December 1, 2005 – The second annual OCA Club Challenge came down to a sprint for the final weekend’s points with the Waterloo Cycling Club / The Flying Dogs prevailing on Sunday.

Entering the cyclo-cross season, the Waterloo Cycling Club was trailing Team Hardwood by roughly 500 points. However a steady contingent of dedicated Flying Dogs slowly trimmed the lead to only 19 points going into the final weekend. A pack of WCC members travelled up the 401, up the 400, into the snowbelt for the Gear’s Cross at Coulson Hill in Bradford. By the time the Sunday afternoon rain started melting the snow, the Waterloo Cycling Club was this year’s OCA Club Challenge winners.

In the beginning of the season, Team Hardwood built a commanding lead by way of the Plastiglas MTB Ontario Cup Series. The predominately MTB complimented its MTB prowess with early season road success. However midway through the cyclo-cross season, Team Hardwood could not match Waterloo’s onslaught.

Last year’s champion, Bay Cycle / 3 Rox Racing finished a respectable third place. Like Waterloo, the Durham region based club lead a well balanced attack of MTB, Road and Cyclo-Cross. Courageously some Bay Cycle / 3 Rox Racing riders sacrificed possible Club Challenge points to represent and cheer Ontario at the Canada Summer Games in Saskatchewan.

The Ottawa Bicycle Club had another strong season and maintained its last year’s 4th placing. The road club, and Ontario’s biggest club, capitalised on the Eastern Ontario Cyclo-Cross Series.

Finishing in 5th place was the Cyclery. Another Ottawa based club, the Cyclery focused predominately on the Eastern Ontario Cyclo-Cross Series. This included being a key sponsor of the Provincial Cyclo-Cross Championships.

Congratulations to all clubs for a fine 2005 season.


Points of Interest
– The OCA will be adding Track and BMX to next year’s OCA Club Challenge.
– Momentum Cycle / R.A.C.E. was the top placed DH club with 568 points
– Tabitha Ferguson of Waterloo Cycling Club earned 410 club challenge points

Fun with Stats – Tabitha Ferguson’s Racing Year

– 410 Total Points
– 120 in Road
– 85 in MTB
– 205 in Cyclo-Cross
– Tabitha’s total points would put in the top 30 of all OCA clubs
– Tabitha’s total points is greater than 46 clubs combined.
– If Tabitha had only raced cyclo-cross, she would have finished in the top 50 of all OCA clubs

Complete list of OCA Club Challenge final standings is available here

Special thanks to Bradley Day for volunteering his time to tabulate the standings.