BCBR

8 days, 450 racers, 400 km of trails, 8 different towns, 4 ferries = 1 hell of a road trip!

I've heard big things about the BC Bike Race (BCBR). To get to do it as part of the Kona Factory team was unreal. Right now I feel like hell. WRECKED. Body and mind are overloaded and in the same state as a world war two battle field. All logical thoughts point to curling up in a cave for a few days, but before that occurs hears a little rundown from the week of ripping some of BC's best trails!

Day 0, Prologue- 2.1km of north shore singletrack. passed 7 riders including 1 guy (Chris Holm) on a unicycle. wasn't sure if it was a circus or a bike race. finished 2nd behind Chris Sheppard.

Day1, Nanaimo- attacked at the gun. road away from the field, got lost, got back on track, got caught, road with 12 man lead group for 1.5hrs, blew up, suffered hard, downed an energy drink which was suppose to give me wings but instead gave me an upset stomach, ripped the dh to salvage a hard day. 6th

Day 2, Cumberland- leisure pace to start day, hard 20 min climb split field, dropped the americans on the dh, fell over on flat fire road trying to pick up sunglasses, road with Colin Kerr for second half, followed Kerr through singletrack and up on log rides, ended up on a 20 ft log ride 10 ft off the ground and got scared, built a small grudge against Kerr for scaring me and not choosing the easier lines, decided Kerr is the best technical rider at BCBR then dropped him on the last climb. 3rd

Post stage interview:
http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237274-2010-bc-bike-race/344542-stage-2-cory-wallace-bc-bike-race

Day 3, Powell River- *$&#, dropped 1 km into stage, road around like a small boy in need of a nap for 1 hr, began pondering my future in biking, got smacked by a low lying branch, woke up, rode like Jesse James, caught Manuel Prado, watched him almost die on a stair decent, walked the stair decent, hammered to the finish. 4th

Day 4, Sechelt- &#%(#, dropped again in opening km's, lost a water bottle, crashed hard on decent, fight back tears as I see my race fading away, passed by Rocky boys (Widmer, Lazarski), catch up to Rocky, the 3 of us get lost, wander around trying to find the trail, find the trail, ride like panzies, Lazarski wonders why Widmer and I are riding like a couple of high school girls, get smacked by low lying branch, wake up, ripp for an hr to finish bad day, lost a pile of time in GC, 6th

Day 5, Sechelt- Legs back firing, no gettting dropped, open it up on 30 min climb, ripp down wicked decent like an illegal mexican immigrant, look around to see trails going everywhere, keep it togethar, didn't get lost, kept ripping, made up all the time I lost in Day 4. 3rd

Day 6, Squamish- Back in 3rd in gc, 3 min ahead of BCBR 2009 winner Colin Kerr. Days mission- stick to Colins wheel like a pile of fresh dog shit. Followed Colin for 1 hr with Kona teamates (Sneddon, Wicks) making sure I stuck around. Colin attacks on sketchy bermy decent. Kona boys drop back to not risk crashing out as they have a 30 min lead in the team gc. By the bottom of decent Colin and I catch up to the leaders Sager and Shepperd. Colin kamikazes next dh gapping us by 30 secs. Never see Colin again. chase hard, lose Shepperd and Sager, chase harder, ride dh's on edge of sanity, come in 2:40 min behind Colin at finish to keep a 40 second gc lead going into final day. 2nd

Day 7, Whistler- Deja Vu of Day 1, charge hard off the line, drop field, look up to see pink flagging tape everywhere. completely lost and wishing I could dissapear. play eany, meany, miny moe and pick the trail going straight up ski hill, rest of field reaches the pink flagging gongshow and chose the trail going back to the finish, riders yell at me to follow them, i follow them as it's 250 riders vs 1. we decend back to start line, realize it's a bad choice, pedal back up hill to the flagging gonshow and take the trail I iniatially took. burry myself on the 20 min climb to gap Kerr, Kona teamates escort me for first half of race to help keep the gap on Kerr who is charging hard, ride like Geronimo for the 2nd half of race, finish 50 sec behind Sager and Sheppard and 1 min ahead of Kerr to maintain 3rd on day and GC. Podium Spot!

Day 7.5 Whistler- Podium, banquet, $10 drinks??? what, party doesn't take off for some reason...$10 beers???what... Hike back to hotel at 11 with Sneddon to be well behaved bike racers and save our budgets for the rest of the season. 10$ beers....???party poop. Ciders will be self supplied and given away at Nationals to insure no Party poop.

Sunday- Cooldown ride with teamate Erik Tonkin who was the calming influence for the team all week showing his 10yrs of experience on the team. Roll back to Victoria with Mical and Regen. Thanks for the ride!

Recap-

KONA KICKS ASS!

1st Team Division- TEAM KONA (Barry Wicks, Kris Sneddon)

3rd Mixed Team- TEAM KONA (Wendy Simms, Norm Thibault)

3rd Solo Men- KONA (me)

6th Solo Men- KONA (Erik Tonkin*) * Erik cracked ribs on day 1 and road hurt all week and still hauled ass! TROOPER

Thanks Dusty for keeping all our bikes rolling brand spanking new all week long!

Thanks Maxxis for the Monorail tires which kept us upright and with 0 flats for the week.

Thanks NUUN and CLIF SHOTS for keeping us fueled.

Monday- Costco Trip for rations. Rest Day. Wave goodbye to Bro who's off to Alaska on 6 week tour with Coast Guard. See ya in August Bro!