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!

I just found the link to the SNAP Newspaper’s photo gallery from this year’s MOMAR Squamish.

But enough with Squamish. It’s time to start dreaming about Shawnigan Lake!  Are you getting in some good training days (hours?)???   Be sure to check out the NEW MOMAR 301 - Advanced Navigation course with Todd Nowack that we have recently added to this year’s course list.  There are only six spots available in the July 12th clinic so please sign up early.  Here’s the course synopsis:

The MOMAR 301 clinic is an advanced navigation specific course designed by Todd Nowack, head navigator of Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR.  The goal of this course is to make you race smarter and faster by giving you Todd’s tips and tricks that will speed up your navigation abilities.  This ‘hands-on’ course will use orienteering specific maps and will consist of a series of excercies that will demostrate how you can be more effective on the maps by making smarter route choices.  If you’re looking to shave off that additional time to get closer to the podium, or if you’re simply looking to have a better understanding of how to navigate well, then this course is for you.  Participants should be comfortable with a compass, have participated in at least one previous MOMAR, and should be quick on their feet.

The blogosphere is alive with great post race stories from the MOMAR Squamish!  There’s nothing like getting the story straight from the horse’s mouth.  Grab a coffee, a beer or a protein shake and settle in for a play by play account of how it all went down at the front of the pack.

• Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR captain Gary Robbins details how he uses a broken shoelace to deak out the followers. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR navigator Todd Nowack writes about hardtails and navigation — he even admits to small mistakes on the nav! GO.
• Elm Health’s Sarah Seads writes about being the first female across the line and lessons learned along the way. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Justin Mark tells the tale of how sweet the MOMAR victory feels. GO.
• Team Helly Hansen Vancouver Island’s Kristenn Magneson writes about losing a bike shoe in the trek. GO.
• Course Designer Jen Segger-Gigg details the great feeling of having designed on killer course. GO.

And if you prefer the old school way of getting your news then you can check out the Whistler Question, SNAP Magazine, and the Pique for awesome post race coverage.

Thanks to everyone for telling your stories!  You are an inspiration to us all!

If I missed any blog reports please let me know and I’ll post it up.

Team Helly Hansen / MOMAR’s Gary Robbins and Todd Nowack at last year’s MOMAR Squamish. Photo by Tony Austin

Here’s a quick list of some adventurous blog worthy reading:

+ Gary Robbins writes about his triumphs at the Diez Vista 50km Trail Run
+ On the flip side, Todd Nowack describes race lessons learned at the same run
+ Jen Segger-Gigg writes about her new love… paddleboards
+ Read Lina Augaitis‘ great postrace report following her 3rd place finish at the Baja Travesia