The Craziest, Gnarliest Bike Race in the World!

Relive the madness and magic of the 2018 Belgian Waffle Ride, an event like no other. Then hurry up and register for the 2019 edition of the Hell of the San Diego North County. Registration opens December 1st and will sell out quickly! #CincodeMayonnaise
Check out the details at https://www.bikereg.com/canyonbwr

It’s early it’s a lot of nervous energy people coming from all over there’s tension there’s excitement there’s a little bit of a chill in the air but it’s gonna be a hot day today is gonna be a long day a lot longer for some than others the morning is spent in gorging

Ourselves on waffles and coffee and eggs and anything else we can get to help sustain us through the day and then there’s all those hours out on the course sometimes it takes people 16 17 hours to complete the BWR they’re all gonna ride 135 ish miles 46 miles of

Those are in dirt over rocks gravel through water sand a lot of it into a headwind they’ll climb about 12,000 feet the last climb is the worst there are pitches at the end that are 23% and they force riders to get off their bikes and push them up to the top

Knowing that they can coast down to the bottom if they don’t have much energy left sometimes on a magical day these things all come together and you finish and you’re greeted by throngs of cheering fans and the grandest of all guess which is the lost a be badass ale it’s going

To be a great day You’ve got a whole host of volunteers that make this thing happen there’s hundreds and hundreds of people that come together to allow all these people to race around North County San Diego than to do so safely I think it’s time you guys ready to go [Applause] So this is the seventh year of the canyon Belgian waffle ride my name is Michael marks and I started the Belgian waffle ride because there isn’t anything like it in the US So roughly the first 12 miles of the Belgian waffle ride are escorted by the CHP for safety it’s a neutral section so no one attacks the CHP guides us through it’s very safe and sane riders probably average 23 miles an hour it’s pretty docile it’s it’s meant to be a safe way

To begin the ride with so many riders in each wave But lo and behold there’s one guy who’s not gonna wait he’s gonna attack the group he actually shoes away the CHP and the filming vehicles as with any Spring Classic the the real crazy parts are the lead ins to the dirt sectors and the first dirt sector for BWR is lemon

Twisting burg and all the smart riders get to the front and hit this first sector because it’s a single track to get out in front because if you’re caught behind you’re gonna be waiting a long time and you’ll be at the whim of the slower riders that potentially got in front of you

Then the other challenge here is not only as its single track and you’re now caught with a bunch of people there’s plenty of chances for flats or crashes and inevitably this first dirt section has a lot of casualties with boo-boos and flat tires and mechanicals so this

This section ends up being for some people the end to a very short day Lemon twisting berg has a downhill section towards the end of it that’s really tricky super steep you got to grab a lot of brake there because at the bottom you’ll either hit the metal post or the metal bridge and fly over to the ravine and then at the end of lemon

Twisting burger you got to climb up to del Dios highway it’s a little bit sandy some people get to the top they’re relieved some people get a little too excited that they’ve made it to the top and they hit that sand section and then they co write down the second dirt

Sector is Mira Hodges gate that features the famous rock garden the rock garden is a very tricky place because the lines are very challenging and ever-changing and because the rocks are so big and jagged and menacing a lot of people flat here at the bottom of the rock section

Is the first major water crossing which for some people can end up being rather challenging they either flat they crash they end up taking an early bath but for those that have practiced and paid attention they make it through smoothly and they get to the end of this section without any casualties This year the level of competition in the field was a lot more talented both men’s and women’s field were really flying which meant that the racers got to the mighty mule before the film vehicles did let’s move through this section you’re just catching the lead riders of which there’s about 30

Including Larissa Connors who has managed to make it away with the lead group and you’ve got a chase group that’s coming after them another minute or two down that includes Laura King Allison Tetrick and then you’ve got Amity Greg as well that are chasing on mule trail before the climb up Highland Arenberg The first major climb of the day is the Highland Ehrenburg which is about five and a half miles of pitchy climbing up and then flat and then up and then flat a kind of staircases its way up this section really can separate and leave riders they don’t have their climbing legs behind There’s Larisa Connors at the front enjoying her time there but she’s not gonna sit in she’s actually gonna do the work and be there with everyone else which is pretty pretty darn impressive [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] after climbing up pilan Arenberg there’s a flat section through Ramona that goes on for a while up to the second aid station which is the beginning of Black Canyon Black canyons one of the most revered sections of gravel riding in all of San Diego County it’s 11 miles

Features an uphill climb a really tricky descent and then another 6 mile uphill climb to the top this is the section where there was a tremendous amount of attrition 30 people entered the canyon and at the top there were 13 At the top of Black Canyon which is about mile 55 there’s a 20-mile road section that the riders work together all 13 of them working together to get back to the next dirt section which is Sutherland dam Berg it’s a tricky fast descent a lot of people crash here the

