April 12/99 12:09 pm - Paris Ancaster results, Ronde Van Wind-Del Story

Posted by Editoress on 04/12/99
 

Paris-Ancaster Results!

The results are in for the Paris-Ancaster enduro! Go HERE. Warning: this is a fairly large file.

Story
(courtesy Mike Badyk W.O.W.)

Mother Nature was in a very un-April like mood for the annual Paris to Ancaster Ride. The weather report called for a high of 8 degrees today, with a chance of showers in the afternoon. Did they ever get it wrong.

The temperature stayed right at the freezing point, with winds of over 40 kph blowing into the faces of the riders. "Showers" turned into cold rain, followed by hail, followed by thunder and lightning, followed by 2 inches of wet, soaking, snow. The combination of the wet conditions and strong wind were an obstacle that caused 180 of the over 500 starters to withdraw. Anyone who managed to finish is a true champion today.

Fortunately for the top riders, the only weather to really contend with was the wind. This made the course the deciding factor. The critical move happened on a new climb which was added to the course about 3 km from the start. A lead break of 10 riders, comprised of many top road and mountain bikers, got away on this climb, and no one was able to bridge the gap to them. This left the ten to sort it out among themselves. With the dry conditions, the advantage was to riders on cross bikes. The narrow tires proved to be an advantage on the roads and climbs. Peter Mazur (Race Canada) aboard his cross bike pulled out the win in a fine time of 2:16:32. Making the win all the more amazing is that Peter is 16 years old! A fine ride Peter.

In second place was Jeff Hansen (ItalPasta) at 2:18:06, and Josh Hall (Team T Shirt) at 2:20:20 in 3rd, winning the uphill sprint over Mathias Schmidt (Team Exit Realty) by 5 seconds. Top woman was Leslie Greene (Chain Reaction), with a great time of 2:50:00 for 57th place overall. The second place woman was Amanda Kellett (OGC/Gary Fisher) at 3:05:43.

Special thanks to the event sponsors:- Canadian Cyclist, Pierik's Cycle, Brantford Cyclepath and Ziggy's Cycle. Many thanks to all of the people who transported tired riders back to the finish. Your generous help made the day for a lot of folks.

We have done our best to make the results accurate. Please contact W.O.W. at wow@wowmtb.com if you notice any errors (especially names and ages).

Ronde Van Wind-Del
the story (courtesy Valeri Davidge)

We started Stage 3 at 1p.m. as did the rain. They had no sooner hit the circuit than it came down. The thunder and lightning was horrific and I was getting worried.

Keith told me - they all had rubber tires! However I didn't and ignored 'suggestions' that I made sure to get up into the metal bed of the truck. I was using as a raised platform! The First Aid crew gave me a brolly with a metal spike!! Nice guys.

It hailed - it was about -6. HOWEVER, it didn't snow (did we ever get a shock driving home into it!!!). I don't know how the riders kept going. At the end of the first lap there was a massive exodus - all the women (en bloc) plus about 8 men just went left and back to the changing rooms whilst everyone else went right! We shortened the race by 1 lap.

The guys that finished were in dire danger of hyperthermia. We were almost lifting them into cars. There are stories of one rider changing gears with his wrists as his fingers were frozen closed, several riders just ran for the shower block and lay, in full race kit, in the hot showers in tears -several got stuck in there with no street clothes! I GOT SOAKED BRIEFING ALATE POLICEMAN to the amusement of all the guys in the caravan keeping niceand warm.

BUT - like I heard a rider in Paris Roubaix say once - yes, we would do it all over again, it is the most beautiful race in the world - I think ALL the riders would agree with me - even the women.

Joke of the day? We left the truck at Delhi last night and the keys in Mississauga this morning!! Whilst me and the crew did the TT, Keith hot footed it back to get the truck key for Stage 3!!!