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Short solo ride out to Blackhead this morning. The fog threatened to roll in but it stayed beautiful! Would have gone to Cape Spear, but too much to do today. You really have to earn your kilometers here on the rock, b’yes! 😓💪🏼😜
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Squamish  I’ve got about 7 minutes to write this 🙄🙄🙄
Don’t get me started on the WiFi availability at this race. We finished!!! It was a crazy day. Sechelt to Langdale 49km, 1403m elevation  Today was not my day. It started when I realized I had sent my race bag containing my bike computer, heart rate monitor and sunny day lenses on the truck going across to North Vancouver. But I didn’t mind that too much. I haven't been able to upload to Strava anyhow with the limited WiFi, so it doesn’t really matter anymore. I started out really well today. For the first 30km I can say I gave it everything I had and I was enjoying just trying to move forward every chance I got. The girls from Calgary kept saying I was “consistent” every time we passed one another. But the final 10km or so were not my cup of tea. It was beautiful in the forest but I just couldn’t enjoy it. There was far too much climbing again today, and because our days have been so long everyday and we haven’t had much time to recover, today was probably harder than it needed to be. And then, by the time we got to the “downhill” section, I was shattered already from all the climbing.  There were about 2 minutes of lovely flowing switchbacks with the most beautiful berms. But it didn’t last.
I attempted a super steep rocky downhill section and ended up coming off the bike. I braked hard so luckily wasn’t going at speed, but I still had a lot of momentum when my whole right side connected with the ground with a thud and slid a bit on some loose rocks. I was so tired and disappointed and in pain, so I immediately burst into tears (first tears of this race! ). Then when I tried to ride, my wrist and chest and hand were so painful every time I braked, and it made me cry even harder. Bike patrol and a few other riders stopped to see if I was ok and I insisted I ride the remaining 3km or so to the end. It was pretty at the last bit and you could get some flow again, but every root made me utter OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!! The rest of the way to the end. But leading up to that, there were still sooo many punchy rooty rocky climbs and little wooden bridges and steep drop-offs into the abyss. One wrong move...! If you know the trail, or have the skills to ride at a high level, you could probably have some fun on that route. But for those of us at the back of the race, today was a bit much. I couldn’t seem to get the power, speed or correct gearing to quickly get up and over the short steep hills that appeared every two seconds around every fun corner. The smooth ones were fine, but the technical ones were soul-destroying for me at a certain point. Tomorrow is the individual time trial in North Vancouver, which everyone is saying is the most technical. I don’t have high hopes for an enjoyable day on the bike, or a good time. I expect some walking. ☹️ Maybe Squamish (Stage 7) will be better!🤞 Earl’s Cove to Sechelt 62km, 1758  Today was sooooo long!! We woke up in Powell River, wolfed down breakkie, took a bus to the ferry, arrived in Sechelt where all of our bikes were waiting! We hopped on and started the stage. You have to admire the coordination that took to get all of those bikes organized and moved overnight.   We started the race around 11:25AM. John and I crossed the line holding hands under the BCBR finishing arch around 6 hours later! And we worked hard the entire day. Soooooo much climbing!!! It was crazy. At the top of the worst sloggiest climb there was a Rasta guy playing guitar and singing and a woman taking our photos! It seemed very surreal and pretty cool! That was the climb that felt like it would never end. It was beautiful all around us - the greenest most diverse forest! And lots to keep us challenged. But switchback after rooty rocky switchback and I started to feel like I was getting a bit light-headed! I made sure to eat and drink whenever I could, but the altitude and lots of pushing my bike uphill led to some stupid missteps and I started to wonder if I was stepping on the biggest loose rock I could find every time I put my foot down!  One particularly comical incident happened on the final downhill section to get to the finish. I approached a rather high collection of gnarly roots sticking up more than most. I decided I could make it - I had successfully made it over much worse today.
