Centennial Park UCI Pro/Am

What happens when two of Toronto’s most successful race promoters get together to put on a race? The biggest weekend of 'Cross to ever take place in Ontario. With deeper and more competitive races, fielding racers from across Canada and the US, spectators were treated to an exciting event. And while temperatures were falling they put on an extra coat, sipped a pint of ale from Toronto’s Amsterdam Brewery, munched on food served up on site and rang those cowbells like they’ve never done before.

Saturday's course, designed by Gears Bike Shop's Scott Doel was a power rider's special. Starting off with a long gravel section, into a quick climb and a twisty technical section featuring off-camber turns and an interesting set of stairs, with short boards creating a run-up without full-sized barriers. The course then made went through the crowd control barricades, past the Nissan and the beer tent, then out to Eglinton, with a true power section up a short climb and more off camber turns, then back along the road to the finish line. The course made for some great sprints and meant the technical riders would pull ahead on the first half, while the power riders would make it up on the back half.

The day started with the 2nd annual Ontario School 'Cross Championships presented by Ontario Potato Distributing. Liam Millen beat out Midweek regular Stefan Milosevic in the Grade 5&6 category. Other medals were given out to Stephane Calberg, Mariah Millen, Ryan Humphries, Ian Turner, Cooper Jones and Evan Roden for their respective categories.

Saturday's early race combined categories to make up for lost time. Jared Stafford from HBCC won the Under-19 race, while Jeff Craft won the Master 2 race.

The Master 1 race started off with the Southern Ontario M1 series' leader, Paul Greene, getting a flat tire and immediately put into the chase group. Meanwhile, Andrew Croutch, Steve Heck, Marc Boudreau from Stevens Cross and Don Cameron from Specialized/Tailwind worked together at the front. Eventually, Heck was dropped from the group and Croutch pulled out of the group to win his 2nd of the year.
Wendy Simms from Kona/YourKey.com rode away from the group at the start and established a strong lead. A two person chase group quickly formed, with Natasha Elliott and Jennifer Stephenson working together until a sprint finish, where Natasha rode close to the barriers, forcing Stephenson to back off.

The Elite men's race started with a cash prime for the first person to make it past the barriers at the beer tent. Mike Garrigan used his short track skills to make it around the fastest, taking the cash. Immediately behind him over the barrier, Greg Reain clipped the first barrier and landed hard on the second. A quick recovery and a bike change meant he could get back into a strong group, with Osmond Bakker, Chown, Derrick St. John, Watson. This crowd caught Garrigan fairly quickly and rode strong with attacks by Watson and Chown being brought back. Watson’s due to a bent brake caliper. Greg Reain eventually made the attack, knowing that it would be tricky to win with such a large group of strong riders. He stayed away for the win, eventually putting 30 seconds on the 3 riders behind who played a little bit of cat and mouse before Bakker took the sprint over Nathan Chown.

Sunday's course was designed by Craig Fagan from the Midweek Club. Keeping the course entirely on the chalet side of the hill meant that the entire course was accessible to the crowd. Starting by the lift house, the course headed north, then back past the chalet and past the ice arena. A couple of short climbs and off camber sections led across and back onto the main pitch, where after 2 switchbacks, the course headed straight up and then cruelly back down and straight up again. While steep, the climb was rideable by most and the course offered plenty of room to recover after the climb. If Saturday’s course was a power course, favoring the roadies, Sunday’s course’s climbing favored the mountain bikers.
In the first race, the Ride with Rendall cadets dominated, with Conor O`Brien, Karl Hoppner and Kiernan Orange taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Meanwhile, Mark Sieradzan won the M3 race over Graham Jones and Denis Thang placed 3rd.

In the second race, HBCC's Jared Stafford repeated his winning ways and showed his strength on the hills in the junior race. When a tough crash at the start took out Bennett Winn, Stafford's nearest competitor in the CX Series, he didn't look back, passing the entire M2 field and putting 2 minutes into Devon Novakowski who placed second. Michael Miller filled off the podium, with another strong Ride with Rendall finish. The M2 race was thrown into confusion when a mystery rider mistakenly started off in the wrong category and put the hurt on... The rider pulled a long ways ahead before realizing his mistake. Doug Richards from Pieriks kept his head and won the race by 10 seconds over Jeff Craft from October Lake Effect Cycling Team. Chris Olson from Ride With Rendall followed shortly behind for 3rd.

The M1 race had Craig Hawkes from the Cyclery in Ottawa staying roughly 10 seconds in front of the group for most of the race, while Paul Greene and the rest of the group, played games with the occasional attack. Steve Proulx from Stevens Cross came on strong towards the end to take second, then in an exciting finish, Paul pulled off 2nd place in a 3 way sprint for 3rd.

Wendy Simms rode away again at the start of the race, leaving Elliott and Stephenson to chase. This time though, Stephenson would not wait for the sprint, she established and maintained the lead early. Anne Schwartz, a Flying Rhino visiting from Michigan was the only American competitor in the women’s race, finishing 6th - one place behind the Southern Ontario series' leader Jill Vale. CyclocrossOntario.com's own Denise Ramsden was the only Junior Woman to compete - she shadowed 3Rox's Amanda Sin through the race, then came around to finish 7th.
Once again, the beer tent prime led short track specialist Mike Garrigan to sprint hard out of the start. A crash at the start took down Josh Dillon from Fiordifrutta and caused some excitement at the start. Garrigan won the short prime run for a new power washer. Garrigan maintained the lead for the first time up the climb, and then settled into the group, where he and Watson waited several more laps before Andrew attacked up the hill, and the only one able to respond was Garrigan. Each time up the climb, Mike would fall a bit behind, but would catch up through the flat technical sections. The elastic bringing keeping him there eventually broke with 3 laps remaining and Andrew quickly put 10 seconds on, and extended his lead from there. In the chase group, Bakker, Reain and Chown stayed steadily ahead of St. John, but the roadies couldn't make up time on the mountain bikers as they climbed the challenging hill. Watson pulled steadily away from Garrigan who placed second. Coming around to the last lap, Reain started the sprint early, going around the lift house, and stayed away for the 3rd spot on the podium.

The dramatic action had to come to a close, and for the organizers and the volunteers, who spent the week before putting together the two courses and were still cleaning up the night after, there should certainly be a satisfaction with a job well done. As the Midweek club tries to expand the use of the Centennial Park facility as a year-round cycling venue, this event serves as a highlight to showcase what can be in this centre of excellence.