August has been a busy month with Silverstar, Crankworx and now the BC Cup Finals in Fernie. The team has come a long way since the first race in April, and the final race has come a lot sooner than everybody had expected.

We heard through social media that there may be two different courses in Fernie this year, with the original one that went through the infamous steeps being only for Pros and Jr. Ex. It would be decided on Friday night weather or not everybody would be skipping the steeps, or just the Sport categories.

Saturday came around and a big sign on the top said that the Pros and Jr. Ex would go down the steeps while all other categories would ride the new section. This was disappointing news to those who knew they could ride the steeps but weren’t allowed to. That’s just how racing goes sometimes, so some riders had to learn a new course while others had to navigate the steeps!

Even on Friday afternoon, the course was getting so beat up it was barely recognizable from the morning, and Saturday was even worse. It did sprinkle a bit on Friday night, but that did absolutely nothing to help the course other than to keep a little bit of dust down so following could be a bit easier. Saturday was mostly the same with more lines beginning to develop to go around all the big holes.

Sunday morning came around and riders were all stoked to get on the mountain to get some practice before the last race of the season. With not many racers at the final round, start times were a bit closer to the end of practice than usual, and with the course starting half way down the mountain, some riders didn’t have a lot of time to get their bikes tuned up, but everybody made their start time and was stoked on the fast blown out course!

Photo By Danielle Baker

Photo By Danielle Baker

C4 Results:

Adam Woodhouse 1st (Sr. Men)

Blake Bunting 2nd (Jr. Ex)

Jacob Stefiuk 3rd (Jr. Ex)

Adrian Lee 11th (Jr. Sport)

Levi Harapnuik 15th (Pro Men)

After a weekend break, riders headed out to Silverstar for Round 4 of the BC Cup. Not all of them though. Blake Bunting and Jacob Stefiuk, were in Mont Saint Anne racing their first World Cup!

Silverstar has always been a favorite, but this year, the organizers decided to put riders down a new top half of the track. Everybody was interested to see what the changes would be like. Instead of starting to the left of the chairlift as we got off, the course started on the right side and started with a sprint to a short tree section, then out onto more sprinting and more wide open corners and some steeper tree sections.

As usual, the team gathers for the GoPro review session on Friday night.

There were mixed feelings on the new course but it didn’t matter because everybody had to lay down their fastest times when Sunday rolled around.

As Saturday progressed, the course was getting more and more blown out, as expected with a brand new track. Ruts and lines were beginning to develop but there still wasn’t really a lot of choice on the new section because it wasn’t that technical. Even the lower part of the course didn’t have much line choice, it was all about who could ride it the fastest.

Conditions were perfect on Sunday with cloudy weather and no wind or rain.

Sunday rolled around and conditions were the same as Saturday with super dry and dusty conditions. Riders all warmed up in the parking lot before dropping in for their practice runs. As the day progressed, the course didn’t get beat up too much more and riders were able to put down good runs without worrying about the course changing too much.

C4 Results:

Adam Woodhouse 1st (Sr. Men)

Stephanie Denroche 2st (Jr. Women)

Caleb Harapnuik 4th (Jr. Ex)

Willem Zweirs 12th (Jr. Ex)

Levi Harapnuik 19th (Pro men)

Adrian Lee 7th (Jr. Sport)

From Panorama, riders headed back to Sun Peaks for the Canadian National Champs race. The talk was on the new track that would be more technical than previous years at Sun Peaks. It didn’t disappoint.

This year, the race course started to the left of the chairlift right from the top. Half of it was already established trail and the other half was brand new so it was always changing. As practice went by, the lines started to get established and the conditions were getting dryer and more slippery.

From the course preview which was over 7 minutes, the course looked to be quite long but the riders weren’t sure if that was because the person doing the course preview was just slow or if the course was actually that long. It turns out, it was the longest track on the circuit with the average time being over six minutes.

It wasn’t just six minutes of an average DH track, it was an exceptionally rough track. Not overly technical, but really hard on the hands and feet. Most people didn’t even do full runs until their race run or seeding run to save strength for the race.

