Joyride bikercross

I left early Wednesday morning to head up to Whistler for the annual Joyride Bikercross. It’s a race format that’s becoming more popular in mountain biking - essentially 4 racers at a time head down what amounts to an exagerated BMX track. Large bermed corners, big table top jumps, scary doubles. 4 riders at a time on the same piece of dirt means it’s scary as hell for the racers, and there’s always lots of carnage. The spectators love it (the crashes, speed, and big air) and I can see this format becoming the norm at race events worldwide over the next couple years.

This year’s Whistler Joyride was special in that the world’s top pro racers were competing. Normally, Joyride is mostly a locals-only event. But Grouse Mountain decided to cancel the downhill and “dual” events on their UCI World Cup stop this year, meaning a lot of the pros were already on the the continent with non-refundable tickets to Vancouver. So they made the best of it and trekked up to Whistler to duke it out with the locals.

I rode all day and decided to enter the pro-men category. Did I expect to do well in this pack? No. But how could I pass up the opportunity to go head to head with the world’s best? Luckily for me, my qualifiying time (qualifying is a timed one-man on the track deal) was just fast enough to get me into the 4-up rounds and I got to go up against Cedric Gracia, my hero, in the quarter finals. As the gate dropped and the 4 of us hammered over the “triple” into the first corner, Cedric put about 4 bike lengths on me. Note that it takes about 2 seconds to reach the first corner. Amazing. I was neck-and-neck with one rider just behind the 2nd place rider, with Cedric almost out of sight by the time we came out of the first corner. Needless to say, I came in 4th that heat, but I was so thrilled to be on the same race track as Cedric Gracia I couldn’t have been happier. I quickly ran back up the course with my bike and became a cheering spectator for the rest of the event, which saw the 4 visiting pros in the final. Brian Lopes, Cedric Gracia, Steve Peat, and Shaums March. Lopes took the holeshot like he had in each heat, and won the event, but not without having to really hammer to keep Cedric from passing him in the last couple corners. The excitement in the crowd as the two passed the finish line in the air, only inches apart, was incredible.

All in all, another fine day on the bicycle.