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)