The final day. The ultimate day. Happy day.

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.

I woke up to blue skies on Day 5.
Day 5 is, on paper, an "easy" day. The second shortest day at 37km. It has a surprising amount of climbing though. Your legs are also a bit cooked from the long day you just did the day before. I went out at my usual start pace at the beginning and was happily spinning through the starting ascent. It was a glorious day.
The trail was great, the weather was great and I felt great.

Day 4 is the BIG day. 68km and 2200m of vertical. I had told myself to take it easier on the first couple days to prevent any kind of major blowout on Day 4. I had a plan to go fairly quick of the beginning and then eat lots at the aid stations so the group of people I was usually riding with would catch up/not get too far ahead.
This mostly worked.