BCBR 2010 - Stage #7
July 2, 2010

Route: Whistler
Distance: approx. 20km

All I can say is "wow". Day 7 is here already, Whistler here we come. I can barely remember day 2 when I was thinking there was no way I could do five more days of this but alas, here I am. One last early wake up call and we will be on a bus up the mountain. One last shower in the Sunshine shower trailers, one last ankle taping from Dr. Colin and one last line up for breakfast. Mical [Dyck] and I sorted out our bags and tent one last time and headed for the bus, one last time. Our bus ride to Whistler was very long as our driver didn't seem to comprehend the word "momentum". He would wait until the motor was in the stall stage before shifting. It was quite funny and by the time we got to Blackcomb it sounded like the transmission was dragging on the ground.

We picked up our bikes and took care of the usual pre-race logistics as the start was at 10am. As I was leaving the washroom Mical sent me a text saying the start was in ten minutes. WHOA!! I'm not even in my gear yet - so I bolted to the truck and stripped down in the parking lot and to get ready to race. Guess there will be no real warm up today - it's only a 20km loop so it shouldn't be to bad right?

As I scrambled to get ready all I could think of was last year's course that was a 10 on the pain scale. We started in stages today so at least we'll have a little space between us. As we waited for our start the Eagle Homes team riders barged to front of the line up - guess they missed the start time as well. We got our call and started through the village and basically headed straight up the mountain. As we climb, over to the right we can see the A group making their way back to our group. It appears that they've already taken a wrong turn and our paths are merging. All the while I think that this will be quite interesting but it sorted itself out with no issue.

About five minutes later I see my friend Barry Beck from BC Ferries and he's off his bike with a mechanical. His chain has over shifted into his cog. Without hesitation I hopped off my bike and got him to grab his post so I could shift through and figure out his issue. A long minute went by as I figured out that the housing had slipped and the cable was too tight. He was now good so off he went. My legs felt like 400lb weights again and with no warm up it wasn't getting any better soon. I just grabbed a gear, and spinned my way up the mountain awaiting the entry to Crank It Up. This is a DH-style trail that has table tops, nice big berms and a few wall rides. The down side is that it has a lot of stutter bumps as well so on my bike it was hard to carry much speed. After that we hit a wicked steep climb back up for a few minutes. Bikes were weaving all over the place trying to stay on line so I just chose a gear and grunted up the mountain.

After feeling like I was dying on that climb we headed over to the Lost Lakes trail network for our single-track fix. It's a super fun, rocky trail with bridges and technical corners. I came up behind a guy that was missing a large portion of his shorts and was in a little discomfort. I checked to see if he was ok and whipped by a few more people - I was having a blast. Just as I looked over my shoulder I saw NRG's Steve Mitchell ripping up behind me so I gave him the line as his dually was faster than my steel through here. This network of trails is a lot of fun and they got even better as we hit some of the less rocky portions. Given the twisted nature of some of the organizers I didn't pin it thinking a climb was coming around any corner. Sure enough we popped out on a road and headed up one last (ugh) steep road. I made my way up as strong as I could knowing that we'd already gone over 20km so I knew the finish was not far. Once over the top we took a few corners down the mountain and headed back into the village to the finish.

We crossed the finish line to be greeted by Dean Payne, the man behind the BCBR, as he thanked all riders for being a part of the BCBR and I received my belt buckle reward. Clay from Kicking Horse Coffee hooked me up with a pound of beans and Allison presented me with my Finisher T-Shirt. I made it! I was so stoked as I crawled through the village and chatted with people that I'd spent the week with. My first stage race is in the bag and I'm already planning on being here next year.

As I reflected on the past week I realized that when you're doing an event like this you're so engrossed that you're not coherent to what's going on in the rest of the world. You're on auto pilot focused on the basic things needed to be able to function through each day. I mentioned to Fazon that I wanted to grab a newspaper to find out what was going on in the rest of the world. It will take a few days for this mini victory to sink in but when it does I will look back and remember the great times, the trails, and the people that I have met, but most of all it's all about the riding. And to that end the riding was amazing.

I want to thank Pedal Magazine for allowing me to be a part of this epic journey, our great sponsors PowerBar, Maxxis, Finishline, Pro City Cycle for letting me take off from work, and Casey Dyck for being our travel support and mechanic; also Dr. Colin Wilson for keeping my battered body taped together so I could finish. I also really want to thank my girlfriend Mical Dyck who believed in my ability the whole week and kept me up when the fatigue was creeping in. I love you and I am so proud of what you do. I'm stoked that I was able to tag along with you this week.

Thanks to everyone for following along with my adventure.

Cheers, Regan Pringle