August 15, 2008 – Elkford is a mining community in the heart of the Canadian Rockies which sits in, and is named for, the spectacular Elk Valley. Surrounded by 3000 metre peaks which offer world-class outdoor hiking, biking, fishing and backcountry skiing, Elkford is rapidly growing into a destination for outdoor enthusiasts.Each year, the community of Elkford throws their arms open to the TransRockies family gives the riders and crew a warm small town welcome as they emerge from the wilderness tired and hungry.

On Stage 5 this year, the 500 riders in the 2008 TransRockies rolled out of Whiteswan Lake for an 89km ride through some remote and spectacular Rocky Mountain scenery on their way to the finish line in Elkford. They would face 2150m of climbing in two huge passes during the stage bringing the total climbing over the first 5 days of the event up to over 12,500 metres – as much climbing as was contained during the entire seven-day event in 2007. .

Starting at the 68km mark, Crossing Creek Pass was the second of the two major passes tackled during the day, forcing the riders to grunt up over 700m of vertical on rough and technical jeep track before topping out at over 2200 metres elevation. From there, the riders had 20km of straight descending to the finish line . . . a seemingly straightforward task except that several km of it are the legendary Rock Garden, a heinous scree slope made of up millions of big sharp boulders. Only the most brave and smooth are able to ride their bikes through the entire length of the section and most are forced off their bikes for chunks of the ride. It’s just another one of the brutal tests which make the TransRockies the most raw of the great epic mountain bike races.

After three days in the backcountry, the TransRockies riders descended on the town of Elkford like a bunch of very large, sweaty locusts, devouring every slice of pizza, order of fries and cheeseburger that the town could muster as they fueled up for the 102km and 3000m of climbing which awaited during Stage 6.

Open Mixed
A similar story is unfolding in the Open Mixed category, in which the top two spots appear to be locked up, while the third remains up for grabs with two stages to go. Defending champions and husband-and-wife Normon Thibault and Wendy Simms (CAN) don’t appear to be handing their title over this year, with 47 minutes of lead time between themselves and 2nd place pair Steven Wallace and Katerina Nash (USA/CZE), though with two big days ahead anything is possible. David Harris and Lynda Wallenfels (USA) are currently sitting in 3rd place overall with a 12 minute advantage over 4th place.

The remaining top ten teams in Open Mixed are within an hour of each other, and 3rd through 5th place are mere minutes apart. With such a close field, there’s little doubt teams in the top ten plan to cruise through the final stages – more likely it will be a grind to the finish for anyone wanting a piece of the $20,000 in prize money up for grabs.

80+ Men
With only two stages to go, it’s still not clear who will go home with a podium victory at TransRockies VII. Of all categories, 80+ Men appears to be the most volatile, with top finishes from four different teams in only five days. Stage 5 podium placers Milan Spolc and Jan Kopka (CZE) took first place in today’s leg and currently sit in 2nd place overall; Jon Gould and Ryon Butterfield (USA) landed 2nd place in Stage 5 but currently hold the overall lead with a five minute lead on Spolc and Kopka. Today’s 3rd place finishers Oyvind Vaaglan Reiten and Olav N Birkeland (NOR) also sit in third place in the overall standings, 17 minutes behind 2nd place. With all top five overall teams within a half hour of one another it’s likely the title for 80+ Men won’t be decided until Stage 7.

80+ Mixed
After several days of podium placings being dealt between many teams it appears that one team has taken a clear lead in the 80+ Mixed category. With three straight 1st place finishes in the last three days, Moira-Ann Handford and Andrew Handford (CAN) have cushioned their overall lead by well over an hour, ahead of 2nd place overall team Dan McCarthy and Amy Kemper (USA). Sitting in 3rd place overall, Christiane Bouchard and Marc Payment (CAN) are a little more than two hours behind the leaders. Stage 5 winners are Handford and Handford with 1st place, Bouchard and Payment with 2nd place, and Kirk Buckman and Cindy Carroll with 3rd place.

100+ Open Gender
After an impressive four days of 1st place finishes, an injury has ripped potential victory from Americans Howard Jones and Jon Roberts. The team was unable to complete Stage 5 and are no longer qualified for podium placement. A harsh reality for Jones and Roberts but a wide open opportunity for Canadians Les Davidson and Tim Hudema, who slid from an across-the-board 2nd place domination to fill up the top spot left empty by the injured leaders. Also impressive is the performance of Stage 5 winners Pierre Loubser and Ben Cronje of Russia, who went from averaging 5th place this week to win today’s race with 15 minutes to spare. They are sitting pretty in 2nd place overall, roughly an hour behind the leaders and an hour ahead of 3rd place team Jeff Bandura and Bart Nakano (CAN). Rounding out the top five are Gary Pelletier and Dale McAllister (CAN) in 4th place, and Mike Meagher and Garry Froehler (CAN) in the 5th spot.

Stage 6 Preview: Across the Divide
Stage 6: Elkford to Crowsnest Pass, AB 102.4 km, 2998 m climbing, 2975 m descending. With the weather heating up and temperatures soaring towards the 90s, the 102 km during Stage Six will push the remaining teams in the 2008 TransRockies to their absolute limit. During the course of the stage, riders top the 2000 metre mark several times and cross the Continental Divide–the backbone of North America–for the first time this year in climbing mighty Racehorse Pass. This is the last big test riders will face in their quest for mountain biking’s toughest t-shirt: the one that says “TransRockies Finisher” on it.

Stage 5 full results pdf here.
GC after Stage 5 pdf here.