We screwed up (BC Bike Race Day 5 - Cumberland)

Can't wait for Day 6? Watch it now on Patreon: / 87560407
We’re really excited for this stage as it was our favorite venue when we raced this race in 2019 and it really suits our skillsets. Unfortunately, we make a big mistake before it even starts.
Day 5 in Cumberland, BC is the queen stage. It's the longest stage of the race (25.5 miles/41 km), has the most climbing (4400 ft/1340 m) and has some technical descents to rival what we saw on Day 3.
In this episode, we’re going to be knocking down the already pretty unstable 4th wall on this channel and giving you a look behind the scenes into how we capture this footage. Or…in the case of day 5…how sometimes, we don’t.
We last raced BC Bike Race in 2019 as a Co-Ed Duo Team and it was rough, with mechanicals and injuries plaguing us throughout the week. Four years later, we're back to try it again, this time both racing in the Solo Pro Category.
Over the next 7 days, we’ll be racing 180 miles, climbing 25,000 feet and battling some truly brutal conditions. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be rugged. It’s going to be dusty. It’s going to be very, very hot. And while we might be in the best shape of our lives, with world class competition and temperatures in the 90s, well, this week is going to push us to the absolute limit.
Want to race BCBR 2024 which will be back on Vancouver Island? Registration is now open: bit.ly/3Dyv5Eo
A huge thank-you to the BCBR media crew for sharing their footage with us.
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[@sydandmacky]

Can't wait for Day 6? Watch it now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/posts/87560407

[@tenpennyguy]

So, the two of you … ride, maintain the bikes, electronics, kits, plan hydration & race fuel, cook and feed the racers, analyze performance, write the scripts, do the on-camera commentary, organize travel and accommodation, (plus a dozen or so other jobs I didn’t mention). Then when there is a glitch you are completely open in your assessments and drop a MINUTE of race time for folks like me who sit on the couch & watch your hard work. You also manage to get along in a very high-pressure environment. BRAVO! You are truly an inspiration.

[@darrenbutterworth807]

I've always appreciated them, but when you put it like that, they're superheroes! Great post - thanks!

[@pjbeattie1]

Not to rain on anyone’s parade but Super hero’s? I know some Emerg docs & firefighters who do some pretty incredible things and are also very competitive endurance athletes who balance a lot of things…. Ya its all good. Maybe make a checklist for the morning or evening so you dont forget things? Just saying. In my career we have checklists and peoples lives depend on it so little forgetfulness is not acceptable. In perspective, this is just KZbin so no big deal, but also not Superhero’s….. I still appreciate the content so thanks for that guys!

[@stephenscering1776]

@@darrenbutterworth807 like batman & Robin! The hulk & dr. Bixbie, no the wonder twins!

[@nimrodrdc]

No worries guys we’re all still here and really enjoy your efforts, thank you. I understand the pressure. I’m on an offroad race team in the top class. We are one of 2 teams that can’t race without sponsors. The other teams are funded by very wealthy people. We see ourselves first as a media company then as a race team. One mess up in the middle of a a stage race is nothing. Great job.

[@Mugzy1776]

While we all will make mistakes, we are defined by our recoveries. Nice recovery Syd!👍💪

[@LastAphelion]

That is one critical saying I need to remember but always forget

[@lagwall]

THAT FOLLOW CAM OF MACKIE WAS BAD ASS!!! Cyd your footage was awesome too! You had some great sections in there!

[@jakeene]

FWIW: I once had my GoPro on photo instead of video. So instead of 45 minutes of amazing riding footage (and my brilliant ride commentary) I had two pictures, one at the start, and one at the end. Keep up the great work!

[@sydandmacky]

This is my worst nightmare

[@freerangemtb]

I really loved how Syd was talking herself through some of the tougher parts. "I love skinnies. I love climbing." It was plain that those comments were not targeted at the viewers, but for herself. And I have certainly been there when it comes to forgetting batteries or to charge batteries, or even media cards. It happens. But you guys still put out a great video. Thank you for sharing this adventure!

