Kim has made a life long commitment to riding mountain bikes. Racing isn’t much ‘her scene’. However her passion for the sport is taking her to the BC Bike Race, the fun, short version. To be prepared, and to enjoy the scenery and the experience the most she can, she thought it would be in her best interest to hire me.
She’s going to have a great time.
Albeit Kim says she is not much of a racer: she managed a Top 10 finish at BC Bike Race Challenge Course.
And 1st Place American Female!
Good Job!
My regret, no pictures…Here’s Kim’s Re Cap of a week of riding the Pacific Northwest:
“Good afternoon Zoe!
I hope you are doing well on this beautiful Wednesday. I thought I’d fill you in on my little adventure last week. The race was amazing and certainly the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done. Some of the terrain on the single track was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered in my 14 plus years of mountain biking! I know roots and rocks, and consider myself a decent technical rider, but if I hadn’t seen people riding it with my own eyes, I would’ve swore some of the trail was unrideable. As my friend Larry put it after riding in BC for 7 days, “We do not have technical singletrack in North Texas — anywhere!” The amount of wood construction was amazing for cross country trails. Some of the skinnies and bridges were truly a sight to behold. People familiar with riding this type of stuff (Canadians) had a real advantage. There was a significant learning curve not only on the wood, but also on the rainforest riding in general. By the end, I felt a lot more comfortable attempting some of this stuff. I wasn’t too happy with the gravel road/double track we had to climb or descend for that matter. There was more of it than I thought there would be considering this race was billed as the ultimate single track experience. But some of it was necessary to spread us out before we hit the single track. The Challenge distance had proportionately more double track than the Epic distance on several days.
There were superb athletes from 23 different countries that attended the race. I met Jason Sager on one of the ferry crossings and there were former olympians and world class cyclists as well. The athletes were really friendly and getting to meet so many bikers with such diverse biking experiences had to be one of the highlights for me. As far as the event logistics were concerned, I was really impressed with the planning and overall organization of the race. Considering the scope and size of the race, the organizers had all aspects fine tuned and it ran like a well-oiled machine for the most part.
Overall, I was pleased with my performance on the trails. I think the Squamish course had to be one of the best times I ever had on a mountain bike. Campbell River was also a lot of fun. On all the trails, I made a point to take time to admire the views, take pictures, and chat with the volunteer marshalls. I even helped a girl who had to be taken out of the woods on a stretcher (actually, I carried a guy’s bike who helped carry the girl). I came in middle of the pack in my class overall (7th out of 14). I think I was the highest placing woman from the US, but I’m not positive about that). My friend Larry came in 3rd overall in his class. He was awarded a glass trophy from the mayor of Whistler at the banquet. The next morning, we saw the mayor on his mountain bike commuting to work — AWESOME.
Sorry I don’t have any pictures for you, but I couldn’t get anyone to stop and take one of me while I was actually riding. So I only have a couple I took with my mini tripod with me standing by my bike at some cool vistas. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the actual trails. The ones I took were too dark and you really don’t get the true sense of what the terrain was actually like. Anyway, thanks again for all you did to make this adventure a memorable and pleasant one. I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer in NM!
All the best,
Kim”
Here she is enjoying Palo Duro Canyon over MLK weekend 2011:
