Multi-day bike races really do come in all sorts of formats and over the last 15 years I have been fortunate to take part in a number of them… Cape Epic, Trans Provence, Stone King Rally, E Tour Du Mont Blanc, Andes Pacficio and more… but there has always been one on my bucket list that I finally got to tick off in 2024: BC Bike Race.
Tracy Moseley’s idea of a holiday does not involve a sun lounger, but it is all-inclusive – and all-in. A trip of a lifetime to the BC Bike Race lives up to her dreams.
Getting a pass from mum and wife life is tricky these days. This 10-day trip was the longest time I had been away from home in six years, so I knew it had to be a good one and time well spent, as I’d be grounded for a while after that and not allowed to gloat about how good it was!
Thankfully, now in its 18th year, BC Bike Race lived up to my expectations. Endless ribbons of natural singletrack, the stuff I had dreamt about. I loved it so much I wanted to share my experience and urge anyone who is thinking about an adventure like this to make it happen.
Five-Star Racing
When asking co-founder Andreas Hestler what he wanted people to get out of their experience at BC Bike Race he said, “We wanted to encapsulate what is a ‘regular ride’, something people would do if they were to go on a holiday, and something the locals would do if they were out for a regular ride. Race aside, it’s about a mountain bike ride with your friends.”
This low-key social feel runs through the event. Amid the incredible professional organisation, teams of the nicest, most helpful volunteers, posh loos and showers and five-star food, is a super fun chilled seven-day bike race that allows professional racers and regular weekend warriors to get their fix of amazing trail riding and to take on their own personal challenge.
Each year the location and route evolve a little to include new trails, new communities and to showcase the best of the West Coast lifestyle and mountain bike culture of British Columbia, Canada. This year the race was based entirely on Vancouver Island – with seven days of racing in five different locations up the east coast of the island with three different camp spots. Vancouver Island is 283 miles long and 62 miles wide at its widest point, with a population of 900,000. Over half of that population live in Victoria, the island’s biggest city, on the southern tip of the island. With a population density of 71/sq mile – a tenth of that of the UK – and endless forest and lakes, it makes for an amazing place for adventures and riding bikes.
I flew into Victoria airport and took a taxi with my bags and bike to an empty grass field at a farm about 20km from Victoria. As I built my bike in the corner of the field I witnessed the transformation from field to BC Bike Race base camp over the next six hours. The tent village itself is an impressive site with over 200 tents, but then with the catering tent, hospitality, technology centre, bike shop and refreshments, it soon became the bustling hub for all a rider’s needs.
Choose your own (adventure) comforts
I spent my first afternoon taking an easy spin on my bike into Victoria to treat myself to a new airbed and fell in love with the island as the cycling infrastructure was incredible. I rode 40km to the city and back entirely off the road and joined hundreds of other cyclists enjoying a Sunday afternoon in and around the city. With my airbed purchased it was back to the field to claim my tent home for the next seven days.
When you enter BC Bike Race you have various additional options you can add to your race entry. You can choose to sort your own accommodation, food and transport between camps yourself or you can add the tent, food and transport packages, or any combination of them. You can also add the bike shop service to your entry, meaning someone will wash your bike after the finish of your race, then take it to the bike shop onsite; they check it over and replace any parts overnight then have your bike ready for you at the start line the next day! There was also a massage service available to book and purchase on the day. It really could be a five-star luxury holiday if you wanted to treat yourself, but also allows you the freedom to make choices to suit your budget and comfort needs.
I chose the full onsite experience of tent life, catering and transport which meant I really was able to switch off and just ride my bike with no thoughts on where I needed to be and where to get food from. It was magic and just the holiday I needed to not have any responsibilities for a week other than to be ready for a race start at 9am each day.
It happens to the best of us
Day one was a short 8km prologue in Hartland Mountain Bike Park on the edge of Victoria city. A neutralised 8km pedal took us to the forest from base camp. A nice warm up and then straight into what I think so was one of the most techy singletracks of the week. I loved the slow tech moves up and downhill, up and over flat slabs of rock and winding your way through the forest, ‘90’s jank’ was the name of one of my favourite sections. I just love the feeling of working to build flow and being light and agile on the bike. It was ace. Sadly I punctured about halfway into the stage – I guess I wasn’t being light and agile enough. I managed to get a Dynaplug in the tyre pretty quickly but then could not inflate it. After faffing for a long time I realised my CO2 head had lost the little piece that pierces the cartridge so I couldn’t get any air out. A hand pump and another plug later, I finally got on my way, nursing a soft tyre to the finish line.
Back at the camp I was able to use the services of the local bike shop that was with the race offering tech support. They put on the spare tyre I’d brought, I upped my pressure, and borrowed a new C02 head from a fellow competitor. Hopefully that was my mechanical out of the way and I would be set for the rest of the week!
Working holiday
Day 2 started in waves of 100 and I was back in the fourth wave after my puncture on day one. I tried to stay relatively near the front at the start as I knew that once in the singletrack it was going to be tricky to pass, but sadly it was an 8km steady road climb to get into the forest and my uphill legs have never been the best. The stage was 27km with 700m of climbing – again we were back in the Hartland bike park. Using more of the incredible singletrack trails, but packed into a small area, it zigzagged up and downhill all day. I managed to pass around 100 people during my 1hr 51min race time and moved up a good few spots in the overall.
