Big thanks to Paula Solanoy for creating this year’s poster design.  I love the concept and the photos by Erik Peterson, Jill Collins, and John Crosby really tell the story of the MOMAR.  Look at all those sponsor logos too!  What a great team we had last year and I’m hoping they all sign on for this year too!

Thanks to the great guys at the BC Bike Race, we had an entry to give away for their race in 2009.  If you haven’t heard of this event, it is a seven day mountain bike stage race that starts in Shawnigan Lake and ends in Whistler.  It has been dubbed the ultimate singletrack experience and it lives up to its name in a big way with each stage featuring amazing amounts of XC riding.

The entry was auctioned off at the MOMAR Cumberland awards banquet with 100% of the proceeds going to our official charity, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of BC.  The entry is worth $4500+gst and with many fanatical mountain bikers in the room the bidding war began.  Active bidders included Brian McCurdy, Harold Williams, Wil Lim, and few others, but it was Curtis Labounty–along with partner Marshall House–who prevailed with a final bid price of $4100!

Thanks to everyone for being part of the live auction especially BC Bike Race for the donation!!!

The countdown is on until the MOMAR Shawnigan Lake!  I’m here with my sister, Janine, in Nanaimo where we just spent the night at Normon Thibault’s place.

Last night, Norm entertained us with a spectacular fireshow. Armed with a blowtorch taped to the end of a stick and a big can of bug spray, he bravely set off to rid his property of a massive wasp’s nest.  Here are a few photos…

It just goes to show you that it’s not all about working out for this recent winner of the BC Bike Race (coed with Wendy Simms), but they too are just like us! I feel like the editor of US Weekly by saying that.  ;0)

We’ll be heading south to Duncan soon where we will be loading up the Budget van, going to Merridale Estate Cidery, and then for a Safety Meeting with the boys from SARBC, Timonda, and the HAMS.

Oh, and the new MOMAR T-Shirts are SUPER cool!!!

Today’s race report comes following day six’s 67km stage through the trails in Squamish. The course was designed by Sandra and Dave from Corsa Cycles (A MOMAR Community Sponsor) and was a mix of the Test of Metal, Gearjammer and the MOMAR course routes.

This is where Todd broke his bike during the Test of Metal so he had some unfinished business to take care of today. Armed with a loaner Niner bike that has held up solidly during the first five stages, Todd said he had full confidence in his bike going into today’s stage.

Riding with his new partner Jay Latiff from Arrowsmith Cycles, it sounded like they were both fairly well matched partners. Their goal for today’s stage was to have sub four hour finish. The course played to their strengths featuring tons of single track on trails like the Pseudo Psuga, Powerhouse Plunge, and Fartherside. It was a relatively uneventful day compared to the previous four, but Todd sounded very happy to clean the Plunge and finish in 3:59! Way to go boys!

Todd said that his achillies are a bit of an issue now but aside from that he’s been feeling good and hasn’t had a major crash at all. He’s been really good with his post ride recovery by getting some protein in right after he finishes, elevating his legs, doing cold water soak of the legs, and finishing off with daily massages. Todd also complained of having scratched on his arms from all the overgrown brush on the trails (what a wimp! ;0) ).

In other course news, Adam and Graham are riding strong and Justin and Jeff have REALLY cranked things up and finished 8th today! Norm and Wendy continue to win… The big news from the day though came from Rocky Mountain Bikes (Andreas Hestler and Max Plaxton) who put the hammer down in a BIG way and won today’s stage in a time of 3:15!

Tomorrow, racers head to Whistler for the FINAL stage of the BC Bike Race. The Grant Lamont designed course is 60km long and is nothing but awesome single-track. I’m sure everyone is looking forward to completing the arduous journey and putting the finishing medal around their next.

Oh crap, I forgot to ask Todd if he missed sharing a tent with Gary…

Poor Gary. He’s managed to make it through over 123km in the blazing heat of today’s 125km stage, nearly puked three times at the 90km aid station, but in the final (and only) section of single-track, he crashed hard into a rock garden and now the whole right side of his body is in pain.

