Triple Digit Weekend

Not every bike ride is recorded in this blog. For that, the Garmin Connect site is pretty good. This blog is meant to be a place for interesting rides, achievements such as stage races, new places etc. Last weekend was not really remarkable in terms of neither the mileage nor places I rode. But I think that it sort of represented what kinds of rides one can do in the Bay Area: on Friday, I bike commuted to work. My work commute is 18.5 miles each way, my average speed is always the same 14.3mph and I arrive at work within a span of 3-4 minutes ride to ride. I only commute once a week, but those 10mi out of 18.5 are on the Sawyer Camp trail and the natural scenery, wildlife and weather change so much that is never boring.
Then on Saturday my colleague from work and I rode what I call "The Small Coastal Loop", Canada to Woodside, OLH to Skyline, down to San Gregorio on 84, up Tunitas Creek Rd followed by the never boring Kings Mountain Rd descent, and the usual headwind on the last few miles of Canada Rd going north. Again, I rode the exact same route in June, but is was different this time. Contrary to my expectation, it was sunny on the coast, and the climb up Tunitas felt really easy.
Finally, on Sunday, Marketa and I took our 29er hardtails to the Skyline to the Sea trail from Waddel Creek beach into Big Basin Redwoods park. This time, it was foggy as expected, but not windy and the 60F felt almost warm. The trail was a mix of deep dust and muddy sections where the redwoods runoff flowed onto the trail, so we ended up looking like real mountain bikers.

So all in all not very impressive 40+60+10 (rounded up) mile rides adding to 110 miles in three days, but all diverse and fun. Thinking of it, is there any reason why one could not bike 35 miles every single day?

BC Bike Race Days 0-7

Enough has been written about the BC Bike Race in various magazines and blogs. The bottom line is that I finished the seven day stage race in 69. place in Solo Masters Men Category in total time of 34 hrs 17 minutes.

This race was very, very hard for me for several reasons. The first and foremost being quite unprepared for what the "BC singletrack" really is: steep, twisty, loamy, sometimes rocky, but mostly slippery root-infested, but most beautiful trails in the world. There was probably nothing that I could have done before the race to practice skills of riding slick roots other than riding in BC. I had enough power but no style or technique. On Day 1, I rode hard, landed many drops on steep rocky descents and ended up with badly inflamed left forearm tendons. So on Days 2-7, I rode with my left hand immobilized in tape which stabilized my wrist but the control of the bike suffered and I crashed a lot and ended up walking many downhills because I could not take the landings. Honestly, I don't think I would be much faster with a good hand. I thought that by the end of the race, I somewhat got the hang of powering through the roots in the middle chainring, off the saddle and picking the sides of turns while leaning my bike more aggressively to let the side knobs of my Schwalbe Nobby Nics to bite. I ran 30 psi with tubes and these tires are the choice of locals for this terrain so no excuse here. There were skilled riders who used Kenda SB8's and did well.

About a month before the race, I read Dirt Rag's Eric McKeegans article about the 2010 race which said that using a full suspension bike was best for this type of trails (true), but also said "there was nothing I wouldn't ride on a standard XC hardtail".....  there were about 20 out of 500 riders on hardtails and except the really fast guys whom I actually never saw riding since my very stable and solid position at the end of the pack, these guys walked a lot and suffered. I don't doubt Eric's skills but his 2010 time of 29:37 suggests he must have done a good deal of hike-a-bike with his FS 29er. Another misinformation in the above article was that water bottles and a seat pack would be enough to get you from aid station to the next.  In theory yes, but the mandatory gear which could be subject to random check any time took most of space in my Camelbak Hawg. Just thought I would set these couple of things straight.

Overall, this race was an amazing experience in many ways, from beautiful natural scenery, well designed and maintained trails to meeting many interesting people. Yes, Canadians are very friendly people in a "normal" way (as opposed to sometimes fake joviality practiced in the USA) and Canada is a country from which its southern neighbor could learn a lot, not clear to me why they don't and make all efforts possible to ignore Canada's existence altogether.

I managed to record five out of seven race stages in my Garmin, I missed two best stages, Day 4 - the longest day at 65 km due to a drained battery and Day 6 at Squamish (55 km) when I forgot to turn the GPS on in a pre-start excitement. The rest of race stages are here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99815447

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99815389

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99815329

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99815273

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/99815226

While I was really glad the sufferfest was over when I rode through the finish gate at Whistler, I know I will remember the trails, bridges, moss, fern, lakes, mountains and trees (roots included) of British Columbia for ever and likely will be back one day for more mountain biking. Now I guess I have months to plan something similar for next year.

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.