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Four Queens punishes and rewards

All Four one and One Four All Steve Reid navigates a steep rock line on Lower Sproatt during Thursday’s Time Trial, the first stage of the 2010 Four Queens mountain bike race. Photo by Andrew Mitchell
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It takes a lot to win a race like the Four Queens - solid technical bike skills, a high level of fitness and endurance, some mechanical know-how and, when push comes to shove, a sense of humour when the last thing you feel like doing is laughing. That's because luck also plays a part, and making it from start to finish without a major mechanical or crash makes you the exception to the rule.

Take Dave Burch. He finished fourth on the first day of the event, a time trial on the July 8 Toonie Ride course, and then everything went sideways. He then had trouble on the next four stages and three days, everything from mechanicals to a crash to making the wrong turn in Emerald.

And while Burch was an extreme example, several wheels were bent, tires were punctured, seats broken, chains and spokes snapped, brakes rendered useless. Suffice it to say that Monday was a busy day for Whistler bike shops.

And so ended the Four Queens ride on Sunday after four days of challenges geared to the type of rider that thrives in the North Shore's and Sea to Sky's technical terrain.

There were four Queen rides: a time trial on July 8 in honour of Freddie Mercury; a downhill from the top of Garbanzo on July 9 in honour of the Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts; a two-part day on Saturday, July 10 including a ride around the No Flow zone of Emerald and a super D on PHD, in honour of Rupaul; and a 37 km ride in Pemberton on Sunday in honour of Lady Macbeth.

Race director Tony Horn said the race was probably not as hard as some people thought, especially the last day in Pemberton. He was also impressed by the overall quality of the riding, and some unbelievable performances during the race.

"There were some amazing stories on the course. Like Jinya (Nishiwaki) - he works at Chromag and basically passed his boss Ian Ritz twice on the downhill, and the second time he wasn't wearing a shoe," said Horn. "I was sweeping and got the call to watch out for a shoe somewhere on Crack Addict. He (Nishiwaki) still launched the GLC drop without his shoe, just wearing a sock on a flat pedal with spikes sticking out of it."

On Saturday, some 25 riders cleaned a tough, technical climb on Big Kahuna to have points subtracted from their four-day total - including Sylvie Allen, the 2009 Four Jacks champion. By making the climb, Allen tied with Joanna Harrington for the lead heading into the fourth day.

Horn was especially happy that the race was so close last year.

"Last year Sylvie and Matt (Ryan) ran away with it so it looked like the point system wasn't working, but this year was so close and actually came down to the last day for both the men and the women."

A first place finish in any stage of the Four Queens was worth 0.75 points, while second was worth two points, third was worth three points, and so on. You could gain five minutes by clearing the climb on Big Kahuna.

On the last day Kevin Phelps - who got a flat on In Deep during the downhill race and still placed 25 th while riding his rim - scooped points leader Chris Johnson on the final climb to take third place. That move made all the difference, putting Dylan Wolsky first overall and dropping Johnston to second in the points standings.

Johnston won the first two days of racing and was third and fourth on the last two days to end up with 8.5 points. Wolsky finished second and third on days one and two, tied for first on Saturday, and placed second on Sunday to finish with 7.75.

Wolsky, who is coaching WORCA's youth dirt camps this summer, enjoyed racing his friend Johnston to the finish. Although he's better known locally as a downhiller, he does enter ever Toonie Ride and this year he took part in both the NimbyFifty and North Shore Bike Fest.

"Chris is a good buddy of mine and we spend a lot of time riding together," said Wolsky. "We were both hungry to win something, and decided to give this a shot. We knew all the local guys like Matt Bodkin, Kevin Phelps, Chris Clark and Mike Boehm were also going to give it a shot. Chad Miles has been killing it, and Dave Burch is Dave Burch. It was going to be tough, but we knew it was going to be fun as well."

Wolsky was glad it came down to the last day.

"Chris (Johnston) lives in Vancouver and stayed with me for the race, and we had a lot of fun poking fun at each other and riling each other up," said Wolsky. "We knew Chad (Miles) was still in there, and that anything can happen - the chance of a mechanical on a long, technical race like that is so high, but luckily I didn't have any issues. I bent my chain ring a little on the third day but that's about it."

Wolsky's favourite day was the last, when he rode Gravitron and Stimulus in Pemberton for the first time. He also liked the race on Super D on Saturday, and was amazed to do so well in the No Flow Zone.

