We woke up at Cumberland, packed our bags, had breakfast and took the 60 minute bus ride to the start of the second stage just outside Campbell river. With day one very much on my mind and in my body I approached the day as a survival stage.
The long steady gravel downhill was kind on the legs and the gradual climb on the gravel did wonders to get the mind focussed for the day. After about 9km we were in the forrest and soon we hit some very technical single-track. While technically within my scope, I opted to port the more physically demanding sections to preserve my upper body for the flowing peddally sections that were to follow. The rain of the previous week was only visible in a few places and the going was good. With so e short steep single-track climbs we were again in the red zone. I resolved to do much more riding up good single-track back home as this could be where you can really shuttle up the field in a race like this.
I took my time at the water point to refill, lube my chain and get some food in. The next section of single track is the stuff you see on promotional footage of heaven(I hope heaven look like this one day!). It is buffed up, fast, flowing, super exciting and with not too much traffic the switchbacks and stream crossings were simply just awesome. The climbing was more moderate and allowed recovery to get you good and ready for the next section. The first Enduro was a fast pedal pedal section and I absolutely nailed it. All the while we were riding BC's best with the second water point approaching fast. I again took my time and hit the next section with fresh resolve. The second Enduro was even better than the first. The narrow cut trail with many twists didn't give you the opportunity to scout ahead too far and it was a challenge to see how short your reaction time could be for the roots or rocks after a quick turn.
At 40 km we were out of the forrest and riding through Campbell River town to the last fast section of single track for the day. 5 hours felt like only a few minutes and by some miracle my body was feeling better than it was 5 hours ago.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning up, getting our tents ready, eating, hydrating, massages, eating, hydrating and a nice long walk (with Rochelle who has been working tirelessly with the timing manager all day) to the beach for a ice cream just before sunset, which was at about 9:50pm. There was the most amazing driftwood carvings on the beach that was carved as part of the Canada day celebrations. I'll post some pics in due course. Back at the race village we had a quick shower and fell asleep with the Canada Day fireworks popping in the background.
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