After a hectic bout of working and travelling, I sit here looking at the calendar and it hardly seems possible that in one short month I’ll be standing on the start line of the TransRockies Challenge with seven days of epic riding ahead of me. Once I do get myself to the start line, I’ll be filing daily reports from the race with a blow by blow account of each stage through the wilds of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Before we get there, though, I thought that I would give you a quick idea of what I have been doing to get ready for the TransRockies, both in terms of fitness, and also in terms of equipment selection and preparation.
Fitness
Yes, please. It would be very nice to have some, but failing that I guess that I will try to get by with what I have. My training, when I manage to do it, has consisted of long rides on consecutive days to train my body to function in a knackered state. For the most part, I have done the riding on my mountain bike, but on the road. That way, I get to adapt my body to the exact position that I will be riding, while at the same time getting all the benefits of steady pedalling on the road.
Some of my bigger blocks of riding have been 16 hours in three days, 20 hours in four days and then a plain silly 18 hours in two days (nearly 300 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing). I’ve been travelling for the past couple of weeks, but the final bit of my training will include lots of climbing along with some mixed riding and hiking in my cycling shoes since the TransRockies includes some decent amounts of bike pushing.
In the final two weeks, I won’t do much more than rest and spin the legs easily since I figure that being fresh is the most important thing. If I am a bit flat in the first day or so, I always have a week to get warmed up!
Bike
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We at Sugoi sponsor Team Rocky Mountain, whose riders appear on the TransAlp and TransRockies podium on an annual basis, so when it came time to pick something with a bit more bounce than my Dekerf hardtail, there was only one call to make. After chatting with their riders and marketing manager, I decided upon the ETSX-50 as the right choice for the ride.
Not only is it high on the intimidation scale with a shiny black and silver finish, but with travel adjustable from 3.5 to 4.5in, very neutral handling and superior climbing, it’s well-balanced for the requirements of five to six hours a day in the saddle for a week.
The bike is basically box stock, except for a few changes made from personal preference:
- 180mm Raceface Turbine cranks (because I’m a lanky bugger)
- 26in wide flat bar with bar ends (because I’m old fashioned)
- Selle Italia SLR saddle (because I hate all the “bits-friendly” saddles)
- Tubeless wheels (because I like low pressure and more traction)
I’m also going to be using a Polar S725 Computer on my bike during the race. Not only is it a high powered heart rate monitor, but it is also a wireless cycle computer and has a built in altimeter which should help me answer the questions “Are we there yet?” and “How far to the top of this f***ing climb?”
In the next instalment of my TransRockies preview, I’ll let you know how my last preparations are going, and will give you a guided tour of my gear bag and see what clothing, food, hydration pack and other stuff I will be taking with me.
For more information on the TransRockies, visit www.transrockies.com.
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