But as I compressed my front wheel in the approach, my back tire slipped a bit and while I cleared the roots, I didn’t quite have the momentum I needed to get over them! I braked to avoid falling off but I then remained frozen in place and couldn’t seem to move in any direction!! It would have been funny if I wasn’t so close to the finish or so exhausted. I grabbed the tree to my right but it was a big one and I was too close to it to get any movement. I tried to fall the other way but I couldn’t without falling a long way. I tried to roll backwards but my wheel was so stuck it wouldn’t budge. Finally I unclipped and even then, swinging my right leg over the saddle was nearly impossible. My legs felt like they were wooden and heavy by now, but I finally managed to get my leg over in time for the bike to rock forward and I ended up eating a mouthful of the soft mossy BC soil. My only crash of the day and it happened in slow motion. 🤣 And then we were off over some more downhill and finally to the gravel roads where I love to dig in and get some speed whenever I can. Because it was such a late start and such a long day on the bike, we arrived very late to camp. We had a choice of walking 10 minutes to dinner or eating from some food trucks at the camp, so sausages and tacos it was!! 😆 I was too late to book a massage but I am hooked up to the vitamin IV at the moment getting some vitamin C, B, magnesium and some other stuff. I hope it will help somewhat with recovery! I’m recovering very well in general, but my knees are starting to swell and stiffen up and my back is getting tighter and tighter each day...the climbs are killing my back! John waited for me again all day. Will get some photos up as soon as we can! I had zero WiFi tonight - there just isn’t time for all the things!!!! ☹️  Moving up slow and steady from the back of the race...I’ve gone from 589 to 582 to 552 in the first three stages...but who’s counting? 😂 Today was perfect riding in Powell River! 52km, 1046m elevation gain, and a feature trail called Death Rattle! It was my best day yet at this race, and proud to say I rode the whole thing! My Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt BC Trail Edition was the perfect bike for these trails. The riding challenged me, but was manageable with my cornering, descending and braking skills all improving day by day. Aid stations were fantastic today, my highlights being the 50’s style pin-up girls and diner theme complete with flat Coke! And the tiki-themed area where the volunteers were wearing grass skirts and serving shots of pineapple juice was pretty special, although placed mid-climb so difficult to stop and really enjoy it. You have to love the volunteers and their dedication to standing out in the heat all day cheering us on and helping us stay hydrated and fed. There were some swoopy singletrack sections today, some pretty technical rooty sections, as always, loads of climbing. My skills are improving exponentially and I was sending it over anything and everything today! Roots were invisible to me and I only stopped to let faster riders pass.  The forests of Powell River are lush and green, and as I write this, it is pissing it down, so it’s not hard to see why!  John was amazing again today. We weren’t registered as a team and they wouldn’t switch it at the end, so we’re technically riding solo, but John’s been riding ahead and waiting ages for me at the end of nearly every section. Taking photos, cheering me up steep climbs and just being wonderful. Because we finished earlier today, and we are camping in the same place as last night, we were able to actually enjoy the camp after our ride. We had beers at the Rocky Mountain Bicycles beer tent, I had a dip in the Pacific Ocean, and we are now chilling in the tent for the first time other than sleeping. Buses will shuttle us down the road for dinner and tomorrow morning we wake up, eat, take a ferry to Earl’s Cove and expect a late finish as the stage doesn’t kick off until 11AM.  Because we finished earlier today, and we are camping in the same place as last night, we were able to actually enjoy the camp after our ride. We had beers at the Rocky Mountain Bicycles beer tent, I had a dip in the Pacific Ocean, and we are now chilling in the tent for the first time other than sleeping. Buses will shuttle us down the road for dinner and tomorrow morning we wake up, eat, take a ferry to Earl’s Cove and expect a late finish as the stage doesn’t kick off until 11AM.   I haven't been hit by a truck - just feels like it! 2 down; 5 to go... 😬🤪🤕 I had a brilliant sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck! My body is bruised and scratched all over the place. Luckily nothing serious, but still painful. We’ve just finished another 40km day, and I cannot begin to convey the details of the route. Cumberland started with some lovely uphill and rolling gravel roads which I loved! The steep climbs continued in various forms - gravel roads, rooty trails, etc. - until we were around 1000m of vertical elevation. Looking at the stage profile, you would think that was the biggest challenge but BCBR is never straightforward, and the worst was yet to come.  Severely tight trails closely lined with trees showing their roots every couple of pedal strokes. The roots were exposed and as slippery as butter. Wheels were slipping and sliding all over the place, bucking us off our bikes and sometimes causing us to crash. The landscape was like a screensaver at times - lush green biodiversity at its best. But it was difficult to enjoy with the grueling biking conditions. Around 14km from the end, the course wound through the camp from the night before - which also happens to be where the finish line sits. Because I broke my Wahoo ELEMNT mount during our training ride, I’ve been carrying my Wahoo in my back pocket and have no way of knowing the time, distance or terrain unless I take it out. Which I have not done yet. So when we came to the finish I was sprinting because I thought it was the end and would have been very happy for it to be over. But no. The worst was STILL yet to come!! By the time we found ourselves amongst the final rooty section, it was so technical and we were so knackered, people around me were falling over more and more, and so was I. I felt slightly drunk. Probably dehydrated. Definitely exhausted. It was hard to push my bike up the short steep slopes and I didn’t trust myself to tackle the more technical descents, so lots of walking ensued. Back at camp now with a few precious minutes of WiFi now! Wanted to document at least a little of today. Sorry - no pics of the trail today - it was nuts! John kept riding ahead and he will have more photos and video to share when we have more time and better internet connection.
