Fi shows some style through the Rock Garden. Photos: Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge
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Today was stage 5 and stage 5 means tired legs, tired bodies, tired minds. We were tired, Meg particularly so after her illness. So we started slowly and crawled gently along the 14km fire road start. The first of 2 ridiculous climbs was a sweaty affair as usual, but the sun still hadn't heated up our arms and heads as it was early, and so we dispatched the hill pretty easily. By this time we were back in 3rd spot and Meg was picking up a little with the arrival of another swoopy, fast and treacherous descent.
The middle stretch for me was all about bears. We didn't see any sadly, but it was so quiet as we flew along between the pine trees on soft sandy singletrack: No riders were in sight and there were no sounds other than our laboured breathing and a few birds. I was convinced we were going to see a bear. We didn't. We saw a mouse or chipmunk or some small fluffy thing sprint across the trail in front of us but no bear. Shame. But it livened things up for a while.
The final third was all about the Rock Garden. Another hike-a-bike (pick your bike up and tip toe up ridiculously steep rocky ascent) to get us to the top of the final climb and the rock garden was waiting for us. The trail guide reads 'we do not recommend you ride this' and we were warned at the morning briefing of broken shoulders and cracked pelvises from last year. So, did we heed the advice? Did we hell. We screamed down that rock garden, front wheel bumping in every direction, big smiles on our faces and arms wracked with fatigue. It was incredible. I just didn't know I could ride like that.
We were pinning it mainly because we knew we were close to the girls in second place. Who says girls aren't competitive? The final swoopy descent we took at full power, both loving the challenge, hopping rocks and flicking our wheels around obstacles to avoid snakebite punctures. The last few miles were fire road again and with exhaustion dragging us down we pushed as hard as we could in towards Elkford. Sadly we never caught the Caniwi girls but were only 4 minutes behind them. We really deserve our podium moment tonight.
Another awesome day in the mountains. Tomorrow is the most epic ride of the week - 116km and an insane amount of uphill. Can't wait. It will separate the girls from the ladies!
Fi x
Meg hits the Rock Garden. Photos: Dan Hudson/TransRockies Challenge
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CJ
