Sandra Walter sails through Sp’akw’us 50
Cory Wallace and Carter Woods take home Men's wins in two day event
Over two scorching hot days of riding in Squamish, Sandra Walter walked away with the overall win in the first two-day version of the Sp’akw’us XCM. For it’s second year, the new Squamish cross country marathon expanded to a two day format, with Walter out in front on both days.
While back in Canada during a break in her successful 2018 World Cup campaign, Walter (Liv Canada) won both Saturday’s Sp’akw’us 50 and Sunday’s Sp’akw’us 35 to take home the overall title. Juliana’s Mical Dyck was second on both days, and in the overall, followed by Sonya Looney in third.
Cory Wallace (Kona) took home the Men’s title in the full distance 50, while Dodge City Cycles / Rocky Mountain Bicycles Junior racer Carter Woods won by a healthy margin on Sunday. With both Wallace and Woods only racing the one day, Squamish local Jamie Sparling (Tantalus) claimed the overall title after trading placings with Quinn Moberg (Rocky Mountain Bikes). Moberg took second behind Wallace on Saturday, but Sparling’s silver on Sunday gave him enough of a time gap over Moberg to take the overall title.
Sunday’s Sp’akw’us 35 course had to be slightly shortened when a bear and her cub decided to hang out at the top of the Mad Hatter loop, but after spending several hours climbing in excess of 1,250 m in 30 degree heat on Saturday, few racers were complaining about missing out on a couple extra kilometres.
Both days presented riders with a wide ranging selection of Squamish’s best singletrack, mixing flowing corners and technical trails with plenty of rocks and bridges thrown in to keep racers on their toes.
A full gallery of pictures from Sunday’s Sp’awk’us 35 can be viewed on the Canadian MTB Flickr gallery.