Sunday came around and the course went from nice and tacky to slightly dusty and slippery with most of the corners being blown out. Coming from Panorama this was an easy transition as riders wouldn’t know exactly what to expect on their race run.

C4 Results

Adam Woodhouse: 1st (Sr. Men)

Stephanie Denroche 1st (Jr. Ex Women)

Daniel Frosse 2nd (Jr. Sport)

Blake Bunting 5th (Jr. Ex)

Adrian Lee 7th (Jr. Sport)

Jacob Stefiuk 9th (Jr. Ex)

Caleb Harapnuik 12th (Jr. Ex)

Alex Auger 21st (Jr. Ex)

Levi Harapnuik 31st (Pro Men)

With a one weekend break, it was off to Panorama for Round 3 of the BC and Canada Cup, so turnouts were expected to be big. The course had some new sections on it and did not disappoint! Everybody was stoked on the changes, except for that there were still the two uphill sections.

Day 1: Practice/Seeding

Practice started out wet with showers going off and on during the day. The infamous “Dollar Sign” stayed mostly dry throughout the day and so did a lot of the root sections in the thicker trees.

Thanks to a small TV and a GoPro, C4 can all discuss lines and go through the track without getting wet!

Come seeding time it was getting a bit wetter, but the course was still holding up nicely. In the later afternoon and during the night, the rain started to come down harder and even the dirt under the thick trees was getting soaked

Day 2: Race Day

Sunday was dry, but the rain from the previous day was still reeking havoc and there were some big holes starting to form in the rock garden half way down the course. No time to change lines, riders just had to plow through them!

C4 Results:

Adam Woodhouse 1st (Sr. Men)

Daniel Froese 4th (Jr. Sport Men)

Jacob Stefiuk 5th (Jr. Expert)

Joseph Witwicki 6th (U17 Men)

Caleb Harapnuik 9th (Jr. Expert)

Adrian Lee 12th (Jr. Sport Men)

Blake Bunting 18th (Jr. Expert)

Levi Harapnuik 30th (Pro Men)

Riders were only home for three days before making the drive out to Kicking Horse for Round 2 of the BC Cup. Kicking Horse has always been a good course, it’s one of the gnarliest ones on the circuit. Last year, it poured rain on Saturday and Sunday and with temperatures close to 0 degrees at the top, riders weren’t all that keen on getting a lot of practice in. This year was a lot better though.

Nothing but blue skies and smiles today!

Day 1 Practice/Seeding

Due to the mountain being so big, The course starts about 2/3rds down the mountain and you can either ride the fireroad, or a collection of trails to get to it. This could be good or bad, depending on how you thought of it. The ride to the top of the race course could be used to warm up so the first lap of the day could be at a good speed, but mechanicals could happen before riders even got to the course.

The course started out with some rock faces that were out in the open in between tree sections getting longer and steeper as it went. About half way down was where it got a bit less steep, but a lot rougher! Near the bottom were some sprint/pump sections which seem to change every year to try to make it less of a pedal across the mountainside. With it being the longest course on the circuit, riders had to balance the amount of practice they needed with the amount of grip strength required to make it through seeding and race run.

Ducking into the trees into a section where multiple lines were to be seen. But only one or two were race worthy.

Most of the mechanicals this weekend were flat tires. It didn’t matter if you had tubes or were tubeless, punctures still happened. Thankfully it was a relatively cheap race on bike parts for most!

Keeping low on  a short stepdown in the final woods section.

After seeding wrapped up, the riders studied a GoPro run instead of doing a track walk to get clear on lines. Though it is an individual sport, we still are a team, and there were no “secret” lines held back.

Blake taking everybody through a run on the iPad. Thanks for technology for saving our legs!

Day 2: Race Day

Pre-Race check on the bike. 3 heads are better than 1!

The clouds threatened to rain the closer it got to race time, but for most of the riders, they had a dry course!

Sunny skies were in the background for morning practice! But clouds moved in right before race runs started.

