Team Rocky Mtn Grabs Lead

by admin | Aug 13, 2010 | Fernie TransRockies

Alongside all the obvious skills that are essential to success in long distance mountain biking—fast climbing, brave descending, exceptional endurance—being a good bike mechanic with the ability to improvise solutions in remote places can often be the difference between winning a losing. While World Cup Mountain bike races have mechanical support like the Tour de France, most mountain bike races require that the racers be self-sufficient other than food and drink, and so bike repairs are ingrained into the culture of the sport.

Mechanical issues are a daily occurrence in the TransRockies and riders must be prepared to make a number of basic repairs to things like fix flat tires and broken chains which are a consequence of lightweight machinery, hundreds of kilometres of challenging trails and occasional fatigue-induced rider errors. Already in the first three stages of 2010, TransRockies riders have fixed numerous flat tires and broken chains and a motorcycle tire iron from a TransRockies course moto was even pressed into duty to reinforce a broken frame tube allowing the bike rider to make it to the finish on his bike rather than pushing it.

After three straight stage wins, Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks of Kona had established a 34-minute lead over 2009 Champions Marty Lazarski and Stefan Widmer (Rocky Mountain Factory Team) in the overall standings. Much of that time was going during Monday’s stage 3 when Marty had to fix a major mechanical a few km before the major climb of the day started. It was perhaps destined then that Kona would suffer its own mechanical challenge on Day 4 when Kris Sneddon snapped his rear derailleur 25km into a 60km ride. He was forced to turn his bike into a single speed for the rest of the day.

The problem with trying to turn most full-suspension bikes into single speeds is that the compression of the rear shock shortens the chain length. When this happens, the chain jumps to a bigger rear cog and then snaps when the shock returns to its normal position. Sneddon snapped his chain twice more before realizing that more extensive surgery was needed. His teammate Barry Wicks remembered locking gears out with duct tape to meet junior racing rules and they tried the same trick again . . . and it worked. They limped to the finish line in 6th place, 43 minutes behind Widmer and Lazarski who will don the Overall Leaders jerseys at tonight’s awards. With less than a 9-minute deficit and more than 170km to be raced over the next three stages, Sneddon and Wicks will feel that the 2010 Championship is still within reach.

While their ride went smoothly for the first 59.9km of the 60km day, Marty Lazarski and Stefan Widmer were nearly undone when Marty crashed just metres before the finish line turning on the transition between asphalt and gravel, and if that weren’t enough, his surprised teammate Stef Widmer also crashed when he rode into him. They were both stunned when they crossed the finish line—Marty on foot, Stef riding—but were up and moving quick and will be ready to race again tomorrow.

Behind all this action, the Timex/Sugoi duo of Will Kelsay and Matt Boobar rode to their second consecutive second-place finish of 2010 and jumped up into 3rd place in the overall standings. With just 5 minutes separating 3rd to 5th in the overall standings, they’ll need to put some more great rides together to get on the final podium in Canmore.

The racing wasn’t quite so dramatic in the other categories though the ride of the day must certainly be credited to the Open Mixed leaders Mical Dyck and Jeff Neilson (Team Terrascape/Trek Canada). After leading the field through the first section of singletrack, they stormed through the race to be the 4th team across the finish line overall and first in their division. Mical Dyck is obviously storming at the moment after medalling at the Canadian National Championships in Calgary. Now that they are wearing the leaders jerseys, they don’t look like they have any plans of giving them up.

With everything to race for, the expectation is for Team Kona to come out firing on the 54km Stage 5 ride from Anchor D Ranch to Little Elbow Camp to try and overturn their 9-minute deficit.

Stage4-TR2010-Official-GC

Stage4-TR2010-Official

TransRockies Competitors cross the Great Divide

by admin | Aug 10, 2010 | Fernie TransRockies

Stage 3 of the 2010 TransRockies was officially the most remote day of the event with a route which travelled deep into some of the wildest, most spectacular terrain in the lower Canadian Rockies and which included a new crossing of the Great Divide that dropped riders in a place more remote and further from civilization than many of them had been before.

