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Plaxton, Sydor breeze to Cheakamus titles

Local riders top age categories
1339cheakamus
A rider cools off on the Cheakamus Challenge, photo by Maureen Provencal

By Andrew Mitchell

After a week of rain and cooler temperatures the sun broke through Saturday for the 22 nd running of the Cheakamus Challenge Fall Classic, creating almost perfect conditions for riders. Aside from some slippery sections on Trash it was a high-speed day for most riders, with the usually dusty climbs up from Calcheak and to Tunnel Vision offering a little extra traction.

For most riders the course was a long 71 km, starting at Squamish Airport and finishing in Whistler via a series of single and doubletrack trails, and roads. There was also a 42 km Cheakamus Lite race that started at the Bungee Bridge near the Calcheak campground.

The race for first place was all over by the end of the Cheakamus Canyon, with Victoria’s Max Plaxton defending his title with everything he had. By the time he reached the finish line at Dusty’s — after three hours, eight minutes and 48 seconds — he had built a lead of close to five minutes over the rest of the competition.

Kris Sneddon of Victoria was second in 3:13:24, while Squamish rider Neal Kindree — second in last year’s Cheakamus Challenge — placed third in 3:19:03.

Andreas Hestler also raced, still feeling the effects of the 108 km Samurai of Singletrack race the previous weekend. He was fourth in 3:24:09.

Two Whistler riders placed fifth and sixth, with Matt Bodkin coming in at 3:30:29 and Samurai winner Chris Clark posting a 3:33:54. Other local riders in the Pro Expert category were Ryan Edwards of Squamish in eighth, Simon Tremblay of Squamish in 15 th and Josh Stott of Pemberton in 4:10:03.

The top female rider, placing 10 th overall against some of the fastest men in Canada, was West Vancouver’s Alison Sydor in 3:38:41. This was her fifth Cheakamus Challenge win.

Victoria’s Trish Sinclair was second in 3:55:04, while Sandra Walter of Coquitlam was third in 4:05:26.

Whistler’s Lesley Clements finished just over four minutes back of the Pro Expert women’s podium in 4:09:38. Pemberton’s Hillary Harrison was sixth in 4:24:13, and Squamish’s Charlotte Klein seventh in 4:34:19.

Several local riders also finished at the top of their age groups.

In the Men’s 14-18 race Hayden Drygas of Squamish was sixth in 4:37:30.

Whistler’s Joe Lyons placed fourth in the Men’s 19 to 29 race in 4:18:06, riding the same freeride hardtail he brings to every ride. Todd Botham was eighth in the same category in 4:38:11, while David Poulsen, David Smith and Craig Power were 12 th , 13 th and 18 th respectively.

In the Women’s 19 to 29 race first place went to Meghan Kindree in 4:17:40, followed by Whistler’s Fanny Paquette in 5:06:01. Megan Rose was fourth, Lina Augaitis fifth and Ayumi Ueda eighth.

Whistler’s Mike Boehm won the Men’s 30 to 39 category in 3:31:32, close to 25 minutes ahead of his closest competitor. His time would have put him sixth in the Pro Expert group.

Russ Wood of Pemberton was fourth, and James Shaw, Gary Robbins and Andrew Clarke of Squamish were fifth, eighth and 10 th out of a field of 70 riders. From Whistler, Mike Edwards was 15 th , John Minton 19 th , Dave Booth 22 nd , Paul Nicholas 26 th , Julian Base 31 st , Sam Brovender 36 th , Dave Higgins 43 rd , Dave Krasny 51 st , Mark Lyttle 54 th , Brent MacDonald 55 th , Marc-Andre Bordeleau 57 th , Sean Sewell 60 th , Katsuma Domingo 65 th , Dwayne Rivet 66 th , and Kim Wonsang 70 th . Pemberton’s Jason Simpson was 24 th .

Jennifer Tabbernor won the women’s 30 to 39 race in 4:22:35, close to 25 minutes faster than the next competitor in her age category. She would have been sixth overall in the Pro Expert category. Andrea Howes was seventh, Tanya Sterritt ninth, Noriko Oe 10 th , Gabi Moeller 12 th and Robin Cormode 13 th .

Whistler’s Mike Charuk was third in the Men’s 40 to 49 race in 3:59:31, while Richard Potter, Scott Brunning and Joe Maika cracked the top-10 in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively. Bob Deeks was 14 th , Brent Murdoch 18 th , Ken Kozel 24 th , Dave Mayr 25 th , Stu Snowball 30 th , Paul Suter 41 st , Graeme Fitch 43 rd , Jay Lynn 70 th , Brian Perradou 71 st , and Martin White 74 th .

In the 50 and Over category John Blok overcame a broken chain and bent derailleur to place second in his category in 4:20:45. Jim Monahan was 12 th in 6:59:58.

Almost 50 riders also took part in the Cheakamus Lite this year.

Pascale Rousseau of Pemberton was the first female to the finish in 2:43:40, over 13 minutes ahead of Whistler’s Sarah O’Byrne. O’Byrne crossed the line in 2:57:00, while Whistler’s Sarah Licko took third in 3:08:24.

Paige Royal was sixth in 3:40:47, and Luana Auer, Marta Lukomska, Allison Sewell and Celine Forand were 11 th through 14 th respectively.

Whistler’s Benoit Reneault and Larry Falcon were first and third in the men’s Lite race with times of 2:46:31 and 2:49:53 respectively. Wayne Martin was sixth, Andrew Mitchell 11 th and Richard Auer 21 st .

According to Grant Lamont, this year’s Cheakamus Challenge set a new tone for future races.

“I think it went really, really well — the course was fabulous, the weather couldn’t have been better and with the race organization and the way things went off I’d give it a nine out of 10,” said Lamont. “We had a few challenges, with the highway construction, and a few different things came up, but all in all it went really well for an event of this size.”

While numbers were below projections, Lamont says he expects things to turn around in the future.

“It’s only a few days after the race and I’ve already gotten so many emails back from participants saying what a great time they had, that they’re bringing their friends with them next year…but as always we’ll be striving to make it better next year as well,” he said. “This year everybody got fed as part of the package, which cost us a little to do it, but it’s definitely worth it because we want riders to get value when they sign up.”

Some of the proceeds of the event went towards the Cops For Cancer ride, which left Whistler on Sunday to tour the Sea to Sky and Lower Mainland.

Complete results are posted online at www.cheakamuschallenge.ca.