BC Bike Race climbed into its penultimate day with a stage full of drama. The men’s race is as exciting as its ever been, with a constantly changing lead and several riders fighting for podium positions. Apex, the route’s highest point, delivered another shake-up in the standings courtesy of a steadily accelerating Geoff Kabush.
Catharine Pendrel, back for her first race since retirement, landed her first stage victory at the 2022 BC Bike Race. Sandra Walter still leads and the fight for third continues.
Stage 5 of the BC Bike Race
After five days of intense racing, the 16th BC Bike Race reached its high point. Apex Mountain served as, quite literally, the apex of the race. Topping out at 2,175m elevation, Stage 5’s 28-km backcountry-style excursion may have been short, by BCBR standards, but still served up 1,280m of climbing.
The reward was 13 km of nearly untouched sub-alpine singletrack before one very punchy climb to the first of two visits to the week’s high point. With 360-degree views over the Okanagan’s valleys and mountain peaks, it only made sense to visit twice. After a loop down the perfect loamy dirt of Apex’s “The Good, the Bad and The Ugly,” racer’s climbed back up to the summit before running through “The Gauntlet”, a restored trail bench-cutting back to Apex village. From the summit, there was only one question for racers. Were they feeling lucky? Well? Are ya?
Pro Women: Pendrel’s return to the top
Catharine Pendrel was one rider that was definitely feeling the Apex singletrack. It might not be luck that carried the two-time world champion to the finish line first, so much as a career’s worth of training. But the recently-retired pro was happy to take the win.
“Today was good! I knew it was a shorter day. My goal was to stick with Sandra as long as I could. But I was moving good and with a solid group. I knew I was wanting to make passes and she was maybe not feeling as chipper. So I just kept charging.”
Going into the day’s final climb, Sandra Walter was closing in on her long-time friend and training partner. Pendrel dug into the 3-km grunt up the steep fire road back to Apex’ summit to hold her advantage into the final, lengthy descent. The stage winner and this week’s overall leader are friends and training partners off the course, meaning they…
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