August 06, 2019 (Mont Sainte-Ann, Que.) – Here we are at Mont Sainte-Anne, the mecca of mountain biking where the UCI world cup was created. Thirty years later, Mont Sainte-Anne is still the only permanent stage of the World Cup – since day one. All of the greatest mountain bikers in the world have ridden these trails. Today, the 2019 QSE Qué-Bikers got their look at these mythic trails.

To begin the day, we all got on board the gondola to the summit so we can have a spectacular start from the top of the mountain overlooking the St. Lawrence River. That itself makes Mont Sainte-Anne absolutely unique.

One km after the start the singletrack party really took fire in the newly opened “Bapteme”. What a start! For the first 25km the ride was mainly going down through rivers and mountains. It was pure fun with all sort of trails, from old school to some 3.0. exciting flowy singletracks.

Even with the summit start, the Qué-Bikers knew that Mont Sainte-Anne would live up to its reputation by being one of the most challenging and defining stage of the QSE, with tons of climbing in a very demanding terrain. At Mont Sainte-Anne, not one km is a given.

¨It felt like being in British Columbia, Canada¨ said Karen Duff, Certified personal training specialist in Ontario, Canada. Karen came to the QSE with ten bikers she personally trained including two women in the 60+ category.

To make the event accessible to everyone or if you are simply having a bad day, a short course was offered where you could skip the middle section of the trail. As the QSE code of ethic says: “Having a bad day can be part of the journey. The definition of experience also includes that chapter.”

Just before feed zone 2, we had a good indication that the day was far from over. The timed ascent was short, but tough… very tough. An average of nearly 20% with 100m of elevation in 530m with multiple tight turns. Ouch!

The quote of the day belongs to Amy McDougall of South Africa: “I have ridden trails all over the world. Today, this was the best trails I have ever ridden, including the 7 stages of Cape Epic or any other race I have participated to. That was pure fun.“

Well… All we can say is that today Amy discovered Mont Sainte-Anne.

Tomorrow stage 3: Boreale, E47, Lac Delage and a special dinner at Chute-Montmorency, the highest waterfalls in North America.

QSE 2020 registration : exclusive pre-sale
The QSE runs from August 4 to 9 2019. Presale registration for QSE 4 in 2020 begins on August 12, 2019 at noon. You can register for an all-inclusive 6-day package including lodging for as low as $ 1,399 CAD ($ 1,050 USD) + taxes.

Visit here
E-mail info@quebecsingletrack.com