by Maghalie Rochette
I learned a lesson at BC Bike Race that is, perhaps, the greatest gift for the rest of my career.
Normally, I write a race report after each race because it is simply easier to summarize if you do it right away. Now, although BC Bike Race is technically just one race, it happened over 7 days - 7 races -- and so it feels like I have a lot to say. Here is my best attempt at sharing with you this lesson I learned through 7 days of intense racing and incredible mountain biking in British Columbia.
Here we go!
I learned a lesson at BC Bike Race that is, perhaps, the greatest gift for the rest of my career.
On the 7th day of racing, with 5km to go, I had a big enough gap on the other women and in the general classification that I told myself I could finally relax. All I had to do at this point was to make it safely to the finish line. I maybe had 10min to go — maximum — and I would win BC Bike Race. In fact, the camera guy started following me to film me go down a trail with his Go Pro, and I told him “just cruising until the end”.
As I said that, I started riding very safely…maybe too much. I hit my wheel on a rock and psssssssttttttttttt. The dreaded sound of a tire deflating. I stopped on the side of the trail, tried to find the hole, and noticed I had in fact dented (broken) the wheel. I didn’t think my plug could fix that, so I pumped it up with a Co2 to clip the tire and hope it could last 10 minutes. I managed about 1km until it was flat again. I inflated it again. Another km. I was then out of Co2 cartridges. I started riding on the rim and running when it was too rocky.
People were passing me left and right. Eventually, the second woman on course, Haley Smith, passed me, she gave me a Co2, but at that point the tire was too ripped off the wheel to inflate it again. I kept running and pedalling as fast as I could.
For the last 3 days I had ridden with one thought in mind: “how and where can I gain as many seconds as possible for the GC battle?!”. In that moment, I feared the yellow jersey would slip between my hand, but I kept fighting.
Then, Katerina passed me and yelled “David is right behind”. David showed up and offered his rear wheel. We swapped our wheels, I made it to the finish and I just like that, I had won the BC Bike Race.
I had chased this goal for 7 days, and yet, I didn’t feel like celebrating.
I actually felt like I did not deserve this win. Taking a wheel from someone inside the race is well within the rules. In fact, poor David ran until the finish line as he sacrificed his race for me! But also, riding well enough to not puncture, and knowing how to fix punctures quickly if you do flat, are important parts of racing. The fact that I got away with the win because of David’s help, I felt a bit like an impostor.
In that moment, I almost regretted taking the wheel. I had fought 7 days to try and win, and now I realized I didn’t even care about winning. I told the organizers they could relegate me if they wanted. Would Evelyn Dong had won if I had not taken the wheel? Did I really deserve this?
In that moment, it occurred to me that, at this point, the actual jersey did not matter. I didn't even care about being first of second. All I cared about was how much I had enjoyed chasing that jersey for the past week, because it truly took all I had; mentally, physically, and even tactically. I want to take you through it.
Stage 1 : Mount Work, Victoria. Prologue of 6.8km, 270m D+
On the first day of racing, the prologue was short and spicy and was started as a time trial format. The trails on Mount Work were quite challenging with big rocky obstacles and a soil that was a bit loose. We had flown in the night before, landing in Victoria lat in the night.
I felt very excited to be at BC Bike Race, but a part of me was a bit nervous about going full gas for 7km on trails I had never ridden. So we woke up early and tried to go ride the first trail of the prologue before the start. After what felt like a sub-par performance, I was very happily surprised to find myself in 3rd place, 13 seconds behind Katerina and Evelyn Dong.
Stage 2: Mount Work, Victoria. 26.3km, 703m D+
On Stage 2, Evelyn Dong and I rode away, opening a few minutes gap on the other women. We tested each other all day. Evelyn attacked me on the last steep climb, I couldn't respond and she put 18 more seconds on me. We had such a blast though. I was now 30 seconds back in GC.
Stage 3: Mt Tzouhalem & Maple Mountain -- 48km 1481m D+
On day 3, my goal was to make up some time on the GC battle. The stage was split into two segments; stage 3.a on Mt Tzouhalem and stage 3.b on Maple Mountain. There was a 8km neutral road segment in between. I rode super hard at the start of the stage, opening a gap to the other women, and ridding as hard as I could to gain as many seconds as possible. I did not know how much time I had gained, but did not see the other women after the first part. In the neutral 8km, I was initially thinking of starting the second part with the fast group of men I was with. I thought this would give me the best chance of gaining even more time. But then, I changed my mind. Maybe I wouldn’t put as much time, but it felt right and fair to me to wait for the other women and start the second part all of us together. We regrouped and started the second part. Evelyn and I rode away and stuck together all day. I tried many times but couldn't shake her off my wheels. Finally, I attacked on the last gravel descent to win the stage by a a mere few seconds, and added a couple seconds to my lead.
I got the yellow jersey by 18 seconds at the end of the day. The trails that day were absolutely insane.
Stage 4: Nanaimo -- 39.6km, 980m D+
On day 4 in Nanaimo, I tried to get away at the start again but Evelyn came with me. We ended up riding together all day, testing each other on climbs and descents, but neither of us was shaken. The trails that day were very swoopy and playful. We were having a blast hitting the singletracks together. Evelyn broke her hydration pouch at the start of the stage and had no water, so I shared my bottle of water with her during the day. With about 5km to go, we were riding on a gravel road and I came up to her to offer one last sip. As I got back behind her wheel, I heard my front tire deflating. She felt bad for my puncture but I told her to keep going. I struggled fixing it, all the other women passed me, until eventually with about 2km to go, David passed me too and he offered to give me his wheel so I could make it to the finish. I ended up losing 6minutes on the day.
