Wade's Excellent Adventure - Pictorial

First off, I want to thank everybody who came out this past Saturday to make this years Wade's Excellent Adventure the best ever! We had over 150 people riding an epic masochistic loop that I devilishly dreamed up, with very little complaining...strange indeed! The weather was perfect, the dirt was perfect, and the stoke was redlining as teams rolled through the start/finish to receive the next Fromme adventure on their way to completing 27kms and 1940m of climbing over the course of the route.

A little backgrounder on the WEA:

I wanted to create an event that would test the skill and will of riders on a mountain that we hold dear to our hearts. Half race, half adventure, depending on your focus, the "Wade's Excellent Adventure" is surely a conquest of adventure and perseverance. I wanted people to get out and ride their bikes longer and harder than they usually do. I wanted to set the new Fromme standard for them, and now when they return, they will always be craving more. I also wanted people to ride together, so we made the focus a team event. Then I thought, "why would people come out and ride/compete in a hellish Fromme super adventure?", that is when I dreamed up the "Fromme Cup". A welded metal and wood trophy that displays the winning teams members names, reminiscent of the Stanley Cup. Now we have a coveted legendary trophy that all MTB shops and local bike industry businesses will be fighting for...well this is the dream anyways, and judging by the excitement last Saturday we are on our way!

Like last year, we had a mini-festival set up at the Fromme drop-off point. Riders coming through on their laps were cheered and sneered as they fueled up and headed out for more. Similar to last year's rules, the Citizen teams could have a minimum of 60% of their team riding so to allow a break for some; this makes it a fun party atmosphere. Unlike the poor corporate teams challenging for the Fromme Cup, who had only a 2-5 person team allotment with every member having to do the full course. Also, to make it interesting and to promote a team atmosphere, if you had only 3 people on your Corp team, you would be penalized 10 minutes per missing member, meaning a 20 minute time addition. The stakes were upped!

I was amazed at the winning times! The overall winners, and winners of the two man team category came in at 2hrs 3mins, with the winning Corporate Team nipping at their heals at 2hrs 6mins. The winning results looked like this:

Corporate Team Winners:

1st place, 2:06 min: Rocky Mountain. Kevin Calhoun, Colin Kerr, Mike Hunter, Greg Day.
2nd place, 2:41 min: Chromag.
3rd place, 2:55 min: BFJCC(Cove) Team:

Citizen Team Winners:

1st place, 3:14 min: Sandbaggers. Jared Wilson, Luke Garside, Shane Gayton, Thomas Thacker, Tyler Lelacheur.
2nd pace, 3:16 min: Finished Guaranteed.
3rd place, 3:28 min: Ripper Dads.

Two Person Team Winners:

1st place, 2:03 min: Team Loose. Arthur Gaillot, Dylan Wolsky.
2nd place, 2:43 min: Steed Cycles.
3rd place, 2:49 min Syndicate Industries.

At the end of the day, everybody had had their fill of perfect-sculpted-by-God "flowless singletrack" according to Richie Schley, and burgers from M & M meats. Keith Stark of Planet Foods kept the Kicking Horse caffeine flowing and fueled the needy with Honey Stinger bars and chews. We had copious amounts of swag from my sponsors Oakley, Bell, Shimano and RaceFace. Rocky Mountain were on hand with demo bikes supported by Lynn Valley Bikes, and we also gave away a sweet-ass Fromme ginsu knife-esque Rocky Mountain Altitude frame to one lucky Tim Graversen who made it down to Seymours Pub for the apres. It pays to party!

If you want to review all the results head over to nsmba.ca for a pdf download. I would also like to thank the DNV trail crew for all the hard work they have been putting into the trails up on Fromme, and a big props to all the other unpaid builders who do it out of pure passion. This event couldn't have been done without the help from all the volunteers and the nsmba, so thanks. Did I mention too that all the money we make from this goes to the nsmba? It sure does yo!

Another big thank you to the one and only Margus Riga who took all these mystic shots buddy!

Hope to see you all again next year!

-Wade Simmons