BC Bike Race - The Pacific Traverse - NE

Canada, July 1-7, 2007

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Race 1 - July 1: Victoria - Cowichan Lake District, 112km

Sooke to Lake Cowichan

By Karl Etzel of Ride 424 in Cowichan Lake District and Mark Campbell

Stage 1 started with a transfer from the Victoria Convention Center to the start line in Sooke, a small town on the coast southwest from Victoria. On a day when Canada celebrated its 140th year of nationhood, nearly 200 mountain bikers from all over North America and beyond commemorated the birth of a new bike race - The Pacific Traverse.

The race began with a five kilometer neutral roll out, which featured a few obligatory crashes in a reasonably large field of frisky racers. Onto the gravel and the day's climbing started, with rollers for the first 20 km until the day's major ascent, a 500 m climb to the first aid station at the 40 km mark.

Most of Stage 1 was fire road, with a 15 km sampler of British Columbia (BC) singletrack thrown in the middle of the stage to tease the racers and give them a taste of what was to come later in the week. Temperatures were perfect for racing, with highs in the upper 60's. The final 35 km of racing gave the the racers a chance to practice their pacelining, with long straight rail grade trail bringing them into Lake Cowichan for the first night out on the race course.

In the men's field there were no surprises, as Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk (Trek-VW) turned in the day's fastest time with 4:22:32. "We hit the final 30 km of rail grade with six of us, but the Costa Rican team dropped back as one of their riders fatigued, so it was down to four," said Eatough.

The two close behind the Trek duo were Rocky Mountain's Andreas Hestler, who helped design the course, and Kevin Calhoun. They finished only five seconds behind Eatough and Schalk. Manuel Prado and Jason First (La Ruta/Sho-Air) came in third, with a gap of around two minutes and fourteen seconds.

The main drama of the day was Hestler's several stops to tighten up his cleat, after he'd lost a bolt early in the race. But both of the front running teams also spent brief moments off course, and afterwards Hestler and Calhoun's scratched legs showed evidence of a short bushwhacking adventure.

"That's why it's important to look at the map," joked Hestler, who helped out with course design and is the B.C. Bike Race spokesman.

Eatough and Schalk breezed through one aid station part-way through the race when others stopped for refreshment, but the two other top three teams worked together to chase them back. The final run to the finish that included sustained time on the arrow-straight, reclaimed railroad track.

At the front the Trek team edged their Canadian rivals at the finish after Calhoun bumped wheels with Schalk, scrubbing most of his speed within 100 meters of the line.

"It was a little tricky because none of us knew exactly where the finish line was until we were right on top of it," said Eatough, who's a six time 24-hour solo world champion. "It's not really going to matter, though. It wasn't much time and there's a long way to go. It's going to be a good battle."

The North Vancouver pairing of Cynthia Young and Michelle Newton (Team Shore Girls Don't Cry) were the first women's duo across the line, stopping the clock in 5:45:45. David Harris of Durango, Colorado, and Lynda Wallenfels of North Vancouver (Team Desert Cyclery-HealthFX) topped the mixed field, finishing in 5:03:24. Team Out There Guys from Bragg Creek led the four-ride category (two riders contest each stage) stopping the clock in 5:57:27

Tomorrow's stage 2 is the longest of the race, with athletes covering 118km and three major climbs. Another day of mostly logging roads is on tap so the tech skills will not be challenged but the legs certainly will.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by BC bike race/www.bcbikerace.com

The entire field strung out on this section of fire road

Results

Open Men (2 man teams)
 
1 Trek Vw Mountain Bike Team (Chris Eatough, Jeff Schalk)                    4.22.32
2 Rocky Mountain Bikes (Andreas Hestler, Kevin Calhoun)                         0.05
3 La Ruta/Sho-Air (Manuel Prado, Jason First)                                   2.14
4 Capitol Subaru Cycling (Evan Plews, Bear Perrin)                             18.08
5 Team Helly Hansen (Justin Mark, Andrew Clarke)                               37.12
6 Bicycling Magazine (Michael Cushionbury, Damon Roberson)                     41.14
7 Chromag-Sram (Julian Hine, Kevin Phelps)                                     43.57
8 Tutti (Graham Tutti, Paul Player)                                            55.36
9 Bike Magazine (Kip Mikler, Mark Sevenoff)                                  1.01.01
10 Bow Cycle (Neall Banner, Paul Martin)                                     1.03.13
11 Cloud City Cyclists (Sterling Mudge, Mike Bordogna)                       1.06.15
12 Sun Summit South-Driver - Melton (Reed Melton, Marc Driver)               1.06.53
13 Sin Twin (Scott Hedlund, Brad Samis)                                      1.08.41
14 Twin Sin (Gary Jackson, James Durand)                                            
15 Team Marty's (Nicholas White, Jesse Epstein)                              1.09.11
16 Miti Batai (Rodrigo Elvira, Guillermo Cuello)                             1.11.32
17 Pedal - Specialized (Barry Lyster, Steven Devantier)                      1.12.50
18 Bearnakedcannondale/Teamdicky (Timmy Dougherty, Rich Dillen)              1.18.20
19 Fat Chance (Alexei Marko, Ross Mccredie)                                  1.24.01
20 The Hustlers (Phil Johnston, Paul Sharman)                                1.24.35
21 Prairie Boys (Dan Peters, Brett Zagozewski)                               1.25.22
22 Fat And Slow (Charles Halliburton, Nicholas Vipond)                       1.28.33
23 Ridin' Dirty (Nigel Halsted, Brian Mccurdy)                               1.33.54
24 Rpm Spinning Plus Gravity (Daffyd Roderick, Mike Peshko)                  1.34.40
25 Los Hombres (Rick Bruce, Cam Robertson)                                   1.40.44
26 Cold One Please (Erik Keniston, Doug Gangi)                               1.52.30
27 Phat'n'dirty (Tim Logie, William John)                                    1.59.23
28 Williams (Terry Williams, Todd Williams)                                  2.12.40
29 Sts (Dan Stern, Doug Clawson)                                             2.20.31
30 Sierra Spokesmen (Chris Mccann, Layne Nadeau)                             2.25.15
31 Cycle Center (Daniel Gordon, Greg Jakubek)                                2.25.41
32 Team P.A.A.W.G. (Husain Esmail, Vince Elenko)                             2.29.07
33 Itscanadianeh (Jeff Cote, Mark Coates)                                    2.35.01
34 Keep The Rubber Side Down (John Nakashima, Andrew Mckean)                 2.48.14
35 Slowmosapiens (Nick Thelen, David Simpson)                                3.00.54
 
