The 10th annual BC Bike Race passed through the Sunshine Coast last weekend, with riders making it into Sechelt on Saturday, July 9 – Day 3 of the race – and finishing in Langdale on Sunday. The full race wrapped up on Wednesday night in Whistler.
Day 3 is notoriously the hardest leg of the journey – and the longest at nearly 60 km.
Quinn Moberg made it into Sechelt in first place on Day 3. Moberg – from Squamish – rides for the Rocky Mountain Factory Team.
“[Day 3] is long – there’s a lot of climbing, and the climbing’s not easy,” Moberg said. “Sometimes there can be a lot of climbing and you can just ride up it and it’s fine, but this is hard climbing. It’s hard just to make it up.”
This is Moberg’s third time in the BC Bike Race. Compared to previous years, he said, “the pace is a lot harder. I think this is the hardest edition that I’ve done so far.”
Greg Day – who rides on the same team as Moberg – has returned to the BC Bike Race for his ninth tour.
“Typically this has always been a really tough day because it’s a transfer day,” Day said. “A lot of the other days start and finish in the same area, but this one we transfer from one end of the Coast to the other.”
A fluke rainstorm the night before,which carried over into the next morning, didn’t make the trails any easier.
“They were definitely a little slick,” Day said. “There were a lot of big mystery puddles you’d go into not really sure of how deep they are. You’re just kind of wet from the get go.”
While Day agreed that Day 3 is the hardest part of the journey, he also said he found this year to be the most enjoyable.
“They did some phenomenal upgrades this year,” Day said. “We had a new climb trail and a huge descent at the end, which actually made this day a lot more enjoyable than it has been in the past.”
Andreas Hartmann from Germany joined the BC Bike Race this year for his first time in the seven-day, 300-plus kilometre ride. Hartmann also said he found the Earls Cove to Sechelt portion to be particularly challenging.
“[Day 3] was hard because it was super fast and long – the longest stage,” Hartmann said “It’s a mix of double track riding and some really good single track, but it’s always the riders who make the race hard, and they made it really hard today.”
Moberg crossed the finish line in first place on Day 3, but said he could not have done it alone.
“A victory like that, I mean yeah, I crossed the finish line but it’s a big team effort,”Moberg said. “We’ve got staff here, I’ve got my family and my girlfriend, my personal sponsors. People don’t realize how much of a team effort it is.
“I can’t do it alone, I need the support,” Moberg said. “Whether that’s financial or equipment or working on my bike or moral support. It’s all necessary.”
The BC Bike Race started in Cumberland on July 7 and ended in Whistler on July 13 after making nearly a full circuit of the Georgia Strait – up the inner coast of Vancouver Island and then down the Sunshine Coast from Powell River to Langdale – across to North Vancouver and then up to Whistler via Squamish.
