Fernie Singletrack 3 and Ride & Roast Bike Festival are more than another weekend of mountain biking in Fernie. They are part of a deeper story that reaches back more than two decades, to when the TransRockies Challenge helped put Fernie on the mountain bike map.
Long before Fernie’s trail network became internationally known, the TransRockies Challenge brought riders from around the world to the Elk Valley. It introduced visiting racers to Fernie’s long climbs, forested singletrack, technical descents and community spirit. It also helped ignite the local riding culture that continues to define Fernie today.
This year, that history comes full circle as Fernie Singletrack 3 returns under the TransRockies banner, alongside the Ride & Roast Bike Festival, bringing racing, riding, free community events and celebration together in one weekend.
For more than a decade, the TransRockies Challenge transformed Fernie every summer.
Historic 2nd Avenue filled with bikes, racers, spectators and volunteers as teams gathered at the start line before heading deep into the Rockies. Hundreds of competitors from Europe, Australia and across North America came to experience the terrain local riders already knew well.
“The original events were exciting with huge parties and hundreds of spectators — the entire town was engaged,” Savage recalled. “This event was the seed for defining Fernie as a mountain bike destination.”
The race did not simply pass through Fernie. It became part of the town’s summer culture.
While the race was attracting international attention, Fernie’s trail network was expanding.
Trail crews and volunteers were steadily building the singletrack that now stretches across the valley. The momentum and visibility created by the TransRockies events helped generate support for trail development and contributed to the growth of organized trail stewardship that would later become the Fernie Trails Alliance.
As visiting racers returned home, word spread about Fernie’s terrain — long climbs, deep forests, technical descents and flowing singletrack.
A small mountain town was quietly becoming one of Canada’s most respected mountain bike destinations.
More than twenty years later, the next generation of Fernie riders continues to carry that legacy forward. In 2022, Fernie rider Carter Nieuwesteeg won the overall title at Singletrack 6, one of North America’s premier mountain bike stage races — a fitting victory on the same home trails where the TransRockies story began two decades earlier.
A New Fernie Bike Weekend
Fernie Singletrack 3 represents a full-circle moment, bringing stage racing back to the community where the TransRockies story first took hold.
The modern three-stage race showcases the trails, terrain and riding culture that have made Fernie famous. Racers will take on challenging courses across the valley, with stages that highlight the strength of Fernie’s trail network and the depth of the local riding community.
The weekend also expands beyond racing with the Ride & Roast Bike Festival at the Montane Barn. The festival brings riders, families, volunteers, spectators and the broader community together for free events, bike activities, food, live music, a beer garden and celebration.
For Fernie, this is exactly what mountain biking has always been at its best: competition, community, trail culture and shared celebration.
Fernie Singletrack 3 and the Ride & Roast Bike Festival are a chance for the community to be part of the action.
Come out and cheer on Fernie’s riders as they take on the FST3 courses and compete alongside racers from across the region and beyond. Local riders have always been central to the TransRockies story, from the early days of the TransRockies Challenge to today’s Fernie Singletrack 3.
The Ride & Roast Bike Festival adds a full day of free community events, giving residents, families, visitors and riders a place to gather, participate and celebrate Fernie’s bike culture. It is an opportunity to enjoy the festival atmosphere, support the racers, connect with the local riding community and recognize the volunteers, organizers and trail builders who continue to make Fernie one of Canada’s great mountain bike towns.
Cheer on Fernie’s riders in the FST3. Take part in the free events at the Ride & Roast Bike Festival. Bring the family, support the community and help celebrate the next chapter in Fernie’s mountain bike story.