Todd continues to be the workhorse for Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR and pulled Gary along in warrior like fashion. “My universe only existed within 10″ off of Todd’s back tire,” said Gary. “I didn’t want to look up to see the terrain ahead of me otherwise I would fall off the back.” During the first 80km, Gary and Todd hung with all the top teams in one big peleton.

Gary is one dirty boy… literally… Dave Silver must have taken this photo not long after Gary’s crash. I’m also surprised to see Gary ahead of Todd… Gary must have sensed there was a camera guy nearby… ;0)

Reflecting back on Stage 1, Gary said that yesterday’s 89km stage was “the most painful biking experience of my life.” Today’s relatively benign stage proved to be a welcome relief and a bit of a recovery stage for Gary.

Active heli logging put a kibosh to the original route that would have taken riders up and over the Duck Lake pass. Post race comments from the teams sounded disappointed in the course route but there was no other option from Lake Cowichan to Port Alberni. Maybe for a future year, they will be able to build a trail up and over the Nitinat headwaters?

Gary and Todd finished with a time of 4:50:50 and moves them into 19th spot in the all male category and 24th overall. Team Comar / John Henry (Graham Tutti & Adam Smith) had a strong day and finished ahead of Gary and Todd by just under 5 minutes. Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Justin Mark and Jeff Reimer were 5 minutes back of Gary and Todd.

Congratulations to the other Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island all female team of Kristenn Magnesson and Lisa Ludwig who had another third place finish. And Team Kona’s Wendy Simms and Normon Thibault continue to lead the Mixed category with another fast finish.  Norm sent me a text tonight saying his “[groin] is a bit raw…”  Photo to come… ;0)

I also want to send a shout out to Da Apples, Billy Adams and Heather Macintosh, for finishing another stage of the BCBR. Funny… I just figured out the significance of their team name. Nice. Heather and Billy completed today’s stage in 6:47:34.

END NOTE: As I was riding today on SFU, I tried to imagine riding for that long in one day and then having to do it for six more in a row… Thankfully, I was back in my van in 90 minutes (exhausted) and that was enough for me! The rest of my day consisted of lunch with my family and then to the office to work on the MOMAR. SIDE NOTE ON THE END NOTE: Today I took my new full suspension Berg Bike on Nicole’s Trail for the first time. I turned my rear Fox shock onto the ‘bouncy’ mode and flew down the trail with a massive smile on my face. It was a rush! I LOVE my bike!!!

MOMAR veteren and my replacement as the Day 2 Course Designer, Brent Chan, has just sent me an update following Day 2′s 125km stage:

Helly Hansen [Kristenn Magnesson & Lisa Ludwig] girls were third today. Norm and Wendy won again but the win today was closer. Gary had a good crash but they pulled it together to finish 19th overall. Todd is riding strong and Gary has been having some moments but expects to pick things up soon. Food has been great and the volunteers are having a good time. The heat makes it a totally different race than last year. Jeremy [Grasby of the Riding Fool Hostel] is just about to go up and present his Day 3 course.

Gary will be calling as soon as the awards are done with a more detailed report. Check back soon!

I just got off the phone with Gary Robbins from Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR who just wrapped up Day 1 at the BC Bike Race. Today’s 89km stage went from Shawnigan Lake and finished in Lake Cowichan. The race started with two laps around the Shawnigan Lake School campus in an effort to spread teams out before the single track. As could be expected, teams hammered off the start line to get a good position in the narrow trail. However, in this early loop teams had to cross a farmer’s field which had just been plowed the day before. This made things a bit muddy and one of the Trek teams blew BOTH of their derailers in the first few km into the race. They ended up getting the bike fixed but left 20min+ behind the last team–still they ended up finishing 4th overall for the day!

Gary and Todd were hanging with some top teams for the first few hours of singletrack, but 3/4 of the way up an 8km climb, Gary started suffering from severe leg cramps. These cramps would plague him any time they came to an incline and he had engage his inner quads. Todd was a workhouse for they day and by the sounds of it, very patient with his suffering teammate. Fortunately the final 20km were on the Cowichan Valley Trail (old rail bed) and they were able hammer it out at a ~24km/hr pace.

