May 22, 2007 – Team Squamish has been hitting the race circuit with some exciting results. It is rewarding that those riders who have proved most dedicated in their training are turning in some particularly noticeable finishes. All those evenings invested in spin with Paul Kindree, stretching and strengthening with Heidi and Krisztina from Squamish Physio and the ten weekly rides with coaches Paul Kindree, Shaums March and Mike Jones (both XC and DH) and team mentors (Dwayne Kress, John Irvine and Steve Murray) have really paid dividends. Some team members had also been taking advantage of the weekly rides with their school – either Howe Sound or Don Ross – to add a little more mileage to their muscles.

The High School XC Racing Season has already been completed and the summer racing season is just kicking off. Team Squamish have shown strong results for their respective schools. In all five categories that Team Squamish members represent, we ranked top in the North Shore.

High School Racing Season – Team Squamish

Grade 9 Girls
– Don Ross, Alison MacKellar – 1st
Grade 10 Girls
– Howe Sound, Eden Imbeau – 1st
Grade 10 Boys
– Don Ross, Zac Gartside – 1st
– Howe Sound, Hayden Drygas – 1st
– Don Ross, Jacob Melville – 2nd
Grade 11/12 Girls
– Howe Sound, Lauren Hughes – 1st
Grade 11/12 Boys
– Howe Sound, Philip Cairns – 1st

Many of the riders placed very well and ranked in the top 10 finishes. For more details you may go to www.nsmbl.org for results.

The Rat Race XC event on May 5th was the first of the marathon series. The day was perfect for riding – clear, but not too warm and the riding was good. Ryan Edwards stole the show leading most of the course and winning the overall fastest time, despite not getting his water feed! Sorry, Ryan, you were too fast and took the volunteers by surprise! Meghan Kindree was, also, her division and overall female winner, showing once more how she gets stronger and stronger as the race progresses.

The Rat Race – XC Results – Team Squamish

Elite Male
– Ryan Edwards 2:19:30 – 1st overall
Elite Female
– Meghan Kindree 2:59:03 – 1st overall
U20 Male
– Philip Cairns 2:56:04 – 5th
– Hayden Drygas 3:01:23 – 8th
– Zac Gartside 3:14:54 – 10th
– Jacob Melville 3:37:29 – 13th
U20 Female
– Molly Paterson 5:11:41 – 5th

The next day, however, was a completely different scene. The rain teemed down overnight turning the perfect, slightly tacky downhill trails into what one senior rider described as “a survival course”. This was disappointing and a bit alarming as this was a provincial team selection race. Team members were covered in mud early in the day, but remained steaming and warm in trucks. Thank goodness for Mad March Racing’s van which housed great gobs of riders at a time and for the tolerant parents who had brought plenty of towels and garbage bags to line their car seats! The race was a great learning experience. Philip Cairns, covered with mud, but with his usual smile as broad as a river declared “I didn’t know what to do so, I just kept pedaling – even when I was in the air, I found I was pedaling!” This was clearly an excellent strategy!

The Rat Race – DH Results – Team Squamish

Junior Women
– Miranda Miller 3.44 1st – 4th overall
U17 Men
– Kodi Stoddard 3.48 – 8th
– Clinton Gould 3.48 – 9th
Junior Men
– Philip Cairns 3:31 – 2nd
– Scott Halvorson 3:36 – 6th
– Harrison Gould 3.44 – 8th

(Other riders from Squamish included: Craig Campbell 7th & Trevor Halvorson 12th U 17 Men, and Sam Mallett 4th , Alex Dunkley 9th & Alex Cairns 24th Novice Men, & Graham Beatty 2nd Masters).

Next on the Agenda was The Junkyard Dog the first B.C. Cup race for the XC riders. This was the first race in three years when the weather had been dry and this made for perfect racing conditions. Team Squamish attendance was low for a race so close to home, but those who did attend saw great benefit.

The course starts off with a 6 km road ride before heading into the park. From the cheering section’s stand point it offers the best case scenario because, with very little walking, you can see the riders through several different sections. This was a qualifying race for those trying for the Provincial Team and Lauren Hughes received 8 points, Hayden Drygas 5 and Philip Cairns 12 towards their goals. Richard Wooles, the Head Provincial Coach with Cycling B.C., was in attendance (as he had been at the Rat Race) and had a chance to see Team Squamish in action for a second time under different conditions. At both races, he took time to chat with the riders and get a sense of their hopes and plans.

BC is extremely lucky to have gained a coach of Richard’s calibre. Richard joined Cycling British Columbia after two years with the UCI World Cycling Centre in Switzerland where he held the position of Track Sprint & Endurance Coach. Prior to his work with cycling’s international governing body, he was Head Coach of the Women’s National Program for Great Britain’s Olympic Cycling Team. Richard also has extensive experience as a competitive cyclist and competed for ten years in national and international events, including the World Championships and Commonwealth Games. He is extremely committed to the whole sport and is doing everything he can to encourage every discipline.

The XC riders have two more chances to make Provincial High School Championships in Sechelt on May 26 and at Ride the Ranch in Kamloops on June 9/10th. DH will just have one more chance – in Kamloops. Two riders from each division will be selected to ride for the Province at the Nationals in July at Mount Washington. Coach Kindree is pleased that so many riders are out working hard and having fun “It is rewarding to see them getting these kind of results – they deserve it.”

Meanwhile in Baie-St.-Paul, Quebec, May 12, Neal Kindree was disappointed that a technicality gave him a poor starting position in the 4th line, but he managed to work his way forward to squeak, with a couple of hard pushes at the finish line, to a 1st in this Canada Cup race, while Ryan Edwards, despite two flats, managed to claw his way back to a 13th position. Meghan Kindree also had a fine race, placing 4th in a full field.

The threesome then upped and left for Bromont, Quebec where they raced a second Canada Cup (May 19) and fortune reversed a little. Both Meghan and Neal Kindree posted 6th place finishes while Ryan Edwards came in 11th . Course conditions were simply dreadful. “The mud there has a whole different texture to ours” Paul Kindree commented. “It is really gluey, extremely slippery and there was lots of it.” Neal found, weirdly, that he lost time on his descents and doing better on the ascents. He was pleased, however, with his fitness level and the threesome are looking forward to their next race.

The weather had been wretched since Miranda’s Wednesday arrival and conditions the XC riders were fighting on Saturday were mirrored on Sunday (May 20) at the Downhill course. The top section was a sea of mud “Honestly, it’s really deep, I’ve never seen anything like it,” she ‘phoned in. Despite that, the course was super fun. It offered a variety of terrain and some interesting challenges. With the weather and heavy number of riders (there were a record number of 388 registered) huge ruts built up and the course changed every time you came to ride it so it was really hard to decide ahead of time which line to pick. With these conditions in play, Miranda chose to ride a fairly conservative race but still took 1st in Junior and 4th female rider overall. In fact, her win gave BC a hat trick as both the female and male elite classes were won, also, by young westerners. She had a great time and can’t wait to return to tackle some more of the eastern race circuit.