BCBR Day -1

Having the morning free, I hopped the SeaBus ferry which has a terminal 5 min from the hotel, for a 15 minute ride across the Burrard Inlet to downtown. Around Canada Place, preparations for the Canada Day were in full swing.

Early afternoon registration went smoothly, it was all well organized and considering the number of people signed up for this race, no wait times. I checked the Mojo in hoping to reunite on Sunday morning. I spent the afternoon trying to break some laws of physics when stuffing all my worldly possessions into the Dakine racer bag which was of course about 30% smaller that the one I brought all my stuff in. With leaving behind some "nice to have" items, the zippers finally closed.

I had some time to kill so I went out for a stroll around the Quay Market. The market was busy with vendors and music. The sun came out and people were just having a good time. 

The atmosphere felt somewhat different than 4th of July in the USA, very spontaneous. The truth is I don't really remember "celebrating" the Independence Day since we always use the Holidays for some trips, but you know, everybody must grill some lousy food and watch the fireworks and exclaim how much fun they are having....  Here, I watched a band of kids making some serious noise for an hour and felt young at heart again (!).

The waterfront with historical Wallace shipyards it being turned into a history park with art shops etc. It felt really modern and livable. 

OK, so this is it for pre-race vacation, the BCBR starts tomorrow officially as Day 0 with a briefing and transport to Campbell River, our home for Days 1 and 2.

BCBR Day -2

Two days to race start. Today's drive through northern Oregon was not all that interesting. I was curious about Portland, but passing through on a freeway gave me impression of gloomy, dark city, with rain stricken facades and ugly steel bridges. I guess one would have to dive into the city scene.

Similarly in Washington state and Seattle, nothing that really caught my eye. It was overcast with numerous showers, all mountains were covered with clouds, overall pretty depressing picture. Lots of woods around, though.

Canada welcomed me with bad traffic jam on Trans-Canada Highway 1, there was construction everywhere. Finally, I got to North Vancouver, navigated GPS-less (no Canada map in the trusty Mio, although it is supposed to have it!?) to the hotel. It is on the waterfront, an old shipyards area undergoing extensive gentrification:

The views from the Quay Market were pretty awesome, much better than Italian dinner I had in one of few places still open at the market. On the way back to hotel, I found a small street with great looking Greek, Italian and few other restaurants, so I will check them out tomorrow (Canada Day).

BCBR Day -3

The British Columbia Bike Race starts on Saturday July 2nd, but since there will be no race stage on Saturday, they call it Day Zero.
I took off on Wednesday at 7am which makes it Day Minus Three. All packed up, Mojo on the roof. I drove for 10 hours and made it to Eugene / Springfield, Oregon. Oregon is a pretty state, reminds me of Vermont. People must be nice, too, because everybody drives at the speed limit and drivers change lanes to let others pass (unimaginable in the Bay Area!), they won't let you pump gasoline by yourself, and have a DWD (Dying With Dignity) Law. A perfect place!

Pre-BCBR Rides

The weekend before leaving for the BCBR should have been off bike, but then I got the Mojo all spruced up by the (I hope) good mechanics at the Passion Trails Bike Shop and had to take it out for a test. I rode the double-roller coaster ride at Purisima and the bike felt great.
I actually think the trails may be somewhat similar to what's awaiting me in BC?

I climbed the Grabtown Gulch from the bridge to Tunitas Rd without stopping and then descended the Borden Hatch Mill Trail and up Whittmore. The bottom parts of Whittmore Gulch Trail have been "sanitized" and the rocks removed. I actually liked the tacky trail surface, it helped when climbing up some of those grueling inclines.

On Sunday, I did an out and back on the Cahill-Fifield trail (17mi) with two fast riders on the 29er. Great weather, views and company.

So 8,000 ft of climbing as a polishing workout before the race. I was sore Monday but OK on Tuesday, so perhaps it won't be so bad.

The Best Bike in the World

I admit, I browse the internet in search of the bike porn quite a bit. I have no intention to replace any of my three bikes soon, but like to see how the technology's evolving.
My wife generally does not share this passion (aka obsessive behavior) with me and her road bike has been gathering dust since we moved to CA. I totally understand that, her weekly running mileage (50-100mi) does not leave her much time for bicycling, and the terrain around here could be considered "expert", with lots of steep hills.
So imagine my surprise when she asked me if I thought there was a bike she could ride to school on a combination of pavement and dirt paths. I started immediately web searches and fantasized about belt drive, internally geared bikes (something I wished I had myself in my stable) but then decided her new bike should be a 29-er hardtail with a low stand-over height and decent components.
Turned out, there were not that many bikes fitting this description, I finally narrowed the selection to Specialized Myka Expert or Giant Rainier. The second surprise came when I checked with about fifteen Specialized dealers within a 25 mile radius and none of them carried the bike at all, not just in my spec and size selection! They were all willing to order the bike upon a deposit, but that somehow beats the purpose of seeing before buying? I finally found Evolution Bike Shop in Cupertino and these guys were willing to order the bike with no deposit and no obligation to buy. In a week, the bike was ready as promised and we went for a test ride. She liked the bike immediately after a spin around the parking lot so we we brought her (Myka) home.
When my wife took the bike out of the garage the next morning before breakfast in her pajamas for a 3 minute ride around the house, I started to suspect something was up:

OK, it is actually a nice bike: a sculpted M4 aluminum frame, Shimano components (shifters, derailleurs, hydraulic disk brakes, hubs), Rock Shox Tora fork, 660mm wide straight bar, Specialized Captain Control 2.1 tires.

