Editor's Note: Subaru/Gary Fisher pro endurance racer Nat Ross will be sharing daily diaries from the BC Bike Race with VeloNews.com readers. This is the first installment.

Stage 1 Shawnigan Lake to Lake Cowichan

Grass attack! The race gun went off at 9am and all the 200 racers in this year's BC Bike Race headed out on two prologue laps around Shawnigan Middle School. These laps will go down in history and will be known from this day forward as the Grass Attack.

Today’s 89 km stage started at the beautiful Shawnigan Lake School, as we paraded around the campus through singletrack, fields, and dirt roads. There was one particular grass field where the grass was two-plus feet long, covering the entire field and attacking derraileurs. Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk (Trek/VW) both broke their deraileurs within the first five minutes of the race.

The long blades of grass got caught everywhere. In the rear cassette it caused shifting issues for most racers and for those unfortunate enough the pulleys in the deraileurs and cages were ripped straight off the hangers. Some folks got crafty, like Shamus McGrath who ended up converting his race bike into a single speed.

So needless to say the start to this years race was quite epic. Right away we were treated to tight and twisty singletrack where we were winding our way though handlebar ferns. Parts of the race were jungle-like with super lush bushes lining the entire singletrack sections.

Hats off to today’s two man stage winners Bart Gillespie “the working man” and Jason Sager of the Mona Vie Cannondale.com Team as the men’s field is stacked this year to say the least. I also wanted to congratulate my partner on the Subaru-Gary Fisher Team, Chris Beck. His luggage just showed up tonight from his heinous flight which included his bike, race clothes, mountain bike shoes, helmet. ... (you get the picture) … He had to race Saturday’s race on my bike, in my clothes, and with Chris Eatough’s shoes. On top of racing too small of a bike, he suffered several mechanicals, for a true test of determination.

Today’s stage was out of the ordinary for sure. Chris and I rode with Andreas Hestler and Max Plaxton (Rocky Mountain) in the front until we were later passed by Barry Wicks and Chris Sneddon (Kona). Three other teams ended up putting time into us on the super long climb to Eagle Heights at km 47 and we later found ourselves sprinting for 5th place at the end of the day.

What a great start to a sure-to-be-epic race as the temps were high and the course was tough. I was very impressed with singletrack sections in today’s course and thought they were amazing. Everybody in my camp can’t wait to see what is in store for Day 2 as it is the longest stage in this year’s race.

The BC Bike Race crew is putting on a great race and they have stepped stage racing up a notch. Today they did a stellar job and their massive crew is fantastic. Tonight’s dinner was very tasty.

See you all for stage 2 for the longest day tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,
Nat Ross