Trans Rockies 2002

EVENT: TransRockies Challenge
LOCATION: Fernie - Canmore, Canada
DATE: Sun August 11th - Sat August 17th 2002

The TransAlp Challenge is legendary amongst mountain bike riders as the toughest mountain bike stage race in Europe. It successfully completed it’s sixth running this July. In August it’s baby sister was born, the TransRockies Challenge, billed as the toughest mountain bike stage race in North America. Having hauled our battered and bruised bodies to the finish of last year’s TransAlp, Raymond and I thought we’d go back for more and try out this event in its inaugural year. Hence we found ourselves flying to Calgary, Canada on August 8th.

The TransRockies comes to us courtesy of Read & Co. Event Management in association with German company UpsolutMV. The rules are simple, you are provided with a team duffle bag in which to put everything that you will need throughout the weeklong event, only this will be transported to the finish each day. Teams consist of two members who are required to ride together for the entirety of the race. This is primarily for safety reasons due to the remote and severe nature of the course. If one member is injured, the other can find help. Strict time penalties are awarded if team members pass checkpoints more than two minutes apart.The support caravan consists of the luggage truck, a fully equipped medical R.V. with two paramedics following the route on motorbike and one in the accompanying helicopter. The race is filmed for broadcast on German T.V. again both by cameramen on motorbikes and in the helicopter. Each evening a huge mess tent is erected for the pasta party, daily winners presentations, video footage of the day’s events and next morning’s breakfast. The event has been limited to 160 riders/80 teams and each team has it’s own 2-man tent. Care of worn body parts is provided by a team of masseurs and a Chiropractor and worn bike parts courtesy of Bike Shop/Cannondale. Two checkpoints are on each stage stocked by Flash 5 energy foods.

After spending a night in Calgary twelve apprehensive competitors are getting to know each other on the transfer to the race start – Fernie, British Columbia. Six of us have come over from Britain, me and Raymond, Julie and Andy, Jim and Paul. I asked Hedda, a German girl, if she’d cycled in Britain, she said only at Plymouth in the World Cup series when she finished third! She also competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics – this is our competition. A four-hour drive into the wilderness sees us arrive at a small ski town. We unpack our bikes, (I sustain my first injury by slicing my fingers open with a knife, I really couldn’t afford to waste all those red blood cells), and set about fine-tuning them for the ordeal ahead. The registration takes place in the local school, disclaimers are signed, race numbers, road book and team bags issued. An introductory pasta party is held that evening in a torrential downpour and we discover that the fellow racer staying in our motel is none other than Mr Keith Bontrager. We’re starting to get nervous!

Day 1
Fernie – Blairmore
61miles, 6300ft altitude gain
The day starts with the taste of things to come – breakfast of cereal, fruit and bagels. The pre-race briefing starts at 10.00am with organiser Chester Fabricius and course designer Ward Cameron managing to frighten the living daylights out of us before we even begin. The main street has been transformed into the start line and it looks like all the locals have come to see us off. The mayor fires the gun on the stroke of noon and we’re off, paced through the town by the motorcycles. Soon we’re onto forestry fire roads and the climbing begins, care is taken to avoid the large mud holes some of which are deceptively deep and very sticky. A long descent follows and it’s onto a rare tarmac section. Raymond and I make up loads of ground catching teams, tucking in, then going on to attack the next, I finally wheel suck behind Cal (a 65 yr old) until a sharp left turn takes us on to a narrow double tracked climb. Another road section into a ferocious headwind then off road to circle a picturesque lake and the second checkpoint where, to our delight we find we have caught Paul and Jim! The route now gets technical, crisscrossing a river, very overgrown and rocky. It widens to double track and unbeknown to us we cycle straight past a black bear, later to be shown on video!! A steady technical climb follows on which Raymond’s knee starts to give him a lot of pain, then a wide gravel road for a mad dash descent culminating in a sharp left and horrendous grassy drop to the finish line. I would never have ridden it at home but there was no way I could walk it with an audience, so take a deep breath, fingers off the brakes and that’s day one completed! The pasta party is held in an ice rink and we’re in the tents outside.

