Sechelt's Kris Sneddon and his Kona teammate Barry Wicks completed a wire-to-wire first-place finish in winning the two-man team event at this year's BC Bike Race.
An approximately 20-km ride through Whistler's bike park and Lost Lake trails brought an end to the 2010 edition, on Saturday afternoon, July 3, after eight days of racing.
Riding solo or in teams, racers tackling the Epic Distance courses covered an average of 60 km per day, and the Challenge riders logged an average of 30 km each day. The four-year-old race attracted 500 riders from 21 countries with its promise of the "ultimate single-track experience."
After their third B.C. Bike Race outing, Sneddon said he thought the courses were the best yet.
"Every year they keep refining it, and I think this year they got Whistler a lot more dialed," Sneddon said.
"It's not bad having a tough climb, and little mix-ups happen every now and again," Sneddon said.
"As far as the trails and how fun it was, last year it was more of a torture test. This year it still had some huge climbs in it that were super hard, but it was fun, and you're in the woods a lot. It felt like you're in the woods on super twisty tight trail."
Sneddon said even though they led wire-to-wire, it was still a tough race.
"We were lucky that we were able to get a lead early on, and then we didn't have to go on the attack, we could just sit back and let other people go up the road and not really worry too much, which was nice," he said.
The 2010 edition was the second win for the Kona team in three years.
"Our game plan was to ride fast," added Wicks. "Kris and I have done this a couple times, so we know each other pretty well. We always just try to ride smart, ride conservative. Those first few days, it's sort of, you don't know, just kind of testing the waters. Once the first couple days were over, we knew we were definitely the strongest team, so then it was just play it smart, not have any bike problems or anything else, just keep together and ride hard every day."
