Kona's Wicks and Sneddon win second stage

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The nearly 400 BC Bike Race participants got an early wake-up call in North Vancouver before they boarded a ferry to cross the Georgia Straight to Vancouver Island, where stage 2 would happen. Once the vessel docked in Nanaimo, racers donned their day's kit and traded their street clothes for their mountain bikes. Then, two Royal Canadian Mounted Police members on bikes led the controlled start that carried racers to their first drop in of the day. For the first 80 minutes, racers enjoyed singletrack - much of it purpose-built for mountain biking.

Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard (Team Jamis - Santa Cruz) were new to the trails in this area. "We didn't know what to expect but it was honestly some of the best trail that we've seen. It was relentless, fast, flowing, tight technical. A little of everything - drop offs, bridges - everything of what mountain biking is about. There were some great new sections. Whoever built it deserves a bunch of clapping!"

McGrath and Sheppard started out, keeping close to the Kona team of Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks, but at the end of the day, Team Kona was the first to finish in 3:23:42, edging out yesterday's leaders by a mere three seconds, not enough to claim the yellow jersey, but they will hold onto second.  Chris Eatough and Jeff Schalk (Trek) rounded out the top three for the day.

In the women's duo race, Team Luna Chix riders, Catharine Pendrel and Katerina Nash, dominated with a 3:57:08 finish. The previous day's second and third spots remained the same with Alison Sydor and Lea Davidson (Rocky Mountain) in second and Lisa Ludwig and Dawn Anderson (Oak Bay Bikes) in third.

The remaining categories saw no change on this second day of racing.

Stage three will take racers over 60 to 65km in Cumberland.