Time: 6 :17:27

Day 2
Blairmore – Dutch Creek
59miles 7900ft altitude gain

What a cold, clear night, but the stars were spectacular! The only thing to disturb our slumbers was a 300 coach goods train trundling past the tents at 2.00am, mournfully blowing it’s horn every two minutes but could be heard echoing down the valley for more than 20mins. This was repeated at 3.30am for anyone who missed it the first time! There is ice in our water bottles, and we shiver on the start line at 8.00am but soon warm up on the gravel road only to be cooled right down again by the first of many icy fords. These are countered by our first seismic line. These are industrial gouges made for gas lines, if a mountain lies in it’s path, the trees are demolished and the lines just go straight up and straight back down again. At a gradient of 1:3 and steeper these are ‘hike-a-bike’ sections. Raymond has tried moving his cleat position and his knee seems a lot easier and doesn’t trouble him scrambling up these atrocities. Muddy, rooty double track follows but there is rarely one decent line to ride let alone two. Today we cross the continental divide twice and are treated to some ‘awesome’ views of the Rockies. The second pass, Racehorse Pass climbs through alpine fields with flowers but gets progressively steeper until even the motorbikes were stalling out, cresting the top I was given some wild strawberries by the motorbike man – delicious! The descent is a scarily fast, boulder strewn track where we’re closely shadowed by the helicopter. Then it’s undulating gravel track interspersed with stutter bumps to the finish line.
Camp tonight is nestled amongst the trees next to a creek, with the mess tent in a clearing. Shower facilities consist of a large bucket to stand in and a hose attachment out of the side of an R.V. Julie was stood starkers in her bucket, enjoying the secluded views out across the field, when she was inadvertently blow dried by the helicopter coming in to land!

Time: 7:56:15

Day 3
Dutch Creek – Etherington
60miles 6900ft altitude gain
Bright and cold night with a meteor shower at 3.00am for those not able to sleep. Awake at 6.00am for our customary 8.00am start. Although frosty when we set off the temperature during the day is in the low 80’s and we’re both getting sunburnt. We follow gravel tracks onto double track with deep mud holes then have a wide grin factor blast on rolling, swooping track with large berms and bomb holes. This finishes at a river crossing that is knee deep. A long forestry section leads to a couple of seismic lines back-to-back, cresting the first gives you a heart wrenching, muscle cramping view of the second larger line. The descent is equally severe and claims it’s first victim, a guy with a broken elbow gets airlifted to hospital. The next climb winds it’s way through pleasant forest tracks covered in weird mulch, which should ride like sand but has remarkable grip. Another full-on head wind road section leads onto thick gravel then undulating grassy/muddy trails with the added attraction of deep bogs cunningly hidden until you suddenly cycle to a halt. Even picking the bike up and walking with it is difficult, as the mud seems intent on sucking your shoes off. One of the motorbikes has sunk into one such bog and Raymond helps to heave it out, he waves at us as he later passes us walking a steep rocky ascent. The remainder of the climb was very reminiscent of Leith Hill trails but with more false summits than we cared to count, then a superb steep descent in the weird mulchy stuff. I manage my first crash when a stick jumps into my front wheel but the blood soon dries on a big ring blast through narrow, winding single track into the finish arena. I was unable to get my granny ring all day so Paul kindly tweaks my gears as I carbo-load on chocolate.

Time: 8:34:02

Etherington – Sandy McNabb
41miles 4600ft altitude gain
The short day, NOT to be confused with ‘easy’. The day starts on a much damper, mistier note than we’re used to and waterproofs are packed as a precaution. At least the rain and cloud cover kept the temperatures from plunging last night. The initial track is superb tight swooping single track, sometimes technical, sometimes blazingly fast and covering 10miles! Then a rocky rutted climb through Welsh looking hills, without the sheep but with the weather, and a steep peat descent. The next climb started innocently enough with a couple of switchbacks through grassy fields, but by now it was raining hard and getting cold. As the track got steeper it also began to get more overgrown with alder trees, these continually whipped against bare flesh producing nasty weals and provided you with a wet shower. The trail got progressively more obscure and at the top we donned our Gore-Tex and tried to bring some life back into hands and feet before the descent. The next rise was very open to the elements, strong cold winds and driving rain and followed by another painful drop through the trees. A wide, very greasy slippery track led to the checkpoint. We were immediately greeted by the doctor who checked if we were fit enough to continue, those suffering were huddled in the back of the van smothered in emergency space blankets and given hot drinks. We’d warmed up once we’d got off the mountain so just kept going, only 9miles to go, it couldn’t take all that long? - yes it could, within a mile the track had got so muddy it was virtually impassable. It was that very special sticky ‘Alberta’ mud that clung to the bike for dear life and added 20lbs to its weight. Pushing the bike was impossible as the rear stays got clogged which mimicked having the rear brakes on full, we covered the final miles at about 2mph! Very frustratingly we could hear the music from the camp long before we got anywhere near it and the sting in the tail was a knee deep 5m wide ford with a strong current. The front wheel of my bike dipped into the water and the bike was wrenched from my hands, Raymond to the rescue! Once safely back we hear that a couple of girls have been airlifted off the mountain with hypothermia! That evening a short cloud burst was followed by the most strikingly beautiful double rainbow.

