They called it the end of an era, and they were right. When Nino Schurter crossed the finish line in North Cowichan on Friday afternoon — 8-time XCO World Champion, Olympic champion, the most decorated cross-country mountain biker in history — he did so surrounded by 800 riders from 35 countries who had just completed the final edition of an event that ran longer, harder, and more magnificently than anyone imagined when it launched in a small Cumberland field in 2007.
The 20th and final BC Bike Race. Done.
How Seven Days Became a Legend
The BC Bike Race began as a seven-day mountain bike stage race from one end of Vancouver Island to the other — a format that had no real precedent in North American mountain biking and uncertain commercial logic. What it had was trail: Vancouver Island's forests hold some of the best natural singletrack on Earth, built into cedar and arbutus slopes above the Pacific coast by local trail crews who did it for love. The race threaded those trails into a narrative arc of sweat, mud, friendship, and the particular madness that attaches to multi-day endurance events.
In announcing the 20th anniversary edition as the last seven-day race of its kind, BCBR drew the biggest entry field in years — 800 riders, maximum capacity — and brought Nino Schurter to the start line in Cumberland for his debut at an event that had somehow remained on his to-do list despite two decades of global racing.
Stage 7: The North Cowichan Finale
The final stage played out on North Cowichan's trail network — dense second-growth forest on the lower slopes of Mount Prevost, singletrack winding over root networks and wooden ladder features in classic Vancouver Island late-May conditions: overcast, 16°C, trails tacky after overnight rain. Perfect mountain biking.
Schurter arrived at the stage start with a 48.7-second cushion over Peter Disera (Norco Factory Team), built across six stages where the Swiss champion's superior technical skills made the decisive difference on tighter, rooted sections. Disera had the power on open climbs. Schurter had the lines everywhere else.
Stage 7 played to form. Schurter and Disera traded moves through the opening technical climb on Mount Prevost, emerged together at the ridgeline after 12km, then Schurter elevated the pace. Not an attack — more a raising of the dial that Disera could match on straightaways but not through the corners. With 5km to the finish, the gap was 22 seconds. At the line: 31 seconds.
Schurter's final overall margin: 58 seconds over Disera. In a seven-day race spanning roughly 230km of riding, that margin reflects how the week actually unfolded — close, competitive, never settled until the final kilometers.
"I've been coming to British Columbia for races for fifteen years," Schurter said post-finish, helmet off, salt-dried and grinning. "The trails here, the atmosphere here — it is unlike anywhere else. To win this race in its final year, in its final hour, means something I can't fully describe. I will carry this one."
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Join ZealZagFollow us on InstagramThe Women's Race: Holcomb Holds
In the women's overall, Ruth Holcomb (Norco Athletes) defended a lead built steadily from Stage 3, finishing third on the final stage — enough to hold off Katerina Nash (Canyon Factory Team) by 2 minutes 44 seconds overall.
Nash, the Czech legend who has competed at the highest level for two decades, was the week's fastest woman on Stage 4 and gave everything to close the gap on the final day. It wasn't enough, but the effort was emblematic of why mountain bike racing at this level matters: experienced riders finding new reserves in Vancouver Island cedar forests, watched by a trail-side crowd in rain jackets.
Hannah Simms (Specialized) finished third overall, her Stage 5 win announcing her as a name to watch in the 2026–27 XCO season.
As One Era Ends, Another Begins
In the North Cowichan parking lot, the transition was already underway. As final BC Bike Race riders crossed the line, crews were setting up course markers for BC Bike Fest — the new three-day festival launching tomorrow with XCO races on Maple Mountain, Enduro on Mount Tzouhalem, and Downhill on Mount Prevost.
BCBR's evolution reflects the broader shift in mountain biking: from multi-day expedition formats toward festival events that accommodate more disciplines and shorter commitments. BC Bike Fest is designed for riders who want championship-level racing without seven days of 5am alarms.
Both things can be true: the new format serves an expanding audience, and what ended today was irreplaceable.
Nino Schurter stayed at the finish line for an hour after his stage win, shaking hands with every rider who came through. Some had been riding for seven hours. All were smiling. None looked like they wanted to stop.
That was always the BC Bike Race.
For more mountain bike race coverage from this spring, see our UCI MTB World Cup Nové Město report and Nové Město trail riding guide from earlier this month.
