Day 7 Finish- One hot day

Day 7 Finish- One hot day
Originally uploaded by Steed Cycles

TransRockies 2008 Day 7
August 16, 2008
Crowsnest Pass to Fernie
78.8 km/2101 climbing


Last day, 80 km., finish significantly lower in elevation than the start. Easy day right? Ha, ha, once again not so. Off the start we were immediately into a climb up the local Blairmore ski hill. Although, I reached the top before Trevor, I was soon put on my heels as the man found some hidden reserve of energy and proceeded to put a severe beating into me for the next 90 minutes. I crashed twice and all I could think of was “eat, drink, eat, drink, eat, drink, oh please let me get my strength and mojo back”. Finally I started to feel better about 2 hours in and we both put the hammer down. On the last climb we smoked past several Masters teams and on the long descent into Fernie several more.

The last 7 km were some sweet technical single track and we were flying. We came up on a few teams so fast that I think that they wondered what had hit them as we blew by. What an exceptional way to finish a race on a high!

As usual Fernie put on a great show for the finish with what seemed like the whole town out cheering on the racers as they cruised down the main drag. A great beer tent within crawling distance of the finish allowed even the most trashed racers to get a beverage.

Our teams support vehicles woes continued on when they found a cracked radiator as they headed out of Blairmore for the finish in Fernie. No Dodge dealership in Blairmore equaled no possible solution until at earliest 3 days hence. What to do? Blairmore is an awesome town! The repair shop headed the crew down the road to the GM dealership which took mercy on the assembled clan and gave them (yes, gave them with no more that a name and phone number) the shops pickup truck as long as they had it back by Monday at 8am. At the finish in Fernie, we were greeted by a beater brown GM pickup but no one was complaining.

The final party turned out to be a great evening. On the way to the party, Trevor and I were sitting in the pickups box as there was not enough room in the cab. Sure enough, despite the short distance that we had to travel, we got spotted by the local RCMP and some discussion, eventually got a ride in the back of the cruiser to the party. By chance, my 50th birthday occurred at midnight and this made for even more reason to celebrate. Tomorrow we get some well deserved rest, and I can attest that I can hardly wait.