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Loonie course puts riders to the test

Volunteer Terry Phillips prunes back a tree that was encroaching on the Ridge Trail in the Whistler Interpretive Forest on Sunday
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After a couple of short, low intensity Loonie Races to start the season, Lee Harrison of Wild Willies went to town last week with a Lost Lake course that included every challenging climb in the park, some long-lost sections of challenging singletrack, and a final climb up Blackcomb to Roam in the Loam before descending to the after party at the Longhorn Saloon. There was a one-hour cutoff before the last climb, and the majority of the field was turned back.

On the women’s side, Joanna Harrington made the most of her first Loonie of the year to finish the course in 54 minutes and four seconds. Lindsey Burch was second in 56:05, and Sylvie Allen third in 56:08.

Dave Burch won for the second time in three weeks on the men’s side, with a time of 42:15. Matt Bodkin followed up in 43:12, and Matt Ryan took third in 43:33. The top junior male was Jesse Melamed in 55:18. No junior females finished before the cutoff.

Some 263 people registered for the race, so a special thanks to the sponsors for the refreshments.

Tonight’s race (Thursday, May 24), is the annual Tour de Trash, sponsored by Brent Harley and Associates, Cascade Environmental and Millar Creek Café.

The best way to do the course is to park in Function Junction and take the highway south to the Cal Cheak camping area. Follow the main road until you come to the sign-in. The course heads back to the Function Area on a mix of backroads and trails, including the notorious Trash trail.

You must be a member of the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association to take part. Memberships are $40 for adults, $25 for youth 18 and under, and $90 for families including two adults and up to two children. For more information visit www.worca.com .

WORCA vollees get trails ready for the season

A group of 26 volunteers turned out on a rainy Sunday to clean up Whistler’s bike trails for the season.

A lot of the most intensive work was concentrated on pruning and raking the Interpretive Forest Trails and Tunnel Vision, but crews also gave some attention to Bob’s Rebob, Sugar Cube Hill, the lower part of Billy’s Epic, Emerald Forest, Mel’s Dilemma and North Secret.

The average volunteer day was around four hours, although a few stayed to work longer.

As a result of the volunteer day and earlier clean-up efforts by the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association (WORCA) trail contractor Chris Markle, most of the lower valley trails are now cleared. There is still snow at the higher elevations of some trails.

WORCA thanks all the people who came out to volunteer, and Colin Pitt-Taylor at Riverside Junction Café for helping out with breakfast.

While the trails may be clear, the WORCA trail maintenance season is just getting underway. Jerome David, WORCA’s trail director, will be putting together a report from volunteer crews and is setting the priorities for the season.

One of the priorities is Danimal, which will require a new entrance to the north section out of Stonebridge, as well as some work to fix erosion. The work on Danimal will also be used to train several trail builders that will be doing trail projects with WORCA this year.

“We’re seeing a lot of erosion on trails because of the heavy snowpack this winter, but we can rake most of it out. A few areas will need more work to be rideable, but we’ll know more when we have all the trail reports in,” said David.

One $30,000 project, to build a new section of Shit Happens to replace the section that was lost due to the Rainbow development, is on hold until WORCA sees what First Nations’ plans are for the legacy lands they acquired in the area. Other major projects include improving drainage and repairing erosion on sections of Comfortably Numb, repairing erosion on Billy’s Epic, and redoing a section of Babylon By Bike that is becoming impossible to ride.

WORCA will be announcing a few trail days over the course of the summer.

“Whatever trail we’re working on, if it’s a big job and we know what we need we’ll get the community involved in the work,” said David. “That will save WORCA money, and help some of the tougher jobs get done a little faster so our trail guys don’t get bogged down.”

WORCA adding two youth dirt camps

Dates and details are still being worked out, but WORCA is planning to almost double the number of one-week youth dirt camps the club is hosting this summer, to five camps. There will be three camps for kids aged 6 to 8, one for kids 9 to 11, and one for kids 14 and older. There is also a possibility of adding more.

