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“We’ve known TSEpic promoters Mike Kuhn and Ray Adams for years and watched their event grow since its inception in 2010. It’s great to work in tandem with them to promote mountain bike stage racing as an exciting and healthy vacation for active-minded people,” said TransRockies promoter Aaron McConnell in a statement.

Kuhn and Adams agree: “It’s great to earn the respect and interest of the promoters of such an iconic event. We are looking forward to showing the TransRockies team some of the best trails in our region.”

Jon Firth won the 2012 TransRockies Challenge.

Who will be coming to Pennsylvania from the Canadian Rockies? Two of the fastest competitors from western Canada: Jon Firth and Drew Simson. Firth, fresh off a victory at the 2012 TransRockies Challenge, is looking forward to an early season stage race and has “heard nothing but good things about TSEpic. Well organized events like this are always on my to-do list and the course, with great singletrack and plenty of climbing, suits my skillset.”

From Pennsylvania, NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic Racer Aaron Snyder will travel to the Canadian Rockies with his BMC mountain bike. Snyder, having raced several mountain bike stage races already, is excited to be a part of the exchange and is aiming for the podium. “I was able to hang with the top five amongst the stacked field during the 2012 TSEpic, and I hope to be even faster this year. With the support I’m getting from NoTubes, TSEpic, and BMC Switzerland, I think a podium finish is totally within reach.”

Aaron Synder hopes his success at the Trans-Sylvania Epic will transfer to the Rockies.

The Trans-Sylvania Epic, presented by Dirt Rag, will run May 26-June 1 near State College, PA.

The TransRockies will be held July 27-August 2 from Fernie, BC, to Canmore, AB.

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‘It started as a bet between a Pro Motocross rider and his physical trainer.  It ended with five friends sprawled out at the finish line at one of the toughest mountain bike races in the world’.  – Words and Photography by John Gibson

The post TransRockies Challenge Featured in Bike Magazine appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

This stage would be one of more enjoyable of the week with just  over 45km of riding and 1200 metres of elevation gain. Early on, TR4 Open Men’s leader Neal Kindree would suffer a flat tire and be forced to work his way through roughly 80 riders in an effort to catch the leaders. By the time he made the turn for home he had passed all but two: Greg Day and Colin Kerr of Rocky Mountain Factory team. Day and Kerr would take the stage win for the TR7 Open Men and seal a second place overall finish behind Planetfoods/Honeystinger riders Jon Firth and Stef Widmer. Kindree took his fourth straight stage win and the overall Open Men’s TR4 crown to go with his TR3 win earlier in the week.

Fortunately for the rest of the field the weather began to quickly  improve as the morning progressed. By noon the sun was out and temperatures were rising into the teens from an overnight low of 5 degrees Celsius. Jeff Neilson, TR4 40+ Men’s overall leader, finished his 7th TransRockies atop the podium in his class. The Open Women`s leader, Kristin Walters, continued her winning ways with her fourth stage win capturing the overall title.

There`s nothing quite like the feeling of finishing on Main Street Canmore after 7 days of the TransRockies Challenge. The smiles were ear to ear as the field continued to work its way across the line after a stop on the trails of the Canmore Nordic Centre. TR7 Open Women`s team of Jean Ann Berkenpas and Sandra Walter hit Main Street with their 7th straight stage victory thus securing their overall title. Just as dominant, Marco and Eva Carrer of Switzerland, matched the Open Women`s ladies stage win count to take home the 80+ Mixed overall.

The 80+ Open Men`s team composed of Craig Bartlett and Pat Doyle were able to take 5 of 7 stage wins and finished in Canmore the overall winners. On only one occasion in the 2012 edition of the TransRockies Challenge did Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms not reach the top of the podium. Today they claimed their 6th win of the week and the Open Mixed crown. 100+ Open leaders Darell Jones and Tom Ebbern picked up where they left off on Stage 6. By taking their 5th win they secured their first place overall position.

