As described on the TransRockies website: “Fernie is well known for its world famous singletrack riding. Designed by multi-time TransRockies Finisher and Fernie trail-builder extraordinaire, Pat Gilmar, stage one will highlight some of the best and funnest singletrack in Fernie. To minimize congestion on the narrow trails, this stage will be a time trial.”

Riders will be started at intervals, rather than in one large group. Jeff and I will start alone, but hopefully, we’ll quickly catch the teams ahead of us. This is how I race best… always trying to catch for the carrot (or rider) ahead of us.

Although the GPS measurements are approximate, these are the figures posted by the TransRockies crew:

Stage 1: Distance, 32k (20 miles). Climbing, 1400m (4593 feet).

On July 25th Jeff and I will fly from Manchester airport to Calgary, BC, Canada. We’ll take a shuttle- lugging our gear, race food, boxed bikes, and stomaches full of pre-race butterflies and we’ll head towards Fernie, BC. We’ll have a few days to acclimatize and finalize some last-minute race preparations before the start on Saturday, July 28th. It’s not a lot of extra time, but hopefully it will be enough to get use to the higher altitude, rehydrate after traveling, and prep our bodies and our bikes.

TransRockies is a 7 day stage race. There’s a start each morning and a finish line each evening. For 3 days we’ll ride around Fernie; on day 4, we’ll begin our ride north to Canmore (140 miles from Fernie by car). We’ve paid for and found our own lodging for the time we’ll be in Fernie, but as of Tuesday night (July 31st) through the end of the race (on Friday, August 3rd) we’ll sleep in tents provided by the TransRockies crew. (Lucky for us, they’ll take down the tent each night and set it up each day. One less thing to think about… and all we have to do each evening is eat, follow up with any bike maintenance,  and crawl into our sleeping bags.)