WORCA is still recruiting coaches to lead the camps, and is hoping to have a ratio of five or six kids to every coach. To increase the number of coaches for the program, WORCA is talking to Cycling B.C. about the possibility of hosting a Level 1 coaching course in Whistler before the first camp.

All kids have to be members of WORCA, and memberships will be available at sign-on for $25. The cost of the course is still being worked out, but it should be similar to last year. Registration will be available online at www.worca.com .

WORCA subsidizes the youth dirt camps, as well as youth membership costs, youth Loonie nights, and the Whistler Secondary team with funds raised at the annual bike swap. This year the club raised more than $7,000 for youth.

If you are interested in coaching one or more camps this summer, or taking the Level One coaching course, contact WORCA Youth Director Sean Bickerton at seanbickerton@yahoo.ca

Riders in the ribbons

Local riders had the horsepower to win several ribbons in Langley this past weekend, representing Dreamcatcher Meadows stable in Pemberton. The event was the Touch of Class dressage competition, and was a qualifier for the Pan Am Games.

Ellika Chrichton, 16, placed second in Third Level on her horse Lutzen. Cici Durfed, 14, placed first in First Level on her horse Winet. Rhiannon Flann, 15, rode her pony Whisper in the Training Level, and placed first, second, third and fifth.

Dream Team coach Jill Giese rode Dreamcatcher Elite in the Prix St. George Level to a second place finish. John Dingle placed first on Winet in First Level.

She didn’t win any medals, but Sue Smith won the high point on her horse Pacific Artisan at Training Level.

Squash players on the ball

The Whistler Squash Club held its annual May long weekend tournament this part weekend, and fielded more than 75 players from across the province and as far away as San Diego. The field also included four of the top 10 players in B.C., and record numbers of locals.

“The record number of local entries and impressive local results goes a long way to show how strong the interest is in squash within the local community,” said club president Ben Thomas. “I am also very pleased to say that we recently certified six parents as Level 1 instructors and we will be running a youth after-school program starting this coming fall.”

Thomas was the top local in the tournament, finishing second in the Men’s Open category against some of the best players in the province.

Tim Ng won the Men’s B category, while Natasha Strim placed second in Women’s B. Norm Strim won the Men’s C consolation game. Suzanne Wilson and Polly French won the C and D categories respectively, and Gary Pringle was third in Men’s D.

Last chance to register for Every Woman conference

Registration for the 2007 Every Woman in the World conference wraps up Friday, May 25.

This is the fourth year for the conference, which features workshops on health, fitness and beauty, speakers, and social events. The goal of the festival “is to use physical fitness to empower every woman to achieve her goals and fulfill her dreams.”

The schedule is jam-packed with opportunities this year. Programs include Action Mapping, Aerial Silks, Ayurveda and Fitness, Back to Abs, Beginning Tennis, Belly Dancing, Body Ball Basics, Boot Camp, Charleston, Clearing the Clutter, Climbing, Core Strength and Stability, Creating Work/Life Balance, Emotional Freedom Technique, Evolutionary Astrology, Fabulous and 50, Fresh and Natural Skin Care, Fun-Tastics; Getting It Together — Top 15 Tips, Golf, Hiking, Hip Hop dance, Jazz dance, Korean Hand Therapy, Meditation, Motivation Makeover, Mountain Biking, Nia Technique, Nordic Walking, Nutrition, Personal Financial Planning, Pilates/Yoga 20/20, Pole Dancing For Fitness, Power Yoga, Qigong, Reflexology, Running — Learn to Run Workshop, Sign Language, Striptease and Lap Dancing Techniques, The Three B’s (Body, Ball and Band), Yoga — Beginning Hatha, Yoga Fusion, and ZipTrek. There will be a Wine and Apple reception on Friday, and a dinner on Saturday.

For more information, visit www.everywomanintheworld.com .