With the Test of Metal's first-come, first-served registrations selling out faster with every passing year, a guaranteed spot in the annual mountain bike race from now until perpetuity is not just every competitor's fantasy. It's the prize awarded by Mountain FM as part of the radio station's yearly sponsorship of the epic event.
And when racers cross the start line of the 16th annual Test of Metal on Saturday (June 18) Stephen Sutherland - this year's lucky Mountain FM winner - will be one of them.
"There's just probably about 20 lifetime entries out there now," said Test of Metal race director Cliff Miller. "Mountain FM runs their own program, and we've had a few other organizations that we've given lifetime entries to that they do as a contest and primarily use it as a fundraiser."
The prize is growing in value. The early-bird, locals-only registration on Dec. 1, 2010 sold out in three hours and seven minutes, and was followed by the general race registration on Jan. 1, 2011, which sold out in just 23 minutes - breaking the previous year's record by one minute, 30 seconds.
"Nineteen ninety-six was the first year. We had 450 racers in '96," Miller said. "We had 600 in '97, we capped it at 800 in '98 and we reached 800 three days before the event, and progressively it's been getting shorter and shorter.
"It was months and then weeks and then days and then in 2004-'05 it turned into a matter of hours, and now it's a matter of minutes," he said. "It's an abnormality. There's only a handful of events that do that."
By winning a lifetime entry, "you've got a guaranteed entry for the rest of your life," he said.
The Lifetime Entry to the Test was one of many prizes up for grabs on Mountain FM's "Goldmine" - the contesting section of the radio station's website - until the contest closed on Sunday, June 12.
To use the Goldmine, listeners sign up online to earn "Gold-digger" points, which they spend on contests to win prizes. Each contest costs a certain amount of points to enter.
"On the air we'll offer bonus codes that are worth points and say, 'Go into the Goldmine and enter the following bonus code worth 1,000 points,' and you score the points," said Mike Hewitt, Mountain FM promotions director. "The more you listen, the more chances you have of earning points which gives you more chances to win. There is no limit to entries."
The Lifetime Entry to the Test contest closed with 2,341 entries submitted by 309 people.
Sutherland, 47, a Garibaldi Highlands resident, spent almost 100,000 points on the contest with 397 entries to assure himself of the win.
"We always tell people the more times you enter, the better your chances to win," Hewitt said. "If you put in, let's say, 400 entries versus someone who has put 20 in, the system is going to know what you spent."
"It's randomly selected, but the system generates a winner based on the amount of entries."
Sutherland was announced on air as the 2011 contest winner during the Mountain Morning Show on Monday (June 13).
"I was pretty confident I wasn't going to win," he said. "And I didn't hear it on the air but people started calling me."
He's been entering the Test of Metal since its first year on the present course, and even rode the first Brodie Test of Metal in the trails above Alice Lake back in 1994.
"I saw it [the contest] the previous year and I thought, 'I have to work at really listening and getting all the points to try and win,'" Sutherland said. "I've been saving the points up since last year."
"It's great. It's always stressful to try and get signed up in time - it's just fantastic," he said. "One stress out of the year, gone."
