Day Six – Bragg Creek to Rafter Six Resort

The substantial climb to Jumpingpound Ridge

With a steady diet of sunshine and sweet riding over the last couple of days, it has been getting easier and easier to feel as though we’re over the rough spots in the 2004 TransRockies Challenge. Tent sleeping last night was even a little more pleasant as we were a few hundred metres elevation lower than before and were treated to a fairly balmy night.

A great pancakes and eggs breakfast served up by the fine people of Bragg Creek, followed by nice strong cappuccino, definitely put me in a positive frame of mind for the 80km ride to Rafter Six Ranch Resort. According to the maps, this would be the last really tough stage of the race. It contained roughly 2,000 metres of climbing, including the 750m ascent to the top of Jumpingpound Ridge which starts with a leg-breaking 1.1km singletrack switchback section at an average 22 per cent grade. However, it also paid back with some of the sweetest alpine riding and warp-speed singletrack that the Rockies have to offer.

A friend of mine organized a laundry run for us yesterday, so I am set for clean laundry for the duration of the race—call me squeamish, but the thought of getting back into dirty cycling in unbearable to me. With the wet conditions during the first three days and may creek and river crossings, riding in wet shorts has led to saddle sores for some riders. Not so for Team Sugoi, and I intend to wear fresh shorts every day to keep it that way!

After a few days maintaining some sense of order, my gear bag and Camelbak have been getting more and more chaotic. It’s taking longer and longer to find things, though I do get some of the wasted time back by simply shoving everything into back into my bag willy-nilly before the start. It seems to be much the same for everyone else, as the finish line inches closer on the horizon.

Today’s ride was a slice of the epic riding which makes the Canadian Rockies such a destination. After a 30km approach on a mixtures of road, gravel and rolling singletrack, we dragged ourselves up to the top of Jumpingpond Ridge. Our climb was split roughly 50/50 between pushing and riding, so it was more than a little humbling to find out that stage winners Karl Platt and Andreas Hestler of Team Rocky Mountain/Business Objects reckoned that they rode all but 20m of the climb.

Much bigness

Once you get to the top of the 2,200m ridge, you are above the tree line and surrounded by the peaks of the Front Range of the Rockies. It would have been nice to put the race on pause and enjoy the views for more than a couple of minutes, but the drive get to the finish line overcame the scenery and so we dropped into what had to be the fastest singletrack descent that I have ever ridden—we dropped 500 metres in roughly 4km of tight switchbacks. After a short climb, we dropped the another 250 meters of vertical and fairly blew through the last 10k of doubletrack to the finish. Unlike the rest of the finishes, this one came up really fast—a guy at the side of the course said 150m to go and then we crested a ridge and rolled into Rafter Six Ranch.

We were treated to a big meaty western-style dinner and most people treated themselves to a beer before bed knowing that the next day would bring the finish line.

Stage Seven – Rafter Six Ranch Resort to Canmore and the finish

This stage was originally supposed to be 45km, but at the race meeting the night before, competitors were told that 5km and 240m of climbing had been added into the course. Still, at 51km it was by far the shortest ride of the whole event.

Once again, the folks at Rafter Six treated the racers to a big western-style meal, this time a hearty sausage, bacon and pancakes feast. A leisurely 9:30am start, timed to have the winning teams rolling into Canmore around noon, gave racers extra time to sleep and pack gear bags for the final time.

With the finish camera in mind, I decided to leave the Camelbak in my pack and ride race-style with only bottles. I nearly undid myself with this tactic as I lost one and nearly both bottles in the opening singletrack loop, but I am sure that it will all be worth it when I see the finish line pictures and I look like a racer and not a tourist.

The level of intensity on the start line was more like a regular cross-country race than the last day of a week-long event and the pace was super hot off the start. A technical prologue loop around Rafter Six eventually led to a short road transfer and a long section of the TransCanada Trail. The course was actually very technical, which must have come as a surprise to teams expecting something more like a ceremonial lap into town.

The final part of the course was lap of the Canmore World Cup XC loop, before a steep gravel drop onto Main Street. The town shuts down and holds a festival for the racers, and it’s quite a rush to have a noisy four block run into downtown and the finish line… Wipe your nose, zip up your jersey and smile for the cameras.

Epilogue

It’s impossible to sum up the enormous scope of emotions and impressions that emerge from a seven-day event like the TransRockies. At one end of the spectrum is the despair and frustration of Stage Three and at the other end, there’s the amazing camaraderie and warmth that develops among the competitors and staff of the race.

The entire organization does an amazing job of making the riders’ lives as simple as possible. For the most part, riders just need to eat, sleep and ride. When the riders get up, the catering staff have already been up for hours getting breakfast ready for over 300 people. When the racers crawl into their sleeping bags, the mechanics have hours of work ahead of them to get bikes back in working order for the next day.

Normally, after a tough race, it takes me a while to get over the suffering and decide whether or not I would enter again. Not this time — I’d enter the TransRockies again in heartbeat.