Hundreds of elite and amateur athletes from across the province are competing in cycling events in the Gateway City this Civic Holiday weekend, as Cycle North Bay breaks new ground in provincial cycling competitions.
President and CEO of Ontario Cycling, Pam Julian says it is a unique position for a community to be in, hosting three big events over the course of a few days, referring to the Provincial Championships .
The list of events includes the 2022 Provincial Criterium Championships, the 2022 Provincial Road Championships, Youth Mountain Bike XC, Women’s MTB Exchange and High Performance Youth Road Races.
On Saturday, riders between the ages of 8 and 17 competed in a Hill Climb on College Drive, followed by an Individual Time Trial on Larocque Road.
Participants will also compete in a Criterium on Sunday morning on VooDoo Crescent which along with all the events is open to spectators.
Leah Vusich and her 9-year-old son Oliver made the trip from their home in the Waterloo region, to give the young lad a taste of competition.
“My son has just gotten into cycling and this is his very first road race,” said a beaming Vusich.
“It is the perfect opportunity for us to try out a road race and come up north. And it has been going really well. He did his hill climb this morning and we’re just about to start his second race. He’s just here for the experience and to learn.”
Vusich admittedly is not a big cyclist herself.
“My family has been into triathlons for several years, but Oliver has always been interested in cycling, so we’re trying to encourage it. It is a great sport, it is superfit and healthy.”
Back home Oliver is a member of the KW (Kitchener Waterloo) Cycling Academy.
He reflected on his first event of the day in North Bay which took him from the bottom of College Drive to the top of the hill near the lights.
“It was long. I only did one practice with KW but my legs feel good.”
Oliver has been enjoying the social component of cycling
“Like meeting people I haven’t seen before in the club,” said the youngster.
“We brought up 15 kids from all over, from London, St. Thomas, and Kitchener Waterloo,” said KW Cycling Academy head coach, Rob Good who added that they have more races scheduled over the next couple of days in North Bay.
“Everything is going tremendous. Everything is pretty much on time. The kids are having fun. They did some skills at the clinic in the parking lot and we’re looking forward to the rest of the events.”
Greg Rawson is President and Founder of Performance Driven Events, as well as co-founder of the host, Cycling North Bay.
Cycle North Bay’s inception goes back to 2019, pre-COVID when Tourism North Bay reached out to Rawson in an effort to create an opportunity for cyclists to come to North Bay to compete over the course of a weekend.
“So we came up with the concept of doing a downtown Criterium and we were going to move forward with that in the summer of 2020, but obviously that changed because of the global pandemic,” explained Rawson.
“And so now we’ve found ourselves in a position where we’ve filled out the offering of events above and beyond what was initially thought of in terms of just the Criterium events. So now we have the two youth events happening on Saturday, the one youth event happening on Sunday and the adult Provincial Criterium happening on Sunday and then the weekend closing out with the Road Provincial Championships Monday, taking place in the Municipality of East Ferris.”
Rawson is pleased to be able to offer events geared towards the youth.
“It’s really cool for the youth to have the opportunity to compete over two different days.”
Saturday afternoon’s individual time trials, held just north of the college on Larocque road, tested their resilience.
“They competed as an individual, trying to put down their best time possible going out and back on that stretch of road,” Rawson explained.
“That being said, the older kids went out the stretch of road and back that stretch of road, and out and back again to achieve some longer distances.”
Participants are also looking forward to the Criterium on Voodoo Crescent Sunday morning.
Fifty youngsters from across the province have signed up.
“Which is actually a great number coming out of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic we were getting like 80 to 100,” said Rawson
“So to be able to get 50 kids from all over Ontario up to North Bay is a huge accomplishment, so we’re really pleased with that.”
The races give non-participants exposure to the sport of cycling, which is something to build upon.
“And that is the goal with these kinds of events. So if you compare the youth to the adult races, with the youth it is more just giving them the opportunity to have a competitive event to go to within the province that kind of motivates them to stay healthy, to keep riding their bikes, and that kind of thing,” said Rawson.
“And the goal is to always to show other youth within the province wherever we host these events that ‘Hey, if you like riding your bike, and you want to have a competitive opportunity to go participate and try your personal best at something, there is the opportunity to do that.’’
With the youth events, there is no emphasis on placing in the top three spots.
“We want kids to be able to come out and compete and participate in general. It is more so focused on the experience. It is not who has the fastest time or who has the slowest time,” explained Rawson who added that skills clinics run between events.
“So teaching kids the fundamental ways to hold onto the handlebars with one hand or take a corner around a cone. It’s more of an educational experience than it is a competitive experience,” Rawson shared.
“How it is structured within this youth development series, it is more ability based than age-based. So if you’re new to the sport, regardless of whether you're 10 years old or 13 years old, the entry-level category is called Category E. So the idea is you’re participating against kids and you’re riding with kids of similar abilities, similar equipment, that kind of thing. And then the higher up in ability you go, it goes E, D,C,B,A the higher you go up, the more competitive in theory it gets, but it is not so much about the competitive stuff as it is about just participating.”
