Bear Mountain BC Cup XC

[StephenU]

Hey!

I lined up for the Bear Mtn. BC Cup Xc race in Saturday.  Jonas Sandstrom, from Rossland, who we raced with at Race the Ridge and Mt Hood also raced in the Master/Expert 30-39 category even though he is over 40!! (he sweet talked the Cycling BC girl at the registration table!)  Peter raced in the 20-29 group so we did not get a chance to lock horns.  I am sure Peter will have his race details posted soon.  (It sounded interesting when I chatted with him at the end)

We had the opportunity to pre-ride the course Friday night, so it helped us pick lines on the descent.  (This is a must do for any Mountain bike race!!)

I have never raced a BC cup style race so I was not sure what to expect, other than I might have to ride as hard as I can the whole race!  Well, yup, it is just that, pinned from start to finish!  We raced 3 laps.  Each lap featured 600 meters of climbing and a super technical rolling descent with some steep rocky, slippery, rooty terrain.  Jonas and I knew our technical skills may not measure up to the best in this race so we hammered up the 15 mins fire road climb each lap.  Heart rate right around 185 the whole climb.  As is turned out, we could climb full gas at the same speed and our technical skills closely matched as well so it was just natural that we raced close together.  Neither was waiting for the other.  (both in Balance Point gear as well!)  We were in 2nd and 3rd place as there was an ex-pro rider in our group who was a couple minutes ahead.  We never did see him.  Near the bottom of lap 1, we were caught by a Local Ride racer and he passed on some technical section.  It was obvious he was a better bike handler!  Once we got on the climb, we caught and passed him and tried to hang on.  Well we had to pass him again on the last lap on the climb but he caught us again on the downhill!  Oh well!  Nothing you can do to hide a lack of skill on slippery roots and rocks!!

Jonas and I decided to not sprint it out for 3rd so we rolled across the finish line holding hands!  Yes, this is true...  Spectators and officials laughed as we were awarded with the same time.
Great race and and an extreme test of climbing and bike handling prowess.  I can't want for the next BC cup style hammerfest!

No trouble with fueling for me in shorter events, as I depend on 300 calories per hour of Infinite Ironman Formula.  They are paying me to say this!  
Resp. rate was under control riding a lower mountain bike cadence.  My previous road hill climb race my breathing was crazily out of control so this was on my mind today as I powered up the fire road.  I was concentrating hard to keep it under control.
Average HR for the 2 hour effort was 170.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/39259430

Thanks to Peter W's girlfriend Halyna for feedzone support as well!

Thanks for reading,

Stephen

[GinnySellars]

Wicked performance you two!!! I suppose I'm totally biased, but I love that you CRUSHED on the uphill, and only got beat by technical skills.
You must be doing a good job resting up mid-week Stephen, because you are getting on the start line a whole lot, and still turning out great performances. Keep close tabs on your recovery so you can keep it going through the season.

[Andrew]

Totally impressive from both of you. Looks like we need some time in the Silverstar Park to work on the skills. Seems that is the only thing holding you back at the moment. I talked with the manage, and he is discussing sponsorship options with his GM this week. Lets plan some BPR training sessions up there, and get some skills ready for late season racing.

[StephenU]

The bike handling skills are coming along!  Bear mtn was supposedly one of the most technical tracks on the calendar. I rode it clean, just uber fast like the locals can.  Oh, as far as resting, yes, it will be another week of resting at the crits!!  Who's coming??

[Matt]

I'd love to be at the crit....but I don't recover like Super Quail!  I'll be giving the Kelowna TT a try on Tuesday instead.

Looking forward to some riding at SliverStar with the BPR Team!
Cheers
M

[PeterW]

Sorry for the delay in my Race report guys! Time is something I'm very short of!

To be honest, I didn't feel good during just about the whole race.
On the climbs, I kept telling my legs to GO, but they said NO! I had trouble getting my heart rate above BP, when usually I can race comfortably above it.

