ticket2ridebc.com Blog

Friday, August 22, 2008

A mate recently asked me to describe this year’s Whistler trip with Ticket2RideBC in 3 words or less. So looking back on my third trip out to BC, I replied with “awesome and painful!”
First off, for me to have returned for 3 years straight, the experience has got to be nothing short of awesome. For a UK rider, the thought of endless descents, blue skies and dusty trails, is fast becoming a complete non-reality on our shores. (Ok, the endless descents weren’t really there in the first place…)

And painful… well the BC trees and rocks aren’t the comfiest to fall on/into, are they?

So, here’s what me, Matt, and the T2R guys got up to in 2 weeks in July…

Arriving “fresh” from an uneventful 9 hour flight from London, a caffeine fuelled drive up the Sea2Sky highway saw us arrive in Whistler in the evening. A quick bike building session made sure the steeds had made it across the Atlantic in one piece too. And then we unpacked and repacked for a spontaneous 3 day roadtrip the following day.

A quiet weekend for the guides left them with the chance to ride elsewhere in BC, so up at the crack of dawn and by 5.30am we were in the truck back on the highway, with a dodgy iPod connection and only and AC-DC cd for entertainment. We headed for Horseshoe Bay, and a ferry to Langdale on the Sunshine Coast. But last minute planning caught us out – the ferries close ticket sales 10 minutes before the boat sails, and we missed it! Chance to grab some coffee and breakfast, or so we thought… we ended up taking out the food we’d ordered and planned to eat in (don’t go to Toads) and feeding ourselves in the van queuing to get on the ferry. Still, we were fed and ready to get over the water and onto the trails. An hour later we reached the shore and found the local bike shop in Gibson’s Landing, bought a map, and headed to the trail head at Robert’s Creek.

It turns out there are loads of well built technical trails off the main road along the coast line and has been the location for some of the sections found on DVDs. We spent the first day shuttling trails with names including Lost ‘n’ Found, Cunning Stunts, Janet’s Jungle, Highway 103, and Mach Chicken.

Andy riding the Sunshine Coast trails, not your average UK xc trail….

Some of the woodwork included super skinnies, see-saws, drops and plenty of undulation to catch you out. It was a steep learning curve to adapt to the technicality of these trails but all were great fun to ride. Andy managed to have the first big stack of the trip when a piece of woodwork broke and sent him down, apart from that there were no major incidents. After a hard day’s riding we packed up, headed to the pub and thought about looking for digs to crash in. We found a motel straight out of the movies and a dodgy Chinese for dinner.

Luxurious roadtrip accomm…

Day two we went back to ride the same area again, this time Andy managed to hug a tree and bruise his rib cage. The escape of the day went to Dan for his dismount from about 10 ft up and drop of the day went to Kris and Acky who managed to session a huge drop off rickety thin woodwork. We did a bit of exploring and found 2 sections of jumps and woodwork on a massive scale that look like they’ll be filmed on shortly. We drove down the coast to the next town where we took a ferry across and drove on to Powell River where we could get a ferry across to Vancouver Island the following morning. There was only one local bar in the town full of the locals singing karaoke (badly) all night but they served Kokanee and had a pool table so we were happy!

Roadtrip day three and we caught the early ferry to Vancouver Island and drove up to Mt Washington for breakfast. The bike park had about 16 trails on it with access from two lifts, most of them black with sections of woodwork and drops. We caught a glimpse of the site where Darren Berrecloth will hold his annual Invitational but unfortunately none of the course had been constructed. Judging by the area it covers it will look pretty impressive when complete. After making a couple of runs Andy managed to break his forks, blowing the damping cartridge leading to several off-bike moments as he pogo’d down the hill! Not a good day for Marzocchi but served as a reminder that over here the trails are bike breakers! We didn’t get a chance to do all the trails in a day and several were too good just to do once! Our final ferry brought us back to Vancouver in the wake of a glorious sunset. A very worth while trip with plenty of great riding already done but ‘the best is yet to come’ according to the guys…

Ferry back to the mainland

Having returned from an awesome road trip the next day saw us on the road again to the Whistler Municipal Heliport, and a chopper which would get us up to the top of Rainbow Mountain for the a sweet descent back into the valley. As part of many T2R holiday packages the Heli-drop offers the chance to ride down a normally inaccessible trail with stunning views of both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains and the surrounding valleys.

