Chemainus resident Trevor Meyer has the formula of how to train for the BC Bike Race down to a science.
Eat. Ride. Sleep. Repeat. And the seemingly simple sequence in video form earned Meyer the top prize package valued at $13,000 in an advance promotion for the massive July event that will include more than 600 riders, with the first three days based in the nearby Vancouver Island community of Crofton.
The challenge was to create a video of less than three minutes detailing how you would train for the ultimate singletrack experience. “Be creative, make us laugh, make us cry and blow our minds,” the contest preamble read.
Meyer, 41, did exactly that and, for his efforts, he won a 2023 BC Bike Race entry, a Rocky Mountain Instinct C70 bike, Shimano shoes, pedals, a helmet and a $500 Pearl Izumi gift certificate. The race entry portion also includes: food, camping and a transportation package during race week.
Meyer is experienced at doing YouTube videos so this was right up his alley. The idea, he said, was to keep everyone watching engaged in it and Meyer pulled that off brilliantly.
He did that with the old ‘actions speak louder than words’ scenario, very few words and plenty of actions to get the message across and garner the most votes from the public for the grand prize.
On the video, Meyer says “to train for the BC Bike Race, I will have to step up my game and incorporate mountain biking into my everyday life,” as it shows him rising out of bed. “I will do everything I can on my bike.”
And that’s exactly what happens for the rest of the hilarious video, with Meyer dropping off his kids Brayden, 11, and Rory, 8, at Chemainus Elementary School on his bike, mowing the lawn and even grocery shopping at 49th Parallel Grocery in Chemainus before it switched the Country Grocery while popping wheelies during each task.
“I’ve got lots of practice doing wheelies, for sure,” Meyer quipped.
He packed a lot of clever segments into the short video. He created his own Ready For A Shreddie breakfast cereal box, got permission from Paul McGregor at 49th Parallel to do an early-morning ride-around in the store for his grocery shopping and it was his wife’s idea to include the part about dropping the kids off at school.
At the end, he’s being towed up Maple Mountain and “for sure, I’ve got to work on my hill climbing,” he deadpanned.
“I enjoy making videos, total hobby of mine,” said Meyer. “It takes up a lot of time.”
His YouTube channel can be found at Cowichan MTB where he shares his love of mountain biking and Vancouver Island through videos.
Meyer was born and raised in Camrose, Alberta. He was a competitive BMX racer during his youth.
“I’ve always had something with two wheels,” he indicated. That’s included street bikes and dirt bikes as well as BMX.
Out of the blue, Meyer, wife Robyn and their young children moved from Edmonton to Chemainus in 2016. “It was really good timing,” he said.
Meyer didn’t have a job lined up, but managed to catch on as an electrician with Ammeter Electric. He also joined the Chemainus fire department in 2018 to get more ingrained in the community and now has five years under his belt.
But mountain biking is still more of a casual pastime for him. There just isn’t enough time to do much of it.
“I squeeze it in when I can,” Meyer noted. “Once you watch the video, there’s some truth behind it.
“If I get out two times a week, that’s good enough. That’s not enough time to train for the race.”
One challenge has been met with the video and he will also be doing a series on the bike race, posting a video each day of the race and some behind-the-scenes content on his channel.
Meyer figures the next challenge, the actual race, will be quite interesting, to say the least.
“My main goal is to have fun,” he conceded. “If I can finish the three days in Cowichan, awesome, I’d be super pumped. If I can finish the whole thing, I’d be happy.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is my first mountain bike race ever. It’s quite a way to start off. At 41, I’m in probably better shape than I’ve ever been. If anything, I got that out of it.”
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don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
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