I like couple of things: cable / hose routing under the top tube (I always hated the way Spec bikes route all cables and hydro hoses under the down tube and bottom bracket), full housing rear derailleur housing, even rack eyelets on seat stays!!! Well, the saddle and grips are girly white but at least they are not pink.

The only issue is the bike weight: I don't know it but it feels heavier than both of my XL size mountain bikes. I guess none of the big brands came up with ways to make the women specific bikes light enough in this price category.

Here comes the"best bike" part: my wife has been riding her bike to college pretty routinely and she has been excited about how well the bike feels on a pretty rutted dirt path through the Waterdog Canyon. She has even included a singletrack section in her commute! So after five years, I found the world's best bike for her, there is no other explanation.

I guess the big S figured this out, too since in June they launched a fancy carbon race version of Myka called Fate. It is supposed to be lighter and will cost three times as much.

Morgan Territory Road and Mt Diablo

There were several reasons for me to have this ride listed as "to do" this year. First, Morgan Territory Rd is listed as a must-do ride in most of the Bay Area cycling publications, secondly, when I saw cyclists struggling up Mt Diablo South Gate Rd during our hiking trip in April, I thought this was the last mountain around the Bay I haven't ridden up to yet (well, with the exception of Mt Umunhum which I guess is for now closed to mountain bikes), and thirdly I was hoping it would be warmer in East Bay on this unseasonably cold Memorial Day Saturday.
I have decided to ride from Danville, at the foot of Mt Diablo and circumnavigate the mountain counterclockwise, with the ascent done on North Gate Rd and descent on South Gate Rd.

As so many bike rides around here and in California in general, this one took me through several quite contrasting landscapes and environments: some sections (Camino Tassajara close to Dublin, Clayton and Ygnacio Valley roads) were examples of the "American Dream Turned into the Worst Nightmare" suburban sprawls with cycling unfriendly roads and angry drivers of Escalades and Tahoes. Morgan Territory was all horse ranches and cowboys wearing hats, who were very respectful of bikers, except one meth head in a beater car who almost drove me into the ditch and sprayed my left leg with oil and dirty water coming off his exhaust pipe. The climb up Mt Diablo was beautiful, with lots of wildflowers and few cars. The chilly weather helped on the way up, although I can imagine this place turning into a furnace later in summer. The descent was very chilly, given the 55F temperature, 30 mph winds and waves of rain showers coming from the west.
Overall, this mountain has been climbed for the record, but I have to say East Bay rides will remain low on my list of cycling priorities as long as I live close to peninsula and Santa Cruz mountains.

Start of climbing up Morgan Territory Road with lenticularis clouds formed by the strong flow over Mt Diablo.

Garmin track here: 

May Day in Humboldt

On Sunday May 1st at 7AM Marketa and I stood in a crowd of runners waiting for the start of the Avenue of The Giants marathon, trying to stay warm at 45F.

This reminded us of one of our Eastern European traditions (which we don't miss): the May Day Parade. It used to be cold as well and we wore sweaters and jackets stuffed underneath our pioneer (as kids) or Socialist Youth Union (as students) uniforms, waiting for the tens of thousands strong crowd of industrial workers, agricultural workers, the working intelligentsia and students to finally get moving....

The marathoners went off promptly at 8AM and I grabbed my 29er for a ride inspired by the Northcoast Bike Rides blog description (great resource, by the way!).

After riding through the green darkness of the Founders Grove, the Dyerville Loop road followed the Eel river for a while and then turned into a packed dirt as well as uphill. The climb on dirt through dense forest was tough but well suited to the 29er hardtail with 50psi in Kenda SB8's. The good quality dirt surface changed to asphalt (bad quality) and shortly after the last sign of civilization

turned into a gravel surface. The uphill part of the ride continued for about 20 miles, with a few short flat or downhill sections just to stretch legs. Up on the ridgeline (still uphill), the views of snow capped peaks opened, valleys and mountains on both sides of the ridge and no soul in sight (about 40 miles of this 65 mile ride had no civilization).

Below what I think was Pratt Mountain the gravel road turned onto paved, steep twisty downhill of Alderpoint Rd. for about 5mi to Garberville and Redway. The temperature jumped up about 30 degrees F during the descent. After Redway, I had to merge onto the Freeway 101 for about 4mi before exiting onto the Avenue of the Giants. The final 20 miles were flat, shaded by the giant trees and I tried to push the big ring really hard to meet Marketa at the finish. Of course, due to my time of 5:13 I was about an hour and half late. The May Day concluded with a burrito along the 5 hour drive back home to San Carlos. Overall, much better than a Commie May Day Parade.