Rainbow helidrop

Matt dropping into the Rainbow trail

Matt on Rainbow

The snow was still covering areas of the peak which made for amusing attempts to ride across it! Once into the tree line we found a few rock rolls to play on.

Andy on Rainbow rock roll

The trail varied from very technical to very steep to very dusty. The dust was a bit too much at one point leading Matt to leave the trail and into a bush he couldn’t see, an amusing attempt to get back on the bike followed! The trail ended with several fast flowing switchbacks and all I wanted to do at the bottom was to go up and do it again! Once we got back we had a BBQ and several beers at the lodge to celebrate Scott’s birthday. We ended up in Longhorns bar at the bottom of the hill – cheap beer, table service and the Bone Yard as a backdrop makes for an easy place to relax and enjoy yourself after a hard day on the trails.

Finally, midway through the first week of our 2 week stay, we got ourselves into the Bike Park! Starting of with a couple of blue runs, B-Line and Crank It Up, to get ourselves warmed up then went about riding the rest of the mountain trails.

Andy on Original Sin

Favourites were Goats Gully, Karate Monkey, Crank It Up and Schleyer. Naturally we had to session the hip jump on Original Sin to send back home as a postcard…

Matt hitting the hip

Nothing back home quite prepares you for the length of the trails, the level of concentration required to stay on the bike at both high and low speed and the thrill and adrenaline rush of nailing a section cleanly. There were a few comedy stacks and a couple of near misses and Matt’s head meets rock experience riding In Deep. Nothing broken save his full face lid, but a timely reminder of the need for armour!

Whistler’s title as the mountain biker’s Mecca means it attracts, some of the biggest names in the business. We managed to watch Ryan Leech demonstrate his impressive trials skills as part of Norco’s press week. The amount of new equipment being tested was also very apparent on many of their ‘09 bikes. Other familiar faces include Andrew Shandro on one his summer gravity camps.

Ryan Leech

We spent another day with the new guests at the lodge being guided around the XC trails in the valley, including those in the Lost Lake network. We broke off in the afternoon to ride the Whister valley classic, A River Runs Through It.

Matt on A River Runs Through It

Another of the trips T2R offer is a day riding the North Shore. Shuttling on Seymour all day was an insight to the trails nestled right by Vancouver, which make up the legendary Shore. Runs down Ned’s, CBC’s and the surrounding trails quickly showed us the different nature of the riding.

Andy on Ned’s

Compared to Whistler, the North Shore trails have a lot more loose rocks strewn about them leading to careful line choice in addition to riding the woodwork carefully. Everyone had a couple of moments, Andy slammed into yet another cedar, and my best came clearing a drop on Ned’s in a sketchy way!

Matt on Ned’s

By this point we were feeling pretty beat up from the intense riding but still managed another day on the hill getting some footage and pics on our favourite jumps, drops and sections. All too soon it was time to head back to the UK..

For some of the best riding on the planet, get yourself out to BC. If you want to improve your tech skills get yourself out to BC. It may be painful and expensive, but it will be awesome!

To get yourself out there, get in touch with the Ticket2RideBC guys…

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Ben;

As this was my first time abroad with my bike as well as my first time abroad by myself, I was excited and was counting down the days until my flight. Friday came and I was up at 4am, in the van and off to Manchester Airport. After check in final goodbyes were said and I went through to my plane. Coming in to land in Vancouver I was amazed at how big everything was over in Canada. I was welcomed by Jay from ticket2ride and met up with the other guys who had come on the same flight. As the drive back to the chalet in whistler was a 4 hour drive we stopped off on the way and got used to the local food. Big slices of pizza and more energy drinks than I could imagine were lined along every shelf so I stocked up with Monster energy for the week. Arriving at the chalet we were all greeted by Dan and we settled in and built our bikes. This was a scary moment for me as a washer on my rear axle had dropped into the bike bag and I thought for a moment that I wouldn’t have a complete bike.