I was super disappointed after this. Sometimes you puncture because you risked something or made a mistake. That time, I just rolled on a piece of glass in the gravel. What a bummer. 6minutes felt like an insurmountable amount of time, especially after how tight the racing had been the previous days.
Stage 5: Cumberland, 41.6km 1285m D+
Game on! I had 3 more days to try to gain 6 minutes on Evelyn. There was no time to waste. Stage 5 was the Queen stage; the longest and hardest of the race. I knew from the previous days that if Evelyn was riding with me, I couldn't really shake her off. She was too good. So I decided I would try a different strategy and tried to separate myself from the very start of the race. I went full gas on the opening kilometers on the gravel, felt like she was trying hard to stay no my wheel, so I pushed a bit harder to try and make the elastic snap. It worked and I managed to enter the singletrack with a little gap. I kept the pressure on for the first climb of about 50minutes, making sure I could solidify the gap. I was thinking "Out of sight, out of mind". I had no idea how big was my gap, so I kept pushing. That stage was really hard for me. The trails were very fun, but I was so tired that I couldn't enjoy them to the fullest. I finally made it to the end, exhausted, but satisfied with the effort. I managed to gain a little over 3minutes on Evelyn, and found myself 2:45 back on GC. It felt like a victory!
Stage 6: Campbell River, 45.6km, 780m D+
By day 6 of a stage race, everybody is tired. I was too. But told myself I had to take advantage of that, and put the hammer down early, to play in other people's heads. I had a mission and had to stay locked in. The trails on that day were very different from the rest of the week. Less climbing, and the trails were a lot smoother and very flowy...it made me think of cyclocross a little bit. Again, I knew I had to get away at the start, because on flat terrain, it is very easy to stay on someone's wheel. My original plan was to start fast, stick with the fastest men, and "use" their speed to get away. But right before the start, the organizers told us that all women would start in the second wave of 25 people. Shoot! My plan was off, because now, even if some men were with us, us women were the strongest of our wave. I would need to make it happen all by myself.
On the 8km gravel road heading to the trail, I attacked a few times or followed other men's attacks to try to get away. Every time, a men would close the gap to me and bring back all the other women. Crap. I had to make it more decisive. So I hid from the wind, and with 1km to go before the trail, I launched a strong attack. One guy came with me. I heard other women yell to the guys to close the gap. That's the double edged sword of racing with men (a man can give us a wheel to help out, you can sometime get on their wheel to try to get away, but they can also close down your attacks very easily and bring your competitors with them). I managed to make it first into the singletrack and kept pushing. I could see I had a gap, but like the previous day, I had no idea how much. So I spent all day fighting for every second, accelerating out of each corner, and creating speed.
I ended up winning the stage and shaving another 4minutes on GC...finally regaining the yellow jersey! I felt so proud of how I raced and made it happen.
Stage 7: Cumberland, 33.2km, 900m D+
I had only 1.5min lead as we started the last day. It was still very possible for Evelyn to get it back from me. Again we were tired, and I decided I would once again start super hard to pretend like I was still feeling good and fighting. I could have just stayed with her all day, but I was afraid it would not be enough of a buffer if I had a mechanical problem. My plan was to start hard, try to get a gap to solidify a buffer in case a problem happened, and ride at 85-90% all day to make sure I still had gas in the tank if I needed to. I also had to be smart and make no mistake.
I had a big gap and felt good. Everything was going to plan... until the last 5km, where I hit and broke my wheel, and finally crossed the finish line with the yellow jersey and some disappointment... The story you read at the beginning.
The gift was the chase:
And this is where the biggest lesson, and greatest gift of BC Bike Race lies. The real win wasn't the yellow jersey. This yellow jersey is what pushed me to fight all week. But in the end, winning it did not even matter. I would have given it away if I could. The real win was the chase. The real prize was the challenge. All week, I was challenged to make good decisions, to push my body, to take the race in my own hands, to be mentally strong and push fatigue away, to ride my bike technically well and be strategically smart enough to edge out my competitors.
For seven days I was completely enthralled in that pursuit, and it allowed me to find the best within myself. I had loved every minute, and was grateful for that, and grateful to Evelyn for bringing the best out of me.
I'm happy I won, but the win didn't actually matter. And perhaps, this gift is relevant because, as cheesy as it sounds, it teaches me that the pursuit is really the most important & most beautiful part...not the destination. It applies to every goal I am chasing; getting there is the fun part.
My impostor feeling eventually faded thanks to the organizers, my competitors, and other racers at the event who made me realize that taking the wheel was okay, and that I can be proud of how I raced. I still don't know if I would make the same decision if it happened again. But it doesn't matter anymore...it is the decision I made in the heat of the moment. I was reassured that it was okay, and I can now fully appreciate how incredible this week has been.
I'll be back next year, and until then, I'll work on fixing punctures more efficiently! ;)
Congrats to everybody who completed this massive challenge and thanks to BCBR for the wonderful week!
Thanks for reading,
- Maghalie
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