November 15, 2007 – Seven for seven nice, sunny race days this year without rain or snow! Can this go on for all 10 races? The race at Almonte is always universally liked by riders, who claim it is “the course” for cross. Given the weather on Saturday, it was really a special day.

The first race of the day was run under cool temperature with frozen ground and slippery grass. Riders often pushed their limit and found themselves sliding out and pulling themselves up from the ground. The race saw a group of 4 riders push the pace and lead the race for a couple of laps. By the fourth lap, the lead was down to Greg Christie (MC — Ride With Rendall), Jim Laird (MC — TI Cycle) and Jon Gee (MB – TI Cycle), and it stayed that way until the final lap. The race came down to the last 250 meters – but that included a sharp off camber turn, a barrier at the bottom of a hill, a hill run up, a down hill ride to a 100 meter climb to the finish. With the two Ti Cycle riders on his wheel as he entered the off camber turn, Greg slid out leaving the opening for Jon Gee to capture the overall and MB win. Greg had to settle for second overall and first MC.

The Women’s B race was clearly not to be wrestled away from Kathy Lewis (TI Cycle) who was the only female to be able to cover 5 laps in a deep field of 15 women. Trevor Damen (Ottawa BC) rode a strong race and finished 12th overall as the first Junior man. In the MD race, Carroll Roy (X-Cycles from Quebec) was able to follow eventual Gary Romkey (Ride With Rendall), but did not have enough to beat him to the line, as Gary carried a 14 second lead to the finish line. Yohan Patry (U15 — Espoir Laval) kept up with the two leading MDs (Romkey and Roy) for most of the race but fell off at the end but managed to be on the lead lap. Alex Cataford (Ottawa BC) was the U17 winner, and Derek Gee (Ottawa BC) took the U13.

With many of the leading riders participating in the UCI race in Toronto, the second race was going to be wide open in the three categories- Sr men, MA and Women A. Ryan Atkins bringing his excellent skills form the mountain bike circuit to his first season in cyclo-cross, started strong and just kept on going. Ryan lead every lap, but was eventually chased down by Mike Nash (Ride With Rendall), who in the end could not pass Ryan who won with only a 4 second margin. Joanne Thomson (Ride With Rendall) rode on her own to lead the small women’s field. Paul Skafel (The Cyclery) worked his way through the field from a slow start to be third overall and first MA. Similar to the first race, numerous riders saw themselves picking themselves and their bikes off the ground for not being vigilant on all sections of the course.

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