On Monday October 8th, the $3500 Mammoet Oktobercross presented by United Cycle was hosted at Goldstick Park is the scenic Edmonton River Valley. For the 5th year in a row, this annual event went ahead with unseasonable weather, sunny, clear, and a high of 15 degrees Celsius. Title sponsor Mammoet, www.mammoet.com, was on hand with details of their specialty in heavy lifting and brought along one of their "small" cranes to hoist a Trek XO-2 cross bike high over the course.

The race course for the Mammoet Oktobercross differed drastically from the 2001 National Championships held at the same venue. This years spectator friendly course featured numerous 180 degree turns on a variety of off camber corners, high speed sections, tight technical corners on wet leaves, banked corners, a trip around the "small" Mammoet crane in the parking lot and 4 passes each lap next to the club house bleachers.

The 36 sport riders started the day off with a competitive 42 minute race. Duncan Cameron (Hardcore) quickly established the hole shot into the first sweeping high-speed corners. After the first half lap, the pace had separated the lead group of 8 riders from the bunch including Shannon Hein (United Cycle) who made up for his back row start position. The tight, off camber corners in the second half of the lap allowed Alex McCormick (Juventus) and Cory Dickinson (United Cycle) to break away from the chasing pair of Dominik Kubicki (ERTC/Redbike) and Scott Book (ERTC/Redbike), who in turn were followed closely by a group of 5 riders. This lead pair rode strong for the remainder of the race, and on the closing laps, McCormick (Juventus) extended his lead to take a convincing win over Dickinson (United Cycle) in second and Kubicki (ERTC) in 3rd.

The 11:00 am expert men's race provided tremendous entertainment throughout, and featured a return to racing after a 10 year hiatus of recently retired Alberta Bicycle Associations Technical Director, Andy Holmwood. Off the start line, a lead group of 9 riders immediately established themselves over them remaining 18. The group featured perennial cyclocross master champion Lonn Bate (Terrascape), junior Peter Knight (United Cycle), road specialist Brennan BAgdan (Pedalhead) and Antonio Bilotta (Pedalhead), and mountain bike specialists Bruce Penner (United Cycle), Tracy Shearer (Juventus), Ed Garvin (Singletrack) and Pat Doyle (Deadgoat). Riding strongly as an unknown in the group, was Stephen Cooley (Team SASK). For the first half of the race, this group relentlessly attacked one another on the chicanes, off camber corners, and barricades, only to regroup in the long headwind finish straight. Eventually Lonn Bate (Terrascape) powered away with Peter Knight (United Cycle) hot on his heels. The chase pack was split from the pressure of Stephen Cooley (Team Sask) and Bruce Penner (United Cycle) and left the remaining 4 riders to sort out the top 10. Despite a second last lap fall and dropped chain, Lonn Bate successfully held of the you rider, Peter Knight to win again, and show he's on form for next weekend's provincial championships. The best race of the day was for 3rd place. Lap after lap Penner and Cooley changed positions and attacked one another, and despite a sizeable 10s lead heading into the last half lap including 2 barrier sections, Penner was able to close the gap and fell a bike length short at the line to finish a strong 4th place.

The women's race featured mountain bike powerhouses Pepper Harlton (Juventus) and Mical Dyck (Terrascape), who would be battling it out with rookie cross country skier Tara Whitten (Velocity), Rhonda Stickle (ERTC/Redbike) and triathlete Nancy Burden (Juventus). The rookie Whitten looked like quite the veteran as she rode in 5th for the first half lap staying out of trouble and waiting for the uphill and headwind section to make her move. Whitten closed down early lead of Pepper Harlton (Juventus) and Mical Dyck (Terrascape) at the end of the first lap, and after the 3rd lap had settled in to her own rhythm for her first win. She was followed closely by Mical Dyck in 2rd, Pepper Harlton in 3rd, and Rhonda Stickle in 4th.

The Elite Men's race promised to be quite the show. The riders were expecting to lap the 2.5 km course in under 6 minutes a lap which was going to be very entertaining. Ryan Hopping (United Cycle) took the hole shot off the start and opened up a small 7s lead at the halfway point. He was closely marked by a large chase group that included Tim Heemskerk (United Cycle), Shawn Bunnin (Bicisport), Chris McNeil (H&R Block), David Larson (Juventus), Aaron Schooler (ERTC/Redbike) and 2002 National Champion Roddi Lega (United Cycle), Shaun Adamson (Juventus), and Shawn Barr (Pedalhead). The chase group caught Hopping at the close of the first lap, and he immediately countered and broke the chase group into the first group of 4 including Heemskerk, Bunnin, McNeil, and Larson, followed closely at 5 s by Lega and Schooler, and then Ferris (ERTC/Redbike), Adamson, and Barr shortly after. At the end of the second lap, Hopping held a slim lead over the chase group of 4, which was closed part way through the third. Heemskerk didn't wait long before launching his winning move, and rode solo for the remainder of the race to win his third race in 3 days. Hopping, McNeil, and Bunnin battled until Hopping established a clear lead over Bunnin in 3rd, and McNeil for 4th. The race for 5th went down to the wire with Larson, Lega and Schooler riding turn for turn until a late race crash from Lega left the two Espoirs to sprint it out. In the end Larson held of Schooler for 5th and a hard charging Cyrus Kangarloo (H&R Block) in 6th.

A thank you to the tremendous volunteer support that once again set up a fantastic venue, the staff from United Cycle for a first class race, to the out of town racers for traveling on the long weekend, and of course, to title sponsor Mammoet, for raising the bar in event support.

Below are two collections of photos from the day.

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/10379032722-1192076634-46110/

www.flickr.com/photos/mikesarnecki/sets/72157602325812452/show/with/1520248327