The inaugural Sunshine Coaster mountain bike race, put on by Sunshine Coast Cycling (SCC), was an amazing start to this season's B.C. Cup cross country series - and had a local winner to boot.
About 350 racers took part in the Roberts Creek race last Saturday and Sunday (May 8 and 9), enjoying sunny skies, expertly groomed trails and a plethora of prizes for first place winners in every category.
"Everything ran really smoothly. We didn't have any broken bodies or bikes, so that's a successful race to me," race co-ordinator Sue Duxbury-Sleep said.
Local faces peppered the podium at Saturday's cross country awards ceremony, with home-grown cycling star Kris Sneddon of Sechelt taking the top spot, one full lap ahead of all other pro-elite racers.
"I thought it was awesome conditions for a race today," said Sneddon. "It wasn't raining and it felt a lot warmer. Earlier this week we still had some cold weather. This was like a tune-up race for me, because I'm going on three really important races soon, the qualifiers for the world championships. There are two in Quebec and one in Ontario. This was a good chance for me to make sure my bike was running well and everything seemed really good.
"I made three small mistakes that weren't that important in today's race, but those small mistakes could cost me the race at the world championships, so I know what I need to work on."
Locals had a strong showing in the downhill race on Sunday, with Halfmoon Bay's Katherine Short coming in first in the senior women's category and Roberts Creek's Dylan Dunkerton taking first in senior men's. There were many other first, second and third place finishers from the Coast. (See all the local results in the Sports Ticker on page A30.)
The downhill portion was a Cycling BC sanctioned race; however, organizers decided not to make it a BC Cup race.
"If we did, we would have thrashed the trails because we would have had over 500 riders come out," Duxbury-Sleep said. "There would have been huge lineups at the shuttle and extra garbage, so we capped the downhill according to our shuttle capacity."
The race, formerly known as The Rat Race, was co-ordinated by first-timer Duxbury-Sleep, and she credits its success to the fantastic volunteer support.
"I had over 50 volunteers over the weekend and they were amazing. I think they heard there was a rookie running it this year, and they needed to come out to help," she joked.
She devoted six months to planning and preparing for the race, applying for permits and getting permission to run the event, but she says she couldn't have done it alone.
"When Rod and Tanya Camposano [former organizers of The Rat Race] handed me the reins, they said I would need a handful of people that I could rely on to pull it off, and that if I couldn't find those people, I should stop," she said.
She credits trail builders Brad Proctor, Jim Brown and Rod Camposano with the superb condition of the trails.
"We had three major wind storms and the guys were out there every time clearing the trails for us. Lots of people commented on how smooth our trails were to ride," she said, adding there were no DNFs (did not finish) in the downhill, which is "unheard of in a downhill race."
The trails were also groomed and worked on by SCC members and the Capilano University mountain bike operations class under the direction of Lewis Robinson.
"The community support was amazing. Everyone I asked couldn't wait to help out," she said.
She said she plans to organize the bike race again next year and hopes the same people will be ready to help when she comes calling.
"If I get the same team I had this year, it will be easy," she added.
