Monday wrapped up three days of Ontario Cycling events hosted by Cycle North Bay, a first of its kind for Ontario Cycling.
“This particular weekend is a bit unusual in that we’ve had both youth racing and the adult racing categories combined over a three-day weekend. So, it is an unusual weekend for us,” explained Bradley Day, Chief Official for the Provincial Road Championships, and a Commissaire, which is an official for cycling.
“We don’t usually have that many races in all the different categories over a weekend. So the days have been very long but we’re glad to be here. We’re really happy to be racing after the last few years. So we’re really beaming and smiling that we’re able to do this,” laughed Day.
Hundreds of riders competed in the Provincial Road Championships Sunday, with roughly 13 categories, as the final event of the weekend. The oldest cyclist as 75 years old.
Spectators lined the route as riders competed on a 15-kilometre circuit that started at Corbeil Park Hall, and progressed along Corbeil Road to Derland Road, before looping back to Corbeil Park Hall via Highway 94.
Cyclist Sunny Chiu stood on the sidelines with other spectators, watching some of the competitors fly by, as he eagerly waited for his race to start.
On Sunday he competed in the 2022 Provincial Criterium Championships on Voodoo Crescent in North Bay.
“It was really well organized. It was a close group and the roads are nicely paved, nice and safe, no gravel on the course. It was very well done,” observed Chiu.
Although the Oakville, Ontario resident has been cycling racing for 10 years, this is his provincial’s.
“I’m a little bit more hardcore than amateur. I do about 20-thousand kilometres a year. I put more mileage on my bike than I do my car,” Chiu laughed.
Going into the race, the cyclist came prepared to stick to his game day strategy.
“It is a rolling hill, so you want to conserve your energy as much as you can and then maybe hit hard on the hills, and hit hard on the cross wind. You have to save your energy for those sections of the race.”
New to provincial competitions, Chiu describes what success means to him.
“Most importantly is to finish safely. So finishing, and finishing safe and then I’ll work on placement after that.”
If Cycle North Bay were to host the event again in the future, which is the goal, count on Chiu being there.
“People around this area are super friendly. I met a couple and we basically chatted for two hours standing watching the race yesterday. It was amazing,” said Chiu.
“It might be here again so yes definitely I will be back. The area is nice, it is bigger than I thought. I thought it was in the middle of nowhere and nothing here, but it is really nice. Nice restaurants, nice area.”
The Provincial Road Race is comprised of numerous categories, for both men and women.
The Chief Official for the Provincial Road Championship, says the competition is generally for those aged 17 and older, with some in their 70’s competing.
Roughly 150 riders set out to tear up the circuit Monday.
The length is a little over 15-kilometres, with riders getting up to average speeds of 40-kilometres per hour.
The number of laps completed, depends on the category.
“The Elite Men’s Races are doing 140 kilometres, so that’s about nine laps on this circuit,” explained Day who comes with 20 years of experience..
The race official went on to say one of the things to watch for when trying to stay on time as organizers, is the weather.
“It’s been going well. The weather has helped. It has really helped. We’ve had a great weekend of racing here. A lot of that we have to credit to the good weather.”
In addition to keeping both tires on the pavement, riders need to be aware of wind speeds and direction.
“The wind plays into the strategy very heavily,” said Day.
“Like for example, if you have a crosswind on the course, the stronger riders may try to pick up the pace and try to drop some of the other riders because everyone has to fight the wind equally”
Riders are constantly trying to get an advantage over the other riders, so the strategy is different when riders are going directly into the wind or have a tail wind.
The races can take four hours or longer to complete, so there is a lot of action during the race.
“It’s tactics. You always try to think of how you can best get an advantage over the other riders. They call it a game of chess out there on the bicycles,” explained Day, who said had been hearing plenty ot of positive comments from riders throughout the weekend.
Provincial coaches will now take time to review all the results.
“That will be taken into account when they do things like provincial team selections to things like Canada Summer Games, to the National Championships as part of team Ontario,” shared Day.
Greg Rawson is the President and Founder of Performance Driven Events as well as co-founder of Cycle North Bay.
At the start of the weekend, Rawson said Cycle North Bay and Ontario Cycling were both looking forward to this unique weekend of cycling events.
“I think everyone is just excited to have the athletes here. We have over 350 athletes that have predominately come from outside of North Bay to compete over the course of the weekend. And I think everyone is just happy to be back racing bikes with their friends and their family and their teammates. It is a great opportunity to bring the community of cyclists together,” explained Rawson.”
He thanked the municipalities of North Bay and East Ferris for their support.
Cycle North Bay co-founder Larry Tougas is hopeful Ontario Cycling will see the value of holding future events in the area.
“They will go home and evaluate the situation, naturally, just like we will too and I think they have got to be impressed with how welcoming we were in terms of making it so possible,” said Tougas.
“We were just going to do the Criterium, the road race was added on. So they’re kind of lucky we were able to take both of them on. I thank East Ferris for being such good hosts in allowing us to use their area. I think they’ve got to be pleasantly pleased (Ontario Cycling) that we were able to put this thing together in such short notice and I think it went off really well. From what I can tell there were no complaints, they were very, very happy. It is hard to run road races down south. ”
Tougas says there is sometimes a misconception about what the area has to offer.
“And then when they find out how close we are. And that is why we need to invest in more events to get more people up here,” said Tougas.
“It is easier to run road races up north because we have the luxury of having a lot more space and the back roads are good. It is a hidden jewel as far as I’m concerned to anything, to cycling and a number of other events.”
He says the key is more than just getting people to the city.
“Once we get them up here and we do a good job of hosting them, then they’re going to come back,” said Tougas, pleased with this first attempt at hosting a cycling event..
“And hopefully more is in the future. We have been working on this for three and a half years. These things take time. And as hard as it is to get events, it is hard to keep them. Once you get them up here you better do a good job.”
