June 20, 2007 – The OMCA’s latest event was on Sunday, June 17. A talented field assembled at one of the favoured venues, a 63km road race, near the Barry Asparagus farm, between Cambridge and New Dundee. The near perfect conditions, blue sky, sunshine, moderate temperatures, brought out some great veteran riders: John Parkinson, Alois (Louis) Maier, (81), and Roy Conway, (76).

Younger entrants included Rob Szasz and Bert Candela of the Jet Fuel team, Terry Rice, and Craig Doucette, also Jet Fuel.

As is customary, after a “mass” start the peleton remained “neutral” for the first two corners. At that point the course is a rolling, lengthy up hill effort, with some heady westerly wind. And that is where the leaders made their first break away. At the end of the first of seven laps the field was divided into two groups, separated by 2 minutes. By the 5th lap there were 4 groups, and as they finished the last lap, each grouping had its own exciting sprint to the finish.

Displaying the camaraderie and sportsman like conduct of cycling, the first twosome — Candela and Doucette crossed the finish line beside one another, hands held in the air celebrating their shared victory, in a time of 1:40:44. Candela has more than his share of wins with OMCA events and is a strong competitor in OCA events. This guy has super max Vo2! If this finish is indicative, Doucette may be his equal.

The fastest time of the day for women was captured by Yvonne fisher at 2:05:09. Yvonne and husband Alex are racing a number of events this year with OMCA along with some Ontario Cycling Association sanctioned events.

Chris De Tombe, hailing from Heartland Michigan and Bruce Meyer rounded out the top dozen riders, with respectable 11th and 12th positions. They brought with them more than a few moments of laughter – two vehicles pulled up to the start/finish line, and out piled their diehard fans carrying placards, ringing cow bells and loudly cheering the racers on!

What better way to spend Fathers Day.