Trans Rockies Challenge

OK, so Jen talked me into doing the Trans Rockies Challenge, a 7-day mountain bike stage race, and since I'm a masochist I said yes.

The course changes a bit from year to year, and they don't release details until the week before it starts, but here are some details from last year:

Stage 1: Panorama to Invermere - 33km, 1139m of elevation
Stage 2: Invermere to Nipika - 60km, 1300m of elevation
Stage 3: Nipika to Nipika - 90k, 1522m elevation, 43% single/double track
Stage 4: Nipika to Whiteswan Lake, 113km, 1139m of elevation, 45.1% single/double track, 54.9% gravel road
Stage 5: Whiteswan to Elkford - 93k, 1528m of elevation gain, 46.8% single/double track
Stage 6: Elkford to Sparwood - 116k, 2300m elevation gain, 57% on gravel roads, 27% on single/double-track (this is the Queen stage; the hardest stage of the race)
Stage 7: Sparwood to Fernie - Unknown

Stage info found here: http://www.teamrunningfree.com/wordpress/index.php?s=transrockies

It's going to be pretty epic, and I'm definitely nervous about it, but there's no backing out now!

Ellsworth Truth

Ellsworth Truth
Originally uploaded by dolface

I got a new bike (again).

It's an Ellsworth Truth with mostly SRAM X.0 components, and Ellsworth XC wheels. It's a lot of bike, and while I've only taken it on one real ride, so far I love it.

I'd sort of been thinking about getting a full-suspension bike for a while since they're really nice for longer races, but didn't have a compelling reason to spend that much money (fancy full-suspension bikes generally go for something north of $5k).

Two things happened: Jen asked if I wanted to do the Trans Rockies Challenge with her, and Ellsworth offered a pretty amazing deal to some of the adventure racers out here.

There are plenty of people who do the TRC on hardtails, but they're MTB racers and I'm not, plus, this was the perfect excuse to get a full-suspension. I NEEDED it for race .

Ellsworth's deal clinched it for me , so I jumped.

As a result, I'll be flying up to Calgary on August 9th, and spending 7 days zig-zagging back and forth across the spine of the Rockies on my new bike, doing my best to live up to it's potential.

It's gonna hurt.

Back in the saddle

OK, let's try to get this thing back on track.

To start with, Brynn and I adopted a critter, you can read all about her here.

More stuff soon.