Sombrio BC rep rides to his accounts. Rider owned, Rider driven and Rider repped!

These are his words:

Well I have arrived at Crankworks after what felt like a long ride in a short period of time. Watching the tour each day inspired me on the screaming fast downhills and slow grinding climbs… maybe my team doctor can get me some EPO next year. The weather has got worse, but the flat tires stopped after re-taping my rims.

I had fairly easy days through the Okanagan, saw my shop accounts (Freedom, bike barn, Kelowna cycle, Gericks, Cycle path, Olympia) in the morning and ride in the afternoon. Leaving Vernon it was tempting to take the ride offered by Scott (trek rep) as the rain and wind pounded. the 110km ride soaked me right from the start and felt like I was going backwards in the wind.

I guess that makes up for the Tailwind into Penticton. After a lunch stop and full gear change at a Truck-stop cafe, I wrapped my feet in plastic bag as the truckers watched me out the corner of their eye in between the Monster trucks on TV. I made it to Barnhartvale just outside Kamloops and ran into Cheryl and Taylor from Bike cafe en-route to a ride. They took one look at me and insisted I go straight to there place to dry off for the night, I didn’t argue.

After a breakfast with the Bike Cafe and visit with the Boar I was off to Cache Creek. At this point people were taking notice of my tour and had a few honks and stops from people heading to Whistler. Even ran into my old racer buddy Tony Peril in Savona working on his truck as I passed through.

Had a great ride into Lillioet the following day and prepare for the biggest climb yet… the Duffy Lk road. I couldn’t tell you the elevation climbed, but it is steep and somewhat unforgiving as you climb and then descend just to climb again and descend to cross the creek and climb again. I was very happy to finally see Duffy Lk appear Thur the fog and rain. I then knew it wouldn’t be long before a screaming descent.

Arriving in Pemberton I hooked up with big John from the Pemberton Bike Co. I taged along as he loaded up his 2 shop dogs “Jethro” and “Osa” and was treated to an awesome dinner and a stay at his beautiful cabin in the woods.

A leisurely morning ride into whistler to hook up with the Sombrio Cartel for the 1st of 3 days of sales meetings. Cant say I wasn’t Happy to be getting off the bike for a few days.

Whistler thru Vancouver and up Island

Crankworx proved exciting with our boy Ben Boyko picking up the win for Sombrio, Riding the friday Chromag breakfast and hammerhead ride up and over the Kyber pass.. forget gondolas thats climbing from creekside! Of course got some runs in the park, attended all sorts of industry partys and best of all my girlfriend Lisa made it up for a weekend away from the city.

Sunday it was back on the road. I skipped the Squamish to Vancouver section of road for fear of being run over by any of the large construction machines or being pushed into a narrow barrier by the weekend traffic. Monday morning I was back in Vancouver dealers and on route to the ferry. Did you know they only run the tunnel shuttle every 2 hours.. what a joke. Got on a transit bus and was on my way. Found the Lockside / Goose bike route into Vic from Sidney which was a great relaxing ride.

After a day of touring Victoria dealers it was up Island to Naniamo and after arriving early and getting my work done I tried to put in a few more km’s and ended up riding all the way to Comox. I think that was the single biggest day I’ve had on a bike with over 200km and a great way to cap the ride. I would have liked to ride down the sunshine coast, but with a long weekend coming and a floatplane trip in the Chilcotin waiting. It was back to city with hours to spare.

I had a great time on this ride and would like to think that I’d do it again (ask me in a few months). I felt better than I ever expected and would encourge anyone to give it a try.

I couldn’t have done this ride without the support of my work colleges and friends along the way.

Id like to thank: NRG (Surly, Ortlieb, Cliffbar, Chromag), Sombrio, Revolution, Knolly, Sram, Mightyriders, freedom, bike cafe, pemby bike co, Jamie morrision, Tony Pejril, smoke & Barb @ Bush pilot.

Cheers
Steve Mitchell