My roommate Cody Canning and I packed up what felt like most of our Condo and headed off to Pemberton for the weekend to race the Nimby 50. The race is said to be a rad 35 km loop up on the mountains surrounding Pemberton. I’m stoked to be finally getting a chance to do it in its 4th year of existence as it is building a great reputation. I’m not really sure why its called the Nimby 50, or why it is called an Epic Marathon as it is under 40 km long, and is winnable in just over 2 hours. It sounds like more of a sprint race then a Marathon. Here in Canada we call Marathon’s anything over 2 hours. It’s interesting how perspectives change from country to country as in most the cycling world a race must be 4 hours plus to be hit Marathon status. Nonetheless I am pumped on the weekend and can’t wait to rip the highly regarded trails in Pemberton. Doing a sprint race like this should be the perfect warmup for racing over in Euro land next week!
BC Ferries was hopping with business today and probably could’ve used another boat or two. Showing up at 8:30am, we managed to get on the 11 am boat. Victoria is a sweet place to live, and the boats are part of it which can be both a + and a-. On the boat its a sweet cruise through the gulf islands, getting on the boat is another story. Today Cody and I had 4 things on the to do list. Get to Pemberton, pre-ride, pick up his new bike in Vancouver and chill. Waiting at the ferry terminal was a blessing in disguise, allowing us to properly take care of the chill part of the day. All chilled out, were now on step 2, getting to Vancouver.
We have my old black truck packed too the gills with camping gear, supplies to get Cody’s new bike running, and gear for the Euro trip that starts Sunday night. It’s always suprising just how much “stuff” you end up packing around when you start camping, bike racing and cooking your own meals. Thankfully we had my black night to help us out. The Black Knight has been around for 11 yrs now and is reaching 422 000 km. She makes some entertaining sounds nowadays, fires on 5 instead of 6 cylinders and has a few other gimmicks going on. She has been through hell and back through tree planting seasons, hauling quads around the oil patch, 4×4 adventures and a few bike trips. It will be a sad day for me when I have to let her go. That being said she will officially be retired at the end of the year and be driven up to Dads ranch in the Robson Valley to be used as a farm truck until she bites the dust. Until then were going to enjoy every second of this summer together and cross our fingers we get where ever were trying to go!
Pemby tonight, Squamish tomorrow, Germany Sunday!