As always, The 2012 TransRockies Challenge lived up to its name.  Early on, the Fernie route tested riders with heat, long climbs and technical descents.  Leaving the relative comfort of hotel living for Kananaskis camp life brought a change in the weather and the opportunity for riders to test themselves under less than ideal conditions.  A little bit of everything from North America’s original, epic, singletrack adventure.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 7 appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

In retrospect, the decision to re-route was the correct one as the conditions worsened throughout the morning. When the athletes began to trickle across the Rafter 6 finish line it was obvious that the day had turned into a ‘mud bath’. TR3 champion and TR4 Men’s Open leader Neal Kindree was first across the line in 2:41:59 and was thoroughly coated. After a flat on the course, TR4 40+ overall leader Jeff Neilson was relegated to 5th place on the stage with John Gould taking the win. Kristin Walters maintained her lead in the Women’s Open with a 3 minute and 39 second win over Ene Underwood.

The TR7 Open Men saw the Rocky Mountain Factory team of Colin Kerr and Greg Day overcome mechanical problems on stage 5 and claim a stage win ahead of overall leaders Jon Firth and Stefan Widmer. Impressively, 80+ Mixed team Eva and Marco Carrer, along with Jean Ann Berkenpass and Sandra Walter in the Women’s Open field, each clocked their 6th straight stage win.

The Open Mixed continued to show strong competition between the  top 3 teams with less than 10 minutes separating them on a tough day. Wendy Simms and Normon Thibault came out on top for the second day in a row and maintained their overall lead. After a 1 hour and 12 minute victory on Stage 5, 80+ Men’s overall leading team of Pat Doyle and Craig Bartlett took a slim 1 minute and 41 second win and their 4th stage win.

Undoubtedly the most competitive category at this years event has been the 100+ Open. The six stages have seen 3 different winning teams with a time gap between 1st and 2nd standing at a mere 5 minutes and 4 seconds. Darrell Johnson and Tom Ebbern notched their 3rd stage win and will look to hold onto their overall lead heading into the finish in downtown Canmore.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 6 appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

With three days down and 4 to go, this day would see the continuation of the TR7 battle and the start of the TR4. The North Folk to Little Elbow stage welcomes the athletes to the pleasures of ‘K Country’ riding and delivers them to the finish line some 47km away. With the sun shining for a 4th day in a row the riders hit the trail bound for Little Elbow.

TR3 overall champion Neal Kindree decided to stick around for some more fun lining up for a go at the TR4. Kindree continued his winning ways and burned through the course in 2:24:18 crossing the line to the sounds of Motley Crew’s ‘Same Old Situation’. The TR4 Open Women kicked off the day in fine fashion and Kristin Walters was able to take the opening stage win in 3:24:54 over Ene Underwood. Fresh off a 2nd place finish in the TR3, Jeff Neilson returned to his home turf and joined the TR4 crowd winning the opening stage for the 40+ Men.

As the day progressed, welcome cloud cover swept across the skies giving the TR7 contingent relief from the unrelenting sun of the previous 3 days. Fortunately, this year would not be a repeat of the 2011 stage 4 ending downpour. TR7 Men’s Open had been dominated over the first 3 days by the Planetfoods/Honeystinger team of Stefan Widmer and Jon Firth. Today would see a sprint to the finish with Greg Day and Colin Kerr taking the stage win by a mere 1 second. Widmer and Firth would retain the overall lead. Another close finish came in the Open Mixed Category with Kiwis Tristan Lawrence and Anja McDonald cruising in by a slim 57 second margin over TR7 leaders Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms. To this point, Simms and Thibault had secured 3 straight victories.

Many fear the bears in K-Country and riders will often carry spray with them in case of a rare encounter. After a near collision with a herd of cows, the ladies of XPREZO-BORSAO, Jean Ann Berkenpas and Sandra Walter, are no longer so concerned about bears. Nonetheless, they captured a 4th straight stage victory in a time of 2:54:14. Pat Doyle and Craig Bartlett have been overpowering in the Men’s 80+ building a lead of 55+ minutes after two consecutive victories. Today, team Cycling Point, Milan Spolc and Jiri Benes came storming back for a stage 4 victory while Eva and Marco Carrer continued their stranglehold on the 80+ mixed with win number 4. LiveOutThere.com teammates Darrell Jones and Tom Ebbern scored their first stage win of the event and became the 4th new stage winners in 4 days in the 100+ Open Mixed.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 5 appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

With three days down and 4 to go, this day would see the continuation of the TR7 battle and the start of the TR4. The North Folk to Little Elbow stage welcomes the athletes to the pleasures of ‘K Country’ riding and delivers them to the finish line some 47km away. With the sun shining for a 4th day in a row the riders hit the trail bound for Little Elbow.

