Dave’s Bike Adventures

So after a long travel day we made it to Panorama.  A few flights and one bus transfer from Calgary landed us at the Panorama Mountain Ski Resort at about midnight local time.  That’s 2 AM EST which made for a nice 21 hour travel day for us!  But hey, compared with all the folks that came from as far away as New Zealand and South Africa that’s nothing, right?

Saturday morning we got our first glimpses of Panorama during the day - what an amazing place!  Even a few snow capped mountains in the distance.

We spent Saturday putting the bikes together …

… and then taking them for a test spin.

Bikes and luggage made it here in one piece.  So far so good.  It turns out this fire road was what we’d be starting the race on in Stage 1.

Then after registering we got a look at the race routes and elevation profile.  I’ve heard in past years stage #1 was fairly easy.  Well not this year - they’re starting it off with a bang - a 4000′ climb up the Panorama resort mountain!

Yeah kids … we’re climbing up there tomorrow - and that’s just the first climb of the week!

So Sunday rolled around and it was time to get this thing started.  Stage 1 kicked off at 11 AM and the weather was warming up nicely - didn’t even need arm warmers.

The TransRockies staff was hard at work getting the racers pumped up for the start.  Drew was on the mic and Rob was cranking some great tunes on the PA.  Then Drew reminded everyone "Hey boys and girls remember this is just the warm up".  Yeah just day 1 of 7 … it’s gonna be a long, fun week!  As we were waiting in the start bin the helicopter for the camera and race support crews took off.  Now all we needed was Bob Roll and the crew from the Versus channel to put the TransRockies on TV!

11:00 AM rolled around and we’re off!  We started by following a fire truck around the Panorama Village then they turned us loose up the mountain.

After about 90 minutes and 4000′ of climbing we took a quick break for water at control station #1 …

Then a bit of hike-a-bike to get all the way up to the peak …

The views from up here were just amazing.  We were riding on the narrow spine of the mountain with great views in all directions.  It was awesome to be dancing along the ridge - passing the signs for the ski bowls high atop Panorama Mountain.

We then dropped off the ridge a bit and started some fun technical singletrack.  But then for the hard part … scree fields.  As we traversed along the mountain we had to hike through several scree fields … fun fun.

Just about then I start hearing this "tink, tink" sound.  Hmmm …. hail bouncing off the bikes … wow!  Then after a few minutes it turns to snow.  This is totally surreal.  One hour ago I was sweating in the warm sun climbing up the mountain.  Now we’re up top enjoying amazing views and getting snowed on in August!  Way better than rain though … just a bit cold but not wet … and just enough to put an exclamation point on an epic start to the race.  I pulled the camera out to get a shot of the snow but it wouldn’t power up … maybe it froze up??

High up on Panorama Mountain - mmmm Scree!

Photo Credit: Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge

A few more miles of technical singletrack then we dumped out on a dirt road and hit the next control station.  At this point we had about 20 km of fire road descent - I nice break from the start of the day.

After a quick pit we pull out of the control station and crank up the speed.  40, 50, 60, 65 km/hour … we’re smokin’ down the fire road and making great time.  In NC we’re used to fire roads that wind around mountains with a lot of turns and switchbacks.  But this one is almost a straight shot and we’re hitting total ludicrous speed!

After a while it levels out a bit … and Alex says "I like the km’s … they go by quicker!".  Yep … after being used to counting off things in miles, it sure seems like the kilometers are ticking by quickly at this point.  Before we know it we’ve gone another 20 km and are at the bottom of the descent.

So we’ve been out of sight of other teams for a while now.  We stop for a quick break but then spot a group of teams closing in.  Time to see if we can hold our ground.  We mount the bikes, hit another quick little double track climb, and then bomb down the final fast double track descent into the finish line at K2 Ranch.

So here’s the scene at the finish:  music pumping … Drew calling out "from North Carolina it’s team 402 - the Cyclopaths" … crowds cheering … a table full of fruit (grapes, oranges, watermelon, bananas) just waiting to be eaten … and they’re even handing out towels from Rocky Mountain Bikes.  Wow, what a great vibe!  We’re pumped to have day one behind us, and even more psyched to learn that we nabbed 8th place in our division!  Life is good.