May 20/07 1:44 am - New Off-Road Event Introduced at Bromont

Posted by Editoress on 05/20/07
 

A New Off-road Discipline?

Photos

In what is thought to be a world first, a new event that we are dubbing "Sprint Track" took place this morning. On a roughly one kilometre circuit, heats of four riders did a single lap, with the top-2 moving on to the next round. The CCA was watching closely, and the UCI is getting report on the event.

Unlike the short track, this event is fast enough to hold the interest of spectators (and is easy to understand), and would work very well in a downtown setting. A second event will be held in Quebec City before the Mont Ste Anne World Cup. Today's circuit started with a paved climb, a travers across a ridge and then a downhill finish. The whole circuit was viewable by spectators. Five women and 14 men participated, with Mical Dyck (Terrascape-Trek) beating out Emily Batty (Team R.A.C.E.) and Catharine Pendrel (Norco) for the women, and Mike Garrigan outkicking Raphael Gagne (Rocky Mountain-Haywood) for the men's victory.

All the riders were very enthusiastic about the event. "This is a great idea" commented Dyck. "It would be really good in a city venue with lots of spectators. I hope we can do more of these."