Mmm, mountains

Last year saw the inaugural TransRockies Challenge, a seven day, 600km race traversing the Canadian Rockies. And registrations for the 2003 event have now opened.

"Last summer's first TransRockies Challenge proved to be the most adventurous mountain bike race in the world," said spendidly-monikered race organizer Chester Fabricius. "The event attracted 131 participants and generated more than 140 hours of television coverage around the world so we expect the 2003 event to fill up quickly."

There's an entry limit of 350 two-person teams across four categories - open women, open men, mixed and masters. If you're used to paying £20 for race entries, the TransRockies entry fee of $3,200 CDN (about £1,300) may be something of an eye-opener, but that is per team and includes a complete set of maps, breakfast and dinner at each stage, tent village accomodation, luggage and bike box transfers to each stage, all the energy drinks and bars you can cope with, a daily bike service, a TransRockies sport bag... Oh, and a T-shirt. Not to mention the possibility of winning $20,000 CDN...

The TransRockies Challenge runs from August 10 - 16 2003. Stages start at 8am daily and riders are expected to finish by 6pm each day. There's about a million ways to get further information and entry forms - on the web at www.transrockies.com, by phone on (403) 299 0355 (plus appropriate international prefix), fax (403) 299 0351 or email info@xievents.com.