After a much needed sleep it was morning and I was excited and just wanted to go to the bike-park and ride. I did my first runs on the easier tracks such as ‘Crank It Up’ and ‘B-line’ with Matt Parkinson just to get used to the tracks and the length of the mountain. We moved onto some of the bigger tracks like ‘A-line’ and ‘Dirt Merchant’ and did some jumps and drops. This was more my style and made a welcome change to the tight and twisty tracks which I was used to acing on back in the UK. That day I rode till closing time and was so happy to have finally lived my dream of riding Whistler. That night we ate in the chalet where chef Andy worked his wonders and cooked us a fantastic three course meal.

Day 2 and we went back to he bike park to ride for another whole day. The riding was better today as I knew a lot of the tracks and had got used to riding the steeper and longer tracks. I had a break from doing endless runs down ‘A-line’ and went over to the tighter and more downhill type trails such as ’Karate Monkey’ and ‘Schleyer’. With Matt not having any forks I met up with Paul from Norway who was pinning the trails on a short travel Turner. We rode all day down tight trails and I was pushing myself to go faster every run. Day 3 was also spent in the bike park and I got to know the bars and restaurants around the village at lunch. Although the waitresses at Longhorn’s were outstanding I think the coke refills at the GLC took my fancy in the hot Canadian sunshine.

On Tuesday I was going on the North-Shore trip with Dan, Lee, Kris the mechanic and all the other guys from the chalet. First run down we did was slow and learning to ride the skinnies and the rocky drops. This was an ideal place to take some pictures of the guys and Keith the camera man got snapping. Further down the trail we ran into a mini bike park with several lines of north-shore made from both natural logs and hand built shore. After this we were shuttled back to the top of the mountain which was bigger than it looked. A well deserved lunch was eaten and we did a run from top to bottom of the trail. The shore on the top section was a lot bigger and a lot of the guys conquered their fears and showed off their new whistler skills. Back into the Astro and the four hour drive was fun filled with music and the amazing views.

On Wednesday and Thursday I rode the bike park again and also got a chance to do some bike park riding with the chalet crew. Once again Keith and Tony took charge of the camera and some still memories were recorded. Taking the guys down A-line was a good experience and everyone was laughing all the way down behind me. These two nights also entailed me trying to get into the local bars which I’ll admit didn’t work.

It felt like no time at all until my week in Whistler was over and I was packing my bike back into the bag and getting all my clothes folded neatly. Tim and the boys played their cards right and managed to find a way to gain an extra day of riding. Unfortunately because my flight was early on Friday I couldn’t do this. Running around the airport trying to find our flights was hectic but I checked in well on time. Final goodbyes were once again said and emotions came out. No tears thankfully. Minutes later I was sat around with Jay and Steve waiting for our call and eventually I left sunny Canada for rainy England.

I would like to thank everyone for making my experience the best it could possibly be. Especially all of the guides, Andy the chef, Chris the mechanic who saved my skin a few times, Tim and the boys, David, Alice for keeping us all in order and anyone else who helped out and rode with me. Also Mr Felstead himself for lending me his bike-bag and dad for emptying his wallet to send me out there.

Photos courtesy of Keith.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Sorry for the lack of pics… the rain was not camera friendly at all

Matt’s bit…
Sleepless In The Saddle was the XC team’s second 24hr race of the year but the first with all four members racing together (myself, Andy, Andrew and Rob), unlike Mountain Mayhem which was more of a mixture due to injuries. The weather forecasts had been predicting heavy showers for the Saturday but bright sunshine for the Sunday, personally I was only hoping for a dry night lap for once! The course at Catton Park doesn’t have the change in elevation of most courses and truth be told it doesn’t have the amount of singletrack most riders prefer, however for an endurance race for all abilities it does the job. As ever there were hundreds of competitors all camped out at the bottom of the course and plenty of trade stands ready to provide any assistance required.

