BC Bike Race wraps up under perfect Whistler skies

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The fifth edition of the BC Bike Race concluded under picture perfect skies with a 27-kilometre loop around Whistler’s famous Olympic Plaza on a classic singletrack that’s made the area a mountain bike Mecca. After six days of racing, today’s stellar seventh stage conditions were a fitting end to a solid week.

Squamish local Neil Kindree (Republic Bike Shop / SRAM) put his local knowledge to use and put a minute into the field on the last pair of downhills to not only take his third stage win but also put a personal stamp on the event with a scorching finishing time of one hour and 22 minutes. A bigger surprise was a stunning second place by Brian Lopes (Oakley/Ibis/ENVE/Kenda) who bid his time on the climbs and then literally jumped past Jamis rider Jason Sager and Rocky Mountain’s GC leader Chris Sheppard to take second on the day only two and a half minutes behind Kindree.

"I launched off a ledge with my suspension completely locked out and flat landed in the street," said an ecstatic and out of breath Lopes at the finish. "I was about 10 seconds behind Sager and Sheppard at one point and Sager looked back so Sheppard attacked and I went too and just reeled them in. After I gapped them on the last downhill I was just hanging on going into the finish with a full sprint."

According to Sager he had no idea Lopes was coming up so fast. "Sheppard and I thought we had second and third in the bag and then Lopes airs this ramp and flies right by us, that was a pretty slick move," said an impressed Sager. "I asked Shep earlier if we should be going faster but we thought we were okay."

Sheppard came across the line in third to take the overall solo title. "It was awesome, I felt good," said a pleased Sheppard. "I really wanted to take the win today but after yesterday’s fiasco I ran higher than usual air pressure in my tires and it was noticeable in the wet, technical sections. Still, I’m completely satisfied with how I rode."

Sager’s fourth place secured his second place GC position followed by Kindree in third.

In the men’s duo category, Team Kona's Barry Wicks and Kris Sneddon took the win and and GC title unchallenged, but there was some drama with the second place GC team, Nativo/Devinci's Marty Larski and Ricky Federau when Federau began throwing up in the middle of the night and continued through the morning, putting their start in jeopardy. They soldiered on to a seventh place finish (their worst of the week) to hold onto second place in the GC by a mere 6:20 over the Rocky Mountain Bicycles Factory Team 1's Greg Day and Colin Kerr.

In the women’s categories, solo racer Jennifer Schulz dominated the day and the week to take the overall GC as did the team of Shparkle Horsh And The Hyper Monkey consisting of Simone McCallum and Claire Garcia-Webb from Australia, who won every stage.

Full Results