TR3 overall champion Neal Kindree decided to stick around for some more fun lining up for a go at the TR4. Kindree continued his winning ways and burned through the course in 2:24:18 crossing the line to the sounds of Motley Crew’s ‘Same Old Situation’. The TR4 Open Women kicked off the day in fine fashion and Kristin Walters was able to take the opening stage win in 3:24:54 over Ene Underwood. Fresh off a 2nd place finish in the TR3, Jeff Neilson returned to his home turf and joined the TR4 crowd winning the opening stage for the 40+ Men.

As the day progressed, welcome cloud cover swept across the skies giving the TR7 contingent relief from the unrelenting sun of the previous 3 days. Fortunately, this year would not be a repeat of the 2011 stage 4 ending downpour. TR7 Men’s Open had been dominated over the first 3 days by the Planetfoods/Honeystinger team of Stefan Widmer and Jon Firth. Today would see a sprint to the finish with Greg Day and Colin Kerr taking the stage win by a mere 1 second. Widmer and Firth would retain the overall lead. Another close finish came in the Open Mixed Category with Kiwis Tristan Lawrence and Anja McDonald cruising in by a slim 57 second margin over TR7 leaders Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms. To this point, Simms and Thibault had secured 3 straight victories.

Many fear the bears in K-Country and riders will often carry spray with them in case of a rare encounter. After a near collision with a herd of cows, the ladies of XPREZO-BORSAO, Jean Ann Berkenpas and Sandra Walter, are no longer so concerned about bears. Nonetheless, they captured a 4th straight stage victory in a time of 2:54:14. Pat Doyle and Craig Bartlett have been overpowering in the Men’s 80+ building a lead of 55+ minutes after two consecutive victories. Today, team Cycling Point, Milan Spolc and Jiri Benes came storming back for a stage 4 victory while Eva and Marco Carrer continued their stranglehold on the 80+ mixed with win number 4. LiveOutThere.com teammates Darrell Jones and Tom Ebbern scored their first stage win of the event and became the 4th new stage winners in 4 days in the 100+ Open Mixed.

Visit www.transrockies.com daily for reports, results, photos and video from the race.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 4 appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

The starter pistol sounded and the usual suspects sped quickly to  the front. By midpoint the boys from Team Specialized, Neal Kindree and Evan McNeely along with Chris Sheppard of Rocky Mountain Factory Team, built a solid 5 minute lead on the rest of the field. Sheppard started the day down 5:21 to Kindree in the TR3 category and dropped the hammer on the final climb in an effort to close the gap. The lead built by Kindree over the first two days proved too much to overcome and, while Sheppard took the stage win by 1:46, Kindree would take the TR3 Open Men’s title. Mical Dyck continued her domination of the Women’s Open field and captured the overall with a third straight  stage win. The 40+ TR3 field podium and overall remained unchanged as Ian Auld, Jeff Neilson and John O’Shannassy retained the same 1,2,3 positions of the previous two stages.

With two days down and 3 to go, the TR7 field was just starting to warm up. The effort of 1800 metres of climbing would pale in
comparison to the reward of unending views. Women’s Open team of Jean Anne Berkenpas and Sandra Walter continued to widen the gap over their 2nd place competitors. Today Berkenpas and Walter would clock in at 2:47:45, over 35 minutes ahead Alana Heise and Nicole Muzechka of Terrascape Racing. The Men’s Open offered up a similar story as team Planetfoods/Honey  stinger stretched their lead to 12:35 with a 4:37 victory over Greg Day and Colin Kerr. Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms continued to lead the Open Mixed category with a 3rd straight win pulling in 56 seconds ahead of Tristan Rawlence and Anja McDonald.

