November 16, 2004 – With only a very short two week lead in time we were very pleased to have 57 athletes turn out for our event. The biggest winner was the sport of c-x as it was the first official sanctioned event on Vancouver Island (that we know of).

Also we had 23 people in the beginner event and a total of 30 people that had never done a c-x race before in their lives. We started the afternoon with Canadian National c-x Champion leading almost all of the first timers over the course to explain barriers, run ups, sand and mud.

Beginner Event Despite being a beginner event it did not lessen the competitive nature of the race. Their were lots of lead changes and passing. Darren Carmichael on the last straight away of Grandview Bowl just pulled ahead of Gary Croome for the victory. Also notable was Helly Visser at 72 years old doing the event on a borrowed Brodie Spark. Our youngest competitor was 13 year old Kjersten Lorne from Victoria who usually competes in x-c MTB events on the Island.

“A” Race The unique LeMans start proved to be one of the highlights of the event with 34 racers furiously running 100 meters of grass before finding and mounting their bikes for the opening lap of Grandview Bowl. Once onto the Parcourse Drew Mackenzie lead it out with Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics), Basse Clement (Solo), Sean Lunny (Frontrunners), Normon Thibault (Frontrunners) and Graeme Martindale(Fontrunners) in line. The first split occurred at the BMX track (noted as the most favorite part of the course by almost all surveyed after the event) where those with technical skills pulled away and splits in the field started to appear. The BMX track was also where the first major crash of the day occurred when Justin Maguire (Frontrunners), following Ironman Peter Reid (Specialized), attacked the first set of jumps and launched his Moser into the air and into the next jump.

Off the BMX track Pinfold started to gap the field with Drew Mackenzie, Thibault and Martindale in a small group five seconds behind. Mackenzie showed great skills by riding the steepest hill on the course while most others ran. At the end of lap one Pinfold was in the un-official pits bumming a wheel of a lady from the beginner race as he had a flat and Clement, Martindale and Thibault were trying to gap the rest of the field. The BMX track took another casualty on lap two with Martindale hitting the dirt. Pinfold made his way back up to the front and Clement and Thibault were trading places in second and third. The only woman in the race, Wendy Simms (Frontrunners) was sitting in fifth with a group of guys after tearing her shorts wide open on a snag.

With darkness approaching attentive race timers cut the race short by one lap. This was good as it was getting really dark on a few sections of the course. The last lap saw Pinfold extending his lead to come across the line first. Thibault was out sprinted by Clement in the last 100 meters for second. Kelly Guest (Frontrunners) after making his way from further back in the field took fourth thinking Thibault was a lapped rider and he was getting third. Simms came in 9th in a group from fifth to 10th that came in within 10 seconds of each other.

Clean up was done in the dark and the awards were later at the famous Frontrunners Annual party. Thanks to everyone that came out including volunteers, spectators and racers.