A week of riding timeless, un-timed singletrack through unknown British Columbia with the BC Bike Race crew.

WORDS DANIELLE BAKER PHOTOGRAPHY DAVE SILVER

A few of us are sitting together at the edge of the water at the historical Cassiar Cannery near Prince Rupert, a small island town on the north-west coast of Canada, a stone’s throw from the Alaskan border. We’re really out there…

The inaugural BC Bike Ride North – a six-day, allinclusive guided mountain bike tour through northern British Columbia – has come to an end. We’ve spent the last week riding pockets of hand-built singletrack across a vast distance of over 700 kilometres. Each town we’ve pulled into has been unassuming – mostly residential, with single-storey industrial buildings that sprawl along rivers or are centred around sawmills. But as we left each one, the uniqueness of the experience – the riding, the people, the vistas, and even the food – left imprints on us to last a lifetime. Now we’re relaxing and watching the ocean ripple through the reThection of the brightly coloured cabins that dot the shoreline as we process our memories of the last week and share our stories.

INTERNATIONAL ADVENTURE

A week ago, we all gathered in North Vancouver – nearly 1,500km from where we now sit – to register and ‘warm up’.

Some may have found the location a bit ambitious as a starter lap, but Olympian Adam Craig thought it was a great way to begin:“Welcome to Canada, this is mountain biking here!” Being my backyard, I was thrilled to share what we have with our visitors. Guides toured us around the famous technical riding – the steeps, tight switchbacks, roots, and woodwork of the North Shore. “I’ve got a soft spot for riding on the shore, it’s awesome there,” says Adam. “Any biking road trip around British Columbia should start there in my opinion.

That’s kind of the port of entry and that’s where some of the best riding in the world is, so it would be rude not to!”

The team that organises BC Bike Ride North also runs the renowned BC Bike Race that takes racers from their registration – also in North Vancouver – over to Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and back to the Sea-to-Sky corridor over seven days. These two events, while benefitting from the same skilled logistics and organisational team, are quite diTherent. One is a multi-day timed stage race, while the new expansion is more of a ‘choose your own adventure’ tour that takes participants north to a rather unexplored section of the province and immerses them deeply, not only in the riding, but also in the culture. The pace is much more relaxed and allows riders to choose from a daily smorgasbord of options to suit their specific wants and interests.