There’s a good reason they call the TransRockies Challenge the toughest mountain bike race in the world. Once you’ve completed the seven-day, 400-kilometre trek over the Rocky Mountains you know you’ve done something.

Team Poser Sports, out of Kimberley, knows the ups and downs — both literally and figuratively — having completed the TR7, which ran Aug. 8-14. Jonn Teghtmeyer and Dr. Shaun Van Zyl finished in the top 20 out of hundreds of racers, braving high winds, incessant rain and 12,000 metres of elevation gain.

The TransRockies Challenge was divided into two races — the three-day event and the seven day. Van Zyl had done the seven-day event back in 2008. This was his partner Teghtmeyer’s first race.

“The first three days were pretty good,” Teghtmeyer said. “We were just getting our feet wet.

“It just got worse from there. Every day, we got more tired and more tired.”

“On Day 4 I think we hiked 10 K through mud up to our wheel hubs,” Van Zyl said. “Day 4 is definitely ‘Hump Day,’ Van Zyl added. We did 71 kilometres on Day 2, 62 on Day 3, and then you do 60 on Day 4. If you get through Day 4 you’re going to make it.”

Van Zyl compared this year’s race with his last experience in 2008. “This year it was way tougher,” he said. “Part of it was the weather, but there was a lot more single track this year. In 2008 there was a lot more fire road, where you could just get in the pack and rest. This year we were on a lot of ranch land and Crown land — there were a lot of cattle grazing, and everything else. They just tore up the trails.”

Physical conditioning is of course, key, but the mental aspect is equally important. “It’s huge,” Van Zyl said. “For three days it’s easier to focus, but after three days it becomes mentally tough. You really have to rely on your partner, just for encouragement, to say ‘keep going,’ or to give you the odd push in the back.

“When you’re going up a steep hill and you feel you can’t push anymore, all of a sudden you get a hand in the back and a bit of a push to get you going again. All those little things really help mentally.”

“It was helpful having Shaun there, for sure, he knew what to expect,” Teghtmeyer agreed. “But the weather we experienced was nothing like we expected.

“It was so cold and wet that one day we both looked at each other and said ‘what are we doing.’”

Teghtmeyer said they started training for the event around Christmas time, riding indoors. “We were fairly well prepared. We were expecting bad weather, so we went and bought gloves, boots, rain jackets — we were decently prepared.”

There are innumerable challenges, not least the pounding the bikes take.

Van Zyl, in fact, had a crash on Day 4.

“About 15 kilometres in, I was being held up by some guys who were a little slower. I was doing about 45 kilometres and hour to try to overtake them, and I got a tree through my back wheel. I got ejected out of my bike.

“I ended up with a suspected bruised or possibly cracked ribs … and got pretty scratched and beaten up, and lost my front brake, and blew a spoke in my back wheel. I had to ride 45 kilometres with no front brake and a wobbly back wheel.”

Trevor Knight, of Poser Sports, was along for the race, serving as bike mechanic for the team.

“Trevor was brilliant,” Van Zyl said. “He was working on my bike until 2:30 in the morning, getting it ready for the next day.”

The weather continued to be a challenge.

“We were at three degrees, with 70-kilometre winds and pouring rain when we were doing Day 6,” Teghtmeyer said.

“It was miserable up there,” said Van Zyl. “Only a third of the teams did the whole course. John and I got to checkpoint 1 and we were up with the front teams and we went through. About half an hour later they started giving people the option of a three-and-a-half hour penalty to go from checkpoint 1 to checkpoint 2 and miss out the elevation gain, because the weather was so bad, there were people with hypothermia.”

By Day 7, the last 45 kilometres into Canmore was pretty tough, everyone being mentally and physically exhausted. But the exaltation of crossing the finish line balances out the pain.

“You can’t really describe the feeling of having accomplished 400 kilometres in seven days with 12,000 metres of elevation gain.” Van Zyl said.

“We were pretty happy (with the end result),” Teghtmeyer said. “We set a goal of the top 20, and did quite a bit better than that.”

There’s a lot more to the race than an endurance exercise, of course. Teghtmeyer said one of the most interesting aspects of the TransRockies is meeting the different racers from all different parts of the world. Van Zyl agreed.

“You ride with a whole bunch of guys, and you see them all together at the finish line. There’s a lot of camaraderie that develops,” he said.

There is also the stunning beauty of the surroundings, and the whole breadth of the geography one experiences. “You start out down at the bottom of the valley, and get up right into the alpine,” Teghtmeyer said.