The weather added to the untamed feel of the day with swirling, scudding dark clouds that moved in and out of the area rapidly threatening rain but not delivering. The remote Etherington Creek Campground was subject to the same weather with clear sky thunderclaps and ominous clouds that, luckily, did little more than sweep past the valley campground located at more than 1600 metres above sea level.

While the Open Men’s and Open Women’s standings had been relatively static over the first two stages, the Open Mixed and 80+ Men’s Divisions were much more wide-open and Stage 3 continued the trend with a change of overall leader in the Open Mixed Division and another tight three-way finish in 80+ Men setting up a dramatic last half of the race.

After two straight stage wins in the Open Mixed Division, Gretchen Reeves and Cannon Shockley (Tokyo Joes) suffered through a tough Stage 3 giving up 15 minutes to stage winners and new overall leaders Mical Dyck and Jeff Neilson (Terrscape/Trek Canada) who will don the leaders jerseys they wore throughout their 2009 TransRockies win. Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms moved one step up the podium to second but remain in third place overall.

In the 80+ Men’s Division, 2009 Champions the Czech Masters won their second straight stage with a narrow 4 minute gap over the British Duo of Team Mule Bar/Abergavenny RC who are hanging tight and preparing for a big push to overcome their 8 minute overall deficit on the more technical coming stages where they feel they have an advantage.

In the Open Men’s Division, the Kona duo of Kris Sneddon and Barry Wicks extended their lead with a dominant ride to grab their third straight stage win. Making their first appearance on the podium were Team Timex/Sugoi Will Kelsay and Matt Boobar, a pair of elite multisport athletes who put their running legs to good use on the big climb to place second on the stage. This finish was even more impressive considering Will’s broken derailleur hanger that forced him to turn it into an emergency single speed for the last part of the stage. Kelsay, who also complete last year’s GORE-TEX® TransRockies Run is seeking to become the first athlete to complete the TransRockies Bike and TransRockies Run double in the same year. We’ll check in with his progress later in the race.

The Open Women’s category held status quo with the Terrascape/Deadgoat Racing Duo of Alana Heise and Trish Graczyk won their third straight stage over the Matching Jerseys Scallion sisters duo. In the 100+ category, the Mountaincruzers (Joe McCarthy/Randy Walker) have established a big lead and look like they’re going to run away with the overall. Many time TransRockies finishers Simon Parker and Jim Seethram are having their best ride yet and sit in second place overall in the 100+ Division.

After the wildest ride of the year, the TransRockies riders head out into the spectacular trails of Kananaskis Country for Stage 4. The style of riding will change and you can expect the top finishers to shuffle again. It would be a surprise if at least one or two sets of leaders jerseys don’t move again after Stage 4.

Stage3-TR32010-Preliminary-GC

TransRockies Stage 2

by admin | Jul 28, 2010 | Fernie TransRockies

Stage 2 will take riders from Fernie’s Historic Downtown to Coal Creek Summit and on a single track trail named Porkypine Rim that drops to the Elk River from the ridge near Hosmer.

This 4000ft descent will approx take fast riders 20-25minutes, the ridgeline you see in backgrounds of some frames is where you descend from.

Trans Rockies Stage2 from jesse mong on Vimeo.

Thanks to Fernie Trails & Ski Touring club for building such an epic trail.

TransRockies Stage 1

by admin | Jul 21, 2010 | Fernie TransRockies

Stage 1 of the Blackstone Fernie TransRockies will be an epic Time Trail format starting and finishing in Fernie’s Historic Downtown on Sunday, August 8th. Local riders should fair well on their backyard trail.

This year’s Fernie participants include:
Krista Turasso TR3,
Jesse Moog TR3,
Don Arsenault TR3,
Ton Ryan TR3,
Franck Gilmard TR3,
and
Shayne Soetaert & Todd Lowen TR7

Local riders should fair well on the big climb up Castle Mountains Hyper Ventalation and down Roots Hyper Extension. From here riders will be climbing Ridgemont via Eric’s Trail, Splitting Bears, Broken Derailler, R Trail, Little Chain Ring Big Trouble, and the Coal Discovery Trail into Fernie Downtown!

Check out some footage from Stage 1:

Trans Rockies Stage1 trails from jesse mong on Vimeo.