After a shake up in the standings on stage two, the team of Pat Doyle and Craig Bartlett, captured a 2nd straight win and padded their overall lead in the 80+ Men’s. The duo now leads 2nd place team Milan Spolc and Jiri Benes by nearly 56 minutes. Swiss husband and wife duo Marco and Eva Carrer came screaming down Mt. Baldy to stretch their 80+ lead to a substantial 3:20. Harry Johnson and Andrew Seessel were able to retain the lead they picked up on Stage 2 in the 100+ Open category with a 2nd victory in a row.

For complete results and images please log onto www.transrockies.com/trc.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 3 appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

Early on it was evident the adrenaline was pumping as the leaders jockeyed for position. Several riders were claimed by the course, sustaining injuries that would lead to an unexpected end to the day. The lead group made quick work of the route and, once again, TR3 leader Neal Kindree claimed the stage win to retain his overall Open Men’s lead. On this day, Kindree paired up with fellow Specialized rider Evan McNeely to work the climbs together.  Alternating the lead allowed these two to save valuable energy resulting in a tandem finish, and times of 2:06:41 and 2:06:45 respectively, in the plaza at Fernie Alpine Resort. The status in the Ladies TR3 remained unchanged as Mical Dyck took her second stage win and widened her overall lead to a whopping 14 minutes and 42 seconds. Ian Auld, TR3 40+ leader, was able to hold off Jeff Neilson and managed to increase his lead in the overall with a victory under the ‘Legendary Fernie’ arch.

The storyline for the TR7 wasn’t quite so cut and dry. While 3 of the 5 category leaders remained unchanged there was a shakeup in two of the standings possibly due, in part, to injury. The team of Harry Johnson and Andrew Seessel rode strong to improve on a 4th place stage one finish to take the TR7 100+ lead with a victory in 3:23:55. Pat Doyle and Craig Bartlett, 2nd in yesterday’s stage by a mere 21 seconds, took top honors today and moved into the overall lead in the Men’s 80+.

Open Men’s leaders Jon Firth and Stefan Widmer added a second consecutive stage win on the, according to Firth, ‘sweet, sweet singletrack’ and lengthened their overall lead over Greg Day and Colin Kerr of Rocky Mountain Bicycles Factory Team. Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms continued to lead the Open Mixed with a stage 2 victory and displayed a touch of class stopping for an injured rider until medics were able to respond. The duo of Sandra Walter and Jean Ann Berkenpas continued their domination of the Open Women extending their overall lead to over one hour.

Tomorrow the TransRockies Challenge re-starts on the Plaza at Fernie Alpine Resort and will test the riders with 1800km of riding over 31km before descending into beautiful Island Lake Lodge.

For results and photos log into www.transrockies.com/trc.

The post 2012 TransRockies Challenge – Stage 2 Recap appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.

When Scott Bikes came on board we knew we had a quality team of bike experts to support our event.  When they offered up a sweet Spark 60 for our ‘Spark an Experience’ photo contest we knew we were going to have one happy rider.  Over 100 entries and 2000 online votes later we had a winner with Shai Shtub’s ‘Finish Line’ photo.

Along with the bike, Shai, a native of Israel but resident of Savannah, Georgia, won free entry to the TR3 and TR4. As a veteran of the Cape Epic stage race, Shai is no stranger to stage racing.  Upon notification of his win he quickly booked his flight and, this past Thursday, hopped a plane bound for Calgary, AB.

Shai’s good luck seemed to briefly run dry as a storm left him stranded in Chicago with the airport floor as his mattress.  To make matters worse, the airline lost his luggage and gear.  Fortunately, all ended well as everything was delivered to his Fernie hotel at 4am race morning.  So much for catching up on your sleep!

Best of luck Shai and enjoy that Scott Spark!  Thank you to all the contest entrants and to Scott Bikes!

The post ‘Spark an Experience’ Photo Contest appeared first on The TransRockies Challenge: July 27 - August 2, 2013.