We woke up at an ungodly 5:30a to sunshine and breakfast. I ate my usual massive amount of food and went through my usual list of morning chores - fluids, sunscreen (yay!), and pre/post ride packing.

An uneventful bus trip to Whistler and we lined up in the start pen for the last time. The start was split into separate start groups to keep the trails less congested but the 5km of immediate uphill also spread us out pretty well. We started in the park, took a sharp right and immediately started climbing up Whistler Mountain. Fun, in a way. An uneventful climb up 500+m of vertical spit us out at Crank it Up - a "beginner jump trail".
It was AMAZING.

I quickly got past some slower riders and had a completely unobstructed 5km descent on tabletops, berms and jumps of all sorts. Wow, I want to do that again. I did get passed by a fellow who works for Pinkbike - I caught him quickly on the next climb - he showed me what a fast rider can do on these trails; for a short period of time until I lost sight of him.

I then made a tactical error and stopped for food at the aid station - got passed by a bunch of people and then was in a pack for much of the rest of the fairly technical singletrack that Whistler has. There was lots and lots of fun to be had in the twisty trails of Whistler - some roots, rock faces and bridges. All super fun, all in the sunshine. Awesome.

At the end of the leg there were medals, hugs and high fives all around for everyone.

I was bagged. Done. I was sore, had no major injuries, my bike was in very good shape. Took some pictures, picked up our checked baggage and checked into the Aava hotel. Then showers, food and a beer in the village.

We hit the end awards ceremony that night and called it a race. On the Sunday we just chilled out, got some food, watched some DH action at the bottom of the chairlift and basically zoned out for the trip home to Whitehorse. I wish I had had the energy to ride the bike park but it would have been a very bad idea given my energy level.