The Taper

The Taper…

2days before a 7 day race it is always the hardest part for any athlete to taper off his efforts and try relax the muscle he has trained for months to regain their full strength and hopefully go into the race with fresh legs. Personally and many alike are not good at the taper and to be in Whistler with so many epic trails to be ridden who can blame me. As the riding is so demanding and challenging is not the best place to base yourself a week before a physically demanding 7 day stage race. But the way I look at it, I only have 2 weeks in Canada and am going to make the most of it and lap up as much as I can do within reason. So have been riding with Carrie as lightly as possible watching my HR on the Magellan Cyclo to make sure I don’t go above 145+-, well I do get a little excited when I hit a trail that shouts “speed”. This happened yesterday around the Lost Lake trails when I cruising through “Gazoom” trail and 10 m in front of me appeared a big Brown Bear on the single track, was an amazing moment as he slowly cruised off, unfortunately Carrie who was behind me didn’t get to see him (which has been her aim all trip to see a bear). However as we rode further along the track my amazing wild life spotting appeared again in directly in front of us both. I wanted to get closer to capture the moment, but Carrie after her initial moment, thought it wasn’t a good idea to chase down the bear on your bikes. But we can now confirm bears are big and really cool!

The rain keeps on lightly drizzling down on for most of the day here which isn’t too much of a deterrent for the masses. We can confirm now that we are the only XC/Trail riders in Whilster, as have been riding all the trails and still have not seen a rider with less than six inches of travel on any of the trails we have ridden over the 3 days. Carrie has made her mind she is going to be really good at Downhill MTB, although never been on a bike with more than 5inches of travel. So we have committed ourselves after the race, which ends in Whilster to hit the chair lifts and do some downhill runs, as it would be wrong to leave the downhill capital of the world without downhilling! So after 7 days of racing on 8 day I will have to drag my tried ass up the ski lift dressed in full armor and hurdle down on a 7 inch travel bike for the day. As we fly out the next day this will be the only chance, so if either of us kill ourselves we will not lose out on any travelling experiences.

So my bike is all sorted and serviced by a mate Luke Garside from Arbutus cycles in Upper Village, a resident Aussie who lives to race 4X and bases himself in Whilster as a mechanic for the summer and in Oz for winter working for Rocky Mountain as a brand ambassador. Either way Luke is the man and made my steed 100%- fork service, wheel truing, gears, headset and even new grips.

Next stop – do some washing and then head to race registration in Vancouver.

This is Whislter!

This is Whislter! What an amazing place, right now we are in summer and max is 19 degrees with the tips of the mountain’s still snow capped. There are still some hardcore dedicated guys skiing, but must be a mission to hike to the tops to only ski for 30mins down.

This town is definitely for the 6 inch and above travel bike for man and women. It is the downhill capital of the world, the hub of all hubs if you can cut the double black diamond runs. For us XC riders we feel totally inferior riding our Rocky Mountain 4 inch XC race machines around, but not feeling entirely out of place as at least are genuine Canadian bikes and we are definitely putting the RM Elements through there paces over the past few days! Can say that riding a 4” XC bike over some of this terrain has been the most challenging and confronting riding I have ever done and then multiple that by 3 for Carrie.

Yesterday I rode with one of the local Squamish hotshots Dwayne Kress who clearly can ride a bike like very few. It’s was pissing with rain so made good practice for the race to come, but certainly didn’t help with pre-race week tapering! Although I was part to blame as rode at 175 beats up an irresistible climb to “Credit line” which was a super techy downhill and found myself all over the shop including down the edge of the cliff.

So today the plan was to cruise with Carrie and try ride some of the trails around Whistler that the BC race will ride on the last day 7. So we set out in a light drizzle, and found some fun singletrack with lots of wooden structures, which was a good challenge for Carrie. Then we headed up a climb to the top of golf course to be chased down by golf cart telling us we can’t ride here, but he did point us to a sweet trail and off went on 3 hrs of the most technical trail riding ever (up Yummy Nummy to Comfortable Num). We only covered 16km in those 3hrs, which is a first in my books, I was loving life and Carrie well wasn’t. So was really 3hrs of relationship building as Carries confidence grew. The rock drop offs and structures are all amazing, and all ridable as long as you commit 100%. I only had one serious moment when I went back to show Carrie how to ride this one double bridge over a boulder to another bridge and rode off the second bridge into a tree, and that brought a pinnacle of realization of O’shit this could end badly! But the tree had lots of spring in it and didn’t break my bars or bones- so all good.

All up a wicked trail riding experience for the two of us, but can’t help but fantasize about spending a winter here as well as can only imagine how insane these crazy steep mountains are covered in snow, as we experiencing the exhilaration just from the summer activities. Back into the RV camper which we calling home as is bigger and better than our 1 bedder apartment on the Northern beaches for a warm shower and massage. Also managing to park in sweet locations and as of yet not had to pay! We loving it at the moment and life is good!

Vancouver to Squamish trail delight

Cananda, Squamish

After a few internal USA flights which we got hit up $100 each leg for excess baggage, we touched down in Vancouver, Canada. We picked up our new house on wheels from the airport, a 24ft sick ass campervan. On exiting the airport I miss judged the height of the boom gates and got stuck under the gate and ripped off a light, a great start!

We headed 1:30hr North of Vancouver to the small town of Squamish. The town is a sesspit for adventure sports people. From mind boggling cliffs for climbers, high vert peaks for base jumpers, snow fed canyons for kayakers and some of the most technical and aggressive mountain bike tracks I have ever ridden, this place rocks! 90% of all vehicles have bike racks and the other 10% are towing snow mobiles and motorcross bikes.

Squamish mountain bike tracks are made up of some serious riding from flowy groomed berms to rocks, roots and mud patches the riding keeps you engaged at all times. I have been trying to ride some of the tracks that the BC race touches on day 6, and can confirm that I suck hard. Well the good thing is that there is heaps of climbing, we have been ridng 30-40km’s per day and you spend 80% of your time switch backing up the side of a 25% gradient to bomb down one of the 100 or so single track downhills (just need to avoid the 20ft drop off’s or huge structure’s that have a 10ft gap to clear). Its no mystery why we haven’t come across many other riders on XC bikes and just surrounded by guys on fat travel all mountain and downhill bikes. 40kms also taking a comparable time frame to my usual 100kms, as has proven fairly easy to get lost and stopping to pull out map and consult the Magellan GPS every other trail crossing and intersection really pushes out the time! Not to worry though as staying light here until nearly 10pm which so far we’ve made it back before dark and not run into any bears or mountain lions!

We had awesome weather the first couple days but now just to add some spice, today it is pissing with rain non-stop and no doubt going to make those roots and rocks a little more challenging and energy sapping. I used to think this race would suit me, now that I am here and riding some of the most techie trails in the world, I will be happy just to finish with no injuries as the trails beg you to go harder and faster than you know is good for you and befor you know it you have hit a wet root fishtailing into a tree. Next stop Whislter to suss out what they have to offer!

Valley Centre and San Francisco pics

British Columba - Vancouver: 7 day stage race