Aug. 12, 2003 (Etherington Creek, Alberta) – The TransRockies Challenge, the toughest mountain bike race in the world, today arrived in Alberta >from B.C. under sunny skies with category leaders maintaining the fast pace they set at the beginning of the 600 km race.

German Andreas Strobel and Silvio Wieltschnig, from Austria, kept their first place position, completing the 140 km third stage with a time of 5:01.09. Today's second place finishers, Andreas Hestler and Matt Decore, both of Vancouver, B.C., finished in 5:26.21 for a cumulative time of 15:15.52, almost one hour behind the overall leaders. Barrie, Ontario-based Matthew Patterson and Greg Reain stayed in third position today with a time of  5:27.42.

Women's leaders Christina Begy, from Denver,Colorado, and Louise Kobin, of San Jose, California, completing the day in 6:42.31 for a cumulative time of 19:36.17, well ahead of the Canmore team of Jeanie Godfrey and Valerie Thompson who have a total time of 23:34.28.

Martin and Simone Hornegger of Austria, also stayed in front of the mixed division today finishing with a time of 6:04.36 and building a commanding lead of more than two hours over the team of John Gibson and Jean Mcallister, both of Canmore.

The leading masters team of Tony Routley, 47, and Eric Crowe, 43, both of Whistler, B.C, finished today's track in 5:58.06, two seconds behind, Michel Leblanc,39, and Gilles Morneau, 44, for a cumulative time of 17:03.32.

The TransRockies Challenge continues another 63 km on Wednesday, Aug 13 from Etherington Creek to the Sandy McNabb Campground in Kananaskis Country. While it is the shortest stage by distance, tomorrow's route presents riders with three progressively steeper climbs that will take the riders through more than 3,400 metres of elevation as well as some deep and wide river crossings.

The competition will roll into Bragg Creek on Thursday, Aug. 14.  It will finish in Canmore, Alberta this Saturday, Aug. 16 where winners in each category will share $20,000 in prize money.

The TransRockies Challenge is based on the successful Transalp Challenge. Both events are organized by upsolut mv. of Munich, Germany. Sponsors of the TransRockies Challenge are Travel Alberta, Adidas, Flash Five, The Bike Shop and The Ride Guide.