Mountainview Ontario Cup a Roaring Success

On August 9th, over 450 racers from across the province travelled to our home track at Mountainview to take on the Ontario Cup, hosted by Chico Racing. Little did they know, that the course would be designed by our own Thomas Wood, and have all of the climbing, downhills, and technical bits that we know and love. This home track advantage would provide the catalyst for an awesome day of results for the MCC.

In the 8:30 start, 4 riders took to the start line. In the extremely competitive Peewee Mens category, Colby Matthews placed 14th, while Tyler Edwards placed 6th, a mere 37 seconds from 1st place. In the Beginner Men 19+ category, the always loveable Bill Ellery took 12th position. In Beginner Women 19+, Courtney Munro was 4th.

Next was the 9:30 start group. In this start, the MCC really heated up, despite the torrential downpours which threatened to shorten the race early into the 2nd lap. In Master 30-34 Sport

Men, Mark Cairncross placed 4th, only missing the podium by...well, ask Sean Ruppel. In 35-49 Sport Men, John Shier was 13th. The Master 40-45 Category had 2 strong finishes, with Mark Matthews finishing 6th, and Bill Cameron returning to the podium with a solid 3rd pla

ce performance. Dale Wood was having his best race in recent memory, riding in 2nd place at such a speed that his derailleur hanger vapourized at the worst possible moment, forcing him to abandon the race. Rich Guiot also saw difficulty in the heavy rains, and suffered a DNF. In the Singlespeed Mens race, with easily the most dominant performance of the day, was Davis Ross. He took the lead early on, and continued to put massive chunks of time into the field. Not only did he win his race by over a minute and a half, but he passed the entire 40+ Mens field who had started 2 minutes ahead. Also having phenomenal races were Angela Brewer and Erin Wood, who both placed 3rd in 20-29 Sport Women and 30-39 Sport Women, respectively. Erin was back on the bike after breaking her wrist only 4 weeks prior to the event.

The assault on the podium would continue during the 11:30 start. The rains passed, and the course went from being super slick, to super tacky, in a matter of minutes. In the Senior Sport Mens race, Brandon Parker was 19th, while Codey May was 12th. David Archer stole the show, racing his first Ocup in a few years to take the victory.

The final start of the day was at 1:30. The strong sun made for incredibly hot, humid conditions,

and the course was extremely slow and sticky, with little chance for recovery, and a long hike-a bike in the early laps. This caused greater than normal difficulties for the racers. In the Senior Expert Men category, Matthew Spak survived 2 laps before abandonning the race due to the

heat. Furthermore, in an upset, Thomas Wood finished 8th on his Misfit Singlespeed, beating out prerace favourite Lee Symmes, who finished 11th. In 30-39 Expert, Jeff Buchan raced to a 14th. However, John "clutch performer" Webb ensured that the MCC would not be denied a medal during the 1:30 start, recovering from a poor start to finish 3rd in 40-49 Expert Men.

After the race, members of the MCC shifted to the Wood residence for a BBQ, and to regale each other in stories from the day's racing.

Once again, an awesome day for the Mountainview Cycling Club. Along with the fantastic performances by our racers, the response from "out-of-towners" was overwhelmingly positive, once again impressed by our enthusiastic club, and tough, technical yet flowy trails.