Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

The longest ride

Cheakamus Challenge turns 20 but remains original
59416_l

Since the beginning in 1989 the Cheakamus Challenge Fall Classic has always been a race/ride that tests your fitness, skill and sanity.

It's long - at just over 70 km it's the longest one-day race in Sea to Sky. It's also tough, with close to 2,000 metres of climbing from start to finish, and most of that in the second half of the ride. What it lacks in technical riding (although the Cheakamus Canyon remains challenging to clean and more singletrack has been added over the years) it makes up for in sheer size.

The race starts at Squamish Airport in Brackendale and follows a series of roads to an old gravel trail that leads, eventually, to Highway 99. The route follows the highway briefly before going off-road again on a mix of doubletrack roads on both sides of the highway that lead, eventually, to the outskirts of Whistler. That's where the ride begins in earnest as a new section of the Sea to Sky Trail brings riders to the Whistler Interpretive Forest and the longest climbs and descents of the race - up Crater Rim trail and Upper Riverside, then down the Black Tusk Road to Lower Riverside, followed by a climb that includes Farside, the Highline Trail and a steep section of the Microwave Tower Road.

After that riders head down Tunnel Vision, a black diamond section of singletrack added to the course six years ago. After that it's the home stretch with another climb up Kadenwood Road to Big Timber, a technical descent that eventually brings riders to the finish line in Creekside.

The race has gone through many changes over the years as alternatives to roads have opened up and new sections of the Sea to Sky Trail have been completed. Obstacles have also come and gone, including a disgruntled landowner to the south of Whistler who made his mark in the '90s by dumping metal on the course to flat tires and blocking the trail.

In short, it's a race with a long, glorious, entertaining and sometimes bizarre history.

"It all started with Doris Burma who ran a race for a number of years called See Colours and Puke, because it was so hard - and then I made it harder," said Grant Lamont, who created the Cheakamus Challenge Fall Classic in 1989 after See Colours and Puke fell by the wayside. Lamont had been involved staging the cycling portion of Ironman, and was convinced by some friends that he should take over.

The first year there were just 80 riders, and it grew from there until there were close to 1,000 riders in the race after 10 years. Since then it's shrunk to a "more manageable" 300 to 400 riders each year, plus a shorter Cheakamus Lite course that tackles the last 40 km of the race course.

A lot has changed since the first year, especially bikes.

"At the start (bikes) were all hard tails and rigid, little Ritchie T-23s and Lavoie titanium bikes... that everybody had up here because they were making them here," said Lamont. "Everyone had ground control tires, Smokes and Darts, because there were really only two types of tires to choose from."

The race also predates disk brakes, rear shocks, air shocks and all kinds of other bike technology that riders now take for granted.

In the beginning the race was more laid back, said Lamont. "It was really an end-of-year kind of thing where all the roadies, all the mountain bikers, all the runners would get together," he said. "We started to get some of the top Canadian racers who happened to be the top racers in the world at the time."

One of the most memorable parts of the race for many years was the intervention of a landowner who was told he couldn't build on his property around Lucille Lake because of risks associated with The Barrier, a narrow wall of rock and dirt that holds back Garibaldi Lake.

Lamont sympathized with the landowner, who tried to sabotage the race every year to draw attention to his issues. One year the landowner put metal cuttings on the trail, which caused leader Chad Miles to double flat. Another year he moved boulders into the path of the course, and got into an altercation with mountain bike world champion Roland Green when he tried to climb over the boulders.

Lamont and the landowner resolved their differences in the late '90s.

"We played a cat and mouse game for five or six years, and at the start line everybody would be wondering what it would be this year," said Lamont.

Registration is going strong for the 20 th annual Cheakamus Challenge, which takes place Saturday, Sept. 19.

There are a few minor course changes this year related to the highway construction, and the singletrack trail Trash has been removed because of construction in the Olympic athletes' village area and difficulty marking the course with new roads and a new section of Sea to Sky Trail winding through it.

The race starts at Squamish Airport at 10 a.m. and there is a shuttle to take Whistler riders to the start in Brackendale. The Cheakamus Lite race gets underway at 1 p.m. at the Whistler Bungee Bridge.

The first male and female rider out of the Cheakamus Canyon will each win a $100 prime donated by the Leidal family in hounour of their son Lumpy - who always tried to be first out of the canyon, even if it destroyed him for the rest of the day. The top male and female in the elite category will also get cash prizes based on the number of entries - 300 entries equals $300.

Day-of-race registration is available at the start of both races for a surcharge, but Lamont is asking people to register early to help them prepare aid stations.

For registration or more information visit www.cheakamuschallenge.com.

Volunteers are still needed, so if you can spare a few hours on Saturday to marshall riders contact Grant Lamont at grant@whistlerbikeguide.com.