Tired but undaunted after more than 500 kilometres of high-quality mountain biking, about 450 bikers gritted it out on Friday (July 4) in the corridor's beautiful but challenging trails to cap the second annual B.C. Bike Race. After seven days of intense riding starting in Victoria, Sunshine Coast native Kris Sneddon and Kona teammate Barry Wicks came out on top overall after building up a substantial lead through the last three stages. "It's awesome," Wicks said. "You know, we kind of just came to the race to have fun and see what could happen, so to win it is pretty sweet." Wicks said Team Kona won by sticking to a safe game plan over the lengthy event."The most important thing for us the last few days was riding consistently and not blowing up, not making mistakes and breaking our bikes and stuff like that," he said. "We just kind of rode our own race, and kept it safe and had fun."Squamish rider Stewart Kerr, 45, took on the task with Kevin Smith, 39, of Whistler as Team Skyline. The 125-kilometre Stage 2 from Cowichan Lake District to Port Alberni posed the greatest challenge for Kerr, who had to battle massive knee pain with self-massaging while staying on course."It was harder than I ever could have imagined," he said.Still, Kerr and Smith made it through to their home stages, pulling off solid times over both to complete the race."Squamish and Whistler were the strongest stages for our team - knowing every inch of the trail," said Kerr.Team Skyline finished the 531-kilometre course with a time of 37 hours, 24 minutes and 48 seconds.Hundreds of racers swarmed the Sea to Sky Corridor Thursday and Friday (July 3 and 4) during Stage 6, which tackled the punishing Test of Metal and GearJammer courses around Squamish, and Stage 7, which showcased 47 kilometres of Whistler's best trails between Creekside and Spruce Grove. And after celebrating the racers' grit and determination, in the end the trails stole the limelight. Wicks said the Whistler stage was both the hardest and the most fun, as Team Kona could sit back and enjoy the ride with their victory essentially secured."[Stage 7] was definitely the most difficult trail riding, as far as technical goes - probably the most fun, too. Some of the earlier stages were a lot of fire road and the closer we got to Whistler, the more trails we got, so it was pretty awesome. Today was a lot of fun," Wicks said. "There was some pretty hard climbing, but they made up for it with some really sweet trails."Bennett said the Whistler stage was tough on him, and he thought the Stage 5 leg that included the Rat Race Trail System was his favourite."[In Whistler] the trails are beautiful, but over there they're less used, more pristine and less chopped up, so they were just magic," Bennett said.Australian duo Tim Bennett and Adrian Jackson, rode their momentum from a tage 2 victory to finish third overall, and raved about the B.C. Bike Race experience, which drew riders from 17 countries."The trails we rode this week are the best trails I've ever ridden in my life, anywhere in the world," said Bennett. "Compare? I wouldn't compare them to anything else, because they're the best."A member of last year's overall third-place team, Manuel Prado captured fifth this year with fellow Costa Rican Marvin Campos. Prado had high praise for the event overall, but the Squamish stage was tops in his estimation."[Squamish] was probably my favourite day. The climbs kind of suited my style, and the descents also, they were pretty technical, pretty steep and fun, fast, so definitely something I enjoyed a lot."Grant Lamont, course director for Stage 7, said he was pleased that a team powered by B.C. experience took the top spot, and that the Whistler leg earned the praise of many riders and went off smoothly. "The big compliment to me was that Kris Sneddon said it was the best course of the whole week," Lamont said.Sneddon and Wicks came across the Whistler-stage finish line behind the team of Beijing 2008 Olympian Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard, and the pairing of Andreas Hestler and Max Plaxton. Both highly regarded duos were impeded by mechanical problems and punctures early in the race, but fought back for some impressively speedy finishes in the later stages.Last year's champions, Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk of the Trek VW Mountain Bike Team, were the overall runners-up this time around, after fighting back from a serious deficit courtesy of a mechanical issue in Stage 1. In the women's category, Americans Sara Bresnick-Zocchi and Kelli Emmett of Taint Slo grabbed the lead in Stage 1 and never looked back, while Whistler's Fanny Paquette and Vanessa Stark finished 12th.Wendy Simms and Normon Thibault, competing as Team Kona - Riding in Memory of Denis Fontaine, dominated the co-ed category all week, as did brothers Brian and Bruce Johnson in Veterans 100.
