Cumberland crowns 2024 BC Bike Race champions after wild week on Vancouver Island

In most stage races, positions are mostly sorted out by the final day. The opposite was true at this year’s BC Bike Race. On the men’s side, the top two were separated by less than a minute coming into Day 7 racing in Cumberland, B.C. On the women’s side, a dramatic day of racing saw the top two riders in the overall finish outside the podium. New stage winners, overall podium changes, mechanicals and biomechancals and an an impossibly tight race for the Fox Timed Downhill titles, Cumberland had it all. What a way to wrap up a week of racing on Vancouver Island.

Pro women’s pandemonium electrifies Cumberland finale

This year’s pro women’s field is deep and racing has been tight. The leader’s jersey changed hands daily until stage 5, when Evelyn Dong managed to hold onto it for consecutive stages. Maghalie Rochette went on the attack in Campbell River, and was rewarded for her solo effort with a return to yellow at the end of stage 6. That set up a thrilling race for the podium on Sunday’s final day of racing.

Rochette, knowing no lead was safe this week, went on the offensive early. The multi-time Canadian cyclocross national champion (and former BC Bike Race winner with Catharine Pendrel), escaped the rest of the women early. In pursuit were Haley Smith, finding a burst of speed at the week’s end, Katerina Nash, Catharine Pendrel and Hannah Simms. With stage wins and overall placings still up for grabs, Rochette was getting no gifts on Sunday.

One rider missing from the fray was Evelyn Dong. The veteran U.S. racer battled a bout of food poisoning overnight and was working hard to limit her losses.

“Yeah, I had a little bit of a rough night. But you know, everyone’s run down at the end of a stage race. This shit happens. So I just gave it a good shot,” Dong said after the finish line. How do you manage tired legs and the after effects of illness? “Ooh, I didn’t have much of a strategy. Warming up I knew couldn’t go at all. I tried to hang in off the start and once I knew I wasn’t going to be able to even hang on the road, i just backed off and tried to ride my pace.”

Dong would end up just 95 seconds back of Rochette at the finish line. But instead of battling for first and second, the leading duo finished the stage fourth and fifth.

“Today I had a minute and a half lead but I knew Evelyn would be charging and knew this was maybe not enough. So I started really fast again. I thought I’d try increase the gap as much as I could to have a buffer,” Rochette recounts. “At 5 km to go, I thought, Ok, now I can just ride easy. As I thought that, ‘ping’ there goes my wheel. I tried to fix it, and it worked for a km, and I tried again and it worked for another km. But it wasn’t working. Then, with 2km, my husband caught up again and said “What the fuck, again?” and offered his wheel. I wasn’t sure what to do , to be honest, but I took it.”

Since Rochette’s partner, David Gagnon, was also racing in the pro men’s event, the wheel transfer doesn’t count as outside assistance and is within the rules. Both Rochette and Dong managed to salvage their dramatic final day to maintain their 1-2 position in the overall and, at awards, shared the top step in recognition of a hard-fought week on the bike.

The leader’s misfortunes opened the door for a new stage winner. Haley Smith spent much of the week locked into third place. On Sunday, the Trek Driftless racer was already closing in on Rochette when the latter’s wheel gave out. That left Smith clear to ride out the stage and take the win. as well as third overall. Not far behind, Katerina Nash flew by Rochette to take second. Hannah Simms had caught, then followed Catharine Pendrel for much of the day. When the latter also had a tricky flat, Simms sailed clear to take third in Cumberland, her first BCBR podium.

Maxxis Factory showdown

In the men’s race, Sean Fincham and Andrew L’Esperance balanced teamwork and competition all week. That pushed the two Maxxis Factory Racers clear of the rest of the field, with Fincham holding a small advantage on the start line in Cumberland. L’Esperance, the defending BC Bike Race champion and Canadian marathon national champion, wasn’t keen on letting his title go without a fight.

Off the line, though, it was Tyler Clark leading at the summit of the day’s first climb. The Hockley Armada racer was well off the pace for challenging the Maxxis duo in the overall. But he was just five seconds behind multi-time Canadian XCO national champion Peter Disera in the race for third. While Clark would eventually be passed by Fincham and L’Esperance, finishing third by seven seconds, the early effort was still rewarded. Clark. moves into third overall.

Fincham, though, would cross the line first. That gives him another BCBR stage win and, more importantly, cemented his first BC Bike Race win in his first appearance. The time difference after seven days of racing? Just 38.3 seconds.

“It was a good week. A hard week for sure. L’Espy didn’t make it easy,” Fincham said after the finish line.
“Every day we just pushed each other to the limit. There was just nothing into it the whole week. I managed to get a couple seconds here or there, but it felt like we were so evenly matched so it was kind of cool to battle all the way to the last day.”

Fox Timed Downhill comes down to the wire

While both pro races were thrilling, the closest contest of the week was for the men’s Fox Timed Downhill champion. The race-within-a-race was re-introduced for this year’s BC Bike Race and animated the most challenging descents of the week.

On the men’s side, Peter Disera and Max McCulloch were locked in a heated battle for the lead. McCulloch, an Island local, started the day with over ten seconds advantage. The last stage, an epic descent connecting Mumbo Jumbo, Lost Wood and Blockhead, was long enough to throw the results into upheaval.

Disera put in an impressive effort, setting the fastest downhill time on Sunday. But he would still come up just short.

McCulloch wins the Fox Timed Downhill title by a razor thin 0.6 seconds. The effort helped push McCulloch to seventh overall, just behind Geoff Kabush.

“It came down to the line. I had I think 23 seconds coming into the last day, but Peter Disera was flying all week and I knew he was coming for me. I couldn’t have gone any faster, and he got me by 10 seconds. I don’t know how he did it. I don’t think the guys on enduro bikes when Canadian enduro came through here were riding as fast as he was,” McCulloch adds. Shots fired? “Ha ha, I think it was raining when the enduro was here, yeah,” McCulloch added, backtracking a little. Though he was third at that race, so he should know.

On the women’s side, it was Canadian mountain biking icon Catharine Pendrel taking the Fox Timed Downhill win. Pendrel came out of retirement for the week to narrowly beat out gravity racing legend Tracy Moseley for the title. While she isn’t planning any sort of comeback, Pendrel says getting back on a start line did rekindle the competitive drive a little.

“It’s very easy for me to turn back into race brain. When you’re a racer, it’s just part of who you are. But at the same time, when you race once or twice a year, you haven’t’ trained your brain to push hard for all that time, let alone your body. I was happy with how mentally and physically I was able to push this week.”

With a dramatic day in Cumberland wrapping up the 2024 BC Bike Race, plans are already being put into place for next year’s event. Super Early Bird registration for the 2025 BC Bike Race opens Tuesday, July 9 at Noon, PST.