The first is the creation of the Ultra Test event, a 100 kilometre mountain bike challenge that takes place in concert with the 67 km Test of Metal on June 19.
The Ultra Test will feature 30 riders, who will start their day at 8 a.m. at Alice Lake and will follow the 40 km course set out of the Gear Jammer B.C. Cup and B.C. Marathon race in July before pulling up to the start line along with the other 800 riders racing in Test of Metal.
That’s right – before most Test of Metal riders bike a kilometre, they’ll be joined at the line by people that have already been riding for more than two hours.
"This is a seriously strenuous day with over 100 km of riding and over 8,000 feet of vertical," said Test of Metal race director Cliff Miller. "The Ultra Test racers are people who are very confident in their physical capabilities and have ridden something of this magnitude previously."
One of the early riders to sign up was Washington’s Hillary Harrison, an elite endurance mountain biker who finished second in the 800 km Cape Epic across South America and won the 2002 La Ruta De Los Conjquistadores in Costa Rica.
For more information on the Ultra Test, the Test of Metal, and the other events of the Squamish Mountain Bike Festival, visit www.testofmetal.com.
For more information on the Gear Jammer, which is the fourth and final Marathon cross-country race on the B.C. Cup calendar, visit www.gearjammer.com.