  J&J at the starting line of Day 1 BCBR Nobody will believe me if I say today was the hardest day on the bike ever because I always say that. But it seems we have once again taken our cycling adventures to an entirely new level, starting with some double-black MTB trails on the course today! 🙈😱 Even before the double-black super technical downhill (and to think the announcers were taking the piss out of some guy wearing a full-face helmet at the start!), I had my most dramatic crash ever, fulfilling a recurring nightmare I have of me flying off a cliff! It wasn’t five minutes into the race on some gentle flowing singletrack when I clipped my right handlebar on a tree and we (bike and me) flew through the air to land in another tree down a step embankment on the left side of the trail. I quickly got myself disentangled from my bike and did a quick inspection of the bike before remounting and continuing on.  Covered in dirt from head to toe...loving this flowy trail! It’s funny because when I woke up this morning, I was reasonably relaxed and relieved to find that John and I still have our morning race routine dialed in - even before coffee! I had no idea what we were about to experience!! We knew the climbing on this 40km stage would be a killer with over 1,000m of vertical elevation. On a tricky and very technical MTB course. The climbing was rough, but I’m a workhorse on the bike and generally speaking I find the physical effort of tapping out long climbs very rewarding (at least that’s what I say when I’m not grinding up a hill!) But today’s climbs were rocky jagged forest trails on which you have to power your bike up over roots and sometimes tangled root networks with some big pointy rocks thrown in. All while balancing yourself precariously on the bike, pushing the pedals at exactly the right speed, unweighting your front, then your back wheel, again at exactly the right split second. All this and more is happening as you scan the trail ahead to make sure you’re ready for what’s coming next, which may be another tricky obstacle to climb. I was enjoying it for awhile but my hamstrings started burning and tightening up, and the trail got more and more demanding as I was getting more and more fatigued. This is not unusual on many MTB trail ascents, but today was exceptional, as evidenced by my taking more than 5.5 hours to complete 40km! For non-cyclists, and for comparison, I can usually do 100km on my road or gravel bike (solo riding) in around 4 hours or less. In addition to my high flying crash at the start, I was off my bike seemingly every few minutes once we got to the steeper downhill sections. Big rocky shoots awaited us after both massive climbs today, as if once weren’t enough of a challenge! With steep drop-offs immediately to our right or left, there was little margin for error. One mistake unclipping a shoe from the pedal or turning the front wheel a little too aggressively could mean disaster. I relied on my brakes to allow me to sight upcoming obstacles, but riding these trails blind was crazier than I could have imagined. Braking too much on some of these steep downhills means either going over the bars (which I nearly did several times) or having your back wheel slide until you find yourself careening down the slippery gravel or powdery sand sideway. This meant even more hike-a-bike for me. Speaking of which, walking with your bike on these trails can be nearly as dangerous as riding them. Using my bike as a kind of crutch, I had to apply the brakes and brace my front wheel to stop myself from falling down some of the near-vertical drops. My leg muscles only got tighter throughout the day. As with JoBerg2c, they like to have riders smiling as they cross the finish, so they often make the final kilometers a pleasant and easy singletrack so most of us can float into the finish line. Today ended with a dark lush forest descent that indeed left me smiling and nearly forgetting the other terrifying events of today. If I were to do this day over, I would wear knee and elbow pads, if not full body armour! I wrote this on the bus to Cumberland post-race and hoping for some very precious WiFi when we get to camp! Note to BCBR 2019 hopefuls: splurge for a stupidly overpriced Canadian SIM card, as the race only provides a very limited time for fairly unreliable WiFi and you probably won’t be able to do FB live ;)
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