The iconic Squamish mountain biking event runs for the final time

It’s been a great 20-year run for the classic Test of Metal mountain bike race in Squamish, B.C. The 67-km course was marked off for the final time on June 18. Organizers had lifted the traditional 800-rider cap that had been implemented in 1998. This year, 1,175 riders signed up for an emotional last chance to experience the event that many riders, volunteers and spectators have been enjoying for two decades.

“Before we announced to the organizing committee that Stewart and I made the decision,” organizer Cliff Miller said of the choice he and fellow event principal Stewart Kerr had made, “I looked around the table and a lot of us were greyer and wrinklier than we were 20 years ago. Nobody was really too upset. It’s a relief almost. Some of those people have been with us for more than 15 years. But it was time.”

I had only ridden the Test once before. In 2010, my wife and I, who were then living in Toronto, had just participated in an unrelated, five-day stage race in B.C. that was pretty much a disaster. When word got out of how unhappy the participants were, Miller offered up free entries to all who raced the five-day event. We got into his sold-out, but properly run, mass-start event a little later that same year. Pretty amazing, but not surprising from an organizer who has donated more than $200,000 to the local community throughout the years. His gesture may be what showed us how great Squamish is and why we now make it our home.

“We put Squamish on the map as a mountain biking destination,” Miller said. “Test of Metal has impacted tens of thousands of people over the years. A lot of people used it as a reason to get fit. Squamish has become a mountain bike destination because of it.”

Prior to this year’s race, I looked back at my previous finish time, which would have been faster without my habit of going out too hard and cramping. I signed up confident that I could better my time easily. Being six years wiser with home-trail advantage and a climate that allows an almost year-round riding season, how could I not go faster?

Well, as it turns out, I am no wiser. I self seeded myself in a much-too-fast corral and paid the price only an hour into the race. As the pack flew up through my neighbourhood with people on their front yards cheering and blasting

tunes like “Eye of the Tiger,” I could not help but push the throttle too much.

With a sudden and wicked case of quad cramps before the first feed zone that leads to Nine Mile Hill, I knew it was going to be a really tough day. My hands were completely numb navigating the completely sloppy Ring Creek Rip and the slick Powerhouse Plunge. As my hamstrings tired from taking up the slack from my non-functioning quads, they took their turn seizing up. The toughness of this race isn’t its technical difficulty, but the multiple, long in-the-saddle climbs followed by descents that are long with very little pedalling but continuous standing. On the course’s final stretch of punchy climbs, I saw many riders wincing as their legs and pedals came to a halt with the finish line almost within sight. I may have been 20 minutes slower this time, but there was no way I wasn’t going to finish the final Test.

With the iconic Canadian mountain biking event over, we’ll see what will come next. “Something will spring up in its place,” Miller said. “It will evolve.”