Singletrack 6: The secret of Cranbrook is out
Editor’s Note: Singletrack 6 is a six-day mountain bike race showcasing the best riding in a variety of mountain bike communities in Western Canada. Here’s a look at stage 3. For full results and more info head to singletrack6.com. All photos are courtesy Singletrack 6.
Stage 3 was new to the Singletrack 6. The host city was Cranbrook. Distance was 42km with 1200 meters of elevation gain.
After waking up in Fernie, riders were transported approximately one hour to the start. Surrounded by majestic peaks on all sides, Cranbrook is emerging as a new hot spot in the region for killer mountain biking. The active local cycling community agreed to let a few of their coveted trail secrets out of the bag for this stage.
The stage consisted of two unique loops. Starting with the inner loop and rolling out from the Community College, the course climbed gently on road, giving riders a proper warm-up. Transitioning off of the tarmac and onto Loggers Lane, it gave riders their first singletrack climb of the day.
Continuing through Community Forest, smooth singletrack gave way to some tighter climbs and descents and the high point of the day.
The pattern of short climbs followed by rewarding descents was the norm and took riders to checkpoint 1 at Kettle Lake.
Upon tackling the second major climb of the day, riders encountered steeper and more technical riding on “Hobgoblin.” After some high-speed, sometimes grassy descents on Migor, the final climb on Bonehead was up.
From this point, racers only had a couple short climbs followed by fast and fun descents to finish out the day. The final high-speed descent on Roller Coaster left riders pretty pumped on the day as they rolled back into the finish at College of the Rockies.
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