Willingdon Beach will soon be awash in a sea of tents as Powell River prepares to welcome 600 cyclists for the 2015 BC Bike Race.
The seven-day mountain bike stage race takes riders on an over 400-kilometre journey from Cumberland, through Powell River, down the Sunshine Coast and North Vancouver to Whistler.
BC Bike Race is sold out this year with many travelling from all over the world to participate. Locally, Powell River is represented by Brooks Secondary School teacher Graham Cocksedge.
“I am excited but there’s a lot of apprehension,” said Cocksedge, explaining he won’t know how hard he’ll push himself until he starts racing. “It’s a challenge. It doesn’t matter how well you are prepared, or how much you’ve trained, you go at your pace.”
A former member of Triathlon Canada’s senior duathlon world championship team, Cocksedge has been rising early most mornings at 5:30 am to ride 25 kilometres, there and back, between his Townsite home and Lund.
Cocksedge, one of two mountain biking coaches instrumental in bringing the BC High School Mountain Bike Championships to Powell River this year, will be representing Brooks in the race by wearing a brightly coloured school cycling jersey.
“It’s a wonderful event,” said Cocksedge. “It’s amazing that Powell River has embraced it so much, because it’s international—the event draws in a huge amount of attention to our area, to mountain biking. To be a part of that is fantastic.”
In Powell River, the course runs along 52 kilometres of trails—with a new bridge on the Aloha Trail above Kelly Creek, specially designed and constructed for the race last year by Powell River cyclist Stephen Mohan.
Many of the trails used for the race, from the jauntily named Bob’s Your Uncle to the bubbly Cream Soda, were built by the Chain Gang, a volunteer trail building association.
Wayne Brewer, Chain Gang member, along with his bear-like dog Abner, has been busy with a machete brushing back trails and hanging race ribbon in preparation for the race.
Brewer, estimates the Chain Gang put in over 9,000 hours of volunteer time last year. He said they are glad to do so because of the myriad benefits brought to the community by mountain biking and the race.
“People here have seen what BC Bike Race has done,” said Brewer. “They just love the visuals of 300 tents set up on Willingdon Beach and the 600 racers in town.
“We used to hardly ever get anyone here to ride our trails before. But since BC Bike Race started coming here in 2010, every year we get more and more and more visitors coming. Word has spread literally around the world.”
Although the BC Bike Race is a serious event, according the BC Bike Race organizer and director of marketing Andreas Hestler, it is also marketed around the world as a fun way to travel and experience life on the West Coast.
Both Powell River’s trails and the Willingdon Beach base camp are part of that experience according to Hestler, a former Olympian.
“The base camp is on the beach and that is pretty unprecedented and facing west so when the sun goes down at the end of the day, you couldn’t ask for a better experience,” he said. “It’s a combination of great venue, great trails and great community and I think that’s just a winning combination with Powell River.”
A BC Bike Race testimonial from last year highlights the warm welcome at the ferry in particular, after a racer saw “what seemed like the whole town welcoming us.”
“Whistler and Squamish have so many races all the time, for them it’s not a big deal, but for us it’s a major fun event,” said Linda Diprose, Powell River Cycling Association and Chain Gang member.
“If you haven’t seen it before there’s a sea of tents and they have music and all sorts of stuff happening,” she said. “There’s the kids’ bike race that’s going on in the afternoon and just go down to Willingdon Beach and look at the whole tent city because there’s 600 riders coming this year.”
Diprose said the children’s takes place at 11 am on Monday, June 29 at Larry Gouthro Park.
She also organizes cheer-zones out on the race trail: the Hawaiian-themed station with mock Tiki lounge on the Aloha Trail by the bridge; and new this year, a 1950s’-themed station on the ’51 Dodge Trail by Myrtle Springs.
“It makes it a little more entertaining for the riders,” said Diprose. “We even had the serious riders smiling at us last year at the Aloha Trail.”
Diprose, who is herself wearing a 1950s’ poodle skirt, said anyone and everyone is welcome to dress up and come out to the cheer-zones. She recommends that they find their own way out pre-race, without blocking roads, intersections or trails with parked cars or bikes.
Those wishing to cheer the race on from town can also go to Willingdon Beach, where the race kicks off at 9 am. Other good vantage points include Covey Street and Yukon Avenue in Cranberry, and also Cranberry Street where the cyclists will be passing Magpie’s Diner. The first racers will be crossing the finish line back at Willingdon Beach just after 11 am.
“A lot of [racers] are coming just for the experience and the fun of it,” said Diprose. “So we try to make it a real fun event with community spirit.”
For more information about BC Bike Race readers can visit the website.
Visit Mel Edgar's blog Bits and Bobs to read what she found out about the curious history of how trails are named.
Heavy ferry traffic during BC Bike Race
For those interested in giving cyclists a warm welcome at the ferry, they will be arriving from Comox on two separate sailings, Sunday, June 28: one arriving at at 4:35 pm and another at 8:35 pm. While BC Ferries has scheduled two additional sailings leaving Little River at 10:30 pm and Westview at 11:59 pm to accommodate race related traffic, on its website it recommends people travel earlier in the day if possible.
BC Bike Race participants will be departing for the next stage of the race in Sechelt on an exclusive 9:25 am Tuesday, June 30, BC Ferries sailing from Saltery Bay.
According to BC Ferries’ website, “Customers not associated with the BC Bike Race are asked to plan their travels on the added earlier sailing or on later sailings and to not proceed to the Saltery Bay Terminal during this very busy time.” The earlier sailing leaves Saltery Bay at 5:35 am.
For more information and updates on ferry traffic during BC Bike Race readers can go online or call 1.888.BCFERRY. BC Ferries is a presenting sponsor of the race for the sixth consecutive year.
