Most of our usual suspects were out on Sunday for the inaugural 2010 Ontario Cup cross country mountain bike race. As in past years, this first race was held at Mansfield Outdoor center, a sandy soiled forest that drains well in wet weather and has a distinct but relatively safe spectrum of technical riding challenges compared to many other venues (think deep sand in corners and tree-rooted climbs, not rock gardens and mud pits).
Per usual, the AJCC contingent was diversity personified with racers at all four start times, spanning Minime (13-41 year old) females to male and female elites to 60+ year old masters.
Notable results include Matt Kadey who placed second in masters sport 35-39, coming back strong from a broken ankle and consequently foreshortened season last year. It was a closely fought race with Matt losing only by seconds after accidentally unclipping on one of the final corners in the ultimate lap. John Fisher (2009 master 50-54 series leader) came fourth in his race, just 3.5 seconds off the podium. Damian Wiechula, newly arrived in the 60+ category this year, showed he needn’t have worried about the sprint-like pace of his shortened (2 laps for the old guys) race, handily winning his race with a 3 minute lead. Steve Baker, Mr. Plastiglas himself, made the podium in 3rd. Laura Grad, joining us this year came 3rd in senior sport women. Tabi Ferguson came 3rd in 40+ expert women.
Heather Gray placed second in senior elite women. Other elite CSAJ racers today were Anton Varabei (11th) and John Slaughter (33rd at his first race in this category).
There was also an interesting wager and rivalry within the CSAJ senior expert men, the lap times of whom tell an epic tale. But that’s another story…