Ontario Cup #2- Horseshoe Valley

After travelling to Mt. Tremblant the previous weekend, racers were glad to be racing once again close to home. Everyone was thrilled to be racing a brand new track, the built headed by series veteran Shane Joachim. The track was short and pedally, offered racers plenty of sandy and off camber corners, which meant the winners had to be explosive, but able to smash corners and stick to their lines. After a successful first round, the team was looking for a repeat, and it happened!

Harold puts his suspension to work

With many racers away at the US Open, Nick Kesik was able to capitalize with his 1st Junior Expert win in only his 2nd Junior Expert race! He sits 2nd in the overall. Adam Finlayson got back on track after his disappointing start at Kelso, and finished 2nd in Senior Expert. Kyle L was not happy with his run, finished 7th but is now 3rd overall in the series!

After going over the bars and qualifying in the 70's, Harold was out of Sundays final at the US Open in New Jersey, and with the Provincial overall ranking in mind, jumped in the car and drove 9 hrs to race Horseshoe. With 4 hrs sleep and little practise, Harold was stoked to finish 4th and hold onto that #1 overall position.

The series overall is calculated with your best 5 out of 6 races at the end of the season. With many racers missing 1 of 2 races thus far, our athletes must keep pushing for podium results to remain on-top!

Jamie Tice with the win!

Jamie T. continues to show he is on form this year. After a strong winter of training, it is evident that he will be a force to reckon with for the remainder of this season and 2011 in the U16 category. He has a 5 point lead in the series overall ranking.

Despite many of the young elite racers away at the US Open, it was great to see old timer Justin Brown (Cycle Solutions) take the win, over Lapierre Canada rider Sid 'The Kid" Slotegraaf and Texas boy Caleb Cambern (Primary- Trek).

The weather was great, the track was a blast, racing was tight and a good time was had by all.

The team looks forward to Rd.3 in just under 2 weeks time.

Thanks to SirBikeAlotRacing and Shane J for putting this one on!

See you on the trails!

RedBull Monte/ Descente

It is the 2nd year that Redbull Monte/ Descente was put on during the Canada Cup weekend at Mt. Tremblant, and what an event! The race consists of 40 teams, an XC racer paired with a DH racer, that complete combined laps in a relay format through the village.

The race takes place at night, down the ski hill and through the village. The DH course consisted of drops, ladders, wallrides, stairs, rock shoots and even some climbing to separate the fit from the unfit and to provide plenty of excitement for the spectators. The course was lined deep with spectators as the athletes took off!

Kyle L. and Harold W. were both late entries, but were stoked to participate and had strong XC partners. Harold was paired with Specialized factory rider Francis Morin, who had won the Canada Cup U23 elite race that day!

The race was on, and the bad luck was just about to begin. After coming out of the "Lemans" start first, a timing issue kept Harold from dropping in until about 30 riders had gone ahead! Kyle was off to the races, coming out of the "Lemans" start in 3rd, but the lights he had thrown together would soon die and Kyle was left to race down the technical track in the dark until he had to call it quits! Harold flatted on his first lap, but with his quick pit crew, he was back up and running. Meanwhile Francis managed to take us from 30th to mid 20's in just one climb! Another crash for Harold, but Francis continues to show his strength and keeps on passing riders! On the 4th lap, Harold had a horrific crash, and rips the bolts out of his stem, and the race was over.

Regardless of the results, you could not wipe the smile off both these racers face afterwards. Harold woke up on race day Sunday with a bike that needed some serious attention. Thanks to the boys at Devinci, Shimano, and Jeff Faulds, he was up and running in no time.

Check out the video below, and spot Kyle and Harold in their blue Dakine outfits!

http://www.redbull.ca/cs/Satellite/fr_CA/Video/Red-Bull-Monte-Descend-2010-021242854377684

The boys are eager for another shot next year!