Sparwood-Fernie
48km/660m climbing
After a Day 6 which will go down as one of the most brutal days in TransRockies history, the riders were treated to a quick 48km Stage 7 run into beautiful Fernie to the finish line celebrations with the friends and family who were waiting there for them. The weather held in and the 2007 TransRockies Challenge will go down as having the finest weather since the race began.
The short and fast last stage of the TransRockies saw the Team United Cycles duo of Roddi Lega and Tim Heemskerk confirm their dominant overall victory with their sixth stage win in seven days. They gapped the second and third placed Team La Ruta/Pizza Hut and Team Rocky Mountain EA Sports in the last singletrack section and rolled across the line with a narrow 18 second victory on the day and a 26-minute win in the overall standings.
A select group of teams formed during the first 20km of the race when the leading racers averaged close to 35km/h on a series of rolling forestry roads and doubletrack trails. With most of the technical singletrack packed into the last half of the stage, riders worked together knowing that the race would be won later.
As they had throughout the race, the team from Edmonton, Alberta was able to use their superior technical skills to gap the Costa Ricans on the rocky, rooty trails which make the TransRockies Challenge unique among the grand epic races in the world. With a gap in place, the question became could the young guns from Rocky Mountain EA Sports use their prowess in the singletrack to overcome the advantage that Team La Ruta/Pizza Hut had opened earlier in the race. In the end they came up a few seconds short and they podium on day 7 exactly mirrored the final overall standing with Team United Cycles in 1st, La Ruta in 2nd and Rocky Mountain EA Sports rounding out the top 3.
The most dominant team of the week was definitely the Frontrunners/Kona Open Mixed duo of Kona pro XC rider Wendy Simms and her partner Normon Thibault. The pair from Nanaimo, BC were never even closely threatened rolling to an overall win by more than an hour and a half. Coming in second place were perennial TransRockies challengers Eric Warkentin and Louise Kobin riding for Shoair/Rock’n’Road Cycles. Kobin is one of only three riders who have participated in every edition of the TransRockies and were presented with a deluxe engraved Campagnolo corkscrew in a ceremony held at Whiteswan Lake.
In the Open Women’s category, Sue Haywood proved a perfect last-minute replacement partner for Hillary Harrison as they won six of seven stages on their way to the overall win over the Jo Turnbull and Jenny Hillmand (Team Canwi) and the British Minx/Extreme Endurance pair of Fi Spotswood and Meggie Bichard, who valiantly fought through a few days of sickness to keep their podium spot.
The age group categories saw some back and forth racing during the week and, in two categories, the leaders jerseys changed hands on the penultimate stage. In the Men 80+ category, Team Centra Performance from Norway rode conservatively on the last day to protect their overall lead. Christian Sabell Eriksen and Ole Kristien Silsteth got a tough fight from half a dozen teams but rode smartly to conserve their lead and get the winners’ jerseys.
In the Open 100+ category, Bill Benson and Don Sissons, the Prairie Boys in Lycra snatched the lead on the killer Stage 6 and then confirmed the victory with a strong win in stage 7. The 80+ Mixed gender category was won by Gilles Morneau and Isabelle Cantin of Team Kona Le Pedalier and will take the jerseys home to Quebec with them.
Over 550 riders will be eligible to get their official Finisher T-shirts tonight at the Blackstone TransRockies closing banquet. With Over 1200 tickets sold for the event, the biggest TransRockies Challenge is going to close with the biggest-ever party before the riders travel back to their homes in over 25 countries with a lifetime of stories and an enormous accomplishment paid for in determination, sweat and suffering.
