Getting to Pemberton turned into a solid run around which ended with Cody nearly crashing into a Black bear with her cubs. Finishing off our pre-ride around 9 pm, Cody came ripping around a corner to find mother bear and her cubs. Mother bear wasn’t super pleased as she backed away a few steps, then got on her hind legs for the old look around. Cody turned to me and said “oh shit”. Right then we could hear another cub in the forest just behind us. That’s when I said “oh shit”, get a big stick Cody!’ For what? Too smoke mother bear on the end of her nose if she comes at us! It’s never a good plan to get between a mother and her baby, if she were a Grizzly we probably would’ve got a solid beatdown. Lucky for us Mother bear stood her ground and let us back away and find a different way back to my truck. It was a cheap reminder to make lots of noise (yell or put a bell on your bike!) when you riding in bear country. Back home in Jasper this is second nature but after moving to Victoria I apparently forgot some basics for backcountry riding.
Once the adrenaline wore off we had a solid night camped out at the Nairn Falls campsite, listening to the roaring water all night and inhaling a lot of campfire smoke.
Race day started with a group of 409 racers cruising down the highway before reaching the first gravel climb and 30km of singletrack to follow. Here the race really started and I went backwards into around the 20’s. I had been riding well all week so was surprised by this, maybe doing a hard 172 km MTB ride two days before the race wasn’t ideal. Either way the legs gradually turned on midway up the 101 switchback climb I had made it up to 6th. Slowly tracking down young ripper Quinn Moberg from Squamish BC. Here I tried to hammer a flat section of the climb, clipped my bar and took a header over the handlebars, crushing a tree with my left shoulder. Once I shook this one off and readjusted my brake lever it was game on as a shot of adrenaline hit my system and now I was in race mode. It reminded me of the time the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks were playing in the playoffs and Flames captain Jarome Iginla was having a horrible game. Matt Cooke then rocked Iginla, Iginla woke up and took over the game scoring 2 goals and eventually knocking the Canucks out of the playoffs. Cooke and the Canucks learned the hard way not to ever poke a sleeping bear!
I didn’t do quite as well as Iginla and the Flames but I did manage to get into 4th and within a minute of 2nd before losing a bit in the final patch of rough singletrack to the technically superior riders of my teammate Kris Sneddon (2nd) and x-National champion Ricky Federau (3rd). Ricky was wearing baggie shorts for the race and ripped the legs off a pile of fast spandex clad dudes. His ride was a resemblance of the trash talking redneck, Roddi Lega in his heyday.
Crossing the finish line of the Nimby 50 the riders were greeted with a table full of burgers,salad and a great venue @ North Arm farm to chill out for the rest of the day. The evening ended with a bonfire and a lot of catching up with other racers before I retired back to my campsite to get a good nights rest before the Euro departure Sunday night. Sunday morning I woke up after another peaceful night of camping, hopped on my bike, pedaled 10ft and hopped on part of the sea-sky trail connecting me to the legendary Lumpys Epic trail in Pemberton. It was a great early morning ride to loosen the legs before a good stretch of travel commenced over to Euroland. Pemberton definatly deserves a better exploration when the time is right!
The Nimby 50 is a great race. Not a marathon, and not 50 km, but it is one of the most fun and challenging 2 hr races I have ever done. The amount of great single-track and climbing they pile into 35 km is solid as the course requires 100% focus the whole ride. Two laps of this thing and you would have one heck of a real marathon. Organizers, Dean Linnell, Russ Wood and Terry Evans have a great thing going and have quickly become one of the go too races in BC. Nice work guys, we as racers really appreciate the hard effort you guys put in as we know these events aren’t a breeze to put on!
Sunday night Kona mechanic Dave Mcnaughton and I had a very smooth flight over to Germany with British Airways and soon found ourselves surrounded with Kona teammates in the middle of the Austrian Alps. We are currently in the picturesque town of Schladming getting prepped for our first ever go at the 4 day Alpen Tour. This place is postcard beautiful as everywhere you look are steep snow clad Alps, crystal clear rivers and loads of crisp fresh air. 