The Bull of Africa isn’t the only event of note this week, as the TransRockies mountain bike race has also got underway yesterday, with 300 teams taking to the 550km course, set in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, with agonizing climbs and heart pounding drops across it’s length.
This year’s course consists of 7 stages, and began at Panorama Mountain Resort, in British Columbia, Canada and will end in Fernie, also in BC, on Saturday. On the official site, you’ll find stage results and stage reports, as well as daily photo galleries with action from the trail. There is also some history on the race, links to some good resources on the web, and information on the race sponsors.
The TransRockies is one of the premiere mountain biking events anywhere in the world, and should be a blast to watch this week. I know I mentioned that the Leadville 100 is also one of the top mountain biking events, but the two are just completely different races. The length of the TransRockies changes the strategy of the race and demands more from the riders as it extends across a week of racing. Factor in the amount of vertical gain, the challenging technical aspects of the trail, and you have one amazing event.
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Another Rainier “record” claim:
http://skinnymoose.com/adventurist/2008/08/11/liam-osullivan-claims-new-speed-ascent-record-on-mt-rainier/
Note links in article to other Adventurist articles on the controversy.
Comments below recent article…
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Tacoma News Tribune reporter Craig Hill does story on this recent Rainier “record” by Liam, Craig writes Liam emailed him with his record-claim. This is self-promotion to the Washington media.
Like Justin Merle, and Chad Kellogg before him, the CLIMBS are done in SECRET, and the RECORD-CLAIMS are done PUBLICLY.
Craig Hill writes:
“Just got an e-mail from Liam O’Sullivan, a 29-year-old guide for International Mountain Guides in Ashford.
O’Sullivan … says he climbed Mount Rainier Tuesday morning in 4 hours, 46 minutes, 29 seconds.”
Article and photo-copy:
http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/4384/liamselfpromotiontomediqi4.jpg
http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure/2008/08/08/new_speed_record_on_rainier
Writer Craig Hill is clear about Kellogg, Merle, O’Sullivan:
“None of the climbs were officially timed.”
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Dan Howitt in 2004 set the 2nd official Rainier speed record in history.
It’s the current official Ranier record.
The 1st was by Everest legend Jim Whittaker and Lou Whittaker and John Day in 1959.
Howitt has the 1st ever start and summit photos for an official Rainier speed record.
Start photo:
http://tinyurl.com/DanHowittRainier1
Summit photo; scroll down to 2nd picture:
http://tinyurl.com/DanHowittRainier1
Summit photo:
http://tinyurl.com/DanHowittRainier2
http://tinyurl.com/DanHowittRainier3
Whittaker did 5:20 up to the summit.
7:20 roundtrip.
Disappointment Cleaver Route.
Starting at Paradise 5,400 feet elevation.
Howitt did 5:02 up to the summit. No round-trip climb.
Leading competitive athletes and endurance trainers have been in the 5-5:30min ascent range (no roundtrip). Such as USA Track and Field athlete Buzz Burrell:
http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/MountainUltraTrail/Burrell_Buzz.asp
http://tinyurl.com/BuzzBurrellUSATrackField
The Navy’s Jeff Enfir.
Nike’s John Eberle.
Dan Howitt and others have offered Chad Kellogg significant money each year since 2003 to, simply, do a fully time-verified Rainier speed climb, including $5000 last year, and Chris Willian and others offered $2500 this year. Kellogg rejected each offer … back-story on Chad Kellog, from The Adventure Blog, click on images to zoom-in.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/9149/advblograinierrecord1da3.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9594/advblograinierrecord2zn8.jpg
As Craig Hill of the Tacoma News Tribune states in the above linked article, all other Rainier “records” are unofficial, time-unverified, and done in secret. This is so despite the growing interest in the distinction between official and unofficial. And the astounding proof-based controversies about Chad Kellogg.
I’m staying out of these “speed climb” records. They all seem to have issues and very few are with out controversy or detractors.
I’ll leave your post for now, but it has nothing to do with the TransRockies, and I’d prefer you don’t post comments that are off topic.
Wow. Excellent blog and I love the look of the TransRockies bike ride. I am not sure I would be fit enough but it looks brilliant for a challenge. I lived in Winter Park, Colorado years abck and got into mountain biking.
Mountain biking is a blast, and I love it as well, but something about the TransRockies makes my legs burn just thinking about. Very cool event though.
Thanks for the kind words on the blog. Glad you enjoy it! 🙂
Don’t be shy about trying the TransRockies, even if you’re not a super endurance rider. I’m a latecomer to mountain biking of very average athletic abilities, and I managed to finish the race (second last in our division!).
More importantly, my partner and I had a blast at what’s a super well-run event through spectacular terrain. (You can’t beat Canadian wilderness matched with German organization!) Every day, something new conspired to knock us out of the race: physical, mechanical, psychological, meteorological, nutritional, emotional. And every day, we found new reserves of determination in our aging bodies to just keep going.
That’s the best advice I can give any TransRockies newbies. More important than picking the right bike (like, say, a Rocky Mountain ETSX, which saw me to the end) or training regimen (long hours in the saddle and plenty of technical riding), is picking the right partner. We saw far fitter teams disintegrate mid-race because the partners just couldn’t stand riding with each other any more.
It’s a race that brings out the best and the worst in people. But mostly the best.
Wow! Awesome first hand advice David! Much appreciated! It sounds like a really awesome event, and I was actually invited to come cover it, but I just couldn’t get the time off work to go do the event. Seems like it would be a lot of fun to cover or compete in .