I absolutely loved the super technical decent! It was the most challenging singletrack I've raced, and it definitely challenged me more than I thought it should. I had trouble getting into a solid groove. I managed 4 good crashes in the race, 2 were in the same spot! 1 was a slow motion sideways fall down a steep creek gully! Man, I wish I could have ridden behind myself to watch!

I followed the exact nutrition I have used in the past races which has worked good, so I'm not too sure what to contribute my powerless feelings to. Pre-riding would have helped my descents FOR SURE!

I am super stoked that I received 6 points towards my category upgrade. In the end (to my surprise) I ended up winning the senior men category... with 10 minutes of leeway!
I was also glad to have some fellow BPR racers on the BC cup scene! Way to go Steve and Jonas!

[Andrew]

4 crashes and a 10 minute buffer for the win??!!! I think you are in the wrong category.

To begin to answer the question about the heavy legs, low HR question, we would nee to look at what you were doing in the days leading up to the event. Any system that shows limitation can lead to a reduction in recruitment of peripheral muscles, which could lead to a feeling of "weakness". So, this may have been cardiac, respiratory or neuro, and we may not ever know the answer until we can see a similar result during testing.

For your next important event, be sure to be well-rested, and rely on the fact that your training has prepared you adequately. Then bring home as much data as you can form the race, so we can see where to make adjustments in training for the rest of the season.

Fantastic result given your "feelings" and not having seen the course in advance. What's next?

[IanC]

I raced the Bear Mtn BC Cup XC this last weekend when all the others were at Test of Metal.  This made for a smaller race, the total number of racers in all categories was probably about 30.  It was kind of like the feelgood races in elementary school where everybody gets a medal for participating!

It was a bit of a gong show leadup to the race.  I got into Chilliwack on Friday night fairly late and stayed with some friends.  Saturday morning, I left for Mission in plenty of time with only the directions from the race website which turned out to be fairly inadequate!  I ended up driving around deepest darkest Mission until I spied a truck with DH bikes on the back and followed them without any idea if they were going to the DH practice that day at the same location.  We were getting deeper and darker and I was resigned / looking forward to drinking coffee in Vancouver for the day as it was pouring rain, when lo and behold, we turned a corner and all of a sudden there was the race!  With about 20 minutes to race time, it was a quick sneak in front of a lineup of DH'rs to register and put the shoes on and straight to the start line which was about 1.5km up a poorly marked trail.  Almost got lost again!

Finally...The race! After getting a quick lowdown from the lone pro at the race, the start was straight up a fairly steep dirt road for about 10 minutes and then into 20 minutes of technical cross country.  Did I mention it was pouring rain?!  It was a rooty and rocky course and very muddy.  I did a fair amount of crashing and a fair amount of cyclocross style running as the course got deeper and gooier.  Pre riding would have helped, but it was a four lap race, so after the first lap, it didn't make that much of a difference.

Aside from the multiple crashes and general lack of technical skills, I felt pretty good about the race.  I felt pretty strong on the uphills and was able to make time on people that were normally always ahead of me.  During the 2 hour race, my nutrition was about 2.5 bottles of 1 scoop each of e-fly and eload per bottle.  I also had one gel halfway throught the race.

My laps were:
lap1: 29:48 avg HR: 161
lap2: 28:05 avg HR: 163
lap3: 31:59 avg HR: 156
lap4: 31:58 avg HR: 156

Total time of 2:01 and an average HR of 159.  Just above my balance point.  With so much downhill, I am surprised that it is even that high.

I ended up 2nd in Master30-39 and ended up being the muddiest I have ever been after a bike race.  Many thanks to Emma, for braving the cold rain and standing in the feed zone for a couple hours.

[Andrew]

Epic event to complete in rain soaked conditions. Solid showing given the Pre race challenges. Boding well for good results at BCBR!!! nice work Ian!

[GinnySellars]

Great effort Ian! 2nd place. Wicked.