Open Women (2 women teams)
 
1 Scott / Trenga / De (Karen Eller, Carolin Rahner)                          5.35.30
2 Shore Girls Don't Cry (Cynthia Young, Michelle Newton)                       10.15
3 The Jenerators (Jennifer Keefer, Jen Sawrenko)                               37.05
4 Team Tunnelvision (Emma Smith, Sarah O'byrne)                                45.01
5 Katfish (Danielle Fisher, Karen Todd)                                        48.54
6 Lucky Golden Star Bicycle (Stephanie Tuck, Megan Kogut)                      54.47
7 Rider's Cycles (Jennifer Garrett, Janna Mackenzie)                         1.12.15
8 Team 10-33 (Beth Crowther, Lanie Forman)                                   1.29.45
9 Sombrio Dakine Bavarian (Andrea Kraft-Costigan, Carmen Turner)             1.44.47
 
Open Mixed (2 person teams)
 
1 Team Desert Cyclery/Healthfx (David Harris, Lynda Wallenfels)              5.03.24
2 Team Bc (Lesley Clements, Matthew Bodkin)                                     3.00
3 Crystal Mountain Hotels (Hillary Harrison, Ryan Watts)                       17.23
4 Team Ride424.Com/X-Fusion (Karl Etzel, Jennifer Ratay)                       31.36
5 San Diego Trek (Greg Norombaba, Lisa Riehl)                                  43.58
6 Vancouver Bike Gallery (Brady Fleguel, Astrid Bonter)                        49.04
7 Special K And Captain A (Robin Kay, Jameel Adam)                           2.09.31
8 Faber (Jochen Faber, Diane Faber)                                          2.11.38
9 Gin (Ming Gin, Christina Cuthbertson)                                      3.14.47
 
Veterans 80 (2 man teams)
 
1 Gerick- Nelson (Randy Richmond, Sandy Mitchell)                            4.47.22
2 Different Bikes One (Andrew Handford, Pat Doyle)                             10.14
3 Spike Shooter (David Overstreet, Mark Thompson)                              15.53
4 West Coast Racing To Team (Rod Dagneau, Mike Charuk)                         31.01
5 Ironhorse/Helly Hansen (Dave Howells, Denis Fontaine)                        38.16
6 Ryders Eyewear Corp (Brent Martin, Greg Hayes)                               38.17
7 Stitch Me; I'm Bleeding (Michael Stiles, Rick Lewis)                         39.26
8 Damn Dirty Apes (Mike Hardenbergh, Tim Crum)                                 39.27
9 Skyline Flyers (Keith Mcivor, Kevin Smith)                                   47.54
10 Sleepmonsters.Ca (Doug Doyle, Darin Nevin)                                  48.08
11 Ready & Wheeling (Greg Stevenson, Jim Clement)                              53.11
12 Up And Down (Michael Wardas, Ken Waring)                                    58.31
13 Team Shuichi-Leon (Shuichi Kanamori, Leon Fetzer)                         1.03.34
14 Midlife Mojo (Dave Mountain, Jim Bennett)                                 1.04.49
15 The Aristocrats (Steven Wallouch, Bruce Kelsch)                           1.07.38
16 Big Ride - Bigger Hair (Chris Mccue, John Ratzke)                         1.15.15
17 Ride To Survive (Paul Nicholas, Henric Meldgard)                          1.21.19
18 Team Harbour Air (Greg Mcdougall, Graeme Fitch)                           1.24.34
19 Winded (Trevor Plestid, Stuart Jones)                                     1.30.35
20 Hachey (Dean Hachey, Mike Davidson)                                       1.31.02
21 Wheely Forkin' Tired (Bruce Gordon, Ken Knight)                           1.31.31
22 Burley M F (Derek Riley, Monti Burtini)                                   1.42.10
23 Team Action Cyclery (Ken Oertle, Jonathan Mcquenn)                        1.49.04
24 Red Team (Keith Winzenried, Scott Hodges)                                 3.44.25
 
Veteran 100 (2 man teams)
 
1 Kootenay-Okanagan Cooperative (Doug Nottebrock, Con Diamond)               5.27.43
2 Geopsyclos (Clive Rubens, Leo Groenewoud)                                  1.44.34
3 Team Canine Carnage (Rick Kaleta, Jean Michaud)                            2.43.22
4 Team Synergy (Gary Stetler, Guy Dutil)                                     3.05.43
 
4 person teams
 
1 Out There Guys (Rob Blanchard, Rob Herbst, Bruce Barker, Darrell Jones)    5.57.27
2 Out There Girls (Tori Fahey, Alana Heise, Lisa Le Poole, Alison Jones)     1.18.55