That afternoon we moved camp in readiness for day three, 46 miles up the coast from Victoria, to the small coastal village of Crofton. The camp took over a local sports field and we used the local school as our dining area. It was a beautiful location with incredible views across to Salt Spring Island, one of the gulf islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
Day three was the longest day of the week at 48km and 1360m of climbing, again with a road transition to the first forest section. I had zero legs and just couldn’t seem to push myself. I settled into a steady pace as we started climbing up the amazing hand built singletrack climb called ‘a grand traverse’ among the red barked Arbutus Trees. It slowly winched us up to the summit on a buff smooth-flowing trail to the top of Mount Tzouhalem, and then descended the swoopy descents ‘double d’ and ‘bumble bee’. A break in the timing saw us take in a food station and a short road transition to the next mountain, before the clock restarted as we ducked back into the forest to start our ascent of Maple Mountain. The terrain was immediately rougher and more natural but still epic singletrack flowing and climbing for what seems like hours. Finally at the top, we then had the incredible ‘maple syrup’ descent, taking in some pretty raw, exposed rocky ridges and chutes – it was soooo good. So much descending and technical features that by the bottom I was glad for a smooth fire road roll back to camp as my hands and arms were dead from all the rough terrain and endless working the bike to generate as much speed as I could. My little Top Fuel was loving life! This was the longest day in the saddle at 3hr 37min and a hot day out at that too. A shower back at the camp and some shade was in order that afternoon.
Getting stuck in
Each day we had an awards ceremony at 5pm with Canadian freeride legend Brett Tippie, which was always a great laugh, with giveaways, competitions and interviews with the day’s podium riders. We also had entertainment from local musicians, and local tribes dancing; there was so much going on, it was such a great vibe. The race attracted every type of mountain biker you could think of. There were the seasoned pro cross-country athletes, ex-world champs and Olympians at the front of the race and a mix of everyone else in between. The option to race solo or as a pair attracted a few father and daughter duos, husband and wife combinations, some fast European Master pairs racers and first-time social riders taking on a challenge.
Day four was a short drive to Nanaimo, a well-known riding spot on the island. It was a shorter day today at 31km and a race time for me of 2hr 23min. As the days went on, I started to feel a little more able to dig deep and had some fun trying to make up some time on each day’s timed downhill section. It was always a gamble wondering if I would have a free trail or would catch people and have to try and pass. Some days I got lucky and snuck a few wins ahead of World Cup cross-country star Catherine Pendrel and other days I just got stuck in a train of people. The media team were on bikes with GoPros and would dip in and out of the race following riders and really capturing what it’s like to be in among the pack on endless singletrack. It was great fun getting chased down by those guys on a few days!
Canada definitely has no shortage of beautiful lakes and most days we finished close to a lake or we found one close by to ride or hitch a lift to for a swim, to relax and cool off. It was so good as trying to get anywhere near your tent before the sun went down was impossible as you would melt, it was that hot in the sun! Shady spots for an afternoon nap or lake swims were part of my daily ritual. Stage races like this do become such a process of simplicity and repetition and it is something I love about them as it gives me chance to switch off and not have 100 other things to cram into my day.
It hurts so good
For day five we were in our final camp spot at the recreation park in the town of Cumberland, a real mountain bike mecca with over 200km of mountain bike trails. It was an amazing location to spend our final three nights. The race on day five was straight out of the campsite and into the forest, and with a shorter fire road start it allowed me to stay in the mix a bit longer before we started a long 400m ascent all on singletrack to the highest point of the day. It was a 40km day and 3hr 8mins of racing for me over 1,200m of climbing. I was truly ruined at the end of day five. I had finally found the ability to suffer and legs that were able to push on a bit on the climbs. The trails were just sublime all day, endless switchback climbs to techy rooty traverses, rock slabs with some punchy moves and buff flow trails. Once again my hands were done and I was screaming out for the corners to stop and a nice smooth fire road to come into view for a reprieve. Arriving back at the campsite was a welcome relief as the fatigue was starting to set in but my mind was just loving it and wanting more.
Day six began with a short drive up north of Cumberland to Campbell River. It was more of a classic cross-country ride, 45km up and down fast sinuous smooth dirt singletrack trail through the naturally regenerated forest in Elks Provincial Park. The dirt was just insane, hero grip and smooth trail for 2hr 36min, and only 650m of climbing made for a full gas day. By now my body had remembered my past years of cross-country racing, way back around 2014, and I was loving putting myself in the hurt locker trying to stay away from those around me to give me the best chance of some space on the descents. It was one of my favourite days, although also one of the hardest, finishing in my best position of 10th in the Pro Women’s race.
The final day was back in Cumberland, this time a shorter loop of 32km and 800m of climbing, I finished in 2hr 8min having ridden a completely different set of trails to day five. There is just an insane amount of riding in this area and I felt a huge privilege to have made it to this event and had the chance to be shown the incredible variety of riding they have. Finding and putting together rides like this would not happen unless you had local knowledge, so to be able to sit back, relax and let someone else do all the planning really did make this a biking holiday of a lifetime for me.
If you love riding your bike off-road and particularly enjoy good natural singletrack trails, with decent preparation to get some miles in your legs it’s a challenge you too could take on. The stages aren’t so long that it’s all day in the saddle; you should be back and have time to recover a little each day. Pick your level of comforts and support, get those miles in, and perhaps it could be the holiday of a lifetime for you too?
BCBR Bike Check
| Bike | Trek Top Fuel |
| Frame | 17.5in |
| Fork | RockShox Sid Ultimate 120 |
| Shock | RockShox Deluxe Ultimate |
| Wheels | Bontrger Kovee Pro |
| Front Tyre/Pressure | Bontrager XR3 20psi |
| Rear Tyre/Pressure | Bontrager XR3 24psi |
| Inserts | no |
| Seatpost | Rockshox AXS reverb |
| Brakes | SRAM Level Ultimate |
| Drivetrain | SRAM XX |
| Bars | Bontrager |
| Stem | Bontrager |
| Grips | SRAM grips with fork lock out |
| Saddle | Bontrager Aelous |
| Weight | no idea ! |