Another race done, and all riders accounted for without injury. That’s considered a success at this race considering how long and rough it is!

Adam seems to be on a winning streak, dominating Sr. Men by 6 seconds…. With a crash!!

Blake taking the win, and Jacob coming in 5th!

The Jr. Men don’t get Champagne, they get ginger ale. Even more sticky!

C4 Results: 

Adam Woodhouse 1st (Sr. Men)

Blake Bunting 1st (Jr. Expert Men)

Jacob Stefiuk 5th (Jr. Expert Men)

Adrian Lee 6th (Jr. Sport Men)

Caleb Harapnuik 8th (Jr. Expert Men)

Levi Harapnuik 25th (Pro Men)

Finally, after months of waiting, riding, and training, the first BC Cup is here. Race The Ranch, while not the most technically difficult, is often called one of the hardest of the year because of how short and how physical the course is. With the top times being under two minutes, any mistake, big or small could cost you being off the podium.

This was also a special race because it was Cory’s 20th anniversary of racing BC Cups. 20 years ago, he raced his first BC Cup in this very same place, with the same race organizer still doing his job to this day. Cory decided it would be a good opportunity to race!

Day 1: Practice/Seeding

Usually, this parking lot is dry and dusty. This year, rain kept the dust down and made the course run way faster than years before.

The weather played out well for most of the riders this weekend. The course wasn’t developing the huge dusty holes that it did in the past during practice because the overnight showers kept the dirt holding together nicely.

As a gift to himself, Cory built up a new race bike and used input from the other riders to set it up as best as he could in the short day of practice before the race.

Although it was a super short course, riders had to be careful not to do too many practice runs because of the nature of the course. A few of the riders opted to use trail bike because of the flat sections that required lots of pumping and power to the pedals. With not many lines, there wasn’t much talk about where to go, it was pretty much the same for everybody. Ride as fast and pedal as hard as you can.

Flying high over the triple. In years past, this step up gave some riders trouble because it was hard to make the landing, but with the course in such good condition, riders were hitting it with ease.

The weather played out nicely for practice day with only slight sprinkling in the afternoon, but otherwise really good riding conditions! Not too hot like everybody is used to in Kamloops around this time.

With near perfect dirt condition, the corners were amazing and riders were able to carry much more speed than previous years.

Seeding runs for the Jr. Ex and Pros kicked off in the late afternoon and riders were surprised with their times compared to previous years. All the training in the off season is showing!

Day 2: Practice and Race

Final preparations being made to the bikes before practice starts. It was slightly chilly in the pits, but once on course things started to warm up for the riders.

There were always people stopped to watch this jump on the course to see exactly where the best place was to land to get the most speed for the following pedal/pumping section.

The weather took a turn during the Sr. Men race and it started to rain hard for about half an hour. Riders who came down told stories of extremely slippery conditions and recommendations of different a tire setup. Luckily the rain didn’t last too long and the Jr. Ex and pros came down with the dirt being tacky instead of slippery clay.

Alex Auger took the win in Jr. Sport and Daniel Froese took 3rd!

Cory also came down in the rain, and even with a crash dislocating his finger, he took the win by over 5 seconds! C4 Riders weren’t about to let that go unnoticed…

Soaked in champagne, and smiles all around, it was a good day to race for our coach.

Stephanie Denroche in second, just .37 off the win

Two C4 Riders on the Jr. Ex podium! Blake Bunting in 3rd and Michele Bianchi in 5th.

Jack Almond making a return and taking 5th in Pro Men!