[@joanneleyva4942]

OMG, I can't believe how rough, tight and technical this stage was. Syd your technical skills on this terrain blew my mind. I am fangirling you when I watched this stage. So much respect!

[@jasonfreyer9888]

Today feels like a really good day to say how much I appreciate all the effort that goes in to bringing us along on these races! Thanks for helping us be more awesome!

[@bobsmythe9949]

U guys rock... and dirt and trees

[@sydandmacky]

Thanks!!

[@stevewheeler1575]

OK,watching your videos has rekindled a desire in this 74 year old man to try and race again next year, its been a few years. I plan to start , re-start training this fall as I expect it will take a while to get back in racing shape. Plan to watch your training videos as well. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@arikpeterson6260]

We are all human. Don’t worry about the go pro stuff. Sometimes that stuff happens and you get creative with footage you do have. I enjoy some of the prep talk and race disuccsion at the end. Elven a blip our two about what happened in certain areas on the track (face shot with explanation).

[@kenanjones3481]

I'm so happy that the "big screw up" in the title didn't lead to a broken body or even a broken bike, just a bit different of a video. I wouldn't even say a worse video, it was cool to see Syd absolutely destroying terrain that I would be inching my way along, and hearing the self talk as well as the on purpose commentary. I think this video really shows how good of a rider Syd is, normally Macky going Macky speed makes it less obvious haha. really looking forward to day 6!

[@davidross7692]

The follow cam shot was cool. You could almost feel the flow of the trail.

[@chaseadventure]

haha I love the media crew is just trying to keep up with Macky to film that short section, and starts breathing hard... Meanwhile Macky just keeps crushing casually at a solid ass race pace!

[@BobKreder48]

A showcase of talent and skill: you can put together a full race vlog with limited camera availability, and think on the fly with that loaner battery. Well done as always!!

[@AbrahamBarberi]

Dang, Macky can send it! That drone footage was awesome! Keep up the good work, and thanks for the hydration suggestions. I love Skratch.

[@Team81MTB]

That was a good race considering the way things started out with the go pro's. Way to hang in there and not give up. You find out who you are when the odds are stacked against you. Good luck next stage. We're pulling for you two. 👊👍

[@danielcobb8886]

Gotta say that worked out well for footage. No pixelation issues going on with Syds camera this time. Was much easier to follow one rider too. Also cool was the following camera perspective showing how Macky rides quite dynamically. Big thanks to both of you, great effort for the racing and media.

[@frankwinters3732]

That BC Bike Race intro is absolute FIRE! I love it, 5 Stars, two thumbs up, best intro of all time!

[@tij910]

Shout out to that Sam! Thats what i like about the mtb community, always ready to help even in the middle of a race. The video was still very enjoyable to watch, please dont let that mistake get to ur heads were behind you no matter what! LETS GOOOO!

[@michalwiktorow2188]

Kudos to the BCBR Media team for borrowing battery, there is never 'enough' footage 🤗!

[@heyjudesadventures]

Cumberland has really long bridges! I get nervous watching you descend so fast on those technical downhills! Welcome to my neck of the woods! 😊. I'm glad you borrowed a battery!

[@JimCockerham]

Ice cream makes everything better! Great footage, despite the problems. The sections where you went through the actual tree was interesting, never noticed that before.

[@chadkoller5327]

Always impressed by your skills Syd!

[@applicablerobot]

Your production value has changed so much over 5 years. These are truly great videos. Note: I posted this in the first 15 seconds, wasn't meant as sarcasm. And the filming goof doesn't change the validity

[@jeffpeterson939]

You 2 are awesome keep doing what you love and enjoy

[@burn1nator]

my recommendation as a photographer, redundancy. if it was me, and i was shooting for 5 to 7 days, i would have 7 batteries and 7 cards for each ridder. All of them charged and cards ready just to exchange. like you said, its a job now and its what makes you money. i would carry and extra battery while ridding and an extra card too. keep up the good work.