Time: 8:54:40

Day 5
Sandy McNabb – Bragg Creek
70miles 9100ft altitude gain
The long day! The trials of yesterday have taken their toll on men and machines and several teams have quit the race. The start is overcast but dry although it rained during the night and everything in the tent was wet. The first 30k is on the road/wide forest track and we get a good place in the second peleton and make good time. We pass a huge skid mark on one descent and see a guy pick himself up 50ft below the track, he has cuts to his head and concussion. The single track that followed was much like Friday Street, very rutted and rooty and of course obligatorily muddy. Raymond whiles away the miles by singing Johnny Cash hits with an American called Nate. We emerge from the trees into a barren rocky riverbed which hides a 15m ford that comes up to upper thigh level and is bitterly cold, even the big strong blokes have trouble staying upright in this one. (Hedda, however, is captured on video striding effortlessly through the torrent carrying her bike on one shoulder and her teammate’s on the other. She then hauls her teammate out of the swell just as she’s about to disappear downstream.) Raymond remembers his scouting days and tells me to traverse upstream. As we pass through the second check it’s obvious they’ve had a lot of rain and it begins to drizzle, we set off on road then a reasonable climb which becomes steeper and rockier, views upwards are of a cliff face escarpment shrouded in low cloud. We stop to eat and don jackets and are caught by 6 riders who inform us that due to the deteriorating weather conditions everyone behind is being turned back at the checkpoint. The organisers were a little disturbed by yesterday’s retirements and weren’t risking any more casualties. We continue to hike up the mountain, encountering many false summits, the track was ridable in short bursts then interrupted by walking bits. The broom wagon motorbike shadowed us down a treacherous rocky descent and we were expecting to be pulled out as the route crossed a road. To our amazement they seemed content to let us continue, another long hike up a steep mountain pass, Powderface pass. I’ve now developed a huge and bloody blister on my heel, which makes walking both slow and painful, but it does encourage me to ride down the very technical, wet and slippery rocky descent to the final check despite the fact that the Dutch guy I’m with falls heavily and injures his knee. The last section has been altered for safety and now consists of highway all the way back to camp. The signs however point off the road and we are tempted to follow them, only utter exhaustion and the bitter cold convinced Raymond to assert authority and get us back onto the road. We check our course with a local ranger and get convoyed by our support R.V.s. We later learn that Team 52 follow these signs and cover half of tomorrows course, they are found at 9.00pm in a field by a ranger! All day we’ve been passing signs for a place called Texas Gate, I finally twig that it means cattle grid!! We are the last to cross the line and it’s just gone 7.00pm! Those that got turned back have been in four hours, been fed, laundered, and rested and incurred only an hour time penalty. Tonight we have reached civilisation and are staying in a school gym, the locals tell us that heavy snow is forecast – but it’s August!!

Time: 11:01:45

Day 6
Bragg Creek – Kananaskis Village
46.5miles 4750ft altitude gain
I’m so knackered I sleep like a log, outside is surprisingly quiet, when we look out we see why, the predictions are accurate, we’re greeted by an endless blanket of thick, fresh snow! A school bus takes us to the start and breakfast. The weather has taken the organisers by surprise too and the intended climb to 2000m is hastily re-routed. While this is being engineered we are given an extra hour to eat, the start has been postponed until 9.00am. This also gives us time to don anything that is clean, buy gardening gloves from a local store to supplement our mitts, Raymond wears bagel bags on his feet and we stuff bin liners down our chests and around our knees. I also fashion an earmuff from a spare arm warmer. We scrape the ice off the bikes and hit the road, the sky soon breaks into a glorious blue and the track shoots off into single track through the fields. We slip, slide along in a perfect winter wonderland, frequently falling and constantly disturbing plops of snow from the trees. The fords feel relatively warm and the intended climb is replaced by a soft, shaly highway, it’s difficult to stay on one side of the road. The check point lies by an idyllic lake, by now the helpers were not only ferreting between our legs trying to refill our bottles and running after us oiling our chains, but also taking our glasses off our faces and washing them and even peeling our bananas as we were eating them! Do all pro-racers get this first-class treatment?