MOMAR Squamish winners Team Helly Hansen / Vancouver Island (Justin Mark & Jeff Reimer) had a troubled day one as well. Justin was suffering from the heat which reached highs of 32 celsius. Todd went through 10 bottles on the day and Gary chugged 2L of water at one aid station (almost made him puke).

Unofficial results had Gary and Todd finish in 25th place with a time of 5h15min and Justin and Jeff in 5h28min. Other notables include Team Kona (Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms) who finished 10th overall with a time of 4h45min. Today’s winning team finished in 4h14min (I think it was one of the Cannondale teams). The Trek team finished second. The results will be up on the BCBR website soon: www.bcbikerace.com.

Tomorrow’s stage is 125km long with 123km on mainline forest service roads. It’s going to be a day where teams will ride in packs just like a day on the Tour de France. It’s going to be fast and furious!

Today marks the start of the BC Bike Race — a seven day mountain biking journey that starts in Shawnigan Lake and ends in Whistler. Over 225 teams of two will travel over 580km filled with copious amounts of epic BC single-track.

Day 1 (Shawnigan Lake), Day 3 (Cumberland) , Day 5 (Sechelt), and Day 6 (Squamish) all feature sections of trail that have been used in past and current MOMAR’s.

Last year, I was the Course Designer for Day 1 & 2 but due to my new job with the City of Surrey, I had to resign my position. The BCBR was an amazing event to be a part of and I’ll miss being there this year. Good luck to all the teams participating and to the crew managing the show.

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR are there on the start line despite having bike and injury issues in the days since the Test of Metal. I’m sure they will race strong and make us proud.

Keep checking back on this blog as I’ll be trying my best to post daily reports from Gary and Todd’s journey.

The new issue of the MOMAR eNewsletter for June just went out.  If you didn’t get a copy, then you can click here to view it online.  In this issue, we touch on everything from the upcoming MOMAR in Shawnigan Lake, to the past MOMAR in Squamish, to the Big Chop, Volunteers, BC Bike Race, and Training Clinics.

If you would like to be on the mailing list, you can sign up by entering your email in the form to the left.

The above photo is of Rozee Hyder at last year’s GutBuster Trail Running Series on Mt. Tzouhalem in Duncan. Rozee is a regular at the GutBuster and you might get to see her this weekend (Sunday, May 4th) when the race returns to the Cowichan Valley.

If you haven’t heard yet, I sold the GutBuster to Mark and Nick at the Frontrunners Westshore store. It was a sad day for me to have to give it up but living on the Mainland and organizing a race series on the Island was a bit much for me. In October, I landed a dream job with the City of Surrey in their Filming and Special Events Department. Our department is in charge of all the signature events in the City including Canada Day which drew over 90,000 people last year. I really wasn’t looking for a ‘real’ job but I just happened to find it late one night while surfing the web so I decided to apply. Everything happened really quick and a week later I was offered the job.

So, things had to change and thus I had to sell the GutBuster and resign from my big contracts with the BC Bike Race and the Edge to Edge Marathon. BUT lucky for all you adventure racing enthusiasts, I was able to keep the MOMAR going with a full three race series (please note that because of this, I’m sacrificing time with my family, weekends, evenings, and my training (as witnessed by my performance at the Suburban Rush… ;0) ), so please be grateful! ha ha). My true passion really lies with the MOMAR, putting on a quality race and, most of all, a killer after-party so it’s all worth it.

Anyway, this blog post was simply to plug the GutBuster race this Sunday in Duncan! I guess I got on a bit of a roll. Sorry! The Tzouhalem course is legendary and is probably the one that people love to hate. It’s a big climb to the top (500m) but after that’s it (almost) all downhill through the most flowy singletrack trails that I have EVER been on. I wish I could be there to Bust-A-Gut with you but I will be running a million errands and hammering away at my mile long TO DO list in preparation for the MOMAR Squamish! At least this blog post was on the list so I can cross it off and go to bed!

Goodnight and thanks for reading! Cheers, Bryan