[@mathewemden2068]

Still a great post. Please don't beat yourselves up! I am really enjoying this channel!

[@luisgonzalez58]

Syd, way to problem solve, and in the middle of a race, no less. You saved the day; the footage was great!

[@tupublicoful]

Pilots use them, submariners use them, Launch Directors use them, NASA Astronauts use them, all flavor of engineers and technicians use them. Get yourselfs a set of checklists to not have all that stuff weighing on your mind. Lights out night before checklist, 4h pre-race checklist, 1h pre-race checklist, 10 min pre-race checklist, 1 min pre-race checklist, race feeding/drink checklist, post-race checklist, after dinner checklist. All electronic so you can copy paste for every race, the race checklist you print and stick to your top tube. That’s it. No more what I’m I forgetting feeling as you get tired and struggle to recover.

[@bikegoon]

🎵🎶I like to climb. I do I do I do!🎵🎶 lol, this was great. Great video guys!

[@Andyjd64]

I loved it. It was a nice refreshing new aspect to the video to just focus on 1 rider. Might be a nice change to the norm and I wouldn't be annoyed at all if, during a 5 day race we had 1 day only from Syd's or Mackie's pov. Anyways great improv from Syd and thanks to Sam. Well done🎉

[@deebater5298]

I actually enjoyed this vid just as much as the previous BC ones. It was great to see more of Syd's riding (impressive!) and the scenery was abs. stunning! Just sub'd - that's the first time ever for me! Respect guys you do a great job 🙂

[@FrankAllen-fx2hw]

race start checklist to go over would be good since you guys have soo much on your minds! 😁

[@clintellis1102]

i love the editing and content on this series i think its your best yet!

[@jamesmartinez1193]

I personally love when you and Mackey comment on the rides! Great to have voice over. I know you do it time to time

[@Dan_Kornfeld]

Brilliant riding! Still an awesome video (especially the descents and flower fields) , even with the lack of your (Macky's) GoPro footage. Maybe keep a spare stem/bottle cap in each other's color; a quick color switch and a little voiceover magic, and wow, two rider, single camera footage (kidding!) 😜👍‼️ Keep doing what you do!

[@sydandmacky]

Excellent idea 😜

[@dooleh84]

Watching this as my low battery sound goes off on my earbuds to realize their charger is at 5% as well, and therefore won't charge them at all, and I am not near a usb-c plug OR electricity for that matter, makes me empathize with this video on another level.

[@waynead754]

"What is a rhizome? Part of a potato?" Focus Syd, focus!!!

[@honkingdonk3981]

Checklists for morning and evening might help. You guys are am inspiration! Keep up the great work.

[@Flux_Flow]

You two are AWESOME no matter what !

[@_thegrayman]

What an amazing looking trail!! 👍👍 It's not a bad way to spend a life, eh 😊 Thanks for sharing 🇦🇺

[@reusserfarm1]

Been there done that, just getting on the trail and oops no sd card or oops dead or almost dead battery. You guys are amazing and accidents happen especially when you are working so hard riding each day and camping at night. All your followers appreciate your content and how much work it is to make these videos to share. Keep inspiring folks to get out and ride bikes and thanks so much for taking us on all your cycling adventures. Wish I knew you were going to be so close on the island I’m just south of that on the Olympic Peninsula and it would have been super cool to share our local trails and ride with you guys before you made your journey back home to NM.

[@funiguy8779]

Another awesome ride guys..keep it going! And i think Syd said it for all of us at 11:55 😂

[@sapinva]

Always amazed and inspired by PNW trails. The people that build and maintain those trails are the real MTB gods.

[@freestatehomestead]

You guys are teaching me consistently to just get a video done just get it done! Thank you for your consistency it’s an amazing inspiration

[@pauldoucette7627]

Is it just me or does this video have way more vibrant colors? If it's not just me then why?.. the color of this video looks amazing.

