Monthly archives: June 2009

Wow! That’s all I can muster up to say at this moment. Day 1 of BC Bike Race did not disappoint. Although distance-wise it was a fairly short day, there was no shortage of challenges and obstacles to overcome. When you’re riding the North Shore, you quickly learn what mountain biking is all about. All I can say is that it’s a good thing that Carl and I put in some extra training at Camp Fortune on the downhill routes! Technical? You bet. Sure, the top teams were able to nail it at break-neck speeds, but us mere mortals in the middle of the pack had to eat a bit of humble pie and get off our bikes and do a little walking. I took pictures (obviously), but will likely be unable to post them till after the race, as connectivity will be spotty. The good news? The race organizers are letting me mooch some connectivity off them to get my maps and posts up, so you’ll at least have those. Final days’ results will have to follow after the fact as well, since they’ll probably have to be sorted through later. They may be posted on the BCBR site itself though, so you might as well check that out. Anyway, read on for the days’ tale, and check out the map as well.

Howdy all, welcome back to the latest news on ActiveSteve. As you can no doubt tell, I arrived safe and sound in Vancouver. My bags made it, my bike made it, and we were pretty much right on time. Good news all around. Temperatures were significantly lower than in Ottawa, but it was a beautiful evening, which bodes well for race conditions. Looks like temps will be mid twenties, but with very low humidity. Thank goodness. I was also met at the airport by Boris and Rachel, to whisk me off to their apartment. Thanks guys! We didn’t stay too long at the apartment before Boris and I decided to head out for a couple night caps at a local bar, the Three Lions Cafe. It was awesome that they were able to put me up, in spite of the fact that they are in the middle of actually moving into the apartment, making quarters a little tight. Read on for the rest of my short tale about the first night in Vancouver, as well as a wrap up of Day Zero, registration day! I’ve also managed to put up some pictures, so have a look at the pictures from my flight to Vancouver as well as shots from throughout Day Zero.

Hello dear followers of ActiveSteve! If you are reading this post the day it goes up, I must be in Vancouver, at Boris’ place with an Internet connection. At this exact moment for me, I’m at 39,000 feet over the skies of Canada, flying to Vancouver. As I sit here, I’m feeling quite a bit of nervous energy. Sitting in my cramped airline seat, I have the knowledge that in less than 40 hours from now, I’ll be at the start line of the longest, hardest, possibly most challenging race of my life! Yup, I’m on the road to the BC Bike Race, where Carl Buchmann and I are Team Diabetes / Activesteve.com, tackling 7 days of the greatest singletrack mountainbike trails in Canada. How awesome is that going to be? Well, I don’t quite know yet, which is why I have this energy. The plane seems to be shrinking around me, and I just can’t wait to get out there in the wide open spaces of our vast wilderness. Read on for a little more of my thoughts and hopes for this race.

Hello friends. Sorry about the lateness of this post. It’s been over a week since the big event, and I only found the time to write it up now. That isn’t to say I haven’t been thinking about all of you. In fact, I posted the pictures and videos a week ago, and even put together a custom map of the ride to show you where some of the pictures were taken. Isn’t that nice of me? I thought so. So before you clicky clicky , why not check out the map, and also look at the folder of pictures and videos on flickr. You see, I’ve been pre -occupied with both work stuff, as well as preparing myself for the upcoming BC Bike race. It’s sneaking up really quickly on me, and I have a few things to sort out before then. Namely, getting my bike re-built in time for the race. At any rate, read on for the rest of the story about the weekend of biking madness.