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Whistler riders dominate Mt. 7 Psychosis

Morland, Buchar, Phelps win categories

The annual Mt. 7 Psychosis, hosted by the Golden Cycling Club, is one of the longest downhill mountain bike races in the world. The course is steep and technical, dropping more than 1,200 metres over its 5 km length.

Whistler riders have always done well in Golden, and this year was no exception. Tyler Morland won the men’s category for a third year, once again breaking the record. His time of 12 minutes 58 seconds beat the record time he set the previous year by 26 seconds.

"I don’t know what it is, I really like long races, I feel really good on them," said Morland. "I don’t know whether it’s a fitness thing, but it’s kind of cool to get to the bottom after something like that and still feel like you’ve got something in the tank."

This year’s win was especially rewarding, as Morland invited Australian World Cup downhillers Nathan Rennie and Chris Kovarik to the contest and still managed to come out on top.

"Those are the guys you just hope you can keep up with," said Morland.

Other local riders in the men’s race include Chris Dewar in 10 th , Mike Jones in 12 th , JS Therrien in 16 th , and Chad Onyschuk in 19 th .

In the hardtail category, Whistler’s Kevin Phelps won for the second straight year in 15:15, over a minute faster than the next hardtail. Ian Ritz, another Whistler rider, was third.

Phelps has raced the course three times now, and says he knows it pretty well. He doesn’t usually ride the bike park, but gets most of his technical descents on local cross country trails.

"It’s quite an epic race," he said. "The top part is extremely difficult and it was just impossible on race day. It started off pretty good but just deteriorated with the number of riders. The only guys who weren’t dabbing the whole way down were the guys like Tyler and Nathan Rennie, and I’m pretty sure they probably put their feet down at least once."

The women’s race was won by Whistlerite Claire Buchar. Her time was 17:11, just over 14 seconds ahead of Danika Schroeter.

It was the first Psychosis for either rider, and both had crashes on the top section, which is called Dead Dog.

"I’d heard for years about the course, how long it was, how gnarly it was, and this year it fit into my schedule so I went out there on a road trip to check it out," said Buchar. "Aside from that top section, it was a great trail.

"When I went down, I thought ‘okay’ I’m not winning, but it turned out that most of the other riders crashed up there as well. I just kept pushing and kept racing."

Buchar, who is racing the World Cup circuit this year, said she feels strong but the dust did cause a few breathing problems on the way down.

"That was the worst of it, but I was still surprised that I won. I’m definitely going back next year. It was really hard, but so much fun. I’ll be bringing some more girls with me next year to ride it," she said.

Schroeter says she rode the Dead Dog section a few times in training, but in the end she ended up crashing and surfing sections like everyone else.

She also missed the Garbanzo Enduro Downhill events of previous years, and says this was the longest race of her life. She does plan to do the Garbanzo race this year.

"(Psychosis) was probably good practice for it. They have everything on this course; fast, technical sections, some slow spots, lots of corners, steeps, uphill sections, a gap jump, everything. From what I’ve heard there will be a little of everything on Garbanzo as well"

Complete results will be posted online at www.psychosis.ca.