Five pro bikes (and one fixie) from Belgian Waffle Ride Canada

Belgian Waffle Ride is a different take on gravel race. Courses usually have around a 50/50 split between paved surfaces and “unroad,” what BWR calls anything not paved. At the first BWR Canada, the unroad included everything from rail grade gravel paths to steep, chundery FSR’s and short, but significant singletrack sections.

All that course variability makes bike and equipment choices more interesting. Here’s what five of the fastest pros, and one seriously committed Vancouver rider who finished the 218-km Waffle course on a fixed gear bike, rode on Sunday in the Cowichan Valley.

Haley Smith – Ibis Haka MX

Haley Smith was one of the few riders running Fox 32 TC gravel fork. She used it to help create her winning lead during the singletrack sections

Shimano GRX Di2 in a 2x set up for range and tighter steps between gears

48-31 combo for Smith up front and a 4iiii power meter to keep tabs on her effort

Maxxis Receptor in 40mm width on the team's Stan's rims

Easton EC90 ALX bars have a flat top and slight flare, with the GRX hoods angled in for aero gains. Plus a few key course notes on the stem

Tire plugs hiding under the top tube

Maxxis Factory Team sticker for Haley Smith

Geoff Kabush – Open UPPER

Geoff Kabush's Open UPPER

Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 with 50/34 up front and wide, but not too wide range cassette gives range and the close gear steps needed for BWR's mix of long road and rail grade gravel and 20+ per cent climbs

Stans Grail CB7 wheels with Maxxis Receptor in 40c. Kabush opted not to run inserts, even after flatting during course recon, explaining he "needed more help on the hills than the descents today" in the power-heavy men's field

Easton makes several gravel and all-road bars. Kabush sticks with the standard 44cm road bars

Enduro bearings on the wheels and bottom bracket. Every extra watt adds up after seven hours on the bike.

Austin Killips – Nice Bikes

Killips' steel Nice Bikes sped to second on Sunday

SRAM Red eTap with Quarq power meter

Zipp bars and stem up front

A more traditional bar shape for Killips

One of the few, and fastest steel bikes out there on Sunday

UCI approved, this is also Killips 'cross bike

Killips' Zipp G40 tires had more tread than most but, with plenty of singletrack at the start, were surely appreciated on course

Hammerhead and a BWR Canada race plate

Nathan Haas – Colnago G3-X “Purple Rain”

Nathan Haas Colnago G3-X for Belgian Waffle Ride Canada

Campagnolo Ekar gravel group with Garmin Rally XC pedals

Campagnolo Shamal rims with Schwalbe G-One tires

Wide sweep to the bars on Haas' Colango

Aero and all the hand options to provide relief over seven hours in the saddle

Dynaplug bar ends in case a puncture should happen far from an aid station

And several CO2's strapped to the frame for reinflating flats

If the Dynaplug and Co2 didn't work, Haas had more tools under that ultralight Selle Italia saddle

The Colnago getting rowdy on Prevost

Katerina Nash – Specialized Crux

Katerina Nash's Specialized Crux set up for Belgian Waffle Ride Canada

Shimano Dura Ace Di2 with Crank Bro's mtb pedals. And a OneUp pump/tool hiding on the bottle cage

"Full Send"

Supacaz tape, Garmin and more enduro bearings for Nash.

Maxxis Receptor 40c / Stan's carbon fibre rims combo

Tyrone Siglos’ State fixie

State bikes tracklocross fixie in gravel mode

A massive gearing combo

That's a big 48-tooth chainring up front

And a 20-t cog out back. Siglos says he had a 17 on the other side of his hub for the long, false flat sections of the course, but his chain was already too stretched for that to be an option on Sunday.

State bikes probably never dreamed is steed rig would be put through this sort of ordeal

Truly earning that Badass Ale from Victoria's Category 12 brewing

Double bar bags for all the snacks.

A single brake lever for the front brake, with tape underneath because you really, really don't want that twisting

There wasn' tmuch tread for grip, but at least the cornerign knobs were sort of intact

Worn down for speed? sure.

Maxxis TreatLite 29x2.1" at least adds some cushion

The State frame just has clearance for a 700x44c WTB Radler out back

With tires like that, carrying a good luck charm along for the ride isn't the worst idea...

Siglos wasn't up with the leaders, but he was the first fixie across the line.

Alright, so Siglos isn’t a pro rider, or sponsored at all. But the Vancouver rider was the first (and only) fixie to finish the entire 218-km Waffle ride. That is a hard feat to fathom. The course wasn’t just long, it was steep – up and down – with several singletrack sections.

“The very first steep climb, my legs started cramping,” Siglos said when asked what the hardest part of the day was. “By about 100km, I settled in and started to think I was going to be ok.” Finishing was hard. Finishing on a fixie is next level, and Siglos absolutely earned the Category 12 Badass Ale finisher’s beer!