Portrait de BC Bike Race

PORTRAIT DE BC BIKE RACE
– The Ultimate Singletrack Experience –
2 Juillet au 9 Juillet 2011
www.bcbikerace.com
( Crédit Photo : Dave Silver )

Bien plus qu’une course de VTT cross country, BC Bike Race est une aventure Canadienne de sept jours au cœur des forets légendaires de Colombie Britannique. Cette épreuve d’endurance prend source dans les mythiques sentiers North Shore de North Vancouver et se termine dans la station Olympique de Whistler après un passage emblématique dans les meilleurs sentiers de l’ile de Vancouver, de la Sunshine Coast et de Squamish.

Découvrez la vidéo de présentation de BC Bike Race produite par Shimano en cliquant ici

Avec 500 participants et 21 nationalités différentes pour l’édition 2010, BC Bike Race est fière d’être la plus grosse course par étapes d’Amérique du Nord. Soutenue entre autre par Redbull, Rocky Mountain, Dakine et Shimano, BC Bike Race joue dans la cour des grands.

La recette du succès:

Pendant que la plupart des courses du genre font rêver les participants avec des dénivelés épiques,  des paysages Alpins et des gros prize-money, ici on mise tout sur la qualité des sentiers. BC Bike Race « the ultimate singletrack experience » c’est avant tout  la plus grosse course singletrack du monde. Cadre idéal puisque la Colombie Britannique est très dense en singletracks. Sur une distance totale de 400km, la course comporte 70% de singletracks cela représente plus de 280km de plaisir à l’état pur. Les participants sont la avant tout par amour du singletrack.

Chaque journée-étape est dessinée par des communautés de vététistes locales. Des sentiers construits par des vetetistes pour des vetetistes pour offrir la crème de la crème des singletracks de la région.

"Tel un champ de poudreuse pour le skieur ou un tube pour le surfeur, le singletrack procure au rider des sensations suprêmes de glisse et de liberté..."

Du cote organisation, plus de 150 personnes travaillent d’arrache pied pendant une semaine pour offrir aux participants une véritable hospitalité Canadienne tout aussi fun que confortable. Les liaisons entre les étapes se font en ferry et en bus au milieu de paysages à couper le souffle.

Un camp de base avec tous les services imaginables se déplace à chaque étape avec les participants. Ces derniers se voient évoluer entre ciel, montagnes et océan pacifique tout au long de l’aventure. Ce n’est pas pour rien si des grands champions comme Alison Sydor, Goeff Kabush, Manuel Prado ou Andreas Hestler parlent de la meilleure semaine à vélo de leurs vies.

Chaque année BC Bike Race à le plaisir d'apporter des nouveautés dans son parcours et dans la richesse des options proposées. Vous pouvez participez a la course en solo, en équipe de 2,3 ou 4 vététistes. Désormais 2 formats de courses existent : un format epic (˜60km/jour) et un format challenge (˜30km/jour). 

Une course pour les enfants est disponible depuis l’an dernier, et enfin pour 2011 BC Bike Race va inaugurer une nouvelle étape dans les sentiers magiques de Campbell River.

Vous pouvez également lire l'article paru dans velomag (magasine Québecois) en cliquant ici

Savourez  les nombreuses vidéos de la gallerie de BC Bike Race en cliquant ici

Seulement 500 Places sont disponibles, si vous êtes intéressés ou désirez plus d’information contactez moi par email : julien@bcbikerace.com et rendez vous sur www.bcbikerace.com

Offrir les plus beaux sentiers de la planète pendant une semaine de festivités, tel est l'esprit de BC Bike Race "the Ultimate Singletrack Experience"

Julien

Anual Dirt Bag week end

What about a week end of riding in a natural park, with a great band of riders, camping and friendly vibes around the fire?

Bike, gear and camping equipment are going to be dirty! you want a shower? forget that idea… we are here only for the love of trails. Let me introducing the Dirt Bag Week End.

