July 17/99 1:40 am - Ontario News, Western Summer Games News

Posted by Editoress on 07/17/99
 

Adventures on the Grand, Hot Summer Nights Series: Race #1, July 14th

John Holman, Waterloo Flying Dogs, 52:30
Charly Godwin, Ancaster Cycle, 55:03
Mat Reid, New Balance Foot Tools, 55:30
Larry Pollock, The Bicycle Shop, 55:38
Chris Kiriakopoulos, 55:40
Wos Elliott, Bicycle Shop, 58:07
Jim Cudmore, OFD, 60:24
Stuart Querney, Brantford Cyclepath, 60:24
Steve Brown, Brantford Cyclepath, 65:21

Next event at Adventures on the Grand... August 1st, pts race to replace Red Hill Valley Event originally planned for Hamilton. E-Mail elilisachris@idirect.com for more info.

Next Hot Summer Night club race Wednesday, August 11, 7pm, $10


Western Canada Summer Games
Relay race
(info from Sandra Walter of Team BC)

Oops, correction, the relay race took place today (July 16), the mountain bike race is taking place tomorrow morning (July 17).

The relay race consisted of alternating mountain bike and road legs. Each team has eight riders - four males and four females. The mountain bike course was slippery and wet, but not muddy. It was loose, wet sand - not very nice at all. The course had no major elevation gain (obviously) but the course designer made an effort to add some interest to it. The main part of the course was a sandy fireroad that was wet, spongy and slow. Every few hundred meters riders had to veer off down a quick interlude of twisty singletrack, mostly short sections of steep, fall-line downhill, followed by impossible-to-ride uphills, as they were often off-camber and steep. The course was very cyclocross-like. Total distance of the mountain course was 8km. The road course was another 10km out-and-back route with only a gradual climb. However, the wind was quite rampant along the road stretch.

Team BC's tactic was to start out strong and end strong (and have a strong mid-section too!). Team BC had a pretty slow start, was behind Team Alberta during the first few legs. However, Team BC was gaining time. Clare Hall-Patch from Victoria made up the 45 seconds deficit during leg 6. At the beginning of leg 7, both Team BC (Cory Lange) and Team Alberta (Carrie Tuck) were sent off to the road course together. By the end of leg 7, Cory was 4.5 minutes ahead of Carrie, which made Alistair Howard's (road champ from yesterday) job easy in the final leg.

So Team BC has once again dominated, taking the gold medal. Team Albert finished 2nd while Team Saskachewan took the bronze medal. The mountain bike race is tomorrow (July 17), will bring you more reports!