At the end of May, I was invited to the SRAM office in North Vancouver to film some content with the brand. North Vancouver being one of the birth place of mountain biking in Canada, I decided to bring my mountain bike on the trip.

It was a "in studio" shoot, and I had planned an easy week of training for the time I was there. But, I was so excited to check out the infamous trails of Mt Fromme and Mt Seymour that I adopted the worker's strategy and rode in the mornings or evenings around the shoot. It was...incredible!

The last time I rode my mountain bike in British Columbia was when I last raced BC Bike Race in 2017...7 years ago! I had forgotten just how exceptional the riding was in that area. The rain forests in North Van are lush, green, technically engaging, and quite simply a pure paradise for anyone who loves the outdoors...especially for mountain bikers.

As I was riding there - sometimes until as late as 8:30PM on a week day - I started dreaming about spending more time on my mountain bike, and more time in BC. I consulted David to see if this could fit into our summer training schedule, and wihtin 36 hours of being back home, I had signed up for BC Bike Race...and David did too! hahah

What is BCBR?
It's a 7 day cross-country mountain bike stage race in British Columbia. This year, the race is happening on Vancouver Island. We will start in Victoria and ride the first 2 stages there, we'll move to Cowichan Valley for Stage 3, Nanaimo for stage 4, Cumberland for stage 5, Campbell River for Stage 6, and Cumberland again for the last stage. I've raced there twice in the past and both these experiences still rank in the top highlights of my career.

How did I prepare for BCBR?
1. Training.

As soon as I signed up for the race, I put down some of the things I'd have to work on in training before travelling to BC, to make sure I could be as competitive as possible, and enjoy the experience as much as possible.

Up until that point, the majority of my training this year had been on the gravel bike. If I rode my MTB it was usually on my local trails...I love those trails, but I know them so well that I don't have to focus that much to ride them fast. By riding in North Vancouver, I quickly realized my skills were a bit rusty. Especially my ability to ride fast on a trail I didn't know. To be able to ride quickly on blind trails (which is what BCBR requires for 7 days in a row) you need to be really good at making quick decisions on line choices. To do that, you need to trust that you have the necessary skills to respond to whatever the terrain will throw at you.

I also raced the Canada Cup in Mont Tremblant and noticed I was VERY rusty at riding trails at race speed. Not necessarily in the downhills, but more in the pedalling sections. I had zero flow.

So David and I pinned down a few things I wanted to work on:
- Ride some new trails (mostly fast, or sometimes slow and work on skills).
- Do some tempo or race pace efforts in trails.
- Test my equipment and get comfortable on it.

And so we did just that. I explored a few new-to-me trail networks in my area. We took our XC mountain bikes on some of the steeper/more enduro style trails to get comfortable. Instead of doing our intervals only on the road, we did half of them on trails. Some efforts I would lead on the trails, and some I would practice following David to get comfortable riding fast without seeing the trail.

Honestly, all of that made the training so fun and engaging! Since David will also be racing at BCBR, he did all the workouts with me and challenged me the whole time, which made it all extra fun.

2. Equipement

We also made sure to dial our equipment. Here are a few things that I focused on:
• Hydration: The stages at BCBR are not especially long (I expect between 2-3h every day), so technically, I could be good to go with only bottles on my bike. However, the race is almost always on singletracks. I've found that on super technical terrain, I don't hydrate quite as much as I would need to, because it rarely seems like a good moment to take my hands off the handlebars to grab a bottle.

So, I decided that I will race with my EVOC Hydro Pro pack. It is 1.5L and with the accessible straw, I find I can hydrate really well while riding on technical trails. I'll probably have some Krono Electrolyte juice in there, and have 1 bottle of water on my bike.

I did all my MTB intervals with the EVOC pack lately to get used to it and find out if it would be a good fit for the race. I found it is perfect; snug enough that it doesn't bounce on my back when I hit a jump, straw is easily accessible, and it event makes my gels more easily accessible with the front pockets!

• Nutrition: I plan on eating gels during the race. I use the Krono Nutrition Gels and I will plan on eating around 2 per hours, and have some drink mix in my pack.

• Suspensions: I have not raced many MTB races in the last couple of years, so the suspensions on my bike had no lock-out remotes. I had to lock and unlock directly at the fork or the rear shock. It worked great for the type of riding I was doing, but at BCBR the courses are not as predictable as an XC race course. All the trails have not be pre-ridden, and it's constantly up and down on technical terrain, so it's really nice if you can lock and unlock the suspensions efficiently.

Lucky for me, SRAM contacted me to send the all-new Flight Attendant system. O-M-G. What a game changer! David installed it on my bike, and I've done all my workouts with it so far. Honestly, it is absolutely insane. It locks or unlocks adequatly to the terrain I'm riding, and it reacts faster than I could do it if I was controlling it. Plus, the more I ride with it, the more it understands my riding and the more precise it becomes. I think this will be so cool to have at BCBR, it will save me from thinking about the suspension, I'll be able to focus on riding or sprinting out of the saddle while trusting the Flight Attendant will take care of the suspensions.

Let the race begins! But first, to get there...
Ideally, I would have travelled to Victoria, BC with a few days to spare before the race to allow me to pre-ride and get to know the riding area and the course of the Prologue and stage 2. In a short 6.4km prologue, it's really helpful if you have ridden the course beforehand...But, sometimes the ideal is not possible and you do the best with what you have!

At the beginning of the season, before I knew I would race BCBR, I had committed to riding the Rapha Prestige in New York with a team of 4 women. The event is this weekend. So my plan is to drive to New York on Friday, ride the 173km course with the team, have a great time, and then drive back home on Saturday evening before flying to Victoria on Sunday evening. The prologue of BCBR starts on Monday...it works!

***Edit: Since I wrote this, the PRestige happened. It was awesome (more on that later). It's now 9PM and I'm on the plane to BC.

3. Travel tips

Since we are coming into the race very late, here are a few tips I'll use to increase the chances that all goes well.

• Direct flight: To diminish the chances that our bikes could be get lost, we are taking a direct flight from Montreal to Victoria.

• Carry on the essentials: I'll be carrying my helmet, shoes, and a race kit inside of my EVOC carry-on backpack. That way, even if my bike doesn't make it, chances are I'll be able to borrow a bike for the first stage and I'll at least have all my equipment to ride.

The rest of my stuff will be packed in my EVOC bike travel bag, and roller travel case...which I packed before going to the Rapha Prestige, so when I come home on Sunday, I am already ready to leave for the next race!

Let's go!!
I'm excited to get this race started. Actually, I feel like a little kid travelling to a race for the first time, and this is such a nice feeling to have.

I don't know if my fitness and technical skills will be enough to compete for the win, but I will try my best. Either way, I know that if I give it my all, I'll come back from this race as a better and stronger rider, so it is for sure going to be a win in the long run. All in all, I think just signing up for BCBR ended up being a positive move for me this summer; although I was already motivated, it truly brought another level of motivation and excitement to my training the past month, and I'm grateful for that.

The competition should be super good too, as many other top riders will be there; Katerina Nash, Catharine Pendrel, Haley Smith, Evelyn Dong, Anna Yamauchi, Eva Poidevin, and more will all be there to challenge for the win!

I'll try to update on Instagram, but otherwise the best place to follow the race is probably the BC Bike Race Instagram account.

Maghalie

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