by Marshall Opel

Aaron was lucky. He grew up hiking and Nordic skiing with his parents in the mountains around Calgary, Alberta. It was on these early family outings that Aaron got his first glimpse at a different sort of trail user. They were on bicycles. It was the 80’s and these early adopters were laying the foundation for a new category of riding. Off the paved roads – crossing country on their bikes, probably smiling. It was mountain biking and Aaron wanted in.

A Promoter at heart.

By the age of 12, Aaron was lining up at mountain bike races. He spent the next decade racing, but by his early twenties, Aaron wanted to shift his focus to promoting events rather than racing them. As a board member of the Alberta Bicycle Association, Aaron started out organizing local club races. Gradually, regional races turned into national level events.

Before long, Aaron was hosting races at the highest level of the sport – putting on a World Cup race at Canmore (home of the ‘88 Olympic Nordic venue) from 1998-2000. It was the height of the cross country glory days and Aaron was in the middle of it.

Hosting the World Cup proved pivotal for Aaron’s career trajectory as he became connected throughout the mountain bike community. Aaron and his friends talked about a mountain bike stage race but lacked resources. Around the same time, Heinrich Albrecht and Chester Fabricius wanted to bring a version of their event, TransAlps across the pond. They launched the first TransRockies stage race in 2002 and Aaron joined the crew as Event Director in 2004. “We pioneered mountain bike stage racing in this part of North America.” Aaron found his line and he’s been riding it ever since.

German Precision

During the first years, the mostly German-run outfit would come over to Canada to run the show. Aaron says they brought high expectations with them. “It was kinda funny, they were very particular about how they did things. It took a few years before we could make that switch from a largely German run crew to a domestic crew – we had to learn how to execute on the same level as the Germans, with all their experience. They operated out of a basement and their single mountain bike stage race that finished in Canmore, Alberta took up the majority of Aarons bandwidth. By 2007, Aaron and the team added a new country and new sport hosting their first ever running stage race in the Colorado Rockies. After several successful years, TransRockies started adding more races to their calendar and has methodically curated their offerings ever since. “We built up our crew and got very good at it [hosting events]. Now, we’ve got quite a stable of people that can come work our events and operate them at a high level. Be it a start/finish crew, registration crew, course marking crew, or tent set up crew, we’ve got all the resources to do it well.”

Enjoy The Journey

Putting on a multi-day point to point race in the middle of nowhere is hard work. By now, it’s safe to say, Aaron and the team at TransRockies have event hosting dialed. But that doesn’t mean they’re immune to hard work. “We cover so much ground with these events, there are a lot of people you have to work with. All the details, logistics. Hundreds of people and a moving camp. Thinking about catering, toilets, showers, luggage, mechanics, and all that stuff, it’s quite a bit of detail to put together.” Tack on missed sleep and stage race format, you’ve got a moving circus right through the heart of the Canadian Rockies.

A love for Experiences

These days, Aaron is still lucky. His job puts him in the middle of the mountains on a regular basis and he spends his time figuring out how he can get riders out in remote places. Now as the president of TransRockies, Aarons’ passion for getting out is stronger than ever. “I love creating experiences for people. It’s an opportunity for adventure and challenge.”

According to Aaron, events help people challenge themselves in ways they wouldn’t otherwise. As an event organizer, Aaron is no stranger to the notion that anyone could challenge themselves on big rides on their own but in Aarons’ two decades of event hosting he’s come to learn that people rely on organized events to turn these point to point rides into a reality. “Events provide an opportunity for people to feel supported. Whether they’re there to race, or just ride with friends, having support is key to doing bigger rides.”

Why Gravel Royale?

“We talked about a one day gravel race at least five years ago, but at that time, gravel was still pretty young, at least in Canada.” During this time Aaron’s crew was focused on TransRockies Classic and SingleTrack 6 races. While looking over old course routes they realized they had something special right under their nose. “We were using long sections of forest service roads. Even though they were super remote- [they] had a great riding surface, hard, fast, smooth- built to a really high standard for logging trucks. The logging companies would use them for a season or two and then they actually don’t get very much traffic for a while.”

“So, we’d be on these really quiet, remote, forest service roads but, you know, having a really excellent cycling experience.”

In years past, Aaron’s team talked about adding a gravel aspect as a “race within a race” for The TransRockies Classic but decided they wanted to keep ‘The Classic a Mountain bike race. That didn’t stop people from wanting to experiment with gravel bikes. Aaron and the team helped people decide which days would be good for gravel bikes, and they heard good things from the riders. Further validation that conditions were prime for more alt-surface riding.

2020 Events and the Future

2020 came along and with it, Covid-19. The pandemic started affecting TransRockies events just as they were getting going. “Our first event [Moab Rocks] was supposed to be at the end of March and we ended up canceling it. Then, like everyone else we were in lockdown – trying to figure out what the season would look like.”

Similar to other promoters during the pandemic, Aaron’s team took the optimistic line choosing to reschedule for the fall. Which as time has shown us, has meant more cancelations.

As the situation shifted, Aaron was left with a lot more time on his hands. Ideas turned to action. “Almost immediately I was able to sketch out a route [Gravel Royale] plan in my mind. I could envision how it would all fit together so I started working from there. Multi-day is our specialty, so I wanted to look at a gravel stage race.”

A gravel stage race based around the Kootenay Rockies of BC, that sounds pretty epic, but be assured that the experts at Transrockies have staked out a visionary staged event that’s perfect for journeyman and journeywoman gravel riders.