August 17/21 19:34 pm - BC Road Championships

Posted by Editoress on 08/17/21
 

After a 2-year pandemic delay, the BC Road Championships returned last Sunday to one of its largest attended races in years.  Taking place in Hatzic Valley, Mission, home to previous BC Championships, the course dished up a great selection of climbs, long descents and flat approaches to help feed bike race starved riders.

With the cancellation of the BC Championships Road race, previously scheduled for August 8, the threat of no provincial championship race prompted Local Ride Racing to offer up their scheduled August 15th Hatzic Valley Road Race for the event.

The current pandemic has put a huge strain on race organizers.  Challenges included getting permits to finding volunteers and resources are a logistical battle. Simple things that used to be readily available: race motos, traffic marshals, officials, and first aid are now in limited supply.  There is even a lack of portable toilets!  Combined with all this, the two year lay-off has made everyone involved, even the riders, a bit rusty with re-figuring things out on the fly.   "I literally had 2 weeks to put together a championship race but in the end, making the race happen was well worth all the challenges," explains race organizer Barry Lyster.

Just days before the race, smoke from BC wildfires rolled into the area, threatening a cancellation if air quality did not improve by race day. "First COVID, now wildfires producing toxic air quality.  If the race was to happen the day before, we would have been forced to cancel.  Fortunately, the smoke cleared, and the race was on," commented race director Barry Lyster.

The races were as hotly contested as the weather.  All championship categories were included, with riders from the Yukon, Saskatchewan and Alberta making the trek to take part in some long awaited racing.

In the Elite Men's race, Sam Morris  (Mighty Riders), followed-up his July 18 Jeremy's Roubaix win by taking the victory from a 3-rider break.  A cramped-up Alex Murison (Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes) limped across the line on his 2 feet in warrior-like fashion to secure second place with U23 rider Evan Russell (TaG Cycling Race Team), rounding out the podium in 3rd.

The Elite Women's race saw a break go away with Holly Simonson (Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes), taking the win with a powerful up-hill sprint with Krista Mathews (Glotman Simpson) finishing second and Sonia Taylor (The Cyclery Racing) taking third.

It was great to see our Juniors back and racing strong, a group who were greatly impacted by the pandemic.  Isla Walker (Tripleshot Cycling) took the Junior Girls win followed by Lilly Ujfalusi (Escape Velocity Society/DEVO) in second and Ana Large (TaG Cycling Race team) in third.  Luke Hubner (Zone 2 Podcast) won the Junior Boys race followed by Luca Veeman (Cycledelia) and Marc Sato (Devo Cannondale). 

Local Ride Racing would like to thank Born Superior Sportscare, Power2Max, Cycling BC, Doma Cycle, race staff, volunteers and the wonderful residents of Hatzic Valley for making this special day possible.

Local Ride Racing switches to gravel for their Gravel Omnium on August 28 and 29 which includes Rock the Ridge and Jailhouse Rock.  For information and registration, go to www.localride.ca