September 9/12 20:21 pm - Ontario Provincial MTB XC Championships report

Posted by Editoress on 09/9/12
 

Mikaela Kofman (Scott – 3 Rox Racing) and Peter Glassford (Trek Canada) took top honours in the elite categories at the 2012 Plastiglas Ontario mountain bike provincial championships.   Both are first-time winners of the season’s premiere event, held again this year at Highlands Nordic, just west of Duntroon, on a challenging course that featured over 700 feet of climbing per lap.  In addition, the twisty singletrack and numerous technical sections were made more difficult thanks to heavy rain on Saturday, although sunshine and cool temperatures made for perfect race-day conditions.

Elite Women
Despite not having pre-ridden the course, Kofman wasted little time in going to the front, with Mandy Dreyer (Lapierre Canada) on her wheel.  By the top of the first climb the duo held a slight lead over Rhonda Stickle (Erace Cancer Cycling Team), Laura Bietola (Scott – 3 Rox Racing), Heather Gray (Cycle Solutions/Angry Johnny’s CC) and Samantha Wagler (Two Wheels Racing).

Halfway through the opening lap Kofman was on her own, with Dreyer holding second and Gray having moved up to third.  From there on the order did not change, and Kofman comfortably secured her first-ever provincial championship.

“I originally planned on going really hard off the start, trying to get as big a gap as possible,” said Kofman, “but I came back from university on Friday, planned to pre-ride yesterday but the course was closed, so today I started off riding a bit cautiously.  My first lap was my pre-ride just to get lines.  Once I dialed the first lap I just went for it.  I wanted to lay it down.  It’s the end of the season so I didn’t want to leave anything out there.”

The win was her fourth consecutive O-Cup victory of the season, and garnered the Toronto resident the overall series honours as well.

Silver medalist Dreyer was pleased with her performance.  “It was a great day.  Perfect weather.  The course was a blast, probably one of the most fun courses of the season.”

The numerous ascents played to Dreyer’s strength: “There’s a lot of hills in (the course) and I do like to climb hills. The technical sections and the tight twisty parts were a bit of a challenge but I made up for it on the hills.  Not having raced since early July didn’t seem to affect the Dundas resident. “I haven’t raced in two months so it was a good race to come back for and finish the season off.  This whole weekend I just wanted to have a good time and have fun out on the trail.  Mission accomplished, and I finished second on top of that.”


“I had a difficult ride today,“ admitted third-place finisher Gray.  “I was unable to pre-ride so I was completely unaware of what was out there.  I had wanted to ride a comfortable first lap and be on pace but unfortunately I had a couple of early mishaps that placed me pretty far back.  I had a lot to overcome after the first lap and I ended up riding a lot of it by myself.  I just settled in my position and that was it.”

A final-lap charge by Bietola forced Gray to dig deep for her spot on the podium. “I heard she was coming so I gave it my all on the climbs.  The singletrack I found very slippery, so I tried to stay controlled in the singletrack and use my energy where it mattered.”

Elite Men
A fast start by Andrew Watson (Norco Factory) saw him reach the top of the opening climb with a 10-second lead over Glassford and Tyson Wagler (Scott – 3 Rox Racing).  In their wake were Jacob McClelland (Team Hardwood Trek), Bretton Matthews (Norco Evolution), Davis Ross (Mountainview CC), and Kelsey Krushel (Lapierre Canada).

“I’ve been battling from the back on all the starts this year in the O-Cups,” explained Watson, “So I wanted to take advantage of the front row start to get out front and get into the singletrack.  Once I got a good start I had some momentum so I kept going.”

Glassford did not get off the line as well and had to work hard to keep Watson in sight. “At the start a couple of young guys got in there in the first section and they let a big gap go.  I was back in fifth and they already had 20 bike lengths, if not more, so I had to close that on the big long climb so I was in a bit of hurt.”

Midway through lap one and Watson and Glassford were together with a 20- second gap back to Wagler, followed by McClelland, Ross and Krushel.   The leading duo kept the speed high, with Watson attacking a pair of short, steep climbs preceding the end of the first circuit.

“When Andrew and I came through we had a pretty good gap,” recounted Glassofrd.  “He punched it up these climbs here by the finish.  I was like: “I don’t know how many times I can do that.”  Sure enough I came back onto his wheel on the long stuff on the second lap.  He seemed to be a little more conservative with it.  It’s a hard course to try and go out like that.  I’m not sure what he was doing but he definitely had me scared for the first lap.

Having withstood Watson’s opening-lap pace, Glassford took the opportunity to dish out a little pain himself.  “I wanted to try and get a gap so on the second lap, on the long double-track climb, I tried to test him a bit and a gap opened and then he closed it when we came back in for the end of the second lap. So then I did it again for the third lap and that sort of give me a bit of a gap and I just kept working on that for the rest of the race.”

Glassford’s persistence paid off, but Watson didn’t give up chasing.  “I pretty much rode at my limit the whole race,“ said the silver-medalist.  “I don’t think I blew up or anything like that.  Pete just rode up to me after having not as fast a start and he kept going.  I don’t know if I was riding the technical stuff super well today but I really liked the course.”

After crossing the finish line, Glassford reflected on the long road to his first provincial title.  “It has taken almost ten years of near misses, seconds and thirds, so it feels really good.  With the season being so front-loaded I wanted to come to this one really flying.  You never know who’s going to show up with worlds and stuff like that but I just wanted to show up and make sure this was the one.  I finally got it so I feel really good.”

The course, set by the HB cycling club, wasn’t exactly to Glassford’s liking, yet it still worked out for him.  “The steep stuff is not my forte as anyone will tell you. This Highlands course, they tend to like finishing on the steep stuff.   The steep climbs don’t suit me but because there’s so much climbing here the effort really never ends so it becomes one big long effort, and that definitely suits me.  HBCC is my home club and I’m based here in Collingwood so if there was ever a time for an advantage this might have been it with the home club and the home course.  All that together, the stars aligned for me.”

The course’s technical aspects played to McClelland’s strengths, who took the third step on the podium.   “It was great.  A really tough course.  A true mountain biker’s course.  It was to my favour.  I’m really good in the technical stuff so I just had to survive the climbing.”

Race Notes
~ For Bietola, the race was the first step in her return to racing after suffering a concussion at the Mont-Ste-Anne World Cup.  Following six weeks of forced rest, she was pleased with her fourth-place result.  “This is probably my best race (of the season).  I feel really motivated and mentally fresh, which is what I needed.”  Asked if she would be racing cyclocross this year, she responded: “Absolutely.”

~ Kofman’s win was the third consecutive elite women’s provincial championship for Scott – 3 Rox Racing, with Amanda Sin having won the two previous editions.

Report and photos by Emil van Dijk

Elite Women

Junior Expert Women

Elite and U23 Men

U23 Men

Junior Expert Men

Results

Results for ALL categories

Final OCup standings