Whistler Report #4

It’s Wednesday morning and the sound of rain beating down on the metal roof has intensified, again. Seems like its been raining for weeks, and I guess really, it has been! Rain is always one of those tough realities of life on the west coast. In early May there was talk of record hot temps, the forest already felt like mid summer where the snow had melted, and the bikepark was dusty and dry.

   I hope I can ride like Eric Crowe when I’m on the other side of 5-0, 2^nd in 50+ for this Whistler legend.

Tacky has definitely been replaced by slimy in the past week, but maybe the sun will finally peek out if the forecast holds true, which is hasn’t really lately. One thing about rain in Whistler though is that while the bike park turns to muddy slime, the valley trails tend to just get a bit wet. Yesterday afternoon a group of us rode out of Alpine Meadows up the mid Flank trail up to the classic Billy Epic. We left as the day’s rain showers were finally letting up and climbed our way up and up and up. There was only a couple of patches of snow on the last steep bit before Binty’s High Trail, and I must say, Billy Epic was in primo condition. Its one of those good default wet weather trails as when it dries out it can be a loose sketchy surfing ride, and when its wet it gets a bit grippy. There was no shortage of smooth off-camber roots to keep you honest and on your game though! We finished the descent off by riding back to Alpine via Bob’s Rebob, Get Over It, and Mel’s Dilemma. All in all a great pedal.

  Eventual Nimby Fifty winner Colin Kerr (814) grimaces while chasing down Neal Kindree on the first descent down Radio Tower. Neal would finish 3^rd on the day.

This past weekend was chock full of events in the corridor with both the Nimby Fifty and the Fluidride Cup taking place. The inaugural Nimby Fifty race went off on Saturday morning under rainy skies and cool temps. The weather didn’t put much of a damper on people’s spirits however and lots of smiling faces took to the challenging course. Overall winner Colin Kerr of Bowen Island destroyed the course in a ridiculous time of 2h14m, with Carter Hovey in second and Neal Kindree of Squamish sliding into third after a couple of years battling knee problems. Catherine Pendrel, the current Women’s World Cup leader, used her worldly skillset to win the Women’s field by 22 minutes over Wendy Simms, while Megan Rose took third. Check out all of the category results on the Nimby Fifty site. A huge thanks to the fine gentlemen who organized this event, and all the sponsors and volunteers who helped make this event a huge success. A lot of racers were riding Pemby for the first time, and I heard lots of good things, Hopefully this becomes a fixture in the early season race scene.

  Women’s winner Catherine Pendrel showed all why she’s the current World Cup leader with a time that put her 14^th overall.

  Whistler’s Matt Bodkin cruises through the forest on Let it Go, finally on the way down after climbing Big Nimby’s 101 switchbacks.

On Sunday the Whistler Bikepark hosted the Fluidride Cup racers in what was an action packed event. Two separate courses for different categories is definitely something we aren’t generally used to around here, but from what I could tell, everything ran pretty smoothly. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to check out the Cat 2/3 race as I was shooting pictures on the Pro/Cat1 course, but reports have it being a fun one. The Pro/Cat1 racers were left dealing with a very wet and muddy Schleyer/Rock City/Lower Cdn Open course that looked super greasy! I rode lower Schleyer as practice was ending to change spots and was pretty glad I wasn’t racing under those conditions. With 4 Categories and Women and Juniors there are a lot of results, so I’ll recommend you check the full results whilst I cover the Pro/Junior results.

   Jeff Hunter won my unofficial “raddest line of the race” contest, straight hucking into the upper chute on Detroit Rock City, plus his shirt read “PARTY!”!!

The Junior Experts put on quite the show, but it was winner Nick Geddes that threw down the gauntlet posting a winning time that was 2^nd fastest overall on the day. Tyler Allison was second for the Juniors, and Chayse Marshall made the trek from Kamloops and took the final podium spot. As a long time supporter of racing, I must say I’m pretty stoked to see the level of riding the juniors are displaying these days, and especially the BC juniors. We have a dedicated group of coaches (Cory Leclerc/C4, Chad Hendren/Cycling BC) and the effort is starting to pay dividends. These kids are the future of Canadian racing and I think they are all going to do us very proud!

  Nick Geddes on his way to the winning the Juniors, and posting the 2^nd fastest time of the day.

A shout out to my buddy Max Horner who took a terrifying crash in the Detroit Rock City rock chute. A hip slam into a tree at high speed had us all fearing the worst, but Max is a champ and started cracking jokes with a smile on his face. Heck, he even ended up rolling down the hill on his bike after it all! I’m happy to report though that there were no broken bones and Max should be back terrifying his mother within a couple of weeks! Keep the rubber side down next time, dude!

  Lindsay Trimble took first place in the Cat 1 Women’s category.

Seven Pro Women also challenged this tough course, with World Cup Veterans Danice Uyesugi and Katrina Strand taking first and second respectively, with Seana Wright rounding out the top three. It was good to see some really smooth and calculated riding from the ladies. It’s always nice to see more than a couple of women in the field, and hopefully we’ll continue to see more and more women taking the plunge and getting involved in racing. This is certainly a big change over the past few years, and its been great to see 20+ girls some night at some of the Phat Wednesdays. Here’s hoping that it’s a trend that continues.

  Danice Uyesugi drops into the Detroit Rock City chute on her way to winning the Pro Women’s category.

After laying down the fastest time in qualifying on Saturday, Kenny Smith made it known that anything less than a win here was going to be a disappointment, and frankly, most bets were on him too make it happen on Sunday. Except for one small problem, Tyler Gorz had other plans and laid down a smoking fast 3:03.94s, edging Kenny out by about 1.5 seconds. Luciano Worl took third almost four seconds down on Smith. I think its safe to say Kenny will be stewing on this and thinking about unleashing a fury during Crankworx Canadian Open. At least I hope so!

   Tyler Gorz put down the day’s fastest time to take the Pro Men’s win.

All said and done it appears that the first Fluidride event here in Whistler was a success. While there were certainly a fair number of local pros missing due to the US Open, lots of locals came out to support this new to Whistler event and I guess we’ll see if the future holds more.

  Bryden Rigets in practice on Schleyer

Well, I think that covers this past weekends events, with the North Shore Bike Fest taking place this weekend things seem to be pretty quiet in the vicinity. There is a WORCA trail day this weekend, worca.com for all your relevant info. Also to note, as of Wednesday morning there are still apparently 5 spots open for the sure to be epic 4 Queens stage race. Its going to be painful, and amazing, sign up now! Its been wet, take a few seconds to kick out some puddle blockages and reroute water to flow off trail instead of down it, every little bit helps! Until next time, happy trails.

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Think the sun will return this weekend?  Do you like the Bike Park in the rain?  Play weather man here…