Results from the B.C. road provincial championships that almost didn’t happen
The event took place despite last minute cancellations and threats of wildfire smoke
Photo by:
TLBVelo
After a two-year pandemic delay, the BC Road Championships returned last Sunday. The event was one of the most well-attended provincials race in years.
The race took place in Hatzic Valley, Mission, home to previous BC Championships. An engaging course dished up a great selection of climbs, long descents and flat approaches to help feed bike race starved riders.
Last minute changes
The cancellation of the BC Championships road race (previously schedule for Aug. 8) meant the threat of no provincial championship race for the province. Local Ride Racing was able to offer up their scheduled Aug. 15 Hatzic Valley Road Race for the event, and the provincial championships were simply pushed back by one week.
Pandemic challenges
According to race organizer Barry Lyster, the current pandemic has put a huge strain on organizing races. “Challenges from getting permits to finding volunteers and resources are a logistical battle,” he said. “Things that used to be readily available, like race motos, traffic marshals, officials, and first aid are now in limited supply. There is even a lack of portable toilets!”
All these factors (combined with the two year lay-off) made everyone involved—riders including riders—a bit rusty with figuring things out on the fly.
“I literally had 2 weeks to put together a championship race but in the end, making the race happen was well worth all the challenges,” said Lyster.
Just days before the race, smoke from BC wildfires rolled into the area, threatening a cancellation if air quality did not improve by race day. “First Covid, now wildfires producing toxic air quality,” said Lyster. “If the race was to happen the day before, we would have been forced to cancel. Fortunately, the smoke cleared, and the race was on.”
Results
The races were as hotly contested as the weather. All championship categories were included, with even riders from the Yukon, Saskatchewan and Alberta making the trek to take part in some long awaited racing.
In the Elite Men’s race, Sam Morris (Mighty Riders) followed-up his Jeremy’s Roubaix win by taking the victory from a three-rider break. A cramped-up Alex Murison (Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes), limped across the line on his 2 feet in warrior-like fashion to secure second place with U23 rider Evan Russell (TaG Cycling Race Team), rounding out the podium in third.
The Elite Women’s race also saw a break get away with Holly Simonson (Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes) taking the win with a powerful up-hill sprint. Krista Mathews (Glotman Simpson) finished second and Sonia Taylor (The Cyclery Racing) took third.
“It was great to see our Juniors, a group who were greatly impacted by the pandemic, back and racing strong,” said Lyster. Isla Walker (Tripleshot Cycling) took the Junior Girls win followed by Lilly Ujfalusi (Escape Velocity Society/DEVO) in second and Ana Large (TaG Cycling Race team) in third. Luke Hubner (Zone 2 Podcast), won the Junior Boys race followed by Luca Veeman (Cycledelia) and Marc Sato (Devo Cannondale).
A large, strong field of Master riders made for some exciting racing. Jon Bula (Bicicletta Factory Racing) took the Master A win, Joseph McNally (Victoria Wheelers) won Master B, Andrew Tuovinen (Tri Cities Cycling) won Master C and the Master D winner was Joe Barrett (Tripleshot).
In the Women’s Master races, the winners were: Solveig Stoebe, Master A, Carolyn Russell, Master B and the Master C winner was Stephanie Brown (Lotus).
Full results are available at: www.localride.ca
