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)