 15th place in Stage 2 from Nanaimo to Parkesville today and we are sitting in 15th in the 2-person open category. The day started with a 20ish minute neutral rollout through the streets of Nanaimo led by a moto escort. It was a bit sketchy as 400 mtb racers bobbed and weaved through city streets and occasionally got hung up at stoplights. We successfully made it out of town to the base of a solid road climb and it was on. The lead pro teams twisted the throttle from the gun and rider after rider was spit out the back. We dangled for awhile trying not to kill ourselves and made into the trails in a reasonable position.

Once on the trails, it was still a pretty hot pace with a big group of riders riding single file. RD and I got separated as he made a few cheeky passes in the 1track that I wasn't able to replicate. There were also a few choose your own adventure sections that involved multiple routes to get to the same place. RD and I took some different lines and at one point I wasn't sure if he was in front or behind me. I pulled over for a bit and let 15 or so riders go by but got restarted after I determined he had to be in front of me. I railed the 1track at a bit of sketchy pace to try to catch back up and was able to reconnect after a few minutes of making some less than desirable passes.

We regrouped and got to work on the next 50km of nearly all 1track. The rest of the race was spent with RD taking the lead and me riding near or at my limit trying to keep him in my sight. The trails required lots of power with steep ups followed by equally steep downs. The last 20 km or so I was starting to feel a bit worked over from muscling the bike around for 3:30 hours. I ate some food and held on to the finish on some local trails in Parkesville. We finished in just over 4 hours pretty spent from the days effort.

Once in base camp, the afternoon and evening has consisted of Eat/drink, clean bikes, shower, eat/drink some more, get massage, eat dinner, fix brakes on bike (turns out the spray bottles at the bike wash are lube not soap, DOH!) and put together a blog post.

Here some pics from the day...


Yeah, we sported the Arrowsmith kits in Nanaimo. We got a lot of: "Hey Robin, you're doing awesome! We don't know you, but you're doing awesome too."

Game face on in the start corral. NOT!

Rolling into the finish to the train whistle. All aboard the Arrowsmith/Mafia train.

RD the Pimp of Singletrack. We found this "fur" coat in our RV spot.

Tomorrow is a solid day of 1track and bit of fireroad. We are going strong, so hopefully we continue as the war of attrition begins in earnest.

Thanks for reading.

Blue Star

Stage 1

Stage 1 is done. At 10am to pumping music and the cheers of the spectators, the BC Bike Race rocketed out of the start chute around a nearly immediate 180 degree turn (doh!) to head up Mt Seyemour. There was a much publicized choke point where the road ended and the trail began, so the teams with high expectations for the week drilled the pace and the field split immediately. I made the split and sat on the back of the lead group of about 25 riders up through the neighborhood towards the trails. RD missed it and had to chase across before the start of the "ultimate singletrack experience."

We regrouped on the trail and proceeded to pick our way through fumbling riders on some trail that wasn't even that technical. We hit some pithces that stung a bit on the way up to the top of the Severed Dick descent. Severed Dick is a famous North Shore trail that features some ridiculously technical drops, skinny ladders, rocks, roots, and high possibility of carnage. I let zen master descender RD take the lead and we proceeded to bomb down the mountain. My strategy for the day: if RD rides it and survives, then I should be able to ride it too. It worked to perfection and we soon found ourselves in the company of Alison Sydor, a former World champion, a handful of other pros, and several of BC's super fast locals. With the Severed descent cleaned (except for one huge rock/root drop section that I could not ride and had to run because there were too many bodies and bike strewn on the ground), it was on to Mt. Fromme for our next challenge of the day.

We pace lined some multiuse trail over to Fromme and the big climb of the day began. 5% grade or so for about 30ish minutes of middle ring climbing. RD and I did our best to maintain position on the climb up to the top of the Pipeline descent, but a couple teams came by that were kicking out some big watts on Day 1 of a seven day stage race. Once on Pipeline, like Severed Dick, it was full-on North Shore riding with rock drops, ladders, root/rock features, etc. that all had to be deftly navigated. Once again, I let RD take honors and followed his lines. We bombed down the mountain on some stuff that surely had the teams from places other than the NW walking and cursing.

We popped out at the bottom of the trails in a residential North Van neighborhood. Made some lefts and rights, dodged a few cars, then crossed the finish line together in 2 hours on the button. Not many teams were there yet, so it was a good day. Not sure how we finished exactly, because we didn't wait around for results, immediately packed up the RV and caught the next ferry over to Vancouver Island. Home cooking and a real bed at RD's house in Nanaimo are on the schedule for tonight.

Here's some pics and a start vid from Day 0 and Day 1...



A rainbow over Vancouver from our hotel room just after packet pickup and the racer meeting.


Getting the rigs ready by the RV at the ice rink in North Van. The RV will be our home for the week.

Arrowsmith/Mafia Racing lined up towards the front to avoid any back of the back mishaps at the start.

Blue skies means its a good day to shred the gnar on the North Shore.

Coach Thomas cleaning the rigs post stage to get us ready for Day 2.


Ferry #1 for the week.


The start of Day 1.

Check back tomorrow for an update on Stage 2 that takes us from the ferry landing in Nanaimo north on Vancouver Island to Parkesville. Lots of 1track are on the menu and RD will definitely be leading the charge on his home trails.

Thanks for reading,

Blue Star

Vancouver Sun Article on BCBR

Click here.

More reports to follow.

Blue Star

Blog Revived and BC Bike Race

I thought about killing this blog since it takes quite a bit of time to keep up to date. Time is even more tight this year now that I'm co-running Mafia Racing NW, still keeping a full pro race schedule, and working at my real j-o-b as a lawyer. Nevertheless, people have asked why no posts this year and some are clamoring for BC Bike Race updates next week, so Blue Star Racer Blog lives on.

For those that don't know, BC Bike Race starts this Sunday, June 28th and runs through Saturday, July 4th. Lots of km of gnarly BC 1track lie ahead for me an my partner RD. My fitness is really good right now, RD bombs DH with the most elite riders around, so between the two of us we should be able to use both of our strengths to post some strong results. Check in throughout the week for some updates.

Thanks for reading,

Blue Star