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Canadians double up in Iceman Cometh

Geoff Kabush
November 4, 2013
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Geoff Kabush and Catharine Pendrel came out on top this past weekend at the Iceman Cometh mountain bike race in Michigan.

Kabush triumphed in a hotly contested race. Part of a group of eight riders, the Canadian made his move just 500 m from the finish, narrowly beating Todd Wells by one second, in a time of one hour, 37 minutes, 22 seconds.

Jeremiah Bishop finished third in a time of 1:37:25.

Canadian champion Derek Zandstra finished seventh, while Adam Morka crossed the line in 11th and Cameron Jette finished 13th.

In 2012, Kabush lost the race to Sam Schultz by just one second. That loss provided extra motivation for the Canadian this year.

“It was a really nice comeback,” Kabush said, in an interview with the Traverse City Record-Eagle. “It was painful to lose by such a small margin last year.

“It’s always tough being second. I remembered that end (from last year) and was able to dig that much deeper today.”

Pendrel took control of the race along with rider Chloe Woodruff. The Canadian worked to take the lead during the early singletrack, and set a challenging pace that saw all but Woodruff dropped off by the midpoint of the race.

With only 5 km remaining, Pendrel dropped Woodruff and cruised to victory, her first win in only her second entry at the race. She finished in a time of 1:53:15, with more than a minute margin on Woodruff.

“I came here two years ago and I definitely learned a lot about the course,” said Pendrel. “I was in the top three until the last 5 km, then got out-tacticed at the end there. This year, I played a good race and things just came together. I was feeling really good and I had fun. Coming into the crowd here at the end, that was pretty much unbeatable. That was so unreal, so loud, so much fun, so much good energy.”

Woodruff claimed second, while Mackenzie Woodring finished third.

Emily Batty finished fifth, followed by Canadians Amanda Sin and Susan Stephens in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

A 29-mile point-to-point race, the Bell’s Beer Iceman Cometh Challenge finishes in Traverse City, Mich. Held at the start of November throughout its 24-year history, the race draws a diverse group of riders, from professionals to first-time racers.

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