Day 2 Mt Washington (morning) then onto Sun Peaks

No aches, no pains! So lets throw it down some more trails, screams the
gang. A busy morning, with the riders keen to pack in as many runs as possible before lunch.
They know that after lunch we have a 7-hour trip across to Kamloops and Sun Peaks.

Magical Mystery Trail, Hustler, Big Brother and Fantastic are the chosen trails of the riders. Again and again they looped back to the
top for another run. This coaching is very different to a standard Mad March Racing camp – with just four riders we can keep a real fast flow with the usual 100% focus on technique. In just one day we’ve seen such an improvement in riding – they’re confident and already riding trails that we planned for later in the week.

A reluctant gang wash up, eat lunch and pack into the rig. The competition continues in the van with GT3 on the PlayStation. You know
that face, the face that somebody pulls in extreme concentration – does it make you faster? Maybe not! But it’s sure fun to watch.

With a brief break to fill empty bellies we’re on the road. We finally arrive at Sun Peaks at 2am, agree to meet at 9:45am to start our first day on
the slopes and retire for what remains of the night.

Day 3 on the Ultimate Road Trip – Sun Peaks

What a resort! Hosting many of Canada’s big races and the 2006 Masters Downhill World
Championships. It’s a great feeling for the winners to be with Shaums March, the
current Masters World Champion, on the mountain where he won the title. Chris tells me he feels like a rock and roll star – The Ultimate Road Trip is doing what it
says on the tin.

Today was a very different day of weather – rain and lots of
it. This could have put a downer on the day, but the gang couldn’t get
their kit on quick enough! Showing riders how to ride in the dry is
much easier than trails that are changing all the time because of the
rain, but as ever the riders just blew us away grasping all of the pointers. John
Galvin got a lot of confidence, but it came back to bite him with a
combination of three jumps back to back with the last one bucking him
over the bars. He came out of it fine, though, and went on to shred the rest of the day.

We’d like to stop for lunch, but we couldn’t convince the gang to
get off their bikes, so it’s a can of Red Bull, a granola bar and back on the chair lift. Sun Peaks has so many trails to offer. We
recommend getting on Route 66 or Smooth Smoothie to get you warmed up, then rock over to Gummy Bear for a steeper blast. Even with the amount
of rain we had the trails stayed tight – in fact it helped the riders that the dust was damped down. Sadly, though, the weather really did a turn with the temperature dropping and the rain hammering. Amazingly this didn’t stop the gang from demanding one more
run. This would have been the last run of the day, but the thunder and lightning
started and the Sun Peaks crew had to close the lift.

So the first full day of riding is in the bag – it feels
good. Ready for a shower, laundry room and a couple of cold beers.
The mood of the gang was one of ‘party night’. Jordon (PR Manager for
Sun Peaks) took us to a great restaurant called Mackers. It went downhill from there! Pitcher after pitcher just kept coming to the table.
It wasn’t long before a plan was hatched to go on to to see a
band. What came next took us all by surprise, the band was
mental! The lead singer started with this human beat box. I have never
heard anything so good. It’s hard to describe their style – punk rock hippie rap? Good, though. No surprises the beer kept coming, and soon we
were all dancing! These guys set the place alight, girls where soon
dancing on the bar, Shaums insisted that Marie Helen join
them and Chris soon became the man made of elastic.

It was great to see the gang kick back and really go for it. We shall see what the
morning leaves us with – lets hope there aren’t too many sore heads!

More at www.bikeparksbc.com.