The rain had been falling since mid morning, but seemed to let up just before the off. The start was the traditional short run before getting on the bike and sprinting off. Rob was up first and did well to come out of the run towards the front to help avoid the inevitable bottleneck of riders going into the first tight sections. There was a strange altercation between a couple of riders getting to their bikes which must have stemmed from personal issues we were unaware of. Other than that the crowd cheered through all the competitors and we went off to prepare for our own laps. Rob came back to report the track wasn’t in great condition and seemed to mostly consist of riding round the fields but at least it was all ridable.

Andrew went out for our second lap by which time we had had a chance to go and examine the track and riders as it dropped out of the woods near the campsite. The slope had attracted a crowd as there was a good chance of someone falling off to be greeted by cheers and shouts of encouragement to get back on and ride back up the hill. The reports from this early on dictated that mud tyres would be essential to getting through without too much mishap.

After the two Andy’s had gone out it was my turn, straight away I felt glad I had changed to thin mud tyres as the course was already becoming difficult to ride the intended lines, most people had started to choose wider and wider lines to find something more dry. The first section was a long stretch to the far side of the course following the hedge lines before cutting up and into the woods, this traversed back towards the arena and despite the ground being solid underneath this only served to create the affect of riding on glass which I found amusing if not very challenging. At one point I was helped up a slippery slope by someone walking next to me although I may as well have been walking given the speed I was going. This section led to another field section flowing into the bluebell woods where the ground provided a little more traction but still had a couple of off camber bits to catch you out. This dropped back down to the field next to the arena and after a quick detour through some bomb holes we were back round the edge of the arena passing through the red bull tent (fully stocked with refreshment) marking the half way point. There then followed a long section of fields and short singletrack including a long grassy off camber section which required determination to stay on a steady line and not get dragged down the slope. This led us to the top of a descent with a small group of riders gathered at the top when I arrived watching another attempt to go down without his bike on his bum, I chose the no brakes and full throttle approach and reached the bottom without incident. This led us into the woods above the back of the campsite to the top of the descent with a crowd at the bottom, again I went with speed rather than brakes and got a round of applause as I turned at the bottom without departing the bike. The last sections went from back at the top of the same hill, riding down the off camber slope, along the bottom beside the campsite, back up into the woods briefly and then into the arena.

Just as I got back to the tents the rain came down again hard for Robs second lap and by the time he came back he was pretty fed up, unfortunately he didn’t feel up to continuing so he retired leaving only three of us. This presented a problem, made worse when Andy came back from his second lap reporting the mud had become impossible to ride through in several places We had a short meeting as the rain continued to fall and decided that we’d leave it until the early hours before going out again.

I got up for another lap at dawn but the course had only gotten worse and riding through it had become a slog. After the others had done another lap each we decided to call it a day. This view seemed shared with several others as the toll of broken rear mechs and moral hit home. The best idea going around the site was to go back home and have a few beers.

Andy, sketching down the off camber descent on the Sunday morning. The only time he was seen with a smile and on the bike…!

Not the best race we’ve managed to do, the first 24hr race I haven’t completed no thanks to the British weather, hopefully a future SITS will be held in a more resilient place to keep everyone going through the worst of the weather!

…Andy’s bit…
As team captain I was pleased to get all the team together for the 24 hours, and also keen to ride seeing as I missed Mayhem with a slashed up arm. Matt has already told the story of the event, so here’s how it went for me.

Fri eve – rocked up, chose a piece of field to call home, pitched tent, ate food, drank booze. Good start then.

Sat am – cloudy… Rob turned up. Started to rain. Matt turned up. Gazebo went up (shelter ). Andy turned up. Rob volunteered to ride first, still raining.

