The early stages of this year's BC Bike Race have been the Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks show.
Sechelt's Sneddon and Wicks from Team Kona won the first four stages in the open two-man team event, building up an eight-minute lead over the Rocky Mountain Factory team of Marty Lazarski and Stefan Widmer. That lead was increased when the Kona riders rolled through the finish line at Sechelt Elementary School after day four on Wednesday.
"We seem to be riding well and haven't had any major problems, other than today. At the end of the stage, Barry was going a little hot into some single-track and basically went for a bit of a flyer and snapped his handlebar. It was pretty amazing he was able to stay upright and didn't kill himself," said Sneddon. "We were able to still finish. It was lucky it happened about three kilometres before the end of the race, so we were just able to milk it in."
Sneddon said the trails were in awesome condition and gave high praise to the course designers for creating a fast and competitive course.
"There are more trails this year than there have ever been in the race before, and that played to our advantage," he said. "Going into today, we were just going to ride conservative, but we ended up pulling ahead even further, so for the remainder, we'll ride hard, and let the other teams do all the work. Someone has to come and get us now."
Sneddon is having a great season. He won the Sunshine Coaster here in May, finished second at the June 19 Test of Metal in Squamish and is currently fourth overall in the national series.
"Things are going well. I have two more qualifications after BC Bike Race for the Canadian World's team, and hopefully I'll get one of those spots," he said.
Media manager Dave Howells said this year's event is going great, and the new course additions and changes have been a hit with all the riders.
"Spectacular is a great word for BC Bike Race 2010," Howells said. "The weather had been fantastic. All the new venues and some of the new course design stuff we've been rolling with have been very well received by the riders."
Howells said it's going to be tough for any team to chase down Sneddon and Wicks.
"Kris is a smart rider, and he's certainly no stranger to this area, that's for sure. I think both he and Barry have probably established themselves as one of the premier teams of two in North America," Howells said. "The only thing that could upset the standings is a breakdown or going off-course.
"When you look at Kris and Barry - total professionals and anything can happen, it is mountain biking - but I think they have a pretty good lock on it right now."
BC Bike Race started on June 26 with a prologue event in North Vancouver. The next day, riders took on stage one of the course in Nanaimo, followed by Cumberland and Powell River, a new addition on Tuesday, June 29.
After spending Wednesday night in Sechelt, the riders continued through Roberts Creek and into Langdale Thursday for the trip across to Horseshoe Bay and busing up to Squamish. Stage six is today (Friday) in Squamish with the race wrapping up Saturday in Whistler.
