Pics: Dan Hudson

Stage 5: Whiteswan Lake to Nipika Resort, 107.5km, 1,285m climbing

After a relatively easier Day 4, the roughly 400 remaining riders in the 2006 TransRockies Challenge were faced with another 100km plus ride between the two backcountry stops at Whiteswan Lake and Nipika Resort. Even though the profile had less climbing than the epic stage 3, riders were nonetheless on the trails for an average of over six hours each as they worked through the last long day of the 2006 event.

Having grabbed the leaders' jerseys back by the slimmest of margins yesterday, the resurgent Seamus McGrath and Andreas Hestler of Rocky Mountain Business Objects/Felt Racing attacked the front group after only 15km of the long grind up the White River and made an escape that they would sustain until the finish line. Behind them, yesterday's stage winners from United Cycles managed to do the best job of limiting the damage and finished only three minutes down, taking over second place in the overall standings from Mountain Bike City who suffered through their second off day in a row losing ten minutes in the process.

"We're both feeling really good right now," said Seamus McGrath, "and we attacked early to test the other riders. Once we had a gap we went for it for the next 90km and tried to build a gap which will allow us to defend the jerseys until Panorama."

One team which has ridden with amazing consistency throughout the race is Rich Dillen and Josh Neely of Team Bad Idea Racing, one of the winners of Race Face's Ultimate XC Challenge. As the first team to ever try and complete the TransRockies on singlespeeds (fully rigid no less), they have managed to finish in the top third of the field day after day as fully-suspended, many-geared competitors have fallen to the side. You can question their sanity, but you can't doubt their toughness.

For the second straight year, Syncros sponsored a special section of the race called the naked mile and found 41 riders willing to pedal naked for a full mile of the course with the promise of prizes and video reel fame . . . that's a lot of bad tan lines in one place.

Day Six of the 2006 TransRockies Challenge will see the riders emerge from two days in the deep wilderness to finish on the shores of Lake Windermere in the town of Invermere. Though the ride is a relatively short 64km, the course contains a lot of technical singletrack through Nipika Resort and up and over the gruelling Bear Creek pass approach. This riding will only get more challenging with the rain which was dumped this afternoon during the torrential downpour which marked the first rain of TR 2006.

The Brits

Team Numplumz (Gary Hill and Jack Peterson) are still cranking out the top finishes. Day 5 saw them get another fifth place in 80+ Men. We rather suspect that, with a thirty-minute gap on the chasing team and a forty-minute gap to the team ahead, that they'll still be fifth at the end... Also likely to finish in their current position are Eden Wheelers (Jane Meeks and Gary Baum) in 80+ Mixed. Yet again they were 4th to Nipika and the time gaps to the teams either side of them have both grown. In Open Men, Lunar Power (Mark Spratt and Sebastian Huckson) were 14th on Day 5 but slipped to 12th overall. There's only a few minutes in it, though, so clawing back that place is definitely possible. Gnarly Nutters (Paul Crook and Nathan Blake) clearly had some sort of disaster, finishing near the back of the field in a time of over ten hours and plummeting to 30th overall. And in Open Mixed, Fancier Ride (Melanie Alexander and Richard Holmes) came in 7th. Still 6th overall and with a very comfortable cushion over the team behind. And with a temptingly small number of minutes to make up on the team ahead...