Course profile of Stage 1The start of the 1st stage of the BC Bike Race today was incredible. I have never been part of such a big biking event. The starting chute was filling up wildly almost an hour before the gun went off. I rode my bike to the start as I live about a half hour away and when I arrived saw the crowds converging on the Ice Rink at the foot of Berkley on Mt. Seymour Parkway.
Mark and Noel all happy at the start lineAt 10am when all 400 racers were at anxiety level code red, they pressed go, and we ripped through the starting gate. The start took us on a 180 degree turn up Berkley, and uphill I might add, for 5 minutes. The pace was like cyclocross; eye bleeding. I was in about 150th place at the start and had to work to get closer to the front.
The bottleneck was pretty obvious at the connector to the trail linking to Blair Range. From there we headed past the golf course to Bridal Path and down Empress Bypass to Old Buck. The climb up Old Buck was fast and furious. I attacked and tried to pass as many people as I could as daggers seared into my quads on every pedal stroke. The goal was to get as fast as possible to Severed so I could relax on the descent. When I got there, Wade Simmons was high fiving everyone so I couldn't say no.
Michelle and Oliver
Chris Brown ripping off the line at the start of Stage 1My only comment after today's first race is, six more long days. This was the shortest of all, enjoy it!
-Kimbo
I picked this location as our jump off point because there is some really spectacular scenery in the local area and it is just a short ride to Sonthofen. Yesterday we tooled around Fussen and checked out the Neuschwanstein castle.
Our intention was that after lunch we would spin our way to Sonthofen. As fate played with us, it started to pour as we toured the castle and despite waiting through lunch for the rain to stop, it did not let up. Plan B quickly became “Let’s drive to Sonthofen and maybe get a ride in there.” The drive was spectacular and by pure chance (we were following the GPS directions) we drove right down the first climb that we will attempt in the race. Everybody’s eyes tuned in and we surveyed the first of many climbs we will see in the week ahead. Much bravado filled the van about how it did not seem particularly intimidating. I guess time will tell!
Everyone hunkered down under the awning and we all got to know each other a bit better.
My partner is Dave MacLennan who is a colleague from work. This is his first road race also and he is a little leery as to what the week ahead will bring. I think that his biggest worry is not the length or breadth of the race (he has cycled across Canada) but the tight quarters that a peloton will bring and the possibility of “road crashes”. It is my opinion that in a lot of crashes most of the variables are out of your control. Hopefully we will be in the right place at the right time, and not the opposite.
While my partner and I were racing the TransRockies last year we talked to several of the original organizers of the mountain bike Bike-TransAlp from Europe. We had heard about the road version of this classic race the year before, and knew that there was a good possibility that they could assist us in getting an entry. We had had such a good time racing the mountain bike version as a group of four with supporting driver that we thought why not expand the idea and bring over a larger group. In November our plans came true when we secured 10 entries. Since then we have been training hard, while looking forward to a wicked week of riding.
Stelvio is an intimidating beast. The approach to the pass displays the entire 24.5 km., 1850 m climb including its 49 switchbacks in its entirety. Can we say “mess with your mind?” This winter I found this website that describes the difficulty of a climb in numeric terms. The formula is (H/D*100)*4 + H2/D + D/1000). My local mountain Cypress comes out with a difficulty of 76, Stelvio has a difficulty of 194! Ouch!!!!!
Uli Stanciu says “It is not only the master route of this race, it's also the toughest stage of all Jeantex-TOUR-Transalps ever: almost 181 kilometers and a difference in altitude of 3,770 meters - that will command respect even from the best.” .
Conditions could not have been better for racing. The last few weeks have been very dry which hardened the course up. Rain the day before the race knocked the dust down and provided a very tacky surface ideal for racing. 
A new course record was set by Max Plaxton who literally blew the field away. By the time he exited the Alice Lake loop he already had a 2 minute lead on the other elite riders and he extended from there to the finish winning by almost 5 minutes in 2:30:15
Steed riders ripped the field. Notable results in the top 100 included Matt Green finishing in 6th, Andy Traslin in 12, Justin Mark in 38th, and Mike Traslin in 71st. The better half of the Steed team was well represented by Melanie Vaughan finishing 4th in Female Elite (116th), Carey Sather 3rd in Womens 40-49 (431st) and Calindy Ramsden 1st in Womens under 20 (476th). Full results at 
Our hotel was on the main square of Cusco and the walls of a few of the rooms dated from the Inca empire circa 1400. The quality is quite amazing; there is often less than a millimeter between adjacent blocks. The engineering and quality of the work is such that local earthquakes regularly send walls from the Spanish conquest crashing to the ground while the Inca ones remain upright and 100% intact.
Our first ride started with a climb of about 300 m starting at about 14000 ft. Altitude has a funny way of making sure that any testosterone is checked at the door. Pretty much everyone found their own rhythm and spun up the climb, arriving at the top when their personal fitness level allowed it. Once at the top we were treated to a day of riding on a portion of the Inca trail. 
We found portions of the trail very flowy, as we cruised by small settlements and farms. 
Other sections were very technical with very steep rocky steps and significant exposure off the side of the trail. 
Two sections stand out best in my mind; the first was a technical descent through a narrow creek gorge with bridges made of weaved 1 to to 2 inch tree trunks crossing from one side to the other. The other section occurred a little later in the day as we exited the gorge and wove our way around the side of the mountain that had made up the left side of the trail. One second we were riding along in a fairly enclosed place, and the next we exploded out in to the open with the view off the right side of the trail showing a small city about 2000 ft straight down below us.
Most of the farming was done on small terraces leveled off the side of the mountains. Surprisingly, when you think that we were riding at altitudes up to 15200 ft., one would imagine our surroundings would include massive peaks covered in snow. Perhaps because we were only slightly south of the equator there was only small amounts of snow visible and only on the occasional peak, most of which we were told had elevations in excess of 20,000 ft. Our rides in the high Andes very definitely gave you that feeling of isolation; we were riding trails that very rarely see people other that local inhabitants, let alone mountain bikers. Jayo our guide arranged for us to have lunch one day with a local farming family. Our meal consisted of locally grown corn (the kernels are three times the size that we see here in Canada) and potatoes (potatoes were first discovered in Peru and then taken back to Europe) washed down with coca leaf tea. Afterwards we were treated to a display of locally made handicrafts by the village women. 
On the last day we finished by riding right into Cusco. The view as we descended down into the city was spectacular, and as we made our way through the city we descended many sets of stairs and would our way through a maze of side streets and alley. 
Eventually we finished right in front of our hotel in the main square of Cusco…high fives all round for a wicked Peruvian adventure.
