Press Release
Photo by Petri Miniotas
North Vancouver, May 21, 2026: Twenty years ago, BC Bike Race set out to build something different. Not just a race, but a journey. A week of the best singletrack in British Columbia, shared with the best community in the sport. This year, that journey comes full circle.
BC Bike Race 2026 is the 20th anniversary edition and the final seven-day BC Bike Race. From May 23 to 29, 800 riders from 35 countries will roll out of Cumberland and head south on Vancouver Island before finishing in North Cowichan just in time for BC Bike Fest and MegaVolt to kick off. Forty-five percent of this year’s field are alumni. They know what’s at stake. They came back to close the book on something special.
MEN’S RACE PREVIEW
The Big News: Nino Schurter Is Here
If you follow mountain biking at all, you know this name. If you don’t, here’s the short version: Nino Schurter is the greatest cross-country mountain bike racer of all time. He’s won ten World Championship titles. Nine UCI World Cup overall titles. Olympic gold, silver, and bronze. Three Cape Epic wins. A 2017 season so dominant it’s simply called the Perfect Season. He won every World Cup round and the UCI World Championship.
Schurter has never done BCBR. What he will find is a deep field of Canadian talent that knows these trails, knows this race, and will not be giving anything away. Whatever happens this week, it will be worth watching.
Geoff Kabush. Photo by Dave Silver
Geoff Kabush — Olympic veteran, multi-time Canadian National Champion, World, World Cup winner, and past BCBR champion. One of the most decorated Canadian mountain bikers in history.
Carter Nieuwesteeg — Winner of the legendary Downieville Classic, often called the unofficial All-Mountain World Championship. He took the title by 1.5 seconds after two days of XC and DH racing. A Fernie local who thrives when the stakes are high.
Thomas Frischknecht — Swiss MTB legend, former World Cup champion, and the man who mentored a young Nino Schurter at the start of his career. The two share more than two decades of history in this sport. Now they share a start line at BCBR.
Antoine Duchesne — Canadian road racing legend who made his Grand Tour debut at the 2015 Vuelta a España, won the climber’s jersey at Paris-Nice, completed the Tour de France, and represented Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Now he’s lining up for The Ultimate Singletrack Experience.
Peter Disera — 2020 Olympian, World Cup top 10, multi-time Canadian XCO national champion. Also a former BC Bike Race Champion.
Peter Disera. Photo by Deniz Merdano
Cory Wallace — 6 x 24-Hour Solo World Champion and multi-time Canadian
Marathon Champion.
Justin Peck — US collegiate MTB national champion, UCI World Cup U23 competitor, and mechanical engineering student at UC Berkeley. Racing alongside his father Chris, because some things are better shared.
WOMEN’S RACE PREVIEW
The Comeback: Maghalie Rochette
Maghalie Rochette. Photo by Deniz Merdano
Rochette won BCBR 2024. In 2025, a broken hand ended her race mid-week. She comes to 2026 with unfinished business, a Canadian cyclocross national champion and World Cup podium finisher who knows this race and knows how to win it.
Sandra Walter – Two-time BCBR champion (2022, 2025). In 2025 she didn’t just win, she swept every single stage. Walter is the benchmark every other woman in this field is racing against.
Katerina Nash, with Brett Tippie cheering her on. Photo Dave Silver
Katerina Nash – Olympic icon, multi-discipline legend, and the most decorated BC Bike Race champion in history. Nash hinted after 2025 that her race career was winding down. She came back anyway. BCBR wouldn’t feel right without her, and honestly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Anita and Caro Gehrig — The Gehrig twins are the most successful Swiss enduro riders in the history of the discipline. DH, 4X, enduro stage races — they show up on every gravity-oriented start line and they show up to podium. They come as a pair and they never do anything quietly.
Ruth Holcomb — Santa Cruz htSQD rider, Life Time Grand Prix U23 champion, and biochemistry student finishing her final year at UC Santa Barbara. A Colorado kid who grew up riding the Rockies, she brings fearless racing instincts and the kind of engine that wins at altitude.
THE ROUTE
The 2026 race starts in Cumberland, home of the United Riders of Cumberland
(UROC) and some of the most celebrated trail building in Canada, before moving through Parksville/Hammerfest, Nanaimo and finishing in North Cowichan. Vancouver Island at its absolute best, start to finish.
WHAT COMES NEXT: BC BIKE RACE 2027
Registration is open now. Super Early Bird pricing starts at $1,799, first 75 registrants only. bcbikerace.com/registration
In 2027 the race returns to Squamish for the first time in years and visits one more Sea to Sky community before crossing the Salish Sea to Vancouver Island by ferry, and finishing five days later at BC Bike Fest in North Cowichan.
Two formats. One unforgettable week.
Classic Course — 450 spots, 25 to 45km per day, solo or teams of two. Five
days of BC singletrack, every pedal stroke from start to finish.
Enduro Course — 150 spots, inaugural edition, 3 to 5 timed stages per day
through BC’s most celebrated singletrack. Solo only.
“I’ve never been more excited about what we’re bringing to the start line. New
format, new terrain, same community that makes this race unlike anything else in the world.”— Dean Payne, BC Bike Race President
BC Bike Race 2027 runs Monday, May 24, to Friday, May 28, with racer check-in on Sunday May 23. It finishes on the first day of the second annual BC Bike Fest, which runs May 28 to 30 in North Cowichan.
Register at bcbikerace.com/registration
Acknowledgement
We respectfully acknowledge that we recreate on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish First Nations. We are grateful to ride and gather on these lands and honour the enduring stewardship of their communities.
The Communities and Clubs
Cowichan Valley, Crofton – CTSS (Cowichan Trail Stewardship Society)
Nanaimo – NMBC (Nanaimo Mountain Bike Club)
Cumberland (Comox Valley) – UROC (United Riders of Cumberland)
Campbell River – RCCC (River City Cycle Club)
About BC Bike Race
Founded in 2007, BC Bike Race is a world-renowned mountain bike stage race and the original Ultimate Singletrack Experience. Drawing riders from more than 65 countries across its 20-year history, BCBR has built a global community around one thing: the best singletrack in British Columbia, ridden with the best people in the sport.