Photo by Dave Silver

Info compliments of BC BikeRace

Thursday’s BC Bike Race route, the second one on the Sunshine Coast, was much anticipated by both BCBR staff and return riders simply because its notorious Hwy 102 trail brings riders to a slick and swoopy mountain bike nirvana. Not a bad way to wrap up a solid day of mountain biking.

Beneath endless bluebird skies, the almost 370 BCBR participants queued up for the start of their Sunshine Coast – Part II adventure; their fifth consecutive day of mountain biking in south-western BC. During Stage 4 on Wednesday, many riders were cursing Course Designer, Rod Compassion, because of the relentless climbing he threw at them. However, by dinner time, the conversation had turned to how much riders loved the trails.

Pumpkin Patch. Black Tower. White Knuckle Tight. Often, mountain bike trail names can be really good clues as to what’s in store before you commit to dropping in. After 5 days on the trail BCBR riders were catching on.

The passion and the commitment to mountain biking and trail building can’t help but permeate Compassion’s flow of conversation as we drive up to check on the first aid station. His genuine passion for creating one Helena race course comes out when he realizes that the flagging for one corner on this course has been removed.

Finish the update here.

Photo by Dave Silver

Info compliments of BC BikeRace

Ah, Canada Day – the holiday where “you can do anything” for one day. Maybe that’s not the holiday’s real motto, but it is certainly the experience that BC Bike Race organizers would like to create on this day for their participants.

How’s this for the start of the fourth day of epic mountain biking and a celebration of west coast Canada? A 4:30am wake-up call as pre-cursor to watching the remnants of a beautiful sunrise over the Georiga Straight while waiting to board the first BC Ferries crossing of the day. Then chowing on breakfast while admiring the view of the coastal areas off the bow.

A quick road transport to the next ferry terminal, Saltery Bay, leaves racers mingling with other racers as they grow comfortable with the riders in their own “pack” each day. One more scenic sailing down the coastal area ultimately leads to the final transfer destination for the day – Earls Cove ferry terminal – which is a popular and inspirational BC Bike Race start line…

For six BCBR participants whose shuttle driver accidentally missed the early morning ferry by 15 minutes, it might seem that BCBR really can do anything. In missing the ferry, those teams would not make the start line in time; however, their shuttle driver did treat them all to a very Canadian Tim Horton’s breakfast to take the edge off. Meanwhile, Harbour Air, presenting sponsor of BC Bike Race, freed one charter floatplane and flew it to the Comox harbour to pick up the anxious racers and carry them directly to the Earls Cove start line ahead of the rest of the racers.

Once the ferry docked, riders arrived at the quaint landing in Earls Cove where the familiar Bear on Bike start/finish arch stood waiting, along with 360 bikes ready to ride. With racers seeded in the starting chute, the course director, Rod Camposano, shared trail insights and highlights. Those who know Rod knew it would be a relentlessly hilly day.

All eyes would be on Open Men local favourite Kris Sneddon and his partner Barry Wicks as well as the remaining top 3 teams, Jamis/Santa Cruz, DCM and Trek. With the history that these teams have built in just 3 days, they are creating a considerable buzz. However, the real focal point of today’s battle is the fact that Sneddon grew up in this area and even help to build some of the trail network that riders would experience. It was time to find out how much advantage knowing the trails like the back of your hand actually can bring.

Finish the update here.

The 2009 Tour de France begins on July 3 in Monaco and has 21 stages finishing after 2,200 miles in Paris on the Champs Élysées. For those of you who are keeping track France has the most Tour de France wins with 36, Belgium takes second with 18 wins, Spain third with 11 and the United States is fourth with 10. This year’s tour visits the Principality of Monaco, Spain, the Principality of Andorra and Switzerland.

The Tour de France was the brainchild of journalist, Géo Lefèvre, who thought up the Tour as a way to promote the newly launched L’Auto Magazine. L’Auto Magazine was launched as a rival to Le Velo, the first daily sports newspaper in France. At the time of the L’Auto’s launch, The Dreyfus Affair was splitting the country into two divided fractions. Alfred Dreyfus, a french soldier, was found guilty of selling secrets to the Germans in 1895, and the debate over his innocence was taking place in papers across the country. Le Velo was advocating Dreyfus’s innocence, and many regular advertisers for Le Velo, outraged at Le Velo’s support for Dreyfus, started a rival paper L’Auto and the Tour was born as a way to promote the new rag.

There are overall four different types of Jersey’s that are awarded for different accomplishments:
* Yellow Jersey: General Classificaton Leader – which means that although each stage has a winner, the yellow jersey goes to the rider who has the fastest combined times in all of the stages.
* Green Jersey: Points Standings – awarded for sprint points at the end of each stage to the rider who is the leader of the points standings. Points are awarded to the fastest riders in each stage, and points vary depending on the terrain of the stage. More points are awarded for flat road racing stages and less for mountain stages.
* Red-Polka Dotted Jersey: Is called the King of the Mountains, and is awarded to the best climber.
* White Jersey: Young Rider Standings – awarded to the best rider under 25 years of age on January 1st of that year.
In addition to the Jersey’s are two other distinctions made by attire:
* Yellow Cap: Leaders of the Teams – is given to the riders of the team who is leading the team standings.
* Red Number: Fighting Spirit Standings or Combativity Award – is awarded to the rider who displays the most effort and sportsmanship or is considered the most aggressive and “attacking” rider.

