The TransRockies Challenge is one of the most gruelling, intimidating mountain bike races anywhere. Over 200 riders climb through 14,225 metres of elevation gain across 532 km of trails over seven days they’ll never forget, and on Friday, August 14, the race rolled into Crowsnest Pass.
The race featured riders in teams of two from across the world, in multiple categories. The stars of the show for hometown fans, of course, was Team Crowsnest Pass, the duo of Jeff Smith and Andrew Fairhurst, who rode with 40 other teams in the highly competitive Open Men category.
The ride into the Pass, Stage Six of the seven-stage race, took the racers roughly 100 km and over the continental divide. With rain and thunderstorms rolling around the area, it became a test of will and endurance as the riders struggled through slick mud and cold temperatures.
Even the top teams took more than an hour longer to arrive in Blairmore than anticipated, and were covered in mud when they made it. The TransRockies website describes it as “perhaps the hardest mountain bike stage race ever held.”
Proving that they’re made of strong stuff, Fairhurst and Smith performed better than nearly every other team on this challenging stage, placing seventh in their category for the day and advancing to tenth overall with one stage remaining, the final push back across the divide and into Fernie.
As they are in every community stop along the way, from Panorama to Fernie, the riders were treated to dinner and an awards ceremony that evening, at the Albert Stella Arena, where Mayor John Irwin welcomed them to the Pass and congratulated them on their accomplishments. The Pass Herald caught up with Team Crowsnest Pass after the ceremony.
The duo finished the 100km stage into the Pass with a time of 6:39:58, 56 minutes behind the day’s leader. This put them in seventh in the Open Men category for the day, and tenth in the category overall.
Their goal for the final stage into Fernie was to advance into ninth place, a goal they accomplished with a second straight seventh-place stage finish. Their final time for the entire 532km race was 37:01:48 –– ninth best among 41 Open Men teams from across the globe.
Overall times in their category ranged from a best of 29:01, set by Stefan Widmer and Marty Lazarski of Rocky Mountain Factory Team, down to 59:55.