BC Cup Final - Mount Washington

Mount Washington is on The Island, Vancouver Island. Confusing to those who aren't up on the geography of this part of the world. Vancouver is on the West (Pacific) Coast of Canada, on the South Shore of Burrard Inlet - a very long tidal inlet. On the North Shore of Burrard inlet you'll find the mountains of "The North Shore" - aha! Yes, I was confused too. So, where does Vancouver Island come into it? Well, Van Isle is a few miles off the coast - it provides beautiful calm waters along the main coastline as it shelters it from the raging Pacific. On the West (Pacific) side of the island can be found the good (but very cold) surfing - in fact people say during the storms the waves crash right up and through the forests!! That'd be a shock if you were riding your bike there!!!


First part of the journey then is to the ferry terminal an onto a boat. I was first car onto the top car deck so ended up right at the front on the boat looking out onto the ocean. This was the view from the drivers seat.









Its an hour and a half boat ride so I soon got bored pretending to be Captain Ahab looking out from his bridge! Roll on the modern technology of convenience! I stuck the laptop on the passenger seat, folded the seat back flat and sat in the back seat with my feet up watching a movie! The BEST part though was the sound system - I plugged the laptop into the car's sound system (6 speakers plus sub woofer) for an awsome wrap around, rubbling soundtrack!



After a comfortable night in the (Honda) Element I awoke to the sound of rain on the roof :(
Everyone said "it will rain" so I was prepared but still a little grumpy.

I set off to kill some time by exploring. Ten minutes later I was done! The "resort" of Mt Washington is pretty modest: One restaurant/bar. One shop. One bike shop. Ah well, I'm told the track is fun so off I went to check it out on foot - in full rain gear!

The track was actually really good. Quite technical but so well ridden that it was still pretty fast. In fact I found the faster I went, the easier it got :)

There were some vicious sharp rocks up top with no great lines through it so speed was the order of the day - try to skip across them













Near the bottom there were a couple of new sections which were only just done for practice. Pretty soft but still pretty fun.















Another shot of a rocky section - you really can't see how rough it is but believe me - it's rough!


















One great thing about racing in BC is the landscape. With few exceptions, it's always a beautiful view from he top :)

Practice went well for me. By the end of the day I was really starting to fly and feeling quite confident about doing well. I headed off the mountain to stay the night with Fiona and Simon in Cumberland (just down the road). They were great hosts and showed me the sites of Cumberland by bike - kinda funny as Simon still has a broken ankle! 10 minutes later my tour was done and we took a short cut home through the singletrack in the pitch black. Once again, I pulled out the trustly cellphone to light the way!

Race day saw the weather dry out a little more and with it the track. I wasn't coping too well with this as I was enjoying the previous day's wet slippyness. Today I felt like I was riding through peanut butter. Despite this I had a pretty solid run with no major mistakes and did well enough to finish 5th on the day, putting me 4th overall in the BC Cup. Not bad for the second oldest guy in the category! (the oldest guy actually won it) Comparing my time today with the 40+ category that I'm supposed to be in next year, I would have won by 20 seconds! Hmm, perhaps I'll get much slower over the Winter ;-)

This is Fi's local mountain and she proved it by having only a couple practice runs and still making the elite podium. Nice Job :)












Si and Fi (even their names make a good couple!) invited me to stay another day to ride some local trails. It was a long weekend so I was happy to accept :)

I saw this sign on the way to the trails the next day - not sure if they have a "Ware" but it made me feel more at home :) (For those from over here, my home town is called Ware).




Fi took me to ride the "Forbidden Plateau" An old dismantled ski hill that isnt really forbidden. Some great all-mountain (that means riding up and riding down) trails and a beautiful view of the island.




This bit of trail reminded me of back home. Almost flat, windy singletrack through the trees with not a rock in sight!

















It was soon time to go. Thanks to Si and Fi for putting me up for the weekend and Fi for the ride - you rock!

Back on the ferry - all the cruise ships seem to be heading out this afternoon - I think the one behind here is the Vendaam that I went on many years ago. I recommend trying it - especially if you're hungry!

I had a great weekend at Mt Washington and came away with a decent result. Next year I want to get 5-6 secs faster on these 4 min courses so I'll be a contender for the win! I'd better start training!