Sat pm – Rob does first lap, comes back moaning about course and weather. Rain stops. Andy goes out 2nd, I soon follow. Mud mud mud rain slippy mud going ok gears still work, not any more… mud mud mud mud hand over to Matt. Rain starts again, Rob goes out, comes back, gets in van and drives off. Team morale plummets, not sure of the plan anymore. I go out again, mud mud mud mud gears don’t work wheels don’t turn can’t ride can’t stand up can’t push bike pick mud off bike so wheels turn (repeat for 1 1/2 hours) try to ride rooty descent, end up riding it backwards on my belly. Get back and team decision to slack it off overnight as its so bad…

Sun am – Matt goes out, Andy goes out, I get up and realise my bike still resembles a swamp monster. Pick more mud off and make the wheels turn – good enough. I go out, dry line appearing, and most of the course rideable. Sweet. Fellow rider compliments my “jedi” riding through the bluebell woods. Laugh like a loon down the descent and get a big cheer from the crowd. Nearly take out spectators and gatepost of off-camber descent. Finish the lap and realise I didn’t have my timing chip on…. Oops. Team decision to relax a bit and go out towards the end (not like we are racing anymore is it?…)

Sun pm – Decide that if we ride another lap we’ll get muddy again and seeing as we aren’t racing any more there really wasn’t much point. So pack up and hit the road, feeling pretty gutted with the whole event…

Monday, August 11, 2008

Ben:
With dad taking the day off work on Friday we headed up early and arrived in a field at 1:30pm and the sun was shining. After spending about half an hour deciding where to park we spent a further half hour attempting to level out the van on what seemed to be a 45 degree slope. Finally we got set up and got the easy-up tied down so I went for a walk of the track. From the top of the hill the track went round some off camber corners with a drop in but due to the bad weather and high winds at the top, the start line was moved down to the quarry drop 200 metres down. Pedalling off the start you go round a big dip in the ground and it’s a sprint round the first 3 corners which were all cut inside on the grass. Round to the left on a grassy corner and you go off a small drop and into two big double jumps which fortunately were sheltered by the banking so you could jump them.

From here you go through a series of switchbacks and down a set of small, off camber drops which wind down the side of the valley and into the road crossing. Due to high winds, 99% of the riders didn’t even bother to try the road gap so you do two smaller jumps instead. Crossing the road you go down into a bomb-hole and then back up onto the side of the valley. Here you have a sprint all the way along the side of the valley consisting of rocky ground and some small but fast drops and a bus stop jump. Round the end of the valley takes you through a broken down wall and onto a long off camber section keeping high and putting a few pedal strokes in to make up time. The right hand corner before the road crossing was very off camber and only got a decent rut dug into it by the end of Sunday’s runs. Off the rock slab and over the fire road you go over the inside of a double, trying to keep low to avoid the wind. Keeping a road tuck position down the field and cranking the pedals leads you through the trees, past the ticket2ride team van and over the final launch through the finish line.

On Saturday the rain came down hard for most of the day and the track was getting to the stage of being a bog in places. Several clean kits later and Saturday practice was over. That evening there was a long jump contest held on the launch jump in the field. When the prize was announced as a crate of Monster energy and £60 I decided to give it a shot. Several flat landings later I came 3rd in the long jump clearing 39 feet, just 3 inches off the win. Gutted!!

Bubba’s got nothin on this boy!!! (Photo courtesy of www.fastlanephotography.co.uk)

Sunday was better than Saturday with the sun finally coming out before racing started. As there was no seeding it was number order and I was one of the last juniors down. I sprinted off the line all the way down to the switchbacks and then kept a low profile to reduce the drag from the wind. At the top Joe Flanagan had a skin suit and no peak on so I was determined to prove this as a false concept. I did this and came through in a time of 2:23.842 and I got 10th place in junior, beating Joe by 5 seconds.

The added bonus of being parked next to the Monster energy speakers gave me a few headaches but the music was at least very good. Now driving home in the van I’m enjoying my last few hours as a 16 year old. So tomorrow, “watch out there’s another idiot on the road”, in the words of Steve.

Steve;
Bit of a strange one this race! The NPS normally go for big wide tracks with multi line options – silly one’s for the brave and foolish and the ‘sheep’ trail lines for the less technically gifted riders, however what we were presented with this weekend was a very tightly taped track down the previously used course, (apart from a new road crossing), and a single line all the way down! Apart from a few tight off camber lines through the gorse switchback and the potential of a big road jump where the new section was, that wasn’t actually achievable due to the strong head wind, it was a single trail all the way down.

