Barrie Sunnidale Cross

Presented by the Barrie Cycling Club, another great new circuit at Sunnidale Park in Barrie was brought to us to start off November.

Pulling into the parking lot, it was impressive to see miles of tape, making up a UCI compliant course, stretched out around the park. It was immediately evident by the looks of suffering on the faces of the 10:00 race that it would be a tough day of racing. With a long starting straightaway, there was plenty of time to sort things out before the first technical section - a rollercoaster through the trees. A set of barriers brought the riders into a tricky section of off cambers and whoop-dee-doos. A set of downhill switchbacks tested the technical skills before a set of stairs built for the race on a tough runup. Finally, a spiral worked nicely with the terrain, then spit the riders to ride a tricky off-camber section, then across the field along the grass to the finish line. The course had a great flow, but left little chance to recover.

In the 10:00 start, Chris Stone (HBCC) won the Cadet race with a small lead over Bretton Matthews, who placed his first result for the Mountainview CC. Third place was Noah Summers, who is 2nd behind Stone in the series.

In the M3 race, series leader, Denis Thang won over Brad McCutcheon. Mike Greenberg rounded off the podium. Brendan Matheson rode strong to win the S3/4 race, putting a minute into Jeff Kroetsch and two minutes into 3rd place Peter Mancini.

The Elite women's race saw Jill Vale lap the rest of the field in another impressive win and taking the Senior Women's series lead. Sue Trimble-Haviland to ride a solid second place ride. Christina Bouchard rounded off the podium a minute behind.

Meanwhile, in the M2 race, next week's commentator from Centennial Park, Rick Meloff, stretched out the field to lead the first lap, then dropped back to chase the duo from Hardwood and Stuart Green from Rapid City. Bill Trayling from HW Hills won his first CX race of the year by 15 seconds over Stuart. MTB coach, Kevin Simms rounded off the podium another 10 seconds behind.

The Juniors race saw Mitch Bailey from Team Hardwood and Zachary Hughes from The Hub threading their way through the back markers of the M2 race, with the series leader, Bennett Winn shortly behind. With time running out in the series, a four way fight for first will be sure to make for some interesting races.

In the Master 1 race, the 5 way battle for the top of the series saw Paul pull further ahead with another strong race, leaving behind a group of Lorne Anderson, Pavle Stanojevic and Chris Wood. A rolled tubular led to a crash early in the race taking out David Dermont. Similarly, Ed Campbell rolled a tire, but managed to time it before the pit area, making the change and resuming the chase. A bit of confusion by the riders over being lapped by the winner of the elite race, let Lorne put it into the big ring and ride in for second with Pavle right on his wheel. Perhaps some clarification is needed at the start of the race by the commissaires to let the riders know whether there will be a separate lap counter when there is more than one race on the course. Still, none of the riders seemed disappointed to not have to do another lap to sort things out.

The Elite Mens race saw Andrew Watson ride away from the group on the second lap of his home course. Riding up to the bottom of the stairs and remounting immediately after, he showed technical prowess wherever it was needed and attacked the long straightaways, showing that he can ride a power-race as well as a climbing one. Peter Morse and Kyle Douglas chased together, each taking turns pushing the pace until Peter took advantage of a gear choice by Kyle on the climb and with the attack stayed away for 2nd place. Meanwhile, Erik Box was stuck chasing the two, while maintaining his position over Cameron Jette who finished fifth.

With 5 wins this season, Watson seems a shoe-in for the series win, yet with the number of races left, his lead could shrink. Morse trails Watson by only 3 points, but with 2 UCI races and Provincials, improving on the points he already has could prove to be difficult. Similarly, Chown, with only 4 races in the series, could quickly catch up to the two.

It was great to see the A-Channel news crew out, who led off their Sunday night sports section with a piece on 'cross. Coffee and food for sale in the chalet was a good touch. It was a tough course and hopefully a repeat event for next year - it could get some votes for hosting a Provincial Championships.