BC Bike Race Gets Ready to Go

News Release / 02.07.2012

The 6th annual BC Bike race has officially kicked into high gear with 500 racers from 33 countries completing registration and boarding their first of the weeks four BC Ferries rides to cross the Georgia Strait from North Vancouver to Vancouver Island.

From base camp in the historic village of Cumberland, racers will depart in the morning for their first of seven days racing the legendary trails of British Columbia. Over the next week riders will explore lush singletrack in the woods surrounding the communities of Cumberland, Campbell River, Powell River, Sechelt, Squamish, and ending in the mountain biking mecca of Whistler. The BC Bike Race has continued to partner with these communities and their trail builders to bring what been billed as the “Ultimate Singletrack Experience”.

“This year we (BCBR) want to really get deeper into the story of these trails and their history. Every trail in the race has a story behind it as well as a community who put countless hours, even years, into building great trails that we get to show off to the world.” Marketing Director Andreas Hestler.

For the 2012 edition the BC Bike Race now has 13 Gravity Enduro stages, a completely new course for the last day in Whistler, and two new kids races for a total of four throughout the week. Each course gets minor changes as the local trail builders improve old trail or add more.

The expanded Gravity Enduro race is considered the “Race within the Race” and gives riders with different talents a chance to fight for bragging rights on the timed mostly downhill sections. For the first six stages there will be two timed trail sections that will be marked as Gravity Enduro and at the end of the day results from those sections will be posted along with overall results. Mostly downhill, each section will highlight a locals favorite piece of singletrack trail. The Gravity Enduro format has drawn new riders looking for a chance to shine on the most fun sections of trails.

Men’s Epic Solo and Enduro Specialist:

This year there are more solo riders than ever fighting for a top step on the podium. In the men’s open category the competition has reached a new depth with challengers intent on stopping Chris Sheppard’s (Rocky Mountain Bikes) dominance. ‘Shep’ is back looking for a third consecutive solo win and was up to BC earlier in June stretching his legs at the Test of Metal where he bagged second place, sandwiched between two other 2012 BCBR solo challengers. Neil Kendree (Specialized/ EMD) took the top spot while Cory Wallace (Kona Factory) followed up in third. Both Kindree and Wallace are locals and seem fit to give a challenge to Sheppard’s goal of a hat-trick. Not a local but fully versed in the trails of BC is Barry Wicks (Kona/ Factory) who is moving from winning the BCBR duo mens category twice, to challenge for the solo top spot for the first time.  

German riders Guido Thaler and Daniel Gathof, have crossed continents to get a taste of BC singletrack and podium glory. Gathof is a two time winner of the Trans-Alp stage race known for it’s incredible amount of climbing, but will he be able to adapt to the lush singletrack flow of the BC forest? Both Germans claim to love it when the trail gets physical and came looking to prove they aren’t just high alpine specialist. 

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