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)
