September 18, 2009 (Carnarvon, ON) – A remarkable course transformation greeted participants for Stage 1 of Crank the Shield this year, set in and around Ontario’s Haliburton Forest area. Chico Racing’s course designer Sean Ruppel unveiled an entire summer’s worth of exploration, trail building, and maintenance to the delight of 230 racers. While day 1 of CTS’maiden voyage in 2008 offered an epic challenge of water crossings and highly variable conditions, the post stage comments this year were unanimous in voting the 2009 makeover a roaring success. Singletrack galore, dense forests, lakeside trail views, and a healthy smattering of the region’s ubiquitous roots and rocks made up the trail menu of the day.

From the outset, Stu Alp (Norco Factory Team) had decided that his best play was to work collaboratively with the riders around him. Once tougher terrain was encountered early selections left a group of six frontrunners, including the day’s category stage winners – Rob Parniak (Tall Tree Cycles) in the 30-39 Solo Men, Kyle Douglas and Haydn Boucher (both 3Rox Racing) for the 15-79 Men Team category, plus Alp and Dan Souter (KHS Canada) in under 30 Men, and finally Jason Everaert (CoachChris.ca / Ted Velikonja) squaring off against Parniak.

It was Everaert who would earn the unofficial award as “most aggressive rider” on the day, launching himself into the early climbs with a fervor that the other five riders were not willing to match with well over 200km of technically and physically demanding trails still left to navigate over the three days. Everaert’s lead swelled to almost eight minutes at its zenith, but subsequent checks of time gaps by the chase group at the various aid and marshal stations were a sign of things to come, as the gap dwindled to 5 minutes – then down to a single precious minute, and ultimately the catch. Unfortunately, Everaert’s brave early efforts left him too spent to stay with the group of five, who forged ahead to contest stage honours, while Everaert managed the onset of cramps to the finish several minutes in arrears.

Alp professed to be keeping his eye mostly on his category rival Dan Souter trying to guess how the finale might unfold. As the distance counted down, Alp sensed that Souter was faltering, and took the opportunity to attack the group, carrying his momentum to the finish to take the overall honour as fastest finisher of stage 1 in just over 4 hours.

The quickest time for solo women was posted by Kate Aardal (Harcore Racing, AB) mirroring 2008 where she dominated all three stages. Aardal admitted that her race day didn’t come up all roses though, with the telltale signs of hydraulic brake fluid pooling on the floor the night before acting as a harbinger of a tough day ahead in the saddle.

While Aardal did make good on the stage win, she admitted to being unnecessarily preoccupied with the rigours of riding with only a front brake, missing out on the opportunity to enjoy the many fine moments offered by the trails and surrounding scenery. Tricia Spooner (Stevens Racing presented by The Cyclery) made it a close finish less than 2 minutes behind, setting the stage for exciting, close quarters racing on stages 2 and 3.

While the solo women were duking it out head to head, Catherine Vipond (Norco Performance Bikes) was in fact the quickest finisher among women on the day, albeit with some assistance from her mixed team partner Matt Paziuk. The combined strengths of these 2 left them largely unchallenged in their category on the stage. Vipond noted with a mischievous grin that she enjoyed reeling in several male competitors in the closing segments of the course!

Singlespeeder Joe Cruz of Soul Cycles, based in the U.S., took advantage of a mechanical which befell early leader Jamie Davies (Bikesports Racing Team) but with a solid last half Cruz would have been difficult to dislodge. Cruz was impressed by what he considered to be a very singlespeed-friendly layout, with only a few sections that challenged his gear selection to either side of the scale.

On the women’s singlespeed side, Leslie Summer ((Misfit Psycles) and Jennie Jackson (True North Cycles) appear to be in for a tough fight during the remaining stages. Singlespeeders Andrew Maemura and Matt Prosser (both Cycle Solutions / Angry Johnny’s Racing) didn’t have a team singlespeed category to race in, but parlayed intelligent pacing into a 3rd place finish in the Men 15-79 Team division mixing it up with the teams of gearies.

Stage 2 will be a close copy of the same stage from 2008, featuring massive amounts of Canadian Shield granite lending an air of “Moab North” to the day.

Full stage 1 results available at here.