Tour de France online coverage
Official Tour de France web page
Versus TV web page – official site for US
Tour de France TV Schedule on Versus
SteepHill.TV – the most complete coverage we know of
Cycling News
Velo News Tour de France Coverage
Cycle Sport Magazine
Bicycling Magazine Tour de France coverage
Bike Radar
Daily Peloton

Team Web sites
AG2R
Agritubel
Astana
BBOX Bouygues Telecom
Caisse D’Epargne
Cervelo Testteam
Cofidis
Team Columbia High Road
Euskaltel-Euskadi
Francaise Des Jeux
Garmin-Slipstream
Team Katusha
Lampre-N.G.C.
Liquigas
Team Milram
Quick Step
RaboBank
Saxo Bank
Silence-Lotto
Skil-Shimano

Twitter pages
Lance Armstrong Twitter page Updates all the time
Chris Horner Twitter page
Levi Leipheimer Twitter page
Johan Bruyneel Twitter page
ESPN Cycling Twitter page
VeloNews Twitter page
Versus TV Twitter page
Craig Hummer Twitter page
Pro Cycling Magazine Twitter page
Garmin Slipstream Twitter page
David Zabriskie Twitter page
Christian Vande Velde Twitter page
Jonathan Vaughters Twitter page Probably most interesting

Random Sites
Phil Liggett Fan Page
Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Tour tracker

Special thanks to LiveStrong and Getty Images for providing all photographs used.

Photo by Dave Silver

Info compliments of BC BikeRace

Before the third stage of BC Bike Race was even underway today, event organizers were dealt a potentially show-stopping challenge this morning on course: sabotage. The course had been completely flagged for the third day and racers were lined up in the start chute ready to ride when the word came in over event radios.

Without hesitation, course director Jeremy Grasby jumped on one of the safety team dirt bikes and blasted onto the course to replace the critical missing flags while riders fidgeted on their bikes in the start chute. Sabotage is not uncommon during races like this; community members opposed to using the land for mountain biking make their point by removing flagging, placing obstacles on the trail and more. Beyond being a huge inconvenience for race organizers, such interference can be downright dangerous for riders. Incredibly, less than 8 minutes later, the flagging was fixed, the start gun fired and racers were off, spinning through the Village of Cumberland streets enroute to the trailhead.

The slight morning delay did not slow down the action on course. This was another lengthy day of almost all singletrack and riders appeared to really enjoy flowing with the trails, many of which were purpose built by local mountain bike enthusiasts for this segment of the BC Bike Race. Local course designers also conduct trail maintenance and preservation in an attempt to keep the trails active and open for riders.

Canadian mountain biking phenom Geoff Kabush joined the starting ranks as a guest rider for the past two days of Vancouver Island riding. For those not in the know, Kabush is tearing up the world cup circuit and was ranked 4th overall in 2008. He’s currently tied with legend Ned Overend with 4 US national XC series wins and with John Tomac for most XC wins ever – 14.

Kabush, who cut his teeth on the local Cumberland area trails, was on a mid-season break in his regular racing schedule when the opportunity to join in the BC Bike Race came along. “It’s pretty fun to come back and just do a fun ride with a bunch of the guys I know,” said Kabush referencing the Day Two ride. “They’ve done a lot of work there – it’s super fun, flowy, buff. There’s also been a ton of development in the trails up higher…it’s pretty easy to see how I got into mountain biking from growing up here.”

Finish the update here.

Manhattan Beach Grand Prix – Rahsaan Bahati Interview from SoCalCycling.com on Vimeo.

HT SoCalCycling.com for the video.

Other sites:
RockRacing.com
BahatiRacing.com

Andy B
outsideallday.com

Mark Sanford – good governor? Who knows. Terrible and pathetic apology – yes. Last week I enjoyed an interesting opinion piece by Dorothy Rabinowitz over at the WSJ about how pathetic our apologies have become. We have a press conference and make a big scene. So today, I own up to my humanity.

Dear Matt Ford and Greg Sellers,
This past weekend I took by friend James up on the idea of racing in the series opener of the Rim Nordic race at Snow Valley. I got to the race, signed up for the sport class and headed for the start.

The starter saw me in the back and ushered me up to the starting line. I was starting in 30 seconds – with two warm bottles of motor tabs. The temp gauge on my specialized race computer read 88 degrees. This was looking like a cooker.

I was now in the second row of the starting line and ready to rock. Off went the buzzer. The course began on a decent fire road and quickly climbed turning into single track. In the spring I bet this place is beautiful. Today it was dry. I fell to last place within 5 minutes. The single speed mashers left me. Soon I was being passed by every remaining Cat 2 racer. My friend James passed me with a – “your doing great”.

By the top of the climb I was in terrible shape. My internal temp was maxing. I could not get my heart rate to slow even after getting off my bike for a few minutes to calm down. I pushed my bike through silt up to the fire road. At the first water stop I grabbed two cups of water and drenched myself. My legs felt empty and were feeling like liabilities in the downhill.

Lap 2 was better but still warm. I climbed in virtual desolation having been passed by everyone. Pathetic. I got to the first water station again and stopped for a good 60 seconds. After emptying 6 cups of water all over my kit – I was off. I pedaled along the fire road and flew down the singletrack back. The temp gauge now read 93 degrees and my feet were sloshing in the water that had filled my shoes. I focused on my line and pedaled to the finish.

I finished 15 minutes behind the second to last finisher. Yep, last place. By a country mile. Or two.

My head was pounding and would not quit until close to 6 PM.

You know what though. It was a blast.

Back to the apology. I am sorry Greg for not using your product to its fullest potential. I showed up to the starting line with borderline hot water in my bottle and proceeded to allow everyone to pass me. And Matt. You have hooked my up with sweet service at Rock N’ Road and helped me secure a sweet specialized epic and I pay you back by finishing last.

I am training and will be back in August to have a better showing.