Apex Cancelled??!!!??

[bcbud]

Just went over to Pinkbike and seems that we aren't racing in Penticton either this year, can anyone confirm this? GRJ? Anyone? Anyone going to Psychosis?

[bcbud]

Yup just checked the Cycling BC site, done deal, no Apex.

[mchfreeride]

What the F@$K.. Over.

[bcbud]

We going to Golden?

[pano-dude]

this is bad, it appears as racing in bc is in trouble. I don't want to point fingers at anyone for this, but cycling bc has to make up their minds about events. Do they want to have a race series or a year of free ride events. BC cups should get priority for selecting weekends. I was headed to Golden in the first place, it is easy to make that decision 1 hr travel vs 6hr to penticton.

[Wayne P]

Lame, lame, lame. I for one wasn't going to Golden, nor is anyone I know. This is really discouraging for people like me, and young people, who want reasons for showing up to races in the first place. We have 4 races for an overall? Better not make any mistakes boys and girls! They should give out more points per placing to make up for the two dropped events.

I hope somebody can get on another race plan for another date.

[Kerensa]

that totally sucks !! gggrrrr !!

[ggb]

I don't see much point doing the BC cup this year. The only race I was really looking forward to was Apex. What we are left with is four tired old tracks that I don't feel inspired to drag my fat ass across the province for. If I want to race courses that I know like the back of my hand it makes more sense to just race the whistler series instead of spending time and money following some bullshit series that may end up being only two of three races.

[Wayne P]

There's always Sun Peaks!

[Lady Gravity]

i sure hope they can find some way to make up the 5 races, otherwise racing's going to be real messed this year

[bcbud]

I just thought they would let it go , figured the Albertans would take up the Golden spots and the Vancouverites wouldn't want to drive to Golden twice cause we got to go to Pano in 2 weeks, that's a long drive for most and gas ain't too cheap I hear, doing it twice wasn't on most people's minds I think. And they cancelled the XC race, Why? they won't be going to Golden, that didn't make sense to me. Let's see waht transpires...

[Midas]

The golden races arnt even BC cup though, why would they cancel a BC cup for a non sanctioned event?

[Fosser]

The Mt 7 Psychosis is a Cycling BC sanctioned event , its just not a BC Cup...

[wallyjames]

Sorry to say but it is true we had to cancel Apex BC Cup. When we re-did our budget in the light of the big Red Bull event that got dropped on our dates, the numbers weren't pretty and we decided to pull out for this year. Remember we are a club, not a for-profit business, and none of us were prepared to risk losing several thousand dollars of the club's funds. We have spent nine years running Action Quest and didn't want to see the surplus we gradually built up just blown away.

As to the XC event, we would have lost even more if we had chosen to run XC only. Many of the costs are the same for the whole weekend regardless of how many turn up, and many more do not reduce in direct proportion to attendance. For example, we pay almost $3000 for timing for XC & DH weekend. Bill for XC only would have been $2100 because we pay a lot of up front and travel costs. Similar situation for commissaire expenses - getting them there is 75% of the cost. True, prize money would be cut in half if we ran XC only, but that is one of the few exceptions.

This was a very difficult decision to make, but in the end it was the only way we felt we could proceed. Many of our club members have been organizing MTB races since the early 90s, so obviously we do it for the
love of it, not the money. We like to organize races, not cancel them, but these were extraordinary circumstances. If we had continued with the Action Quest format, we would have gone ahead unconcerned because we have such a long standing reputation. But Apex Real Mountain Challenge is a new brand on the market, so to speak, and therefore vulnerable to any challenge like this.

We will be back next year with a great event. We continue to work on our courses and if anyone comes up to the Okanagan this summer, check out Apex. The DH course is one of the regular trails on the mountain, although we will be adding a couple of berms in the next few weeks.

Regards,

Wally James
Penticton, BC

[Wayne P]

Thanks for clearing that up Wally. I'm just pissed that I couldn't get a chance at riding a new course. Shit happens.

[wallyjames]

It's not technically a new course, Wayne. Apex hosted the grandiosely-named Mountain Bike Championships of the Universe back in 1999 and 2000. We also held Nationals there in 1993, before some posters on this board were even qualified for training wheels!

The course we are planning to use for BC Cup was laid out by Don Younie in 1999 but hasn't been ridden much because Apex didn't have any regular summer lift operations for most of those years since. There will be some changes made to the lower third of the course but the basic terrain remains the same: steep. Anyone who's skied or boarded at Apex will back me on this one. It's a tricky mixture of wide open alpine, tight forest singletrack, fast shale summer road, with some berms and drops built in. The course drops 1800 vertical feet in precious few horizontal feet, and winning times will be around 4 minutes. Quad chair access, small friendly little village, nice beaches half an hour away, Apex got it all except a clear race weekend.

Wally

[Wayne P]

It's not technically a new course, Wayne. Apex hosted the grandiosely-named Mountain Bike Championships of the Universe back in 1999 and 2000. We also held Nationals there in 1993, before some posters on this board were even qualified for training wheels!

The course we are planning to use for BC Cup was laid out by Don Younie in 1999 but hasn't been ridden much because Apex didn't have any regular summer lift operations for most of those years since. There will be some changes made to the lower third of the course but the basic terrain remains the same: steep. Anyone who's skied or boarded at Apex will back me on this one. It's a tricky mixture of wide open alpine, tight forest singletrack, fast shale summer road, with some berms and drops built in. The course drops 1800 vertical feet in precious few horizontal feet, and winning times will be around 4 minutes. Quad chair access, small friendly little village, nice beaches half an hour away, Apex got it all except a clear race weekend.

Wally


You're not helping. I like steep!