After a few weeks of riding in the Portes du Soleil, it was time to go back to holland and pack my stuff for 2 weeks in Canada. Our plane was only leaving 4 days later, so I had to hurry up. With a bike that had a few mechanical problems I was a bit stressed, but glad everything worked out. I wanted to make sure the bike was in good condition so I could put it safely in a bikebox. After a 9 hour flight we arrived in Vancouver! You could imagine the worst thing that could ever happen ; your bikebox looking really damaged. Well, mine did... Some little airport-truck drove over it. A messed up frontwheel. When we got to Whistler the guys at the Fanatyk bikeshop helped me out so I could ride.
Next morning, I couldn't wait to ride.
Never rode the trails in Whistler, so I was pretty pumped. You only know it from the web, like big jumps, massive gaps, famous lines and Crankworx! That same week was Crankworx, so we were pretty lucky with that. Never seen so many riders on one spot. Such a great feeling when everybody has the same passion. You would expect less riding, but with the hot temperatures and a fast chairlift it was no problem. After a few runs down A-line and Dirt Merchant we met Andrew, a local, that showed us around, a friend of mine always said ' don't follow a local, they always ride the difficult lines '. Well, that's true! Glad everything went ok. After a few runs I was so stoked about riding, because I'm quite a fan of big jumps. Whistler is the place to be if you want to hit berms brakeless and fly! My goal was to ride Crabapple Hits, quite a famous jump line. 30, 40 and 50ft jumps. quite scary if you come from a flat country and never flew so far, after a few try outs I rode them out. Best feeling ever! That week everyone had the opportunity to get a shot from Sterling Lorence, famous mountainbike photographer. He annouced on Facebook and other media he was shooting on a specific trail. One day he was on Crapabbles, took my bike and headed over. Shot came out pretty awesome if you ask me. A lot of days riding, and seeing Steve Smith win 3 times, Thomas Genon winning the Joyride it was time to pick up the RV and go to Silverstar.
Silverstar was quite different, almost no riders and diffrent trails so that was quite a big change. Short corners, no brakebumps and short jumps made it really fun to ride. If you had the good line you would blast out of every corner. The technical downhill lines were fast and rocky, no place to lay down! 2 days of riding in Silverstar was great, met cool people and even made friends with some bears on the trails. That was pretty strange if you're used to cows.
Last and final stop was Sun Peaks, I hadn't seen rain in weeks and from out of nowhere there was so much rain! If you are riding uphill with a big RV and you can't see a thing, that's scary. When we made it, the next morning the guys from the local bikeshop told us we would have the best trails ever! They hadn't seen rain in weeks so it was really dusty, but that rain from last night made a big difference. Sticky handmade trails with a lot of steepness would blow our minds. Yeah, it did! It was like the Alps, steep and rocky but with a canadian touch. Glad I was pretty used to that, so we just hit everything. From the jumplines to the steep downhill lines and rockdrops. Deers crossing the trails, when the high grass is hitting your hands and you have to make sure you won't crash. The last day, I always have the feeling something bad is going to happen. It's like you say to your buddys ' last run ' at the end of the day and something goes wrong. Well, I had a stupid crash. Hit a long straight trail pretty fast and at the end was 90 degree turn, didnt know that and the grass was high. On the side of the trail with really big rocks... Guess where I ended up ? In the rocks, couldn't make the turn and just flew into it. The sound of hearing your bike falling on a few rocks wasn't so good. Glad I walked away from it with dirty pants and shaking hands. Under the chairlift, were one of the biggest doubles you had ever seen, they were made for the big bikes, so that gives you an idea. Some of the jumps were so steep, it was like a one way ticket to the moon!
My bike was pretty done and so was I, thankfully I made it out with no injuries or what so ever. 7 weeks of riding in Europe and BC was awesome! I’m thankfull for this amazing expierence of riding, seeing the world and meeting people.