Over the years, Sunshine Coast cyclists have been a deftly intimidating presence at races all over the world.
Coast athletes have competed in everything from World Championships, World Cup Series, Canada Cup series, BC Cup series, Pan American Games, Canada Games, Western Canada Games, BC Summer Games, BC high school race series and our own local Sprockids events. Not only do the athletes at these events compete, but generally speaking, at the races they attend, the competitors bring home enough hardware for the entire Coast to share. Is it in the water, or is it simply just the copious amounts of time they spend in the saddle training every day?
Last Wednesday (April 21), high school riders took Sprockids Park in Langdale for race number two of the high school racing series.
Chatelech Secondary School came away with three golds, three silvers, and a seventh place finish out of a total of nine riders on the team. Not only did they clean up in terms of medals, but they did it essentially with a pack of girls.
As a coach, I am extremely proud of the athletes participating, but more so, I'm excited to see so many girls getting into the sport of cycling. For the last few years, the prevalence of girls in the industry was lacking. I've personally been competing in the sport for 10 years now, starting with the BC Cup Series, and was at races for years with two to three participants.
Chat is proud to say they have two Grade 8 female riders, four Grade 9 female riders and one Grade 11 female rider. They spend anywhere from three to 12 hours in the saddle each week preparing for the events for the season.
I've only been coaching for the last two years, but have never had the opportunity to coach any Sunshine Coast athletes. My work has mainly been project work with BC Summer Games or youth development work, working in hindsight of my own coach from Cycling BC. It's mind boggling how keen Coast athletes are to work. They listen to suggestions and work hard to get in the recommended hours each week. It's no wonder they have results to belie their modesty and have enjoyed recognition all over the world.
Not only are the girls from Chat amazing athletes, but also the males who participate are incredible advocates for the sport.
Louis Dillon has been racing for three seasons now, and I've yet to watch a high school race he doesn't win. Jonas Lomax is our other male rider from Chat. Jonas has made incredible progress as a cross-country cyclist. He comes on all the weekend group rides and trains with the Sunshine Coast Cycling coach during the week to be prepared for everything from high school racing to the BC Cup Provincial series. Jonas competed last week with road rash on his face and other injuries. If that's not commitment, I don't know what is.
Elphi also had a great week racing at home with two third-place finishes, two fourth-place finishes, a fifth-place finish and several other top-10 finishes.
The weather was perfect for the home race that brought athletes from schools all over the North Shore and from Squamish and Whistler. Cyclists compete in as many as six races with the top five finishes used to calculate personal and team points. Check out the sports ticker on page A30 to see all the Chat and Elphi results.
Several of the local school team members are part of the Sunshine Coast Cycling race team, others are recreational riders who are interested in improving their riding skill through the race series. The next race in the series was on Wednesday in Squamish. Check out the results in next week's edition.
- With files from Steve Sleep
