An estimated 300 riders descended on Squamish this weekend for the wrap-up of the cyclocross season.
The B.C. Cyclocross Championships took place Sunday at Squamish Days Loggers Sports grounds, as the site was transformed into a twisty racecourse, complete with obstacles.
Competitors competed in categories from U15 up to adult brackets. Depending on the grouping, riders completed anywhere from five to a dozen laps around the 1.78-km track.
Of the local competitors on Team Squamish, most focus their riding on the mountain biking circuit. However, the team takes part in the cyclocross series as a way to train.
“We use this for our training to make us better mountain bikers,” said team coach Mike Charuk.
For Team Squamish, Hunter Verner finished third in junior men, and Chloe Moberg was second among junior women. Michaela Hoskin and Nick Kleban did not complete the event due to injuries or crashes.
The team tries to incorporate one cyclocross event into its regular mountain biking season, usually in Maple Ridge, but the addition of Squamish this year provided an easy opportunity to add one more race.
“It’s right in our backyard,” Charuk said.
For this race, the relatively flat terrain was ideal for the road racers more familiar with the cyclocross circuit than the more rugged setting of mountain biking.
Cyclocross incorporates obstacles that typically require riders to get off their bikes momentarily to traverse the terrain before remounting.
“The mountain bikers can bunny-hop it. The road riders tend to have to get off,” said Charuk.
The Squamish site is mostly flat, however, so Charuk thinks the regular road riders would have had the advantage.
Steed Cycles from North Vancouver hosted the finale, and an initial announcement about the series had the event slated for their own track, but the event was later moved to the site in Squamish.
The cyclocross circuit is part of Cycling BC, which this year launched the BC Premier Cyclocross Series in response to the growth of the sport in recent years.
The series started in September in Whistler, followed by other races at Vanier Park, Maple Ridge, Kelowna, Surrey, Abbotsford and finally the provincial championships in Squamish.
In addition to the Team Squamish riders, several other local riders competed in the provincials on Sunday. Racing for Kona, Rhys Verner finished fourth in the elite men category. In the SingleSpeed event for men, Nathanael Fournier, Evan Power and Jeff Van Mulligen finished 18th, 21st and 22nd, respectively.
Other local riders included Jackson Goldstone and Nolan Fielding in U13 men, in which they finished fifth and seventh. Rod Jenkins finished sixth in the master 60+ men.
Andrew Gunn finished 10th in the master 30-39 men and Jeremy Null finished 16th.