[@Korina42]

Less dust perhaps?

[@donaldmorrill1636]

The sound of your tred- defiecient Aspens trying to slow you down is causing me nightmares😂

[@calliemtb]

As always, great video with interesting insights and badass mtb footage! Adapt and overcome. (I laughed at the random rhizome comment, and admired Macky's on-fleek dirt eyebrows and devil horns). thank you

[@darlafitzpatrick8770]

Nah, you guys did a great job even without all the footage. Very fun to watch!

[@Driver8takeabreak]

I actually like the behind the scenes, pre/post race stuff more than the POV trail riding.

[@CanyonWanderer]

going to check my GoPro straight away 🙂

[@Koskiusko]

A rhizome is a part of a plant, bit like a thick stem, but it can differ between plants, loving the footage though, keep it up

[@taffycymroukmtb9073]

Great stuff Syd&Macky👌🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿👌🚴🚴

[@shveylien7401]

When I try and explain Van Isle Bush to my internet buddies, they never fully understand until I send them one of your BC Race vids. Hope you enjoyed every moment.

[@brianpurcell9058]

Guys, tuning in from the UK ! Enjoying the riding ! Keep up the good work 👍

[@angelabraun-uu4kd]

Just got turned on to your channel by my husband - I clicked subscribe today!!

[@konnasensor]

So it happens to others as well. I had 75km xc race yesterday and managed to forgot my hydration pack with all my snacks and tools at home… Might have been bit annoyed at myself. btw you inspired me to go racing this summer.

[@nicholastreadwell2886]

Macky boosted the sh*t out of that first jump haha. Lets go!!

[@shredderdad6995]

I still need to get up there. It’s been along time. Great riding bro.

[@jhoff80]

Looks like you salvaged it pretty well, but I have a feeling most people would've understood even if you didn't get the spare battery and just did post-ride analysis. That being said, at least you didn't leave without AXS derailleur batteries, that would've been awful (not that I've EVER done that before 😅).

[@lipsterman1]

Something similar happened to me last week. It's been wickedly hot here (with humidity) and wanted to ride early in the morning (right before sunrise) to get out before the oppressive heat. I got new wifi at my house and found out I had to reset my cycling computer to the new wifi to put new updates on the cycling computer. I always set my cycling computer to turn itself off after 15 minutes of non-use. I knew the last time I checked, my cycling computer was at 50% charge. Well, I got on my bike, started my computer and got the message "no battery charge." I nixed the ride and started to charge the battery. Seems that when I reset the wifi, the app for the cycling computer reset the settings so that there it would not turn off after 15 minutes so when I updated the cycling computer the day before, I ran the battery down. To make a long story short (too late), I recharged the cycling computer for 25 minutes and got it to 50% and went on my ride. I cut the ride short due to it being later and hotter.

[@tomassanesson902]

Awesome

[@SmokeybeardAB]

Cheers to Sam The Media Man

[@kittykat7618]

Let's go I can't wait to watch this new video!

[@abetownneufeld6057]

Bummer about the battery and card but still managed a GREAT video 🤙🏼

[@cletusowns]

You know, I kind of liked the single perspective as a change of pace and everyone makes mistakes. I forgot my multitool once and had to walk a bike 6 miles . . .

[@toddbz]

Syd The Battery Bandit

[@jjchopper02]

You guys need to make a checklist of the essentials needed, that you can check before the race.

[@tomassanesson902]

Epik video

[@ciraloke]

All good guys - compulsory checklist in the visor before starting the car maybe?

[@meatmotorendurance]

Conspiracy theory: Syd wanted more coverage than she's been getting. #worked

[@sydandmacky]

🤣

[@mvan7158]

Great riding. A little long winded on the battery issue ie sh#t happens. Would rather have heard more about Cumberland trails and race in general. Good luck on the rest of the race!

