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.