Distance: approx 20km / 12.4 miles
Elevation Gain: U/K
Start Line: Base of Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler Upper Village
Finish Line: Base of Blackcomb Mountain, Whistler Upper Village

Day Seven Begins with the start at the Base of Blackcomb Mountain beside the Fairmont Chateau Whistler and the Four Seasons Hotel.  Got up in Squamish and headed up to Whistler, well-rested and ready to finish up in Whistler.  We got checked into the Fairmont which was super-nice and fancy pants. 

Got bikes together and herded into the starting chute little the cattle we had learned to be. Angela worked her way towards the front as the faster you are, the closest to the front you start.  We got to see Katie and Virginia for a few minutes until they worked their way into the middle.  Then Kathy and I got into our usual spot “at the back”. 

Here’s where  I’m gonna let Kathy report again, before we go there, know that Kathy’s second home is the DH trails at Whistler.  She is in her element on the descents and that’s the “fun part”…so here we go ….”We started at the base of Blackcomb, climbed up under the Magic Chair to the Air Dome area, then rode back down the other side, then fire road over to Whistler. Up the fire road above the Bone Yard until Easy Does It. Climbed up Easy Does It to the fire road above Dirt Merchant then continued climbing on the fire road up above Crank It Up. Why you ask? Just because we like to climb! Marie (new team member for 2011, yahoo!!-had to insert that, sorry!)  and Josh were there cheering us on. It was fantastic to see some familiar faces on the trials. Then we dropped from the fire road into Crank It Up at the Olympic chairlift. Because I’m slow, we were riding in the back of the pack with all the amateur racers from places like Florida, Idaho and Texas and coming down Crank It Up with them was just scary. There were a number of casualties, including a near miss on the step-up on the lower portion of CIU. I’m sure the rider got scared and braked half way up the step-up and fell off her bike as a result. She and bike were completely blocking the trial. When she saw me, did she scramble to get the hell OUT of the WAY?!??! NO!!!! She looks over at me and stretches her arms out like a scarecrow across the trail, completely blocking it. I’m track standing at the top thinking, “I’ve just walked up all this f#*ing fire road, with the motivation of riding CIU, like HELL I’m walking up this stupid step-up! Come on lady; get the hell out of the way!!! Move!!!” At that point she realized I wasn’t going to stop and she finally moved her right arm allowing just enough space. I let off the brakes and rolled through, with barely enough speed to crest the top. Dammit! I looked back over my left shoulder at her and yelled, “Are you okay?” Got to the bottom and immediately started another fire road climb back up and over to Blackcomb. Then back down and over to the Lost Lake Trails.”…

The Lost Lake Trails are always a ton of fun but we were ready to make our way home.  Super-excited to get through the singletrack and great to see familiar faces (see Carmie on the right of Sara’s pic of me finishing – yeah!!!) and to finish up and get our coffee beans and belt buckle.  I turned to see Kathy, getting the object of her desires all these long days.  Was a great ride and fun to know that a 12 mile ride was “short”!! 

Got showered up, dressed and Jose, Angela and I went down to chat with the Egan clan and came across Sara and Andy.  We sat down, had some nachos and our first beer of the evening and made plans to meet up with Kathy.  Shortly thereafter we met up Kathy and found that she had already found bought a belt and was sporting her finishers belt buckle.  More nachos, more beer, and we headed off to the banquet to meet up with the Egans.  The banquet food was great, the wine and beer just fine, we got a chance to say “great job” to some fellow racers and then it was off to bed in our lovely feather beds at the Fairmont. 

For some tidbits of Day 7 – here’s the last video in the series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm0pUA2YOqA