"I honestly don't like the No Flow Zone, but I knew I had to go out there and get into it. A lot of the riders are really good in there, really strong, and that I had to step it up on day three if I wanted to be in the race. I was pretty determined."

Chad Miles placed third with 16.75 points. Rounding out the top 10 were Chris Clark, Kevin Phelps, Arthur Gaillot, Matt Bodkin, Seb Kemp, Stephan Desjardins and James Crowe. Matt Ryan, the defending men's champion, is a member of the Specialized Super D team and was not in town to defend his title.

The women's race was a close-fought battle from the start. Joann Harrington won the first stage, followed by Fanny Paquette and Sylvie Allen. Allen won the second stage, followed by Kari Mancer and Harrington, with Paquette in fourth place. Allen and Harrington then tied for points on day three to go into the final stage in Pemberton with 4.5 points each.

Harrington said she took off on the first climb on the last day, expecting one of the other riders to catch her on one of the technical descents. They never did.

According to Horn, all three women finished the last stage within half an hour of the top male and within seven minutes of one another.

Harrington finished the Four Queens race with just 5.75 points, followed by Sylvie Allen with 7.5 and Fanny Paquette with 11. Rounding out the top 10 were Paige Bell, Rena Worden, Robin O'Neill, Sarah Hasek, Kari Mancer, Petra Hauke and Marla Zucht.

"It was quite amazing how everybody was riding," said Harrington. "I know what Sylvie can do, but Fanny really impressed me as well. One flat tire could have changed the whole race."

Harrington said she enjoyed PHD and the Pemberton stage the most, and thought the course in the bike park was fun. Her least favourite section was the Toonie Ride course. "That's such a brutal course, and it was a hot day," she said. "It's not as long as the last day but you're feeling it by the end."

Harrington said the hardest part was balancing her work at her store, the Fineline bike shop in Function Junction, and riding on Thursday and Friday while setting up her own bike and the bikes of other Four Queens racers. She even found herself in the shop on Saturday night at midnight replacing brake pads that had worn down to nothing on the downhill and PHD descent.

"It's not that long, but it's a lot of singletrack, a lot of technical trails and the hot weather was a bit of a shock to the system," she said. "By the end of it you're just tired."

Harrington may race the GearJammer for fun, but is also planning to race a World Cup in New York State this summer to keep her foot in the door with the Australian cross-country team. The World Championships are in Quebec this year, but she isn't looking that far ahead.

Complete results and more information on the race can be found online at www.worca.com.

The worst Four Queens?

Of all the riders at the start line on Thursday, few were dealt as bad a hand as Dave Burch, who placed second overall in the 2009 Four Jacks race and was one of the favourites in 2010 with Matt Ryan out of the running.

All went well on the first stage, where Burch placed fourth on the time trial.

"Then things kind of went downhill from there," said Burch, with an emphasis on "downhill."

On the second stage of the race in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, Burch got a flat on his trail run with the result that he was no longer going tubeless. He also used his only spare tube.

Then, on his actual race run his chain got bounced around and twisted around in his drive train. He couldn't fix it, and had no choice but to remove it and ride the rest of the course chainless.

Then he got another flat tire on Crack Addict, and without a spare tube he was left to run down the rest of the course to the bottom.

That put Burch out of the running for the Four Queens title, but he showed up on Saturday looking for a little redemption. He found it, running second to Chad Miles in the No Flow Zone until he took a wrong turn off No Girlie Man and went off course. A few other riders made the mistake, but caught it in time while Burch didn't finish.

"When you're running at that speed, 100 per cent with the lactic acid burning, you're just focused on pedaling and not crashing and the singletrack is a blur in front of you," said Burch.

That misdirection put him well in the back for the PHD stage. Before the race he stripped a bolt on his adjustable drop seat and had to run the ride with a solid seat post - and had to get off at the top to lower his seat for the descent.

All was going well until he hit a rock on the PHD descent and crashed, then watched his new Rocky Mountain Altitude bounce down a rock face, "probably leaving about $1,000 worth of carbon fibre on the rocks," Burch joked.

His handlebars were also twisted around and locked backwards, which left Burch running once again.

The next morning he also noticed that his rear shock, which is valued around $1,000, failed and was no longer rebounding. He locked off the shock and decided to ride fully rigid, but about five minutes after the start it began to sag once again. He rode back to Pemberton from the start to get his hardtrail cross-country bike, and finished the course as best he could.

"It was super-discouraging, but it makes you realize that racing is only part of this, it's about the community and the event, and the great stories," said Burch. "It gets to a point where you can only laugh about it."