Championship Weekend Rundown

Hot, smoky weather enveloped riders coming out to race in the Trail Bicycles Championship Weekend. The hotter than usual weather, thanks to fires in the interior, made racing unbearably hot but did little to dampen the spirits of those who came out. On Saturday riders were faced with a 32km time trial, 16km for juniors, around Dove Creek. John Van der Vliet stopped the clock in 48:05 to set the fastest time of the day for the aerodynamic class, while Ray Wagner racing with no aerodynamic advantages finished in 50:56 to beat fellow riders Michael Brinton and Mort Allingham. In the B category Sig Isaac raced to a fast time of 52:45 to best second place by almost 2 minutes. C category say James Grant finish the 16km course in 29:48 followed by Ernie Klassen, Simon Harrington, and Mark Grant.
Sunday opened up with hot weather with the C racers completing 37.3km (2.5 laps), B 53.8km (3.5km), A 70.2km (4.5laps). The new Dove Creek Championship road race course featured a Piercy Road finish just after the hills at the Entrance of Wildwood nature park to change the course from a flat out sprint into a tougher more "all rounder" course worked. C category group quickly split on the hill and James Grant took a the final win of the 2010 Comox Cup season over Gord Giesbrecht, and Ernie Klassen.
In the B category the race became the deciding factor in the Comox Cup series with Sig Isaac with a narrow 3 point lead over Jake Van der Vliet after Saturdays super hot time trial. The B pack quickly split after having started with the A racers; B racers Sig Isaac and David Damery stayed with the A's as the pace rose in the afternoon heat. The chasing group howevered suffered two flat tire casualties and young riders Jake Van der Vliet and Andrew Grant not finishing the race after heat exhaustion forced them to quit. David Damery took the sprint over Sig Isaac and Andy Brinton to take the top of the podium.
A racers got off to a hot start that saw attacks up the hills on Piercy road and technical attacks through the corners. Heat whittled the field down to a final selection of three riders to contest the sprint. Club President Ray Wagner took the sprint over Dave Nowak (Trail Bicycles Eatmore Sprouts) and John Van der Vliet (Simon Cycles-Airport Service Station) with youngster Michael Brinton and Rudy Daun round out the top five. After three years with the club, and just over a year since his last win, Ray Wagner took his fist Comox Valley Cycle Club win.
A big thank you to all the volunteers who made the races possible, Trail Bicycle, Tim Hortons, and Eatmore Sprouts.