Hey guys. I finally managed to pump out the race summary for the Sunday River Classic that Seb, Mordechai and I participated in. Here it is in its entirety.
Sunday River Classic: October 5th and 6th, 2007
On October 5th and 6th, three McGill cyclists made an unofficial trip to Bethel, Maine for the “Sunday River Classic,” hosted by Boston’s Northeastern University at the Sunday River ski area and resort. This ECCC event consisted of 4 events: the cross country, dual slalom, downhill, and short track cross country. Unfortunately, due to schedule constraints, the riders had to return to Montréal on Saturday night and could not participate in either the downhill or short track events. This did not stop them from making a solid effort and achieving some excellent results to steal further points from American collegiate cycling teams.
With a spaghetti dinner probably still sitting in their stomachs from the night before, Sebastien Beaulieu and Mordechai Ludmer managed to find their way to the hidden finish line of the Men’s C cross country race for a crack-of-dawn 8:30 start. The 2 lap race course was shorter than usual, with one monster 2 mile climb to start with, followed by several sections of twisty singletrack and very technical, winding decent back down to the finish. Beaulieu finished in 5th place with a blistering time of 46:39, and Ludmer, in his first ever cross country race, finished 30 seconds ahead of Beaulieu with 46:09 for fourth place. Not a bad way to start a mountain biking career.
Ben Adler, unable to compete in his preferred discipline of downhill because of scheduling issues, decided instead to devote his energy for the weekend on the head-to-head style dual slalom event, which he had never raced before. While Beaulieu and Ludmer were racing, Adler tweaked his bike and changed his tires to better suit the demanding course full of berms, rollers, and total-commitment double jumps. Throughout the morning he practiced on the 40 second course, later joined by Beaulieu and Ludmer. Ludmer, after his heroic effort in the cross country and a bone-crushing fall in practice decided to pass on the dual slalom for the weekend and take pictures.
After advancing through the qualifying near the top of the pack, Beaulieu’s first heat in men’s C began, which he handily won. However, in a later heat, due to mechanical difficulties out of the gate, he couldn’t catch up to his opponent, and placed a respectable 6th in his first dual slalom event. Adler, after hours of practice felt fairly comfortable on the course and advanced through several rounds without too much difficulty. However, by the time the semi-final heat came around, the sky had darkened and rain had begun to fall, turning the dirt course to sloppy mud. In the first run against Ben Hills from Northeastern University, his fasted opponent yet, Adler slid out and fell in the second berm, loosing precious seconds, and then undershot the last large double, flatting his rear tire for the last stretch of the course. With the assistance of Beaulieu and another helpful Northeastern competitor, they changed the flat in record time and Adler was back at the starting gate.
In the second run, Adler was feeling much better than the first, but over the first set of doubles, his opponent lost control on landing and crashed into Adler, taking them both down to the mud in a tangle of bikes and limbs. Quickly remounting, Adler managed to jump ahead and win the second run despite having damaged front brakes. Back at the top for the tiebreaker 3rd run, Adler’s bike and body were not in good shape. After the first berms and over the first set of doubles everything was fine until Hills lost control again and drove Adler off the course and into the grass. Hills, however, continued on his way while Adler tried to regain his lost ground. Despite an all out sprint to the finish, Hills finished several seconds ahead of Adler in a questionable victory. In the end, Adler managed to squeak out a 3rd place podium finish in Men’s B, a very satisfactory result for a first attempt at the dual slalom.
Due to the McGill racers’ unofficial participation in the ECCC, points are not accumulated, but if they were, Sebastien Beaulieu’s 5th place finish in a field of 16 would have earned 12 points in the cross country race and 9 points for the dual slalom. Mordechai Ludmer’s rousing 4th place finish in the Men’s C cross country race would have earned him 15 points, and Adler’s 3rd place finish out of 16 in Men’s B dual slalom would have counted for 32 points.
