John Henry / West Coast Racing Super-D

If racing improves the breed, more racing should be better, right?  This is the logic that drives West Coast Racing to put on the Vanier Park Cyclocross in the fall, the Cardiac Classic on Burnaby Mountain in the summer, and possibly the least known of our trifecta of racing glory, the Belcarra Super-D in the spring.  West Coast Racing is a small, grass-roots cycling club with broad interests.  We  ride and compete in road, mountain and downhill events, and our members are as enthusiastic about casual rips around the local trails as they are about training for their selected events throughout the year.

Do you want to get into mountain bike racing, but only have 20 minutes to spare this weekend?  Then the West Coast Racing Super-D might be the discipline you have been waiting for!  No, I’m not entirely serious, nor am I entirely joking: a typical Super-D course will take the competitors around 15 to 20 minutes to complete, however, that is not to say that the race is an easy one:

Here’s the recipe:
Start with two-and-a-half kilometres of premium twisting West Coast single-track (preferably dry);  add a generous helping of downhill and garnish with brief but intense climbs, with a dash of flat ground in between.  Now shake well, and serve to a few dozen eager racers on a sunny weekend in April to kick-start the race season and give us all a taste of competition

It all sounds simple: put some cycling BC course tape on a stretch of single-track in Belcarra that most people could ride, and make sure it’s mostly downhill.  But, when you’re trying to go as fast as possible, and there is another racer a minute behind you snapping at your heels, suddenly that stretch of intermediate single-track becomes surprisingly difficult to navigate, due in no small part to the fact that your heart is pounding harder than Charlie Sheen’s was after bangin’ that seven gram rock.

Anaerobic threshold aside, this is a race about skill and speed in equal doses, with no clear advantage given to a specific bike or riding style.  In past years, the competition between dedicated cross-country bikes and down-hill machines has been stunningly close: in 2009 less than a second separated Dan Skogland (Cove Bikes), aboard a full on gravity-oriented dually, and Sebastien Sleep (Rocky Mountain/Different Bikes), riding an aluminum hardtail, by less than a second, proving that skill and fluid riding really are the biggest advantages within this milieu.

So there it is: a race that favours neither the lycra-clad, nor the armoured, and to which you can bring your vintage hard-tail or your North Shore gravity machine.  Choose your weapon, bring fresh legs and strong lungs, and giv’r on April 10th for the West Coast Racing Super-D.

For registration, and all the details on the course, including maps, videos and elevation graphs, check out the West Coast Racing web page at http://www.westcoastracing.ca under ‘Race Events’ -> ‘2011 Super-D’.

West Coast Racing is a dedicated group of cyclists from all disciplines who, ride, race and train in a supportive environment. Our indoor and outdoor training programs have attracted cyclists of all abilities. Our Power Training program is running for its 13th year. Check out our web site for further details of all our clubs activities.

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Here’s a great excuse to get outdoors on the weekend. How can you say no after that Charlie Sheen plug? See what others are saying here…