We contour the lake, and then peel some layers off as we climb to a track following telegraph lines, we’re now bathed in glorious sunshine. The track undulated and we were in the company of another mixed team, the hints of rivalry are budding and they gain time when my derailleur jams in the stays after a heavy hit on a rocky downhill. We motor to catch up and the last 2k follows a winding uphill cycle path. We jockey a bit for position and they are certainly on the offensive. Raymond reminds me to bide my time and we let them lead us out to the finish before mounting a terrific sprint to take the line. The commentator tells us off for having ‘an all-out sprint’ but I just think how pleased a certain Mr Smith would be of his protégés!
Tonight we are at Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, a sponsor of the event and home to Mr Blair and the G8 summit a few weeks earlier. Very deluxe rooms, banqueting hall and a chef who prepared a special vegan supper and breakfast for us! The BikeShop mechanics replaced my worn rear disc pads, just as well I’d taken spares as they didn’t have any Hope components and Julie sold her spare disc pads for $40 a piece making a tidy profit!

Time: 5:23:42

Day 7
Kananaskis Village – Canmore
47miles 3450ft altitude gain
The last day and a somewhat diminished field line up at 9.00am for the final start. After such unaccustomed luxury no one is keen to go and the commentator is herding us all up with only 5 mins to go! We had potato wedges and ketchup for breakfast yum! And used the hairdryer to dry my shoes – heaven!
We roll out under cloudless skies for a 40km stint on the Trans Canada Highway. The start is meant to be paced by the motorbike, however, he seems to think 45mph down the hill and out of town perfectly acceptable! We latch onto a group near the front and Raymond sets a scorching pace, never have I used my 44:11 so much. The first 10m was covered in 28mins and the 25 in 1:04 (my pb for tt and on knobblies!) on a definitely sporting course. My only faux pas was an unplanned deviation off the highway when I echeloned a bit too enthusiastically and cycled off down the verge. Onto damp, rooty single track with wooden staircases to negotiate. This gave way to gently undulating grassy tracks then road to the Canmore Nordic Centre, scene of the ‘88 Olympics, the World Cup MTB Championships and the ‘24hrs of Adrenalin’. At the last check we can see and hear the finish line only a mile or so away but a tour of the centre’s trails has been cunningly devised. 10miles of going up, down, under and over bridges, from the air we’d have looked like a manic Benny Hill style chase. We soon got to the point when we didn’t know if we’d done bits before or not and we catch up with a bloodied Cal who was staring blankly at a trail wondering the same thing. He was a bit high from just being thrown over a tree trunk and endo-ing several metres before hitting the deck. The course joins a riverside pathway then opens onto the main road and the finish banner. The area is heaving with spectators, relatives and media. We’re each given a lovely plastic medal and there are hugs and kisses all round.

Time: 4:45:00

Epilogue
Minutes after the final team has crossed the line you would never have known anything had gone on in the street. Our superbly trained entourage have removed every scrap of evidence that a race was ever in town! We book in at our motel and luxuriate in showers and clean clothes. The final pasta party is held in the local school, the daily awards are presented, then each of the finishers are congratulated by the organisers and given an original/unique finishers t-shirt (all non finishers t-shirts are burned), full results list, certificate and badge. The local policeman even dresses in his finest Mountie gear for us! In the Mixed category Raymond & I finish 6th (52:52:55) and Andy & Julie 8th (56:45:37). Paul & Jim come 20th in the Mens.(46:38:47). We retire to a pub until the wee hours.
However, the highlight is yet to come, idly watching T.V. the next day, the news reports on the race inform Canada that 160 ‘highly trained international athletes’ have just completed the first TransRockies Challenge, that over 4000 applied and ‘only the cream of the crop’ got in! This is repeated in the local papers. Ahh! True recognition!! How soundly we slept, how sweetly we dreamed!