Intermontane Challenge

Our buddies at Thule have stepped up early in ‘09 to offer any new entrant into the Intermontane Challenge in the month of January a chance to win some sweet Thule products! Pretty simple - register for our event and be eligible to win either a 4 bike Thule Ridgeline hitch rack system or a roof system with 2 Peloton fork mount trays. We will e-mail the lucky winner a gift certificate that they will fill out, mail  it back to Thule and receive their choice of either of these two systems to get their riding and racing season rolling. We will announce the lucky winner at the end of January! Good luck!

Check out the Thule website -  www.thuleracks.com for the details on these and other awesome products to solve all of your bike transportation challenges!

Our Boxing Day Sale was a hit with all the racers out there…..we’re happy to be able to offer a great value on our entry fee to help all the racers make their plans of attending the race next July a reality! All of our categories received more entries with the majority being in the solo mens category….a great number of solo women as well signed up for the event which is a strong statement that us offering the females equal prize money was something that they have been waiting a long time for. Our team categories also were seeing some action…..all of our categories are filling up nicely as ‘08 comes to a close and we jump into the new year….all the comments revolve around everybody looking to race on some singletrack and have a great time….

Entries were strong from across Canada - BC,AB,SK,QC and even a whack from the Yukon!

The US riders came out in force from New Jersey,Wisconsin,Oklahoma,Montana,Oregon and so on……all of these riders are stoked to get out on our trails and rip it up.

We also saw a couple of really fast professionals take up the challenge as well. On the mens side a rider by the name of Evan Plews from Oregon has set his goal to give Tinker Juarez a run for the top prize in the solo mens category. Evan has some big time results behind him and is going to be a real threat….great to have him coming up and pinning it solo style and making our field that much more competitive.

On the female side, we are stoked to have another former Olympian competing in our solo womens category….none other than Lyne Bessette has entered as is going to be bringing her lengthy road race experience to Kamloops and try her hand at off road stage racing! Lyne has done it all on the pavement and now seems to be getting hooked on the dirt…Lyne chose our event due to the equality of the prize money and the desire for a challenge….Kamloops has another former Olympian to watch compete next July…..welcome Lyne!

As we roll into ‘09 we will be updating our website with race info and some very important newsletters to get the meat and potatoes out to the racers so to speak…..plus announce some new sponsors and such. Stay tuned to our site and contact us with any questions……

Almost 200 days till the gun goes off on stage 1…..

Happy Holidays

A new java inspired Intermontane t-shirt…..a great logo showing what fuels us - our event and caffeine! Watch out for these around your local bike shop worn by some java hound…..get them to buy you a coffee and let them tell you how to get your first shot of the Intermontane…….

Over the last while we have had a ton of interest in us breaking down our Solo Mens category further.

In time for our Boxing Day Sale we will offer a Solo Mens Master (50+) Category.

When registering, type “Master” into the Custom Package Request area of the registration page and you’ll be entered.

Thanks to all the racers out there for their feedback and enthusiasm!

Happy Holidays

Check out the cool Thule setup that will be a part of our expo area next summer! Thule will have staff on hand showing off some of the awesome products that they do and supporting one of their own in the race….Thule’s Marketing Field Services Manager Eric Wallace will be lining up to compete and is stoked to come up to Kamloops and have some fun on all  of our singletrack….make sure to drop by our expo area and check out some of the Thule stuff and hang out with the guys…..maybe drink some cold beer in the beer gardens too….hmmmm beer! Welcome Thule!

We just wanted to mention that Boxing Day here in Canada is December 26th. We’ve had some questions from people from the US and abroad who wanted to make sure of the date…..log on and save on an already great value on an amazing race!

No need to fight the crowds….just log on to www.intermontanechallenge.com click on Register. Then click on the Register Online Go! button and you’ll be good to go!

Any questions, fire us an e-mail at info@intermontanechallenge.com and we can help you out!

Happy Holidays!

New Sponsors

Momentum is building on the sponsor front and we are closing in on adding some exciting new sponsors. These partnerships will continue to add more value to our race package and more prizes for the competitors as well. Check out our site regularly to see some of the new sponsors who are stoked and on board with our event! MORE SWAG! MORE VALUE! We will be spreading the love around to as many racers in the field with prizes and have some fun with it!

Stage Profiles

We are close to finishing  off our stage profiles and will be able to post some detailed distance, elevation and descriptions of each stage. Expect a lot of climbing, singletrack and variety. The singletrack will vary from tighter, rocky, and rooty “old school” stuff - to ripping fast, big ring trails that have made Kamloops famous. Give our Race Info area a look in the new year to check out the hard core details!

Race Info/Rules

We are working on our race rules and will be keeping things simple. Have fun, respect other riders and race staff, don’t litter and most of all with the amount of singletrack at our race - let faster riders by safely! Common sense. For the teams, the same basics will apply but we will have NO PENALTY should one of the riders on the team get minorly separated from the other team mate. It is a good idea for sure to ride together but we will not be imposing any penalties should this occur.

As the event gets closer we will spell out all the details that people will need to take care of themselves during the event. Bike service, massage service, expo area, tourism/city info and so on. With our location and facilities in Kamloops, the riders and support people will have everything they could possibly need at their finger tips!

Prizes for Categories

With our “Open” categories structure we have the ability to recongnize individuals and teams for their efforts, sportsmanship and passion. We will reward riders no matter what age they are or what bike they ride! We have a wide range of ages of racers plus people choosing geared mountain bikes, singlespeeds and even a couple of tandem teams! No matter what the situation we will not only spread the prizes around but make mention of where some of these competitors sit in the overall rankings and have a blast doing it. Everyone will be rewarded!

Stay tuned, we are gaining momentum all the time and thrive on your feedback, comments and ideas. Fire us an e-mail at info@intermontanechallenge.com and give’r!

The Intermontane Team

This is a new logo for some fun t-shirts for us….after many espresso shots and race planning one night we decided to come up with a cool logo for some new t-shirts. I contacted Chris Fewell from Curious Communications (www.curiouscommunications.com) and they nailed it for us. We are big java freaks and also love riding our bikes and wanted to bring that across in the logo. Also being the first year of our event in ‘09 we wanted to pump it up too! We will be giving some out to friends of the race, family and sponsors. See one of these shirts out there and you know the person wearing it is stoked on the Intermontane Challenge….and coffee I’m sure too!

As the shirt says” Come & get your first shot” at the Intermontane Challenge….you’ll be as hooked as we are!

We are proud to announce that Louis Garneau has come on board as an official sponsor!

They will be providing each entrant of the ‘09 Intermontane Challenge with a free custom race jersey….plus donating a ton of prizes as well!

Check out our News area for the details…….

Santa has come early for all of our racers!

Kelly

The Intermontane Challenge is close to announcing another major bike industry sponsor. We have had many great opportunities but have looked for partnerships that are a good fit for our event and our plans for the future. Stay tuned to our “News” section in the coming days for the details……who will it be?