September 27, 2018 (Pelham, ON) – This for the third year the race has been at Bissells Hideaway resort in the town of Pelham. It really is an ideal venue for the race with lots of parking, washrooms, two pavillions and some nice elevation changes to mix the course up a bit.

This year the temps were near perfect, as opposed to last year’s 40 C humidex, and the course was fast and racing was exciting across all starts. New this year was shorter barriers that were bunny hopped by a lot of riders and seemingly everyone under 18 has to bunnyhop.

The first stat of the day had the Master 3 Men’s field line up and after a very fast opening lap Brook Smith had a good lead and kept charging for the whole 40-min race. Behind a very tight race for 2nd came down to Marc Kell Whitehead out-sprinting William Hellems. The Elite 4 Men’s race had former sand sculpture champ Andrew Edmunds again have a hope-crushing opening lap that left the field in his wake. He rolled in for the win.

The Under 17 starts had a nice mix of younger crossers and a boat-load of barrier hopping older racers. There were a few misfires at the barriers but no one was hurt, only a few feelings were injured. Unfortunately I did not have time to watch much of the racing and only noticed the barrier action on this start.

One of the more exciting races was the Junior Men’s competition with three racers duking it out for the whole race until Matthew Leliveld crushed the last lap to take the win by 20 secs.

The Elite Women’s race saw the 2016 winner take home a repeat win as Erica Leonard was also very impressive hopping the barriers each lap. She got the holeshot and put down another fast opening lap that no other riders could respond to. Her lead of 17secs on the opening lap was pretty much the difference as she won by 19 secs over Lisa Holmgren.

The last start of the day, Elite 1&2 / Master 1 Men, saw very tight racing for a few laps until Colton Woods and Dylan Kerr put on the pressure and separated themselves for a 1-2 finish. Anton “yeah I own a cross bike” Varabei rounded out the podium. In the M1 race Derek Hardinge rode through the field after a poor start – I know because I had a poor start and he was behind me – to win the race over Robert Holmgren and take 4th overall with Holmgren in 5th overall.

The day again was awesome and aside from a few crashes at the barrier which were self induced – yeah they can get off like the rest of us – there were no issues. The course held up nicely through the day and the Lantern Rouge and Bateman’s Cycling clubs were again out in full force with polite Canadian versions of heckling and lots of cheering.

Expect pretty much the same course next year with to a tweaks to two or three corners. I may try to set up a road start also to allow the bigger fields more passing opportunity. I would like to report on all the races but as organizer it is hard to actually watch the racing most of the time.

I really love the vibe and energy that all of the racers and various sectors bring to the race and although it is a lot of work I love putting it on. The volunteers and the St. Catharines Cycling Club are of unapparelled help and I can’t thank them enough. With out them there simply would be no race – period.

And finally, please don’t park in my spot next year – looking at you, guy in the Honda SUV. You never did move your car. Yes, I did notice.

Full results here.