BWR Canada anyone?

Steep climbs, technical single track. For me at least, depending on drafting, a 20-25km/h pace for 240km is going to be ambitious.

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I’m a local rider. Was excited to see the BWR coming to BC and jumped at the chance to participate. Signed up for the Waffle and now questioning my choice. I feel like I could “race” the wafer, but would simply be trying to survive the waffle - I have never spent 12 hours on my bike. Any thoughts?

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I’m pretty much in the same boat. Wafer isn’t much longer than a regular gravel race, but the waffle is almost twice the distance.

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I’m going for survival, personally. I know I’m not fit enough to race at any distance, but something that actually pushes my limits for staying on the bike is appealing.

How steep are we talking for this race do you figure? I’m in Vernon so I know how steep BC can be. Most of the time my 36t will be fine, but I’m wondering if I’m best giving myself some extra safety with a 34t chainring instead.

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36T with a wide range cassette should be fine. I’ll be running a 40t up front and an 11-46t. I don’t have any intel on the course, but knowing the area, most other races warn that you’ll want at least 1:1 gearing, which is pretty steep IMO.

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I guess my concern is that 1:1 or lower sounds great in the moment, but is every hill too steep at hour 9? :sweat_smile: 36/50 is easy climbing on pavement, but when the ground gets soft is when the trouble might start! That said, it’s lower gearing than most gravel bikes so I suppose it should be OK.

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I think you’ll be fine. My concern would be being spun out on the road and not being able to take advantage of drafting folks on gravel bikes.

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36/11 will hit 43kmh at 100rpm and 47-48kmh at 110rpm. It depends on your comfort ar 100rpm+ if say, but that will definitely be more challenging at higher speeds. 38T gives you roughly an extra 2kmh at same rpm.

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Uncharted territory for me too. Longest ive done on a hardtail is 120km, 3000m climbing and it nearly killed me. If weather is dry for the Waffle it should be doable, albeit quite a long day.

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Yeah, that’s where I am stuck. Pleased to hear that others are thinking the same way as me.

Yes, the challenge is what hooked me. It’s going to be a very long day and I look sharing this with others on the course.

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Sounds like I’m in a similar boat to a number of you. I’ve signed up for the Waffle but leaning towards the Wafer (in part because I have a guys mtb trip immediately before and likely a bit shattered before getting to the start line).

In terms of the course, for people who know the area, rumor I’m hearing is leaving from Cowichan Exhibition Park, heading to Maple (paved road) and climbing there (non-paved), then head to Tzu (paved road) and climbing there (non-paved). Not sure if they’ll put those climbs on the fire road or use the climbing trails… likely a bit of both. Then back to the other side of the highway and no idea where they’d go from there. Shawnigan and Burnt Bridge area? Cowichan lake? I’ve also heard it could include a climb up Prevost near the end of the race, which would be a beast. This is all speculation / rumor though.

For most of the local gravel events I’ve done I’ve average around 23 km/h (NP in the 220 - 240 watts range, but I’m a bigger dude, gravity isn’t my friend and these courses had a lot of climbing). For me that isn’t sustainable for another 100km. I do think the pavement and group dynamics will help bring that average speed up a bit, but still going to be a really long day. I’ll need to stash some mini-cokes at select spots :slight_smile:

Here is a link to the course profiles of a gravel race that is held in the area. I’m not sure if there will be any overlap, but it gives you a sense of the climbing in the region.

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Pretty sure all this will be included plus the Transcanada trail to lake Cowichan and back. Rumour has it the waffle Will basically be 2 laps of the wafer course.

Good to hear some talk about this event. Thinking I may fly out from Ontario and give the Waffle a try on the hardtail. 36t ring up front and a 9/46 cassette should do the trick? I dunno if I’ll even make cutoff or have to get picked up in the middle of the BC wilderness somewhere… but that is what draws me to this event. Plus I grew up near Duncan. What could we expect for the weather around that time?

Weather is going to be a total roll of the dice. Likely it will be in the high teens and overcast, but could just as easily be 10C and rainy, or mid 20s and sunny. It will depend on the forecast, but I’m planning to start the day with no jacket, but arm and knee warmers. It will still be pretty chilly at 7am.

For what it’s worth on the route discussion- last summer I rode the Cowichan Triple Crown on a MTB. We rode Tzouhalem, then Prevost, then Maple, and back to house near Tzouhalem. All in it was 72km with 2300m of gain. Climbing trails up if there was one and the most direct trail down.

My thoughts were the three mountains (maple, Tzou, and Prevost), out to Lake Cowichan on the rail grade, through to Shawnigan and Kinsol trestle, then back up north to the Exhibition grounds??

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May i ask which tires you used for this ride on your mtb? I’ll be riding a hardtail for BWR so just curious about tires. Thx

I’m running 42 Pathfinders. Partly because that is what is already on my bike, but I think they’ll work well. Other buddies who live in Duncan are running 38s.

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38 pathfinders here. Seem like a good compromise of traction and rolling resistance.

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Good to know, thx! I’ve been testing out the vittoria terrano 2.35 tires on my hardtail this past week and seems good (hopefully :crossed_fingers:).

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