2016 Canadian DH National Championships 2016
The 2016 Canadian DH Championships were hosted at Sun Peaks Resort this past weekend, the third and final year running for the interior British Columbia Bike Park. Sun Peaks has deep roots in DH racing and despite the chairlift opening for biking in '99, the slopes were already hosting progressive trails and early races before lift access was introduced.
Racer feedback suggested they would prefer a more technical course than the high-speed track used the past 5 years for provincial and national level races, and the talented trail crew lads obliged with a new top-to-bottom course that only the very fastest man of the day, Kirk McDowall, was able to break five minutes on. In the women's field, Miranda Miller beat out the competition to hold onto the title for another year.
The track drops in from the top of the Sunburst Lodge, perched at 1,850 metres, into the legendary Insanity One, which hasn't seen marshals en route since the early 2000's.
Representing Calgary, Alberta, Dave MacDonald blasting out of the gate with the Open 30+ Men.
Savannah Glennie took home first place in her UCI Senior Women category.
Jinny Donovan of Williams Lake, British Columbia, claimed second place in her Open 17-29 Women category.
Nicolas Gautrhier claiming third place in Open 17-29 Men a long way from his home in Chicoutimi, Quebec.
Local Kamloops shredder Stephen Schwarz is no stranger to this classic trail, clocking in just over 6 minutes.
Kaegan Murphy from nearby Vernon, BC, holding on tight after surviving the track's first taste of big rocks.
Cam Quadrelli leads the pack on a practice lap on Insanity One, just above 4 Road.
Ben Thirwell from Victoria, BC, sending it to flat the day before scoring sixth place in his UCI Junior Sport Men category.
Jackson Hare hails from sunny Winfield, BC, and clocked in at just over six minutes in his UCI U17 Sport Men category.
Jeremy McDowell scopes his line through the roots on Insanity One for his UCI Elite Men lap the following day.
Rhys Ellis took 12th place in UCI Elite Men, training here with UCI Junior Export Men rider Braedon McNicol.
Levi Fehlauer coming in hot for his hometown of Abbotsford, BC.
A section of newly built trail connects Insanity One to Honey Drop at the "Twisted Sister's Sister" ride-around, branching right to detour around this intimidating bridge, across Sting ski run and into the adjacent forest. "Newly built" is an understatement here, with non-stop rain through July delaying completion until a week before opening for practice. The result was just what everyone was hoping for in the new connector; a loamy, rough track with heaps of line choices and continuously deteriorating conditions that made planning lines in advance challenging. "Under-gunned" was an apt description used by one racer after finishing a lap on his enduro rig.
Grady Fochuk speeding out of the trees across Sting ski run, onto the course's first section of freshly built trail.
Bicycle Cafe racer and Sun Peaks Trail Crew visionary, Kurtis Walton, masters this loamy face on Honey Drop amongst the pack of UCI Elite Men.
The course crosses the grassy meadows and newly benched sidehill of another ski run before plummeting back into the woods on another well established double-black trail, Honey Drop. Though Honey Drop is a veteran on the overall Sun Peaks roster, surprisingly, it's never been raced. Tight, flowing singletrack connects sections of unrelenting tech, with new race lines developing continuously over the week leading up to timed runs.
Trevor Thew of Duncan, BC, representing for Dunbar Cycles with 16th place in UCI Elite Men.
Max Scharf took home third place in UCI Elite Men for Skookum Cycles and his hometown of Salmon Arm, BC.
Last year's champ, Matt Beer, took home seventh place in UCI Elite Men this year.
Mark Wallace took home second place in UCI Elite Men for his team at Devinci Global Racing.
The course relents slightly as the notorious Honey Drop feeds into the next section of fresh trail, running all the way to the finish line.
Vaea Verbeeck from North Vancouver brought her tech game to crush this course for fourth place in UCI Elite Women.
Whistler local Georgia Astle was second fastest lady of the day.
Miranda Miller, your 2016 Canadian National Champion.
A moment of silence for a fallen hero, not a whisper was heard from the crowd during Steve Smith's ghost lap.
A tribute to the Canadian Chainsaw before the UCI Elite Men drop in for the final runs of the day.
Daniel Shaw passing the finish line to take 25th place in UCI Elite Men.
Kurt Lindemark of Squamish, BC, took first place in his UCI 40-49 Masters Men category, clocking in just under 6 minutes top-to-bottom.
Curtis Doiron feeling the arm pump at the 5 Mile road crossing of Resurrection.
The second new section of trail included in the 2016 Canadian DH Championships race track begins where Honey Drop meets Wagon Wheel, and descends all the way to the finish line. This giant new swath of trail is much like the higher Sticky One, completed only weeks previous, with the rough singletrack beginning after a welcome but short section of machine-sculpted features. Roots, loam, flat corners and new lines developing with every set of Minions, had racers breathing heavy by this point.
Sprinting out of the woods and into the sun, Lee Jackson has the finish line in sight where he'll finish 21st in UCI Elite Men.
UCI Elite Men rider Dale Russel from Surrey, BC, tackling the last section of roots on Resurrection, before the finish line.
Nicholas Court pedalling hard through the final corners.
Chris Kovarik pinning it out of the trees to the finish line, where he'll score first place in his UCI International Elite Men category.
Full results are available here on Pinkbike, featuring over 250 brave souls who endured the nearly six hundred metre descent countless times, battling it out for a spot on the podium or maybe just above their usual racing rivals.For those eastbound for Mont-Ste-Anne in a couple weeks, good luck!
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Sun Peaks Resort
MENTIONS: @SunPeaksResort / @samegan
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(Forgive me if I'm wrong but I can't be bothered trying to read the Scrible crap on my phone again).
Are you kidding me Sun Peaks Resort!!??
No amount of racer feedback could get @mammothmountain to build a new bridge over the dual slalom course when it was a safety concern!
So you're telling me Sun Peaks Resort put in effort to create a more preferred course for National Champs!?
Who are these people who care about mountain biking and how do we find them in the States, please?
It's sad to say but Mammoth really doesn't care. The trail crew members that my friends and I talked to were uninformed and unmotivated. US Nationals was a burden.
I can all but guarantee that Mammoth Kamikaze will race the same courses as Nationals with zero upgrades.
Sun peaks is a different style mountain then whistler ,different terrain ,Not as groomed not as busy .
Worth the trip there
It's way more tech than silver star