The Dirt Bag week end is an annual event, which happened the first week end of October and use to change the location every year. At the beginning they were 4, now between 10 and 15 riders attend the event every years. This is not a race but just an epic riding week end with friends.

Friday: On the road

My landlord Dave Howells, media relation director of BC Bike Race, use to attend the event, so that was a great opportunity for me to be in the party. We prepared all the equipment and food supplies and left North Vancouver with Dave’s van on a sunny Friday afternoon. We grabbed our funny buddy Marc “Cooney” Campbell on the road and drove on the highway “TransCanada” (The highway which cross all the Canada) straight to the east southern of British Columbia. We saw the snow on the Mount Baker peak. Smile on our faces all the drive; everybody was super excited about the idea of this great week end.

We arrived with the sunset in a perfect natural environment: mountains, forest all around, deers, bears... that's here beside a quiet creek, our base camp in the middle of nowhere!

A couple of guys was already there and had prepared a huge fire for the night. I met Jeff Stromgren, the course control director of BCBR, but also Lance Fryling, Chris Stromgren, Bobby, all great experienced riders implicated in the BC Bike Race. We installed all our camping stuff with Dave and Marc, made a camping style dinner, Dave Silver, photographer from vancouver Island  joined us later with Chris Burch, We spent the night around the fire, listening local histories and drinking beers: perfect Canadian vibes! The next day would be long so we went bed pretty early. I saw Lance cooler with teeth bear marks on it:
Tip of the day "do not sleep with food if you don't want to have a hungry bear in your tent"

Saturday : Epic Alpine

Thanks to my 10 bucks Wallmart sleeping bag (I forget mine at home), I awake a little bit frozen. New tip of the day "Never buy a 10bucks sleeping bag at Wallmart to sleep in the canadians outdoors".

We started the day with a big breakfast made by my dirtbag father "dave", just the time to take on energy and prepare our bag pack, we left the base camp around 9am. The weather was just perfect, temperate, no clouds, and bright sun! woow.

 

The ride begin by a climbing, but if you think about climbing, it's not just climbing, its climbing and climbing again, 5 hours and only in singletracks. We made some breaks of course, during that kind of climbing food and water are welcomed. You need more than two eyes to enjoy the view, that was a natural theatre with a beautiful 360° alpine panoramic, impossible to see a human construction, only nature and a wide range of mountains. Woow

After that long climbing we rode along cliffs and ridges during two hours, we walked bikes in the strong rockies sections, and we could saw snow on the peaks around us, that was just an incredible feeling of freedom.

The most exciting moment of the day was the last two hours. Imagine 2 hours of super smooth narrow single-track descent to finish your ride, that was just an unlimited feeling of pleasure. The descent was beginning around a beautiful alpine lake and finished in a dark forest around the road.

We finished the ride super tired, but super satisfied, that was a real accomplishment. One of the longest day I have ever spend on my bike 9h45min, for 52km! let u imagine how big was the climbing!

That night was super cool, back in our base camp for a big dinner: take on energy, have a fresh beer, and think together about our cool epic day on the bike.  Great memories, we were super lucky because everything was perfect, the weather, the trails, and we had no problems during the ride (no mechanicals, no injuries).

Sunday: Pacific crest trail

I awake after another cool night, my legs still tired from the previous day, but the mind excited and motivated for another day of riding. Same program for the day: hit only singletracks but for a shorter ride! We headed another destination in the south of BC, objective: ride the pacific crest trail. That rugged trail is one of the longest North American trails. It begins in the south of Mexico and finishes here in BC close to the American border line. Sometimes super narrow and technic with walking sections, the trail can also be super smooth and flow. Very diversify and super cool to ride I really enjoyed that moment. We crossed several bridges and sometimes had to find solution to cross rivers by our own selves, very funny!

 

 

We finished that loop in 4 hours, Shorter than Saturday but also a big ride.

The week end was done, I smelled bad, had my legs in fire, bike and gear dirty, but I so happy for that accomplishment: 14h of pure feelings on the bike, I met new riders and had lots of fun.



Now I am a dirt bagger.

Julien