By: Cay Smith

Day 5 of the Trans BC enduro stage race started with a very scenic drive over Rogers Pass. I’ve only driven it in the winter so it was a treat to see it in the summer. Just as stunning. I know I’m here for a bike race but it was fun to scope ski lines and start thinking about a winter trip to this beautiful area. Once in Revelstoke, we unloaded bikes and rode up to the first stage.

The first two stages were low elevation forest trails with plenty of loose switchbacks, compressions and root masses. All of these constantly tried to pull your front wheel in every direction. This type of trail is not my forte so I struggled to hold speed through the corners. It was tough to get my mojo flowing thinking I was going slower than everyone else.

The next three stages were quite different from the first two. These were old-school DH trails with steep rolls and chutes, plenty of dust and ruts and tricky root and rock drops that kept me on my comfort limit. This week has been great for me to increase my confidence in the ability of the modern bikes to get over just about anything the trail throws out. That was the positive I took out of today. For people who didn’t need to learn that, the trails were fun but pretty blown out and definitely hard on brakes and hands.

By the time we were climbing to the top of the last stage, I had caught up to the overall leaders of the week. It was amazing to watch them drop in carrying so much more speed than I do.

One more day of racing in Revelstoke tomorrow will finish the week. But we’re working on wrangling a heli to the top of Mt. Cartier on Sunday for a 7000’ descent before driving home to JH.