Due to the strong winds up top, the start was also moved down to below the rock drop, taking out the biggest obstacle on the course and then the course was taped wider around a couple of bomb holes making it really easy for everyone, so the top section now required no technical skill whatsoever to get to the couple of doubles before the switchbacks. Whether this was the input of the Chief UCI Commissaire who did appear to be a bit risk averse and probably more used to dealing with namby pamby XC racers, but it did severely sterilise the top section.
As Ben mentioned, the forecasted rain battered us on the Saturday turning the track to gloop in places and then when seeding got cancelled Sat afternoon, with the rumour going round that Sunday would be one practice run, seeding and then race run, a few people packed up and went home. Thankfully sense prevailed and Sunday was organised as normal with seeding done on current series form which appeared to work for the majority.

I’ve become a bit of a fair weather rider as the years have progressed so I wasn’t enjoying Sat at all, but thankfully due to the sterile nature of the course there wasn’t much to learn, so three runs and I knew where I was going, just needed to speed up and there would be plenty of time on Sunday for that with the prospect of dry and sunny weather forecasted as a bonus too.

After a surprisingly good sleep in the back of the hired van, Sunday did dawn ‘dryish’, but the odd brief shower kept the track slick so the spikes stayed on during the couple of practice runs. The wind had picked up though and the flat pedal across the traverse after the road crossing. especially with spikes on, was like hitting a brick wall! By the end of the plebs practice session the track had dried considerably and over 1.5 hours later when racing started, I noted that all the riders were coming down bone dry.

The old race brain started ticking and I decided to gamble and fitted the Comp 16’s when everyone else was still running spikes – any tyre that rolled faster had to be an advantage against the head wind and could hopefully pinch me a podium spot. Sure enough the tyres were magic and I nailed all the fast sections, what I’d forgotten though was to change the pedals and shoes too so I could nail the jumps also, as I still can’t fully commit to big doubles using the flats and consequently I found the fingers nervously hitting the levers on every jump, thus sapping the subsequent speed and it showed in my final result – 8th Arse!!!

Someone measured this one for me, apparently it was 39′ 1″

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Ben;
We arrived on Friday afternoon to sunny Wales, (Steve – Apparently Ben got A* in his Geography exams, but thought the English Champs at Hopton was in Wales!!!), and set up camp on a flat dry patch. I walked the track with dad and spent some time deciding which lines would be good as it was our first race at this track. Practice started later than usual on Saturday morning so a bit longer in bed was a good start to the weekend.

Off the start line the track went over some small tables and had a lot of rooty sections which got worse and harder to ride as the day went on. Lots of ruts helped round corners and the widely taped track meant there were a lot of options. Out into the open and you go over stumps and round bermed corners. Here the track was hardcore and mud which gave less grip when the rain came but still provided a cleaner line. Jumping over some bigger stumps and cutting inside on some corners helped to gain time. Back into some more open wood sections where the trees weren’t the issue, but instead the flatter ground and roots mixed with the length of the section made for some enduring racing for even the fittest riders. Over the second road crossing and you’re back into the open. Here there were loose corners with wider lines to help you set up better for the straights. Off some step downs and you keep high avoiding braking bumps back into the final woods section.

Round some switchbacks with flat corners you go down a gulley and over a log into the tight root section. Here you go left over a drop with roots on the run in. Taking the right line here was essential to keep your speed up. Round a set of muddy corners and a big set of switchbacks lead down to the drop and triple jump where many riders scared themselves or ended their weekend. Over the final big table jump and you cross the finish in the field.
After practice on Saturday I walked the track with mark and discussed some lines. I decided to change some lines in the top woods and found some better ways to cross the roots.

On Sunday practice went well and the overnight rain had helped the track to not get sticky which meant I kept my cut down spikes on the bike. The first run went good with all my lines right and I kept up the pace all the way down. As the first rider down I had no problems ahead of me and I put in a good time of 2:47 which gave me 7th place in the run. In run 2 I was going for it with the thought of a title ahead of me. This went all wrong when I crashed on an easy corner in the woods so I didn’t improve my time. I still kept my good time from run 1 and I came 9th in the junior category for the weekend. I also placed 39th overall out of 251 riders who put in a time which was a more than satisfying result for me.