Guys really came in hot and as a result even on the downhill some of the riders lost contact at the bottom of this hill there’s a climb back up Black Canyon where remarkably some of the riders that are now 30-plus miles behind are coming down the hill so there’s two-way traffic

Coming back up the two-mile section of a climb up Black Canyon Chasing after the lead group of 13 there was a smaller group of probably about five riders that included tinker Juarez the most celebrated mountain bike rider of US history Now riders are confronted with a headwind and the first tricky dirt section after a long descent sandy bandy is more than three miles of sand ruts single track and again it’s got that headwind that makes it problematic for a lot of people this is where the race of

Attrition really is starting to take its place there were about nine riders here in the lead group which further get wheeled down over the next three miles as the attacks start to happen Sandi Benny’s where a lot of things happen you can go into it with 7-8 other riders and come out the other side with three or four riders with you I found this section to be really exciting in terms of the race dynamics playing out you could see the cracks happening

Well after 90 miles in the heat it was starting to play a wreak havoc on a lot of the riders [Applause] Sandie bandes like the wall in the marathon it’s mile 20 it comes at the end and it finishes with a forced dismount you got to make it through a gate under the gate over the gate and people get to it and they just stop some

Of them weep they don’t know what to do others find a sofa across the road and take a nap and have a photo-op it’s really that place where people will regather and just try and figure out how the hell they’re gonna get through the next 40 miles of this event it’s a

Really really punctuating moment in the day’s events after sandy bandy there’s the bandy vague climb which then takes riders back through and back onto the course heading the opposite direction into the headwind there’s the mule trail followed by Lake Hodges they get to go through the rock garden the other direction it looks

Different but it does the same sort of damage the leaders here got whittled down to six you may recall they were nine riders at the beginning of sandy bandy this section takes its toll in many ways for the front and the back of the pack there’s a climb out of the

Water crossing some people choose to run it or walk it others go the long way around either way is better you still end up at the rock garden If writers have made it through Lake Hodges that get to the kakapo lay which is a slang Belgian term for something we can’t say here this section has lots of whoops and turns it’s got jumps it’s got rocks it’s got forced dismounts it’s really challenging

And this late in the game it can really wreak havoc on people in fact coming through here the lead pack a couple of the riders fell and a couple of them actually had to stop and help the other riders which was a pretty neat testament to those guys being great sportsmen all

Of a sudden Brian McCullough was on the front but he doesn’t know it he thinks he’s chasing so Brian thinks he’s chasing here he thinks he’s 40 seconds down he’s actually 40 seconds ahead of the four guys chasing him he’s going as hard as he can to catch back on he can’t see

Them around the turn and he’s getting time checks from the lead vehicle and they’re telling him 40 seconds and they thinks he’s got 40 seconds to make up on the lead guys the whole time he’s put the hammer down meanwhile the guys behind him are having trouble catching him and their 40

Seconds behind so all the way up the final climb they’re chasing Brian he thinks he’s chasing them and it made for a very interesting finale [Applause] [Applause] There’s always that just happened I was born on the road and then they told me I was a leader are you serious thank you for your help today thank you [Applause] Your top five the 2008 jeep and it Belgian waffle ride [Applause] [Applause] I can tell you that this is this event is everything that a bicycle race should be because we can have breakfast with everybody in the morning and everybody there’s so much community involved with this event and it’s just such a privilege to be out here for elevate ths

Pro Cycling and this is really for the hardcore bike rider women even at the end when I was coming by people I was high-fiving folks and they’re cheering me on like this is a this is about the enthusiasts people that love riding bikes around here it’s just a privilege all walks of life

I can’t wait around for them because their success you got your and their tether I have a Belgian beer recovery beer this is the season tell me about the ride today but how did it go it was an excellent day this is my second one of these bad boys

Came last year thankfully it’s about what 20 degrees for today and that was nice game of attrition all day great to meet you start with 1300 and then after an hour we got 100 and then I remember county clear of 12 the nine and six and unfortunately we’re a group of three and

We went off course the lead three so that it was funny because the two guys chasing us were then in the lead and then we’re chasing them but they think they’re chasing us so it became a total game of cat and mouse I thought the race was over at that

Point I’ve been going up double peak is always going to be a beast and a guy I was able to get across to Brian and at that point I was pretty smoked in the sprint and just had nothing so he you got me in the sprint you have a great

Day and you have fun in the event hi anytime you finish your race and your being healthy and you got a beer [Applause]