Canadian National Cyclo-cross Championships

My husband and I went to watch today - a sunny day, but frost overnight and a high only of 8 Celsius.  We got there in time to see the last few laps of the U23 men's race, watched initially by the barrier before a bunch of curves before the finishing straight. 

via www.canadiancyclist.com

Our camera batteries died so no pics of the U23 finish :-(  - Mike Bidniak and David Larson (both of Team Alberta/Juventus) had worked together and had a gap on the field, they rode down the finishing straight with arms raised together and patting each other on the back, with Bidniak (the older rider) finishing very slightly ahead. 

Then the dilemma - we reasoned that we had come to watch the races not necessarily to take photos, but in the end my husband went to the nearest convenience store to buy batteries.  I watched the start of the Junior men's race followed 2 minutes later by the Elite Women's start (not actually where listed on the course map) and he arrived back a lap or 2 into the race.  By that time, Wendy Simms was clearly in the women's lead and had caught up to a number of the junior men.  It was interesting to see the difference between the dismounting/mounting of Simms or even the lead juniors compared to those further back - such smooth motions compared to almost dead stops and starts.   We heard the announcer interviewing Natasha Elliott (who'd been leading the US cross rankings after some wins in the midwest) who apparently had to pull out after a couple of laps, but didn't quite catch what happened, and neither CC nor Pedal has anything about it either.  Guess I'll have to watch her blog to find out. 

Wendy Simms

Then we walked down to the area on the lower right of the course map, where there was an open valley area and the course went up and down both sides with a lot of twists and turns - and perhaps the biggest and most rowdy crowds (air horn, cow bells, and beer).

Elite Men's race

After the women's and junior races we watched the elite men's start.  We went back to our prior viewing spot where we could see a lot of action - the first time through Geoff Kabush was leading defending champ Mike Garrigan out in front, next couple of times round it was Garrigan leading Kabush, then Kabush broke away and stayed away until the end.  We watched from the top of a hill that some rode, some ran, and some tipped over on - one poor guy got taken out two or three times by the same rider just ahead of him who couldn't quite make it up. 

Garrigan followed by Kabush

the winner!

After Kabush finished followed by Garrigan and Derrick St. John (the Derrick of the "Derrick and Natasha the Dynamic Duo" blog linked previously above), there was a bit of controversy - as the 4th and 5th place riders were pulling onto the finishing straight we'd just heard "Fight Fight!" and "they both went down" but we'd missed what happened.  Then some people walking behind us were saying "he should be relegated for that, he pushed him".  On the finishing straight, the 5th place rider made a "rude gesture" and then went to the commissaire to protest - they called over the 4th place rider for his explanation, then talked to the 5th place rider again. In the end, nothing happened. 

We watched the medal and jersey presentations (by our local cycling celebrity, Alex Stieda - TdF yellow jersey in 1986 with 7-11) before calling it a day.  Fun all around!

more photos here.