BC Bike Race: Tackling One Of The MTB's Gnarliest Stage Races

IT IS PROBABLY FAIR TO SAY THAT I AM NOT YOUR USUAL [R]EVOLUTION RIDER… OR WRITER. BUT I DO BLOODY LOVE MY MOUNTAIN BIKING! I’VE NEVER WORN A FULL-FACE HELMET – WELL NOT ON A MOUNTAIN BIKE ANYWAY – OR KNEE PADS. UNTIL A FEW MONTHS AGO MY BIKE HAD 100MM OF SUSPENSION TRAVEL, TWO GEAR RINGS UP FRONT, 10 AT THE BACK AND NO DROPPER POST. AND AT 55, WELL I’M OLD ENOUGH TO BE THE AVERAGE [R]EVOLUTION READER’S DAD, OR GRANDAD TO SOME YOUNG RIPPERS.​​​​​​

- Bruce Newton

I mention all this because it’s integral to the story and why I recently decided to push myself so far out of my comfort zone and contest the 2018 BC Bike Race! Yep that BC Bike Race, the one in British Columbia Canada. Seven days, 625 competitors, 320km, 10,000m of climbing and some of the best singletrack on the planet. I started riding mountain bikes about 15 years ago and became aware of the BC not long after it was first established about 12 years ago. Local MTB mags regularly run stories about Aussies taking the race on and eulogising about their experiences on and off the bike. Those accounts stuck in my mind. There were others races, like the Cape Epic and the Transalp, but they just sounded like masochistic hard work. The BC had the work, but also the reward in those epic trails. Even so, I dismissed any thought I could possibly do it; not fit enough, not fast enough, not brave enough.

Why did I change my mind? In 2016 a mate told me he was planning to do it and he wasn’t that much of a better rider than me. I was jealous. My work life changed that year so I got my weekends back. Mountain biking suddenly changed back from an occasional to frequent experience. And once more, I discovered my simple love of riding off-road on two wheels. The sheer joy of flow in the forest. And I was conscious the clock was ticking. Fifty-five is not that old but it’s still edging toward the back-end of the bus when it comes to doing things like the BC. Come Christmas 2016 I made the call, I was going to do the BC in 2018, giving me 18 months to get my physical and mental shit together.