C4 Results: 

Cory Leclerc 1st Masters 40-49 Men 

Alex Auger 1st Jr. Sport Men

Stephanie Denroche 2nd Jr. Women

Blake Bunting 3rd Jr. Expert Men

Daniel Froese 3rd Jr Sport men

Adam Woodhouse 4th Sr. Men

Michele Bianchi 5th Jr. Expert Men

Jack Almond 5th Pro Men

Levi Harapnuik 6th Pro Men

Caleb Harapnuik 9th Jr. Expert Men

Jacob Stefiuk 10th Jr. Expert Men

Adrian Lee 10th Jr. Sport Men

Willam Zwiers 14th Jr. Expert Men

Joe Witwicki 20th U17 Sport Men

The next ra

Two weeks seemed to go by pretty quickly! Already we’re back in Port Angeles. This being the biggest race of the season, we wanted to make sure to get there early so we could save our spot. After setting up the tent, we went up to do a track walk. It was pretty busy and we weren’t able to shuttle so that meant walking up then down the course, which wasn’t too bad. There weren’t really that many lines to chose from, you just had to ride fast. There were a few little awkward gaps though, so I wanted to get those out of the way as early as I could on Friday practice so I could focus on speed for the rest of Friday then Saturday.

Friday practice went well, I did all the gaps earlier on in the day so I could focus on the rest of the track. There were a couple gaps that deteriorated so I wasn’t able to hit them, but that didn’t really bother me, I knew I could hit them with the right speed.

At the end of the day, I was having a lot of problems with my rear mech. Up until recently, I hadn’t had any of the problems that everybody else had with the B-Tension tab breaking, but I found that I had to tighten the allen key that went into the hanger up every run. This eventually lead to the hanger threads being ripped out. Good thing we had an extra hanger, and we ended up having to modify an 11 Speed derailleur for it to work.

Being a pro GRT, only the top 60 would qualify. I was feeling pretty confident that I could, but then it started raining. After that, I was a bit worried about crashing, but then I remembered that a lot of the guys I was racing against were from California and they had no idea what to do when things got slippery. That gave me more confidence knowing that I had been riding in the rain all winter. Qualifying went well, and I ended up in 46th, well inside the top 60. I had a very cautious run because I knew if I crashed, I would be out.

The rain did not continue so I thought the course would be pretty perfect with only the roots being a little slippery. I did two practice runs in the morning and was pretty excited about finals. Last year there were huge crowds in a certain section and I was hoping that they’d be there so I could get cheered on. They were there alright, and it was a pretty cool experience! My race run was solid and I pulled back quite a lot of time from my qualifying run but still ended up 46th in the end.

It was a good weekend and I learned a lot. I am getting a lot more confident in my race runs so I just need to up my overall speed, which I think is the easy part!

Wow, already its the first race of the season! It’s time to test the fitness and all the hard work in the gym, which flew by so quickly.

Port Angeles has always been a favorite. The people, the hill, the organizers, everything creates an awesome race environment. This year was no different.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon/evening after getting our adventure pass to be able to park on the hill and set up our trailer and tent then did a track walk. The track was a mix between the Cat 2 course last year and the Pro/Cat 1 course from the Pro GRT last year plus some new sections. It didn’t look like it was going to be a very hard race because there weren’t any real technical sections, but I still thought it was going to be fun.

Friday practice was good and the track was holding together nicely with it only being a little bit slippery. I was feeling smooth on the new bike and the lines came pretty easily. It was super humid on Friday and even though it wasn’t hot at all, we were all sweating like crazy inside the Uhaul trucks on the way back up the hill.

Saturday practice went the same, but the track was getting a little more beat up. I knew I had seeding in the evening, so I was trying to figure out a strategy for that. About 5 minutes before my seeding run it started raining pretty heavily. I knew that the first corner into the first woods would be slippery, but other than that I thought it would be fine. I apparently forgot about the last berm that was slippery and ended up sliding out right before the finish line. It happened so fast I didn’t even know what was happening.

It rained a little bit overnight but I knew the course would still be really good. I got in 3 practice runs in the morning and ended up running up to the shuttle to make my race run, but I was still feeling well nutritionally so I wasn’t worried about taking that one extra practice lap. My run went pretty smoothly with only a few mistakes. I ended up 10 seconds back from first.

I’m happy to put together a good race run, I’ve struggled with that in the past, but I’m happy I’m making improvements on race runs. I know I’m fast in practice but I’ve always seemed to be on the brakes and make mistakes in my race run. I hope next race will be even better!