The final event in the North Shore Ripper Series was the Triple Crown. It wasn’t a race, it was a “Poker Ride.” Yeah, right. For the uninitianated, the Triple Crown is a little North Shore tradition whereby you ride all three mountains in a day. For the Ripper series, it was formalized (slightly). The format for this run was simple. Stations all across the Shore where you collect playing cards to make a poker hand. The stations were as follows:

Old Buck at the base of Seymour
The top of CBC trail
The water tower at the base of Fromme (and lunch and blackjack)
The 6th switchback on Fromme
Cleveland Dam
The 5th switchback on Cypress
Dizzy Cycles on Lonsdale

It’s something that I’ve tried in the past, but have never successfully completed. In fact, it’s been over ten years since I’ve tried. Wanna know why? Here’s a hint……

64 km, and around 2000m of vert (that’s about 6600′ for you foreign types). As if that wasn’t painful enough, something made me do it on a single-spped, which I didn’t even have built up until the evening before. It’s really just an excuse to not win, but whatever….it’s more entertaining for you to see me suffer.

James knows what I’m talking about. See, here he is at the pre-ride strategy meeting.

What’s he laughing at?

“Better you than me.” You might just be right there, James.

The ride started well. The first climb up Seymour shares nearly identical stats to the legendary Alpe d’Huez climb. To make it more interesting, and to encourage a little suffering, myself and a few other like minded individuals put up $120 for a Lumpy Memorial Prime for the first rider to the top of CBC. The honour went to Stu, JF, and someone else ( I didn’t hear who). In the true spirit of the event, the cash went to the NSMBA for the good works that those folks are doing.

Things got a bit weirder on the descent. I passed a lot of lost riders, and a few looking tired already. I was listening to a mix of old hippy tunes and Clutch (don’t ever try climbing Seymour listening to She’s So Heavy. It sucks) and kind of zoned out. I picked up thses fat old guys on heavy bikes around then.

The Knee Knacker race was going in the other direction, so traffic was pretty funny. hurt hikers going east, and suffering bikers going west. Lunch was again provided by the fabulous Dave’s on Esplanade (go see him. He’s awesome). RB was dealing blackjack for bonus cards at the table. I was one of the rare few who managed to beat him. For the record, I saw him cheat, but I don’t think he did it on purpose (psssst….RB…..the dealer STAYS on 17).

The Fromme climb was the usual suffering. I got to the 6th with a minimum of walking, and felt alright. The descent got interesting. I never ride the Executioner, and today was no exception. First I ran into these guys.

We traded off on the lead for a bit, and I tried to scoop them on a line that I used to ride. Which now has a house with guard dogs in the middle of it.

Ooops

If you look closely, you will see a rope in that shot. Seriously off line for the first time today. Some really cool singletrack though. If you look in those shots check out how loamy the trail is.

Anyway, we recovered quickly, but I know that I hurt myself a bit climbing out of the canyon.

Then it gets really blurry. I went up the stairs in West Van, across to the Cypress Rd., and blew my legs out at the upper lookout. Oh well, it’s close enough to walk up.
At parking lot 5, I managed to put back a sammy and a beer, and then it was back on the bike. Mystery DH to Millstream Rd, across the Dam again, down McKay and Mosquito Creeks, and back to the shop.

Elapsed time, about 7:45. It was awesome. Thanks for putting on a good show, I hope it works out for next year.