October 30, 2009 – The rains of the week disappeared, the sun broke trough the clouds and the wind came in from Lake Ontario to greet the 150 races at the beautiful Lake Ontario Park. The Kingston course is always a favourite course of so many riders. It has just about everything with lots of technical sections, flat roads, short climbs, and the “terrace”. The terrace is a terraced side of a small section of a hill that riders go down and across and down and across. It is always a spectator favoured viewing location. Of course for the skilled riders it is a place to make time. For the other riders it can be a place of loosing time being slow and cautious or as happens, a slipping and falling to the ground. Sunday, the terrace surface held firm and riders were able to usually negotiate it without incident.
The race saw the largest number of spectators at a race this season. Riders were continually shouted encouragements or had bells rung for inspiration. It was certainly appreciated by the 140 competitors.
Watch the OBC Eastern Ontario Cyclocross Race #5 Video
Cyclo-Cross from Filip Funk on Vimeo.
Race B
The first race of the day had 90 competitors start, with the competition between Jon Gee (Ride with Rendall) and Andy Leger (J&J Cycles) leading the way. With the technical nature of the course, Andy was able to pull away from Jon. Looking like he had his first win of the season, trouble struck on the fourth lap with Andy suffering a puncture and forced him to run a long distance to get back to the pit and change wheels. That saw his nearly 1 minute lead disappear, and eventually he would finish in 11th over all and 8th Master A. Jon went on to take another victory, with a 25 sec gap on the ever improving Jim Laird (TI Cycle) who was 1st Master C. Colin Funk (J&J Cycles) finished in 3rd overall and 2nd Master C. Sue Croswell (TI Cycles) led the very deep Women’s field of 20 riders with her 29th place in GC. She was followed 1 minute 41 seconds later by Jen Adams (Ottawa Bicycle Club) and the ever improving Jenny Dalton (Independent). All top 3 women were on the same lap as the overall winner, Jon Gee.
Carroll Roy (Kona/Cyber Cycle) took first place in the Master D, with Terry Hind (Euro-sports/The Foodery) managing to come in behind him. Cameron Jones (Euro-sports/The Foodery) rode to the Novice Men category win with a good 31st placing in GC. Wil Etherington (J&J Cycles) was the lone U17Male, and placed in 55th spot in GC. Timothy Austen (Ottawa Bicycle Club) took 1st place in the U15 Male category with a 1 minute 3 second lead over Derek Gee (Ride with Rendall). Mitchell Slobodian (Independent) was the lone U13 Male.
A Race
The second race with 50 racers, started with roar from the crowd and the riders matched that with their speed and intensity from the start. Osmond Bakker (EMD Sorono), as he has over the years, led from the start. However, Osmond’s was pushed from the outset by the amazing Junior, Evan McNeely (EMD Sorono). This has been a glorious Cross year for Evan with age category wins everywhere he goes, from the USA to Toronto. Evan, hoping to repeat his overall win in Brockville, rode hard and would come within a few seconds of Osmond at times. But in the end he would fall back finishing 2nd in GC, and 1st in Junior Men, 1 minute and 13 seconds behind Osmond. Behind these two, there was a dog fight for placing with Quebec rider Sylvain Jean (Kona/Bio-max) pulling himself ahead of the followers finishing 3rd overall, 24 seconds behind Evan. Derek Hardinge (Lapdogs) was strong especially in the last lap passing Junior Karl Hoppner (EMD Sorono) for 4th in GC 13 second behind Sylvain, and 24 second ahead of Karl. Derek finished 1st Master A.
In the Elite Women category, Melissa Bunn (Hub Race Team) was the best of a small group and finished 47 second ahead of Vicki Thomas (Ottawa Cross). They finished 30th and 33rd in GC respectively.
The small but very strong Junior Men had only 3 competitors, but Evan McNeely and Karl Hoppner finished 1st and 2nd in the category, (2nd and 5th in GC respectively) with Connor O’Brien (EMD Sorono) ,having an off day, finished 3rd in the Category. Wesley Laird (TI Cycles) gaining strength with every race, was the lone U17Male competitor.
Click here for full results.
Click here for photos.