Island Cup #1- Hard Core Grass Roots Racing

With the help of The Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club, the Island Cup Race Series got off to a great start March 6th with a downhill race in Port Alberni. Over 130 eager island racers were in attendance in spite of typical March rain and fog.The rumor proved to be true! I turned up for practice runs on Saturday and got a chance to meet Norco Team members Fionn Griffiths and Hugo Donais. Fionn, five time UK National Champion and 2003 Norba Series Champion, was racing her first Island Cup!
The Port Alberni crew are fanatical about racing - and it shows. Every year they improve their downhill course and this year was no exception. The top half of the course had been rebuilt and included technical rock faces, tight trees and two gap jumps, one over rail road tracks. Fionn compared the top half of the course to what she is used to racing back home in the UK. The bottom half of the course however was a test of endurance and almost XC like in some sections. Fionn admitted that “pedaling it almost made me puke!”
As the day went on, the course got muddier and greasier. The Expert women started at around 1 p.m. and all had fairly clean runs. Fionn placed 1st with a time of 6:01, I was in 2nd with 6:19 and Adrienne Miller in 3rd with 6:27. Expert men raced at the end of the day with Stewart Cooper in 1st place at 5:22, Andrew Mitchell in 2nd with 5:25 and Dan Espeseth in third with 5:32, Hugo raced with an injured ankle and placed 5th with a time of 5:37.
Overall it was an awesome start to the season here on the Island. Fionn said she would like to come back and race with us again, but she’d have to check her schedule of course!
The next Island Cup Downhill will be held in Duncan on April 17. Check out the Arrowsmith Mountainbike Club for the full Island Cup schedule.

Full Results.
All photos by Alan Livsey-Thanks!!