The attrition rate has to be exponentially lower. Never mind how much better 5-6" travel bikes pedal today (for folks that ride their trail bikes) and how much better 4-5" travel bikes descend (for folks on a dedicated XC rig), the trails are so, so much easier.
I'm not, for the record, whingeing about them dumbing down the BCBR. The goal is to provide an amazing experience, for a tidy sum of money, to customers from all over the world, with the hopes that they'll refer their friends and also return themselves at some point. As in, the goal is not to instigate mental breakdowns, have attendees quit the sport, and then tell all their friends they were taking up Pickleball because of the race.
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I was on Fromme the year they rode Severed Dick (It might have been the first year of the BCBR? --- old janky Severed Dick, not the cleaned-up version of today), through the Seymour Demonstration Forest, and then up Mountain Hwy and down Pipeline. I was on Pipeline for a bit at the rock roller coaster and there were multiple riders crying as they walked down in their carbon dancing shoes.
Later we were hanging out at the bottom of the Baden Powell (at Mtn Hwy) when a couple rode by on their rigid Surlys. He looked over at my bike and, in an American accent, said something along the lines of "look darling, there's a rider on a rigid bike - maybe this won't be as hard as the other mountain." Then all my friends started laughing. She looked f_*_ing shattered and they still had at least 30 minutes of pedaling before they learned the truth that Severed was a warm-up.
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The last year they did actual trails on the Shore was Forever After and Expresso? Talking to local folks who participated and friends who went to cheer on the sidelines I remember plenty of stories about just how many riders walked vast sections of the descents.
Nov. 9, 2021, 6:07 p.m. - Andrew Major
The attrition rate has to be exponentially lower. Never mind how much better 5-6" travel bikes pedal today (for folks that ride their trail bikes) and how much better 4-5" travel bikes descend (for folks on a dedicated XC rig), the trails are so, so much easier. I'm not, for the record, whingeing about them dumbing down the BCBR. The goal is to provide an amazing experience, for a tidy sum of money, to customers from all over the world, with the hopes that they'll refer their friends and also return themselves at some point. As in, the goal is not to instigate mental breakdowns, have attendees quit the sport, and then tell all their friends they were taking up Pickleball because of the race. - I was on Fromme the year they rode Severed Dick (It might have been the first year of the BCBR? --- old janky Severed Dick, not the cleaned-up version of today), through the Seymour Demonstration Forest, and then up Mountain Hwy and down Pipeline. I was on Pipeline for a bit at the rock roller coaster and there were multiple riders crying as they walked down in their carbon dancing shoes. Later we were hanging out at the bottom of the Baden Powell (at Mtn Hwy) when a couple rode by on their rigid Surlys. He looked over at my bike and, in an American accent, said something along the lines of "look darling, there's a rider on a rigid bike - maybe this won't be as hard as the other mountain." Then all my friends started laughing. She looked f_*_ing shattered and they still had at least 30 minutes of pedaling before they learned the truth that Severed was a warm-up. - The last year they did actual trails on the Shore was Forever After and Expresso? Talking to local folks who participated and friends who went to cheer on the sidelines I remember plenty of stories about just how many riders walked vast sections of the descents.