[@TRG36]

Follow cams are really cool

[@jeromep4148]

100% agree

[@2UpDuc]

Awesome footage,, Video idea ,, Equipment Recap. How did new wheels hold up? Any flats with new tires? It seems like you need to build a charging station in you car. Memory cards, maybe you should buy enough cards for each day of a race for the both of you so you don’t have to offload video at the end of each race day. If you create an Amazon gift cart I would buy you a couple cards and you can have them sent to you. Keep up the awesome videos.

[@thepedalsadvocate7389]

Swear to god. I started watching your channel from the Syd Fixes Bikes channel. Haha.

[@86309]

Are you riding with music in the bone transmission headphones? Good recovery on the battery sit.

[@sydandmacky]

Yup, we generally race with music, or at the very least have it cued up so we can have it if we want it.

[@topchoice1621]

I wonder how many times in a race do you change gears ⚙️ have y’all thought about automatic shifting drivetrains or is that not allowed

[@johnbutler2231]

After your race season, can you do a minor tune-up of your bikes and a major tune-up, I am wanting trying to learn to work on my own bike, thanks for the consideration.

[@sydandmacky]

You should check out our other channel: kzbin.info

[@johnbutler2231]

What program do you use to edit your footage? I am new to action camera footage, going it solo. that is no one to edit my footage for me, and forgeting to change batteries.

[@sydandmacky]

We edit on Adobe Premiere

[@TM-ev2tc]

Some days are diamonds and some days are coal. Get them next time. PS we need more Syd fixes bikes.

[@jeff7995]

When is your next new mexico ride?

[@ExpertTrigger]

Wait... Shokz makes glasses?? Am I blind I swear I don't see them on their website.

[@sydandmacky]

Yeah, for some reason they only released them to certain retailers, not on their website. They're called Road wave.

[@breathestrongcycling3672]

Hate it when that happens. I got home after a 110km ride and half my vlog is missing.....😢....technology hates me...

[@Leo_Inclan]

20:20 just curious. What's in the little bottle? recovery drink?

[@sydandmacky]

Ketones actually

[@StangspringDK]

@@sydandmackyCool. Some of the Pro road cyclists use that as well. If Macky is still struggling with lower back issues, look into psoas stretches. The psoas attaches to the lumbar vertebraes, and the position on the bike often results in a chronicly shortened muscle, putting strain on the attachments on the vertebraes.

[@bryanfulcher7162]

Curious as to what liquid is in that little tiny squeeze bottle?

[@sydandmacky]

Ketones. I (Macky) have been trying them out this year for racing and we've both been trying them for recovery.

[@okayatbikes1909]

I knew I would find the answer in the comments. I was curious too!

[@cheryljerry3650]

We so forgive you. I'm surprised, though, that with as many balls as you have in the air at any one time that you don't operate off of written checklists and maybe an understanding that if you are going to carry it on the trail, you are responsible for it being ready.

[@ToddNZMTB]

Amateur hour ha ha I think most of us are here for the _real_ stuff 😄

[@boblatkey7160]

You guys deserve tons of kudos for all your hard work. But the real joy in your life will occur when you dump those boring acoustic bicycles and get yourself an EMTB and spend 400% more hours in the saddle, and have 1000% more fun. 😂. And be sure to check out all the newer articles coming out stating that people who ride EMTB's are actually getting in better shape than those riding acoustic bicycles and beating the hell out of themselves and swimming in cortisol the next day.

[@sydandmacky]

We have e-bikes and love them! But we aren't getting rid of our acoustic bikes anytime soon either 😜

[@bodhi47]

noun rhi·​zome | \ ˈrī-ˌzōm \ Definition : a somewhat elongated usually horizontal subterranean plant stem that is often thickened by deposits of reserve food material, produces shoots above and roots below, and is distinguished from a true root in possessing buds, nodes, and usually scalelike leaves

[@dallasmillward9643]

Reckon you probably could have just spliced together left over footage from other days & no one who wasn't there would know.🫢

[@sydandmacky]

That's probably true, but our goal in this channel is to always be honest about what really happened, good and bad.