O-Cup bike racers happily navigate Sudbury terrain - Randy Pascal

Ontario Cup mountain bike race organizer Rob St. Marseille was confident that the uniqueness of the Cambrian Shield terrain would provide a northern Ontario experience riders from across the province would never forget.

To his surprise, another regional delicacy also drew rave reviews.
“The blueberries, without a doubt,” St. Marseille said Sunday afternoon, with the elite riders out on the course, bringing the very successful event to an end.

“A lot of the riders, after they were done the practice runs (on Friday and Saturday) went back up in the trails to pick blueberries. That was a humongous hit.”

Simply meandering the grounds of the Naughton Trails on race day, catching up with old friends and complete newcomers to the area, provided a wonderful sample of the cross-section of stories that are present when you gather 400 to 500 outdoor enthusiasts in our own backyard.

For some, the Sudbury event was a chance to return to old stomping grounds.

A graduate of both St. Charles College and Laurentian University, career aspirations took Wayne Floreani to Toronto just prior to the turn of the millennium, though it’s clear you can’t take northern Ontario out of the local boy.

“The race was a good excuse to come up, swim at my parents’ cottage at Killarney, golf at the Idylwylde and do a bike race — it’s perfect,” he said.

In fact, it was a staple of the local summer calendar — the Beaton Classic — that first drew Floreani’s sporting attention a few years back.
“A group of friends of mine had a team in, but lost their runner, so they asked me to do it,” Floreani said.

“I started running, but when I moved to Toronto, I was biking more and more, and an old knee injury eventually stopped the running.”

Like Floreani, St. Benedict graduate Niko Tavchandjian also jumped at the opportunity for a visit home, taking a break from his Masters studies in Agricultural Economics at the University of Guelph.

Riding with a club in Guelph, Tavchandjian eased his way into racing last year, throwing himself full-throttle for the summer of 2012.
“I’m doing every one of (the O-Cup races), but obviously the Sudbury one was special,” he said.

“I know on the circuit, Sudbury has a reputation for being a little more technical, rougher course. I was excited about that, because I’m not the most in-shape guy on the circuit,” he added with a laugh.

As so often is the case, transplanted Sudburians provide some of the city’s best ambassadors, with Tavchandjian more than pleased to convince a handful of Guelph teammates in joining him in making the trek north.

In fact, his friend and teammate, Alex Lefebvre, a six-year veteran of the circuit, was making the jump to the Elite level for the first time.

“He’s racing with the big boys today, so I’ll be there to cheer him on,” Tavchandjian said. “It’s his first time north of Parry Sound. He’s been having a blast since being up here.”

Even the local crew provided a variety of interesting storylines, including Lively native Victor Hopper, who returned from a week-long Nordic ski training camp in Thunder Bay Saturday evening, just in time for race day.

“It was a real fun course out there, pretty dusty, but it’s just so fun to ride around over the rocks and through the dirt, so it was an amazing day,” he said.

The recent Lively District Secondary School graduate will be making frequent trips to Thunder Bay, having enrolled in Civil Engineering at Lakehead University, looking forward to continue his winter passion for skiing with one of the top programs in the country.

The cross-training proved helpful, as Hopper finished third in the Junior Men’s Sport Division, also benefiting from home course advantage.

“It’s a definitely a trail that the more you ride it, the better you get at it,” he said of the Naughton loops. “You know the lines, the course a bit more.”

Not that emerging Walden Mountain Bike Club star Crystal Sabel needed any additional advantages.

The Lo-Ellen graduate, who continued her post-secondary studies at Laurentian, adding her Masters in Biochemistry, made it five consecutive wins this summer on the Ontario Cup circuit, despite jumping from the Women’s 20-29 Sport category to the Expert division three races ago.

“This is my second year of really seriously racing, but I trained all winter,” Sabel said after her race. “I really put a lot of effort into it.”

Sabel acknowledged that this recent sporting foray represents somewhat uncharted waters for her.

“To tell you the truth, I was a band geek growing up, so this is the first time I really got into sport.”

Encouragement from boyfriend and long-time fitness buff Jody Waddell provided the initial motivation, though events like the one in Naughton help to grow Sabel’s love for mountain biking.

“It’s a great atmosphere, great people,” she said. “It was great to see everybody from down south come up and enjoy the race.”

Not surprisingly, St. Marseille echoed that sentiment.

“There was a little cloud cover this morning, which helped keep the temperature down,” St. Marseille said. “I don’t think you could ask for a better day.”

Certainly not for the hundreds who took in all that northern Ontario has to offer, some for the first time, and many returning to familiar grounds.

Randy Pascal is the founder of SudburySports.com and a contributing sports editor for Northern Life.

Posted by Vivian Scinto