August 20/02 8:12 am - Mercury Out, BC TT Championships, University MTB Series

Posted by Editor on 08/20/02
 

Mercury Pulls Out of Cycling

Mercury Division has announced that they will not seek the option to renew the sponsorship of the Mercury Cycling Team for 2003.

In a statement from Mercury management, "We wish to express our sincere appreciation for all the devotion and passion demonstrated by the outstanding cyclists who are now or have been part of the Mercury Cycling Team"

The program has produced some of the best cycling talent in the world. Riders like Baden Cooke, Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Jonathan Vaughters, and David Clinger to name a few, have all come through the program.

The Team is working hard to find a replacement at this time.

"This has been the dominant US-based Cycling program for the last 5 years. The success was due in large part to the support of Mercury. We thank Mercury and their dealers for all of their support these past few years. We are currently talking with other potential corporate sponsors who would like to be associated with the sport and this winning program."

Our comments: this is not unexpected, given the inability of Mercury to make it into the Tour de France; a major goal of the team and the sponsor. Unfortunately, it couldn't happen at a worse time, with potential sponsorship dollars being at a low point. If the Mercury team management does not manage to find a new sponsor, this will release a number of top riders onto the market, led by Gord Fraser.


Usborne and Goldstein Crowned BC Provincial Time Trial Champions
Courtesy JohnTolkamp

Event: British Columbia Time Trial Championships
Date: Sunday August 18th, 2002
Location: Squamish, BC
Weather: Sunny 20C slight wind
Course Condition: 37km long flat, chip seal with rough sections

Near perfect weather conditions greeted the 80 riders who came to contest the BC TT Championships. They were treated to a 37km road meandering its way out and back through a beautiful coastal mountain valley north of Squamish. The flat profile of the course proved to be deceivingly difficult; no doubt due to the combination of chip seal and rough pavement and no opportunity for rest.

As he has done many times his year Matt Usborne proved once again he is a dominate BC rider by clocking a first place time of 48min 08secs with Washington State TT champ Glenn Bunselmeyer second, 1min 05sec in arrears. Leah Goldstein, fresh off her second place at the National TT Championships clocked the women's winning time of 53:21, 47 seconds ahead of Mandy Pointras who rode a fixed gear track bike.

Other provincial champions included Cadet Men Blake Chersinoff; Junior Men Brad Fairall; Vet Men A (30-39) John Tolkamp; Vet Men B (40 - 49) Michael Ryan; Vet Men C (50+) Christian Fau; Vet Women (30+) Pamela Egger

Many thanks to Gary James and the rest of the Escape Velocity team for putting on a well run event.

Complete BC TT Championship Medallists (non resident competitors are ineligible):

Cadet Men
Gold: Blake Chersinoff

Junior Men
Gold: Brad Fairall

Senior Men
Gold: Matt Usborne
Silver: Dylan Sebel
Bronze: Min Van Velzen

Vet A Men
Gold: John Tolkamp
Silver: Jay Murray
Bronze: Paul Cross

Vet B Men
Gold: Michael Ryan
Silver: Craig Premack
Bronze: Otto Kamstra

Vet C Men
Gold: Christian Fau

Senior Women
Gold: Leah Goldstein
Silver: Mandy Poitras
Bronze: Sara King-Laliberte

Vet A Women
Gold: Pam Egger
Silver: Laura Johnson

Complete Results: *Non BC Resident