TRANSROCKIES CHALLENGE, B.C. CANADA
August 12th - 18th, 2007

www.transrockies.com
THE WALL starts in Panorama, B.C. Canada
SEVEN DAYS - 360 MILES - 36,000 ft of CLIMBING
plus lots of crazy, fun mountain bike racers

Thursday, August 23, 2007

DAY 3 BACK HOME

I'll review Stage 3: this stage is all off-road, which is a good thing and it's 90km long with 4566ft of climbing. Well, they get us wet early in the morning crossing a river system. We climb over the first mtn and into ATV single track through Miller pass - in deep back country - steep. Then we drop downhill for about 3000ft for another steep climb. We end with a 18km single track ride on the cliffs above the Kootenay River. It's the first of four long days and is taken in stride. By now we're getting a little use to the nasty stuff so, nothing really stuck out in my mind on this review.
I have more time so, here is the review of Stage 4: 113km long, with 4000ft of climbing. This stage starts out very fast on FSR (forrest service road) and was very dusty as are most rides on these types of roads. They really haven't had much rain in this area. There were a lot of creek crossings on this stage - probably more than on any other stage. We had a control station (check point) at an "outfitter's house" which was about as photogenic as the Kootenay Mountains get - very beautiful (two homes) views with two more creeks to cross...
There were lots of single track and FSR riding. My butt was really killing me on this stage - raw by now and nothing working. After the race I went by the medical tent and retrieved some of their magical butt butter - it has one of those caines in it.
Stage 5: 93km with 4600ft of climbing. We start with a quick FSR run and then another steep climb where we cross more creeks and debris torrents - from logging. We had a 24km run where a registered trapper allowed us to cross his land. So here comes another description from the race book - "note the dangerous rock garden just over the pass that has been the site of injuries in the previous years". A Velonews reporter rode this stage and there are photos of this garden - it looks a lot steeper in real life - we walked some and road where any dirt presented itself. The article is on Velonews under TransRockies. Peter crashed further down and was not hurt badly but, that was one crazy drop. I think this stage took the most out of me psychologically. I just remember being mentally exhausted at the end. At this point, I hadn't read the book for the next day and thought it was about 1/2 the actual length - imagine my surprise. We usually read the race book late in the day after recovering a bit and then started making preparations accordingly. I'm riding double shorts by now and it really made a difference with regard to comfort.
Take care and please continue praying for our troops, Ciao, V.B.

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