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Whistler downhillers Canadian champions

Allen, Baker, Morland win gold at Sun Peaks Whistler downhillers made their presence felt at the Tim Hortons Canadian Mountain Bike Championships at Sun Peaks, Kamloops, last weekend, winning five medals and making several top 10 appearances.

Allen, Baker, Morland win gold at Sun Peaks

Whistler downhillers made their presence felt at the Tim Hortons Canadian Mountain Bike Championships at Sun Peaks, Kamloops, last weekend, winning five medals and making several top 10 appearances.

The biggest Whistler story is Sylvie Allen’s victory in the women’s downhill competition. Although she has proved to be a strong and capable competitor at the national and international level in the past, she had yet to make a clean run at the nationals.

"I’ve always wanted to do well at nationals, but it just seemed that something would go screwy every time in the past," she told Canadian Cyclist. "This year I just stayed in B.C. to race and changed my attitude. I came in feeling very positive and just decided to race for fun."

She cleared the challenging four kilometre course in just six minutes 19.5 seconds, averaging 37.94 km/h.

The course itself was a mix of wide open sections and extremely technical rock and root sections that made it difficult to carry speed and get into a rhythm. The heat and the dust added to the difficulty level, as riders alternated between peddling madly and holding on for all they’re worth.

Whistler’s Claire Buchar finished just 1.84 seconds back of Allen, also guaranteeing herself a spot on the Canadian Team for the World Championships in September.

Vancouver’s Michelle Dumeresq, a transgendered athlete who has had sexual reassignment therapy to become a woman, finished in third place at 6:27.34. Dumeresq has been very fast in downhill competitions this season, causing some of the female competitors to cry foul.

Cassandra Boon, the reigning champion and the fastest rider in the qualifier by a 10 second margin, finished back in sixth place.

In the Junior Expert Men 17 to 18 category, Whistler’s Jeff Beatty finished third in a close contest, just 0.74 seconds back of the lead.

Beatty was the reigning Canadian junior champion heading into the race, and although he took time off racing this season to focus on school, he was still able to place highly in the events he did enter.

In addition to being a little rusty at Sun Peaks, he was also recovering from an illness he picked up earlier this month on a graduation trip to Mexico.

Chris Colbeck, Beatty’s coach with STORMBC, said Beatty’s finish at the nationals should get him into the World Championships in Austria this September. Last year Beatty finished 15 th overall at the World Championships in Vail.

"He did amazing, all things considered. It was a really hard course this year, really dusty, and he rode it well. Less than a second separated the top three riders. With everybody going flat out over a course this long, that’s a close finish," said Colbeck.

Another one of Colbeck’s athletes, Brook Baker, won the Junior Under 17 Expert Women 15 to 18 group by four one-hundredths of a second to claim her first Canadian title. Although Baker has focused on cross-country races for the past couple of years, she entered a downhill race at a B.C. Cup for fun only a few weeks ago and beat the top junior women in the country. She raced again in Whistler at the Air Downhill, and although her opponent crashed, was two for two.

Now there is a chance that she will represent Canada at the World Championships. "She is the Canadian champ and she has the potential to go," said Colbeck.

In the Senior Expert Men category 19 to 29, Whistler’s Tyler Morland finished with a time of 5:28.86 to take the gold medal.

Also from Whistler, Dave Burch finished sixth in 5:53:13.

"It was a little more demanding and technical than the downhill course in Whistler, so two days of training wasn’t enough to do as well as I would have liked," Burch said.

In the Senior Elite Men’s division, Dustin Adams of Kamloops, 22, repeated as Canadian champion with a time of 5:05.11 – an incredible 11.19 second margin over the next highest finisher. Brant Lyon of Kamloops was second, followed by Shaums March, an American rider who is living in Squamish.

From Whistler, Chris Dewar was 13 th overall in 5:33.15. Kelly Walters was 37 th .

Colbeck competed himself in the Master Expert Men race, despite the fact that he has not competed all year and is admittedly out of competition shape. He still finished fourth in his category with a time of 6:05.97. "I’m not unhappy with my finish, but I think I probably could have done a little better. I haven’t been on my bike much this year," he said.

Colbeck was also named as a coach for the Canadian Downhill team at the World Championships, where he could be working with up to five Whistler downhillers, among others.

"It’s a great opportunity, to be sure. We don’t have anybody racing on the World Cup circuit for some reason, but I’m looking forward to showing everybody what the Canadians can do," he said.

In the dual slalom competition, it was Claire Buchar’s chance to shine. She beat Katrina Strand in a tense final heat to take the national title.

In the men’s dual slalom, Whistler’s Jean-Sebastein Therrien finished fourth, losing out to Allan Box in the small final. The national title went to Tony Pejril.