Throwdown Thursday

A gift to B.C. mountain bikers during the pandemic

With every race on the 2020 B.C. mountain bike calendar cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, longtime Abbotsford rider Mike Rauch swooped in and saved – or at least salvaged – the season for his community. His superpower? The deed to Glenridge Acres – a 77-acre plot of steeply sloped agricultural land, which he purchased in 2017 and has since criss-crossed with a private labyrinth of trails – the product of two-and-a-half years of building. With a course already in place, it wasn’t a stretch for Rauch to collaborate with Cycling BC and start Throwdown Thursdays.

Rauch was in the midst of organizing his second annual 12 Hours of Glenridge mountain bike event on the property when everything changed and he had to cancel. His pivot was a mountain bike time trial series limited to 50 people and abiding by physical distancing and other health regulations on his 9-km course. “Even though we have to socially distance, it’s pretty easy to hang out by your mountain bike and talk to someone six feet away. That’s how races go anyway,” said Rauch.

Rauch and his family organized six rounds between June and the end of August that drew participants from as faraway as Penticton, 370 km to the east. The start list saw riders age 10 to 61 and included everyone from first-timers to pros. During a race night, the densely forested hillside echoed with cheers, gear shifts, brake howls and humming tires as racers heaved themselves up and around steep switchbacks and careened down swooping descents with bermed corners.

Current Canadian elite men’s cyclocross champion Michael van den Ham tested his legs at Glenridge. “I did four of the TTS, hit my highest max heart rate numbers in years, made good power, and didn’t win a single one,” said van den Ham, who incorporated the races into his training program in hopeful anticipation of a 2020–21 cyclocross season. Norco Factory racer Jenn Jackson also took a stab at the final Throwdown to log at least some form of competition before heading to Europe for an abbreviated World Cup season.

“One of the things that has been a nice surprise is the calibre of the riders,” Rauch said. “I wasn’t really expecting so many pro or high-level riders.”

Geza Rodgers, 14, who placed fourth overall in the women’s series, was happy to have goal events: “Without the XC season this year, the Thursday Throwdowns really helped me get in the spirit and challenge myself. Super stoked that this was able to happen amongst all the crazy these days,” she said.

With the success of Throwdown, Rauch has decided 2020 will not be a one-off in terms of hosting midweek series: “I do think in future years, even if there isn’t a covid-type situation, we’ll run some form of racing on the property beyond just the 12-hour race,” he said. This announcement at the series finale drew cheers and applause.

The Thursday evening time trial was a family affair, organized and timed with stopwatches by Rauch’s wife, Winsome, and six children, ranging in ages from five to 16. However, as informal as it was, Throwdown became the highlight of many a B.C. racer’s summer, with rounds selling out well in advance. The event not only gave riders a chance to get their racing fix in real life, but also to see familiar faces. The post-race vibe felt comfortingly normal, with riders milling around and sharing “war stories” from their laps, which averaged around 50 minutes of suffering. Even though riders kept a little farther apart than usual, warmth and camaraderie permeated the summer evening as the sun set over the Fraser Valley.

“During a race night, the densely forested hillside echoed with cheers, gear shifts, brake howls and humming tires.”